ADT Commercial Launches NFPA LiNK for Digital Access to Codes and Standards
ADT Commercial offers shareable, convenient, and up-to-date code information through the implementation of NFPA LiNK.
ADT Commercial, a systems integrator that provides commercial security, fire and life safety services in the U.S., has created a program to help its employees develop professionally by reaching higher certification levels and building a better work experience.
Driven by the organization’s National Fire & Life Safety and Product Enablement teams, the company aspired to provide employees across critical operational departments with expanded access to NFPA fire and life safety codes to more efficiently study for professional certification exams.
ADT Commercial needed shareable, convenient, and up-to-date code information that wouldn’t need to be replaced every few years—and that would come at a lower cost than a full library of physical code books.
By implementing NFPA LiNK, a subscription-based application that delivers NFPA codes and standards, ADT Commercial was able to achieve these goals and more.
“The ADT Commercial Product Enablement team’s mission is to advance employee knowledge of relevant codes and standards,” says Casey Williams, senior product enablement manager at ADT Commercial, in the company announcement.
“We can’t act on that mission without easy access to critical code information,” says Williams. “NFPA LiNK is upskilling our teams and helping us drive innovation as an industry leader in the security and fire safety sectors.”
Cost-Effective Code Access
Before implementing NFPA LiNK, ADT Commercial spent tens of thousands of dollars per year on physical code books, which it then had to ship across the country to 150 branch offices as well as to remote employees’ homes.
At the branch locations, books needed to stay in the office library and could not be reproduced or easily shared. However, these copies were often marked up or removed as employees used them to study for certification exams—increasing costs at a significant rate.
ADT Commercial estimates that affected employees typically need between 10 and 15 code books in addition to handbooks for added commentary, although the number can vary depending on the employee’s specific job and management structure.
Moreover, because code books are ordinarily replaced with clean, updated versions every three years, their purchase was not a viable long-term investment for employee development. Total reliance on physical books for certification studying was costly and ineffective.
ADT Commercial needed a centralized, digital hub of code content that hundreds of employees could access immediately and navigate seamlessly.
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Exceeding Business Goals
In addition to providing technicians with codes and standards at a reduced cost, ADT Commercial experienced additional benefits from its NFPA LiNK subscription that contributed to the organization’s larger business goals.
Since implementing the online tool, the organization has lowered the barrier to entry for studying for certification exams, meaning a greater number of technicians, designers, and managers are incentivized to pursue certification programs.
The combined investment in NFPA LiNK and certification testing empowers ADT Commercial to advance its industry-leading experience and excellence in fire and life safety. The organization has been able to grow its fire and life safety focus, expanding the national fire design team by four times since its creation.
This enables the leading integrator to take on more projects, resulting in increased revenue for the organization while leveraging advanced educational tools to better serve the communities where it operates.
With NFPA LiNK, employees across all disciplines—from sales representatives to engineers, techs, and managers—can access and quickly search through several editions of the codes, identify updates between editions with interactive change indicators, create notes and bookmarks, and organize them into shareable collections for studying purposes.
Employees can also take advantage of the platform’s exclusive expert commentary and situational content. These functionalities coupled with a navigable user experience make it easy for even the most experienced employees to find value in transitioning from traditional code books to NFPA LiNK.
Moreover, when ADT Commercial’s field technicians, designers, and even sales members have access to years of codes and standards in the palm of their hands, workflows become more streamlined and projects can be completed with fewer disruptions attributable to code matters.
“NFPA LiNK has been extremely valuable in streamlining our costs and making our employees much more efficient in locating the proper codes and standards,” says Ryan Sandler, vice president, fire & life safety, in the announcement. “This ready-to-access digital educational material has enhanced our capability to offer optimized fire and life safety solutions.”
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