3 Keys To Implementing A Visitor Management System
Implementing a visitor management system is an essential first step to securing your building and protecting your employees.
By requiring every guest to sign-in and by maintaining a digital record of their attendance, you ensure only authorized individuals enter your workplace. This also creates an exceptional first impression for everyone who walks through the door, including potential clients or employees.
If improving building security is a top priority for you in the new year (and it probably should be), here are three ways to successfully implement a visitor management system.
3 Keys To Implementing A Visitor Management System
1. Buy-in From All Stakeholders
Even the best visitor management systems will only be effective if they are used correctly and consistently. That means everyone at your organization—including leadership, front-house staff and each individual employee—need to understand the importance of your visitor management system and how to use it. The best visitor management systems are user-friendly and intuitive, so training should be minimal. Every employee needs to know how to pre-register a visitor, print an ID badge for them and record their digital signature on any essential documents, such as waivers or non-disclosure agreements.
There should be zero tolerance for bypassing the visitor management system by letting guests in through side doors or allowing groups of people to pass through the lobby without individually signing in. A visitor management system makes it easy to pre-register event attendees or other groups, so there’s no excuse for not using it!
2. A Cloud-Based Foundation
On-premise software systems require a significant investment in IT hardware, ongoing maintenance and frequent updates. A software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution is maintained an updated by the provider, so there’s no need for expensive hardware of IT support. Those costs are covered in the monthly subscription fee. With a SaaS-based visitor management system, all data is stored in the cloud. The provider is more likely to make regular updates because they have a large subscriber base, which allows for continual innovation.
A cloud-based visitor management system also makes it easy for employees to sign in visitors and view visitor information wherever they are, whether they are on site or logging in remotely via a mobile app.
3. How Visitor Management Systems Integrates With Other Workplace Applications
If you want employees to use your visitor management system consistently, you’ll want to make sure it integrates easily with the tools they’re already using. For instance, your visitor management system should integrate with space management and wayfinding software so guests can easily find their way around when they arrive. It should also integrate with communication platforms, including email and Slack, so employees can be alerted when their visitor arrives.
Why A Visitor Management System Is Worth The Investment
Every employee and visitor deserves to feel safe in your workplace. A robust visitor management system protects your organization from potential security threats while ensuring every visitor feels welcome from the moment they arrive.
While there are free visitor management systems available, they may come with hidden costs. For instance, they may not have the ability to check against your company’s security watchlist, giving employees a false sense of security. Or they may not have the ability to securely store visitor data, which you may need to access in the event of an emergency or a security breach.
iOFFICE’s visitor management system is affordable, robust and easy to implement. It starts at just $149 a month, with a minimal one-time set-up fee. The monthly fee covers database hosting, maintenance and support, unlimited users, data backups, mobile apps and upgrades. And it’s 100% SaaS, making it simple to maintain and update.
Your employees are your most important asset. While you can’t put a price on protecting them, you can implement a cost-effective visitor management system. Ready to see how ours works? Request a demo today.
