Vox has launched a modular, cloud-based visitor management solution aimed at providing business and other organisations with a way to not only accurately keep track of people and vehicles entering their premises, but manage the collected information in a way that complies with upcoming privacy regulation.

“Vox Visitor Management provides customers with an electronic way to invite and track visitor movements into high traffic areas including business parks and large residential estates,” says Rudi Potgieter, senior product manager at Vox. “It sits within our Guardian Eye stable, and forms part of our drive to take technical complexity away from customer premises so that they can better focus on their core business.”

As a hosted service, there is minimal hardware or date stored onsite. The often tried and tested visitor log book with tear away slips at access control points are not compliant with the Protection of Personal Information (PoPI) Act, and migrating to a digital system will help customers in their efforts to become compliant before the regulation is enforced.

“We are going to market with a competitive subscription-based service; there is a hardware rental fee for the handheld devices and a license fee that depends on whether the customer selects the “Visitor Management” and “Visitor Management Pro” version,” says Potgieter. “There are additional modules, such as SMS notifications, long-term information storage (beyond the two month standard), and more depending on customer requirements that can be added on.”

Enhancing safety and security

Guards at access control points are equipped with rugged terminals, which can be configured to enable closed user group VoIP calls and GSM-based failover service.

“Depending on the customers requirements, we can extend the offering to add in WiFi connectivity at the guardhouse and SIM cards for the devices,” adds Potgieter.

Having access to real-time information about the number of people are on the premises is especially helpful in adhering with Safety, Health, Environment and Quality guidelines; if there is need to carry out an evacuation, the responsible stakeholders can accurately ensure that everyone is accounted for.

A further safety benefit is that Visitor Management is linked to the SA Police’s Unicode database, which means that guards can be alerted to vehicles that are identified as having been involved in the commission of a crime.

Comprehensive visitor management

The Visitor Management provides the user with just a digital logbook, giving them a regulatory compliant way to keeping track of people and vehicles entering and exiting their premises, while the Visitor Management Pro provides a comprehensive offering to larger customers that need additional requirements taken into account, including workflows and notifications.

Through a web-based portal, users of the advanced version can invite visitors, with emails being automatically sent to the recipient. Apart from a computer-generated PIN or QR Code that will be used to gain entry, emails can be customised to include a calendar invite attachment, maps and directions, and more. Hosts can be notified via email or SMS when their guests arrive and leave the premises.

The amount of information needed – beyond just the license and registration disc – can also be set depending on the customers business requirements, and the visitor management system can be hardwired into a gate, such as Gate Guard, in which case the gate or boom will not open unless all the required data has been captured.

Depending on the customers standard operating procedure, additional parameters can be set, including how often a vehicle can enter and exit, or how long it can stay on the premises. If these are exceeded a notification is sent to the relevant persons, and it will then depend on whether the guard is authorised to make a decision, or if he/she has to alert their supervisor to the situation.

“From a security perspective, there is no single solution that can act as a silver bullet; everything we do in our Guardian range is built to be modular, with each added layer further improving security. While our products are interoperable – be it visitor management, automatic number plate recognition or surveillance – the benefit of choosing Vox across the stack means that customers have a more holistic approach to security and a single point of accountability,” concludes Potgieter.