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Average Response Time

Does anyone here use COPS Monitoring?

We have been trying to figure out how they are calculating their "Average Response Time" of 12.55 seconds. They say "Our response time is audited by an independent firm." (apparently on a yearly basis) but doesn't say what Firm. They did list the name of the auditor a while ago but when we researched it we couldn't find that it acually existed anywhere.

I'd like to contact that Firm to find out what the criteria is so I can provide a fair and honest comparison to our own response time. Wouldn't you all like to see a comparison to know if 12.55 seconds is really an acceptable "response" time or not? Does "response" mean an actual operator picking up the phone and calling to verify or dispatch on a signal, or does it mean the operator simply "picked-up" the signal from the pending alarm list? Maybe you COPS dealers could request the name of that firm from COPS for me? I'd be VERY surprised if you can get a straight answer from anyone, but there is no reason they shouldn't know and tell you since they make such a big deal of it. Even if you are Not a COPS dealer, call them and ask. Inquiring minds want to know.

Reply to
Joe Lucia
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Dear Lucia,

In Monitoring (whether it be COPS or someone else) there are two issues that can give information on the performance of the CMS.

The first issue is the Responce time. This is the time it takes for the opperator to just pick up the alarm. So when an alarm drops into the window of the automation to the time that the opperator picks up the the event is the responce time. Some people may consider that 12.55 seconds is too long... "What are they waiting for?". But considering the fact that the opperator will have many more alarms (for example late closing or early opening), this responce time (if it is true) is actually good.

The second issue is the action time. This is the time it takes from receiving the signal to the time the operator clicks on "save event". This time gives you the idea of how long it takes for the operator to complete all listed calls (or completing the "to do" list) and finally click on save. So COPS must also inform of their action time. Because just responding to an alarm and pending it does not give true values.

I have been trying to find a mathematical relation between these two figures and have found some for some countries. Unfortunately the US is not on my list as the service type differs from CMS to CMS.

I hope this gives you some idea on the situation. Good luck.

Reply to
Okitoki

My thoughts exactly. Obviously it must be the op-pickup-time to be a

12.55 second response, it does take humans a few more seconds to comprehend what they are looking at before blindly dialing the customer.

I also wonder if the events are auto-assigned to the available operators as they come in, which drastically reduces the "response" time but doesn't mean the Operator has actually "responded", just his workstation did. I believe larger monitoring centers with a lot of operators typically auto-assign events. We don't, all operators see and hear the pending alarms list as events hit. It's up to the operators to get-next-available signal. We don't have enough operators to warrant auto-assigning. If I auto-assigned events it looks like it would happen, on average, within about 5 seconds (it takes on average less then 4 seconds from the time the receiver spits out the signal until it hits an operators screen).

Most often, if I set my alarm off at home, by the time I walk to the keypad to shut it off and head back to the ph>Dear Lucia,

Reply to
Joe Lucia

That is the time between getting the signal and calling out, and thats pretty good

Reply to
Mark Leuck

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