Getting the right identification procedure for the right person was an extremely cumbersome process, according to Phillip LeClair, security manager at Connecticut Children's . In addition, the medical center's search for a better security solution was accelerated by an incident, after which officials asked the hospital to better handle visitor badging.
Visitor management systems – standalone or integrated – can
create IDs as well as capture individual data. Besides putting photo IDs on
smartcards that use radio frequency technology to transmit information about
the user wirelessly to readers, biometric information such as fingerprints and
iris scans can be included to positively identify a user.
To determine whether
the easiest credential to falsify – the visible photo – has been altered, the
ID photo itself can be included in the chip on the smartcard.
A NECESSARY SOLUTION
Visitor management is an area that more end-users are beginning to find necessary. However, visitor management systems are not the same as employee access systems. From a simplistic point of view, it may seem that visitor management and badging systems have a lot in common and are almost one and the same, because it seems all they do is produce a badge, but there’s a lot more to it. Visitors’ badges must be produced much more quickly than employee badges, sometimes within 15 to 30 seconds.
Visitor management
is more of a process management tool – it’s different from badging systems in
key areas: One is that the key value of visitor management is the information
it collects about the people, not just for a badge, but for all the information
you need to form a security perspective about a person coming in. These include
where the person is from, who is hosting him or her, whether they left on time
and will return, whether they are foreign visitors, and much more. There are a
lot of things you collect about visitors that go way beyond a typical badging
system. Not just the name tag but having information about visitors now is of
prime importance. The industry has been moving towards computerized or
software-driven visitor management solutions in which the software links into a
company’s access control systems, watch lists and other critical information.
End-users can create
their own watch list for internal use of disgruntled ex-employees or a spouse
that is having problems or link into government watch lists.
People want to be
able to identify if someone is a suspicious person or threat. Additionally,
businesses are beginning to link the visitor system to permanent employee
software systems to help manage all of their traffic better.
BADGING INVOLVED
Visitor management is a really hot topic. Whether you print a physical badge or not is a separate issue. Most large enterprises do print a badge because once they’ve collected the information, they want to visually identify customers and clearly differentiate them from employees.
One new generation
example is EasyLobby, which is an example of a software solution for electronic
visitor management. A suite of products provides complete, fast and secure
visitor registration and pre-registration, recordkeeping, reporting and
badging. Visitors and contractors electronically scan their ID (license, business
card, etc.), and all relevant information about them is automatically read and
captured in a secure database file, including their photo and/or signature, the
name of the person being visited, the reason for the visit, and their entry and
exit times. In twenty seconds or less, the person is professionally checked in
and a high quality visitor badge is printed.
The software module
approach links to numerous traditional electronic access control and security
management systems. At the same time, electronics access control systems offer
visitor management, too.
