Staff Signing In

[Danp]

I started looking at a new visitor sign in system but that has now turned into looking at staff too. What do you do for staff at the moment?

 

One option I've got is for staff to have a programmed RFID tag that we can stick to the back of our ID badges, would save the need of replacing those too. Anyone doing this?

[Guest Guest]

We use Paxton for staff to clock in, we have an additional reader in reception which is used for both clocking in and out

[TechMonkey]

We use Inventry for both, staff can sign in at the reader in Reception or use the App on their phone.

[qwerty94]

We use Sign In App, for staff and visitor sign in, has an app and supports RFID. MIS integration etc.

[Alawil]

We use signinapp with rfid which the staff then use to get through the Paxton standalone door controller and also to release their print jobs from a sharp MFD. We are only a small primary so a little manual effort in administering the 3 systems is no overhead. We have also used the QR codes printed on the staff badges with signinapp and these work really well too.

[pugrick_31]

We have Paxton and Inventry integrated together. We've had Paxton for quite a while and then made a move to get Inventry to monitor staff signing in and out on Paxton, plus late students and visitors. All mainly to help and improve the way evacuations work but is useful in other ways too.

[Jobos]

We have Paxton and Inventry integrated together. We've had Paxton for quite a while and then made a move to get Inventry to monitor staff signing in and out on Paxton, plus late students and visitors. All mainly to help and improve the way evacuations work but is useful in other ways too.

 

We have Paxton and Inventry but they are not linked. Would using the Paxton card to open the door sign in the user in Inventry? Would you mind sharing how you linked them please?

[dmason2]

Inventry can sign visitors, staff and even students in, links with MIS too

[Garacesh]

We don't really have anything set here though we're looking into it (and I have several choice words to say about the supplier that the BM bought without asking me....), but my last school was Paxton for the staff (2 different sign in/out points, one at the front door, one in the car park), with an InVentry box at reception for visitors. We did nothing for the kids as they had their own separate entrance that was continually staffed.

 

While InVentry wasn't perfect, it was good. I did have a few niggles with it, mostly the hardware they supplied not being glass-fronted so the touchscreen eventually ended up somewhat unresponsive. The link with MIS was decent, and we had it so that if someone said they were here to see X member of staff, it would email that member of staff a "So-and-so is here to see you" and attach the photo it took for the badges, which was useful. The extra module they give you to print off all the visitor lists in case of a fire evac was a good idea, too. Double-click the exe, select a printer, done. No way to muck it up.

[grahamd22]

+1 Signin App. Works great, fast, reliable and good features with a Ipad included.

[Zoom7000]

I would love to move to Sign In App, but the one thing it lacks is the 2 way MIS write back. Unfortunately that's what keeps our schools on InVentry. I just find InVentry very clunky and that it looks like it's still designed for Windows XP.

[TechMonkey]

I would love to move to Sign In App, but the one thing it lacks is the 2 way MIS write back. Unfortunately that's what keeps our schools on InVentry. I just find InVentry very clunky and that it looks like it's still designed for Windows XP.

 

Can't disagree. It needs a massive over haul, even down to having the option to do an actual server install, or a cloud based option. And the UI of the console is horrendous. I think the development conversation went something like "I know, we shall take the usual UI conventions and ignore them completely. Double click, no that shouldn't open the item, that will open a random menu that no one ever uses."

[kennysarmy]

There's no requirement for this I presume as we only sign-in visitors - and that's currently managed by good old fashioned paper and pen!

[dhicks]

One option I've got is for staff to have a programmed RFID tag that we can stick to the back of our ID badges, would save the need of replacing those too. Anyone doing this?

 

We currently use NFC-capable Ubikey 2FA dongles for key staff and are planning to roll out to the rest of staff soon. With a printer system refresh coming up, we figure it would be a good idea to make sure any readers on the printers could also read those NFC dongles, so there'd just be the one dongle to issue per staff member. Ideally, that would also work for the Paxton door-entry system.

[pete]

I started looking at a new visitor sign in system but that has now turned into looking at staff too. What do you do for staff at the moment?

 

One option I've got is for staff to have a programmed RFID tag that we can stick to the back of our ID badges, would save the need of replacing those too. Anyone doing this?

 

We did this (Paxton). Buy weather-proof stickers and treat it as a short-term stop-gap until you've cycled all the ID badges out for ones with embedded tags.

[Danp]

Thanks all for the details.

 

Sign In App was at the top of my list, but the costs were higher than I was hoping. Still, I think that is what we shall go with, no tags though, just encourage staff to use the mobile app or sign in via reception.

[Edu-IT]

Thanks all for the details.

 

Sign In App was at the top of my list, but the costs were higher than I was hoping. Still, I think that is what we shall go with, no tags though, just encourage staff to use the mobile app or sign in via reception.

If you think SignInApp is expensive look at some of the competitors!

 

For the cost, I think its really good value for money, as they don’t charge you for all of the updates. Just a single licence fee which is about 80p a day.

[chrisakak9]

We have Paxton and Inventry but they are not linked. Would using the Paxton card to open the door sign in the user in Inventry? Would you mind sharing how you linked them please?

Firstly you would need a licence adding to inventry for integration.

 

you could then either have users signed into inventry when entering a paxton door or have a paxton door release when scanning into inventry or both.

it can also be configured to create your users in paxton from your inventry system additionaly meaning that if your users are created via your MIS/AD its can be very automated.

[Danp]

If you think SignInApp is expensive look at some of the competitors!

 

For the cost, I think its really good value for money, as they don’t charge you for all of the updates. Just a single licence fee which is about 80p a day.

 

I've had a few quotes. I'm still waiting from one quote from a large well known company that used to sponsor Man Utd.

 

I was impressed with the pricing from digigreet, another school in the trust uses it. They only offer the product, which means sourcing the hardware, not that is an issue

[pugrick_31]

We have Paxton and Inventry but they are not linked. Would using the Paxton card to open the door sign in the user in Inventry? Would you mind sharing how you linked them please?

As chrisakak9 said above, you would need to speak to who you bought Inventry from for a Paxton integration license. Then you would go into Inventry and link their ID cards to what everyone pulled in from your MIS. Just have to remember that the license only covers one door, so if you have multiple doors to cover you would need to purchase additional doors to add onto the license, not the same cost as the license itself in case you're wondering.

[rj_mayer]

Bearing in mind the annual cost of implementing one of the mainstream options for Visitor Management over 14 of our schools, we’re developing our own.

 

It features all the obvious on-screen sign-in options including photograph taking, staff card scanning and visitor badge printing. Student and staff data is sourced from our MIS systems via the Wonde service.

 

It will cost a one-time £600 per installation for the hardware, which includes a Microsoft Surface Go 2, card reader, label printer, mounting case and bracket and USB hub and wires. The schools will pay no extra for the software, ever.

 

Private cloud hosted, the data can be aggregated across the Trust and managed on a per-site basis. Evacuation lists are available at press of a button and regular digests sent to configured audiences.

 

The main core took 3 days to build and we foresee another week or two of dedicated time to build in all the additional features such as O365/Google calendar integration for expected visitor notifications etc. With an uplift to our Wonde subscription, we could implement an attendance write-back, if the appetite is there.

 

It’s been in trial for the past year on one site and going into another this Summer.

 

Just the way we’re approaching that particular challenge, so I thought I’d share.

 

Richard

Edited May 21, 2021 by rj_mayer

[mdrabble]

We use Entrysign for visitors but also staff are supposed to sign in and out - we have sign in/out points at all doors.

 

Our sixth form also supposed to use this for signing in and out as we also have sims write back.

 

It can integrate with Paxton but entrysign can only pull info from Paxton so we keep them separate.

[caffrey]

If you can, do your own - it really doesn't need all the "bells and whistles" As long as people can sign in and it can print out labels and a firelist it's all it needs. Mine pulls users \ authenticates from AD

[Danp]

Went with Sign In App, very easy to sort out.

[Zoom7000]

Went with Sign In App, very easy to sort out.

 

I just wished that they supported 2 way MIS write back. Until then, it's a non starter for my Trust