How ASDA saved £1000’s per year with a critical alerts solution

ASDA is one of the UK's leading supermarket chains, with around 631 stores, employing over 145,000 colleagues and welcoming 18 million customers every week.

Over four years, Call Systems Technology (CST) worked strategically with ASDA to roll out a critical alert and messaging solution at over 415 sites across the UK.

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Real Savings

The benefits were almost immediate, helping Asda save £1000s in lost sales and stock across a number of their stores.

Thanks to our personalised approach and effective critical alarm and messaging solution, colleagues can assess the situation before going into full alarm and evacuation. We also ensured that hard of hearing colleagues were safe by linking their pagers to the fire alarm so they could be immediately notified.

 

Creating a Safe Environment for Hard of Hearing Colleagues

In the event of a fire alarm, some colleagues could not hear the alarm going off. Employers have a duty of care to ensure that the health and safety process is inclusive to all collegues and customers. Which is in line with the standards of the Equality Act 2010.

False Alarms & Unnecessary Evacuations: Trading Disruptions

False alarms and the subsequent unnecessary evacuations translated into considerable revenue loss from customers frequently walking out with goods that hadn’t been paid for, non-returning customers, drive-aways to other supermarkets and finally, wastage of frozen food which had to be disposed of. Installing a system that prevents False Alarms has resulted in Asda's saving £1,000 per store on goods per year. 

 

Technical challenge:

Ensuring that the existing fire alarm panels were addressable – meaning that the message on the pager would show the exact location of the fire alarm activation. During the installation process, CST worked closely with Asda’s fire alarm supplier, and together we created the interface to give the addressable messages to the pagers.

 

Installation:

CST attended the site to install all the equipment and carried out testing for coverage required across the store and the site. The last stage in the installation process involved connecting to the panel along with the alarm provider, then testing the system to make sure the messaging to the pager was accurate and an exact match to the panel information.

 

Compatibility with fire alarm panels:

The system had to be simple to use for colleagues and key workers. In the event of an incident, it sends an alert with the exact location of the trigger, saving critical time to evaluate the validity. Working closely and tirelessly with the fire alarm provider allowed us to create a robust and a resilient solution with reliable hardware and excellent technical capability that could be effortlessly rolled out across their stores.