BuildingLink Labs

How much "stuff" entered by your front desk staff could really be better entered by the people facing them? Residents signing for packages. Visitors needing to be announced. Contractors or Service Providers "signing in." Fedex or UPS picking up outgoing packages.

Wouldn't it be great if you could shift that input work forward? BuildingLink Companion is our work-shifting solution — it's a resident-facing Android tablet that can pair with your front desk's computers and allow residents or visitors to work in tandem with your staff in real time. We're designing Companion to be a "second set of hands" in your lobby that reduces your front desk staff's keyboard workload and enhances their service response time.

We wanted to make your front desk staff's job easier, so we carefully considered which part of their day-to-day work we could reduce — "keyboard work" stood out right away. Why should your staff spend valuable time tapping away on the keyboard and scrolling through pages of data every time a resident or visitor approaches the front desk with a request? Wouldn't it be a better if residents and visitors inputted their own data, and staff were able to concentrate on completing requested tasks?

Companion is our solution, saving your staff time so they can make better use of it. Instead of verbally relaying information to staff or physically filling out forms, visitors and residents can submit their request, and all relevant information, through Companion's intuitive touchscreen interface. Companion will relay the request to your front desk computers, where staff can review the information for accuracy and complete the task, be it a package pickup or entry request — with minimal keyboard work.

We're designing Companion to perform amazing feats for your front desk area.

For example, Companion can automatically recognize residents who are approaching the front desk to pick up a package. It will prompt each resident to select and sign for their parcel, and send their selection to your front desk's computers. Your staff will see the requested package on an always-updating "picklist" and retrieve the item with little to no keyboard work.

It'll work wonders for non-residents, too. A contractor entering the building for the first time simply taps their identifying information into Companion and has their picture taken by the tablet. Companion then pushes their information to front desk staff, who can print out a visitor pass or admit the contractor right away. And, since each visitor's information is saved into BuildingLink's database, Companion will identify the contractor on their next visit without requiring any additional data input. Their identity record will automatically queue up on the front desk staff's computer, ready for review.