Case Studies

Tool for staff deployment

by Mark Rowe

FCC Group (FCC) is a provider of environmental services, water management and infrastructure works, based in Spain. It’s using a protection and emergency response tool for all its employees and any accompanying family members while they are working overseas on company projects.

CriticalArc’s SafeZone product is already in use by FCC as part of their initial deployment phase in three places: for the FAST consortium to design and build the Riyadh Metro in Saudi Arabia, for all FCC projects in Egypt, and on a gas pipeline construction project in north Mexico. Based on these experiences FCC then plans to integrate SafeZone more widely and to start rolling out the approach from mid-2018 to cover its international operations in 35 countries.

José Morales, corporate security director at FCC Group, said: “FCC believes that SafeZone is the ideal tool to help us provide an even higher level of emergency support and assistance to all employees and their families across all our international operations. The tool will give everyone peace of mind when they are travelling between different work locations or exploring the country in their free time, plus it gives FCC a reliable method for instant mass communication, for example, to broadcast regional alerts, weather warnings or travel updates.

“CriticalArc’s ongoing commitment and flexibility in helping customise and deploy SafeZone to meet our specific requirements has been outstanding. FCC is an increasingly global and diversified business with complex security needs but CriticalArc is working closely to integrate SafeZone into our existing systems and to develop new approaches and features as required.”

One of the key challenges for expatriates and their families is having to deal with the cultural differences, language barriers or political tensions that in some regions can lead to even minor incidents escalating. For example: if someone is involved in a road traffic accident, or stopped for questioning by the police.

SafeZone gives users the ability to call for immediate emergency assistance by pressing a button on their mobile phone. They do not need to say anything, and their phone automatically sends an alert with location details to a central control room.

Darren Chalmers-Stevens, CriticalArc EMEA managing director, said: “SafeZone is already extensively used by universities and other further education establishments where the prime objective is to help protect students and staff both on and off campus. However, with FCC this is the first time SafeZone has been specified by a global security team for implementation across multiple geographies and such a diverse range of operational models. FCC’s expatriates and their families are much more widely dispersed, and in some regions the company’s security assets are not directly under its own control.”

The initial intention is for FCC to mandate SafeZone for all its own expatriates, but the company is also considering recommending the tool for use by all personnel working for partner companies in FCC-led consortia, joint ventures and the company’s other international activities.

For more go to www.criticalarc.com.

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