Operators at the Centre constantly receive alarms from remotely-managed systems ranging from CCTV and access control through to lone worker and building management systems.
Legacy methods of operation use many different applications, making an operator’s job pretty complex. All alarm activity is ‘time critical’, with the enforced use of numerous systems increasing time to action. Now, the integration of a wide range of alarm signals has increased operator efficiency and ensures prioritisation of critical alarms.
Paul Holdstock – director of Reliance Monitoring Services – told info4security: “We wanted to improve operator efficiency and availability. In order to do this, we hatched a plan to integrate all alarms and alerts including CCTV images, so we needed to implement a groundbreaking solution. We chose Sentinel Plus from Monitor Computer Systems which has provided operators with an intuitive, unified user interface. We have already seen increased operator effectiveness of up to 30% and increased availability of 40%.”
Lone worker protection issues
Holdstock continued: “Sentinel Plus has also provided us with key features in respect of lone worker protection. The comprehensive audit trail offers badge history stored alongside audio recordings. The Centre’s operators can also react to actionable alarms for low batteries and other fault messages. Audio recordings may be played from any point of a call which offers time savings when accessing long dialogues. In the meantime, system resilience and scalability are ensured with all data backed up immediately on arrival. The system is able to support our growth as more applications and operators come on line.”
Each Reliance operator is able to receive and interpret alarms from one workstation without the need for extensive training on disparate systems. The system has alarm prioritisation so a lone worker activating their device during a personal attack takes priority over a CCTV alert. This ensures operators are able to react to the most critical alarm, interpret events and alert relevant emergency response services.
PatrolNet emergency response
The system also tracks Reliance PatrolNet(TM) emergency response vehicles. Operators are able to locate in real-time the exact position of vehicles and action the most appropriate response to any given situation, informing the customer of the expected time of arrival. Previously operators manually input the audit trail following an alarm through verification to resolution. Sentinel Plus provides an automated audit trail of all events saving both time and providing customers and emergency services with precise data.
Terry Sallas – managing director at Reliance High-Tech – commented “The Reliance Monitoring Centre provides all the flexibility and convenience of a 24/7 operation; seamlessly blending manned and response services with leading edge systems. The investment into Sentinel and the increased integration of all alarms and alerts has improved efficiency and provided greater peace of mind to our customers.”
About Reliance High-Tech
Reliance High-Tech applies advanced technologies to design and deliver fully integrated electronic security solutions. The company is part of the Reliance Security Group, an established market leader in the provision of security guarding, facilities management, support services and business process outsourcing. Reliance employs over 12,000 people from a network of offices throughout the UK.
For further information click on the click located on the right hand panel of this page.