Visitor Sign In Systems for Schools
In October of 2018 Scotch chose to move away from the traditional sign in visitor book and install an electronic system that allowed for greater transparency for the College and privacy for visitors across the entire campus. At the same time, we had a goal to improve a number of smaller processes across the College and bring everyone along the journey.
After investigating a number of different systems, we decided to select a vendor whose company is housed out of South Australia named SINE. On its website, SINE.CO has a comprehensive guide to their product, however, below is an outline of how we implemented the system at Scotch.
The system uses an iPad with a dedicated app that we installed in five different locations across the College. The scale of our deployment is based on the fact that we have three sub-school reception areas and the Tech Centre and Facilities department often have contractors entering to complete work.
In implementing this system at each location, the staff members present can log into the main SINE website and see an overview of the College’s visitors. This also allows for them to manage visitor specifics including pre-loading invitations and manually checking visitors in. It also allows us to set workflows for certain types of visitors. For a contractor, they must agree to a specific set of questions before they are permitted to proceed on-site for the day. This then complies with our legal obligations around third party insurance and gives us a way of tracking the history of their time on-site. While contractors are a specific example, we also extended this requirement to relief teachers in each of the sub-schools to ensure they received a badge with their name and photo.
An important issue we wanted to deal with was the way in which we identify visitors. Historically visitors were issued a lanyard with a number that should have been handed in at the end of their visit, however, many visitors left the grounds without returning them. The SINE system has a small Brother label printer attached to it which prints a badge at the end of the sign in process. This is to be worn while on campus and when the individual checks out they scan the QR code and hand the badge back to the receptionist to dispose of. We also require a photo to be taken at the time of entry into the school and this photo is printed onto the badge.
One of the important features that we also use is the syncing of our Active Directory (AD) records of staff to SINE.CO, which means when a visitor arrives at the school they must select a ‘host’ by entering their name. This allows them to select who they are here to see and then that staff member receives an email notification that their visitor has arrived. If the staff member has been provided with a College mobile phone then they will also receive an SMS.
Finally, in 2019 the system will allow for the provisioning of Wi-Fi passwords to the guest network. This will be integrated through our CISCO ISE guest network and automate another common visitor request.
For more specific information on the product check out the SINE.CO website as there are a lot of additional features. Attached below are some of the specific setup items we have here at Scotch.
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