The Most Important Features to Look for When Selecting a Visitor Management System
The visitor management software improves the flow of visitors through your offices while also lowering administrative costs and increasing security. If you’re considering implementing a visitor management policy – which clearly explains who is allowed to visit your offices and under what rules – you would need to include visitor identification and tracking. This is where a visitor management system comes in handy as a means to achieve both. Here are the 5 most important features to look for when choosing a visitor management system.
Watchlist utilization
A Watchlist lets you know when a visitor who is not approved or has been banned has signed in. The best ones enable you to monitor particular email addresses, names, email domains, mobile numbers or other personal identification data. When a match against any point appears, it triggers an alarm message and sends it to predetermined individuals, like your security personnel, advising them a person matching your watchlist criteria has signed into your site.
The ability to use triggers
Triggers let you know when visitors who are on-site stay longer than predicted. When a visitor management system has this feature, you will be able to set up a rule where your visitor is asked to estimate the predicted length of their visit. When they don’t sign out before this period expires, a trigger can appear.
This trigger sends an SMS message or emails to your security team, which explains that a visitor is still on-site, even though their approved time has expired. Moreover, triggers are also a tool for alerting your security personnel or facility team whenever someone signs in after normal operational hours.
Third-party integration capability
Out of all the features a visitor management system might need, third-party integration capability is in all likelihood the most important one. It guarantees the solution will remain useful in the future and is especially crucial if you have enormous amounts of data to enter or have data that changes very frequently.
Third-party integration is so important that you should look for it in any other app you might need for your business. For instance, in a delivery management app for your offices. Regarding security, will you have the opportunity to integrate with Watchlists or Access Control? In addition, internally utilized apps such as Office 365 and Docusig Integrated can be used with visitor management systems to build a better experience for employees.
Dashboard availability
Some visitor management software enables you to build dashboards that show key on-site insights and stats. This feature will provide visibility to a bigger group of employees who are on-site. For example, your employees will be able to view a list of non-employees (visitors, guests, contractors) who are on-site, in real time. Some systems also include the ability to display who is the visitor’s host, the time and date they signed in, etc.
Instant host notification
A high-quality visitor management system always includes a feature that can notify hosts about a visitor’s arrival, regardless of their destination. When a visitor goes through their check-in process via visitor management software, automated messages are sent in the form of email, SMS, push notifications, etc. Hosts who were notified can then communicate with the visitor management system to notify awaiting visitors or start travelling towards reception to collect visitors.
There are also many other features that can be important for your visitor management solution, depending on your needs and circumstances. For instance, a user-friendly experience that can also integrate your brand logo and colour scheme, or the ability to integrate with your other security devices. Determine your needs first, and you will have no problem selecting visitor management software with the right features.
