Enhanced security for JD Wetherspoon through seamless CCTV integration & collaborative accident reporting
SECOM AIR is a comprehensive incident management portal that facilitates efficient incident reporting, evidence collection, and integration with CCTV systems. The system’s user-friendly design, cost effectiveness, and positive user feedback highlight its success in addressing the challenges associated with incident management. Recently, SECOM identified an important gap in the market – the need for combining the reporting of accidents and incidents with integrated data from CCTV systems. It has consequently developed the SECOM AIR (Accident and Incident Reporting) system with help from one of its long-term customers, JD Wetherspoon.
Challenge
Organisations often face challenges in efficiently managing incidents such as theft, vandalism, or accidents within their premises, especially when dealing with disparate security systems and reporting platforms. Collating relevant evidence for potential legal proceedings can be time-consuming and complex.
Solution
SECOM, a leading UK provider of electronic security systems, addressed this challenge by developing SECOM AIR (Accident and Incident Reporting) system. This cloud-based solution integrates accident and incident reporting with CCTV data, providing a streamlined platform for real-time incident recording and evidence collection.
Benefits
Efficiency: The system saves time for managers and legal teams by consolidating incident information in one accessible location.
Evidence Gathering: Enables quick compilation of evidence for legal proceedings, enhancing the organisation’s ability to prosecute perpetrators.
User Friendly: The systems simplicity and intuitive design make it easy for employees to use, requiring minimum training.
Market Analysis: What are the common issues businesses face with their traditional accident and reporting software
Disparate Systems: Many organisations in these sectors use multiple, disconnected systems for various functions, including accident reporting. This can lead to inefficiencies and difficulties in consolidating
information.
Lack of Integration: Traditional systems may not seamlessly integrate with other security systems, such as CCTV, making it challenging to gather comprehensive evidence for incidents.
Complex Reporting Processes: Reporting incidents using traditional software can be cumbersome and time-consuming, leading to delays in response and resolution.
Limited Collaboration: Collaboration among different teams involved in incident response, such as security, management, and legal teams, might be hindered by the lack of a centralised and collaborative
platform.
Audit Trail Challenges: Establishing and maintaining a clear audit trail may be difficult, making it challenging for organisations to track actions taken in response to incidents.
In 2022, over 560,000 workers sustained a non-fatal injury at work according to self-reports from the Labour Force Survey in 22/23 (LFS) and there were over 473,000 workers with up to 7 days absence in 2022/2023 due to an injury at work. Companies must continually assess and update their safety and incident reporting processes to address emerging challenges and leverage advancements in technology. Implementing modern and integrated solutions, like the SECOM AIR system can significantly improve accident reporting efficiency and overall safety management.
How SECOM AIR has integrated with JD Wetherspoon
Most organisations have to deal with incidents such as theft, vandalism or accidents within their premises. This sometimes also requires collecting relevant evidence in case the issue or incident requires elevating to a court hearing. However, being able to collate the right evidence at the right time can be difficult and time-consuming, especially if the organisation has a range of disparate security systems and reporting platforms. Security expert SECOM recently decided to address this issue by developing a new system for reporting accidents and incidents. This includes the ability to upload CCTV footage as supporting evidence – which can significantly improve security measures and enhance any incident investigations.
SECOM is a leading provider of electronic security systems in the UK and is part of the global SECOM Group. The company’s award-winning Intelligence and Investigations service provides a fast and effective means of preventing and deterring incidents such as anti-social behaviour, theft, violence and vandalism. This is due to the company’s ability to analyse intelligence coming from CCTV cameras and incident data, along with its advanced technology systems.
Developing a new reporting system
Recently, SECOM identified an important gap in the market – the need for combining the reporting of accidents and incidents with integrated data from CCTV systems. It has consequently developed the SECOM AIR (Accident and Incident Reporting) system with help from one of its long-term customers, JD Wetherspoon. Wetherspoon is a national chain of award-winning pubs and hotels spread across the UK and Ireland. So why did SECOM decide to design the new system in conjunction with Wetherspoon? The pub chain has recently been using a third-party system for uploading images, but any supporting CCTV had to be stored in a separate location. It found that this could easily lead to a disjointed investigation of any incidents. Following discussions with SECOM, this led to the possibility of developing AIR.
Alan Blake, SECOMS Commercial, Sales & Marketing Director adds: “Developing a product such as AIR with the help of an established client like Wetherspoon has ensured that, from the start, we were able to include all the vital features and capabilities that will now also help other clients.”
Working in partnership
SECOM started working with Wetherspoon on the new solution. The security company used Wetherspoon’s knowledge in this area to help it develop the new platform. The pub chain was able to provide SECOM with specific details of its reporting requirements. One of the key aims was to enable its managers and pub teams to provide compelling CCTV evidence in the event of an impending prosecution. Another key requirement was that the new system needed to be flexible enough to be adapted to an individual customer’s needs.
SECOM decided to develop a cloud-based model that would incorporate video storage and a collaboration capability. This would allow customers to share information with the security company quickly and easily. The system would need to support the real time recording of incidents and allow CCTV footage to be uploaded along with the log of the incident. These would be instantly available as supporting evidence to any authorised user who wanted to view them.Other requirements noted by Wetherspoon included the creation of an audit trail. The system also needed to be both device and user-friendly. SECOM AIR was therefore developed as an application to which users could input incidents using a laptop, mobile or tablet. The platform supports the efficient and accurate recording of incidents in real time, enabling organisations to respond immediately.
The system also creates an audit trail for customers to check and inspect actions that have taken place. This enhances transparency and ensures that the appropriate actions are taken by the right people at the right time. The new AIR system, hosted by SECOM, is now available for use by every one of Wetherspoon’s pubs and hotels. They have access to the application and can log into it and review any accidents and incidents on their premises.
Benefits of the new system
SECOM AIR is a much more cost-effective system than the previous managed application used by Wetherspoon. It has eliminated many administration and consultancy costs and saves time for the chain’s managers and its Audit and Legal team. Instead of having to search through disparate systems, Wetherspoon now has all the information relating to an incident in one place. As a result, the chain can now easily pull together all of the requisite evidence to present to the police if criminal activities are happening in a pub, or if there’s abusive or violent behaviour towards its employees. This enables it to make a clear case if it needs to prosecute the perpetrators.
The organisation already has a strong culture of taking responsibility for reporting accidents and incidents. With AIR, the physical process of getting data from the system has become very straightforward. The new system is simple and easy to use, so the chain’s employees can obtain the information they need very quickly. It has decision trees built into it: it’s an intuitive system – so if, for instance, a user is logging a violent incident, the system will only ask questions that are pertinent to that type of event. AIR has a full alerting engine built in. SECOM helped Wetherspoon to set up a bespoke instance of the system, including developing the right rules for the job to ensure that the right people can nd the right information in the right way. When setting up the workflows, priority levels can be assigned to different case types, with different levels of reporting happening in the background.
In terms of support, SECOM has a team of technical agents who monitor incoming support tickets. This team can provide very fast and reliable help and advice both in and out of working hours, at a predetermined level decided by each customer.
Flexible accident reporting
SECOM AIR is also proving invaluable for reporting any accidents or other incidents (such as slips, trips, falls, food complaints and staff assaults) that occur on Wetherspoon premises. Any business that uses AIR can create their own specific use cases for different types of incidents and accidents, along with the questions that need to be asked. The built-in and bespoke workflows provide an intuitive user experience that enables employee to log a new case efficiently, without having to answer irrelevant questions. Dan Wilkinson, SECOM’s Technical Director, explains: “Creating a new user case is very easy, as AIR is a web based app that works with most modern browsers, such as Chrome and Edge. It’s quick and easy to navigate with the app using a mobile, tablet or laptop. It’s also easy to access AIR via different networks in different locations. We can help customers to integrate AIR with their own systems. Its ability to upload CCTV information makes it unique – and if, as in the case of Wetherspoon, we are already looking after the CCTV system, we can create integrations that make the solution even more efficient.”
The system is proving popular with Wetherspoon employees. James Ullman continues: “With any new system, there’s always a possibility of resistance to change. However, I visit perhaps 40 or 50 pubs each month and meet a number of pub managers at our weekly operations meetings, and there’s been almost no negative feedback about SECOM AIR. Overall, it’s been very well received by our pub teams. As well as being user-friendly, the new platform has very clear workflows and new users need very little training on how to use it. The fact that we can now add CCTV to the incident logs is a big advantage. In my experience, the ability to integrate with CCTV is very unusual in these types of systems.”
Preparing for the future
AIR is part of a broader security strategy that Wetherspoon is developing with SECOM, alongside a number of other initiatives. The two companies have continued to make adaptations to the new system, including the ability to forward information directly to the police. James Ullman concludes: “AIR is part of a suite of security products that SECOM offers to us. We’re very happy with the system and SECOM remains a very good, long-term partner. We work collaboratively and they are always very responsive to our requirements. The long term nature of our partnership is also a considerable advantage whenever we start setting out a new vision for security solutions in the future.”
Contact us now to set up a demo of SECOM AIR and how it can impact your business
