Gone are the days when offices, institutions, or buildings used to maintain a visitor log book for signing-in visitors. The age-old visitor log book has now been replaced by the electronic visitor management system– a software solution used for tracking visitors.
An electronic visitor management software is capable of recording crucial visitor information, such as their name, photo, address, contact number, people they want to visit, and much more. Additionally, the software also records the frequency and duration of each visit.
Nowadays, electronic visitor management solutions are highly preferred by healthcare centers, shopping malls, educational institutions, daycare centers, as well as businesses across sectors. Having an efficient electronic visitor management system in place can help you track who visited your facility, as and when required. Thus, if you want a secure and transparent check-in process for authorizing the entry of your visitors and staff members, you need to invest in a high-performance electronic visitor management software for your business.
The Key Components of an Electronic Visitor Management Software
A visitor management software system consists of the following parts:
- The software
- A thermal or inkjet printer
- Visitor badges
- Cameras for adding the picture of the visitors to the visitor badge
- Card scanners
- Barcode scanners for scanning barcodes on a visitor’s badge
How Does an Electronic Visitor Management System Work?
The software functions in the following manner:
- As soon as a guest/s arrives at a business facility, he/she is signed in with the help of a computer.
- The guest needs to provide the security team or receptionist with his/her name. Alternatively, the guests can submit their business card or driving license for scanning, post which the scanned details are stored in the software, and a visitor badge is generated.
- As long as the guest stays within the premises of the business facility, he/she is required to wear the temporary visitor badge. Nevertheless, they need to return the badge to the security team or receptionist while leaving the premises. Once the guest submits the visitor badge, they are signed out using the computer.
A visitor management software solution is capable of keeping tabs on each visitor that visits your building or business facility. It also helps you retrieve visitor-related data as and when required.
Features of an Electronic Visitor Management System
Here are some of the essential features you should look for when investing in a visitor management software system:
- Pre-registration Tools: In case you are expecting guests for a business meeting, pre-registration tools enable you to add the guest information to the visitor management software in advance. Consequently, it accelerates the sign-in procedure once the visitor reaches your facility.
- Biometric Check-ins: This feature simplifies the check-in process of a large number of visitors at large business premises, government offices, amusement parks, and so on. Biometric check-ins using iris recognition, thumbprint, etc., at highly secure places not only help gather accurate information about visitors but also ensures safety.
- Adds Photo: When equipped with a camera, an electronic visitor management system allows you to add a photo to the visitors’ badge. The photos go a long way towards helping your security team identify suspicious visitors or investigate security breaches.
- Blacklisting Tools: This is yet another useful feature that enables you to identify and add unauthorized or unwelcome guests to the built-in watchlist. An efficient electronic visitor management software can easily identify unwanted visitors by identifying their iris, thumbprint, etc. Once the unwanted guests are blacklisted by the software, it denies their access and notifies you immediately.
- Report Generation: A feature-filled electronic visitor management software is also capable of generating real-time visitor reports so that you can view all visitor-related information and analyze the data. The software is also capable of exporting the reports in PDF format so that you can evaluate the reports or share the same with your concerned department with ease.
Report generation tools offered by an electronic visitor management system not only gives you detailed information about visitors entering and exiting your business premises but also helps you identify visitor traffic patterns. It also helps your sales team to identify regular visitors who could be potential leads.
- Alerts and Notifications: As soon as guests complete their check-in procedure through a visitor management system, the software instantly notifies you about their arrival. It sends automated alerts via email, push notifications, SMS, etc., to intimate you about the arrival of a visitor or group of visitors. As soon as you receive an alert, you can send further messages to the software to notify the guests to wait or proceed towards the reception counter.
- Third-Party Integrations: The most advanced electronic visitor management system can be easily integrated with the already existing access control tools in your organization, such as flap gates, NFC, biometric systems, etc., for extending its functionality.
- Customized Visitor Badges: A quality electronic visitor management system allows you to print customized visitor badges in the blink of an eye. In case of integrations with access control tools, the visitors need to get their badges scanned at different control points for gaining entry to the restricted areas of your organization.
These are some of the advanced features offered by an electronic visitor management software system.
Advantages of the Software
The unique features of an electronic visitor management system offers its users a wide range of advantages. That’s why the software is preferred over the conventional sign-in books.
- Provides Accurate Visitor Information: An electronic visitor management software records visitor information more accurately than a paper-based sign-in book.
- Saves Time: An electronic visitor management system also accelerates the process of signing-in. It quickly scans visitor cards or driving licenses of visitors for collecting the necessary visitor-related information for documenting their visit to a particular venue.
- Recognizes Returning Visitors Immediately: An electronic visitor management software system stores all visitor information systematically. It enables regular visitors to be signed in instantly. Moreover, if the system identifies any security issue with a visitor, it alerts the concerned department immediately.
- Boosts Productivity: An electronic visitor management software comes with pre-registration modules so that visitors can be signed-in in advance. Consequently, it allows your security team to focus on the other crucial aspects of your organization’s security.
- Improves Your Brand Image: An electronic visitor management system helps you build a solid brand image. The meticulous screenings of all the guests entering and leaving your organization also impress your visitors, which in turn, helps you build an impressive brand image.
- Disaster Management: In the event of an emergency evacuation, the real-time reports generated by an electronic visitor management software can help you track if any outsider is present on your business premises during the emergency.
- Helps You Go Paperless: An advanced electronic visitor management software stores all visitor information on a cloud-based server. It eliminates the use of paper, thus, helping you go paperless.
- Scalability: An efficient visitor management system is scalable as well as flexible. You can easily customize the software to cater to the needs of your growing business.
- Cost-effective: An electronic visitor management system is an affordable solution that comes with adequate customizability, scalability, as well as flexibility. The best thing about this software is that it allows you to choose from a wide array of pricing models based on your requirements.
Considering the benefits offered by an electronic visitor management system, businesses across sectors are increasingly investing in this security software. Thus, if you want to keep your office secure from thieves and criminals, you must consider investing in a sophisticated electronic visitor management solution without further ado.
Tips to Pick the Right Electronic Visitor Management Software
There’s no death of electronic visitor management solutions in the market. Nevertheless, like any other software, you need to do a bit of research before buying the right electronic visitor management software for your business.
Here are a few useful tips that will help you make the right purchase decision:
- Identify the security challenges your business is facing currently.
- Find out a software that offers all the necessary features required for tackling the challenges identified by you.
- Is the software perfect for scanning your visitors/guests?
- Do you want each visitor to wear identification badges?
- Is the software capable of monitoring multiple sites simultaneously?
- Is the software easy to install and use?
- Does it offer a cloud-based visitor logbook?
- What is the cost of hardware and implementation?
- Can the software be integrated with your existing security tools?
- Does it offer 24/7 technical assistance/ customer support?
- Does the software offer live chat assistance?
Last but not least, make sure you purchase the online visitor management software from a reputable software vendor that also provides comprehensive training to the users. Moreover, if you are on a tight budget, it is advisable to pick an entry-level solution instead of purchasing an enterprise-level visitor management software.
We hope the tips shared by us will help you buy the right-fit electronic visitor management system for your business.
