by John Hinde — It is critical for organisations occupying large buildings to be able to manage and restrict access.
But it is a Herculean task considering the number of tradesmen and visitors that can enter premises on legitimate business. The answer for most is an access control system — but the technology and the market are in perpetual change.
The Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires organisations to keep track of those on the premises.
But as Wayne Street, technical manager for ID Management says, security and presentation have joint roles to play: “Systems can check out who is entering premises and make sure that they have passes and possibly seek other documents that support their entry.”
Visitor management involves creating a deterrent effect; taking pictures and details of a person coming in adds this because he or she knows their details have been captured. Data processing can means items such as keys can be tracked.
Nigel Cogram, senior sales manager for Dot Origin, says a drop in the cost of visitor management systems means that organisations “can issue photo ID on a cheap medium so that everyone who works in a facility can quickly identify who the visitor is, and who should be escorting them.
“A number of organisations use companies such as Regus to provide offices, and the fact that hot-desking in those organisations allows home working means that the more flexible the office environment, the greater the likelihood of people not knowing others who work in the organisation.” A photo pass mitigates this issue.
But Julie Minn, business development manager for Identilam, says such systems are only needed by sites that need to manage security and evacuation processes.
Touch in
Technologies such as RFID and the internet have benefited visitor systems. There has been a clear move, says Minn, away from handwritten paper visitor badges to using photographic images to control access, distinguish visitors and track their movements — including entrances and exits.
Street admits the technology is not new, but RFID cards are replacing barcodes and magstripe to scan people in and out.
Cogram and Minn add biometric data to the mix. Says Cogram: “Some of the more interesting developments that have arisen have been those involving biometric data.”
Minn also says using intranet-based systems to arrange, accept and record visits allowing pre-production of a visitor’s badge for collection on arrival means that not only do staff on reception expect visitors — so do those being visited.
Two technologies to watch are facial recognition and near field communication (NFC).
“NFC is the technology that allows communication between things like smartphones and RFID cards. Most importantly, it’s what can be stored on the card and how it can be secured.”
NFC can also allow storage of security-checked information via a password. This might involve a pass that shows the person’s name but also contains secured emergency contact information.
Facial recognition technology could automate the entire process of checking a visitor in and out. For many organisations a pass would still be required but, as Street notes, by taking a high-res image of a face a company can check if the person has visited previously, print a photo pass and allow low-level access control.
“By tracking a face around the site we can know exactly where the visitor is — their face is a lot more important than a name and a lot harder to hide.”
Smart pass
Cogram thinks health and safety is a key driver for a smart pass system. “Businesses at all levels should be looking to control visitor movements so that everybody knows who is in building so that the organisation is aware of who needs to be evacuated in an emergency.” But he also believes that the system should know who is walking around a facility — and who should be escorting them.
The number of checks that need to be carried out (internal or by an external body), the number of entrances and the information gathered on each visitor (assigned parking, time slots, keys, access to certain parts of the building) also have a bearing on specifications.
Street also reckons that organisations should have backup plans. These might cover what to do in case of emergency and what to do with visitors if a system goes down (including camera and printer failures). And what form should a pass take — plastic, paper or pre-printed badges?
Integrate the pass system with anything else the organisation uses. Talk to system manufacturers to discuss other uses for a smart card. “In the case of access control most manufacturers have bolt-on packages to make visitor badges allow, say, pass-based access to Wi-Fi,” says Cogram.
There will always be debate about where smart cards should be used inof paper passes. This will depend on the functionality required, but Street thinks the clincher is whether there’s a security need for smart cards that are hard to replicate. Such systems, he says, are best suited to those organisations that have access control systems.
All in the detail
Organisations can add detail on fire and safety regulations and escape procedures on the back of the card. Indeed, Cogram notes that most systems allow users to define the card artwork as required, usually with a picture of the visitor followed by any number of fields that would probably include name of visitor, name of employee they are visiting and the date.
For the front of the card, Street suggests pre-printing things like the company logo. It’s also worth printing — and Street regards this as paramount — an expiry date to make it obvious when someone should (and shouldn’t) be on site. At the same time, other information such as area access permissions and whether someone should be escorted can be printed so that it’s obvious to all. “If done well,” says Cogram, “different designs and colours can also be implemented depending on the type of visitor; visitor, contractor or internal visitor.” Organisations can combine design and pass expiry to disable a card after a certain time.
The pitfalls
As with the deployment of any technology, it’s possible for organisations to overcook the specification. According to Cogram, firms usually start by looking at systems that are far too complicated to implement, with the result that staff do not use them. “A case in point being that taking a photograph and possibly biometric data takes time, and unless visitors are aware of this before arrival then meetings can be late to start.”
Another issue to consider is how a management system is to be used. Organisations invariably make the effort to ensure that visitors are signed in correctly, but not the same effort to make sure they are signed out.
Organisations need to understand when introducing a visitor management system what it is they are trying to achieve and who the likely visitors are. But thinking about the end user who will have to implement any visitor policy will also reap rewards.
John Hinde is a freelance writer specialising in workplace systems – See more at: http://www.fm-world.co.uk/features/feature-articles/who-goes-there/#sthash.1HumxM8I.dpuf