In today's competitive and security minded market, the race is on for building owners to rethink the first impression, the lobby. Ten years ago, the importance of lobby security and efficiency was not a prerequisite for renting space. Today, prospective tenants look at lobby operations through the eyes of their future visitors and the safety of their employees. What does that look like? We all understand you cannot judge a book by its cover, but unfortunately, a lobby is more than just a cover. A lobby is the representation of the quality of service a tenant can expect to receive by the building management. Does the lobby run efficiently and professionally? Does it feel inviting and safe? These are a few key evaluation points that can be easily determined when shopping for a space. Is there a paper visitor logbook at the reception desk (a sign of poor and outdated security)? Are people standing in line waiting (the sign of poor customer service and inefficiencies)? For more than a decade, iVisitor has been the leading lobby technology in helping building owners adopt and implement new processes consistent with the needs of today's tenants. In order to bridge the historic lack of lobby technology gap, two keys to a successful transformation is an easy to use system and one accessible to all building occupants. This fills the previous communication gap between tenants and security personnel, now allowing real time information sharing. Without common networks across tenants, the result is an on-line, web-based service that supports the consistent delivery of security communications. iVisitor by Veristream replaces the paper visitor logbook with a real-time web-based system, which every tenant can manage. Instead of a guest signing a paper logbook visible to other guests, tenants can now pre-register visitors through their personal iVisitor account enabling guest check-in at the lobby. Now, the check-in process is similar to airports; visitors may either see a receptionist or check-in directly at a visitor kiosk, possibly by scanning a driver's license. When guests check-in, tenants are notified by email, SMS and even push notifications to an iPhone. The results are astounding: a system providing increased security, staff efficiency, customer service and immediate professionalism. "iVisitor is a very efficient system. It has to say something if the first and second tallest buildings in Chicago both rely on Veristream," said Keith Kambic, security director, Sears Tower, Chicago IL. To learn about iVisitor, visit www.veristream.com. iVisitor will be on display June 16-17, 2010 at BuildingsNY at the Idesco booth. Curtis Hrncirik is business development manager of Veristream.