If you are planning to update your visitor management processes, an electronic visitor management system can help you get the job done. The system can track the number of visitors inside your organisation, while ensuring the availability of real-time data. Visitor management software will help you streamline your reception process and give you access to an accurate and secure record of the people who access your organisation.
If you are not currently collecting and storing data with a digital system, it’s the right time to start. It can help enhance the overall security of the workplace and increase your visitor’s overall experience. Not to mention, data storage and security is a top priority with new GDPR coming into force in 2018.
Determining the need for an electronic visitor management
We’ve compiled 5 simple (but important questions) which will help you determine your organisation’s need for an electronic visitor management system. If you can’t answer of any of these, it’s definitely time to invest!
1. How many visitors does your organisation get during a month?
If the only way for you to find this information is to scan through the pages of your visitor’s book, you’ll probably agree it’s not the best process. Especially in the event of an emergency or a fire drill. Further to this point, do you know how many of these are repeat visitors? If you can’t answer this either without trailing back through records, we’re going to assume that details like duration of visit are out of the question.
There you have the immediate value you would see from an electronic visitor management solution. A system which would be able to provide answers to these questions in real-time. Additionally, the evacuation list feature proves undeniably valuable, providing up-to-date registers which can be printed or accessed from any mobile device
2. Are visitors pre-registered?
Reception staff are often in the dark about who to expect each day. Staff are not given information from different departments, more often than not. Do you have a system in place where staff can pre-register expected visitors with reception? Using an electronic visitor management system, staff can pre-register visitors so their details are already held on the system. This makes the process much quicker for the visitor when they use the sign-in system. Staff also benefit as they can manage their workload more effectively and have better visibility.
3. Are you capturing information specific to your business?
Think about the information you capture at the moment; does it meet your specific needs? For example, do your contractors agree to your own terms and conditions and is there a digital record kept of this? Often traditional sign-in methods aren’t massively bespoke. Electronic visitor management systems can be tailored to the information you need, which is pretty useful for a lot of businesses.
4. Do you know who is in the building right now?
Sometimes it can be hard to pin point who’s in the building at any given time – be it staff, contractors and visitors. It’s important for safety and security reasons. It’s important to ensure contractors are being paid for the correct hours. And it’s much easier to access this information in digital format. An electronic visitor management system will give you real-time status of the premises, and gives you access to this history of information at any time.
5. Can you generate detailed reports?
Another reason which may be your driver to invest in electronic visitor management technology is the reporting functionality. There are many uses for this, including improving facility management. It eliminates the need for staff time sheets as data is recorded when staff sign-in/ out.
Traditional sign-in methods such as the visitor book provided very little value to organisations. Yet an electronic visitor management system has wide functionality which benefits different functions of the business – from reception to HR. It helps to enhance your visitor, staff and contractor experience as well, making their interactions much more streamlined.
If you’re ready to give your processes an upgrade from paper to digital, you can request a demo or some information on VisiPoint below.