Commercial Alarm - help

I understand your pain as I've seen it time after time. There are, of course, all sorts of angles, some of which you've just named. If your company is of that size, why not roll all your security and access control management under one roof and use a central monitoring company that is geared to providing true facility management, right on down to your access control? Of course, when using a large national or global firm of that size, you will still be faced with regional alarm technicians who work under subcontract with the national.

What part of the country are you in?

Al Colombo

I would start with your insurance company.

Ask what exactly is required?

Then determine what other requirements you have internally.

I would separate the corporate office from the branch offices.

For your corporate office, might want to separate various things. Have one company do video, another do card access, etc.

Talk to other businesses about which companies are the best in your area for each specific thing. May want to talk to your local police department and ask which companies are known to *not* resolve false alarm problems and which resolve them quickly. (Best company.)

Then for branch offices, delegate the responsibility. Use the insurance requirements to specify what must be in the system, and use your experience (which you will have gained) of finding the best company or companies for your corporate systems. Then suggest to local managers that they use the same methods to find the best local companies where they are located.

You will have 10 different managers making selections here. Some will do well, others will have problems. Over time, learn what the successful managers did right, then adopt that methodology for the rest of the company.

(In other words - experiment and see what gets the best results so far as your branches are concerned.)

Might want to try and find out what large businesses like Walmart do. Which brands of equipment... Companies they use to install/maintain their systems, etc.

I know it would be nice to have one company do everything, one national contract for everything, etc. But I think you will do better, quality and service-wise, going on a component by component basis and city by city basis.

Also be aware that there are "dual sensor" motion detectors. They use microwave *and* IR. Microwave by itself is prone to false alarms. IR by itself is prone to false alarms. But the dual detector requires both to trip at the same time for an alarm to be triggered and they have solved many false alarm problems. They are of course more expensive.

Last I heard, Sonitrol is owned by the same company who owns ADT.

Jim Rojas

Drop me an email at: instalinkinc at adelphia dot com. I'll explain what we do.

Tyco sold off the Sonitrol unit. Sonitrol branches are franchises, though. They vary in quality from very good to horrible.

Someone we haven't heard from in some time now calls them "Sonitrash"... When dealing with *any* franchise, you're only dealing with the people that

Sonitrash, Scumitrol, whatever works for you. Their audio monitoring isn't nearly as attractive as it used to be with the availablility of increasingly cheap video verifictation service. They claim the lowest false alarm rate in the industry, which is probably true. They also have the highest rate of ignoring legitimate alarms. What exacly does a break-in sound like, anyway?

And what was ADT's answer to false alarms... Sonitrash's two way audio has to be a little better than holding your dick in your hand? "Always Dial Twice"....priceless That's a joke John.

I disagree with you on 2-way voice as it is a very good method of verification and we have a couple of hundred thousand panels using it. The problem with video is and shall be for quite a while the method of transmission and cost. Those two problems are okay for a business application but something else for residential

I don't know Sonitrol's exact method of voice verification or equipment used but I imagine it does the job quite well

I thought it was America's Drinking Team. At least that what they told me when I signed up.

My answer to the false alarm problem is quite simple - no unverified police response. That's really the only answer. Verification can be be ASI response or video. IMO, audio verification just isn't sufficient.

Sonitrol's method of listening for a break-in and then deciding whether or not to dispatch was a cool idea ten years ago. It's just been surpassed by video now.

I have to agree. No verification, no response, period.

I think audio aides when it's two-way. But it's now cheaper to be 100% correct with video.

Okay so how do you propose video verification on someone without broadband? Only one I can think of is OzVision

You need to do some homework and select a company that has a good reputation in your region. Even corporate companies will vary from region to region depending on who is in charge of your local alarm branch operations.

If you are in charge of security you may want to join ASIS and network with various companies that service and install alarms.

BobbyD

quelquefemme wrote:

True but how many are using that?

You answered your own question :-))

By explaining the benefits of broadband. If people are dumb enough to subscribe to AOL dial-up at 30 bucks a month, they can very easily understand the transition. Paying for a second line to do dial-up video verification isn't the answer IMO. Just look at the transmission costs in comparison, along with what you'll need at the Central. I've built a 48 position Interactive CMF using all dial-up...the costs are painful, and passed on to the end users. It's also slow and not very efficient...but it does work. I just see what it costs both parties to implement.

Many people don't have broadband because it still isn't offered in many areas. Dial-up is the only way it's going to happen

I think the times are changing. A few people don't want to pay for broadband, but it "is" everywhere. The problem will be turning the residential market around from 15 years of giving equipment away for the RMR. Everyone will be waiting a long time for the free answer.

Jack, I thought ADT was crazy when they decided to kill the low down lease resi program for 2004. A year later revenues in that channel are up and the customers keep rolling in.

The corporate high volume resi program is now an outright sale with a decent margin on all the products. They've got a custom resi program rolling out nationwide as well for the higher end market. Look out for the black yard signs.

Of course, they've still got the dealer channel doing God knows what.