Interview: Vladimir Zrnić, Regional Sales Manager for Southern Europe at Advanced

Mr. Zrnic, could you please present yourself to our readers: your professional and educational background and experience, when you started working for Advanced, what your role is, and what areas you cover?
My name is Vladimir Zrnic and I am Regional Sales Manager for Southern Europe at Advanced.
Based in Serbia, I have worked in the fire industry for over a decade. In that time, I have been a designer, contractor and consultant working on many prestigious Serbian projects, implementing highly-rated fire detection and suppression systems.
After more than 10 years at one of the largest fire detection companies in Serbia, in 2017 I joined Advanced, assuming responsibility for driving sales and managing customer accounts across Southern Europe as well as Turkey and Israel.

Who is Advanced and what do you specialise in? Where are your products and solutions sold?
Advanced is a fire protection and life safety systems manufacturer, based in the UK, supplying fire panels to around 80 countries across the globe. Our solutions have been specified on some of the highest profile developments of the past decade, including The Shard, Western Europe’s tallest building, Abu Dhabi International Airport and the world’s longest sea crossing, the Hong Kong – Macau – Zhuhai Bridge.
Alongside our fire systems, we also produce intelligent extinguishant, radio paging and emergency lighting systems. We offer AdSpecials too, which is a custom design and build service, creating specially engineered solutions to meet very specific building needs. All of Advanced’s products are backed up by our award-winning customer service, technical support and training.

What have been some of the most important milestones for Advanced? When did you become a part of Halma and what are the major benefits of this for the business?
Advanced became a part of Halma plc in 2014. Halma is a global group of life-saving technology companies with a clear purpose to grow a safer, cleaner, healthier future for everyone, every day,.
Being part of a larger group of fire and life safety companies enables us to draw on knowledge and expertise from across Halma’s portfolio of businesses, to share expertise and to accelerate the growth of both new product development and the wider business.
Halma is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and having the backing of a FTSE 100 company has also had benefits for us in terms of investment. Another major landmark for Advanced was the relocation of our headquarters and manufacturing plant in 2018, from four separate sites in Cramlington, Northumberland, to a £1million, 48,000 sq ft base in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in North East England.

Tell us more about your existing product line?
As part of our core product line-up, Advanced offers both intelligent addressable fire panels and complete systems.
Our MxPro 5 is the industry’s unbeatable multiprotocol fire panel. Built on almost two decades of market leadership, it offers greater freedom to specifiers, end users and installers. It is FM approved to EN54 Parts 2, 4 and also holds Part 13 approval. It comes in one to eight loop formats, is compatible with Apollo, Argus, Hochiki and Nittan protocols and can be reliably networked into systems of up to 200 panels.
Available for European, African, Middle Eastern and South East Asian markets, Axis EN is our highest performance EN54-approved panel range conforming to Parts 2, 4 and 13. It is certified by FM to EN54 Parts 2 and 4. It is available in one to eight loop formats and configurable into networks of up to 200 panels with a complete range of wired and wireless loop devices and powerful peripherals to choose from. If it’s UL 864 compliance that’s required, our Axis AX panel range comes complete with digital audio and our award-winning, integrated smoke control solution, DynamixSmoke that dramatically simplifies the programming process.
To address false alarms, one of the biggest issues facing fire professionals and building owners, Advanced developed AlarmCalm. As a complete false alarm management solution available as standard on the MxPro 5 and Axis EN ranges, AlarmCalm allows a site to be divided into virtual false alarm management zones called Building Areas, which can have unique or grouped settings, allowing highly flexible false alarm strategies to be set for each area.
TouchControl, available across Advanced’s fire systems, is a 10” HD touchscreen repeater and remote control terminal. Its unique user interface allows easy network control via built-in graphics zone plans.
AdSpecials is a dedicated department within Advanced that works with customers to design and manufacture unique panels, enclosures and control interfaces for sites where customised solutions are needed. The scope of customisation ranges range from simple colour coordination to fully bespoke panel housings that offer environmental protection and specialist control and indication.

All your products are integrated through DynamixTools software. What benefits does this deliver?
DynamixTools is Advanced’s suite of software that makes installing, configuring, customising, monitoring, maintaining, and managing a fire system easy.
Some of its key applications include:
• ConfigTool: used to configure any Advanced fire panel whether standalone or part of a large, networked system
• ServiceTool: offers powerful, flexible service reporting to help you demonstrate proof of servicing, download service reports, inspect device history and keep track of service schedules
• TerminalTool: is used to program any Advanced fire panel, even remotely via PC connection
• LogoTool: lets you brand any Advanced panel with a customer or installer logo which can help remind users who to call for maintenance and reinforce ownership of any service contracts
• ExGo ExtractionTool: designed to work with Advanced’s gas suppression system, it makes the management of configuration, control data and event logs simple and efficient.
These applications are continually updated with new features and performance enhancements for the complete range of Advanced products. Our position in the global fire industry means we help guide legislation and can implement software changes quickly, keeping our customers’ systems up to date.

What international standards do your solutions meet?
In order to satisfy the requirements of our customers around the world, we understand the importance of meeting the criteria set out in various international standards. We are approved to the major international EN and UL standards, and a wide range of regional and local codes. Meeting the necessary standards is an ongoing focus and we are continually building upon our core range of EN54 and UL 864-approved products.

Tell me about some of the biggest fire protection challenges your customers have that you come across most regularly?
The Adriatic region is flooded with fire brands coming from all over the world. Due to the unenviable economic situation, the most important criteria when choosing equipment is the lowest price.
Much of this fire alarm control and indicating equipment does not have the required approvals or the required level of functionality to deliver adequate protection, which often causes big problems for the end user.

How does Advanced offer solutions to these challenges?
We strive to constantly educate designers, consultants, installers as well as end users about the importance of specifying and installing high-quality, high-performing, trusted solutions that meet the necessary standards, and guide them through the equipment selection process.
With over 20 years’ experience in manufacturing and supplying fire detection and suppression systems, we believe that our expertise and experience can help customers prevent these issues and put in place the best possible protection for a wide range of sites.

You state that your growth comes from strong customer relationships. Is Advanced 360 behind that success?
Advanced invests time in nurturing strong relationships with customers because we care passionately about helping our clients find the best solutions to their needs.
Advanced 360 is our award-winning customer support that strives to meet and surpass customer expectations by offering a comprehensive customer care package both in person, online and over the phone.
Support can cover help when specifying a system or during installation and maintenance. We also provide full installer training free of charge for direct customers, online and over the phone, and offer a fault-modelling service.
However, also behind our success is the expertise of the wider team at Advanced. This includes leadership, operations, engineering, technical, digital, marketing and of course sales – all pulling together to deliver high-quality solutions to protect people and property and keep at the forefront of fire industry innovation.

What is new to market or in the product pipeline at the moment?
We’re working on new ways to give fire system users much more convenient real-time, remote access to, and control of, their fire protection. This has the potential to bring large-scale time and cost savings to customers.
Specifically, we are accelerating the development of AdvancedLive – our digital, cloud-connected product offering with some pilot work which we hope will provide better interactions for end users and installers. This exciting solution will, we believe, take our brand promise of ‘ease of use’ to a new level for customers needing remote monitoring and control of their sites’ fire systems.

Advanced systems are found in many applications. What vertical markets do you focus on? Can you name some of the most important case studies?
One of the key strengths of our products is their flexibility to deliver seamless protection across a wide variety of settings, from schools, universities, hospitals and hotels to large-scale industrial sites and critical infrastructure projects.
Some of the projects we’re most proud of include:
• The Historical Archives of Belgrade, where a custom-engineered solution has been introduced. By interfacing our TouchControl touchscreen repeater panel with our ExGo extinguishing system, the installer has enabled visibility over the building’s gas suppression system via interactive mapping.

• The world’s longest sea crossing, the Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macau bridge is protected by our ExGo gas suppression panels – a fantastic achievement.

• London’s 22 Bishopsgate, Western Europe’s second tallest building, has been designed to be at the forefront of fire technology – a fantastic testament to our products and the capability of our AdSpecials team who were tasked with developing a number of customised solutions to protect the site.

What are your views on digital innovation happening in the industry?
More recently, we have witnessed an industry-wide drive towards innovative digital solutions to make control, monitoring, maintenance and servicing of fire systems much quicker, smoother and more convenient.
The development of cloud-enabled products and services is a focus for Advanced, and we have already adopted the technology across our emergency lighting product offering. Going forward, we also see digital innovation opening up new ways of working and transforming how we interact with our fire systems.

What has been the effect of Covid-19 on Advanced? Any good news stories to share?
Like most businesses that have continued to operate throughout the pandemic, we have put in place all recommended measures to keep our fantastic team safe. This way we have been able to continue to work to support the high demand we’ve seen for fire protection products.
Many people have seen the global lockdown of countries as an opportunity to upskill. We’ve introduced a webinar programme designed to explain our solutions in more detail and have also developed a series of online training modules.
In order to continue to deliver seamless customer service and technical support, over the past few months, we have also begun developing a series of video tutorials and walkthroughs that will address many of our customers’ FAQs. These are available via our Vimeo channel ‘Advanced Live’, with new tips frequently posted.

Your opinion about the Adriatic region security market, its pros and cons? And how do you intend to increase market share in this area? Are you looking for new partners?
The Adriatic region has been developing extremely quickly in recent years. It is one of the most demanding European markets in terms of requirements for quality and functionality at competitive prices.
As a leading manufacturer of fire detection systems, Advanced understands the importance of continually listening to market demands and strives to customers’ individual needs through product development and aftersales support.
We are proud to support many long-term partners in countries throughout the region, and are always open to new enquiries and opportunities to support installers, engineers, consultants, specifiers and building owners in meeting their fire protection challenges, whatever they may be.
To learn more about Advanced’s fire and life safety solutions, contact marketing@advancedco.com