Dive Brief:
- Envoy has released a product designed to remotely staff multiple locations, streamline vendor management and extend visitor management capabilities, the company announced July 30.
- The tool, Virtual Front Desk, allows companies to have a presence at front desks when their staff is away or after the office’s main hours, the company said. A single person can also serve as the front desk point of contact for multiple offices, according to the release.
- As companies increasingly encourage or mandate workers to be in offices, unstaffed entry points can pose significant security risks and result in inaccurate visitor records, Envoy says. The tool addresses these challenges by maximizing the efficiency of existing staff and helping to enforce compliance requirements via virtual assistance and oversight of unstaffed entries.
Dive Insight:
Envoy Chief Product Officer James Colgan said the Virtual Front Desk allows companies that might not want to have a full-time front desk presence to offer a premium front desk experience, nonetheless.
“We end up being this single pane of glass where somebody can manage spaces and visitors in San Francisco, Austin, London, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, etc.,” Colgan said.
Colgan added that the product is flexible in its application, working for large companies that might have to manage multiple offices as well as smaller companies that might want to cut costs.
The Virtual Front Desk is among five capabilities Envoy has announced for its integrated workplace platform. The tool has been available for beta testing since around May, a spokesperson for Envoy said. Colgan noted that the feedback thus far has been positive.
For example, a non-profit organization that uses the tool, with a main office and multiple satellite offices that don’t require a full time front desk employee, sees the virtual front desk capability “as a way to give that personal service, that human touch, without actually having to go to the expense of putting a full time person on that front desk,” Colgan said.
Envoy has previously highlighted the challenges that businesses face with manually monitoring workplaces. To that end, the company has introduced platform capabilities that aim to improve security and expedite workplace processes, including an emergency notification system, a facial recognition tool and passive presence capture feature that mitigates reporting errors in occupancy data.
“What you're really looking to do is ensure that [when] somebody walks through the front door of your premises that they have someone that can help them get into the premises, answer their questions, respond to any issues or emergencies that may arise,” Colgan said. “Sometimes the person on premises is right there that can help you, but more often, there's not. Now you're getting situations, premises, buildings and times of the day when someone just isn't physically there.”
Virtual Front Desk pairs with the Envoy Visitor package, which manages visitor processes like registration, and the Envoy Workplace package, which allows companies to invite, register, screen and keep track of visitors entering their workplace locations, according to the company website. track how their office space is being used. The tool also would work with visitor management systems features, such as invite approvals, ID verification, and digital NDAs, according to the press release.
The tool also helps enforce compliance requirements via virtual assistance and oversight at unstaffed entrances, Envoy said.
