Visitor Registration

One of the oldest and most practiced methods of office security is visitor registration. Registering and tracking visitors – whether it’s at an office or in a sensitive environment like a hospital or government building – is an easy and effective way of controlling an environment and ensuring that sensitive information and items remain undisturbed. Visitor registration can be a casual or extremely secure and regulated process: it all depends on the individual or business’ security needs. Here are some of the most popular methods of visitor registration:

• Visitor Logs – Paper or electronic databases which record the visitors as they enter and leave a building. With paper logs, visitors commonly jot their name down and the time they entered and left the building. With electronic logs, a guard most likely does the entering. A security guard is usually present to monitor the visitor log whether it is on paper or on the computer. Some logs, or offices with more demanding security needs, may require that a visitor present identification in order to enter and be recorded in the visitor’s log. Paper visitor logs are one of the oldest forms of visitor registration, and one of the easiest ways to keep track of the people who enter and exit your building. As easy as visitor logs are, their efficacy is minimal. Visitor logs can only capture visitors who are willing to write their names down. While a security guard can demand that visitors provide their information and prevent people who fail to sign the log from entering the main area of the office or building, but during busy times it’s inevitable that someone will slip through, intentional or not.
• Badges – Visitor badges are a popular method of visitor registration for businesses and organizations which have visitors that interact with employees and staff, like parent volunteers at a school. Most of the time, visitor badges are unofficial and casual, with “VISITOR” printed on the front. Volunteers and guests for the business or organization sign in when they enter, and are given a visitor badge to identify them while they are visiting the business. This kind of badge is helpful for visitors like volunteers, consultants or substitute teachers, who have to deal with students and employees. Frequent visitors like consultants, repeat volunteers, and substitute teachers may be given more permanent visitor badges that look like ID cards. This type of visitor registration is more professional than a paper badge, and makes it easy for the visitor to sign in and out more quickly.
• Access Control Software – The newest and most advanced form of visitor registration, access control software uses electronics and technology like bar codes and magnetic stripes to regulate movement of visitors throughout a building. Part of a larger ID card system, access control software allows a security guard to create a photo ID with access privileges, print an ID and give to a guest. Visitor cards with advanced security features like barcodes and magnetic stripes can provide stricter access control and higher security than paper badges or visitor logs. An encoded card can also physically prevent visitors from trespassing into sensitive areas (such as vaults or file rooms) when visitor passes are integrated into a larger ID and access control system. Integrating a visitor registration system into an existing ID card system is easy, especially if your business or organization already has access control systems in place.

Visitor Registration Software

For businesses that utilize access control software for visitor registration, there are several types of visitor registration software to consider when installing a visitor registration system. Most access control applications accomodate visitor registration under their umbrella of features - often allowing you to incorporate different types of visitor registration and access control without having to purchase new software licenses.

Access control for visitor registration software isn't always necessary, however. Maybe you want to print professional looking ID cards for visitors to cast a favorable impression without necessarily wanting to implement a complicated access control system. ID card software for producing employee IDs or other office or organization-related identification can also produce professional looking visitor ID cards without access control or tracking features.

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