Security Securitas Netherlands

THE SONIM XP3 SENTINEL – THE ULTIMATE LONE WORKER SOLUTION KEEPS GUARDS SAFE AND CONNECTED AT ALL TIMES.

The Company
For Securitas, the employee is essential. The most locally focused security company in the world provides unmatched safety solutions, and meets specific protection needs of thousands of businesses.

The goal as an active security partner is to provide a safe working environment for people and organization’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Securitas is the knowledge leader in security worldwide with more than 260,000 employees in 40 different countries. The company provides more than 5,600 highly specialized guards to its clients in the Netherlands alone. Customers range from government entities to airports, office buildings, banks, construction sites, as well as IT companies.

Guards work in four divisions: Mobile (in vans), Service (in customer facilities), Aviation (in airports) and Alert (monitoring center services).

The services offered by Securitas are business specific guarding and mobile assistance, monitoring, as well as consulting and investigating. Each service is custom tailored for the individual business according to their exclusive needs and industry demands.

Therefore, Securitas is able to respond to a variety of unique and specific security challenges faced by clients on a case-by-case basis.

The Challenge
In order to provide clients with the highest degree of safety, Securitas needs reliable and tough mobile handsets to keep employees protected and connected at all times. Guards need the option to quickly send an alarm and/or an emergency call to receive help whenever they are in a dangerous situation no matter where they are located.

“Safety Of Our Personnel Is Key!”

In the past Securitas relied on portable Private Mobile Radios (PMR). However, in some rural environments guards had reception issues 30% of the time. Therefore, guards would lose contact with the team during their rounds, and were often times not continuously monitored by the emergency response center. “The response time to an alarm is an important factor for our customers,” stated Guido Krauss, Securitas IT Project Manager. “The dispatch center needs to be on high at all times.”

However, poor reception has been especially challenging for employees in indoor spaces. “Coverage and utmost reliability is becoming more and more important,” said Krauss. “Safety of our personnel is key! The risk of being confronted with criminals is increasing, especially during night shifts,” Krauss added. “Securitas needs to know the location of the guards and monitor their safety at all times.”

Another large issue Securitas often times faced material defects with the PMRs. “The radios’ microphones and wires were very sensitive, and damaged rather quickly and easily,” said Krauss.

Therefore, devices had to be repaired or replaced quit frequently, and as a result, proofed to be a rather high investment. The availability of replacement parts locally was limited, which caused lengthy and costly repairs, which consequently left guards unprotected at times. “Repairs were around 350 Euro, and would take anywhere from a few weeks to even two months,” Krauss explained.

“The Voice Connection Is Essential To Their Operation.”

The Solution
In 2009 Securitas Netherlands was ready for a rugged GSM solution with advanced lone worker capabilities flexible enough to match their existing safety process.

Sonim Technologies was the only supplier combining a tough GSM handset with advanced man-down functions including specialized buttons. In addition, the XP3 Sentinel finally offered Securitas dedicated software to communicate with their monitoring and emergency response center.

Securitas NL created an internally developed monitoring server, as well as their own emergency response center. However, the technical team was able to integrate custom functionality using the XP3 Sentinels configuration options, e.g. an SMS is sent every 15 minutes to check if the guard is ok. Now guards have the option to request enhanced supervision and GPS tracking, send GPS position updates, as well as log on and off at the beginning and at the end of their shifts.

Moreover, guards use the green button to respond with the ‘life sign,’ i.e. everything is ok. They use the amber to signify a security situation, but not an emergency. And the red button is used for a full lone worker alarm requiring rescue and GPS positioning.

250 units were supplied by Telepointer, the local value added reseller (VAR), with more phones being added in the coming months to other company locations. The Securitas phones are complimented with a tailor made leather holster, enabling guards to wear the device on their belts.

The Benefits
Safety has significantly improved since Securitas introduced the XP3 Sentinel to its employees. Guards have seen higher productivity and teamwork due to constant connectivity. Whereas before coverage had been an issue due to the PMR technology, it is no longer some- thing Securitas has to worry about.

The Sonim GSM mobile devices now keep employees connected at all times. As a result, team leaders have noticed a tremendous increase in confidence during work shifts. “The voice connection is essential to their operation,” said Krauss.

In addition, the numbers of false maydays and man-down alerts have also decreased significantly resulting in a higher responsiveness at the dispatch center. The ‘Sign of Life’ request, for example, had been set to 30-minute intervals due to coverage issues because messages would frequently not reach the guards in shorter time periods.

After the implementation of the Sonim XP3 Sentinel, the ‘Sign of Life’ function was restored to the originally intended 15-minute intervals, for better safety monitoring.

“We Are Very Happy About The Unique Technical Cooperation With Sonim, And Particularly Appreciate The Direct Technical Contact Without Intermediaries.”

Apart from the much improved safety and productivity of the guards, Securitas has additionally reduced their cost and downtime. The XP3 Sentinel is generating a fewer amount of defects than the PMR solution. In addition, the local VAR keeps spare handsets for rapid exchange, and also replaces batteries after a defined period of time to avoid any risk of failure. “We are very happy about the unique technical cooperation with Sonim, and particularly appreciate the direct technical contact without intermediaries,” added Krauss.

“We choose Sonim firstly because of its ultimate reliability and secondly because the Sentinel phone does exactly what it needs to do for Securitas,” said Krauss. “With the XP3 Sentinel solution we have finally achieved employee satisfaction, highly improved efficiency, but most importantly, we finally have a fundamental safety solution for our employees.”

“We Finally Have A Fundamental Safety Solution For Our Employees.”