Release 18 - 09./11.10.2023

New Features & Enhancements:

• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Integration:
  • Employees can now set up a 2FA authenticator app during the registration process.
  • Administrators have the ability to view and manage 2FA status for employees, including removing the second factor for account recovery.
• Enhanced Employee Management:
  • Group select and delete options added to the Employee List.
  • Bulk import feature can now import employees for multiple locations.
• Improved Reception:
  • Implementation of an advanced search bar, replacing the "generic" search, for quick and efficient data retrieval. You can now search for specific data fields.
  • Re-positioning of UI elements for better usability.
• Guest Type Auto-Correction
  • Introduction of "Guest Type Auto-Correction" feature to prevent different guest types from choosing the wrong check-in flow
  • Please contact us if this feature should be implemented.
• Compliance Documents Can Now Be Sorted Manually
  • Ordering of compliance documents in the check-in-flow editor is now possible. This way it can be ensured that inductions are viewed before signing them.
• Added Navigation Link To Invitation E-Mails:
  • Addition of "Open navigation" link in location text in the invite e-mail for improved user experience.
• Teams Integration Support:
  • Implementation of help and support commands for teams chatbot.

Bug Fixes:

• Stability Improvements:
  • Resolved dashboard crashes occurring due to outdated cached versions.
  • Fixed kiosk card dispenser service crashes and issues related to card jams.
• Dashboard:
  • Addressed the bug preventing the import of CSV files for employee and guest data.
  • Fixed reception guest sorting issues when switching between tabs.

September 2023 (Release 17)

Kiosk

• Optimized "select-option-from-list"-custom field
  • Looking through a lot of options is now easier, as options are now categorized by their beginning letter.

• Privacy mode

  • When checking in without manually (without an ID scan), people around could read the guests name on the kiosk. In case you want to make sure no one sees your name when entering it, you are now able to hide the letters, as known from a password input field.

  • This feature needs to be activated for each location and can either be activated as standard-on or standard-off. If it's standard-off, it needs to be activated by the guest by clicking on the privacy-mode button.

August 2023 (Release 16)

Cloud / Dashboard

• Added employee filter and optimized search
  • When managing employees, you can now use an extended search and a filter function, with which you can quickly and easily find employees in the dashboard by role, location or name.

• Wording change: Compliance quiz becomes test

  • To prevent any confusion for the guest, why he should take a quiz before completing his check-in - we have changed the wording from "Quiz" to "Test".

July 2023 (Release 14)

Backend / Dashboard

• Revamped Compliance Document Logic
  • We've optimized the way we handle compliance documents. In the past, guests who completed their compliance documents online would need to repeat the process if they were invited by a different host. With our new system, guests can enter their birthdate online or at the kiosk, and we will save this data along with the completed documents and check for it when a guest is invited again. This way, we prevent duplication and ensure a smoother check-in process for recurring guests.

• Detailed Comydo QR-Code Scanner Information

  • Dive into the details of your Comydo QR-code scanners directly from your account dashboard. You can now view the device ID, location, and time of the last scan for all installed Comydo scanners, providing real-time data at your fingertips to improve your visitor management capabilities.

Kiosk

• Stability Upgrades for EasyPrinter S3

  • The EasyPrinter S3 has undergone a series of enhancements to improve performance, ensuring it seamlessly manages and resolves issues.

• Language Selection on all Check-in Screens

  • Our language picker feature is now accessible on every check-in screen, streamlining your guests' experience. This includes compliance documents - ensuring visitors understand all necessary details, if they started the check-in process with a language they are not fully comfortable with.

• Optimized Terminology

  • We've refined our wording to provide a more intuitive interface for the kiosk. To avoid confusion, we've changed "Company" to "Your company" when guests are inputting their company details during the check-in process. A minor tweak for a major enhancement in user experience.

June 2023 (Release 13)

Dashboard

• Check-in-Flow editor condition builder
  • Creating and implementing conditions in the Check-in-Flow editor just got a lot easier with our newly introduced Condition Builder. This visual tool allows you to quickly and effortlessly build conditions for check-in-flow transitions or actions, saving you time and reducing errors associated with manual creation.
• Guest management: More flexibility for timed auto-checkouts
  • We have added a new condition, that makes managing guests with multiple-day appointments smoother. Now, you can implement daily checkouts without inadvertently checking out guests with ongoing appointments. This makes the system more flexible and accommodating to various visitor schedules.
    If you want to implement this feature in your existing configuration, please contact us at support@essentry.com.
• Recurring appointments
  • To improve visibility and understanding of guest schedules, recurring appointments made via Outlook or Google are now distinctly marked in the appointment overview.
• EasyPrinter S3 service notifications
  • We have extended our monitoring for the EasyPrinter S3 Thermo-rewrite card-dispenser. If configured in the monitoring settings, our system will now send notifications when the kiosk has made a certain amount of prints or after a specified time interval.
• Set browser language for new SAML Users
  • For a more optimized user experience, new SAML users will now have their interface set to their browser's language by default. This should facilitate easier navigation and understanding of our system for users not familiar with the location language.

Kiosk

• Birthdate input design enhancement
  • We've optimized the process of entering birthdates during check-in. This change aims to improve comprehension and encourage guests to enter this information, which will save them time on subsequent visits. The more streamlined and intuitive design should provide a smoother and faster check-in experience for your guests.

April 2023

February 2023

January 2023

November 2022

Releases between October 2021 and November 2022 are currently missing. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause.

October 2021

NFC Tag Support – Added an encoding description to support reading RFID-cards with NFC transmission standard. 

Kiosk Text Inputs – Adjusted look and functionality of kiosk text fields. This includes easier recognition of the bounding box and removes unnecessary & distracting features. 

Improve Check-in cancellation – Added a confirmation dialog when clicking the “CANCEL" button during check-in, to prevent accidental cancellations and the resulting loss of data. The timeout duration of check-in pages was increased. 

September 2021

RFID Encoding Dashboard - The encoding descriptions for RFID access cards can now be created and assigned via the dashboard. Existing encoding descriptions can't be modified, only deleted. Encoding descriptions which are assigned to at least one kiosk can't be deleted. 

Monitoring - Administrators can now set up notifications for integrations and access control system alerts to notify selected users about any issues with those systems. 

RFID Encoding Technology - Added read support for Mifare Desfire encoding and RFID serial numbers. Optionally the encoding description can be encrypted and stored in the cloud. The decryption key can then be scanned via QR code at the kiosk to store it locally.  

Deletion Policy for Images – Added 2 more data categories for the deletion policy:  

1. Cropped portraits from identity documents  
2. Selfie images 

Location Languages – Admins can now enable or disable languages separately for each location. Only the enabled languages will be available for guests to pick from during the check-in (web & kiosks). 

Display link to privacy policy in invitation emails – Invitation emails now contain a link to the customer privacy policy and imprint. 

Make text in host notifications customizable – The text in notification E-Mails can now be customized to contain the correct instructions. 

August 2021

WiFi Filters – The Kiosk's WiFi UI now shows more information about the nearby WiFi networks. Added a configurable blacklist filter to prevent the kiosk from connecting to specific WiFi networks. 

Selfie Screen Improvements (Arrow & Face Rectangle) – The selfie capture flow was streamlined into three steps:  

1. How to prepare for the selfie (take of anything covering your face)
2. where to look for the selfie (location of the camera)
3. and the picture itself (camera stream & snapshot) 

Guest Email Notification for Pickup Times – Optionally, at the click of a button hosts can now inform guests, when they will be picked up. The guest receives this information via an E-Mail notification.  

Guests can transition their check-ins themselves – Guests now can now go to the kiosk again, while onsite, to perform actions that have been configured in the flow configuration editor. E.g., coming back from a break and keeping their access credentials 

New custom field type “tables” – Added a new type of custom fields, that allows guests and employees to enter information in a row and column structure. The kiosk now also supports tags and select fields. 

Custom check-in time threshold – An adjustable time boundary around appointments and individual transitions can be specified, where guests can check in with their invitation. This makes highly secure locations more restrictive and other locations more convenient. 

More information for recurring guests with a QR code - Added better highlighting in the reception if guests, who check in with a QR code, already scanned their ID at a previous visit. Failed face matches are now more emphasized. 

July 2021

Slides as a combination of images & videos – A new compliance document combines both videos and images into the same type of document to show them in any sequence that fits your needs. Videos can be configured to make the guest must them watch until the end or skippable at any point.  

Check-in Flow improvements – Videos will now stop at the last frame of the video and must be confirmed manually to ensure, that the guest is done with the video before they continue. Quizzes now show an instruction telling guests to select one or more answers (single vs multiple choice) to make it easier for the guest to determine how many answers should be selected. 

Kiosk Setup Flow – There is now a guided and streamlined device setup flow available for setting up and testing the kiosk and all its components. This simplifies the first-time setup so anyone can do it and no component is forgotten. 

June 2021 Release | 2

Support of additional types of identity documents - The improved ID verification fixes several minor issues and supports more document types from different years e.g., residence permits, passports, ID cards, and driver's licenses.

Quizzes - Test the knowledge of your guests and add an additional level of compliance to your facilities. You can make each quiz fit your security needs by freely configuring the number of questions, answers, and how many of the latter must be selected. Guests will have to complete each quiz before entering your facility at least once.
Help Center Note

AppStore Relocation - Our iPad app will receive a breaking update due to rebranding guidelines in Apple’s AppStore. When you update the essentry app on your iPad from version 1.14.10 (and older) to the current one (1.15.0 and above), you will have to pair the device with your location again. This is a one-time inconvenience for this update only and all future updates will be as seamless as before. More information on how to pair your iPad with a location can be found in our Support Portal.

Compliance Documents - Administrators can now configure that compliance documents cannot be completed as part of the pre-registration and that they must be completed at the Kiosk after the guest's identity has been verified.
Help Center Note

June 2021 Release | 1

Guest pickup confirmation - You can now use the host pickup confirmation to ensure that none of your guests enter the building/premises alone.
Help Center Note

March 2021 Release

Language change on invitation - Guests can change language during pre-registration - If your hosts have invited guests with a default language that they do not speak, your guests can now change the language themselves.
Help Center Note

Guest access by host approval - Hosts can now approve your guests' access as a last resort using a QR code on an essentry device at the entrance. 
Help Center Note

GDPR Consent Screen - If your legal team requires a consent form under Article 6 papa. 1 lit a GDPR, you can now add a consent screen to the check-in process that will be displayed to your guests before they scan their ID documents at an essentry kiosk.
Help Center Note

January 2021 Release | 2

Data Policy - The data policies agreed in the ADV can now also be viewed in the dashboard.
Help Center Note

January 2021 Release | 1

Device Alerts - You can now see errors and warnings about your devices. These alerts range from "printer has no paper" to "device offline".
Help Center Note

Device Notifications - You can now define alerting rules to inform your personnel when there is a problem with a device or maintenance is required like paper needs to be refilled.
Help Center Note

November 2020 Release

Kiosk Background Images - With backgrounds we will bring your kiosk layout to the next level.
Impress your guests with an individual look at the entrance.
Help Center Note

Compliance Document Editor - We have added a rich-text editor that you can use to create compliance documents without the help of the essentry support. Compliance documents can be either be static (an image, slides, etc.), a text document that your guests have to sign, or a video.
Help Center Note

November 2020 Release

Hide upcoming guests in reception - If your reception personnel knows that some invited guests will not be visiting, they can now hide the upcoming invitation on the reception page to reduce the clutter.
Help Center Beitrag

Delete appointments in each step of the wizard - If you previously created an appointment and changed your mind during any step of the wizard, you had to save the appointment first before you were able to delete it. Now there is a delete button in each step of the wizard.
Help Center Beitrag

July 2020 Release

Rebranding to Essentry - ZipKey will be changing its name to essentry. The web dashboard will be available at app.essentry.com and the old URL will redirect to the new URL to allow your users a smooth transition. There are no further actions required on your side. The name of the existing iPad App will change automatically with the next version.

July 04, 2020

Device Dashboard - With the latest release, we are improving the device management within our dashboard. There is now a new page where you can view all your company's devices and their current status. This gives you a quick overview of all the important information including the device type, app & OS version, and the last time the device was seen. Use this information to keep track of all your devices and monitor their healthiness.

Fever detection during check-in - With the Covid-19 pandemic still ongoing, many businesses try to resume their everyday work. To help with the back-to-work efforts, essentry has partnered up with Kentix to provide your company with an additional layer of security during each check-in: detecting fever for each guest. The new Kentix sensor neatly integrates into the existing flow and the result can be used by your reception personnel to grant or prohibit access and keep your employees safe and healthy. For more information, please contact us at support@essentry.com.

Manual check-in without an invitation - In the current time, it is important to reduce the number of times people touch public surfaces. This also applies to guests checking in via the iPad. To help with this, guests can use the QR code from their invitation to check in without touching the screen at all. In addition to that, the reception now also can check in guests manually via the dashboard. Read more

We spreken Nederlands - Included in the latest release, we have packed a new language for you, your employees and guests: Dutch. Over the next couple of weeks, we will also extend the available languages further, targeting more european countries. If you have any questions or want to share with us your most-used language, feel free to write us an email at support@essentry.com.

Certified Security - Cybersecurity experts from Syss conducted a comprehensive pentest in June. Our high security standards were confirmed by the test and certified. 

April 19, 2020

Use Calendar Integrations With Multiple Locations - Administrators can now configure short codes for each location (like "HQ" or "NYC") that employees can specify when creating appointments through their calendar. If no location code is entered, the host's default location will be used. Read more

Manage Trainings And Documents - You can now configure which documents and trainings are required by your guests for each location. Read more

Ask Customized Questions During The Check-In Process - You can now ask your guests yes/no-questions on the iPad, for example, if they have had a fever in the last few weeks. These questions are fully customizable and can be displayed to your reception personnel.

March 02, 2020

Address Book - Employees can now manage their guests as contacts. This allows them to invite guests a second time more easily and get a better overview of the last appointments with them. Read more

Multiple Guests With The Same Email - You can now invite multiple guests who share the same email address. This is useful when not all guests have their own addresses and can only be reached via shared inboxes such as “marketing@example.com”.

Guest Name Matching - If your guests do not have the QR code when they want to check-in, you can now configure the iPads to match the invitation based on their name.

Edit Custom Fields - Your reception personnel is now able to edit custom fields of guests that are upcoming or already onsite. Before this release, this was only possible while checking someone in or approving them.

November 21, 2019

Enhanced Employee Roles - Your employees do lots of things and have lots of responsibilities. That is the reason why we are extending the role management for your employees in ZipKey. Each employee can now have multiple roles for different locations and entrances. Read more

Multi-Location Tenants - Similar to the employees, you can now also assign the same tenant company to multiple of your locations. For each location, you can assign a specific contact person and additional information for this tenant. The tenants can then also assign their employees to multiple locations. Read more

New Navigation Structure - As mentioned in the last release notes, we have updated the navigation structure significantly. These changes are based on user feedback and were also needed for the new employee and tenant management. It might take some time to get used to the new structure, but if you have any issues or additional feedback, please write us an email at support@zipkey.de.

Manual Check In - With this feature, we are further improving the check-in flow. From now on, your receptionists can manually check in any upcoming guest with an invitation. For this to be available, the guest must have completed all required information like trainings and documents. If there are no requirements (eg. event), you can always directly check them in.

July 31, 2019

Salesforce Integration - ZipKey is not only great to manage guests for individual appointments, but also an excellent choice for large events with hundreds of guests. The simple check-in process combined with the on-demand name badge printing make the whole experience as convenient as possible. Now, we also make inviting and managing guests easier by integrating with Salesforce. Use your existing lists, connect them to an appointment with ZipKey, and everything else is done automatically. To get started with ZipKey + Salesforce, please send us an email at support@zipkey.de.

Birthdate as an Identifier - Up until today, guests had two ways of identifying themselves with ZipKey: either with their email or their QR code. But some of your guests might not have a business email. For them, we developed a third way of identification: their birthdate. You can now set up your location to identify guests with their full name and birthdate. This allows recurring guests to only do trainings and documents once and combines them into one user.

More UI Improvements - We are continuing to work on the user interface of both the ZipKey Web-Dashboard as well as the iPad kiosk app. With this release, we are preparing some bigger changes which will be released later this year. For now, there are some improvements for the navigation, the Web-Registration, and the document signature page on the kiosk.

Trusted ID (preview) - With Trusted ID, ZipKey will become the number one choice for visitor management in highly secure buildings. It combines sophisticated hardware like an ID scanner and a 3D camera with the latest software technology to identify and verify every single guest. To find out more about Trusted ID, please have a look at this PDF. If you want to schedule a demo, please contact us directly.

March 27, 2019

Azure Active Directory - As mentioned in our last release notes, we are now supporting employee management with Microsoft’s Azure AD. With this release, we are happy to announce that this feature has passed the initial testing and has now reached general availability.

Enhanced Reception Dashboard - In the last few months, we studied how receptionists work with the ZipKey Web-Dashboard. We found that ZipKey highly increases the efficiency and also the satisfaction for the whole visitor flow. To further improve this, we are adding a few subtle changes to customize the receptionist page. This means customizing columns, allowing to select the current entrance, and adding a search functionality. All data is stored per device and makes switching between entrances more convenient.

Multiple Trainings & Documents - With this release, we are enabling locations to have multiple security trainings and documents. This means that you can have a company-wide NDA and training and extend them individually per location. Your guests will have to complete all of these preconditions to be able to check in.

iPad App Improvements - We also took the time to conduct a user study for our iPad App. While the experience was good overall, we also found a few things to improve. In the latest release, you can find multiple small improvements for the iPad flow which will make it even easier for your guests to check in unattended. Read More

January 25, 2019

Slack Notifications - Due to popular demand, we have added an integration for Slack. Simply connect your Slack account to ZipKey and get notified about your guests via the ZipKey Bot directly in Slack. Never miss a notification due to delayed email updates again! Read more

Multiple Integrations per Account - Up until now, you could only connect each integration once per account. Now, you can connect multiple Google & Outlook calendars and Slack users with your ZipKey account. That way, you can synchronize calendars from multiple users and get multiple employees notified about your guests.

More Insightful Invitations - Previously, the invitation emails were too minimalistic. We added more information to these emails while keeping them short and precise. This way, your guests get all the information they need at one glance. You can see how the new invitation emails look like.

Brand Relaunch - We have updated the color set of ZipKey to more sophisticated shades. This update also changed some contrast ratios improving the readability of text in general. In addition, we now have a brand new website: zipkey.de

November 12, 2018

Host Notifications - Until now, only the administrator of your company was notified when a guest without a host arrived. With the newest release, you can choose which of your employees should get notified. This also includes that multiple employees can be informed. Read more

Analytics Dashboard for Tenants - Our analytics dashboard is now available for tenants. The dashboard provides a detailed overview of how many guests you are meeting, at what times they arrive, and who your most frequent visitors are. You see the information on “Analytics” in the main navigation menu.

Private Contacts - Enjoy enhanced privacy as information about the guests you invited are not shared with your colleagues anymore. We have removed the company-wide address book in favor of private contacts.

Multi-Location Integrations - If your company uses ZipKey at multiple locations, you can now choose which one will be used for Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook integrations.

MOBOTIX Integration - ZipKey can now integrate MOBOTIX cameras. Attach image snapshots from your video surveillance cameras to our visitor data. ZipKey can also send tags and data to MOBOTIX like ID pictures and visitor information. The increased level of detail is beneficial for audit purposes.

Updated September 29, 2023 18:05