Companies have been outsourcing their monitoring and surveillance needs to companies like SMC for nearly 75 years, as most lack the infrastructure to monitor multiple sites and surveillance systems at any given time. In an increasingly complex security environment, where technological developments and innovation are allowing for more control for businesses and consumers, the need for experts with the capacity and speed of response is paramount, writes Colin Walters, Managing Director at SMC Monitoring Centres, in Nottingham, pictured.
In recent years customers have increasingly looked for value in the provision of their security systems services. To counter these pricing challenges, companies like SMC have invested in the development and introduction of more efficient processes to their monitoring systems. These processes now allow clients to link their security and surveillance systems to an Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) to provision an affordable, fully interactive service, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Of course, alongside these developments, the use of automation is increasingly important, particularly when all monitoring providers are held to account by emergency services and regulatory bodies based on their speed of response.
Advancements in technology and automation have increased and continue to increase the speed of response for monitoring centres, resulting in reduced workload for operators and greater accuracy when responding to alarms and security systems. An increasing focus on security in modern cities means monitoring centres must deal with a much larger volume of incoming traffic which, thanks to the use of IP in new systems (as opposed to the tortoise-like dial up systems of old), is much more easily done. As part of this shift in speed of response time, it is also essential that all legacy systems migrate, through programmes like the PSTN switch-off, to ensure clients are receiving the highest quality of monitoring response.
Monitoring centres worldwide are now state-of-the-art offices with the latest technology, reflecting the increasingly complex security environment, where technological developments and innovation allow for more control by businesses, as well as special lighting that combats the potentially damaging effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), to support health and welfare of employees. The use of smart technology and smart forms is also changing the way we work with our clients. They are now able to make use of much more sophisticated portals and self-service updates to provide real-time information and data, which allows for faster engagement and response. This is a challenge for the industry, as it reduces the workload for operators, but it means we are able to dedicate more time to urgent response requirements. Also, using smart technology should allow monitoring providers to reduce the number of data amendments required for individual clients, hopefully by half in the coming years, thereby increasing efficiency for the end-user.
Technological advancements have provided the industry with the tools it needs to increase speed-of-response and ensure monitoring excellence is maintained despite a battle on pricing. SMC will continue to explore ways to improve performance with the increasing use of innovative tools, collaboration with customers and other process improvements.
