Page 74 - Security Today, September/October 2023

COVER STORY VISITOR MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATIONS ARE PRODUCING EFFECTIVE RESULTS IN VISITOR MANAGEMENT A GOOD VISITOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM PROTECTS CAMPUSES FROM UNWANTED VISITORS WHILE ALSO WELCOMING INVITED GUESTS AS SEAMLESSLY AS POSSIBLE AUTHOR JOSH GERENA IS THE SEGMENT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER OF MULTI-DWELLING UNITS AT AXIS COMMUNICATIONS IMAGE SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/PIXINOO A visitor management system can help your corporate, unique needs of campuses. educational, or municipal campus in many ways beyond the obvious ones. Not only can a visitor management system heighten security and safety—mainly by vetting visitors before they’re permitted to enter a facility—it also can help campuses be compliant with occupancy levels dictated by fire codes and other regulations. A visitor man- agement system will improve the experience of those who visit your campus by simplifying the flow of registration and connect- ing visitors with an on-site host. There isn’t just one way for campuses to do visitor manage- ment. Registering people who arrive and move throughout your campus can be handled by dedicated visitor management soft- ware, by an access control system with a visitor management component, or even by a video intercom system. Because IP- based solutions make interoperability between technologies straightforward, it is becoming commonplace for these and other systems to be integrated. Integrated technologies provide more extensive se- curity and safety features and meet the Visitor management is often performed as a function of elec- tronic access control, because these systems’ strength is in restrict- ing access to everything from a small IT closet to an entire building. Visitors can be issued credentials in the form of PINs, traditional access cards, or even QR Codes that can be read by surveillance cameras or video intercoms that are equipped with QR Code readers. The system can generate a unique QR Code for any visitor, which sets the time period of their access and authorization level for specific doors. The code can be emailed to the visitor and, upon arrival, presented to the camera or intercom. If the credential is recognized, the data is then transmitted to a door controller to grant access. Not every access control system offers visitor management features, however. In some cases, dedicated visitor management software may be a more viable solution if it offers deeper registra- tion or other features not offered by access control. For example, the software may allow visitors at a corporate campus to sign a waiver or a non-disclosure agreement using an e-signature. Dedicated visitor management software also may allow the user to connect to a database of unauthorized individuals. It is becoming increasingly common, especially at schools and businesses, to integrate with a public or private database 14