QUESTION:

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 Ken

              We are being requested more and more to provide alarm

 systems that are not monitored by a central station, but

instead send text messages or email alerts to select

 individuals of the customer choosing, when an alarm

 occurs. We have developed several different lesser cost

 monthly programs to accommodate these requests, but we

need some guidance on the contractual piece.

              The standard monitoring contract will not be well received

 by the customer base as it is too specific to a 3rd party

monitoring center. I would assume though that we may need

 some sort of liability release indicating the customer is

 taking responsibility for their own monitoring.

             One other thing to consider is that we may need to install

 some equipment such as an SMTP mail server to facilitate

 the automated email messaging piece. and our IT department

 is looking into whether we should do it ourselves, or if

 we should outsource it. Either way, it could potentially

 fail, as could the customers broadband connection, and end

 up not delivering the emergency email as intended.

           Do you have a standard monitoring agreement that addresses

 one or both issues?

Thanks

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ANSWER:

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    The contract for this service is Remote Video Monitoring Service

     When I got this question I asked Gary Dawkins of Response Center USA to comment.   See below for his comment on this type of service.

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COMMENT:

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Ken:

           There are several issues to consider. One that is important to most alarm companies is a thing called RMR. I will get back to that later.

 

          Sometimes in evolution, a step backwards is taken. This reminds me of the good ole days when alarms used a tape dialer to call a voice pager to notify of an alarm. You hoped all the equipment and processes worked, but you never knew for certain. The message went out to the pager, but you never were certain if it was received or not.  I think text or email messaging is in some ways related.

 

          Alarm panels have had the capability to send messages for quite some time. That feature is rarely used, except in addition to conventional monitoring. The newer methods have increased capabilities, but still have some issues:

 

           Although the new technology sounds, and is, really cool, there is a great possibility of missed expectations on the part of the customer. They think they will always be notified and that they will save money. Both might be wrong.

 

          There are some very large companies who in the past marketed this service for alarm dealers, and they have abandoned the project, at least partly because the dealers were not making as much money, and the end-user did not get the service that he had imagined.  For instance, when they first heard the idea of messaging monitoring, it is thought that is high-tech, and the end user will save a lot of money. But, if they are relying solely on a text message or email to their phone, will they always have the phone with them? What about when they are in the swimming pool, or at a noisy gathering, asleep, etc.?  Further, what messages will they receive? Will they be able to receive multiple tripped zone, restores, disarms? How long will it take the customer to receive those signals? Will he have already called the police himself? Does he know how to cancel a dispatch? Will the PD cancel a dispatch for him?

 

        As a contrast to just sending a “messaging” alarm notification out over an unsupervised communication path to a person who may or may not be paying attention at that particular moment, using a monitoring station such as Response Center USA provides a high-grade, supervised communications path, and we have real live, extensively trained human beings to receive and properly process that alarm signal and to be absolutely certain that it is handled properly. We supervise the communication paths for reliability, and we have people on staff 24 x 7 to properly handle the alarms.

 

          If the customer is a teckie kind of person, will he want to get into the program inside the alarm panel and change some values? Will he know what he is doing? We all know that programming a panel correctly can be complicated, and that if it is not programmed precisely, then there can be unexpected bad results. If he messes something up, will he claim that YOU had programmed it incorrectly?  Although some people might program it correctly, it would be very scary to let most people program a system.

 

          Also, do they know how to set it up to send email or text messages? Are they going to use your email server, or are they going to want to use their own service so that they do not have to pay more? Are they using a reliable service? Can he guarantee that his company email or service provider or some of the exchange servers downstream will not someday be reprogrammed, and think that email is spam and trap it in a spam filter? If he changes his email provider, will he remember to reprogram his panel?

 

           Oh, yes, about that RMR. Most companies have a lot of fun installing systems, but most of us want to make money doing so. So, this begs the question of how to make money on this configuration. Often, an alarm company will sell a system below what it costs to purchase and sell and install, and then rely on the Recurring Monthly Revenue to eventually make a profit. Unless you have a way to get the customer to pay you a fee every month, then you will have to charge a higher price for the installed system in order to make a profit. The price which Response Center USA changes a dealer to monitor a system is a small fraction of what a dealer can charge an end-user to have a better, more secure alarm system. Also, a proper contract such as Mr. Kirschenbaum sells, along with the associated RMR, has a value as an asset. So, don’t make a mistake of charging too little for the system. You might lose out on monthly income as well as not gain a valuable contract asset.

 

        And, absolutely you will need to have a contract for these systems. There is much opportunity for something to go wrong. Be sure to properly inform the customer what to expect, so that he will not have missed expectations, and thus think you over sold the product. Realize that if you give control of the program to someone outside your company who is not properly trained, all kinds of bad things can happen. The communications paths may not always be what would be desired, and further, the customer may not be near his cell phone.  You must protect yourself from all these liabilities and more. Be sure you have Mr. Kirschenbaum’s contract  executed on each and every one of these systems  you install.

 

Gary Dawkins, CEO

Response Center USA

11235 Gordon Rd. Ste 102

San Antonio, TX 78216

866-489-4105