School Management Software, Ensures Your Child's Safety at School

Schools are the institutions that facilitate learning and development of the future generation. Schools may vary depending upon geographical locations and culture etc. yet, the primary focus and processes involved in running these institutions are usually similar and most of these are repetitive boring and tiresome. To ease these processes, School Management Softwares came into existence. A typical School Management System intends to smoothen the daily processes of the schools. These daily and/or regular processes may include student and staff attendance entry, recording their entry and exit timings, recording student, teacher and parent details, tracking with whom the students come and who picks them up, visitor and visit details and alike. And, what more, these softwares do not consume much physical space (a storeroom for example) in your premises and reduce paperwork.

So, investing in an efficient school management software is not at all a bad deal. However, there are a lot more advantages of the School Management Systems available in the market today. Let’s discuss how is a School Management Software beneficial for the schools.

Ensures safety of the in-premises students : School Management Softwares record the students’ and parents’ data thereby making sure the student go home with their parents or guardians (specified by the parents) after school. The school management system helps the school administration to keep track of the students’ entry/exit and with whom they came/go. It also records whom (if any outsider) the students meet in the school premises and such prevents any unfortunate event from happening.

Attendance Management : Many of the School Management Solutions come with attendance management module allowing the school administration record staff and student attendance in a more efficient and elegant way. Now, the teachers won’t have to waste 10-15 minutes in calling out the roll numbers and/or names of the students and, the students won’t be able to put fake attendance for their absent friends. Additionally, the teachers won’t have to maintain separate attendance registers for different classes/subjects and manually calculate the attendance of students whenever required.

Keep track of every in-premises visitor activity : School Management Solutions help the school administration to have watch on every visitor activity within the school and thus, help the management secure the school’s assets and resources (students and staffs) from any possible harm. It also helps in verifying all visitor data and thus prevents them from causing any damage to the life or property of the school.

Easy data access : The school management softwares make it easy to find any visit/visitor data as and when required. Easy and efficient search mechanism makes accessing (even years back) data smooth. You won’t have to turn pages to find few days back data or, search from a pile of files in your storeroom if ever you need to refer to a past years’ student/teacher/visitor data.

Data security : All your students, parents, teachers & non-teaching staffs, school bus drivers, visitors (service vendors and people enquiring about admissions), visits, meetings, attendance etc. data (literally unlimited data) can be stored in your school management software. School management systems use cloud storage to store all your data at one secure place such that only the authorised personnel get access to the sensitive personal information of the students and staff and other critical data of the school.


There are also many school management systems that provide the school administration to track student progress over the years, analyse students’ and teachers’ performance across years, helps in class, section, course, subject etc. management, prepares report cards and a lot more. Having a school management solution helps you automate all the necessary daily activities of the school and thereby maximising efficiency of the staffs. So, why waste time on manual works when you have an efficient alternative to automate them all!!

Request for a free demo of our School Management Software now!

Visitor Management System Market to Incur Rapid Extension During 2017 – 2027

Growing importance to track visitor movements across various organizations is the key factor contributes the growth of global visitor management system market. Visitor management system is an effective solution, which helps companies to gain better control over visitor movement in their premises. Visitor management system is a software based solution, which capture, monitor, record and recover visitor information, in order to manage the visitor traffic inside the office/building. Visitor management systems are available with various features, including visitors Photo ID or fingerprint scanning, auto-identification of repeated visitors, and automated pre-registration of expected registers. Visitor management systems generates access-cards, with authorized access and restrictions to facilities based on the type of visitor. Visitor management system delivers touch screen experience to visitors, enable visitors to self-register and delivers notification to employees. Visitor management system eliminates human errors and ensure high level of performance and security of the premise.

Growing importance to minimize the negative impacts of visitors, rising dependence on software based security solutions in order to address various compliance and insurance requirements, and increasing interest on paper-less administrative operations across various organizations, are the key factors drives the growth of global visitor management system market. Increasing focus to streamline visitor/employee management process to enhance productivity and increasing preference for developing professional set-up with self-sign-in processes and pre- registration facilities, further accelerates the growth of growth of global visitor management system market. Additionally, expanding smartphone users and growing need to access the visitor records across various touch points, expected the fuel the growth of cloud based visual management solutions. However, slow progress in customer adaptatential benefits of visitor management solutions, are the factors identified as restraints likely to deter the progression of global visitor management system market.

Global visitor management system market is segmented on the basis of component, end-user, and region. On the basis of component, the global visitor management system market can be segmented into software and hardware. On the basis of end user the global visitor management system market can be segmented into government, manufacturing, healthcare & medical, BFSI, education, information technology, energy & utilities, hospitality, retail, aerospace & defense and others. Regionally, the global visitor management system market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa.

The visitor management system market in North America followed Western Europe are expected to be dominate, high importance to strengthen safety and security of the work premises and supporting existing infrastructure to deploy visitor management system. Among all regions, in terms of revenue, Asia Pacific is identified as the fastest growing visitor management system market, rising security standards across various sectors, including manufacturing, hospitality, information technology and education. Some of the prominent vendors in the global visitormanagement system market, includes Honeywell International Inc., HID Global Corporation, Genetec Inc., WhosOnLocation, Trackforce, Parabit Systems, InVentry Ltd, Jolly Technologies Inc., Quantum Secure Inc., and AlertEnterprise.

4 Solutions to Incident Management Challenges at Schools

As schools and colleges increasingly become targets for threats and attacks, they face the security challenge of maintaining a welcoming and open environment while ensuring the comprehensive safety of the students, teachers and staff. Recent high-profile school tragedies, such as those in Sandy Hook and San Bernardino, have only emphasized the need for educational facilities to maintain an effective and thorough security system and a coordinated incident management plan.

One of the first steps a school can take to work toward achieving this goal involves receiving a safety assessment from a security consultant. This process will often analyze two factors: the methods a school is using to actively protect and secure the campus, and the incident and communication plan a school has in place.

Through this assessment, educational facilities are able to determine what areas of their existing physical security systems are functioning properly and what pieces could use improvement.

Each technology component of a school’s security system, such as surveillance cameras, access control devices and emergency communication methods, are reviewed.

During the initial assessment, there are four main points of contact for a security consultant when examining a school or college campus:

1. The IT director. It’s critical to examine a school’s technology setup and network infrastructure to determine how they function before assessing its security posture. Knowing this information can help a consultant make recommendations on best practices for using existing technology or ideas for other technology investments that can be integrated and layered on.
2. The administration. The superintendent, assistants and principals play an important role in a security consultation. These personnel are often part of the immediate response during an emergency and can explain the school’s existing response protocol.
3. Teachers and educators. It’s necessary to discuss emergency response with the people who will more than likely be involved immediately around an incident as it happens.
4. First responders. Although the last point of contact, first responders are one of the most important pieces for the safety of a school. Law enforcement and medical, fire and emergency responders must understand and be aligned with a school’s security system and emergency management protocol.

Consultants often conduct a physical, practical assessment to determine how a school’s perimeter can be hardened.

The overall safety goal for school security officials is protection of the entire environment that students are learning in.

Below I address four common school safety issues and give an appropriate solution should an emergency occur.

Problem 1: Incomplete Visitor Management

One key security problem facing schools is creating safe visitor management systems by bridging the gap between freely allowing parents and visitors into a school while properly monitoring unknown guests.

There’s a false sense of security in most schools today because existing visitor management protocols at most campuses only run a visitor’s name against a sex offender database in that state.

This may be the only type of security a school is concerned about, and therefore no other information is obtained about the visitor, but validation must extend beyond this basic assessment.

Additionally, some schools don’t have check-ins at all entrances, allowing visitors to walk directly to where students and educators are located without being identified first. Most schools also do not require a check-out policy, allowing visitors to stay on campus unaccounted for.

Solution: Geofence

Security in the education environment must lean toward setting up geofences around campus. These virtual geographic boundaries can be integrated with other access control technology to allow security officials and administrators to use mobile devices to easily identify individuals entering and exiting the perimeter.

Geofences can also immediately create alerts when a known inappropriate individual, such as a sex offender, has entered the predetermined area.

Problem 2: Unorganized Incident Response

While schools and colleges may have an emergency management plan ready, it is almost always in hard copy format and therefore not utilized, oftentimes causing the actual response to be chaotic and uncoordinated.

There are many moving pieces involved in responding to an emergency, and they can easily become scattered. First responders, for example, often arrive on the scene without being properly briefed on the situation or knowing where exactly on campus the incident is occurring.

If certain areas need to be blocked off or parents are arriving to pick up their children, orderly communication is necessary to avoid taking away from valuable response time.

Solution: Real-time Communication System

The message that goes out to students, parents and first responders during an emergency, and the way first responders receive critical information, must be immediate and informative.

Real-time location system (RTLS) technology allows first responders to see into an event as it unfolds and gives educators and administrators the ability to communicate to first responders with real-time information.

Existing emergency protocols in schools and colleges can and must be made to work immediately, and communication methods must be chosen carefully: a public address (PA) system may cause heightened concern, and walkie-talkies are outdated and prohibit broadcasting.

SMS and chatting via smart devices is the best and most effective mechanism of communication during an emergency.

Problem 3: Lack of Security Technology and Consolidation

As mentioned above, a school’s IT director is a security consultant’s first point of contact, and for a good reason: If a school possesses security technology (and not all do), it tends to be scattered throughout the premises, with each piece operating as a separate entity in a siloed approach (and that’s assuming that all the technology is fully functional).

An educational facility may claim to own numerous video surveillance cameras, but not all may be working or placed in optimal locations. In the aftermath of an emergency incident, recorded video may need to be accessed by law enforcement, but schools typically lack sufficient video management software or video analytic capabilities.

Solution: Integrated Technology System

Although it’s a general rule that each type of security technology has its own intellectual property and isn’t necessarily made to connect with one another, it can and should be done through a single integrated solution.

Nowadays, collaboration is key when it comes to ensuring comprehensive protection and, in an educational environment, all devices must be pulled into a unified dashboard in an effort to regulate security and properly manage emergencies.

High resolution, strategically placed surveillance cameras, video management technology, access control features and all other security systems need to be layered into the same network to be used conjunctively at all times.

Problem 4: Inadequate Technology and Incident Management Training

Simply putting the above three solutions in place won’t help a school’s security unless the teachers, administrators and staff know exactly how to use them.

Because emergencies naturally cause fear and stress, unfamiliarity with the proper processes will only make the situation worse. Time is of the essence during occasions like these, and it cannot be spent searching for a physical safety manual or asking others what to do.

A school may have created an outstanding emergency management plan to be coupled with their robust security technology, but these components are only valuable in knowledgeable hands.

Solution: Practice and Uniform Comprehension

All employees of a school or university must work together and put in the time and effort to properly understand the school’s security measures and emergency processes.

Each staff member should first be briefed on the school’s visitor management policy and geofence usage, and then practice makes perfect. Tabletop exercises, those that simulate a real-life event with stressors that can be replicated, must be performed internally twice a year, and external tabletop exercises involving law enforcement and first responders should be practiced once a year.

Additionally, communication during training is critical. Every individual should fully recognize the chain of command, who’s responsible for what and how different types of emergencies will be handled.

By obtaining a security assessment and combating frequent campus safety concerns, K-12 schools and colleges can strike a balance between an inviting atmosphere and a secure, prepared educational facility.

Incorporating geofences into an existing security system to create a strict visitor management structure can save lives, and facilitating real-time communication within an incident management plan can help mitigate risks and streamline response operations.

Combine these solutions with updated, integrated security technology and the only thing left to do is practice.

Through a clear designation of tasks and processes, teachers and staff should be fully prepared to effectively react should an emergency occur.

Source:
https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/emergency/4-solutions-to-incident-management-challenges-at-schools/

Managing School Visitors

In today’s post Sandy Hook era, nearly every K-12 school district in the United States has an electronic access control system protecting its buildings. Faculty carry proximity cards or fobs, and most doors are equipped with card readers. Some schools also require cards for students. Administrations and schools boards have united in allocating funds for technology that is considered indispensable for protecting our children.

However, for all the investment put into tracking and managing school access to employees, many schools are far less vigilant in monitoring and managing the access provided to visitors. Many school visitors still simply sign in on a clipboard and are handed a paper badge. At my own kids’ school, as a visitor, my photo ID is scanned into a system, but then I am handed a paper badge. Once I’m in, there is no electronic tracking of where I go, or if I leave.

As a security professional, I can’t help but find it a bit ironic that so many schools are keeping careful track of “their own” – but “the outsiders” who enter the building are under far less scrutiny, and they are equally capable of posing a security risk.

Perception vs. Reality

Why do schools consider access control systems a non-negotiable necessity, but not visitor management systems? One reason may be the perception that it is much harder to operate a visitor management system in a K-12 setting.
Typically, when a systems integrator installs an access control system, the integration team handles set up and populates the database with an initial list of credentialed card holders. The system is then turned over to an administrator for management and maintenance. Very few others within the school need to understand how to use the system in any capacity.

By contrast, a visitor management system must be operated, day-to-day, by personnel located at the front door – oftentimes a security guard, receptionist or clerk. While a school administrator, probably within the IT department, will still be responsible for establishing visitor credential settings, reviewing logs and running reports, he or she will not be the one generating visitor badges and interfacing with the public. The clerk or guard doing so must be comfortable and efficient using the technology, as must all of the individuals who serve as back-up when the primary user is on break, sick or otherwise not on the job.

Some schools may feel that this training and supervision of system users requires more effort than it is worth. They are also probably not aware of the full benefits they are missing out on, especially when the visitor management system is integrated with access control, both in areas of security and operational efficiencies.

In fact, explaining the value of an integrated access control and visitor management solution to K-12 users, as well as what the integration process involves is vitally important to systems integrators serving this vertical market.

How Does It Work?

When a visitor management system is integrated with access control, school visitors are provided with a temporary credentialed badge that allows them access only to areas where they should be allowed to go. It is also capable of reporting where specific visitors actually do go, as far as the school’s access control system allows for tracking.

In effect, the visitor has been entered into the access control database and can be monitored just like any employee within the system.

To generate the credentialed badge, visitors provide photo ID, which is scanned into the system. Some visitor management systems use the image right from the photo ID; others require the clerk to take a quick digital photo of the visitor.

When a badge is generated, it provides access to approved areas for a set amount of time, and then expires. Upon exiting the school, visitors scan their badge, letting the system know that are no longer on the premises. If they take the badge with them, it will not work after the expiration.

Some visitor management systems have integrated SMS capabilities, enabling faculty to be notified via text when their visitor has arrived, or can alert security if a visitor has not been logged as exiting the building within the time they have been allotted.

System administrators are responsible for defining the access level provided to visitors and length of time for which access is granted.

In some instances, when an ID is scanned into the system, schools may choose to check that the visitor is not on a “black list,” such as on the sex offender registry, or a parent with limited visitation rights, or someone subject to a restraining order.

Setting It Up

From an integrator’s perspective, the key to making this as simple as possible is to choose a visitor management solution that offers a pre-built integration to the access control system that is either already in place, or will be installed.

Most manufacturers offer these pre-built visitor management “plug ins” to a host of different access platforms. Choose one of these combinations, and the programming should be minimal and straightforward.

In many cases, schools will look to security service providers or systems integrators to take the lead in helping their IT department and administrators define their needs, and then they will set up and program the system to perform as desired. Once installed, responsibility for the system must be assigned to a staff member who understands programming and has the authority to manage the visitor management and access control software.

The Security Benefits

Once visitor names and photos are captured within a searchable database, there are many ways in which security is enhanced. Integrators should be stressing these benefits of an integrated solution to their K-12 customers; and, with the right education from integrators, administrators will be better prepared to lobby for budgets that will pay for them.

Here are benefits to share with customers:

Wandering Visitors: Let’s say a visitor has finished doing what they came to do – like visiting their child’s classroom. Instead of heading directly to the exit, they decide to stroll the hallways unsupervised. While not ideal, if the visitor has been provided with a credentialed badge, he or she will not be able to access any restricted areas of the school that their badge does not allow, such as locker rooms, storage areas, the cafeteria, etc. And, if they do try to enter anywhere they should not, security will be immediately notified – with both the visitor’s information and their location in the school.

School Lockdown: In a lockdown, law enforcement and first responders want to know who is in the building, and even better, where they are within the building. If an access control system can be logged into, the same report will include both on-site employees and all current visitors. Furthermore, if law enforcement can access video from security cameras within the locked down building, they can potentially identify visitors from their photos.

Forensic Investigation: Tracking of where a visitor went – and when – can be important in an investigation. Integrated capabilities provide that “where and when” information. In addition, if the access control system is integrated with video surveillance, authorities can also quickly see what the person was doing. Many access systems offer this type of integration, and provide quick links to access events with video. As long as a camera has been associated with a card reader, for each time that reader was swiped, associated video can be called up.
Operational benefits can be another great selling point for systems integrators:

Support for regular visitors: Volunteers who come for weekly activities or service personnel who make regular visits, for example, can be granted a reusable badge that is programmed to be valid for the times they visit the school each week. This eliminates the need for them to be “processed” each time they arrive. They just scan their badge when they enter, and the clerk can confirm their identity from the photo. Once in the school, they can enter the areas they need to be without an escort, as their programmed badge provides access.

Eliminate visitor escorts: With the ability to track the whereabouts of visitors, school administrators do not have to assign escorts, freeing up school personnel to do more important tasks.

No badge collection: Because badges expire, there is no need to collect them when a visitor leaves, and there is no risk of reuse or misuse.

Time tracking: Integration with the access database makes it easy to track hours of volunteer workers. Other analytics can also be provided depending on the specific solutions in place.

Even when not integrated with access control, electronic visitor management delivers many other security and operational efficiencies, including: enhanced confidentiality (no list of previous visitors on display); the ability to easily pre-register visitors for large events; and, as mentioned, the ability to quickly check visitors against a black list. Some solutions also offer a “mobile” module that can be used to keep track of students on field trips, as they board or exit the bus.

Source:
http://www.securityinfowatch.com/article/12362729/managing-school-visitors

Visitor Management System For Schools & Colleges

Every Institutes / school wants to keep its students safe and secure. But it is challenge to keep track of Visitors, Parents, Guardians etc., who enters building and access Students. Along with this, managing and monitors the moments of Staff, Workers, Housekeeping staff, Suppliers, can be challenging task. mVisitor School Visitor Management System streamlines the visitor management process through the use of visitor passes with Biometric and Smart Camera, thereby relieving much of the stress of Institute Management and Administrative team.



School Visitor Management System has become an order for the day for security reasons and is highly recommended for all institutions where security and information are important. The overall goal is to better control access to all schools & college; thus providing enhanced protection for our students and staff.

School Visitor Management Software Key Features

-  Secured Admin module to Manage Students and Parents profile

-  Biometric with Photo Enrollment to identify registered Parents and Guardians

-  Generate Visitor Pass with Parent / Guardian photo and Student Photo for better identification

-  Print Visitor Pass on regular inkjet / LaserJet or printer of your choice

-  Email and SMS alerts to Parents /Center Head, regarding Student Check-IN and Check OUT

-  Manage and Monitor regular visitors to Admin block and Management team

-  Search Repetitive visitors, either by Finger Print Scanning or by Mobile Number

-  Create VMS operators to track visitor traffic with respect to VMS operator or Security

-  Generate Multiple day / Vocational passes to Boarding/Hostel students

-  Search Student information by School ID

-  Track the items carried and deposited by Students / Parents / Guardians / Visitors

-  Facility to send or broadcast SMS alerts and messages to registered Parents / Students

-  Send time bar (excess time) alerts to Parents / Guardians or Visitor, who are inside the campus

-  One click Emergency Message Broadcast to all students, parents, guardians, visitor, staff etc.,

-  Enter postal / Courier / letter IN/OUT information

-  Many consolidate and between date Management / Admin related reports with few data analysis reports

-  Reports can be exported to excel format for data analysis and pdf format for email purpose.

Having a school management solution helps you automate all the necessary daily activities of the school and thereby maximizing efficiency of the staffs. So, why waste time on manual works when you have an efficient alternative to automate them all!!

Get a school management software for your school now!!

Request for a free demo of our School Management Software now!