A nationwide provider of fire protection services has made Nimbus Mobile an integral part of the way it does business, by using it to provide evidence of compliance with system testing requirements for internal audits and key clients.
All fire protection systems require regular testing by law to ensure they are working correctly. Organisations should place particular emphasis on overseeing this work and have a record that all compliance requirements have been met.
Several years ago, Trinity Fire & Security Systems made a strategic decision to try to win more contracts with service providers that have a high level of continuous public occupancy and are often managed by companies across multiple sites nationwide, i.e., residential care homes, student accommodation, hotels, hospitals and shopping centres. A critical part of achieving this was the need to demonstrate to clients that a system has been tested in accordance with legal requirements. The traditional approach of issuing reports contained the potential for errors or omissions, and often resulted in a delay in notifying the customer of the outcomes from a service visit.
Trinity currently uses Nimbus Mobile to provide reports to clients, which shows them that their systems have been successfully commissioned and thoroughly tested. Proof of tests performed were exactly what was needed by the clients that Trinity was targeting, so a decision was made to make Nimbus an integral part of the company’s process. It is now included as part of Trinity’s offering when bidding for system service contracts with clients who demand clear evidence of compliance with testing requirements.
A complete solution for recording all testing
Nimbus Mobile is a fire alarm service engineer’s test logger. It is connected to an alarm system’s control panel during testing and transmits the results of every test to the Nimbus database in the cloud (or stores the results for transmission later if network coverage is inadequate). It records and shows exactly which devices have been tested and when the tests were performed, together with supplementary information and images that can be uploaded to the database from the Nimbus Engineer mobile app.
Trinity gives clients access to the database for their systems, so they can log in after a service visit or at the end of a contract period to check that the required testing has been completed. They can also address any issues identified with devices that could not be accessed or were malfunctioning.
Cultural benefits
As well as allowing clients to view evidence of compliance, the Nimbus database forms a key part of Trinity’s internal auditing procedures, with monthly meetings being held to review the servicing work completed and make sure that it is being performed correctly and on schedule.
Other benefits include the combined use of the Nimbus Mobile and Nimbus Engineer products, permitting a single service engineer to thoroughly test a system. In the past, two engineers were often needed, each equipped with walkie-talkies or, later, mobile phones, so that one could monitor the control panel and check that the correct signal was received when a device was tested. Since system sirens are usually disabled during testing, some clients also insisted that two engineers attended a site in case a real fire alarm occurred, which could be easily overlooked by a single engineer who is busy testing devices around the site. With Nimbus, the engineer testing the alarms is notified via the Engineer app of any activity on the system.
According to Matt Blake, Compliance and Mobilisation Manager at Trinity, the service engineers have experienced no problems learning how to use Nimbus Mobile. “They are comfortable with it after two or three uses,” he comments. Although Trinity designs and installs fire systems using its preferred panel manufacturers, the systems that it services feature a much wider range of panel types. “Most of the systems we service contain analogue addressable control panels, and the fact that Nimbus Mobile is compatible with virtually all of these was a major reason for us choosing to adopt the product,” Matt adds.
Making Nimbus Mobile a key part of how it does business has helped Trinity to secure a number of significant contracts with nationwide clients who require a high level of service support and clear evidence of compliance with testing requirements. The long-term commitment that Trinity has shown towards Nimbus demonstrates that it offers real benefits for both internal process management and customer satisfaction – a winning combination!
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