Posts in category: Visitor Management

Visitor management software is now becoming an essential tool for many businesses as a new and efficient way to greet and handle visitors. It can perform a number of different tasks and has customisable options to help it seamlessly blend into your business and its branding.

There are many different types of visitor management software available, so it is important to look at the needs of your business in order to identify the one that is right for you. In this article, we assess the visitor management software options to help you make the right choice.

What is visitor management software

The reception area of a business can be a busy place, and so visitor management software has been brought in to help streamline many of these processes. It can be set up to collect whatever information from your visitors that you need, and can tie into appointment calendars, helping to inform staff when a visitor arrives and ensuring that meeting rooms are booked.

Once a visitor has signed in using the software, it can print a personalised visitors badge for them, log their arrival and even tell them where they need to go next. This can mean that receptionists are not needed in the same way and can free them up to perform other tasks, whilst also enhancing security and making the business more efficient.

Business needs

When investing in visitor management software, it is important to look at what your business needs it to do.

By looking at your own needs first, it becomes much easier to narrow down the options that are out there to find the software system that is right for you.

This can be done by thinking about the number of visitors that you need it to be able to deal with, the information that you need it to collect, and the systems that you might need it to integrate with. Once you understand your own needs, it is much simpler to find the visitor management system that is the right fit.

Compliance

Compliance looks different in every type of industry, so you need to have a full understanding of what rules you are bound by. Whether it is GDPR laws or regulations that are more industry specific, you need to ensure that you are compliant at all times, and this includes your visitor management software.

It is therefore important that you look for solutions that have been designed with these laws in mind, to help them meet your needs more effectively. The visitor management software that you choose will need to have all of your required security features and should be able to capture the data that you want.

Integration

In most cases, businesses will want their visitor management software to integrate with other systems that are already in use. This might mean that it will need to link to access control systems, booking software, appointment diaries, security cameras or databases.

You should start by making a list of all of the systems that it will need to be able to work with, to enable you to check that the visitor management software you have chosen will integrate correctly.

Security

Visitor management software is required to handle a lot of sensitive data, both on behalf of your business and your visitors, so it is crucial that it is fully secure.

Before opting for any type of software, it is essential that you check whether it offers security features such as data encryption, secure storage and multi-factor authentication so that you can be confident that you have taken all necessary precautions.

User-friendliness

In order for visitor management software to be effective, it needs to be easy for everyone to use. Your employees will need to be able to get to grips with it in order to effectively set up meetings, and your visitors should be able to use it with little or no support in order for it to deliver the efficiencies that you are looking for.

It is therefore important that you get to use the software before you invest in it, so that you can see how it works for yourself. Visitor management software that is difficult to use will often be under utilised, which can then have a direct impact on security, productivity and visitor satisfaction.

Accessibility

In order to ensure that your business is inclusive for everyone, you should also check what accessibility features are on offer. This might include text to speech features, translation abilities or different text styles to ensure that everyone who enters your business is able to use it.

Customisation

You will want your visitor management software to look as though it is another part of your business, so you will need a range of customisation features. This will help it to fit in with your branding and colour schemes to give it a more professional feel.

You should also be able to customise the data that it collects, the messages that it displays and the way in which it works, so make sure that you check the software you are looking at provides the flexibility that you need.

Support

We know that things can go wrong from time to time, no matter how good they are, so you should also consider what support is on offer.

You should look at what services your software provides to help you fix problems or understand features that might be causing you headaches. As a business, it is important that you resolve any issues as quickly as possible, so check what each package offers to get you back on track when you need it.

Affordability

Every business has a budget, so you need to consider what the real costs of the software will be. Look at what licences might be needed, whether there are monthly subscriptions and think about any add-ons as well as the initial setup costs.

Visitor management software is a great way to improve workflows as well as enhancing safety and being more professional, so make sure you do your research and pick the right option for your business.

Get Started With VMFree!

Looking for a fast, convenient, secure, and FREE visitor management solution? Here at VMFree we offer a free visitor management solution for businesses who are looking for cheap and effective solution to managing a range of visitors from clients to contractors.

Get in touch with our team today and we’ll do all we can to help!

Ensuring that your visitor management software is GDPR compliant is crucial for any business that collects personal information. Here’s how to ensure that your visitor management software is GDPR compliant.

What is GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) exists to manage the way data is processed and stored, by businesses, ultimately to prevent data breaches and theft of sensitive information.

There are currently two GDPRs: EU GDPR and UK GDPR which came into force following Brexit.

For the most part, the key principles within the UK GDPR are very much the same as the EU GPDR, however some rules differ is personal data is being transferred between the UK and EEA, which you can read more about here.

Risks of GDPR Non-Compliance

If your business doesn’t comply with GDPR, then you could face serious legal penalties. There are two tiers of penalties that your business could face for not complying with GDPR, the higher maximum, and the standard maximum.

The Higher Maximum

As stated by ico.org.uk, “The higher maximum amount, is £17.5 million or 4% of the total annual worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year, whichever is higher.

In practice, the higher maximum amount can apply to any failure to comply with any of the data protection principles, any rights an individual may have under Part 3 or in relation to any transfers of data to third countries.”

The Standard Maximum

Again, as stated by ico.org.uk, “If there is an infringement of other provisions, such as administrative requirements of the legislation, the standard maximum amount will apply, which is £8.7 million or 2% of the total annual worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year, whichever is higher.”

Visitor Management System GDPR Requirements

Ensure that you review your businesses existing visitor management software, as it could potentially be breaching GDPR regulations without you even being aware. The visitor management software GDPR requirements consist of numerous factors that you must ensure your business complies with.

When it comes to ensuring your visitor management systems remains complaint, consent is the first step to achieving that. By offering individuals the opportunity to provide their consent, this can create trust towards your business, and gives visitors more control over their own personal data.

Using clear language, providing easy to opt-in features and specifying clearly what happens to their data can create a positive experience and help to avoid any unwanted GDPR mishaps.

Upon collecting the data, it is integral it is used appropriately, and this must be made clear when asking for consent of the collection of the data. The data cannot be used for matters that don’t coincide with the business’s purpose or for any other reason besides what has been agreed between the business and the visitor themselves.

Once the data is collected and used appropriately by those who need it, it must then be deleted to prevent data breaches and leaks. Therefore, you must ensure that any data that is no longer required by your visitor management system is deleted, along with related information.

Keep GDPR Compliant with our Visitor Management Systems

If your business is looking for a GDPR compliant visitor management software supplier, then you can get in touch with our team today to begin implementing your visitor sign in system.

Depending on the size of your business you may have multiple access points that people can enter and exit. Having them all managed individually can be a big task that in some cases could require unnecessary additional staff.

Fortunately, there are ways to keep this under control through a visitor sign-in system. You may wish to close off access points altogether to ensure visitors and staff come and go from one main entrance which can be monitored more effectively by smaller numbers of security staff, but without compromising on safety.

How can a sign-in system benefit access control?

A visitor sign-in system can benefit access control because it allows your business to track who is within your premises and why they’re present at your workplace. By understanding these two factors, a sign-in system can keep a close eye on who enters your workplace and where they entered from, so your business can act quickly if there is any unauthorised access within your building.

With our visitor sign-in system, individuals are provided with the option to confirm their attendance remotely, by signing in from the comfort of their own device.

Ensure to collect visitor information

When a visitor enters your building, it is important to know as much as you can about the visitor. Common areas of information to collect can consist of their name, contact details, when they entered the building, and how long they expect to be there for.

Having these details available, even for a short amount of time, your security team can quickly understand the reasons for their visit and if unauthorised, make decisions with haste before the visitor leaves.

Combine your safety systems

Your business should already have safety and security systems in place before you implement a visitor sign-in system. Combining your existing procedures with your newly adopted system can help your visitors feel more comfortable and welcomed by your business.

Through combining your safety systems together, it can also simplify access for different types of visitors, for example someone visiting your business for a meeting can be signed in and granted to different areas of your workplace based on their permission from existing security systems, whereas someone delivering parcels and packages can be handled much more efficiently and have only the access permission they need, without causing disruption.

Plan for emergencies

Regardless of how small or large a security risk may be, is vital to ensure visitors and staff are always safe. If you’re putting a security plan in place, it’s important to keep in mind visitors such as facility managers, who aren’t your employees but frequently visit the business, delivery drivers and other service providers who visit the business upon request, as well as guests attending meetings, so that they are aware of the evacuation plans.

Typically, the best way to ensure that employees and regular visitors are familiar with these protocols is by practicing your evacuation plan upon their arrival.

Implement a visitor sign-in system today

By putting a visitor sign-in system in place, you can better control your access points by knowing who enters your business, as well as their purpose. If you’re looking to adopt a visitor management system to help control your workplace access points, get in touch with our team today and we’ll do all we can to help.

We all know that first impressions are important, but did you know that your business’ first impression doesn’t start when they meet an employee, its starts when they enter the building!

Many organisations have a wide range of visitors including potential new hires, family and friends, clients and even delivery people so providing them with a welcoming and professional environment as soon as they step through the door can do wonders for how they feel and how they perceive your business.

Visitor management systems are a great way to welcome both visitors and staff during the work day. They can help give directions and information to visitors while also giving your team a way to track who is in the building and why.

Here we discuss the ways a visitor management system can help welcome visitors to your business.

It can help address your visitors quickly

Leaving your visitors to wonder aimlessly through your lobby or reception is no way to create a welcoming environment. Using a visitor management system which can give recently signed in visitors their ‘next step’ can reduce their anxiety in situations where they’re not sure where they’re supposed to go.

These next steps could be directions to the meeting room or waiting room, informing them of who they need to speak to like a receptionist and even direct them to important areas like facilities and cafeterias. This can help address each visitor as they arrive, reducing reception wait times and welcoming visitors instantly.

It gives them identification

Especially in larger organisations, visitors can often feel as if they don’t belong or that the person that they’re there to see, won’t be able to find them in a room full of people, so providing them with a custom visitor badge can ease this tension.

VMFree’s custom visitor badges can include the visitors name, picture, what type of visitor they are (family and friends, potential hire, deliveries and more) and even the date of their visit. You can also customise the look of your visitor badges to add your companies branding and logo.

To make it easier for a visitor’s return visit, you can save templates for your custom visitor badges so you wont have to create a new one each time, just will just need to change the date of the visit and maybe the reason for their visit.

Welcoming visuals

No matter if your visitors sign in through a physical terminal or on their phone, they should have an easy warm welcome. If visitors are signing in on a physical terminal or even at reception, ensuring it is easily accessible is important, this means having adequate signage and putting it in an accessible area, preferably close to the entrance of your premises.

Allowing visitors to sign in on the app gives them opportunity to sign in ahead of time, this means it will reduce time stood around or wondering where to go. Signing in on the app allows visitors to read your policies ahead of time and also allows them to see where they need to go before even entering the building.

How can VMFree help?

VMFree is a free visitor management system that has a wide range of features to help you manage and welcome visitors to your business including, custom visitor badges, visitor tracking, staff management and an accompanying sign in/out application.

If you would like to learn more about VMFree and how it can provide your business with new ways to manage staff and visitors, please contact us today!

In the event of an emergency, it’s important that safety procedures are carried out quickly and efficiently. Knowing who is present in the building and their location during an evacuation can help emergency services find missing people and safely clear the building.

Visitor management systems are known for being a versatile way to track and manage the people entering your business premises, but did you know that they can help in an emergency evacuation?

Evacuation lists

In situations without any visitor management systems in place, you can never account for everyone in the building. Using a visitor management system can provide you with a list of people currently in the building and their last known location.

Because guests are required to sign in and out when they enter and leave the premises, you can get an accurate evacuation list that you can use to mark people as safe and make emergency services aware of people who are still in the building.

Cloud based system

In an emergency, a cloud-based visitor management system can save you precious time. If you’re using logbooks or electronic management systems, you might be unable to access the list of people in the building if you have been evacuated.

With a cloud-based visitor management system, you can access your evacuation list on your phone by logging in to your system on the application. Cloud based visitor management systems also allow you to access your data while offline so you can obtain the important data you need without being connected to the internet.

Coordination

In an emergency, it’s vital that you provide responders with as much information as you can so they can do their job to their best ability. Being able to provide emergency responders with a list of people who are still not accounted for, and their last known location will allow them to prioritise getting people safely out of the building without having to search every department for them. This could potentially save lives.

Visitor evacuation lists can provide responders with the number of employees and visitors that are still unaccounted for, the areas they’re located and additional information that could help authorities.

Visitor photographs

With many visitor management systems, they use visitor registrations that allow people to attach an image to their account or visitor badge. This can be especially useful to emergency responders as it can help them easily identify people during a search and mark them as safe when they’re out of the building.

Sign out

Some visitor management systems allow visitors and employees to sign out on a mobile app allowing you to get an accurate read of how many people are in the building. It is important to remind visitors and employees to only sign out once they are leaving the building.

This can prevent confusion during an emergency, for instance if a visitor hasn’t signed out and is under the impression they are still present within the building, emergency responders will not know for certain if a certain person needs searching for.

Access to contact information

During the visitor registration process, visitors will be able to add contact information. This can be especially helpful getting in contact with people who are not accounted for to find out if they are safe or if they need assistance. Being able to contact the people in the building will also give emergency responders a better understanding of the situation developing inside the building.

How can VMFree help?

VMFree is a free visitor management system with a wide range of useful features to help your business thrive. Our visitor tracking feature allows you to create a real time report of who is on site and mark each one as safe in the event of an emergency. To learn more about our features or to discuss what you’re looking for in a visitor management system, please contact our expert team today!

Custom visitor badges are a great tool for many businesses looking to keep track of the people entering their premises, but they have many more benefits.

Visitor badges are a versatile tool for the workplace to increase security, branding and to even encourage conversations between people attending their events.

In this blog we’ll discuss what custom visitor badges are, why people use them and how they can enhance your visitors experience at your business.

What are custom visitor badges?

Custom visitor name badges are a way for organisations to keep track of who is inside their building at all times! They’re a great visual aid to easily identify who is signed in and who isn’t. These badges keep unauthorised people from slipping through and causing potential chaos.

Custom visitor badges can be customised to include important factors including:

• Their photograph
• The reason for their visit
• The date and time of their visit
• Who they’re visiting
• Your companies branding
• QR codes for validation

What are custom visitor badges used for?

Custom visitor badges can be used in various types of organisations including schools, offices and even manufacturing facilities. Regardless of whether your workplace is home to a small or large number of people, visitor badges can be a key reassurance for staff and members of the public.

Safety

Regardless of your workplace the safety of everyone who operates in and out of your premises should be a priority. From teachers and pupils to contractors and maintenance workers, custom visitor badges can be an effective tool in enhancing these small security measures, especially if you experience various levels of foot traffic within your school or workplace.

If non-employees are given visitor badges, it allows your staff to easily identify who is authorised to be there and who isn’t. This can help prevent potential safety issues such as data breaches, theft and the safety of your staff.

Showing a form of identity at all times within your place of work can be an extension of your business uniform and will provide reassurance to parents, other staff members and visitors themselves, as they can also identify who is a staff member, and who isn’t.

Branding

Aside from security, investing in custom visitor badges can do a lot more than just identify your visitors, they can also reaffirm your branding! Adding your business’ colours, logo and other branding elements can create a professional and welcoming impression to visitors, it’s also a great conversation starter if your employees are out and about, representing your company.

Encourage networking

Talking of representing your company, visitor badges can also play a key role when it comes to networking. If you’re holding an event, ensuring that names, job titles and even company names are printed on the badge, not only keeps everyone safe, but it can prove to be a great icebreaker and encourage new conversations between groups.

Make it easy for visitors to check out

Ensuring that visitors can easily sign out is a must! This can help your staff identify who is in the building during potential emergencies such as fire alarms. You can customise your visitor badges to include sign out elements like QR codes so a visitor can scan their badge as they leave to notify your staff they are no longer on the premises.

Guiding visitors

When entering a new building it can get confusing finding the room you need to be in or finding the office of the person you’re trying to meet. Making sure your visitors don’t get lost or frustrated can be made easy with custom visitor badges. Customise visitor badges to have navigation information on that tell your visitors where their meeting is, what floor the office the department they’re visiting is on and even quick directions to facilities or cafeterias.

How can VMFree help?

VMFree is a free visitor management system with a wide range of innovative features to help your business thrive. If you’re looking to streamline your visitor management and enhance your visitor experience, please get in touch with our expert team who can walk you through our features and discuss your requirements!

Keeping your staff and business premises safe from potential threats and safety concerns is understandably very important to organisations. Finding innovative ways to streamline the process and make it easier to protect your business is on the rise, and one of those methods being visitor management systems.

Visitor management systems are a streamlined way to keep track of the people entering your business premises, allows staff to identify people in seconds and even gives the ability for visitors to sign in and out themselves.

In this blog, we’ll discuss what visitor management systems are and how they can enhance your business security efforts.

What is a visitor management system?

A visitor management system is exactly what it says on the tin, it’s a way for your business to keep track of visitors and staff that are entering your business premises. Although, they have a lot more features than just that.

You can use visitor management systems to track where your visitors are, create custom visitor badges and much more.

What are the ways it can improve your business security?

Visitor management systems can have an incredible impact on the security of your business premises and can help you to keep track of the people inside, which comes in very handy if there’s an emergency! An invaluable tool to have at your disposal, especially for schools and healthcare campuses.

Visitor badges

Visitor badges give your staff a way to easily identify people inside your business within seconds. Visitor badges can be customised to include the visitors name, job title, visit date and don’t forget your business branding and logo. Visitor badges can also include an identification picture so you can easily identify the holder of the badge and ensure it is the person it was assigned to.

Access control

Visitor management systems have a range of handy access control solutions including scannable additions to your visitor badges. This could be applied by only allowing visitors access to the department they’re visiting and won’t allow them access to other parts of the building.

Emergency evacuations

In an emergency situation, it is important to know exactly who is in the building in real time. Visitor management systems allow you to see who has signed in and out and allow you to track where visitors are in the building. In the event of an emergency, a visitor management system can allow you to mark everyone in the building as safe.

GDPR compliance

Ensuring that your business is GDPR compliant is very important. Our visitor management system, VMFree, ensures all data collected is done with GDPR in mind and includes visitor consent, protection and data transparency.

Why choose VMFree?

VMFree is a free visitor management software made with the business in mind. We have a wide range of features perfect for managing the people entering your premises including staff. To learn more about our features or to talk about your requirements, please contact our expert team today.

Visitor management systems have become a popular way for many businesses to keep track of people coming and going from their premises, but do you know about their other benefits?

Visitor management systems have a wide range of useful features that can help your business increase security, comply with data regulations, and even give a good first impression to the people entering your building.

1. Increased security

Visitor management systems can help your business to increase security and reduce security risks. When it comes to unauthorised people in your building, visitor management systems can help you create custom visitor badges so your staff can easily identify people who are supposed to be there. This can reduce potential risks such as data breaches, theft and more.

2. Good first impressions

When a visitor first enters your business, it’s important that they get a good first impression. Using a visitor management system can ensure that they get signed in quickly without having to wait around for a receptionist to be available.

Another way that visitor management systems can give visitors a good first impression is allowing visitors to register before they even arrive on site. This can give them adequate time to read your policies, complete their details and even take a photo for use on their visitor badge. 

3. Employee monitoring

Being able to actively monitor your staff is one addition to visitor management systems that many businesses find useful. They allow you to keep track of where your staff are, the hours they’re working and even allows you to see when they leave. This can be great to monitor the attendance of staff and even calculate holiday entitlement and overtime.

4. Data compliance

GDPR has rightfully made a lot of businesses more careful with their data and having a visitor management system requires handling more personal data about your visitors and staff. However, visitor management software is built with data compliance in mind. Here at VMFree, we use cloud-based data storage to ensure the security of staff and visitor data, so you don’t have to use outdated systems like filing cabinets and old software.

5. Reduces waste

Many businesses are trying to reduce the amount of waste they produce, and a visitor management system can help! Traditional visitor management processes often require paper forms for visitors to fill out their information and the reason they’re here. With a visitor management system, this becomes obsolete as you can do it all from the software or on the mobile app.

This can also be useful for administrators where a visitor wants their data changed or erased, instead of searching through files of paper, you can just find their data on the cloud-based system with their name or reference number and make the necessary changes.

Why choose VMFree?

VMFree is a free visitor management software with a wide range of useful features including custom visitor badges, staff management, visitor tracking, contactless sign in and much more. To learn more about our features or to discuss your requirements, please contact our expert team today.

The safety of students and staff is integral to schools, so ensuring that anyone entering or exiting the school are authorised to do so. Take a look at four ways a visitor management system can improve the safety of schools.

Fire Safety and Evacuation Procedures

Visitor management systems allow schools to move away from paperwork, making your fire evacuation process at school much safer and easier. With a visitor management software, you can gain access to your evacuation list when you need it and keep an eye out for students or staff who could be missing in an emergency situation.

Our sign-in/out app offers the ability to sign people off if they’re present at the evacuation point to confirm their safety, as well as providing an in-depth report of the evacuation, further providing safety to schools.

Remote Sign-in Options

With our visitor management systems, we offer a sign-in/out app that allows staff to sign in and out of the school. This feature improves the safety of schools as it can help to benefit on-site evacuation, through alerting others that you are confirmed as being signed in and present at the school.

This feature of visitor management software can also provide information on the whereabouts of those in the school, and what is happening during an emergency evacuation.

Staff and Student Identification

If any guests are present around the school, a visitor management system can help identify who is a guest, and who is a student or a staff member. Our visitor management system has the ability to print ID badges for visitors, which they can wear around the school ensuring everyone within the school is easily identifiable.

Our visitor management systems allow visitors of the school to design their badge, and also provide photo identification to increase security.

If you have a system in place that requires individuals to wear an ID badge within your premises, you can easily identify visitors that have not gone through the visitor management system, as they won’t have an ID that is required. Security staff can deal with unauthorised visitors or help with setting them up with the required ID card.

Through the use of wearing ID badges at schools, it shows that the visitor has passed all appropriate security protocols to confirm that they’re safe to be on site. With our custom badge option, it also makes them much harder to replicate, preventing someone to trespass or access the building without permission.

Information on those in the school

An effective visitor management system ensures that anyone looking to enter the school is signed in, which is important for school safety as it can boost evacuation efforts, as previously mentioned, or if someone is required for additional academic support, their presence at the school can be confirmed by the visitor sign-in software.

Increase your school safety with our visitor management system

If you’re looking to increase your school safety, enquire about our visitor management software today! Our software offers remote sign-in options, custom ID badges and many more. For additional information, contact our team today.