With several hundred visitors a day when the legislature is sitting, Ontario’s Queen’s Park Legislative building can be a hive of activity. For security reasons, it’s important for everyone to know that a visitor is authorized to be in the area. It’s also important to know who is in the building and who is not.

The old log-in book and a visitor badge did the trick for many years but had its drawbacks. “We have seven entrances open during the day. Often, people would phone down to the nearest entrance to see if a visitor had arrived. The trouble was, the visitor would often come in a different entrance, so the officer would have to phone each entrance to see if that person had signed in,” says Richard Steele, Security Systems Manager at the Queen’s Park Legislative building.

“Now, with the LAN version of EasyLobby software, that information is live at every entrance. The officer on duty can tell the person that their visitor checked in at the south door and should be there shortly,” adds Steele. He first saw the system at the American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS) conference in Las Vegas and purchased the system soon after.

The system includes EasyLobby software to record visitor details and a label printer to print visitor badges. A self-adhesive label is printed and then affixed to a re-usable badge that has a pocket clip. The Queen’s Park badge includes the legislative crest, the person’s name and the date in large letters.

The visitor information can be entered manually, or a card scanner is available that will scan the information on a business card and automatically drop it in the proper fields on the computer screen. A click of the mouse then prints a visitor’s badge.

Prior to the badge being issued, a security officer will confirm the visitor’s appointment by phone with the person they are visiting.

The system will store the information for as long as it’s required. Now, the information is all stored in one computer file rather than seven different log-in books at each entrance. Generally the information is stored for six months. Steele says they sometimes look back on the information, usually to confirm that a contractor was in to perform work that they have been billed for. “When we switched, it wasn’t to refer back to old records, it was more to know what was happening each day,” says Steele.

Photo identification printed on a proximity card is used for employees, party members, assembly staff, ministry officials, the media and long-term contractors. If someone forgets their photo ID a visitor’s badge is issued for the day. Tourists or sightseers wear small coloured tags in the “colour of the day”. These are worn on their collar and allow them to visit specific areas only.

Steele says, “The entire security for the whole building has been improved. The system has made things more user-friendly for everybody, badge issuing is easier and it’s easier to read the date on the badges right away.”