Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing (GRAM) is a premier contract development and manufacturing organization specializing in sterile injectable drug products, including biologics, small molecules, and vaccines. The company provides sterile filling and finishing services for vials, syringes, and cartridges, supporting pharmaceutical partners in bringing critical medications to market efficiently and reliably.

Operating across multiple facilities and buildings, GRAM works within a highly regulated environment where safety, compliance, and operational precision are critical. Ensuring accurate visitor tracking, clear internal communication, and efficient use of workplace resources is essential in GRAM’s day-to-day operations.

Challenge: Elevating visitor management across multiple facilities at multiple locations 

As GRAM expanded across multiple facilities, managing day-to-day visitor visibility and efficiency became increasingly complex. Operating under FDA oversight and Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) requirements, the organization needed to ensure every person on-site—employees, visitors, and vendors—was properly accounted for, while maintaining strict audit readiness and compliance standards.

However, visitor management processes were fully manual and lacked real-time visibility. Records were maintained through physical logs and binders, making it difficult to accurately track who was on-site, where they were, and who they were visiting.

At the same time, retrieving visitor information for audits required manual searches through records, slowing response times.

Beyond visitor management, teams also relied on disconnected systems for space coordination and emergency communication.

Without a centralized system, these processes created inefficiencies and increased administrative burden.

Solution: A unified platform for visitors, spaces, communication, and safety

GRAM implemented Envoy to consolidate multiple workplace systems into a single platform spanning visitor management, space scheduling, emergency communication, and digital signage.

Visitors: Replacing manual, paper-based check-in with automated workflows
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With Envoy Visitors, GRAM replaced manual, paper-based processes with a centralized digital system that creates accurate and reliable records for every visitor.

“Prior to working with Envoy, our visitor sign-in process relied on physical name tags with carbon copies in a ringed binder. This method was 100% manual.”

In a regulated environment, maintaining visibility into who is on-site is critical for both compliance and security. Previously, manual logs made it difficult to track visitor presence or quickly confirm where guests were within the facility.

With Envoy, visitor check-in is standardized across locations, giving teams real-time visibility into who is in the building, where they are, and who they are visiting—strengthening on-site security and accountability.

“Having Envoy allows us to know who’s visiting, where they are, and who they’re here to see. Accounting for all people on site is crucial for us."

Automated notifications further support security and coordination by ensuring hosts are immediately aware when their guests arrive, eliminating delays and reducing reliance on manual handoffs between front desk and security teams.

By digitizing visitor workflows, GRAM strengthened security oversight, improved audit readiness, and created a more reliable system of record across all facilities.

Emergency Notifications + Screens: One system for safety, visibility, and communication
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For GRAM, emergency communication is mission-critical in a highly regulated FDA environment, where rapid coordination across facilities is essential.

Previously, emergency alerts lived in a standalone system that could not connect to on-site displays or visitor data.

“Because it was standalone, our previous digital signage system could not tie into our on-premise displays, nor could it capture any visitors that we may have on the site."

With Envoy Emergency Notifications and Screens, GRAM unified emergency communication and workplace messaging into a single platform, closing visibility gaps across employees, visitors, and facilities.

“With Envoy, we can provide critical information when it is needed to the widest audience. There really is no substitute for a single pane of glass portal.”

This shift allowed GRAM to move from fragmented communication tools to a centralized system that supports both real-time alerts and ongoing workplace messaging.

Screens extended that capability into physical spaces, enabling centralized updates across multiple buildings without manual intervention.

“Using Envoy Screens, we’re able to control our 10 screens across our 7 facilities at 3 different sites,” Maitner said. “Once that process happened, deploying the content to the screens was a breeze.”

Together, Emergency Notifications and Screens help ensure that critical information reaches employees and visitors wherever they are, whether during an emergency or for day-to-day operational updates.

Rooms & Desks: Improving coordination across distributed facilities
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As GRAM expanded across multiple buildings and sites, coordinating shared spaces became increasingly complex.

With Envoy Rooms & Desks, employees gained visibility into space availability across facilities, helping teams coordinate more effectively across distributed locations.

“Envoy provides organization-wide visibility… as well as providing staff with desk availability at a site before they arrive.”

This visibility helps employees plan ahead before arriving on-site and reduces friction when moving between buildings or coordinating across teams.

In a multi-facility, regulated environment, having consistent access to shared spaces like conference rooms and desks is critical for maintaining operational efficiency.

By bringing space scheduling into the same platform used for visitors, emergency communication, and workplace messaging, GRAM reduced fragmentation and created a more unified workplace experience.

Integrations that support seamless operations
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GRAM integrated Envoy with Microsoft 365 to streamline setup and maintain alignment across employee systems across its facilities.

This connection helps ensure visitor workflows stay in sync with existing employee communication channels, enabling real-time notifications when guests arrive.

“Visitor sign-ins host is notified by Teams and emails wherever they may be in our facility."

Results: and full operational visibility

Since implementing Envoy, GRAM has improved communication efficiency and visibility across its operations.

Information retrieval processes that previously required searching through manual binders have been dramatically reduced.

“Prior to Envoy, information requests about visitors would take 20+ minutes to retrieve,” Maitner said. “Now we’re down to around 3 minutes or less.”

This improvement is especially critical in a regulated environment where speed and accuracy are essential.

At the same time, GRAM now has real-time visibility into who is on-site, strengthening security oversight and accountability across facilities. Visitor tracking is more accurate and reliable, ensuring teams can quickly confirm who is in the building and where they are when needed.

Visitor management is now faster and more reliable, while automation has reduced the workload on front desk and security teams.

“Having Envoy visitors allows us to know who’s visiting, where they are, and who they’re here to see."

Emergency communication has also expanded in reach, ensuring critical messages are delivered across employees, visitors, and facilities through a single platform.

“Our emergency communication has never had such a broad reach before.”

These improvements have had a measurable impact on day-to-day operations.

“Working with Envoy has reduced a lot of stress for a lot of people in an FDA-regulated environment.”

By unifying visitor management, space scheduling, emergency communication, and workplace messaging into a single platform, GRAM now operates with stronger visitor oversight, faster response times, and a scalable foundation for continued growth.