As more and more organisations come to the realisation that their reception is vulnerable to GDPR non-compliance, modern Visitor Management solutions (VMS) with digital capabilities have seen their popularity soar. Today, TDS bring you a list of 16 Value Adding Visitor Management solution Benefits for organisations looking to digitise their front-of-house reception area.

Professional First Impressions

“You only get one opportunity to make a first impression.” This rings particularly true for organisations that pride themselves on offering memorable and unique experiences. Regardless of an organisations size, their approach to how they manage visitors is a good indication of their interest in providing a positive on-site experience. Our Fortune 500 clients appreciate that an opportunity to demonstrate innovation is an opportunity to provide an uplifting experience.

Reinforced Branding

Most modern Visitor Management solutions offer clients the opportunity to reinforce their branding in the front-end of the solution. Hardware devices can be customised to display company colours, logos can be uploaded to the front-end of the solution and screensaver rolls can be designed to match brand guidelines. These are just a few options available to organisations that want to fully integrate a Visitor Management solution. 

Modernised Reception

There is a stark difference between a traditional guest log and a Visitor Management solution. Not only does a Visitor Management solution look more professional and aesthetically pleasing but with consistent future-proof development, it is also infinitely more productive and efficient. 

Embracing Paperless

Traditional visitor management processes find it extremely difficult, almost impossible to create and maintain GDPR-compliant reception environments. With an over-reliance on paper-based reporting, traditional methods require multiple hours of administrative labour and large quantities of paper to ensure third-party data is stored, filed and secured safely.

With modern Visitor Management solutions, the reliance on paper is completely eliminated as visitor details are stored, filed and easily accessed in the solutions back-office. Should a third-party wish to have their data purged or made anonymous after their site visit, receptionists or administrators can simply search for the guests name or reference number and make the requested changes.

Reduced Waiting Times

With host notifications, organisations can effectively reduce visitor waiting times. Instant notifications are one of the most value-adding features of modern Visitor Management solution for hosts and visitors alike. With rich media messaging options such as; text, email, Slack and Skype, hosts can stay informed and send improve communication with plenty of communication options to choose from.  

Increased Security

To ensure sensitive third-party information is securely stored and remains confidential, settings can be configured inside the solutions back-office to ensure only authorised personnel are granted access to visitor data, limiting data breach possibilities to only a select few, trusted individuals.

As previously mentioned, GDPR legislation permits third-parties to ask for copies of captured data and grants them the right to purge any data relative to them. By simply searching a visitors name or reference code, their data can be found, shared or deleted.

Increased Office Efficiency

Many Visitor Management solutions have the ability to create and design unique. By empowering visitors and other guests to register, create badges, sign compliance documents and alert hosts all without requiring assistance, check-in times can be reduced.

If an organisation wishes to further streamline their check-in process, pre-registration forms can be sent to third-parties prior to  their scheduled meeting. Once the visitor completes the pre-registration form and arrives on site, they can enter their name or allocated reference code to alert their host of their arrival. This feature can be hugely beneficial for events, conferences or large meeting, helping organisations process high volumes of visitors, in a detailed and efficient manner.

On-Site Transparency

Automated data records of third-party interactions and check-ins help organisations generate insights for internal and external use. Authorised personnel can generate various reports based on the solutions capabilities and the information captured. These reports can be highly advantageous in situations where it’s necessary to document on-site arrivals and departures from secure zones, how many times an individual checked-in and out and who they were on site to meet with.

Threat Mitigation

The concept of sending all visitors to a check-in device not only encourages threats to engage with a solution that can identify them in the future but with integrations like Watch Lists, security personnel can be alerted of potential threats on-site. With an ambition of avoiding detection, threats would alternatively have to attempt bypassing security without raising suspicions. While some threats may be deterred from venturing further on-site without checking-in, the ones that do can be easily identified by security teams because of a lack of a badge.

Increased Productivity

In line with what was mentioned in ‘Increased Office Efficiency’ groups and large parties can be pre-registered in the back-office prior to their arrival on-site. Once pre-registered, individuals can streamline their on-site check-in experience to simply inputting their reference details before alerting their host of arrival. While self-service check-in options are beneficial to visitors and other third-parties, receptionists experience one of the most dynamic productivity shifts as they can alleviate the burdens associated with processing visitor check-ins and allocate more time to completing other tasks at hand.  

Contractor Management

Contractors can be on-site as often as full-time employees and when they are, it isn’t always easy to monitor their movements, access authority levels or time on-site. In most cases where traditional Visitor Management processes are in place, contractors are entrusted by organisations to remain inside authorised zones and bill accurately.

When a Visitor Management solution is configured to cater to contractors and other visitor types, authorised personnel are granted access to key details inside the VMS back-office such as time and attendance, real-time location, access authority and legal compliance and more, ensuring contractors are managed correctly and in line with relevant compliance rules.  

Reduced Costs

The length of a check-in process can have a detrimental impact on receptionists who are frequently multitasking to ensure their primary and secondary roles are both being completed. In a study performed last year, Inc stated ‘it takes roughly 23 minutes to recover from a distraction after an interruption’.

Putting this research into perspective, if an office receptionist engages with just 5 visitors per day, it roughly translates to 2.5 hours of visitor management. If a receptionist engages with 25 visitors a day, it equates to more than 1.5 days of wasted time per week.

Integration Synergies

Visitor Management solutions ability to integrate with other popular solutions such as Emergency Evacuation and Access Control help offer additional value-added possibilities for hosts to enjoy.

For our Super Enterprise clients, TDS Visitor's ability to integrate with other popular solutions has led to our clients operating with greater visibility of everyone on-site while also providing visitors and third-parties with the opportunity to print access-authorised user badges, allowing them to enter and exit certain rooms.  

In emergency situations, a Visitor Management and Emergency Evacuation integration offers real-time evacuation reports and easily informs ERT’s and head-counters about individuals that are still on-site and in possible danger.  

Global Scalability

A good Visitor Management solution is highly flexible and scalable, meaning it can be easily customised to fit a growing organisation's needs. TDS Visitor can be customised, update and serviced quickly through a direct, ongoing service relationship, enabling easier changes when they are needed.

Health and Safety Compliance

As part of a Visitor Management solutions check-in workflow or pre-registration workflow, multiple or select health and safety documents such as NDA’s and Terms & Conditions can be uploaded for on-site arrivals to sign prior to being fully checked-in. Once these documents are signed, a digital copy is sent to the visitor's profile in the back-office for sharing or for future reference.

Legal and GDPR Compliance

Should your organisation find themselves in a position where an incident on-site and has been reported at a later date, a Digital Visitor Management solution is the best point of reference to revert to records on the date in question to firstly, check if the visitor was in-fact on-site and secondly, to check if the event occurred at the location reported. If an incident occurred in any previous month, a VMS can be used to validate the report.   

Read More: 

• Achieving GDPR-Compliance with a Visitor Management Solution
• What GDPR Means for the Visitor Management Industry
• 11 Essential Visitor Management Features
• 5 Reasons to Digitise your Visitor Experience
• Visitor Management Predictions for 2019
• 10 Questions to ask about your Visitor Management Solution
• How to manage VIP's with a Visitor Management Solution 

To learn more, visit TDS Visitor.