GRITIT uses technology to keep a grip on the winter road situation

With another harsh winter predicted in the UK, the onset of the ‘shiver season’ can only mean one thing – the country grinding to a halt as icy roads, ill-prepared motorists and ‘the wrong sort of snow’ making the commute to work an absolute nightmare. A recent survey found that a number of councils spent the entire spring and summer masterminding plans following the extreme cold snap last winter, and the RAC Foundation confirmed that winter resilience, “...has moved up the agenda as a result of two severe winters.”

Technology, coupled with people power will be used to keep streets and roads clear this winter and measures include updated IT systems, GPS-guided gritters, brine-spraying machines, free shovels and thousands of tonnes of extra stockpiled salt. But it seems that businesses are not going to rely on local councils to grit the roads and pathways around their buildings, as they have a duty of care to their staff and customers to ensure safe access to work. As a result organisations are taking steps to be in a much better position to cope if there is a repeat of the snow and ice disruption experienced last winter.

One company which has focused on the technology aspect is Uxbridge-based GRITIT, which was the first company in the UK to focus exclusively on winter gritting and it is now a market leader in the Winter Risk Management business, dealing mainly with retail parks and commercial property companies. GRITIT works throughout the country for customers including the NHS, police forces, well known supermarkets and DIY stores, and has six strategically located regional operations managers controlling over 100 gritting trucks nationwide. It manages its operations using Microsoft’s latest technology delivered as a hosted service from leading Cloud solutions provider Outsourcery.

Brendon Petsch, Operations Manager of GRITIT said: “The overall process is a complex one involving monitoring weather conditions, tracking vehicle locations, monitoring the amount of salt used and ensuring there are sufficient components in place to meet customer demand as and when required.”

From a technology perspective GRITIT historically worked from spreadsheets with a simple web email (POP3) service. There were no synchronisation of IT across the company and no back-up communications, meaning people worked in isolation without a concept of the ‘bigger picture’ required for a national service operation. Additionally relying on manual data management meant the risk of human error was high.

GRITIT wanted a solution that would have the scalability to grow with the business, but it did not have the internal resource to deliver or manage it on a day to day basis. It needed the functionality of an enterprise solution, but without the large price tag. GRITIT approached Outsourcery to tailor a hosted solution which meant that it did not have the upfront investment, installation charges and ongoing maintenance and management related to installing and running its own servers and software.

Outsourcery delivered a complete IT and communications solution for GRITIT, providing a mobile communications integrated with a hosted solution to improve efficiency and reduce cost throughout the company network.

The bespoke solution for GRITIT incorporates business email (hosted Exchange 2007), customer relationship management (hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM) and document collaboration (hosted SharePoint 2007).Brendon Petsch continues, “Outsourcery has provided a complete hosted package enabling GRITIT staff to access and share documents in real-time and ultimately deliver a more effective service to our customers. The solution means GRITIT has moved away from manual data management, by automating the processes via Microsoft CRM which has meant savings of over £40,000 across the business.