SUPERTECH SEEDS – Q-PIP
Case study with Q-Pip founder James Till.
Saving lives in an emergency with better risk management
Every second counts in an emergency response situation. No-one knows that better than Operational risk lead and crew manager for the West Midlands Fire Authority, James Till. In response to findings from the Grenfell Tower report and his own experience managing fire safety risks, James has created a new way for building owners and operators to provide risk information to first responders. SuperTech caught up with James to discuss how the technology he has developed as part of the SuperTech Seeds programme will save lives and ensure compliance with new legislation coming into force in 2023.
What is the challenge you are trying to solve?
Every year fire fighters up and down the country respond to hundreds of thousands of emergency calls. For all buildings over 18m there’s a requirement to provide building risk information that will help inform the approach of emergency services. This includes a detailed floorplan outlining vital building risks and information on any vulnerable residents who may struggle with evacuation.
Currently this is a physical paper-based system that is stored in a secure red box on site, it can be difficult to locate and the information inside is often out of date or inaccurate.
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, which come into force in January 2023, require owners and operators of all multi-occupied residential building at least 18 metres in height or seven or more storeys high to share digital copies of this information with their local fire and rescue service including layout plans and building faults which may affect a response mechanism.
Tell us about your solution
When an incident is in progress things can escalate quickly. Time is a critical factor. You need personnel and equipment, but also information to manage the risk and plan your approach. Q-Pip provides an up to date easy to access risk information platform that can be accessed by operational crews from a QR code instantly. It allows building managers to update key building and occupant information quickly and effectively 24/7 remotely. This means that if someone with accessibility needs moves into a property it can be updated instantly and more importantly accessed by emergency first responders dynamically.
How long have you been working on this idea?
I’ve been considering new approaches for a couple of years now. Through first-hand experience of high-risk situations, I’ve found that critical information is often hard to locate, out of date or may not even be there at all.
I manage the Fire Fighter safety system for our brigade, to help safeguard crews. This is a legal requirement and is incredibly robust. Q-Pip takes that high-level expertise and first-hand experience and allows responsible building owners to better manage the safety of residents and occupiers and avoid litigation.
What has it been like working with SuperTech?
The support has been absolutely amazing. SuperTech has allowed me to streamline and develop my concept in a way that wouldn’t have been possible without their guidance. We’ve gone through inception through to design, with the support of Suzi and Hilary. We were then seamlessly linked in to Million Labs for the tech development, opening my eyes to a whole new set of opportunities that I wasn’t previously aware of. The programme has effectively removed the technology barriers that were stopping the business progressing beyond an idea. We’ve gone through the entire development in a matter of weeks, as a team and it has given me access to a service and support mechanism that has been amazing, seamless.
How did you hear about SuperTech?
I was referred over by Andy Cleobury at the GBSLEP Hub, who has supported me immensely though out this whole process and guided me to the relevant support at the right time. Everything really snowballed from there.
What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?
Don’t sit on your laurels, help is out there. If you’ve got a great idea reach out, get the support you need and develop it.
Accessing technical expertise was at first very daunting and involved going way outside of my comfort zone. From the initial meeting onwards though I’ve felt really supported. It’s been as simple as here’s the idea now let’s look at how we can run with it.
Take your time, work through the process and everything else follows. Looking at where we were four months ago compared to now with a fully functioning app, the progress we’ve made is unbelievable.
What are your thoughts on no-code?
No-code is incredible. I had to understand coding before I understood no-code. Some elements are still a mystery to me to me but seeing how quickly development progress can be made is really impressive. To have a certain functionality and then change it on a dime within a couple of hours is amazing.
If I was to develop Q-Pip using code, it would have taken 18 months to two years to get to the point I’m at now. By the time you’ve done that someone’s already gone to market. With no-code you can take a concept and turn it into an MVP in weeks.
My impression of no-code was naïve at first. I thought we would need to produce a rudimental system with very basic functionality. Far from it. I can’t tell the difference between a no-code app and one that was coded.
As an outsider looking in, no-code is clearly a game changer.
How important has it been to you to be able to develop your technology in the West Midlands?
The reason I have chosen this career like many of my colleagues across the country is that I want to help support, protect and make a difference to the communities we live in. To that end, being able to develop new safety enhancing technology to support this is fantastic. SuperTech is an ideal flagship for the West Midlands, helping to drive and demonstrate just how innovative we are as a region.
What is next for you and your business?
We’re now making the final adjustments to the Q-Pip app. We’ll then launch a pilot scheme at a number of buildings locally to test the functionality and format further. There is a compliance window, with legislation coming into force in 2023, but we’re being mindful of not rushing out into the marketplace too quickly and ensuring the app is as user-friendly as possible.
For more on Q-Pip, contact James Till: admin@q-pip.co.uk
To find out more about SuperTech and how to get involved in the SuperTech Seeds programme visit: www.supertechwm.com/seeds