FOCUS SECURITY
SECURE PLATFORM Iain Chorlton, Special Services Director and lead for Project Blueprint, Amulet gives an overview of
the innovative security software and how situational awareness tools can take security services to
the next level
Historically, security has been built
on assumption – if you have more
cameras, and more security guards,
you will be more likely to succeed in
responding to a crisis.
Albeit a very basic approach, there is some
truth to this. If you have more vigilant bodies
on the ground, you will have more eyes that
might be able to spot a crisis unfolding and
more guards on hand to respond to these
threats.
Unfortunately, such a mindset fails to oœ er
opportunities to be proactive and get ‘ahead’
of a problem. It leaves scope for missed
threats and therefore greater risk – risk that
organisations cannot aœ ord to take.
Prior to joining Amulet, I held a number
of critical lead roles in coordinating
emergencies, crisis response and
organisational governance to train and
prepare others to deal with real life
challenges. In 2018, this led me to working
with a shopping centre in conducting a largescale
counter terror exercise to evaluate
the preparedness of all those agencies and
organisations involved in the event of an
attack.
In no uncertain terms, the coordination of
multi-agency activity completely fell apart
under the stress test, revealing a number of
agencies being worryingly unprepared.
THE EVOLUTION OF PROJECT BLUEPRINT
The shopping centre exercise in particular
highlighted the need for a better
understanding, at all levels of management,
of what was occurring on the ground, based
on real-time information in order to support
informed decision making, to improve the
coordination of resources.
The Airbox Systems’ MOSAIC platform
was identified as the only eœ ective solution
able to address the problems encountered
in gaining an accurate picture of what was
happening and coordinating activity to
improve the preparedness of organisations
in dealing with the type of threats that faces
the UK today.
The MOSAIC platform quickly became a
tool that was used on an everyday basis, not
as part of emergencies, but in supporting
organisations to deploy resources and share
38 MARCH 2022
information as
part of routine
activities. Today,
it is used by
every facet of
the emergency
services, from
helicopter
rescue teams
to ambulances,
police oœ icers,
the fire service
and the coast
guard, with over
100,000 operations
conducted in
the UK during the last 12 months using the
platform.
Yet the benefits of real-time situational
awareness soª ware aren’t simply limited to
the public sector safety realm. Private sector
organisations can completely transform
not just their security, but their day-to-day
operations, by adopting this unparalleled yet
easy to use technology.
Both Airbox Systems and Churchill Services
recognised how they could combine their
eœ orts and talent to oœ er the benefits of this
platform to the private sector and so, Project
Blueprint was born.
HOW PROJECT BLUEPRINT WORKS
IN PRACTICE
Launched mid-2021, Project Blueprint has a
simple goal – to make the UK a safer place to
live, work and enjoy. Project Blueprint has
exclusivity to oœ er this flexible and rapidly
configurable platform to support routine tasks
or unexpected circumstances.
A ‘same page’ philosophy simply enables
everyone to understand what is happening
through a real-time collective picture of the
working environment, delivering information
when and where it is needed. It manages
resources by knowing where everybody is
and what they are doing by connecting users
at all levels. Maximising their value by easily
assigning and reassigning them to specific
tasks as required.
Without an accurate understanding of what
is going on, key information can be missed, or
interpreted incorrectly. Poor communication
is oª en the Achilles heel hampering eœ ective
service delivery, with confused messaging
leading to mistakes and lower quality services.
It ensures one and all are ready for the
challenges of the day by empowering informed
decision making underpinned by interactive
mapping, resource tracking and a unique ability
to visually represent the ‘ground truth’ to all
stakeholders.
Essentially, it provides all the capabilities you
require to eœ ectively manage your business,
during routine activity or emergencies, all in
one place.
Ensuring all security team members are
always seeing the same picture allows security
incidents to be dealt with in a timely manner by
defining the situation and enabling informed,
timely and coordinated responses.
ENABLING ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES
There is no one-size-fits-all mantra – rather, the
soª ware is adaptable and customisable as per
the end organisation’s needs.
Be it train operating companies, sporting
grounds or critical national infrastructure, it can
be deployed to suit multiple scenarios. While
the technology’s capabilities are the same, it
can work diœ erently for diœ erent people, with
a variety of varying features able to cater to a
range of needs.
Our teams continue to support this approach
as part of its deployment, providing full training
and technical support and a review of how
the soª ware is being used, bringing to light
potentially useful ways in which end users may
benefit that are not currently being realised.