On a normal workday, gaps in your visitor process mostly mean extra work. In a disruption, the stakes are different. Which external visitors are in the building? Has everyone left? Who is responsible for the contractor on site?
The CER Act, which entered into force in Finland in 2025, makes these questions more relevant than ever. That is why now is a good time to take a critical look at your visitor process.
Physical security plays a key role in the CER Act
CER (Critical Entities Resilience) is based on an EU directive designed to strengthen the resilience of critical services. In Finland, the Act applies to entities identified as critical to society in sectors such as energy, transport and digital infrastructure.
Preparedness and risk management are at the heart of the Act. One part of this is very concrete: who has access to your premises, and what are they doing there?
Every day, customers, contractors, maintenance staff, suppliers, and other external visitors move through company premises. Yet visitor information may still be scattered across paper guest books and emails. Cybersecurity often gets the attention, while physical security is easily overlooked. But physical security determines who gets through the door your firewall cannot protect.
Up-to-date visitor information supports preparedness
In a disruption, there is no time to piece together a situation overview from several different sources. Up-to-date information about visitors on your premises can help you see who is still in the building, for example during an evacuation.
The CER Act does not define a specific list of visitor information that must be collected. However, a critical entity must identify the risks it faces and take measures to manage them.
A visitor process cannot rely on one person’s memory or information scattered across different places. Keeping visitor information in one place helps you stay in control, even when something unexpected happens.
A secure visit starts before the visitor arrives
A great visitor experience and security are not opposites. At their best, the same process improves both.
Visitor management does not start at the front desk. When a visit is registered in advance, your organization already knows who is coming, when they will arrive, and who their host is. This makes the process both safer and smoother.
Movement in critical premises must be controlled
In a critical environment, special attention should be paid to contractors, maintenance staff, and other service providers. They regularly move around the premises and work in areas where regular visitors are not allowed.
For these visitor groups, signing in is not enough. You also need to make sure that the required safety induction has been completed, the necessary permits and approvals are in place, and access rights match the task at hand.
If this information is scattered across emails and Excel files, it is difficult to manage the full picture and verify it when needed. A centralized process brings the information together and makes the whole picture visible.
Traceability supports risk management
Security practices should not exist only on paper. When needed, you must be able to find out what actually happened.
A digital visitor process makes it possible to keep a record of key events: when a visitor signed in and out, who hosted the visitor, and whether the required inductions were completed.
This helps when investigating disruptions, but also during audits and when developing security practices. You do not have to piece the information together afterwards from emails on someone’s memory.
More data does not automatically mean better security. Visitor data is personal and must be handled appropriately. What matters is collecting the information you actually need and managing it properly.
Risk management must be reflected in the visitor process
The CER Act does not make a visitor management system mandatory. It does, however, give organizations a good reason to take a more critical look at the security practices around visits.
Does your current process support your organization’s risk management and preparedness? If information about external visitors is scattered across different places or your security practices depend on manual work, the answer is probably no.
The CER Act does not require a visitor management system. It requires critical entities to identify their risks. Well-managed visitor management helps address one very concrete part of those risks: external people moving through your premises.
The visitor process is one concrete area where you can make sure risk management also works in practice.
At Systam, we help you to make your visitor process secure and smooth. It covers the entire visit, from the initial invitation and arrival to inductions and sign out. The information you need stays in one place and is available when you need it.
