Why integrate Visitor Management and Physical Access Control Systems?

For many organizations, their first Visitor Management System was purchased as a replacement for a paper visitor logbook which had failed to meet compliance requirements. As the volume of visitors, contractors and vendors increase small scale solutions often struggle to meet expanding safety, security and compliance requirements. Many companies at this point start to examine Enterprise Visitor Management Systems.

An Enterprise Visitor Management solution will have the functionality to manage different visitor types and integrate into the physical access control system, limiting visitor access to approved areas and specifically managing compliance requirements.

In this article, we will unpack the benefits of integrating Visitor Management and Physical Access Control Systems.

Understanding Visitor Compliance

Visitor access management has come under increasing scrutiny across a number of regulatory standards. It will come as no surprise that many organizations are subject to an array of compliance standards each with a different take on visitor access.

Here is a great example. ISO 27001 requires that visitors are logged in, that copies of visitor check-in/out is maintained for audit purposes and that visitors are routinely escorted. PCI DSS has a vastly greater set of requirements across visitor identification, registration procedures, data collection and retention, tracking of movement and prevention of restricted access.

In this example, the organization may not need to integrate the Visitor Management and Physical Access Control Systems to meet ISO 27001, but it will meet PCI DSS requirements.

The Benefits of Integrating Visitor Management and Physical Access Control Systems

Enterprise Visitor Management solutions can be used to initiate, approve, record and update visitor, contractor, vendor, VIP and employee profiles and their related physical access permissions. The benefits of an Enterprise Visitor Management integration with the Access Control System include:

• Enhanced Access Management – the integration will ensure physical access is appropriate for visitor type, the purpose and duration of the visit.

• Safety and Health — the integration will ensure that access is only granted to visitors who are trained for the area, compliant with the regulations and meet the safety and health requirements.

• Compliance Outcomes — the integration enables the enforcement of stringent visitor identity and access compliance obligations across multiple standards and visitor tracking throughout facilities.

• Security Management — the integration prevents access to secure areas and ensures escort policies can be enforced.

• Emergency Response — the integration improves evacuation management and emergency response, with accurate reporting of every category of person on-site and their location.

• Reporting and Analytics — with a complete data set, Security and Facilities can now leverage enhanced reporting and analytics, for use across audit and compliance, service and resource planning, business case and budgeting development.

• Badge Management — the integration will enable security to review visitor access cards, their permissions and revoke lost cards.

• Identity Governance — it becomes possible for security to assess and audit access compliance, access control processes and high-risk areas or people.

The integration with the access control system ensures that every visitor has safe, secure and compliant access appropriate to their visit. This in turn improves resource productivity, lowers cost and improves security and compliance outcomes.

If you would like to know more about RightCrowd Access Control integrations, please contact us.