A growing number of businesses have established – or are in the process of establishing – visitor management as an integral part of their overall security plan. Many of these facilities expect their visitor management systems to do much more than just check-in visitors.
Businesses today are responsible not only for the protection and safety of the employees and visitors to their facilities but also protection for themselves against liabilities. If a facilities director or security manager cannot identify every visitor in their building at any given time, they could be vulnerable to legal action in the case of an emergency.
Importance of Visitor Management
In addition to tracking visitors, some facilities also depend on visitor management systems to automate policies and procedures, including vendors and contractors, to meet compliance and regulatory requirements. For example, guests and contractors may be required to review safety videos or documents once a year to meet compliance regulations, and visitor management systems are capable of integrating with administrative departments to streamline operational efficiency.
While visitor management used to be an afterthought in most enterprises’ overall security plan, the trend is shifting as more facilities managers consider visitor management an essential part of their security. Integrators are still catching up with demand for visitor management systems since it hasn’t been on the business radar until recently. Access control measures have been in demand for years, though, and visitor management has been misunderstood to be just another extension of access management.
What’s the difference?
Access systems predominately handle employee access and don’t take visitors into account. Visitor management, on the other hand, provides auditable records of every visitor who enters the building, issues them temporary ID badges at check-in, monitoring their presence throughout the building, and storing their personal and background information in a permanent database for future reference.
Security vulnerability specialists are increasingly suggesting visitor management options in lobbies, turnstiles for check-in, and elevator control systems to not only keep unwelcome guests out, but to support emergency evacuation protocols, gather data on visitors, and generate compliance and other reports instantly.
Visitor management is gaining critical demand in the realm of desired security technologies. If you are looking to upgrade your security, contact Veristream at 888-718-0807 to receive a free demo.
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