Visitor Management Software and Systems

If you should happen to visit a place of business today, chances are pretty good that you will scribble your name into a paper guest book. That's the "Old School" way of managing visitors.

However, with everything changing to be controlled electronically, including modern visitor management systems, visitors can now "electronically" scan their ID (driver's license or business card). All relevant information about them is then automatically captured in a database and a professional quality visitor badge is printed.

Total ID Solutions, Inc. offers two different Visitor Management System, EasyLobby™ and ID Visitor™. To learn more about each system, click on the link below one of the logos below.

reasons to use a visitor management system

You need to have a record of who is in your building.

For some companies, it is a matter of compliance. Sarbanes-Oxley, for example, requires public companies to report on the adequacy of their internal control over financial reporting. Those controls are typically taken as control over information systems, but it will be hard to prove if the auditors see loose controls over visitors to the data center. Companies many also be bound by other regulations such as HIPAA or CFATS (Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards) that can require control over who can access a facility and when.

No one else should know who is in your building

"Information about who is visiting you should be confidential," says Howard Marson, CEO of Easy Lobby. "It's not (confidential) with the paper book - everybody looks through it."

One of the areas often overlooked by companies with a paper log book is loss of privacy. Any salesperson can tell you that the visitor log is an invaluable source of information and can tell quite a story about the deals a company is pursuing or what competitors may be bidding on a job. In the case of a multi-tenant facility, these privacy concerns can create a real liability for the landlord that can outweigh the need for security.

Privacy is a real issue with paper logs.

A paper log says "I never really intend to look at this again"

If your procedure calls for verifying identity with a driver's license, can you prove the procedure was followed? What about the logs themselves? Do you know where all old logs are? Has anyone "accidentally" removed a page? Are there back-up copies off-site? Are you gathering all of the data you should be gathering, or are you limited by the log you use and the time it takes to fill it out? How long does it take you to search through the data to find the entries you need?

Many of your visitors are customers

One of the key reasons companies are moving to visitor management systems and away from paper logs is the impression it makes on their customers. Not only do the badges have a professional look and the potential for personalization with a photo, but the lobby process leaves the right impression. A company with long lines of visitors waiting to check in starts out a visit on a really bad note.

Some of your visitors may not be friends

Visitor management systems have capabilities far beyond those of the paper log, and those features can make an enormous difference in your overall security.

With a visitor management system you have the ability to screen visitors using a watch-list. This feature is very popular in the educational sector with regards to using a sexual predator list. And, it has obvious applications in the government sector by using terrorist watch-lists. The capability of a watch-list can also be implemented in the corporate world by internally generating lists of terminated employees.

It may be time to have another look at the way you deal with visitors. Implementing a visitor access control system is not hard, and can add to your company's iamge. Not only can you improve security, make your investigations easier and lower your risk, but you have a real chance to enhance your company's image with its customers.

Contact Total ID Solutions today to learn how quickly and easily you can replace your paper and pen visitor log with a more secure visitor management system. We encourage you to leverage the experience that both EasyLobby™ and ID Visitor™ bring to the table. Both visitor management systems are affordable, easy to install, easy to learn, and easy to use.