Visitor Management in Enterprise

Unlock the door to enhanced enterprise security and a seamless visitor experience as we sit down with expert Vanessa to dissect the evolution of visitor management systems. Prepare to have your perception of corporate lobbies transformed; we're not just talking about a sign-in sheet and a friendly nod from the receptionist anymore. In today's world, welcoming guests into your business space is an intricate ballet of technology, identity verification, and emergency readiness. Vanessa walks us through how modern solutions sculpt memorable first encounters that resonate with a company’s ethos while ticking the boxes for compliance and safety.
 
 We take you behind the scenes of a real emergency – a kitchen fire – to demonstrate the sophistication of systems that keep everyone accounted for and informed. It's a delicate act, balancing the need for stringent security measures without hampering the visitor’s ease. Plus, Vanessa sheds light on the nuanced world of access management, from the simplicity of logging a guest's entry to the complex webs of data for long-term workers. This episode peels back the layers of the tech that's quietly revolutionizing how we manage who walks through our doors and its necessity in industries where security is not just a concern but a mandate. Join us for an insightful conversation that promises to change how you think about the everyday act of saying, "Welcome to our office.

Transcript

Speaker 1
00:06
Powering trusted identities of the world's people, places and things. Every day, millions of people in more than 100 countries use our products and services to securely access physical and digital places. Over 2 billion things that need to be identified, verified and tracked are connected through HID Global's technology. 

Speaker 2
00:32
Hello again, everyone. We're back Got Darwin again. Hello, good to see you, my friend. 

00:38
And we have a new face, vanessa. Welcome to our little show here. We'll take about 20 minutes, like we have in the past. So today we're going to spend a little time on visitor management and the enterprise. Vanessa, you've been spending a lot of time on that lately, so I think it'll be a great topic to get us started and acquainted with this whole process. 

00:58
But first we'll just orient so that everyone is at least kind of understanding where we're coming from and where the focus will be. 

01:07
So visitor management as part of the broader physical identity and access management space, where you're really focused in on better controlling who has access to what places, for how long, who gave that person the access and maybe why that access was was granted. Today we're gonna spend our focus on the visitors, which is why that one is highlighted there and what is a visitor and and why some organizations start there, which really gets into the day's topic. So I think there's also an interesting dichotomy at play in the visitor management space right now, where we're seeing a few different diverging paths and kind of trajectories for how you can address visitor management based on the needs of a certain type of company. And then I think it's also important, just like when you're buying a house or a car or any of that kind of stuff, not only is it important to know what you do want, but sometimes it's more important to understand what something isn't, because it gives you a good kind of boundary box to put around it. 

02:12
So I think a few minutes on what isn't visitor management will be a good next topic and that'll lead us into some future ones. So, Vanessa, we'll start it off with you, High level. Why are you having conversations with organizations around visitor management? Or, to think of it maybe differently, why is that the problem they're looking to solve? Or what kind of problem is it they're looking to solve that visitor management is the tip of that iceberg is the tip of that iceberg. 

Speaker 3
02:47
Well, currently, right now. Um, not only are they looking to add a level of security, but just the overall experience with their visitors okay, that's interesting. 

Speaker 2
02:53
So when you say visitors go a step further, what do you mean by the experience there? Better doors? 

Speaker 3
03:01
I'm sorry better doors no, no, um I think it's everything from the check-in to the check-out. 

Speaker 4
03:13
Okay, yes, in many cases you have organizations that, as a visitor, that may be the first interaction with that company and you want to make sure that that experience is streamlined, that they're able to get a good first impression of the organization, because you know it could be investors, it could be potential employees, uh, contractors, uh business partners. You want to, you want them to on. You know it's part of your branding. You know getting that, that experience to that, to that visitor, you know, and that's even before we get into features like like security, uh and and compliance, or you know, say, for example, uh, for organizations that operate globally, uh, that might be, you know, required to. You know have things like kycC, or know your customer, or they might need to show a regulator that they are not engaging with folks that might be subject to sanctions. 

04:17
So you want to have to be able to collect information. Know who is on your premises, who's coming, who's going. Know who is on your premises, who's coming, who's going. Today, you know a reality of any business is that you are subject to corporate espionage to. You know situations where you know it can be you know somebody trying to access the premises for nefarious purposes. It could be also that you want to be able to know who's on site in case of an emergency. It'd be a natural disaster an earthquake in San Francisco, a hurricane in Florida, tornadoes in the mid part of the country and you want to be able to communicate with those folks that you don't normally have their contact information on how to communicate with them and know when they are here and if they are actually here. 

Speaker 3
05:10
Going back a little bit on first impressions. I think it's just setting that tone. I was just recently reading about first impressions and data says that we have seven seconds for you and your business to set that first critical, you know, first impression. So yeah, you know a lot of companies, a lot of clients that I'm speaking to, they just want to enhance and just up that next. You know, first impression, and again it's not just adding a security level, but again it's it's setting and it's, yes, it's just setting that tone for first impressions. 

Speaker 2
05:49
But I think that's a good kind of segue into the next topic, because Darwin rattled off a litany of things that are kind of put in this enterprise visitor management bucket. 

06:02
You know, it's kind of like the difference, darwin you and I've had this discussion on comparisons kind of in this space, but you know, it's kind of like the organization that needs to move from Excel is where they do their books, into whatever that next step is the Intuits and Sages and QuickBooks of the world. You know, taking that next step and putting in controls, automation, having a better process around things, and so I think that's a good kind of topic, vanessa, to explore, because it sounds like what you're talking about is customers wanting to move beyond what I'd call kind of a digital lobby, where they've got now a system in place just for, okay, vanessa is here, she's here to see Darwin, okay, there we go. That's kind of the extent of a lot of systems that are in place and then moving beyond that. Darwin, you rattled off a litany of things, so I think y'all are both kind of talking about that enterprise visitor management space. Is that fair? 

Speaker 4
07:07
Do you think you're talking about it from that, that kind of split? I I believe so. So when you, when you look at it, at visitor management it, you, you can operate within a spectrum. You know, uh, you have on one end the, the traditional, you know paper blog, where you know, you just sign in, uh, your name or petition name. There's no, there's no verification of the idea or nothing. I can say that I'm kaiser associate and sign my name, kaiser, so saying and you know, there's, there's no controls around it. 

07:34
But the other house at the spectrum, you, you want to know who's inside, because you want to be able to perform muster. You know, in case of emergency, you want to be able to demonstrate to a regulator that you're not meeting people that might be subject to sanctions or people that are meeting people that might be subject to sanctions or people that are related to companies that are subject to sanctions. So you have that spectrum where you have basically an environment with little to no controls to one that is a highly regulated environment that you need to be able to report that your controls are working, because it's not only about implementing the controls but also being capable of demonstrating that those controls are in place and that are working. You know, in case of an auditor or a regulator comes in to to check on it. 

Speaker 3
08:27
Yeah, when it comes to reporting, I you know I'm going to go back to just recent conversations I had a prospect that came to us because they were embracing the human touch of check-in, having somebody do the human interaction. But they had a very small kitchen fire in the building and there were no ways for them. Literal kitchen fire. Yeah, like a cafeteria, yes. 

Speaker 2
08:51
Okay, okay. 

Speaker 3
08:53
And they didn't have a system as to one alert individuals that were in the building and two report who actually was in the building and who left the building. So when they came to us, they came to realize that they needed something that was just more scale-debt. Yeah sure, and it just really opened up their eyes. That's a great thing. 

09:16
Yeah, keep going, I was going to say you know, when I was talking to the prospect, I was letting him know you're not going to lose that human interaction, because this here is just adding again that layer of experience and security and you can still have somebody there greeting your guests, your visitors, I mean I was going to say that you know you touched on a very important part where the, the solution itself is, is not not only the, the, the software. 

Speaker 4
09:47
It can be seen as a force multiplier because when you know who's coming, who's going, who's in, you can better prepare. And if you know that you're expecting a large group at 3 pm, you can, you know, do a combination of technology where you can have kiosks and just have, you know, whatever limited staff that you have assisting those, those, those visitors, with their, with their checking process. That you know you can. You know have their multiple, you know you can have, whereas a one person can be a one-to-one relationship for a check-in, you can have one person manning five kiosks and just, you know, making sure that, okay, there's a printer jam or there's anything else, and you know, using using technology, technology to remove the friction out of the talking process through things like pre-registration or, you know, hosting a visit, can go a long way. You know, going back to those first impressions that we were before and to, you know, have repeatable and efficient processes. 

Speaker 2
10:50
Yeah, that pre-registration I was I was actually going to touch on that one because I think that's an important one to what you're touching on, vanessa, about experiences. You can keep that elevated security but reduce some of the levels of friction that an individual is going to have when they enter the premises, which, again, darwin, a topic you and I've discussed from when we were in selling authentication like friction is the enemy in most cases for security. You do need a little because you actually you need a little because then it helps people know that there is that security there, but you can't have so much that they want to subvert it. And so I think the registration and pre-registration is good because you can also take care of some of that paperwork oh, ndas, health questionnaires, anything like that. That can help facilitate an expedited check-in. I think is really important. 

11:38
Watch lists, I think, are another one worth touching on, though, because you've talked about sanctions, some Darwin and Vanessa, I know where you are you probably have some interesting multinationals that are wanting to ensure they don't run a foul of any sort of do not do business with person A or entity A type list. But then there's also that internal watch list that we could facilitate and bring on. So Vanessa is in the building. Vanessa is a member of the board. We need to make sure that she's ushered to this room and has someone walking with her the whole way. That way she has the proper experience as an important person or something like that. So I think watch lists are an interesting one. They can help from compliance, help from security, but they do help with that experience. I don't know if you've got thoughts on that, vanessa, from what you've seen and talked to. 

Speaker 3
12:38
Yeah, I love to use an experience, you know, or examples from our prospects. But with one of my clients, you know, they were able to usher somebody through their lobby because again it was a high-profile political individual that came to visit and because in previous years they had an incident where that whole pre-registration or the watchlist wasn't there, everything was delayed, the lobby had to get locked down because again, that system wasn't in place. Years after you know they, they spoke to us. They had a system through hid. They had that same experience and it was just night and day it's a very important person. 

Speaker 2
13:24
If you're locking down lobby's form, my goodness, yes, okay, well, very cool. Um, any other topics that have come out when you've been talking with customers that are similar to this, it's something that's more than just a logbook digital logbook, physical logbook, whether it's this or Excel, any other features, functions, things that have been needed, that have risen as kind of consistent for you. 

Speaker 3
13:56
You know, even though we're I would say we're sort of post-COVID. I think the screening of questions has been another thing that they still love to have as a feature that it's still there as a safety net Because, again, you know there's seasons where you know COVID counts goes up, they wanna know who's in the building, and all that. So it's nice to know that I mean, that's been another topic as well. They love having that as a safety net there. 

Speaker 2
14:23
Yeah, that makes total sense. And yes, personally I can tell you COVID has not left the building entirely yet, right? So yeah, exactly, it's nice to have some of that flexibility and then flag it off and on if you need it as things change, seasons change. You're in California. You might have some different rules put in place than Darwin in Florida or Matthew in Texas, not to give too much information about where we all live. But so I think that flexibility is good, especially for a larger organization that may need kind of different things at different locations. So cool. Well, any other thing about that split, things that really elevate the experience, things that lend towards highly scaled organizations, anything else top of mind for either of you, otherwise we can maybe flip into what's not visitor management. 

Speaker 4
15:19
So I think we touched on the high points. It's just like user experience, compliance, security and removing that friction from the user experience and knowing who you have on premise at any given time uh, that it's actionable data. Actionable data because you know before you know. Talking back, back and back to that spectrum, that paper there there's, you know it's, it's static, it's not a dynamic data source that you can leverage to know who's in and who's out on a readily available basis, where you can leverage that data to not only to keep track of who's coming and going but also to help you in case of a natural emergency or any other type of those types of situations. 

Speaker 2
16:15
Yeah, and something you were just saying made me also think about generally for visitor management, the purpose is not necessarily access management. Being able to integrate into those systems and have it flag off access at the end of a day or the end of a week, as is related to a visit. I think is also important because for Vanessa back to one of your points around the elevation of security being able to be confident that I have given Vanessa a temporary badge, that badge will turn off, that I have given Vanessa a temporary badge, that badge will turn off, it's not reliant on Darwin to go in and hit the button revoke access or something like that. So that combination of rules that facilitate certain automated flows and granularity or flexibility, I guess in granting access, I think is also an important kind of just shout out that we really hadn't touched on yet. Now, with that, let's flip over to the knots, and this one we can keep kind of brief because I think it starts to get into other topics that we'll want to explore a little more. 

17:26
There is that again, pim is a spectrum of solutions that are meant to facilitate access for individuals. The facilities or the individuals we're talking about now are generally visitors. Temporary access. Short term might be a long term relationship, but the access, the need for access, is generally short. I'm here to visit Vanessa for lunch. I'm here to have a meeting. I'm here for one week for the purposes of auditing Darwin Inc. Not that you need it, darwin, but you know. So that spectrum, I think, is also important to understand where the boundaries are, and there's a little bit of give there, as all things are. But what are some of the things, darwin, that come to mind when you're thinking of what takes me beyond visitor management? 

Speaker 4
18:11
So I think that in that case, it might be time for a little bit of show and tell. 

Speaker 2
18:20
Oh do show. 

Speaker 4
18:22
When you're talking about the visitor versus an identity, you can argue that both are identities. But, however, the scope of the information that you require to capture on each identity is going to vary because you know let's take, for example, on the right hand side I have a visitor information and for a visitor, you know it could be, you know just something simple. You know a visitor type first name, last name, company, some type of identification number with what type of id they have. You know driver's license, and I captured them and any acknowledgements that they, they, they needed to give their consent. You know, and that could be the form of a non-disclosure agreement. Or you know one that has become popular lately has been some organizations where you have a release where you're saying you know, when you access the premises, you agree that your likeness, your image, might be captured and used in future marketing materials. So that type of release is there. 

19:37
In the case of an identity, in the physical identity and access management sense which we have here on the left hand side, you see the plethora of information that can get captured. Remember that we're looking at an identity, we're looking at identity, we're looking at a long-term relationship. So it is the, the. The threshold is the amount of information that you need to collect and maintain on that individual and the length of the relationship with that individual. Because if you have somebody that is coming for two, three hours, you know single day and they're not, you know there's no point on capturing passport, driver's license, trainings, acknowledgments, blah documentation that you know it makes absolutely no sense for somebody that's going to be here for an hour, two hours, three hours. So that's where you know you have him to say that you have just the minimum information to identify who the visitor is and keep track of when they are on site. 

20:32
In the case of the identity and access management, that identity, you have a hired to retire person that is going to be either a contractor or an employee and you want to maintain that information. You know their training, their acknowledgements, their documentation so that you can use that identity and as that person's role within the organization evolves, you can use those roles to automatically assign or you know their provision any access that they might need to do their job. Again, not only improving the user experience on the visitor side, but also now to your employees, to your contractors, that they don't have to go through the motions of like hey, on first day the door isn't opening for me, you can. You know, as the person's role changes, their access can be changed automatically using the solution as a force multiplier change automatically using the solution as a force multiplier. 

Speaker 2
21:33
That's a really good visual, I think. Darwin, to just see the depth, because I'm seeing biometrics, security checks, aliases, contracts, special actions, what else is down low? I think you scrolled the other day and there was other stuff Training cards, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of stuff Assets. Assets is a really interesting one, but different topic. We'll go into that another time. So I think that's a really helpful visual because it shows someone could be a visitor for all intents and purposes. But if you need to track, does Darwin have this training, this training, this insurance, this thing, this thing, this thing to be able to even walk around the premises? Are they a visitor or are they something more? 

Speaker 4
22:16
Exactly, and we have customers that they're in very specialized industries where they have a lot of security requirements, so the traditional visitor paradigm doesn't really apply to them, because they have to go beyond and got your training information and you have a longer-term relationship. Then you pass the threshold from visitor management into true need for physical identity and access management. 

Speaker 2
23:06
And one thing before we start to wrap because I think we're at a kind of a good spot for me to ask Vanessa her parting thoughts I think one thing you touched on there that's really important to always remember in this sales, whoever we're talking to, there's a set of business objectives and there is the reality of the business itself and what it operates in that need to be factored into this whole thing. Because that's what let me get on my soapbox here as the product marketing person, like that's what we're here to do. We're here to facilitate a solution to a set of business challenges and they need to be business challenges, not the challenge Darwin has not the challenge that one group has one time a year that takes five minutes to solve. These need to be pervasive and persistent things. So I think that last call out is really important, Darwin, about the space that person may operate in and the problems. 

23:57
So, Vanessa, I appreciate your first baptism by fire here. It was fun, as this always is, with my co-pilot, Darwin. It's a little chillier here, so I'm wearing the fleece today and not the, not the polo. So any final thoughts? Tell us what, tell us what you want to tell us or anything. 

Speaker 3
24:17
Yeah, no, um, like I said, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm based here out of southern california and, uh, please, you know, reach out, um, my information will be there in you know, down below you know, regarding but yes, no, I'm here to click on yes, no, no, I'm here to answer any questions. Love to do an assessment, just really would love to just compare apples to apples. You really don't know what you have until you actually sit down with an expert to know what you truly have and not have. Sometimes you may be surprised what you're missing. 

Speaker 2
24:56
That's a good point. That's a good point, and I think just rewind it and listen to it all again and you'll hear everything that Vanessa is talking about that you might be missing. So cool, all right. Well, vanessa, thank you very much. This might be our last one for the year, so, depending on what order you're watching this in, make sure you watch the other ones, listen to the other ones, and I appreciate both your time, darwin. Stay warm down there in sunny Florida. 

Speaker 4
25:23
Vanessa, thank you so? Much. Thank you so much. See everyone next time. Thank you you.