Building on a successful security access control and fire systems relationship with East Sussex College Hastings, Choice has extended the access control solution it provides to Eastbourne and Lewes college sites which now form, with Hastings, part of the East Sussex College Group (ESCG).
It is an unfortunate fact that terrorism, criminality, social unrest and even environmental incidents can create situations where there is a security need for organisations to contain and protect personnel within their premises. Businesses and other organisations, particularly Schools and Colleges, are increasingly recognising the importance of Lockdown – also described as ‘invacuation’.
(Application Deadline: 14/06/2019)
Following new business wins, we currently seek engineers capable of supporting both our Security and Fire Systems activities in Scotland – installation and maintenance.
Choice Fire has completed a 13-month project to upgrade the fire systems at Dolphin Square, the multi-storey, prestige short- and long-term residential let development in central London.
Choice’s preferred third-party monitoring services partner, Yeoman Monitoring Services, has commenced rebranding its identity and logo to align within its Europe-wide parent business, Scutum Group, under the name Scutum Digital. This transition in no way alters service provision by the Monitoring Centre/ARC (Alarm Receiving Centre) facility or Choice customers’ communications regarding security and fire system monitoring services – all contact numbers, logons, passwords etc are unaffected.
With external influences in the UK’s economic and political environment causing some nervousness and after a cautious trading period at the start to the year, Choice saw much-improved results in new orders and revenues to finish 2018 strongly.
Recurring and reactive maintenance revenues remained stable and we are pleased to report an upturn in capital revenues – primarily system installation activity – across most sectors. Staff turnover rates remain low and retention of experienced staff remains excellent. To continue to support growth, Choice further increased its staff numbers by 20% during 2018. A healthy order book gives us great optimism for continued success in 2019.
Installation activities throughout this year included:
Choice has boosted its credentials as a preferred supplier to the financial sector by gaining registered status within the Financial Services Qualification System (FSQS) Stage 2 as part of its compliance requirement for customer Santander. FSQS is designed to standardise and manage requests for compliance and assurance data in a one-for-all submission process which serves the major financial services organisations that have adopted the system.
Hellios Information Management Ltd operates the FSQS system on behalf of organisations including: Santander, Lloyds Banking Group, Shawbrook Bank, TSB Bank, Clydesdale & Yorkshire Bank, Nationwide, the Bank of England, Bank of Ireland, LV= and Metro Bank.
As a common register of standardised, validated, structured and comprehensive vendor and third-party information, FSQS provides a safe and efficient way to manage compliance and assurance data. Attaining the certification required Choice to undertake a two-stage process focused on its compliance and policy requirements in areas such as: finances, insurance and third-party certifications, health and safety, environmental and sustainability, IT security, GDPR, anti-bribery, operational risks, fraud and responsible business governance.
Commenting on this achievement, Choice director Barry Critchell said: “Our newly registered status within the Hellios FSQS database is a valuable indicator to the financial sector – where we have specialist technical expertise in security and fire systems – that we are also capable of demonstrating the highest levels of business and administrative credibility.”
