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briefs www.securitysystemsnews.com March 2015 SEcUrITY SYSTEMS NEWS 30 MoNITorINg SIAC talks about Carson City, volunteers CARSON CITY, Nev.—Steve Keefer, national law enforcement liaison for SIAC, followed up with the Carson City Sheriff's Department about its unique approach to false alarms—utilizing vol- unteers. Keefer told Security Systems News that it is diffcult to determine at this point how the volunteers were involved in the overall decline of false alarms. Upon looking at the fgures over all reductions, "I told the sheriff, 'I bet you're close to a 50 percent reduction in your commercial [false alarms]," Keefer said. To further help combat false alarms, Keefer gave the sheriff recommenda- tions, such as a heavier focus on false panic and hold-up alarms. "Those are probably more problem- atic for a police department [than a stan- dard false alarm], because you're not getting, traditionally, two offcers going to a robbery or hold-up—you're prob- ably getting three or four." He also recommended that Carson City incorporate hand-outs, like fyers and printed statistics, to leave with com- panies A positive aspect of the program is the small commitment for volunteers, Keefer said; they could fnish a month's duties in four hours, across two days. "It's not draining by any means." Supreme customers have new services UNION, N.J.—Customers of Supreme Security Systems, a full service secu- rity company based here, can now see frequently asked questions, download- able manuals and forms, and job open- ings, as well as an update appearance on the company's new site, according to Sue Erdreich, marketing manager for Supreme. Supreme updated its website in January. "Supreme offers a high level of ser- vice, and we needed our website to communicate that concept to our target audience," David B. Bitton, Supreme COO, in a prepared statement. Bold Users Conference, dates and courses COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Bold Technologies, a provider of central sta- tion automation software based here, is holding its 2015 Bold Users Conference Aug. 4-6 at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo. The company notes six main tracks for this conference: technical, opera- tions, strategic business, interactive, Phoenix, and forum. Phoenix is an alarm automation software offered by the com- pany, The preliminary course list offers ses- sions on White Rabbit, Manitou and oth- ers. By Spencer Ives DALLAS—Innovative Business Software, a provider of central station software, says its SBN Cloud could reduce the amount of infra- structure needed for a UL-listed central sta- tion, cutting costs of building a new moni- toring center by up to 75 percent. SBN Cloud became UL-listed on Jan. 15. This is the first cloud-based monitoring software certifcation of its kind, said UL engineering manager Steve Schmit. "By putting automation and receivers in the cloud [a central station could consist of] three laptops, some battery power and a wireless router—and [it] could seek UL certifcation," Jens Kolind, IBS VP, told Security Systems News. SBN Cloud is a simpler way to offer IBS' current Security Business Net software to its customers, Kolind explained. "It's the same as automation works today, the only difference is that we control servers for you rather than you having to manage them." Andrew Conrad, Bay Alarm VP of information systems told SSN that he thinks this service and its UL listing is signifcant in that it "is a change from the traditional implementations. … It'll be interesting to see how it evolves." Bay Alarm uses IBS' current SBN software. IBS decided to wait until the UL certifcation to offer it as a product. Kolind expected to start adding customers in February. What are the capabilities for the SBN Cloud? " We h a v e a c h i e v e d t h e highest rating that UL gives; we are rated for greater than 100,000 accounts," Kolind said. However, the number of accounts is "really unlimited from our perspective," he said. The process of designing this service began in March 2014, according to Kolind, with the service completed in October. "It's basically not that much different from the way a typi- cal UL service or product By Spencer Ives ESTACADA, Ore.—Central Station Monitoring, a third- party central station based here, decided to switch from traditional servers to blade servers, which can do the work of 800 servers across two units. The switch will increase the company's redundancy and back-up capabilities, according to Dimitri Begeor, CSM's manager of dealer development. If a physical server goes down, it would take about a full day to replace it, Justin Gates, central station man- ager for CSM, told Security Systems News, "Whereas [on] a virtual server, if one of my servers goes down, it probably takes about two to five minutes to get that same server back up and running." To establish a system of virtual servers CSM is replac- ing its 12 traditional servers For Affliated Monitoring, an app makes a difference Alarm Detection Systems promotes six executives By Spencer Ives AURORA, Ill.—Alarm Detection Systems, based here, is seek- ing to strengthen its executive team by promoting six people to new roles. "Of the individuals that are being promoted … a lot of them are on the monitor- ing side, and [that] has to do with account growth," John Schwartz, marketing director for ADS, told Security Systems News. In 2013 the company listed about 27,000 accounts, split evenly between residential and commercial. The company has grown since, he said. These new positions are as follows: Amy Becker, to VP and controller; Nick Bonifas, cor- porate counsel; Ken Mish, VP of alarm service and call center operations; Peggy Raper, call center manager; Rick Raper, VP of central station services; and Mark Schramm, VP and CIO. The company is actively looking for acquisitions and Bonifas will work on that, future Schwartz said. "As a family-owned com- pany, some of the people have been at the helm for a long time, and they decided to expand the executive power to these trusted individuals," Schwartz said. SSN By Spencer Ives UNION, N.J.—What a moni- toring company offers its deal- ers makes a difference, accord- ing to Michael Zydor, man- aging director for Affiliated Monitoring. The company strives to continually update its dealer app as well as monthly d e a l e r re p o r t s , h e said. T h e l a t e s t a p p update in mid-Novem- ber has "already had a n i m p a c t , " Z y d o r said. T h e u p d a t e b r o u g h t a variety of new offerings, he said, including an e-contract function, the ability to put accounts on and off test, check signals as dealers are testing a new system along with a "cleaner" and "simpler" layout to the app. "The e-contract portion of the app… makes [dealers'] lives much simpler, it's also much simpler for their cus- CSM's decision to switch to multi-redundant system with two blade servers, each housing eight blades—elec- trical components that can slide in and out of a chas- sis. "One blade can house [anywhere from] one to 50 servers," Gates said. Each of these blade serv- ers will be equipped with six independent power supplies "for redundancy purposes," according to Gates. Begeor told SSN that the company has been work- ing with UL for about a year to make this system UL-certified. Gates estimated that the system will be opera- tional in July or August. C S M , o p e r a t i n g s i n c e 1982, now has about 20,000 a c c o u n t s , s p l i t e v e n l y between residential and com- mercial. T h e c o m p a n y d r a w s strength from being part of the local telephone com- pany, and having access to its resources, Gates said. SSN tomer," because customers can view and sign agreements on a mobile device, Zydor said. That eliminates the need for dealers to carry around papers or worry about faxing them. The paperless, environmen- tally friendly e-con- tract can be directly emailed from a dealer's tablet. In addition to the app, Affliated sends out a monthly dealer health report, Zydor said. "It really lets them see what their account base looks like, and they just do not get that data from [our] competitors." Affliated recently expanded that service by adding infor- mation on dealers' account attrition. Both the app update and the monthly report have been very well received, Zydor said. Other information included in the report covers account Michael Zydor Jens Kolind SBN CloUd see page 31 New trusted executives to assist monitoring center after account growth AffIlIAted see page 31 First UL listed cloud-based automation IBS: SBN Cloud could dramatically drop UL certifcation costs