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The future of visitor management

The visitor sign-in process at corporates is well known for being a laborious and painful process. Unable to provide a quality visitor experience while maintaining adequate building security, the visitor experience is usually sacrificed in favour of security. Ironically, this process often ends up being managed through a paper book, which is neither secure nor a good visitor experience.

It was for this reason the first phase of Kenai was developed, to create a fantastic first impression for visitors while simultaneously improving building security. The solution replaces the visitor book with an iPad application called Kenai. Not only does the kiosk look good on the reception desk, but the entire visitor process is transformed.

Kenai uses facial recognition as an integral part of the visitor sign-in flow, solving the front-desk dichotomy in an elegant way. Each returning visitor is recognised to speed up the sign in process, while capturing a photo of each visitor improves building security.

Pre-registration without downloading an app

The visitor journey begins when visitors are invited to a meeting. This is usually where the interaction ends before the visitor arrives on site, where they are required to fill in a paper book, stamp a parking ticket or watch an induction video.

We believe this process is best done before the visitor arrives on site, which is why we developed visitor pre-registration. Visitors receive a link automatically when invited to a meeting, and can complete all their details before arriving (including booking parking, watching an induction video and even taking an optional selfie if the visitor wants to speed up their sign-in process). Importantly, this is all done without the visitor being required to download an app, which our research shows visitors prefer not to do.

When visitors arrive on site, they simply take a photo at the Kenai kiosk and are recognised on the system – no need to fill in any more details on arrival. Visitors then digitally sign the customisable visitor agreement (NDAs, data privacy and building rules are included here) and select which host they are coming to see – a simple and elegant sign in process.

To further improve convenience, hosts are automatically notified of the visitor’s arrival via text and email to remove the need for a receptionist to make a phone call for every visitor. For clients that facilitate parking for their visitors, the pre-registration will allow visitors to input their vehicle details and book parking as part of the pre-registration process. All the visitor’s information is stored on a single client dashboard for easy viewing by the security and reception teams, no matter how many locations the client operates from.

The system complies with relevant data privacy legislation and was designed in such a way to put the power of data storage in the visitor’s hands. Not only can visitors elect not to be remembered as part of the sign-in flow, but it is easy for clients to delete visitor data on request through the Kenai web dashboard.

Modernising an archaic process

The result of this is that an archaic, unappealing process is transformed into a simple visitor experience, with enhanced building security and data capture that meets the latest compliance standards. First impressions are known to have an important impact on outcomes of meetings and corporates can’t afford to generate a poor client experience in the modern world.

Kenai’s current client list includes brands like Nedbank, RCS, Accenture and Fly Safair. The system has processed over 14 000 visitors to date.

The long-term vision of the company is to manage all personnel that enter a building on a single dashboard, be it visitors, contractors, couriers or employees. Current systems, including access cards, fingerprint scanners and paper books will be replaced or integrated into Kenai at lower overall cost. This is achievable through a unified system using facial recognition to remember all personnel in a transparent way.

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