Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/31498
32 RESIDENTIAL SYSTEMS www.securitysystemsnews.com MARCH 2011 SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS New business: ‘hassle-free’ program for dealers By Tess Nacelewicz YONKERS, N.Y.—A new business called Online Alarm Quotes offers the benefits of a dealer program and allows dealers to maintain complete independence, said Tom Fowler, co- founder of the new venture. The company has been in devel- opment for about two years and its official launch was Jan. 17, said Fowler, who also is president and CEO of 24-7 Security, which serves the New York metropolitan area. He said security dealers who sign up as members of Online Alarm Quotes get qualified leads—about consumers needing alarm systems who have filled out an Online Alarm Quotes computerized request form and submitted their specific needs. Members can also get discounts on equipment, monitoring, leasing and funding, and help developing a web presence, Fowler said. The annual cost is $1 per 1,000 people in a dealer’s area for residential leads and $1 per 100 businesses in a dealer’s area for commercial leads. A second year of membership is free if members don’t at least double their investment the first year. Fowler declined to specify how many members Online Alarm Quotes has. The company’s web site says the idea for it came from Fowler and Donald Trask, president of Trask Enterprises and also of Texas-based New West Security. Trask is retired from a position as national sales and marketing manager for con- tract monitoring for Monitronics, Fowler said. Fowler said he was “furious” with poor results from two lead genera- tion services he was using, so started a lead generation site himself. Online Alarm Quotes doesn’t put a lien on its member dealers and tell them they must sell contracts back to the company, he said. “Be your own company,” Fowler said. SSN Guardian Continued from page 30 about Brink’s/Broadview. But, he said, SafeTec’s contract expired last year and the company began looking around. Broxton told SSN in an email: “When it came time for us to choose a new dealer program we spoke with just about everyone. In the end we just felt comfort- able with the complete package that was offered by Guardian. The support personnel, the monitoring facility, the customer support, it was all factored into the decision.” Broxton added: “Another big one for us was being able to do our own service. We pride ourselves on giv- ing the best possible local ser- vice, and we were pleased we could continue to do that with Guardian.” Groff said that a major reason that Guardian chose SafeTec “is that they just have a quality- based model.” Guardian seeks out compa- nies like SafeTec that are loyal, he said. “They were loyal to the (Brink’s/Broadview) brand and they were looking for another company that they felt they could have a long-term relation- ship with,” Groff said. “The reason we chose them is the same loyalty we saw in Southern Alarm. They had that same value-based loyalty.” He said that quality is why Guardian has put out the wel- come mat for former Brink’s/ Broadview dealers. “Our major focus was to look at the top Brink’s dealers/ Broadview dealers and see about partnering with them because of their values and the quality of their business,” Groff said. He said dealers also are attract- ed to Guardian because the com- pany “is really going into what I would say is the digital age.” For example, he said, next year Guardian “is going to go primarily digital on their contracts, meaning dealers will be able to sell to a hom- eowner electronically and get funded electronically” and in most cases not have to submit paperwork. SSN