Visitor management
Visitor management refers to tracking the usage of a public building or site. By gathering increasing amounts of information, a Visitor Management System can record the usage of the facilities by specific visitors and provide documentation of visitor’s whereabouts.[1]
Proponents of an information rich visitor management system point to increased school security as one substantial benefit.[2] As more parents demand action from the schools that will protect children from sexual predators, some school districts are turning to modern visitor management systems that not only track a visitor’s stay, but also check the visitor’s information against national and local criminal databases.[3]
Visitor management technologies
Computer visitor management systems
Basic computer or electronic visitor management systems use a computer network to monitor and record visitor information.
An electronic visitor management system improves upon most of the negative points of a pen and paper system.[4] Visitor ID can be checked against national and local databases, as well as in-house databases for potential security problems.[5][6]
Visitor management software as a service
Another alternative to visitor management software is an on-line, web based visitor management system offered as a service. SaaS visitor management software for schools allows administrators to screen visitors upon entrance, often checking for sex offender status, and restrict access to unauthorized entrants.[7] SaaS visitor management software for the real estate industry allows landlords and managers to remotely control and monitor access rights without the need to pass physical keys and keycards to new tenants.[8] SaaS visitor management software for commercial offices allows facilities managers to automate their building's reception area with advocates of this type of system claiming a variety of benefits, including both security and privacy. Many modern SaaS visitor management systems are tablet-based apps, and are thin client solutions operating software as a service in the cloud.[9]
Visitor management System on Smart Phones
Smart Phones based visitor management system work similar to a web based system, but hosts get real-time notifications or alerts on their device. Hosts can allow or deny visit to guest based on their interest or availability. To prevent the spread of infectious disease, including COVID-19_pandemic, visitor management systems are moving toward being touchless.[10]
This is the process of a typical visitor management process: A visitor management system is installed onto a tablet computer or other Kiosk, which is then placed at the entry gate. A host could run an app component of the visitor management system(or could rely on text or email notifications when they have visitor arrive).
The Tablet or Kiosk greets each visitor and asks them to enter their information (name, email and phone number are common). The visitor management system may validate the phone number, or even make the visitor authenticate with a OTP (One-time_password). A visitor previously in the database typically skips this procedure altogether.
Upon validating the OTP, the visitor is prompted to pose for a photo and subsequently is asked to enter name, company details, vehicle no. and items carrying by visitor.
The next step is usually to choose the name of the person a visitor wishes to visit by picking their name from a directory seen on the screen. At this point, a cloud computing based engine is triggered, which establishes a two way communication channel between the smart phone of the host chosen by the visitor and the kiosk. At this time, the host gets a notification on his/her smart phone displaying the visitor’s mobile no., name & the photo just clicked. The host has a choice to accept the visitor, reject the visitor, speak with the visitor or send a message to the visitor.
See also
- Access control
- Optical turnstile
- Identity document
- Proximity card
- Boom barrier
- Cross-device tracking
References
- ^ "How Technology is Evolving the Visitor Experience - Qube Magazine". Qube Magazine. 1 June 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
- ^ Sims, Ashli (7 February 2007). "Closer Eye On Sex Offenders". KOTV.
- ^ Savicki, Mike (10 October 2007). "School Uses High-Tech Checkpoint for Visitors (article reprint)". Charlotte Observer.
- ^ "How Technology is Evolving the Visitor Experience - Qube Magazine". Qube Magazine. 1 June 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
- ^ Moorhouse, Ed (20 January 2008). "Kiosks guard the lobbies at Lenape district's high schools". Burlington County Times.
- ^ Toppo, Greg (10 October 2006). "High-tech school security is on the rise". USA TODAY.
- ^ RAPTOR (9 January 2017). "School Safety and Security Technology". Raptor Technologies. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
- ^ Dale, Brady. "Kisi is a 'digital doorman' so you can control locks with your mobile phone". Technical.ly Brooklyn. Technical.ly. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
- ^ Battersby, Jeffery (10 December 2013). "App replaces your human receptionist with an iPad". Macworld. macworld.com. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
- ^ "How COVID-19 may change the way people work with visitor sign-in apps". greetly.com. Retrieved 13 May 2020.