Top 10 Features to Look For in a Visitor Management System
When looking for a visitor management system, it can be overwhelming. There are numerous things to consider that might not be things you even knew could be possible. It’s important to know the capabilities before making a decision on your newest system. For that reason, here are the top 10 features to look for in a visitor management system.
Security-Focused Leadership: When thinking about a visitor management system, it’s important to realize that it’s first job is to be a security system. It’s main purpose is not to make the check in process easier for your secretaries. Although that is often a byproduct of a good visitor management system, security should be your top priority. If the system’s leadership team is not made up of people with security or law enforcement backgrounds, that should be an automatic red flag.
Customer Service: Every company claims to have the best customer service, but many don’t have the support to back it up. Here are a few things to look for in a company that excels in customer service:
Direct dial numbers
Direct email
Support ticket systems
Live chat
Online meetings/webinars that provide tips and tricks to expand the use of the visitor management system
Cloud-Based: There are many visitor or volunteer management systems that run locally on your desktop or server. If you’re using a system such as this, how up-to-date is your information? With a cloud-based system, you wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore. There are many benefits of a cloud-based system:
Always Up to Date - Each time a cloud-based system is updated, you will receive the updates immediately and at no cost.
Real Time Sex Offender Data - Using an API, the sex offender date is always in real time and is constantly being updated.
Nothing to Install - Cloud-based systems are accessed via the internet and your web-browser. What happens if you need to evacuate a building for an emergency? With a cloud-based system, you can login via your phone, tablet, laptop or any computer and ensure all of your visitors are accounted for and are safe.
World-Wide Access - Administrators can access organizational locations and view who is logged in. For example, for large international volunteer organizations, the administrators can log in anywhere in the world and check volunteers or visitors in any country.
Integrations: In today’s world, it is important to invest in a system that can work with other systems easily and efficiently. The more things you can have in one place, the safer your organization will be. Along with that, it’ll be more user friendly. Here are a few different types of integrations to look for while shopping for a visitor management system. Be sure to ask the visitor management systems if they have the ability to integrate to the different systems you already use, or plan on using.
Background Checks - If this is the foundation of your security program, then you need access to more than a low level sex offender search. Understand that background screening is complex and there are federal, state, and local laws that regulate how background screening is conducted. Yes, even for volunteers. A complex VMS will have integrations to:
National, state, and local criminal record systems
Real-time monitoring
Motor vehicle records
Reference checks
Student Information Systems - An integration with your student information system will sync data like ‘students arriving late’ or ‘students leaving early’. You will also want to make sure approved or excluded party information is synced too. This will remove labor from your front office team while ensuring approved people are picking up your students.
Crisis Alert Systems - This integration would ensure that your emergencies are managed by your crisis alert system and allows your visitor management system to pass this communication over and manage escalated events.
Reunification - In a crisis event, this integration will make sure you can match students with approved guardians or parents and account for all visitors on premise.
Configurable: Is the visitor management system a one-size-fits-all or is it customizable? The system should allow you to make the system work according to your policies and business rules.
Excluded Parties: Do you have a list of individuals that are not allowed on your property? Maybe you have people who have trespassed in the past, people with custody orders, or one of your employees is going through a divorce and a protective order is issued. With these different circumstances, you would like to put these people on an exclusion list that pops up if they try to enter your facility. This will alert your front staff that the person trying to check in should not be in your building.
Pre-Registration: Do you routinely have large groups of visitors coming to your facility for events? If your visitor management system allows for pre-registration, you can have visitors register for the date they want to visit, and on that day, they will populate into your system. This provides faster processing, and it will indicate whether the visitor passed the Excluded Parties and/or Sex Offender Check before they arrive.
Sophisticated ID Validation: You want to make sure that your visitor management system scans IDs with their barcodes rather than just taking a picture of the front of the license. This ensures that the ID is real and that the data being pulled is legitimate.
Emergency/Denial Notification Buttons: An important piece of a visitor management system is the ability to send out instant notifications for emergencies and denials. If there is an emergency at the front desk, or the secretary denies someone entrance, an immediate notification needs to go out to others in the building to help with the situation at hand.
Geofencing Capabilities: Geofencing uses GPS technology to create a virtual fence around your organization that identifies when someone is in a defined area. When an approved visitor is within the geofence radius, their information is sent to the front office attendant's for faster check in.
The best indication of a quality visitor management system is whether or not the system integrates with other companies. With more integrations, you will have the ability to move towards having all of your systems in one place. This not only makes your life easier, but it will also increase your security because there will no longer be holes in your security platform.
Of course, different organizations will have different priorities on what is important for them in a visitor management system. This list is not all encompassing. It is more of a list of things to consider when you are searching for a new system. So, when it comes time to shop around for a new visitor management system, make sure to use this as a reference. If you would like to ask us at SafeVisitor Solutions questions about what to look for in a system, or what our system can do for you, please send us an email at sales@safevisitorsolutions.com.