Lone Worker Protection Solution of the Year
The IFSEC & FIREX Awards took place on Monday 13th May at the Hilton Metropole Birmingham. It was a celebration of the products and innovations that make the IFSEC exhibitors and the security and fire industries great. The black tie dinner was hosted by rugby superstar Austin Healey, who announced the winners and top names in the security and fire industry.
The ‘Lone Worker Protection Solution of the Year’ award is a celebration of product and technological innovation within the lone worker market. Guardian24’s ‘Work Safe, Work Smart’ solution via an Android smartphone mirrored every aspect of this award.
The Android solution was launched in March 2012, after a survey was conducted using a sample audience of 30,000 lone workers who use a lone worker solution. The results showed that 87% of these lone workers used their lone worker solution via their mobile phone or smartphone. Since its launch the Android solution has been adapted by various clients within local authorities, housing associations, charities and most recently one of the largest insurance companies in the UK. Clients use the Android solution in various ways to suit their individual requirements.
Guardian24’s ‘Work Safe, Work Smart’ solutions allow customers to take advantage of the trend towards BYOD (bring your own device) among employees, freeing employers from the financial and time considerations inherent in the device evaluation and procurement processes. Users now have a lone worker solution on the device they are comfortable and familiar with. As phones evolve the Guardian24 solution keeps pace by exploiting new technologies that have become standard on lone worker devices. The G24 app evolves as part of the dynamic Android world, ready to exploit the advantages and advances in the world’s fastest growing, most successful mobile platform.
Guardian24 via the Android platform allows lone workers to log timed activities giving all details of their task and whereabouts, get GPS fixes of their location and raise an alert through a discreet panic button in a time of need. With the Android solution an alert can be raised even if the smartphone keyboard is locked, this enables the lone worker to summon help covertly; without alerting the source of the threat. In an emergency situation Guardian24 will record live audio and immediately notify nominated respondents or an Alarm Receiving Centre enabling them to assess the seriousness of the threat and the level of response necessary. With an Android smartphone, lone workers can use a single portable device for email, voice, text and now personal safety.
Guardian24 is currently used by over 33,000 individuals in the UK and Ireland. These individuals work in various industries such as Housing, NHS, Financial Institutions, Local Government and Charities. Within these industries these individuals perform important roles alone in the community such as Housing Officers, District Nurses, Estate Agents and Community Workers.
Henry Woods, CEO of Guardian24 said: “We are really thrilled at winning this award, it means a lot to us; firstly it validates our passionate belief in the appropriateness of smartphones as a means to bring assistance to lone and mobile workers when things go wrong. It makes perfect sense for workers to have their safety app on a familiar device that they always carry, charge and have close at hand.
Secondly the award recognises the unique technical strengths of our company and the ability of our in-house designers and software developers to produce professional, reliable software - a key requirement when our users’ safety is an issue. Android is the world's most popular mobile platform and we are delighted to be recognised for our innovative and cutting edge lone worker solution.”