Creating a seamless visitor management experience

Managing people in and out of one of the Quayside’s busiest residential spaces

St. Ann’s Quay is a busy multi-occupancy building based on the iconic Quayside of Newcastle. Spanning ten storeys with both commercial and private residential spaces, there are many visitors to the site on both a daily and weekly basis. St. Ann’s Quay worked with Beyond Digital to find a way to consistently and safely manage the visitors to the building with a digital visitor management system.

This system needed to be able to operate alongside the buildings’ concierge desk to keep a record of apartment guests, commercial visitors, contractors and delivery drivers leaving and entering the building as well as complying with fire and risk assessment requirements.

Streamlining the visitor sign-in

Following an audit of the building’s fire and risk assessment, the Fire Risk Inspector of St Ann’s Quay identified that there was a need for a formal induction procedure. One of the key challenges was being able to provide essential information to residents and visitors to the building in an accessible way – this would include vital information on fire assembly points, drills and exits. There was also a need for a process to digitally register all those present within the building, given its transient nature.

Alongside the compliance with fire safety procedures, there was also an important need for the physical infrastructure to comply with current regulations. As part of this, contractors needed to be informed in advance of work taking place so that their works will not compromise safety standards. Records of contractor work and access therefore needed to also be both permanent and remotely accessible.

The video below showcases exactly how we approached the project and helped to deliver the Visitor Management Solution to St. Ann’s Quay.

A secure alternative to visitor books and timesheets

As these procedures would need to be in use around the clock, creating an interactive system that could be readily set up with the information and functionality required for visitors and residents was our first priority. We understood that a visitor management solution would also need to be accessed and monitored remotely, while also being easy and intuitive for visitors to use. 

Digital kiosks are ideal to use as effective visitor management systems, so a 9 inch tablet version was installed on the wall of the concierge office. This was customised to match both the look and design of the building, with custom-built onscreen content designed within St. Ann’s Quay brand guidelines. This system was able to:

• Capture key information essential to visitor inductions
• Provide suitable amounts of information on safety and security procedures for each type of visitor
• Record submission of building risk assessments
• Keep track of people entering and leaving the premises 24/7

How the solution works

We collaborated with St.Ann’s Quay and the appointed Fire Risk Assessor to build a custom visitor management system that allowed visitors to check in by entering their name, contact details and reason for visiting. This system then recorded the time and date of their visit, along with a photo of the visitor to issue a visitor badge. The system would then inform the concierge and Building Directors of their arrival, and also their departure upon check out. It also ‘remembers’ previous visitors, allowing for easier check-in in future. 

Depending on the visitor type, the solution provided different levels of information with regards to fire evacuation procedures, data policies in line with GDPR and guidance on how to report accidents. It also allowed the documentation and submission of risk assessments or method statements from contractors entering the building, as well as requests for insurance details and work permits.

The recorded information in the system is accessed remotely via a portal, and the content is completely customisable so it can be updated and adapted to changing needs.  Not only does our visitor management solution provide St.Ann’s Quay with a record of all visitation to the building in case of a fire, emergency or security incident; it provides a permanent record of all contractor activity for extra assurance on health and safety compliance.

Have a project in mind?

If you’d like to know more about our Visitor Management Solution, or you just have a question then we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here or alternatively drop us a line at 0191 484 1056 for a chat.