Visitor management software electronically monitors and records information about visitors and employees of a business, school, or public building. These tools help visitors check in and out after their visit.
As a part of the check-in process, an employee typically scans the visitor’s ID and issues a physical badge to approved visitors. Visitor information then gets stored in a database and can be accessed for various use cases, including audits, in the case of an emergency, or to check on anomalies. Hosts can often opt to receive notifications about visitors, such as when they arrive, when they leave, if they’ve completed screening, whether they’re on restricted visitor lists, and more.
The best visitor management tools help make facilities more secure and aid in maintaining compliance with internal and external requirements. They also make the visitor sign-in process more efficient, accurate, and consistent by documenting information about an on-site visitor’s time stamps and access type.
These platforms can be installed on a self-service kiosk, computer, mobile phone, or tablet. Administrators of the visitor management software are typically health and security professionals, HR professionals, front desk receptionists, and building security personnel.
Depending on the visitor management software, there are options for more specific functionalities that can be tailored to the business. For instance, visitor pre-registration to help with pre-screening, document signing, and training can be useful and help reduce bottlenecks for check-in. Certain visitor management solutions include the functionality to screen visitors against watch lists, which further increases building security and protects employees.
Certain visitor management tools can provide the ability to incorporate NDAs, document signing, training materials, videos, and safety checks into the sign-in process. This would be specifically helpful at manufacturing and industrial facilities, schools, legal offices, and other highly regulated industries. There can also be the ability to integrate multi-lingual support so any visitor speaking their native language can be assisted when checking into a building.
Visitor management software typically integrates with identity and access management (IAM) software to enhance security and ensure centralized physical access control and compliance for a company. If a company would like a scheduling system to go with their visitor check-in process, using online appointment scheduling software can help track arrivals based on appointment time. At times, it can be beneficial to have push notification software integrated into the visitor management system to notify guests directly of important information. Post COVID-19, there has also been a rise in integrations with vaccine tracking software to ensure safety in buildings.
To qualify for inclusion in the Visitor Management category, a product must:
- Deploy on either a personal computer (PC), tablet, mobile phone, or self-service kiosk
- Scan face or ID, store photos, and issue visitor badges
- Automate on-site verification and visitor check-in
- Provide real-time visibility into which visitors are on site
- Create databases with reports for company visitor information
