WePrevent, a company offering live camera surveillance to business and residential customers, has successfully achieved EN 50518 certification, a European standard for Monitoring and Alarm Receiving Centres (MARC). Remond Berendsen, partner and founder of WePrevent, emphasises the importance of Protify’s cooperation and guidance and how valuable the support has been in the certification and construction process of their new alarm and video surveillance centre in Bulgaria. During construction, WePrevent chose to always go the extra mile, so that they are prepared for the future now. In this interview, read how WePrevent went through both construction and certification and how processes have been streamlined in their organisation and awareness raised.
About WePrevent
WePrevent offers both business (from SMEs to corporates) and (wealthy) private customers live camera surveillance. This way, they aim to prevent vandalism, break-ins and burglaries. The focus is on determining the risk in advance and therefore being able to intervene before things really go wrong.
WePrevent uses two methods to do this:
- live camera surveillance by rigorously screened and trained operators who continuously review images from customers’ security cameras.
- watching via ‘artificial intelligence’, where smart software is always watching, detecting any human movement and instantly showing live images to operators.
WePrevent offers its customers various subscription types and different timeframes for live camera surveillance. They have also introduced an additional service called ‘AI on demand’. The customer activates this service whenever they wish and from then on, WePrevent receives notifications from the cameras.
WePrevent’s mission statement is ‘We protect what is precious to you so you can live carefree. Our people always watch over you and intervene before things go wrong.’
WePrevent has around 150 employees, with a branch in the Netherlands and in Bulgaria. The video surveillance centre is in Bulgaria, where the vast majority of employees work. In the Netherlands, employees work in sales, marketing and client support.
WePrevent has involved a large part of its organisation in the certification; the Operations Director. Security Officer and from WePrevent Bulgaria the Manager, Executive Director, HR manager and IT manager.
EN 50518 Certification – Monitoring and Alarm Receiving Centres
European standard EN 50518 is the scheme for certification of Monitoring and Alarm Receiving Centres (MARC). This scheme describes the requirements that a Monitoring and Alarm Receiving Centre must meet. EN 50518 was updated in 2019, initially the standard focused on alarm receiving centres that handled alarm messages from security applications, since then the scope has broadened. Among others, fire alarms, reports from access control systems, camera surveillance and social alarms are now also within the scope of the standard. As a result, the standard applies to more types of alarm centres and video surveillance centres are now also covered. This also made it necessary for WePrevent to be certified for EN 50518.
Protify and WePrevent
Initial discussions took place with Protify in 2019. WePrevent was looking for a partner for the certification project for EN 5018. Therefore, they contacted Mathijs (de Vaal). ‘Mathijs went with us to Bulgaria because we felt it was important to involve Protify in this process from the beginning, namely the choice of construction. He co-determined the ‘funnel’ of potential sites.’ In 2022, construction was completed on the business premises in Bulgaria. We are still working with Protify now and are in the re-audit for ISO 27001. We had first only certified the Bulgarian part and now we want to get the Dutch part certified as well. Remond on working with Protify: ‘I found the guidance very pleasant and helpful. I am sure we asked for more than Mathijs could ever have estimated beforehand. When you have no experience of it, everything is and new and you ask a lot of questions. Which were always answered very well.’
‘Protify is very good to us, both on support, and guidance. They understand what we are doing and the different approach we have taken compared to others in our industry.’
The first certification process
Remond was the initiator within WePrevent of the project, and during construction he and the manager in Bulgaria directed the contractor. Together they proposed locations and requested quotes from various contractors, so that the management could choose from them. Although Remond had once been indirectly acquainted with ISO 9001 certification, he really fell head over heels here ‘in his own words’. ‘The first part of the certification; the architectural went well, the second part where the focus is on setting up the management system in the PCT and the procedures and processes we found more difficult.’
Because a new video surveillance centre was built, it was possible to take into account the requirements of the standard during construction, when you work in an existing one, adjustments have to be made to it within the existing one.
Requirements for selection premises ARC
There are many (structural) requirements for a commercial building for a video surveillance centre, including space for an air generator, internet lines and it must be both burglar and fire proof. There also had to be space for at least 130 employees with a run-out to 200. For the employees, there should also be parking spaces. They are at work 24-7. Therefore, it was important not to locate us in the middle of a residential area, because you want to avoid nuisance.
WePrevent chose to always ‘go the extra mile’ during construction, partly due to advice from Protify, for example by installing more sensors in the building, applying fire retardancy of 1.5 hours instead of a 1-hour. ‘The auditor said he had not seen such a professional building in Europe. We were able to achieve this because of Protify’s experience, which they have gained with other plants and can apply this. Because we built the building ourselves, it certainly helped, also to avoid problems for the future now.’
Tips from WePrevent for EN 50518 certification
- ‘Realise that the drafting of the processes and procedures takes a lot of time.’
- ‘Delve into phase 2 and take a good look at how to make your procedures and processes compliant.’
- ‘Give yourself time to make the management system your own.’
- ‘Hire someone knowledgeable, if you have budget for this. Because the certification work has to be done alongside your other work and this takes a lot of extra time.’
What has changed as a result of certification?
- We are now thinking more carefully about how to demonstrate what we do and how we do it.
- Awareness in the organisation has grown. New employees are now automatically included in this process.
- When choosing software, we immediately look at the backend how we demonstrate what we do and how we do it.
‘We are now thinking more carefully about how to demonstrate what we do and how we do it.’
Remond Berendsen
Working with the ProActive Compliance Tool (PCT)
WePrevent used the PCT to record processes and procedures, including the starter texts. Now they keep monthly records of tasks using the report that follows from task management.
‘The PCT gives us direction on how to work, what we should and check and when to check it.’
- ‘Take time at the beginning to understand the whole thing and see how things are related, when you have this understanding, then it runs in a structured and smooth way.’
- ‘It structures very well the way you have to do it.’
Looking for the expert partner for EN 50518 certification just like WePrevent?
Contact us and we will be happy to tell you more. Of course, we are happy to advise on the right way to set up a management system.
