In today’s post-COVID era, tracking people entering and leaving your property is crucial. But it becomes even more important when you are dealing with your office premises. Furthermore, monitoring employees’ working hours without bounding them to various sign-in sheets is also essential and enhances employee morale. That’s where enterprise solutions like visitor management software come into play!
As per a trusted source, the global market for visitor management systems crossed $1.1 billion in 2021. The market is further expected to reach $2.6 billion by 2026! Paperless administration, security, and regulatory compliance increased the use of visitor management software as well.
But what exactly is this visitor management system? And, how can you develop an online visitor management software for your business as well? Let’s find answers to all such questions in our blog below!
What is Visitor Management Software?
In today’s era, tracking visitors has become a critical concern for businesses. Moreover, increase in office premise traffic diminishes the security and leaves production lines, and intellectual property vulnerable. Besides that, the companies’ health issues due to the global pandemic are also a concern. Visitor management software is the perfect tool to deal with all such issues.
Visitor management software is an enterprise solution that replaces the paper-based sign-in sheets to track the flow of visitors in an area. It processes all the activities of visitors from starting to end.
Top visitor management software keeps a log of the visitors accessing your building. It also offers access-based controls that ensure the safety of your resources. That’s why 91% of the people said that visitor management software made hosting easier for them while ensuring security.
What are the Types of Visitor Management Software Solutions?
Have you wondered what type of visitor management software could suit your needs?
Should you invest in researching the best SaaS solutions available in the market. Or will a custom visitor management system suit your organization better. Well, you can only decide that once you analyze your requirements with the top enterprise software development experts.
If you want truly want to create a unique visitor management software that is tailor-made to accommodate your needs, then custom visitor management software is the right choice for your
Given below is a list of various types of visitor management software solutions that we can build for you.
1. On-Premise VMS
In an on-premise system, you install the solution inside the office. That means the solutions run from the local server of your organization.
While having an on-premise solution has its advantages, it has quite a lot of drawbacks as well. On-premise solutions are very high maintenance and require a constant stream of money to be kept in working conditions. Given below are some of the major set-backs of on-premise VMS:
- Hardware cost and maintenance cost, including the support cost, software upgrades, and more.
- A system that consumes space, power, and even colling facilities.
- High operational costs include installing server-side hardware components, security devices, and hosting charges.
2. Cloud-Based VMS
Cloud-based visitor management software is the perfect solution for all your business needs if you are on a tight-budget and don’t want the additional hassle of server and system maintenance. Cloud-based VMS are capable enterprise solutions that can store all the critical data of your visitors to a remote server. The remote server is maintained by a third party, which in turn reduces your operational cost.
You get a comprehensive dashboard that offers useful insights into your visitors’ activities. All your data is remotely stored, ensuring zero data losses in an emergency.
Do you want to learn about the best cloud platform for your visitor management software? Reach our experts by filling out our free consultation form!
Why Use Visitor Management Software?
We briefly discussed the benefits of using visitor management software for your organization earlier, including being able to track your employee’s working hours and managing the activities of your visitors. But let’s try to learn more about the benefits of a VSM using a simple example. Let us take you on a journey with Steve, a Sales Representative at a reputed firm.
All that chaos could be eliminated if that building had visitor management software. That’s why businesses worldwide are adopting to invest in enterprise solutions like visitor management software. The market for visitor management software is likely to cross the $2 billion market by 2026!
So, are you ready to use this golden opportunity and make your enterprise future-ready?
How to Develop Visitor Management Software?
So, you have identified the reasons to develop online visitor management software. Now, it is time to get a solution developed for your business. Of course, you can purchase an off-the-shelf VMS solution, but you will have to renew the licenses yearly. Also, you will not have a lot of room to customize it according to your needs.
If you want to develop a VMS solution from the ground up, then you have to major choices: in-house development and hiring an enterprise software development company that has experience developing custom VMS solutions, like Matellio.
While both of these approaches have their own merits, in-house development is a tricky bit of business. For one, it requires a lot time and up-front of investment to set-up a development team by hiring full-time talent. Furthermore, you will need to install and maintain infrastructure of , at the very least, adequate quality which will put even more financial burden on you. So you will have to compare your needs and the investment; can you justify spending a exorbitant amount of money on a VSM solution? If yes, then in-house is the best choice for you. But if you don’t want to break bank for a VSM solution, then your best bet is to go an enterprise software development company.
But if you are adamant about in-house development, then you can at least reduce the cost by only hiring a few people to form your core team. Then, you can scale your team with resources by partnering up with a staff augmentation company like Matellio. As a result, you won’t have to hire 100 full-time employees but only 10 and then get more people as the need arises.
No matter which route you end up taking, the following process will help you get started on the right foot.
1. Focus on Key Features
Features are important in defining the scope of your visitor management software. Offering competitive and basic features to your customers ensures success for your project.
And you can figure out those features once you have analysed your competitors. Here we list the best features that ensure successful visitor management software development.
Digital Sign-In Process
Enable a fast check-in for your visitors by letting them enter their info using digital tools. Digital sign-in reduces the confusion caused by manual entries. It even eases check-in and check-out, resulting in an enhanced visitor experience. You can opt for OTP verification or an email sign-in process to promote digital sign-in.
Custom Check-In
There may be times when you have special guests at your office. And, you may not want them to get stuck in your digital check-in process. That’s why always include custom check-ins in your visitor management software. Your staff could generate their digital IDs to speed up your guests’ check-in process.
Visitor’s Data
Visitor's comprehensive data is a must to know how your front desk performs. A brief report listing everyone present in the office can be useful during an emergency. You can even delete the data after a certain time to eliminate the hefty data storage conditions.
Badges
Badges with or without the NFC tags are the most secure means of check-in and check-out. You can even integrate your visitor management software with a printer for badges. You can even know who the visitors are without spending money on laces or cards with sticky codes.
Staff Notifications
Offer your employees alert functionality whenever there is a visitor for them. They can even set the type of notifications they want to receive. Moreover, you can also enable them to choose to chat or call or meet the visitor, depending on the case.
Electronic Signature
Signing many papers can be a mundane task for visitors and employees alike. So, top visitor management software integrated the sign-in process with the digital check-in. All the signed documents are stored in the electronic form to ensure safety. The visitor may not even need to sign in, again and again, using visitor management software.
2. Include Relevant Technologies
Besides features, the other most crucial thing you need to worry about is the tech stack that will be used to develop your solution. While there are a lot of cutting-edge tools available to help you craft the finest gems in the software development history, you must go with the ones that fit your needs.
Given below is the tech stack we normally use for VSM software development:
- Front-end: AngularJS, ReactJS, HTML5
- Backend: NodeJS, Laravel
- Mobile App Development: React Native, Flutter, Swift
3. Graphical User Interface (GUI) is Important
UI/UX has become an important term defining a project’s success. Visitor management software is no exception. With a simple user interface and easy-to-use features, you could simplify the working of your solution.
Your employees or visitors should have trust using the visitor management software. Hence, invest in hiring the best UI/UX engineers for your project.
4. Partner with a Reputed Software Development Company
Partnering with an experienced software development company ensures success for your project. You can discover the latest trends in the market and your audience’s main concerns. Besides that, you also get 24*7 technical support throughout your development journey. Not to mention, the reliable experts knowing next-gen tech is also a benefit.
Hence, look for an enterprise software development company that has experience creating robust custom visitor management software. To make sure that you choose the right development partner, focus on some key aspects, such as:
- Technologies they are working upon
- Experience of the developers
- Number of resources offered for your project
- Portfolios and case studies
- Reviews of the past clients
- Expertise in the niche
The firm you hire will then get to work and over the course of few months, will develop your VSM solution. Most companies work on the Agile development methodology these days and so you will be at the heart of the development process and your suggestions will be vital to steer the development process towards the desired outcome.
5. Test and Deploy
The final step in developing an online visitor management software is product deployment. For instance, in the case of a cloud-based product, you need to choose what platform to go with – AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
But, before launching your visitor management system, make sure to test it thoroughly. Testing ensures no unidentified bugs impact your software’s performance. Your application performs well on any platform or device with proper testing.
Hence, choose a software engineering studio that offers testing services for your project. We provide automated testing to detect errors. Learn more about automated testing services through our blog.
What are the Common Challenges Faced?
Enterprise software development requires you to know the compliances, technology, and other factors. In such a case, a visitor management software solution is no exception. Even if you follow the best practices and do not consider these points, you may fail in your project.
So, here are the top challenges you must address before launching your product.
1. User Acceptance
The first challenge that you need to address is user acceptance. Your employees/visitors should be confident in using an online visitor management system. For that, you can offer them the benefits of using an online solution rather than a paper-based system.
Offering a simple interface and basic features can also motivate your employees. They will readily use the visitor management use without much concern.
2. Data Security
Data security is another reason that can affect your visitor management system. An online system should be able to secure and store a vast amount of visitor data. Besides, it should also be able to process the information at a fast rate to promote easy and quick check-in.
3. Performance
If you do not have the updated version of the software, performance could be a huge issue. That’s why try to keep your visitor management software updated. You should also use the latest hardware compatible with your solution.
4. Legal Compliances
Managing the data per the GDPR compliance can be essential if you operate in the UK. Hence, try to find a reputed software development firm for your project. It can help you follow the regulations and even considers them during development.
That’s Where Matellio Comes In!
As a leading enterprise software development company, we understand your business problems and aim to solve them with cutting-edge services. Our experts deliver industry-specific solutions following the best security practices and legal compliances.
Whether you need help integrating third-party solutions or modernizing your legacy systems, we could be your perfect fit. Matelio’s top-of-the-class DevOps consulting services help you reduce the development time and streamline your deployment and post-launch support.
You can discuss your ideas and requirements with our experts over a free 30-minute consultation call to build success for your visitor management software development. Plus, our free market analysis helps you identify your market’s major concerns and trends. So, begin with your project right away and future-proof your organization.
