Background:

With the current growing need for sustainability and conservation in our world, Umicore is taking the initiative in providing solutions for a better tomorrow. They are a global materials technology and recycling company that specializes in chemistry, metallurgy, and material science. With a mission to develop, produce, and recycle materials in a sustainable manner, Umicore, “work[s] to reduce harmful emissions, power the vehicles and technologies of the future, and give new life to used metals*.” With headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Umicore works from 44 different production sites, 15 R&D sites, and 34 other sites such as sales and marketing offices.

Problem:

With the multitude of locations, and the type of work being done at the company, safety is a top priority for Umicore. “Our magnetic in/out board wasn’t consistently being used and with increasing company security requirements, we decided to search out a solution that met our needs,” explains Kelsey Banks, QEH&S Specialist at Umicore.

Umicore needed to replace the manual process with something more secure that added additional benefits such as improved accuracy, visitor arrival alerts, and emergency mustering capabilities. Banks stated, “We were looking for something that would integrate our magnetic in/out board functionality with security features such as alerting employees when their visitor arrives and a mustering option in case of emergency.”

As a global company with staff and visitors from all over the world, Kelsey Banks recalls, “we wanted something that was easy to use with the functionality we required.” Umicore also wanted to ensure that the technology would be easy to implement with their existing network infrastructure and IT team.

“Umicore needed a cloud-based solution from a trusted source that would be easy to deploy and support in order to avoid an IT backlog,” Steve Bardocz, President/CEO of Savance, explains.

Umicore also wanted to leverage their existing badges to facilitate the staff check-in and check-out process. Additionally, they wanted to have technology similar to the magnetic in out board because they had grown accustomed to having a board viewable in their lobby. “I like the idea of having a large screen that tells me where people are at and if they’re in the building,” Brandy Cooper, QEH&S Manager at Umicore, states.

Finally, the Umicore team wanted just one device (a tablet) to handle staff, visitors, and emergency mustering. Brandy states, “We wanted the same tablet for visitor management and mustering, and then to be able to pull that up on our cell phones”.

Search:

In 2018, Umicore decided to search for a solution that was easy to use and had the functionality they required. They stumbled across Savance and a partnership formed. “Savance offered everything we were searching for – visitor and contractor management, in/out board that integrated with our access control system, and emergency mustering,” Kelsey Banks explains.

The office location, being local to Michigan, helped make the search even easier, “One of the most attractive things about Savance was the ease of use. When we found out they were a local company, we loved them even more!”, Kelsey exclaimed.

Solution & Implementation:

After Umicore met with Savance over a web conference and an in-person demo, a solution came into focus. Umicore worked closely with Savance to fulfill all of their needs for a visitor and contractor management system; a digital in and out board that integrates with their access control system; and a digital emergency mustering system. This included having the visitor management and mustering system both run on the same tablet. In addition, Umicore worked together with Savance’s design team to build customized screens for their tablet, large screen status board, and for their custom badge tag holders and visitor name tags.

Now an integral part of Umicore’s operations, the visitor management system efficiently manages visitors and contractors from the time they arrive to the time they leave. The digital in out board keeps track of staff, improving communication, accountability, and visibility from any location including mobile phones. The system also works with Umicore’s access control system and leverages the badges staff already carries with them. Lastly, the emergency mustering system gives the organization comfort in knowing that, in case of an emergency, everyone would be accounted for in a more accurate, organized, and expedited manner.

Implementation was smooth for the most part. “Savance worked with us to tailor the system to our specific needs,” Kelsey Banks recalls. “Their Implementation Engineers worked with us every step of the way to personalize the system and make sure it integrated with our access control”. Unfortunately, Umicore ran into one challenge upon receiving the large screen display and discovering that the screen had been damaged in transit. Savance came onsite to take pictures and quickly furnished a replacement. The Savance team also worked sedulously to support Umicore on user training and rollout.

Savance’s Steve Bardocz summarizes, “Kelsey and Brandy have been amazing to work with over the years. Their vision of a better solution has made Umicore a safer and more secure place to work. It has been an absolute pleasure to help them achieve all of their goals on this project.”