How to Implement an Enterprise Multi-Location Visitor Management System

In the fast-moving marketplace, every organization and a multi-location business owner is capable of understanding that no visitors in two different locations are alike. Hence, to competently handle the market chaos, one needs to design the visitor management system in a way that it can assist personnel on each location to successfully meet their unique needs such as check-in, branding, badging, and documentation.

Along with this the employee management system also has to be incorporated with the visitor management system to ace up the current market situations. The employee management system has to consist of crucial work-related and important personal information about an employee. In a nutshell, it is an online logbook of all employees of an organization.

Implementation of a multi-location VMS and employee management system

Any enterprise or a big scale business looking to set up a multi-location VMS and/or Employee Management System, it might seem to be a good idea to set the system at each location based on its unique requirements.

A more strategic approach towards implementation would be maximizing the value of VMS implementation located in multiple facilities, but coming under the same regional area.

Implementation of VMS requires a strategic approach to ensure optimum execution. If an enterprise has multiple facilities or sites within the same region, they are bound to create unique requirements, and the VMS implementation strategy put in place must take this into consideration as well.

1. Vendors, Employee, and Contractors Management

The main priority for enterprises nowadays is to find out the most suitable workflows that accommodate the different personas and responsibilities of the employees. Which particular employee would need access to a certain room or floor? Do you have any frequent contractor visits that travel between different locations? Can a contactless sign-in be considered for vendors and contractors? These questions are very important to figure out before you can proceed with the VMS implementation process.

Visitors can be provided with the option to pre-register before they actually come to the enterprise grounds. They can provide information during the pre-registration process that is deemed necessary by the enterprise, and this information will be recorded and uploaded in the VMS across the different locations, without any hassles.

2. Consistent management 

The different sites might have their own unique requirements for configuration. However, the branding of the VMS experience for the visitors and the sign-in experience should be consistent across every location. This becomes even more important for enterprises with different sites in the same region, and vendors, contractors, or visitors can visit these different sites regularly and would expect the same VMS user experience in every location. Hence, it is imperative that the themes of all the processes in VMS are consistent along with all the locations.

3. Requirements for Safety & Security 

There should be proper accountability for visitor management system implementation for the unique or customized security and safety requirements created by the proximity of locations. When there are multiple sites falling under close proximity or the same regions, the chances of risks spreading faster increase. Hence, it is important that the information required to mitigate these risks are shared faster. 

Watchlists can be properly utilized for mitigating or addressing this risk. Watchlists allow enterprises to thoroughly screen visitors against public databases of people who might have committed any crimes, and who shouldn’t be allowed entries to any of the sites.

Moreover, these watchlists are constantly updated and shared with the entire enterprise. So, employees at all the sites are able to identify any prohibited individuals or individuals who are blacklisted as soon as the watchlist has been updated with the key details of the individuals. If any of these prohibited people come to any site, the employees will have all the necessary information needed to take appropriate action and countermeasures to make sure that the people in the facility are safe and secure.

Another precautionary measure can be digital reception. Digital reception is the most effective method to reduce time consumption in the enterprises in the visitor management system. It captures all the required details about the visitors via digital check-in. It can then notify the concerned personnel instantly through an automated email or text, significantly reducing the time taken to attend to a visitor.

Also, Multi-location enterprises face a host of challenges when it comes to security at each site, including visitor management. 

Whether the cluster of facilities is scattered locally or internationally, an effective visitor management system that meets each location’s requirements is a must. 

What Should You Look For in Multi-Location VMS for Enterprises?

A single solution that is applicable for all locations

Multiple systems at all possible locations may increase the potential spending of enterprises on training employees and deployment, and can also need middleware to ensure that the data is organized for a holistic centralized reporting. One VMS for multi-locations should function uniformly and seamlessly at all the locations, at any time zone.

Deploying visitor management to multiple locations

When VMS is deployed in multiple locations, it is imperative that that enterprise update each of the sites uniformly and efficiently to make sure that their functions are consistent with all the locations. Especially in remote areas, it is important to ensure that any hardware vendor can seamlessly support all the equipment across multiple locations.

Employee Database compatible with multiple locations

The employee database must be updated and maintained across multiple locations. It is important that site administrators maintain and update the employee database regularly, which helps in enhancing the centralized method of control over the locations. This can be executed by either a single sign-in from administrators or through maintaining an active directory.