Let’s face it, over the last few months a lot of us haven’t been getting out much but it’s all systems go for an SG World engineer. We spoke to Pete Hassall about his experience installing school visitor management software and touchscreens over the last month.
How have you been able to work onsite safely?
Well when COVID-19 first raised its ugly head pretty much all schools closed down. This gave us time to review our own procedures and work out a way to perform installs safely. We brought in PPE equipment and adopted a strict wipe down routine pre and post installation. We can perform a virtually contactless install and either train people whilst adhering to the social distancing guidance or remotely, whatever works best for them.
Have you been busy?
Not at first, I don’t think we had any installations booked for March and most of April. But I think some schools saw the enforced downtime as an opportunity to do some of the things they just hadn’t had the time to sort out – like introducing an electronic touchscreen visitor management system. Now we’re pretty busy re-scheduling cancelled installations and fulfilling new bookings. After a quiet month it was really nice to be back out on the road and meeting customers again, I missed the travel and interaction.
How has COVID-19 affected visitor management in schools?
It’s a big change, although schools are getting less visitors now, they want to be very careful about who’s allowed into the building, where they can go and creating a dated record. Generally no one is allowed in without a pre-booked appointment so schools are very keen to use this feature on our software. They’re also using the touchscreen to communicate guidance on COVID-19 which is really useful, especially if it keeps changing!
Some schools have set up hand sanitiser stations next to the touchscreen to minimise infection risk, whilst some schools have removed the touchscreen functionality so the receptionist or admin staff can perform the check-in and issue the ID badge. In fact, we're currently tweaking our software to let pre-booked visitors check in by simply scanning their phone which should really help out schools.
Was it strange working in a school during the COVID-19 pandemic?
It was obviously a lot quieter but we’re used to working in and outside of normal school opening hours anyway. At first it was strange keeping a distance and wearing the face masks but we’re used to it now and just crack on, it really is the new normal.
