Better Connections
Many opportunities have yet to be realized
- By Mike Zydor
- Jan 04, 2016
The life safety industry, comprised primarily
of burglary, fire and medical
alert systems, has seen an accelerated
evolution in monitoring service offerings
over the past decade. This evolution is
comprised of numerous components, stemming
from drastic enhancements in technology coupled
with rapid demographic shifts. The focus
on smart-home technologies and the desire to
be “connected” that has pervaded the economy,
and has helped drive this innovation in monitoring
services.
Plain old telephone service (POTS) and traditional
radio networks, the backbones and primary
transmission technologies up until the last decade,
have taken a back seat to GSM, CDMA and
IP communication. This has forever changed the
landscape of the industry and opened up new opportunities,
many of which have yet to be realized.
Data that previously could not be passed at
a cost effective price point or was severely hampered
by technological limitations, is now readily
available in standard packages for the spectrum
of alarm professionals, both big and small,
residentially or commercially focused, to resell
to the market.
OUT OF THE POTS
Monitoring services for decades offered a limited
suite of options centered around basic alarm
monitoring. Basic services included POTS, a
handful of alarm radio networks as a secondary
option to telephone line transmission, periodic
test timers and opening and closing services
geared to the commercial and fire markets.
Cellular services, originally only used for
backup purposes, are rapidly becoming the accepted
infrastructure standard. Regardless of the
portion of the industry served, dealers are able to
select from a multitude of cellular manufacturers
that major monitoring centers are able to accommodate
signal traffic from. Cellular service has
also opened a host of network supervision levels
based on the installation requirements. This supervision
ranges on the low end from monthly
and daily on standard residential systems to the
high end of five minute supervision on NFPA 72
code driven fire systems.
As part of the shift in telecommunications
over the past decade, IP is beginning to play an
increased role as both the sole and secondary
paths of signaling. Like cellular, all of the major
equipment providers offer this as part of their offering
suite. This shift in infrastructure has paved
the way for the explosion of interactive services.
Available from equipment manufacturers and a
number of stand-alone software development
companies, proprietary platforms and apps have
been developed to meet the expanding consumer
thirst for home control and connectivity. Once
described as fringe offerings, interactive services
are now often the salesperson’s introduction to
the full capabilities of a security system.
From the perspective of the monitoring center,
those services offered for alarm monitoring
and those offered for dealer support have become
irrevocably intertwined. These added services,
offered directly through the monitoring center,
include the ability to remote arm and disarm
the alarm system along with receiving unlimited
zone notifications on all system events.
IN CONTROL
Dealers can set up their customers for automatic
services to control their Wi-Fi or cellular enabled
thermostats, lights and locks. Additional services
include weather data, advertising services
and GPS location tracking. With this enhanced
set of offerings available to the dealer, the sale is
no longer about security and has transitioned to
meeting the customers’ lifestyle needs. This, of
course, includes protecting both assets and life,
while at the same time increasing the longevity of
the system because it addresses numerous wants.
In the effort to reduce attrition, or what is often
referred to as increasing the “stickiness” of a
customer, one of the best ancillary monitoring
tools is an end user focused app. Daniel Oppenheim,
vice president of Affiliated Monitoring, has
been quoted on a number of occasions with the
message of “Apps in the hands of the customer
changes the expectation of an alarm system.
Alarm monitoring service is an intangible because
you cannot see it or touch it.
The app makes monitoring a real product that
customers will continue to pay for.” Apps can
be individually skinned for each dealer to keep
their name in front of their customer along with
their unique contact information. The customer
has a host of options at their disposal including
the ability to view all of the accounts that are assigned
to them, place systems on and off test and
review recent alarm activity, zones with descriptions
and the designated contact list individuals.
Not only does the power of apps reside in the
customers’ hands, dealers also have a number of
these for use by management, office, sales and
technical staff. Purposely more robust than end
user apps, dealer focused applications give tremendous
and invaluable insight and on demand
tools for effectively managing an alarm business.
MANAGE THE DATABASE
In addition to the functionality afforded the
customer, dealers have the ability manage their
entire account database, view live signal activity
streams during the account activation and testing process and make instantly accepted changes to their account data.
Apps are typically made available for both the iOS and Android platforms
and often include different levels of access and capability based on the day
to day responsibilities of each user.
One of the fast growing segments of monitoring services that has grown
the capacity of the life safety professional to add RMR is personal emergency
reporting systems (PERS). PERS can, for the sake of simplicity, be broken
down into two categories. The first is the traditional in—home offering that
utilizes a standard POTS line or GSM / CDMA for alarm transmission. The
second is mobile PERS, more commonly referred to as mPERS, which offers
the user increased mobility as they do not need to remain within a specified
distance of a base station, as is the case with the traditional in—home systems.
Mobile PERS devices often include GPS location tracking and online portals
for loved ones to see the activity of the user. The add-on service that is most
often used for either type of PERS device is fall detection. To provide the level
of service required for PERS, due in large measure to the fact that they can
be more active compared to other life safety systems, monitoring centers that
specialize in PERS monitoring often have distinct operational and monitoring
center teams geared towards this segment of the security marketplace.
ON THE MOVE
Gaining substantial traction in the past few years, video verification services
also open a new stream of recurring revenue to the dealer. Previously
hindered by proprietary equipment limitations, the integration of numerous
software based video, along with DVR, NVR and IP camera manufacturer
product lines, into a single video monitoring platform has drastically
changed this landscape.
Indoor and outdoor event triggered video along with non–alarm alerts
give dealers and their customers an abundance of options when traditional
verification is not a solution. Video clips can be sent through dealer branded
apps to the customer for informational and dispatch related needs. All of the
major equipment manufacturers have added video services to their lineups
greatly expanding the dealer base that can offer this. Monitoring centers, such
as Affiliated Monitoring, with a single integrated platform have seen great
strides in the adoption of video services and verification.
The explosion of new monitoring services within the past decade has
created opportunities for alarm professionals to expand their portfolios and
grow their RMR stream. The line between monitoring, dealer and end user
services is being blurred, with the increased need for tighter integration of
all capabilities and functionality. It is a very exciting time to be on both the
alarm dealer side and alarm monitoring side with the relationship day by day
becoming more of a true partnership.
This article originally appeared in the January 2016 issue of Security Today.