Security Sales & Integration March 2023 - 66

EXECUTIVE DECISIONS
Monitoring Matters by Peter Giacalone
peter@giacaloneassociates.com
Wholesale Monitoring Centers
Continue to Mature
Valuable
consumer
systems and
services
that deliver
noticeable
results that
meet or exceed
expectations
is minimum
expectation.
Peter Giacalone
is President of
Giacalone Associates,
an independent
security consulting
fi rm serving
central stations,
manufacturers and
dealers.
▶ LONGTIME SECURITY, safety and central
station monitoring industry professionals may
have experienced the evolution of central station
monitoring fi rsthand. I say " may " because not all
realize how the complexion of the central station
has changed and how it will continue to change.
Th is applies to dealers engaged with a third party
as well as those who operate their own centers.
It's obvious technology continues to evolve.
Although the rate of adoption varies, the wheels
keep moving forward. Interestingly, over the
years, although some adopt early and others
maintain legacy paths, most do succeed to an extent
within their pace of comfort. After deliberating
countless conversations with central station,
dealer, integrator and full-service central station
dealer clients, this doesn't appear that it will yield
the same results looking ahead.
Th e awareness and proliferation of security,
safety and smart premises systems is at an alltime
high and continues to rise. Th is created a
much more informed and educated consumer.
Systems are more interactive and many elements
are self-serving. Combining these elements with
the rapid growth of do-it-yourself systems, the
rise in labor cost, the heightened expectations
of the consumer and price sensitive channels,
creates challenges across the spectrum. Valuable
consumer systems and services that deliver noticeable
results that meet or exceed expectations
is minimum expectation.
Th e requirement to deliver a meaningful segment
of these services through world-class automation
platforms and integrations is the only
method in which they can be delivered in a consistent
and economical manner. It is essential to
understand the specifi cs that sit behind all this to
appreciate the underlying challenges that monitoring
centers face today.
Getting back to monitoring centers, although
automation systems and receiving technology
have improved, for the most part central station
operations have not changed all that much over
the decades - well, at least not until the past fi ve
or so years. Yes, options such as texting, emailing,
traditional IVR platforms and other relatively
66
Security Sales & Integration MARCH 2023
analog services have built and have been adopted
over a longer period. In reality these options
helped the cause but they all had a ceiling on
value, and I would say most centers off er these
services. Again, this is the bare minimum.
Leveraging services as SMS messaging to
provide more than a one-way communications
channel, portals that allow more than just reporting,
IVR platforms that are more than one-way
and are truly interactive with natural language
speech ... this is just the tip of the iceberg of what
is not only expected, but is outright necessary for
anyone in the ecosystem to survive and persevere.
Central stations and dealers alike will not have
the ability to compete and carry on without
adoption of these services as well as the many
others that accompany them. Another good example
is ASAP-to-PSAP and alike platforms that
accommodate electronic dispatches to the ECCs
(PSAPs). It is a rapidly growing necessity and
the platforms are gaining momentum. It's only a
matter of time before this is a mandated.
For decades, the industry has focused and invested
tremendous economic and human capital
toward combating and reducing false alarms. Th e
challenge exists on every level of the security system
ecosystem. Since the early years the focus was on
hardware, systems and education. Verifi cation and
notifi cations during the monitoring process proved
to be another element that helped the cause.
As technology and communications have
evolved, the processes have improved. Most importantly,
the industry continues to make strides
toward reducing false alarms while enhancing
the security. Technology along with updated
and proper subscriber profi les is a huge element
in verifying more alarms and avoiding dispatches.
Technology and the integration of systems
that communicate to a monitoring center what
members of the call or verifi cation list are on
premises during an event or even who was there
last, is a major leap toward verifying more events
and reducing dispatches. Understanding and
unpacking what's happening now will continue
to widen the spread of services among monitoring
center off erings.
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http://www.securitysales.com
Security Sales & Integration March 2023

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