James Twigg is the Managing Director at TIS (Total Integrated Solutions), a company that boasts over 140 staff operating nationwide from five UK office locations. Areas of expertise for the business include life safety, security and communications systems integration. We specialise in design and consulting, technology and regulatory compliance for smart rooms, smart buildings and smart cities. Accreditations cover all angles such as JSCAR, EMS, QMS, BAFE, NSI Gold, NSI Fire Gold, NIC EIC, Cyber Essentials, iiE, ADS, Safecontractor, Gate Safe TIS and membership of CHAS.
What would be a typical project for you?
We design, install and maintain converged life safety, security and communications systems that protect a range of people, places and spaces. One of our main customer sectors is retirement villages but we also work with universities, the Ministry of Defence and local authorities protecting public spaces such as town centres. We work at the initial consultation stage, helping to define the brief and requirements, through to designing, installing and maintaining integrated systems that are easier to manage. In an industry that often still relies heavily on analogue technologies and siloed systems, we’re leading a digital transformation, creating digital ecosystems of smart rooms, smart buildings and smart cities.
Projects vary greatly but we use next generation technologies to create tailored new-build systems or transform existing legacy infrastructure. We deliver intelligence, reliability and resilience so that our customers can operate more safely and securely in a rapidly changing regulatory environment.
Do you have any ‘go to’ technology and manufacturers?
As an independent systems integrator, we’re dedicated to curating the most suitable technologies from around the world to create the very best smart protection systems for our customers.
Where other systems suppliers are perhaps tied to specific manufacturers or their own proprietary technologies and solutions, we can be agile, objective, and remain open to sourcing the most suitable technology for the job. By staying at the forefront of sector innovation and understanding the widest range of possible technologies and solutions, we can design solutions around our customers and the lives of their stakeholders – rather than the other way around. It’s our belief that customers shouldn’t be locked into proprietary technology that offers little to no flexibility.
What is the best thing about working in this industry?
The most exciting thing about the industry is the level of technological innovation and development we’re experiencing at the moment. It’s very fast moving. When I joined 15 years ago, our industry was still very analog (and still is very much so in certain aspects), but since the rise of smart technology and home systems alongside the industry’s and governmental response to heartbreaking incidents like Grenfell, technological innovations in the security and safety sector are moving at a rapid pace. We’re very much at the forefront of the movement and see it as essential in ensuring TIS helps to protect our customers’ people, places and spaces.
Is third party accreditation beneficial to you?
We’re working in heavily compliance-orientated industries such as retirement villages, universities and council buildings and public spaces so accreditation is very important, yes. We go above and beyond when it comes to regulation as we know how important it is for our customers, and the people and spaces they are protecting, to know we’re a company who takes regulation extremely seriously.
Read the full interview in the August 2021 edition of PSI magazine in print and digital
