5 min read.
What is visitor management and why is it important?
- What is visitor management?
- What is a visitor management system?
- What are the types of visitors to an organization?
- Why is having a visitor management system important?
- How to assess an organization’s visitor management process?
- What are the benefits of a visitor management system?
- Why choose EntrySign?
What is visitor management?
Visitor management refers to the systems and processes an organization uses to greet, monitor, and report on visitors to a building or site. It’s how an organization signs in and secures its people and premises, in the best, easiest, and most efficient way. An important part of the process is what information an organization requires from its visitors and how this data is collected and managed securely.
Organizing and utilizing data and making sure it stays secure is virtually impossible with old paper-based visitor books, spreadsheets, or basic systems. Schools and businesses of all sizes can benefit from a comprehensive visitor management solution.
What is a visitor management system?
In the most basic terms, a visitor management system is effectively an electronic version of a paper-based visitor book. Basic systems allow visitors to sign in and out and record who is on-site. Advanced systems like EntrySign, provide a full solution for managing visitors and signing in staff. Implementing an advanced visitor sign-in system is the easiest and most reliable way to ensure visitor management processes cover these key areas:
- Increase security and safeguarding on premises
- Provide better safety procedures in an emergency
- Provide an excellent visitor journey and experience
- Present a professional and personal welcome
- Deliver visibility and accountability across an organization
- Improve data compliance
- Boost efficiency and streamline workflow
What are the types of visitors to an organization?
There are many different types of visitors and each type may need a slightly different sign-in process in order to capture the information needed. For example, a visitor could be a business professional, courier, contractor, consultant, or even a friend or family member. Staff are not usually classed as visitors, but may still be required to sign in and out for health and safety and time and attendance purposes.
Some visitors will already be known to an organization and may visit regularly, while others may be unknown, or turn up unexpectedly. Each different type of visitor may need a different sign-in journey. EntrySign allows you to customize the sign-in process for different visitor types, e.g. staff, visitors, contractors, pupils/students, and more.
Most visitors fall into three main groups:
Why is having a visitor management system important?
Security
Visitor management systems add an extra layer of security, providing visibility of everyone who has signed in or out, with their name, photograph, vehicle registration, and more. This is important information for the security and safety of people on-premises. Visitors can be pre-checked and authorized before they can proceed with their visit, and any important notices or policies can be displayed and signed. EntrySign also integrates with YOTI to fully verify a visitor’s identity when signing in. EntrySign can also perform an instant background check by scanning a visitor’s driver’s license to verify their identity.
Health & Safety
Being able to see who is on-site is also important in an emergency. If an evacuation is required, it’s essential to have an accurate list of everyone who is in the building. Visitor check-in systems provide an up-to-date register of everyone on-site to easily and quickly mark people as safe. EntrySign also provides an integration with fire alarm systems to automate the evacuation procedure.
Compliance
Visitor sign-in systems help organizations comply with a range of important legal and regulatory obligations, such as HIPAA, CCPA and some ISO certifications. Protecting data from the view of others, improving data security, and providing tools to manage, organize and sanitize data if required help to improve compliance with data protection laws.
How to assess an organization’s visitor management process?
An audit is a good place to start when assessing an organization’s visitor management process. Asking these key questions will help to determine if an organization needs to improve its approach.
- Are you keeping a secure and accurate record of everyone who visits?
- Does your current process adequately safeguard people on-site?
- Are visitors informed about safeguarding, policies, and procedures?
- Can you see a real-time overview of everyone on-site?
- Is your current process compliant with data protection legislation?
- Do you have accurate data readily available in an emergency?
- Is your current process professional, streamlined, and efficient?
- Are you collecting visitor feedback?
What are the benefits of a visitor management system?
Along with improving site security, safety, and compliance, visitor sign-in systems can improve efficiency and workflow by automating tasks and integrating with other systems. The functionality to integrate a visitor management system with existing systems can save administration time and help to keep data accurate and secure.
Viewing, filtering, and organizing data with a digital signing-in system is much easier and more efficient. Staff, visitor and contractor numbers on-site are usually presented in a clear dashboard to make it easy to see building occupancy levels. EntrySign also allows users to view data in real-time and to look back at historical data. Reports can be produced in seconds for monitoring and auditing purposes.
An electronic visitor management system is the most professional way for visitors to sign in and out. Receiving a customized pre-booking email, signing in touch-free or via a touchscreen, collecting a printed pass, and being asked for feedback on the way out provide a much more professional and streamlined visit.
Why choose EntrySign?
Complete Sign In Solution
When you opt for EntrySign, you get a complete visitor and contractor management and staff sign in solution. EntrySign takes care of the visitor journey and ensures you have everything you need in one easy-to-use and efficient system.
Safety & Security At Heart
We care about the safety and security of all organizations. That’s why EntrySign has a range of safety and security features. From generating quick and instant evacuation reports to looking at historical data, EntrySign ensures you have the information you need, right when you need it.
Integrations For A Seamless Experience
Automating the flow of data between existing systems and EntrySign saves time and streamlines workflow. EntrySign integrates with popular SIS systems, as well as time and attendance, door access control solutions, and many more.
Customisable & Scalable Solution
EntrySign is one of the most customisable visitor management systems, with flexible features, such as custom pre-booking emails, policies and questions. Scale EntrySign up or down to suit your requirements.
Trusted By Thousands Of Organizations
Thousands of organizations worldwide trust EntrySign for their visitor management and staff sign-in. We are proud to provide a diverse range of businesses, schools, healthcare facilities, charities, and more with a solution to sign in and secure their people and premises every day.
Always Innovating
EntrySign continues to be developed by our skilled development team in the UK. For over a decade we have developed and refined EntrySign to be the comprehensive solution it is today. We create new features and integrations regularly in response to our customers and their evolving needs.