Security Systems News

March 2011

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SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS MARCH 2011 www.securitysystemsnews.com MONITORING 29 AvantGuard converts to SGS’ stages platform ‘This was a huge undertaking, but our preparation has made for a very smooth transition’ By Daniel Gelinas OGDEN, Utah—AvantGuard Monitoring Centers has converted all of its 110,000 accounts to the stages central station platform from SGS. The move was started on Jan. 18 and completed on Feb. 2 and, according to AvantGuard president Josh Garner, went off without a hitch. “This was a huge under- taking, but our preparation has made for a very smooth transi- tion. When it came time for game day, we had rehearsed what would happen numerous times. There were no surprises, and really no hiccups to speak of. It was all about practice, practice, practice,” Garner said. Of the conversion, SGS VP Hank Josh Garner Goldberg said AvantGuard was to be commended. “To begin, Josh agreed to carry the burden of conversion. One of Attikis Continued from page 27 there is room for both, and we can provide such a service when the dealer wants to sell it.” Winters insists Attikis will give end users more value than the tra- ditional central station can offer. “One telephone call to the head of the house is not enough to stop the kids from walking in on an intruder,” Winters said. “Attikis has focused on improving com- munication paths and response rules.” Is there an opportunity here for security dealers to purchase Attikis as an add-on service to professional monitoring? “In the sense that Attikis offers many features which most pro- fessional monitoring stations do not offer today, there is a viable opportunity for security dealers to pitch Attikis to their customers,” Winters said. “That said, it is most likely customers will choose to use Attikis as a substitute for profes- sional monitoring.” So is it time for monitoring centers to start worrying? “It’s still early days for Attikis, we have ... brought on customers gradually to make sure we could handle their load,” Winters said. “In the few weeks [since the beginning of the year], we have more than doubled the number of users of Attikis, released our new Web Interface, which is great to use on a widescreen and scales to be useable on a smart phone, and are consistently meeting our 100 percent uptime target.” Attikis has offices in the U.S., Australia and Poland. SSN the most difficult tasks is to manage the information transition to a new database while making certain deal- ers are both involved and educated,” Goldberg said. What was behind the move to switch to a new monitoring plat- form? “We picked SGS not so much because of what their software can do, but what we knew they could do as our partners. So far we are ecstatic about the product and the relationship,” Garner said. “We are also excited to be among a group of elite fellow stages users. With fellow users like Rapid Response, MACE, USA Central, and some others that are in the works, we feel like the little brother who has been allowed to play on the same court as the big guys.” Goldberg said stages would make operations at AvantGuard better than they were before. “Stages reduces calls made and received. New calling tools allow a central station to communicate to users as management defines and as the consumer desires,” Goldberg said. “Voice for many people is not always the preferred method.” SSN

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