RFID attendance systems and other automated attendance systems lessen the daily burden of attendance tracking and management. It automates the entire system and generates reports automatically. With these systems in place, you don’t have to worry about the taxing task of attendance management.
With the existing benefits of this system, combining it with another feature makes it a better innovation than it already is. Adding the SMS Notifications feature elevates the utility and essence of said RFID attendance systems.
What is the SMS Notifications Feature and How it Works
This notification feature takes advantage of the ever-reliant instant messaging system.
To fully grasp what this system is and how it works, let’s look back at how an RFID attendance system works.
This automated attendance system uses RFID towers and tags. Students and tag-holders walk through the towers, and the towers detect the RFID tags. As it detects the encrypted data, the data is sent directly to the accompanying management system to record them.
As the data is received in the management software, this action also becomes the signal to prompt the notification feature to send the messages.
RFID Attendance System with SMS Notifications Feature in Action
The notification feature sends messages to the student’s listed authorized contact person or guardian.
Say, for example, you are listed as your child’s emergency contact person. Every morning when your child goes to school and walks through the RFID towers, you will receive a text message to let you know. In the same manner, you will receive another message alert when they leave the school premises.
The same cycle happens for attendance systems and school management software, in general, that have mobile apps. However, in this case, the alerts come as notifications through the app. It uses the email address of the recipient rather than their mobile numbers.
Advantages of RFID Attendance System with SMS Notifications
1. Efficient Tracking
The foremost advantage of using RFID attendance systems is its efficient tracking and management. Now, pairing it up with an SMS notification feature becomes an efficient tracking system that leaves no room for doubts and errors.
With the SMS notification feature, the parents receive timely updates regarding the whereabouts of their children. It goes without saying that once the kids step outside, the parents’ worries increase tenfold. This feature acts as a blanket of assurance for parents who need to make sure their children arrived safely.
Once this feature is activated, parents and the school admin go hand-in-hand in tracking the children’s whereabouts. The school takes care of them while they are on the premises. On the other hand, parents can come up with accurate estimates of what time their children can arrive home after receiving the notification.
2. Ensures Safety and Security
Expounding on the idea that RFID systems with an SMS notification feature ensure safety and security, think about all the times you heard your parents say let them know when you’ve arrived somewhere. Personally, I can’t count the times I promised to update them immediately and then forgot all about it.
This system will never forget that promise.
As an automated management system, the data detected from the smart RFID towers will be forwarded into two stems. One, the data will be collected and generated into reports. Second, it triggers the notification prompt.
The timely and consistent updates serve as an assurance for the parents. It acts as the conclusion to their assumption regarding their child’s safety. They don’t have to wait around for their children to send them a message. The system will do it in place of their kids.
And, if the worst situation happens, the authorities can use the data from the messages to help them with the investigation. The timestamps will provide a huge help because of their pinpoint accuracy.
3. Fosters School-Parent Relationship
This added feature helps create a better and more longstanding relationship between the school and the parents.
It is essential to maintain close relations with the parents as they are your primary clients, along with their children. Any mishap with your concerns with them will affect the attendance of their children in the future.
This investment of adding this feature paints and cements the position of the academic institution as having great concern for the safety of their students. It marks that you are willing to invest in innovations, no matter the cost, to provide the best environment for the children and their parents.
Despite receiving automated messages, the parents will still regard these as something personal. Only a handful of academic institutions go the extra mile adding an SMS notification feature to their management system.
4. No Extra Hassle
As the messages are sent automatically, no one is assigned the added task.
Gone are the days when the first call of action is to call the parents immediately. Now, the system takes over that task. When the entire system is in full motion, it actually lessens the load of the staff. Lesser tasks also mean less hassle.
The biggest hassle that one can get from using this system is when you need to contact the legal guardians because of emergencies personally. But that doesn’t happen regularly.
5. Transparency and Accountability
Lastly, this advantage is beneficial to both parents and school administration.
The availability of timely and detailed records can hold both parties accountable for various possible reasons.
As seen below, GoSchooler uses an RFID attendance system. All organized data and reports are accessible through the highlighter column.
In the case of the parents, they can question the school’s decisions and sanctions directed at their child’s attendance performance. For example, the school decides to place the child on probation for several reasons, including attendance. The parents can use the records from the text messages they receive to counter them.
In the same manner, the school can also use the same records to support its claim. Aside from that, they can further use the reports when parents insist on pushing the blame on them for compromising situations that didn’t happen within school premises.
They can easily justify their claim by handing out the reports to show that the child was at the school during a specific timeframe.
FAQs
What are the benefits of using an RFID attendance system with SMS notifications?
Regardless of the influx of students that enter at the same time, the system is capable of generating and sending the alerts accurately.
What are the other uses for RFID?
Final Takeaways
RFID attendance systems, per se, provide several benefits as a stand-alone system. It becomes an even more beneficial system with the integration of the SMS notification feature.
This feature fosters a better relationship between the school admin and parents. It serves as an added form of assurance and layer of security. It’s also a joy for parents who want to receive consistent updates regarding the whereabouts of their children.
If before reading this article, you were still thinking if this investment is worth it. Then, the clear answer is yes. Go and finalize that purchase.
