By Joshua Cummings, VTI Security
Just as a homeowner wants to know who is coming into their home, private businesses also want to be able to track visitors and outside vendors.They want to know who is coming into the corporate office, when the person arrived, and where that person specifically went. Recent security concerns have thrust visitor management to the forefront with many recognizing its value as an important business and security tool to track and monitor visitor access.
The technology and cost behind visitor management systems has changed considerably in recent years, driving an increase in demand. Hosted visitor management systems, app-based solutions and tablet interfaces have all made visitor management accessible to a larger segment of the business population. Where visitor management was a common solution for companies with a large corporate office and hundreds of employees it is now increasingly important to companies with 50 or more employees.
This change has in part been helped by the introduction of hosted visitor management solutions, which reduces the cost by eliminating the need to maintain a private server and constant software updates. Another benefit of a hosted visitor management solution is that data can be accessed from most anywhere there is an Internet connection, enabling mobility for a check-in site if a company is hosting an event or needs another employee in the business to manage the visitor management function for the day.
While for some companies the desire to implement a visitor management system has been driven because it is good policy, a majority of businesses are required to implement a system because of regulatory compliance requirements. Critical infrastructure facilities governed by NERC, FERC and CIP compliance are just a few entities that need to closely monitor guests, what floor they visited and when they arrived and left.
As more hosted visitor management solutions are introduced to the market, the cost for visitor management systems will continue to decrease. Companies are genuinely interested in ensuring that their security plans not only include their employees and monitoring their access, but also their guests and outside vendors.