Grace Academy Solihull is a secondary school and sixth form college in the UK. With 100 employees and numerous visitors to manage, they faced unnecessary expenses and time using paper-based processes, forcing them to research an alternative way to manage visitors in order to streamline the process and cut costs. We spoke to the school’s senior IT technician Mark, to gain insight about how SwipedOn has transformed their visitor management process by significantly reducing costs associated with a paper visitor book.

The Challenges

The team at Grace Academy Solihull faced visitor management challenges around escalating costs and expenditure on the sign-in books and stationary needed for guests coming into the school. The time taken to sign them in was also a major problem. When looking looking for a visitor management system, Mark’s highest priorities were cost effectiveness and ability to speed up the sign-in process.

Why SwipedOn?

SwipedOn proved to be the best price for the solution Grace Academy needed. The other visitor management systems they trialled offered more than what they wanted but they found SwipedOn fit their needs exactly and for the price they wanted to pay. After testing many other competitors, the team at Grace Academy found Swiped On to be the best fit for them.

A Cost-effective Digital Solution

Costs have been reduced overall and, even with the necessary hardware required, Mark advises they have recouped expenses within 18 months, adding that “the speed and efficiency of the sign-in process has greatly increased, and the overall look of our reception area has been transformed, and looks much more up to date.”

Grace Academy used to spend a lot of money in regards to a physical visitor book for which then had to be copied over to a guest pass, and was subsequently put into a plastic holder and lanyard. Therefore the school was spending, not only on paper visitor books, but also plastic for the ID card and holder. Mark further commented; “we are happy to exclude as much use as possible in the school to help the environment in any way we can. Now we use SwipedOn which prints off on our label printer - using recycled paper stickers - and the guest sticks it on their person. This removes the need for anything else.”

The Results

The three key features of SwipedOn which are most beneficial to Grace Academy are: easy visitor sign-in, email notifications and ID badge printing. Compared to how long it had taken previously, the increased speed of the sign-in process has proved beneficial, removing unnecessary admin for the team. Staff are made aware when visitors arrive enabling their front desk staff to save time by not having to chase them up themselves. Badge printing has enabled them to keep track of visitors around the building and ID accordingly should the need arise.

When we asked Mark if there was anything the team didn’t realise they were missing prior to implementing SwipedOn, he commented that they now realise they were missing quite a few capabilities and would be lost without it now - the ability to track and manage guests and staff timings are especially transformative to the process.

Download for Later

We hope you found this article helpful and it provides a good undestanding of how SwipedOn has helped reduce costs in this education facility. We've highlighted the challenges and results below for quick reference. Feel free to hit the download button on this page to save and read at your leisure.

• Escalating costs and expenditure on the sign-in books and stationary needed to manage guests
• The paper-based sign-in process was time consuming
• The paper and plastic materials used for their sign-in process was unethical

• Speed and efficiancy of the sign-in process has greatly increased
• The overall look of the reception area has been transformed and looks a lot more contemporary
• Reduced their impact on the environment