Challenge:
Six leading multi-national corporations – all of whom are in the fortune 500 list – occupy an impressive multi occupancy office complex in Ireland. There are, on an average, 250 visitors each day, to meet hundreds of hosts, seated at different locations in the vast office complex. There is a single receptionist and a pile of paper log books for visitors to sign in.
Suffice to say that it was a pandemonium during rush hours for visitors to sign in the paper log books and the receptionist to make phone calls to get in touch with their hosts. More often than not, the receptionist struggled to get hold of hosts through intercom when they were away from their desks. And the queue kept piling. At times, the visitors spilled out of the main doors forming a queue outside the entrance. The visitors and the receptionist had a relatively poor experience – with one trying to get in as fast as possible and the other pacifying them to cope with the status quo.
Furthermore there was a bigger issue at stake: Security Manager and the Facilities Manager couldn’t foresee spikes in visitor numbers and didn’t have a clue as to who was visiting whom. There were no reports to see how many visitors had visited in a day or week, nor were they able to figure out how many visitors still remained in the building after office hours or during emergency evacuations. Things, as the client put it, was getting slightly out of hands.
Solution:
One of the companies in the office complex contacted FRS Labs and after a brief discussion agreed to install Vistas – Visitor Access System which replaced the six paper entry booklets with a single self-service visitor sign in screen. The software installation and the integration was done is a couple of days and the entire reception was transformed in a week – completely paperless.
Vistas is powerful yet remarkably simple to use: when the visitors arrive, they simply type (or tap) the company and the host they want to visit and put in their details and tap done. The system prints a pass and sends an SMS and email alert to the host instantly, allowing the receptionist to do what they do best – welcome their guests.
The check in and check out – with just a barcode scan – is effortless for the receptionist and the security guards (during and after office hours round the clock). The system provides complete control of all the visitors and the access cards they receive. Every evening the security manager runs reports on all cards issued which were not returned and blocks them. The security manager can also control who can receive guests to further secure the facilities. Visitors can also be booked in advance with just a simple excel upload and the passes can be picked up by the visitors upon their arrival.
Results:
In less than a year, there has been over 70,000 visitors signed into the modern office complex using Vistas – Visitor Access System and it has been running all day long and all year round without a glitch. The cost saving was simply obvious but the solution went beyond just saving costs. It provided a great experience to the visitors, the receptionist and the security team.
The solution was such a success that the same was installed at another site belonging to the same client. The system continues to provide a great visitor experience and a greater building security.
Note: The customer details are protected for confidentiality. However, if you would like to hear straight from our customers, please drop us a line and we would be delighted to put you in touch with them.
