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C3 Shared Services expands service offering

C3 Shared Services has a long and successful history of providing high-tech integrated security solutions to the South African market. Over the years, CEO Brendan Cowley says the company has found that the long-term success of its solutions does not only depend on the technology used and an effective installation, but also on the management of the solution over its lifespan.

“A problem we often run into is that clients staff their security operations with personnel taken from the guarding industry,” says Cowley. “They fail to realise that operating technology requires a different skill set as well as a different mindset.”

To deal with this, C3 has launched a Skilled Services division. Cowley notes that this is not a guarding division, but an additional offering to its technical division that is made up of high-level security operators. These operators are selected from among people with existing technical skills to ensure they are comfortable with technology.

C3’s new Skilled Services division will be offering support to its technical division in the form of high grade security officers and operators.

Once the right people have been found, C3 sends them on a range of training courses to provide them with the specific skills they will need for the tasks. For example, Dr Craig Donald’s CCTV operator course is one of the selected courses used to ensure surveillance monitoring services are optimally aligned with clients’ needs.

“We also ensure our operators have the skills to access the client’s systems, conduct first-line fault finding and fix minor problems,” adds Cowley. “They do not undertake high-level engineering tasks, but efficiently deal with smaller problems that cause most of the problems in technology implementations, limiting downtime and saving unnecessary call-out costs. This will allow C3 to provide a complete solution, from technology to ongoing maintenance.”

To complement these new services, C3 is also launching a Smart Services Division. Cowley says this division will provide constant remote monitoring of technology in the field to ensure it remains in top working order. This includes events such as cameras going down or even if a camera has shifted or lost its focus. Operators will detect these events as they happen and see they are rectified before the client even knows there is a problem.

To supplement this, the Smart Services division will also be responsible for alarm and event monitoring. Once again, it is not a guarding service in the traditional sense, but a virtual service monitoring the client’s technology on a 24x7 basis from a remote control room.

In the case of an event, the operators will be able to immediately take action and initiate onsite action or call the relevant authorities. Most importantly, the virtual service will significantly reduce the number of false alarms that customers normally have to deal with, reducing the costs of responding to these non-events and preventing them from distracting staff from other priorities.

Included in the monitoring service is a new focus on fire prevention. C3 was recently awarded the right to distribute Fike’s SigniFire, the only accredited partner in South Africa. SigniFire is an analytical system that detects smoke and fire at its source, before it can even reach a traditional smoke detector.

“C3 has been involved in video analytics for seven years with remarkable success stories,” says Cowley. “SigniFire allows us to expand our analytical expertise to a new market, with the same focus on using the best technology to deliver the best results.

“As the controls within the South African fire industry are tightened, fire prevention will become more important to companies as part of their integrated security solution. C3 is pre-empting this change by offering the most advanced, integrated security solution, backed by skilled personnel and remote monitoring services that reduce false alarms as well as the cost of maintaining the system over the long term. The result is a better, more reliable service for as long as the client requires.”

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