Today, PlanRadar, a leading digital construction, real estate and facilities management platform, announces that it has been adopted by leading fire safety and passive fire protection measures consultancy, Global HSE Solutions.
PlanRadar’s powerful software will support the company’s Global Technical Services (GTS) division, which provides fire engineering advice and expertise to both Tier 1 contractors and Global HSE’s own contracting arm as well as hosting fire door inspection courses through its in-house Global Academy.
Particularly, it will assist in the delivery of more efficient, detailed and accessible fire safety information. The service will also help its clients to navigate an ever-changing legislative landscape – including new fire door assessments regulations that came into effect on the 23rd January 2023. It’s a complete approach for delivering surveys and inspection results and will be rolled out across GTS’s entire inspection and surveying team.
Commenting on the partnership, PlanRadar Co-CEO, Ibrahim Imam says, “Global HSE and GTS has a well-established reputation for delivering exceptional results in a highly niche, specialised and increasingly important field. Given the stringent requirements around fire safety, there is no margin for error, and a missed record or lack of clarity in inspection reports could have huge ramifications. That’s why we’ve invested in making our tools fit-for-purpose for accurate, compliant and easy to understand data collation fire reporting, specifically for fire professionals. It also ensures that ‘Golden Thread’ principles are being followed throughout, for greater fire safety compliance.
“Global HSE’s confidence in our offering is a massive endorsement for PlanRadar’s relevance and efficacy. We look forward to collaborating with them going forward to deliver safe and secure commercial and residential environments.”
The efficient secret
GTS first became aware of PlanRadar’s digital solutions at FIREX 2022, where they immediately saw the potential for its platform to address an ongoing pain point within the business: The efficient creation and user-friendly presentation of fire surveys and inspection results.
Furthermore, they realised the software could also tackle another persistent challenge faced by the business: recruiting enough highly-trained professionals to fill roles required. They saw PlanRadar’s suite of services as a way of streamlining the amount of resource existing staff spent on this important, but time-consuming activity.
As Ross O’Loughlin, Head of Global Technical Services at HSE Global explains, “My main concern was how we could speed up our surveys without losing the value within the survey. I wanted to improve the working life of my staff. Reporting, writing, and collating information around a survey has always been a laborious task. If we can consolidate that in any way, it allows us to focus our energy on delivering our expertise.”
Large-scale useability
The team at GTS were particularly impressed by PlanRadar’s ability to record video and integrate BIM, which could support the division’s compliance requirements around the Building Safety Act and increased expectations for data collection in line with the Golden Thread of Information.
Following initial discussion, the platform was tested in a real-world environment to see how the software performed on a project from start to finish.
The test was based in a university in Northern England, where the surveying team were carrying out a fire damper inspection survey. With thousands of dampers to inspect, it was a daunting task requiring meticulous record-keeping.
The team’s feedback was unanimously positive, with users highlighting how the platform significantly sped up reporting in an easy-to-use way, vindicating the decision to trial it.
Better outcomes all-round
Following the test, Global HSE and GTS decided to adopt PlanRadar’s platform, with the intention of rolling it out across all its inspection and surveying teams, providing them with an easy way to record and report.
A previously arduous task has been made effortless, delivered in real-time as they walk through the building and record voice notes rather than having to stop and make notes on paper, or do lengthy follow-up work in the office.
However, the platform’s potential goes further, as O’Loughlin concludes. “With GTS users already being onboarded, we’re exploring how PlanRadar could be used across other parts of the company,” he says. “From a business perspective, uploading as many documents, photos or jpegs at no extra cost is a massive win in comparison to competitors in this space. It’s an incredibly useful tool, and the opportunity we can gain from getting to grips with, and using, all its functions would significantly improve our day-to-day operations.
Since introduction, PlanRadar has been brought onto over 20 GTS project, with the intention of using it as the standard reporting tool across the entire portfolio over the course of 2023.
To find out more about Global HSE click here. To find out more about PlanRadar click here.
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