After hundreds of schools colleges and universities taking up visitor contractor management software, dozens of blogs about different areas of the school process managing visitors, contractors, teachers, students, parent helpers, evacuation, compliance and much more I feel it is time to summarize into one blog post how are schools, universities and colleges using Visitor Contractor management software. With so many ways to break this blog down I thought about the customers using the software across the globe and have broken into categories based on the size of the school, college or university based on the number of students.
Small – small schools include schools with up to 800 students – typically these numbers represent a primary school
Medium – Medium schools cover 800 to 1500 students – mostly middle and high school
Large – Large schools include schools that include K1 to year 12 some include on site boarding. Student numbers can be as low as 1500 and as high as 3000
Colleges and Universities – can include small boutique universities or colleges with as few as 3000 students but often go up to as many as 20,000 + students.
It is interesting to see as schools make inquiries, purchase and implement visitor management software and hardware the needs of the location changes significantly as the size of the location increases. Small schools are often several buildings on a single location for all of the students up to 800 students managing visitors only. Medium schools are similar to small schools, typically on a single location with multiple buildings, often with a front and back entrance managing visitors, contractors and casual teachers. Large schools are where we start to see multiple locations, primary school may be several blocks away from middle or high school, Large schools all want to manage the presence and compliance of every person that comes on site. We start to see several locations included as soon as we go over 2000 students. Universities and Colleges are often campus style environments with many buildings across a single location or spread over multiple locations, Colleges and Universities typically focus on visitor and contractors and the compliance of the contractors. Managing the keys and access control cards issued to contractors and employees is another popular module at this level.
You will also find at the end of this story details on common hardware used in schools, colleges and universities around the world along with brief explanations of the software modules mentioned.
So why are schools using visitor and contractor management software?
Small schools
- Sign in and out visitors, parent helpers and the occasional contractor
- Photo taken on sign in
- Visitor Induction
- Visitor arrival alerts SMS and email
- Auto message when visitor signs out
- Manage the presence of casual teachers
- Some are managing the presence of teachers
- Reporting
Small Schools – Typical Hardware combinations
- iPad
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW visitor label printer
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – wireless
- Surface Pro
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW visitor label printer or USB DYMO 450 label printer
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – wireless
- Any USB bar code scanner
Medium Schools
- Sign in and out visitors, parent helpers
- Photo taken on sign in
- Visitor Induction
- Pre register visitors
- Visitor arrival alerts SMS and email
- Auto message when visitor signs out
- Manage the presence of casual teachers
- Teacher inductions
- Some are managing the presence of teachers
- Students are signing in and out for evacuation
- Contractor Compliance
- insurances
- inductions
- qualifications
- Reporting
Medium Schools – Typical Hardware combinations
- iPad
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW visitor label printer
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – wireless
- Surface Pro
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW visitor label printer or USB DYMO 450 label printer
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – wireless
- Any USB bar code scanner
- HP Elitepad 1000
-
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW visitor label printer or USB DYMO 450 label printer
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – wireless
- Any USB bar code scanner
-
Large Schools
- Sign in and out visitors, parent helpers
- Photo taken on sign in
- Visitor Induction
- Pre register visitors
- Visitor arrival alerts SMS and email
- Auto message when visitor signs out
- Manage the presence of casual teachers
- Some are managing the presence of teachers
- Teacher inductions
- Students are signing in and out for evacuation
- Access control integration
- Contractor Compliance
- insurances
- inductions
- qualifications
- Auto message when contractor signs out
- WolMobile
- Asset Management
- Banned visitor list
- Multiple locations
- API integration
- Reporting
Large Schools – Typical Hardware combinations
- iPad
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW visitor label printer
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – wireless
- Surface Pro
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW visitor label printer or USB DYMO 450 label printer
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – wireless or any USB bar code scanner
- HP Elitepad 1000
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW visitor label printer or USB DYMO 450 label printer
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – wireless or any USB bar code scanner
- Any windows based touch screen with 2-3 USB slots
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW visitor label printer or USB DYMO 450 label printer
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – wireless or any USB bar code scanner
- USB RFID reader
- All in one airport style kiosks – includes all peripherals locked away inside a single unit
Colleges and Universities
- Sign in and out visitors
- Photo taken on sign in
- Visitor Induction
- Pre register visitors
- Visitor arrival alerts SMS and email
- Auto message when visitor signs out
- Manage the presence of casual teachers
- Some are managing the presence of teachers
- Access control integration
- Contractor Compliance
- insurances
- inductions
- qualifications
- Auto message when contractor signs out
- WolMobile
- Asset Management
- Banned visitor list
- Multiple locations
- API integration
- Reporting
Colleges and Universities – Typical Hardware combinations
- iPad
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW visitor label printer
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – wireless
- Surface Pro
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW visitor label printer or USB DYMO 450 label printer
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – wireless or any USB bar code scanner
- HP Elitepad 1000
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW visitor label printer or USB DYMO 450 label printer
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – wireless or any USB bar code scanner
- Any windows based touch screen with 2-3 USB slots
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW visitor label printer or USB DYMO 450 label printer
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – wireless or any USB bar code scanner
- USB RFID reader
Details on hardware mentioned
- Visitor label printer – Brother 720NW – purchase off the shelf globally from your local stationary provider
- Visitor label printer – Dymo 450 Visitor label printer – purchase off the shelf globally from your local stationary provider
- Bar code scanner – Socket Mobile Scanner – approved by apple for iPad – Google it of course 🙂
- Any USB bar code scanner – select one that has a stand so it can sit next to your visitor sign in station
- USB RFID reader – often used to allow employees, teachers, regular contractors to tap in and tap out presence on site using existing access control cards
Details on software mentioned
- Visitor Management – manage the presence and compliance of visitors into your location/s
- Contractor Management – manage the presence and compliance of contractors into your location/s
- Induction Management – Visitors – build short and sharp inductions for your visitors to be compliant at your location/s
- Induction Management – employees and contractors – build online detailed inductions with questions and pass fail rates
- Qualification Management – manage the qualifications of employees and contractors. Common qualifications can include working with children, first aid, fire warden, electrician, plumber and many more
- Asset Management – electronically manage the issuance of any asset you give to a person you expect to be returned. Common assets include keys and access control cards.
- WolEvac – Evacuation management is made easy and paperless with WolEvac the app designed for fire wardens
- WolMobile – give any employee or contractor an app to allow them to sign in and out their presence on site from a mobile phone, take the GPS position at the time they sign in and out.
Think your school, college or university should take a look? Book in a demonstration or Start a 30 day trial
Who are some of the schools using Visitor Contractor Management software?
