Security is by far the largest concern for any residential estate and to stay a step ahead of criminals, they need to embrace technology. More and more estates are now deploying Ideco's Electronic Visitor Identity Management (EVIM) solution to improve access security and enhance the overall effectiveness of existing services.

Ideco managing director Marius Coetzee says EVIM offers a more effective way of securing the estate. “Residential estates can optimise existing security processes and solutions by deploying cutting edge technology.”

“The main problem is that visitors' identities are not verified or accurately recorded. Furthermore, residents' access control is not controlled sufficiently and visitors' access control is easily bypassed,” he explains.

Guards normally use a manual visitor record book and open the gate for visitors with a push button solution from the guard house. Not only do visitors often record inaccurate or even false information in the visitors register, but the entries are often illegible and indecipherable.

Coetzee points to remotes and tags as far too expensive to maintain, replace and administrate. “Ideco’s EVIM is an innovative cost-effective solution that enhances the overall effectiveness of existing services. The visitor scanning device can read and record driver license cards and is also the only solution that offers a combination of features on one solution.”

EVIM “Live” ID checking functionality not only records visitor data, but also verifies the integrity of the visitors' identity. The visitors fingerprint record is also irrefutable proof that the visitor was present when the transaction was recorded and that the visitor gave permission for their details to be verified and recorded.

Furthermore, all EVIM visitor transactions are recorded, processed and archived in a POPI compliant manner. Not only is all data stored offsite, but visitors fingerprints are recorded, transmitted and stored in an encrypted format which cannot be reverse engineered to a latent fingerprint image. No data is stored on the handheld scanning device and all data is transmitted in an encrypted format to a secure offsite hosting engine.

Coetzee says electronic visitor logs are emailed on a daily basis to the security operations management team to enable them to look for visitor patterns and suspicious tendencies.

New enhanced features include New Frequent Visitor Enrolment and Scheduled Appointments. The New Frequent Visitor Enrolment feature can be utilised to enroll suppliers, clients or even contractors. The EVIM web portal allows companies to enroll frequent visitors who are then identified by their fingerprint only.

“Through a special piece of software, you could capture the frequent visitor’s details and enroll the person’s fingerprint. This would then be uploaded to the EVIM server. When the frequent visitor enters the site, he or she will not be required to re-enter all their details. The fingerprint will be matched against that users details and the transaction for that visitor will be registered on the EVIM server,” Coetzee explains.

The Scheduled Appointments feature allows users to schedule appointments on the software portal by registering the visitor’s name, surname, ID number and the date and time of the appointment. A unique pin will be sent to the visitor that can only be used once and will only be valid for 4 hours before the meeting time and 4 hours afterwards. Once the visitor arrives, they will enter the unique pin and the appointment organiser will receive a sms that their visitor has arrived.

Authorised user access can be granted to the body corporate and select security senior management to enable them to view their visitor records. The EVIM web interface allows authorised users to access visitor data from any web browser by means of a secure user name and password. Visitor data is indexable and searchable allowing for effective and efficient post incident analysis

“Unlike traditional electronic visitor recording systems which process visitor data via an all too often non-compliant unsecured Wi-Fi network, the EVIM solution utilises an encrypted HTTPS and APN network which is accessible only to applicable EVIM devices,” he concludes.

For more information contact Ideco on 086 104 3326 (IDECO) or visit www.ideco.co.za