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British Security Industry Association VISITOR MANAGEMENT IN FOCUS
Alex Carmichael, Technical and Membership Services Director, British Security Industry Association, reminds us that security in the post-9/11 world should be as focused on the ‘front door’ as on the ‘back’.
In terms of building and estate management, one of the key issues that must be addressed centres around the question of how to adequately control access but without impeding the legitimate progress of those entitled to be on-site. For in the post-9/11 and 7/7 commercial environment, security has risen up the priority list alongside a number of other serious risks and legislative-related concerns.
Most businesses' risk assessments understandably focuses on the ‘back door’ menace posed by arsonists, thieves, intruders, vandals, opportunist attacks and ‘professional’ criminals. However, there remains one area that may be neglected with potentially harmful or even catastrophic results — your business' 'front door'.
Do you believe you really know who can gain access to your facility through the ‘front door’? Moreover, in precise numbers, are you aware of who has been in and out over particular time periods such as during the last week, month or year? Why were these people visiting in the first place and on how many occasions have they returned? This type of question may seem pointed and unrealistic, but closer analysis reveals that if this level of information is not available then measures currently employed for handling visitors are likely to require reappraisal.
Put simply, appropriate access control covering visitor movements is needed to safeguard a number of vital elements, beginning with the protection of employed staff. Secondly, the fabric of the on-site buildings and facilities needs to be secured, as well as the valuable stock and often commercially sensitive assets that it houses. Traditionally, a range of measures are deployed to meet these challenges involving, for example, surveillance cameras working alongside physical security such as door and window locks. Electronic security may also include entry systems involving swipe cards or proximity-controlled entry through turnstiles, swing gates and access doors. Intruder alarms are additionally used to provide warning of unauthorised access attempts when pre-defined areas are closed down overnight, during weekends and other out-of-hours periods.
Visitor ID starting points
The sheer scale of quality visitor-management system choices may seem overwhelming. To help make a decision on what you require, let’s start by looking at the type of visitors any site may need to deal with, depending on its scale and nature of business. To define who a visitor actually is, we’re talking about more than simply someone arriving for a meeting with a staff member. Visitors also include contractors and maintenance crews, delivery drivers and equipment suppliers, who may all need to report to a separate entrance with different arrangements to that of the main reception area. Here, other types of visitor need to be processed, such as company clients, temporary staff, employees arriving from other sites within an organisation, sales reps and service crews arriving to repair equipment such as photocopiers.
Ultimately, whatever the type of visitor, it’s important to use established and uniformly applied procedures to greet them, obtain, log and validate their details, track their movements during their time on-site and then ensure their exit is also properly logged on the system. A visitor management system (VMS) is needed in the modern commercial environment to ensure compliance with public liability insurance arrangements and to help each site meet health and safety requirements.
Indeed, the increasing popularity of VMS in the UK is partly attributable to health and safety laws and their imposition of a common ‘duty of care’ principle towards each type of visitor — whether invited or not. The penalties can involve a civil claim under the Occupiers’ Liability Act if a visitor can prove that a breach of this principle occurred with resulting injury and/or damage. Meanwhile, a criminal prosecution involving possible fines or a custodial sentence could result from non-compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act or Management of Health and Safety Regulations. As an example of the requirements, every organisation employing more than five people must carry out a formal risk assessment and record its findings.
Looking at this in a positive way, a risk assessment is a sensible procedure before specifying any security system. For example, it may show that a smaller site is best suited to use of a relatively straightforward paper-based or manual VMS. This type of entry-level system — replacing often ineffective signing-in books previously used to record site visits — would include the issuing of temporary passes or badges. That alone indicates to any visitor that site managers take their responsibilities seriously, while enabling staff to more easily recognise a visitor. Besides improving security, the assistance shown to visitors can also prove an asset in terms of public relations and client management.
Scaled-up systems
These simpler paper-based visitor management systems are clearly cost-effective for organisations that have comparatively low numbers of visitors. But they cannot be interfaced with the other security systems used on-site or indeed with the IT infrastructure, which in turn means they cannot contribute towards a holistic, integrated approach to site-wide protection.
Therefore, the solutions available to larger businesses and organisations are more likely to come from more sophisticated electronic or computerised VMS. The advantages, features and added-value benefits offered by electronic visitor management have led to this becoming one of the fastest growing areas of the security market, with ease-of-use and staff interaction with the system helping to fuel this popularity. For instance, employees can email the reception desk with their visitors’ details instead of having to physically move from their desk.
This operational versatility extends to booking appointments and reserving meeting rooms plus relevant audio/visual equipment such as screen projectors. By making VMS user-friendly and practically helpful in a variety of ways, staff will ‘buy in’ to the system, thereby improving its overall effectiveness. Efficiency gains can also be realised through a speedy and streamlined check-in process for visitors.
Document scanning and biometrics
Electronic VMS allows the increasingly inexpensive technologies of document scanning and biometrics, particularly fingerprint reading, to be incorporated. Thus, for example, documents required by contractors and some other types of visitor can be scanned in to provide proof of ‘due diligence’ and meet insurance criteria. These can include necessary licences and permits, accreditations and copies of insurance certificates — paperwork which manual systems can often fail to keep copies of. Meanwhile, biometric readers can provide irrefutable proof of a person’s correct identity, for example from a fingerprint. This can also be linked to show the VMS screen operator a digital photo of the person as an additional visual check, providing a much improved ‘audit trail’ of who has been admitted.
As a further example of computerised VMS integrating with other security and building management systems, such as through a building’s ethernet or TCP/IP network, the access control system can be configured to restrict visitor entry to identified points around the site according to their access privileges. Their movements can also be monitored in real-time using detector activations that trigger closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras to observe and record their progress through given points, such as access doors using pre- and post-activation images.
By interfacing surveillance to a VMS, additional equipment including automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras can be linked in, allowing video clips or digitised photos to be ‘imported’ onto the VMS software and stored alongside a visitor’s other details. The longer term security benefits include use of this information to automatically signal an alarm if an identified individual suspected of wrongdoing returns to a site on foot or in their vehicle. One word of warning when making use of this personal data is to implement sufficient safeguards — protect the information obtained to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 as well as related legislation such as the Human Rights Act.
Emergency response
Further health and safety advantages result from the ability of an electronic VMS provided by a BSIA member company to reduce workplace hazards by restricting unauthorised personnel from high-risk areas. Indeed, any visitor’s permitted time on-site can be pre-defined and in an emergency, such as a fire evacuation, the VMS can immediately identify who remains within a building. Printed roll-call lists can then be quickly provided to the rescue services. Visitor management systems can also help to pay for themselves as a result of their wide-ranging functionality. One example is the use of built-in time and attendance monitoring, enabling comparison of external contractors’ invoiced labour costs with the VMS’ record of hours actually spent on-site. The removal of Britain’s opt-out from the Working Time Directive by 2010 is bound to move time and attendance issues up most organisations’ agenda.
Too much choice?
The pace of technological innovation, combined with steadily falling equipment prices, make decisions on what to specify increasingly difficult among all the choices available from BSIA member suppliers. Hence, you may find it best to itemise your requirements for a VMS both now and into the future. Fortunately, modular software allows systems to be extended and upgraded to meet tomorrow’s requirements, often without requiring expensive modifications. This flexibility also makes them scaleable, able to operate across more than one building on one site or indeed networked across different sites using a LAN or WAN connecting system.
About the BSIA
Putting security at the top of the corporate agenda
The British Security Industry Association is the trade association for the professional security industry in the UK. Our 570+ members are responsible for more than 70 per cent of UK security products and services (by turnover) including the manufacture, distribution and installation of electronic and physical security equipment and the provision of security guarding and consultancy services.
Mission
To create a business climate in which the skills and expertise of our members are acknowledged, their legitimate objectives are supported, excellence is encouraged and the valuable contribution they make to commerce, industry and communities is recognised.
Key areas of BSIA activity include:
Information dissemination:The BSIA disseminates information to members, potential members, users of security products/services, related organisations and the general public to raise awareness and understanding of issues relating to security and crime prevention.
Lobbying:The BSIA lobbies key organisations/bodies to form valuable working partnerships and achieve desirable changes, for example members of parliament, the Home Office, Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of British Insurers.
The BSIA is extremely active in liaising with government to ensure that legislation reflects industry and customer needs. The association lobbied for regulation of the security industry for over 15 years, culminating in the introduction of the Private Security Industry Act 2001 and the launch of the Security Industry Authority.
Standards:One of the BSIA’s top priorities is the maintenance of high standards within the industry, and it places rigorous requirements on companies wishing to become members. BSIA draws up industry codes of practice and technical documents, often then submitting documents for consideration as British Standards. Our representatives work on European standards committees to ensure these will meet the practical needs of the industry and its customers.
Skills:In 2006 a skills body for the private-security sector was formed. 'Skills for Security' incorporates the Security Industry Training Organisation, the BSIA's training subsidiary, which was divested from the association to form the new skills body. The BSIA is working with Skills for Security, alongside other key industry stakeholders, to help to establish a stronger skills foundation that will add further benefits for the industry and its people.
British Security Industry Association
Telephone: 0845 389 3889
E-mail:info@bsia.co.uk
Website:www.bsia.co.uk |
