Keeping Expats Safe with Global Personal Protection and Emergency Response System

CriticalArc has announced that it has been appointed by FCC Group (FCC) to help develop and implement SafeZone as a multinational safeguarding solution for all its employees and any accompanying family members while they are working overseas on company projects.

CriticalArc’s pioneering SafeZone personal protection and emergency response system is already being used by FCC as part of their initial deployment phase in three very different security challenges: for the FAST consortium to design and build the Riyadh Metro in Saudi Arabia, for all FCC projects in Egypt, and on a gas pipeline construction project in North Mexico. Based on these experiences FCC then plans to integrate SafeZone more widely and to start rolling out the approach from mid-2018 to cover all its international operations in over 35 countries.

“FCC believes that SafeZone is the ideal tool to help us provide an even higher level of emergency support and assistance to all employees and their families across all our international operations. The tool will give everyone peace of mind when they are travelling between different work locations or exploring the country in their free time, plus it gives FCC a reliable method for instant mass communication, for example, to broadcast regional alerts, weather warnings or travel updates.

“CriticalArc’s ongoing commitment and flexibility in helping customise and deploy SafeZone to meet our specific requirements have been outstanding. FCC is an increasingly global and diversified business with complex security needs, but CriticalArc is working closely to integrate SafeZone into our existing systems and to develop new approaches and features as required,” said José Morales, corporate security director at FCC Group.

One of the key challenges for expatriates and their families is having to deal with the cultural differences, language barriers or growing political tensions that in some regions can lead to even minor incidents quickly escalating out of control.  For example: if someone is involved in a road traffic accident or stopped for questioning by the police.

SafeZone gives users the ability to call for immediate emergency assistance by simply pressing a button on their mobile phone. They do not need to even say anything, and their phone automatically sends an alert with their exact location details to a centralised control room.

“SafeZone is already extensively used by universities and other further education establishments where the prime objective is to help protect students and staff both on and off campus. However, with FCC this is the first time SafeZone has been specified by a global security team for implementation across multiple geographies and such a diverse range of operational models. FCC’s expatriates and their families are much more widely dispersed, and in some regions the company’s security assets are not directly under its own control,” said Darren Chalmers-Stevens, CriticalArc EMEA managing director.

The initial intention is for FCC to mandate SafeZone for all its own expatriates, but the company is also considering the potential benefits of recommending the tool for use by all personnel working for partner companies involved in FCC-led consortia, joint ventures and the company’s other international activities.