Knowing who is on your campus or in your facilities, for how long, and when they leave is critical to the security and safety of personnel and visitors. For that reason, many organizations have implemented visitor management systems.

While some businesses, schools, healthcare facilities and others still use a paper logbook to sign in visitors, these raise concerns with privacy, security, legibility and accuracy. Others have migrated to networked visitor management systems – but these still have a number of shortfalls.

Increasingly, organizations of all kinds are discovering the benefits of cloud-based visitor management systems. Here are 10 reasons why your visitor management system needs to be cloud-based.

1. Faster to Deploy. Setting up a cloud-based visitor management system is fast and easy, with no dedicated server to configure. Integrating new or existing systems no longer takes weeks of work, and implementation often is done within hours or days instead, saving you time and money.

2. Lower Costs. Organizations, no matter their size or type, can save substantially on infrastructure costs with a cloud-based system. Eliminating dedicated servers and system-specific hardware, cabling etc. reduces capital expenditures. Instead, costs fall into the category of operating expenses.

3. No Need for New Hardware. With a cloud-based visitor management system, there is no need to install hardware that can take up valuable space and time. What’s more, cloud-based systems typically run in a browser window, meaning that your existing user machines can be utilized, regardless of whether they’re Macs or PCs.

4. No Maintenance. Because you are using your existing hardware, the cloud-based visitor management system does not require its own on-site maintenance.

5. Faster Easier Software and System Updates. Software updates to your visitor management system are scheduled and implemented seamlessly, in advance by the software application provider, freeing up your internal resources. Those updates will also take care of backup, recovery and data redundancy. New features, updates, and patches are automatically applied to the software you have licensed so for web-based applications (i.e., those used on Mac or PCs) there are no downloads on your part. Mobile apps can require a new download from the Apple® App Store™ and/or from the Google® Play Store™.

6. Increased Data Security. A cloud-based visitor management provider will store data securely off-site with numerous backups to ensure that sensitive third-party information is securely stored and remains confidential. Settings can be configured to ensure that only authorized personnel are granted access to visitor data, which can further limit the possibility of a breach.

7. Near Real-Time Watch List Information. While many visitor management systems offer watch list integration with visitor entry screening to ensure visitors are not on sex offender or other threat-related watch lists, a cloud-based system always has the most up-to-date information. In a cloud-based system, there is no need to continually update lists on a local server and/or on several local servers across multiple locations. Actually, a cloud-based visitor management system offers amazing time-saving and security benefits for multi-location facilities, because they are able to enter a watch list entry just once and deploy it across all locations, in near-real time.

8. Faster Communication with Law Enforcement, First Responders, and Staff. If a dangerous visitor enters your facility and tries to gain access, a cloud-based system can immediately send alerts via text (SMS), email, mobile push notifications, and web-based push notifications to a specified list of recipients, such as first responders or security personnel. This can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to act on a situation. It can also keep the rest of your staff safe until help arrives.

9. Access Data from Anywhere. The data entered into a cloud-based visitor management system can be integrated and accessed anywhere, and on all types of devices such as laptops, computers, tablets and mobile phones.

10. Integration with other Security-related systems. A cloud-based system can typically integrate with other technology-based systems very quickly and easily through APIs or SDKs. For example, facial-recognition cameras, door-locking systems, access control systems, sirens, signage, etc. can be integrated with cloud-based visitor management systems whereas older, server-based systems are arduous or impossible to integrate.

The recognition of the need to keep your staff, students, contractors and visitors safe from harm is greater than ever before. By choosing to deploy a cloud-based visitor management system, you are taking a significant step in saving time and resources, creating significant integrations, increasing response time, and increasing safety and your own peace of mind.

Learn more about the SILVERSHIELD Visitor Management System.

Robin Baker

Robin Baker oversees the design and development of SilverShield, a cloud-based Visitor & Emergency Management System, and was also instrumental in ARMS, an anti-piracy security application for the safety of ships and crews at sea. In addition, Robin was also the founder of Learning Today, now known as iReady. Robin works with Schools, as well as Security and Software Development Teams internationally to improve the safety and security of schools today. American Heritage School of Plantation and Boca/Delray has adopted SilverShield and can speak about its effectiveness on their campus as well.