Smart fire alarm system monitoring for reliable fire safety across offices in Croatia

The GRAWE insurance group was founded in Austria in 1828, first as a fire insurance company, before diversifying into other insurance and business areas. In more recent decades, the company expanded across other European countries, including 62 offices in Croatia – the Group’s most successful subsidiary. Like many large insurance companies, GRAWE Group owns diverse commercial and residential properties in the countries where they are based as a stable, long-term return on investment.

By 2018, GRAWE had owned four small office buildings in Zagreb for several years. Over time, however, Robert Majeric, Facilities Maintenance Manager for the buildings, received regular complaints by commercial tenants, including a newspaper publishing company. Their business operations were interrupted all too often by false fire alarms. Each triggered alarm was to be taken seriously, with building evacuations in case of a real fire. The frequency of nuisance alarms, however, risked complacency among employees, who complained that the loud noise prevented them from concentrating on their work. Leaving valuable or sensitive business assets behind unattended during each evacuation was a further valid concern.

Board member of Grawe Hrvatska d.d. Irhad Meheljic saw that, to GRAWE, an insurance company, this was a situation which carried unacceptable risks to safety, but also to the Group’s reputation. There was a need to install a robust fire safety system with detectors and alarms they could rely on. Mr Meheljic says, “GRAWE needed the confidence of a reliable system from a well-known manufacturer, with reliable maintenance, without having to continually worry about it.” He sought a local systems integrator for the project and found Fidens Alarm d.o.o., a Bosch partner based in Croatia.

Zoran Misic, director of Fidens Alarm, outlined the possible fire safety solutions which his team’s Bosch expert Danijel Jerkovic soon after demonstrated in person to Mr Meheljic and, Facilities Maintenance Manager Robert Majeric. The men saw first-hand the reliability of the AVENAR 4000 detector series. They were convinced that this was the right solution for the four buildings.

The large-scale project involved the installation of the right combination of AVENAR heat and smoke detectors to cover the various areas and activities within the buildings. The AVENAR detectors and fire alarm panels are backward compatible with legacy systems such as GRAWE’s previously installed equipment. This flexibility saves system upgrade costs – a welcome bonus for large installation projects.

NEXOSPACE allows the system integrators at Fidens Alarm to perform predictive maintenance, troubleshooting and system updates remotely for all four office buildings. The advanced connectivity means Mr. Majeric also receives status updates via push notifications from the Bosch app. He is happy and says, “All components of the fire alarm system are functioning excellently, and we've had no problems whatsoever.” He and the system integrators now only have to physically drive to the buildings in Zagreb for occasional routine maintenance when notified by the app. The company therefore saves on travel and maintenance costs.