When it comes to safety, don’t take any chances. We had to solve two problems in one go for a company headquarters in Brussels and Securitas. One: an easy-for-all invitation system. Two: a streamlined check-in from the first outside barrier to the final door of the meeting room. In a high-security environment, there is no room for glitches inbetween.

One size fits all? No can do

Imagine the situation: a conference bus arrives at the company building, it passes the first security check at the gate, and then 50 people need to register separately to get their electronic badges activated. Multiply this by ten, when the conference hosts 500 people. People with little time, who don’t like to spend it at a check-in desk… You probably see the problem.

Another issue to tackle: the outdated back-office software for invitations. Every new registry required a new profile, no matter how often people had already come over. Some persons already had triple profiles in the database. Confusing and — in terms of safety — leaky, to say the least. This procedure needed streamlining from start to finish.
Aren’t there enough systems out there for invitations, calendar management, and security control? Sure, but in some cases an off-the-shelf solution simply doesn’t do. Especially when everybody is involved.

💡 When people have been on the job for decades, watch out for a crash if you launch too much new technology at once.

Invite? Check. Register? Check. Workflow? Easy. 

Who is ‘everybody’? The employee who makes a private appointment, the marketing department who invites people by the hundreds, the receptionist who runs against the clock and Securitas who needs to be able to overrule all in a high-risk situation. They simply asked for too many specific requirements for any of the existing platforms.

The solution was multi-faceted: the old badges still do the trick for private meetings, but for seminars and conferences they were replaced with a QR-code that is created during registration. Invitations, registrations and check-in were all streamlined within one company platform. This required new software and hardware for all personnel members, including those who had been on the job for decades. 
How to make sure that everybody is on board? (*)Flow Pilots’ scrum-based methodology did wonders. Instead of working towards The Big Launch, the team went step by step, making proof runs (and another, and another) until everybody was so involved that nobody would notice any switch. Because in the end, people appreciate a soft landing.

(*) Flow Pilots is now part of ACA Group