PSIMay2017

INTERVIEW
An emphasis on training
Formerly known as Defence Security Systems, PSI visited Securenett
Security Systems the newly rebranded business at its Cradley Heath
premises to meet the team
ore than £1m has gone into the whole
MPrime House site in the last two years
with the refurbishment of the Training
Academy, a former billiard table factory, costing
over £100,000.
The Training Academy is part of the
Securenett portfolio and falls under the remit of
Operations Compliance Director Karl Northall
and Technical Manager Ray Flanagan. Inside the
training area there are modular units that allow
swift changes from different intruder and fire
panels plus a large area for presentations. The
facility also gives Ray a place to break apart and
study new kit from suppliers prior to
recommending it and "passporting" it through.
We caught up with Karl a few months after the
name change and the opening of the new
Training Academy.
When was the switch over from Defence
Security to Securenett?
On January 1st we rebranded for a fresh start
with a big emphasis on training because Ray
and myself have a real passion for educating the
industry. Our thinking is that if we can get
people to come here as a 'blank canvas' then we
can help develop apprentices through the ranks
and throughout their career. We have a great
facility in the Training Academy ready to train
people on any kind of panel, CCTV, access
system, fire.
Is the idea to train Securenett staff
only?
We will certainly train internal people as we
have a policy of developing from within and we
want to have everyone up to a specific level both
field- and office-based as this pays dividends for
our customers. Moving forward we will get in
touch with Job Centres, schools and colleges to
get people in from those routes.
Eventually we want to go down the route of
promoting the Training Academy to any
midlands-based installer so that they can come
here for training. As a member of the ECA we will
hope to attract other members and installers so
that they come here and train on equipment
from our supply partners. Also we want our
partners to use the Training Academy for any
meetings or presentations; for example we
recently hosted a session with Avigilon when
they had a UK sales meeting in the Training
Academy. We think this would be of real benefit
to partners and if they want to bring other
people in as well that is ideal.
Do your supply partners also provide the
kit for training?
Yes they do and some of it is brand new too. At
the Avigilon meeting recently they launched a
few new incentives and products and it was
good for us to meet the teams from across the
country and discuss new technology and trends
with them.
How are you pitching the differing
requirements of the training?
We need to cover, as a basic, PD6662 for
intruder and hold-up alarm system installation
as we have a large domestic portfolio and a
number of commercial customers in the centre
of the UK. We want our people to have a good
knowledge base from the operations and
telesales side of things so that they will be able
to answer customers' questions relatively easily.
The training of the engineers goes much more
Karl Northall
“Our thinking is that if
we can get people to
come here as a 'blank
canvas' then we can help
develop apprentices
through the ranks and
throughout their career”
(continued over)
The Securenett team (L-R): Craig Gwilliams, Stuart Brown, Paul Thursfield,
Amy Shorthouse, Ray Flanagan and Karl Northall
www.psimagazine.co.uk
21