Online Asbestos Management System - Asbestos ToolKit CS™ case study
East Riding of Yorkshire County Council are a local authority responsible for the management of all Council properties. Their portfolio includes schools, council housing, council offices and other associated buildings.
Back in 2008 Steve Taylor, the Principal Building Surveyor for the Council, was given the task of finding what solutions were available in the market. His investigations and information gathering lead him to look at several software companies that provided various solutions. Eventually the Council selected ToolKit CS™ as their preferred solution. Steve approached Ai Solutions to discuss his detailed requirements for an Asbestos Management System. As far as Steve was concerned his first problem was the asbestos information for the council's large property portfolio - although available within the council, it was fragmented, cumbersome and sometimes difficult to provide to external parties (contractors, surveyors, building custodians). Additionally there were some issues about the quality of the data; this was because many surveys were not the latest and trying to find them was onerous. Furthermore Steve believed the schools, which form a large part of the portfolio, really needed to see their own asbestos data ‘when they need it'. There were a lot of unnecessary phone calls happening as the schools tried to find out the latest survey information or list their Asbestos Register.
In addition to this there were many issues for a duty holder under the Asbestos Regulations and Steve wanted to ensure that East Riding was compliant within these regulations. Finally, he wanted to utilise the latest technologies to provide a better vehicle for the management of asbestos.
In my mind I see a ‘nirvana' where all the council's asbestos information is available to all that need it via the web. The information would be all up to date and surveyors would be posting the latest survey information and I would be able to manage things easily from wherever I am.
Another area that concerned Steve regarding the Client role (East Riding) is that the duty holder needs to assess whether the ACMs are being or are likely to be disturbed and the requirement of an asbestos management plan. The disturbance is usually caused by people working at or near the ACMs (contractors) and the management plan needs to show ‘how' to manage and control any potential risks that disturbance may generate. To do this the following factors need to be considered;
Having established the information required the duty holder then needs to prepare and implement a plan to manage these risks. Steve wanted to be able to do all this easily; he also wanted this management plan to be available to all and he needed a ‘best of breed' system to help him to do this. This is what led him to looking at what was available on the market. He assessed a few different products but none of them met all of his needs, however his initial approach to Ai Solutions provided Steve with a live demonstration of the ToolKit CS™ product. Ai Solutions, the developers of the system, went through each of the requirements to ensure they understood them in detail and to provide a ‘best fit' solution. Steve was pleased to note that the standard of support provided was "second to none" and that all product updates are installed by Ai Solutions. Additionally, one of the main concerns Steve had initially regarded the security constraints imposed by East Riding IT; this was soon resolved with Ai Solutions discussing the issues directly with East Riding IT.
Steve soon realised that ToolKit CS™ was going to resolve many of his issues in one hit. He was aware of the Ai Solutions products having attended many of the health and safety briefings that Ai Solutions supply to those within the health and safety arena. After discussions and a review of their current data Ai Solutions put forward their flagship product ToolKit CS™ for asbestos management. To meet the requirement to manage asbestos from anywhere and to facilitate external users (especially the schools), Steve chose the Hosted Solution; this state of the art solution, established since early 2008 by Ai Solutions, allows them to provide a higher standard of service to their customers.
For Steve and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council the results speak for themselves. They now have an on-line asbestos management system that facilitates all of the following:-
So where are we now? The system has been in place for a number of years now and Steve has managed to roll out Enterprise Web (a read only browser-based view of the East Riding asbestos register and management plan) to all the schools. Alongside this Steve rolled out an Asbestos Awareness course for those schools to make them aware of their duties and responsibilities. Steve manages the ToolKit CS™ system with one other member of staff which shows how easy the system is to manage. A bonus here is that Steve can see his asbestos information (ACM's, planned surveys, and completed surveys) via area, building type or sub division from within the Asbestos Management Console, this is something he could not have contemplated previously. Along with this all surveyors have access to the system directly, this means that:-
Steve has no complaints about levels of service or training provision as far Ai Solutions is concerned, he believes the software is very reliable and the training provided is excellent. Having worked with the team for a number of years he believes the quality of service is very high and states:-
Ai Solutions have a serious approach to health and safety compliance. Their software is flexible enough to cope with legislative change, and coupled with their health and safety briefings I always feel well informed
February 2013
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