The Business of Knowing
New visitor management techniques unify disparate security systems
You’ve all seen that guy in the hallway: that unfamiliar face. “He must be the new guy.”
“He must be here for a meeting.” “Isn’t he Jane’s husband?” “He probably works for
facility management.”
In too many cases, employee simply do not know who or why that person is wandering
around the premises.
“High-security corporations providing services to the government, hospitals, nursing homes
and correctional facilities need to track who is on their premises. They need to see trends. They
need to know when an employee is terminated, who had been visiting that employee. Even
schools need to know who is coming and going and who, by court rule, is allowed contact with
the children and, most importantly, who isn’t,” said Bob Mann of SmartTech ID. “All too often,
we see those organizations still using log books, relying on pen and paper to account for their
visitor activities.”
The Log Book
For a long time, the log book at the reception desk has been the sole method of visitor tracking.
Visitors enter, sign in and proceed into the building. Sometimes the process is accompanied by an
identification check. The visitor may be issued a handwritten badge.
Although they are a low-cost solution requiring no configuration and minimal training, log
books have serious shortcomings. The most significant are the inability to deliver historical information
in a timely manner, enable a fast registration process, conduct thorough background checks
and cross reference across multiple locations. Additionally, hand-written name badges may easily
be transferred from one person to another.
It is frightening to know that even today the log book approach is often the sole source of visitor
management, even at many key defense contracting facilities.
Without the ability to produce reports or disseminate critical information instantaneously, the log
book leaves a corporation and its employees vulnerable. Imagine having to rely on a paper log book
to track employees and visitors in an emergency situation, when time is of the utmost importance.
The Rise of Visitor Management
In 1997, computer-based visitor systems emerged onto the market that effectively turned the log
book electronic. Moving from paper to digital format has eliminated many shortcomings.
Queries may be run to produce reports on visitors’ activity with faster results. ID scanners have
been employed to facilitate fast registration and verification. Watch lists are used to check visitors
against a list of known offenders and threats. Badging systems permit images to be posted
on name badges, preventing transferability. Networking has enabled multiple locations to share
information and provide organization-wide reporting.
This basic visitor methodology has been cloned many times over by various security product
organizations. The root of this fundamental design, however, remains the log book. That is, a
closed data system for registering people at entry—something not all that different from pen and
paper, though much more manageable.
Visitor management, for the most part, is yet another independent security system along with
CCTV, access control, photo ID and asset tracking. Do these types of independent systems make
sense? Looking at government intelligence prior to Sept. 11, 2001, customers saw dozens of
security agencies that were collecting data independently. The old adage “a lot of data, but no
information” certainly held true when it really mattered.
The disparate nature of corporate security systems leaves organizations with similar vulnerabilities.
If only they could share information.
Loss of Efficiency
These closed data systems do not only present problems for security. A key issue for many organizations
is maximizing efficiency. With the daily entry of full-time employees, contractors, temporary
employees and visitors, it is imperative that a company can not only badge and register each of these
groups quickly and in an organized manner, but also can retrieve information about them efficiently.
With isolated systems, however, this can
be a cumbersome process. Often, each
group’s information is kept in its own database,
but these systems do not allow access
to multiple databases simultaneously. In
order to access the information for each database,
they must be combined into a single
master database. This solution is a poor one,
leading to tedious management processes
and often the loss of relevant information.
By having an internal database that is tied
to the company databases, management
becomes complex and unreliable. These systems
require extensive field mapping, making
changes difficult and allowing many
opportunities for error. One glaring issue is
that an update may not properly translate to
all relevant databases. Errors like this are
easy to miss and can breed confusion and a
loss of productivity.
Furthermore, each group often has
unique requirements for information and
access points. In most programs, there may
be a few groups, but they are often locked in
format. This means that it is impossible or
extremely difficult to add fields relevant to
each organization and group.
Manufacturers decide and provide what
they feel is relevant based on their research.
In reality, each company is different in setup,
procedure, traffic flow and information needed.
Without knowledge of an organization’s
requirements, a platform without extensive
customization capability is insufficient.
The Next Giant Step
Now, 10 years since the inception of the visitor
management system, a new player has
emerged on the scene, taking another giant
step in perimeter security. Incorporating
integration into many data-existing information
systems simultaneously, Jolly
Technologies’ Lobby Track uses open-data
architecture that allows for rapid access to
multiple data systems at the click of a button.
“We realized that visitor security goes far
beyond those people that take the visitor
parking spots,” said Sandeep Jolly, president
of Jolly Technologies. “It needs to encompass
the cleaning crews, maintenance workers,
contractors, temporary employees and
many other people that traverse a facility on
a regular basis. It needs to incorporate their
existing information sources. It should
include equipment and packages. And, most
importantly, it needs to work in conjunction
with existing systems.
“We have taken a very broad view of the
visitor,” Jolly said. “It should even include
the employee in many environments. We’ve
created an architecture that permits multiple
live simultaneous data connections and augmented
it with data importing, data lookups,
directory lookups and free-form data layout
that allow for many disparate systems to be
united in some very effective ways with centralized
logs and reporting.”
By further encompassing secure photo
ID, live connectivity to access control systems,
time and attendance calculations, and
visitor management into a single product,
Lobby Track has moved visitor management
from a standalone component to a unifying
security system.
“We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg
as to what visitor management systems
can do,” Mann said. “Systems that include
time and attendance, package tracking,
photo ID production, equipment labeling
and tracking, trend analysis and centralized
data management go a long way
toward bridging the gap between where we
are now and where we
need to be.”