Case study: Above The Line

Above The Line are the UK’s leading film set security company, based at Pinewood Studios, working on film sets from the biggest blockbusters to minor productions.

Above The Line have contracts with the major film studios requiring them to keep extensive records of everything that happens and everybody that enters each film set. The information gathered needs to be retained for extended periods as it may be referred to in the event of claims. This generated large volumes of occurrence logs and incident reports for each site every day, and their existing paper-based system caused delays in capturing details. Furthermore, the data captured was not easily searchable, which lead to delays if a client needed to retrieve information about an incident.

Above The Line also need to manage and communicate with their large personnel roster in order to ensure that they have the right people on site at all times, at short notice.

In order to maintain its position as market leader in film set security, Above The Line needed an advanced mobile data capture solution that would provide accurate information in a timely manner and drive a searchable database that would add value to their clients. Maintaining credibility and accountability were key factors for Above The Line due to the type of client they are working for and the high profile stars that work on the sets they guard.

KLOC worked closely with Above The Line on a thorough review of its requirements. Together they decided on a smartphone-based solution to allow data to be captured instantly as well as adding the ability to include images along with time and geographic location recording. As part of the review and planning stage, KLOC generated a technical architecture and a complete set of wireframes to ensure that everyone knew how the solution would behave. During this process it was also established that data generated by users logging on and off the app could replace existing timesheet submissions to further enhance efficiency.

KLOC recommended a cross-platform mobile app as Above The Line personnel were using a variety of handsets on both iOS and Android platforms. A PHP/Laravel/MySQL back-end was specified to allow office-based personnel to access the data captured via the app, as well as managing the configuration of users and set locations.

Once complete, the app was distributed via Google Play and Apple’s B2B store due to having controlled access. All Above The Line personnel are now logging their shifts, occurrences while on-site and incident logs via the mobile app.

Above The Line back-office personnel can control access to the app, raise invoices and payments from the data captured and manage the films and locations that guards can work on. The back-office team are also able to use mobile notifications to push requests and information direct to the workforce and have these pop up on their lock screens for immediate attention.

The solution also provides a searchable back-end database, giving Above The Line rapid visibility of events as they are logged and the ability to support retrospective enquiries.