Up to the Minute Standards Info
The Security Industry Standards Council (SISC) has overwhelmingly passed the Central Station Alarm Association's Standards Committee's CS-V-01 Alarm Verification and Notification Procedures standard. CS-V-01 has passed the last hurdle on its way to requesting ANSI to certify the standard. This standard, in the works for almost two years, has gone through two public comment periods and a 30-day review by members of SISC.
This standard is the product of CSAA's Standards Committee chaired by Louis T. Fiore. This standard defines methods by which false dispatches can be greatly reduced. It has been proven that verifying an alarm signal by a monitoring central station will drastically reduce false dispatches. This standard takes alarm verification to its next level by defining multiple call verification, cross zoning, biometric, audio and video verification. Beyond traditional verification, this "next level" has proven to yield yet another substantial reduction in false dispatches.
Alarm verification is a generic name given to many techniques used to permit authorized personnel to appropriately identify themselves, thereby preventing emergency response agencies from being requested to respond to situations that do not represent an emergency; and to confirm or deny the validity of alarm signals received at a Central Station or monitoring facility.
Additionally, the Alarm Industry Communications Committee, also chaired by Fiore, at its September 9th meeting, unanimously voted to approve its version of the Licensing and Reciprocity Bill. The next step is to lobby Congress for passage of the bill during this upcoming or the next session of Congress.
The purpose of the bill is to ensure protection of the safety interests of alarm monitoring customers while achieving increased efficiencies and reduced costs by eliminating duplicative efforts by state regulating agencies and alarm monitoring organizations doing business in numerous states; to establish a minimum reciprocity and regulation standard for alarm monitoring organizations that may be adopted by states; encourage states with licensing to adopt a minimum regulation for alarm monitoring organizations; and, to allow alarm monitoring facilities to operate more efficiently by entering into new states without meeting redundant regulations. This bill will be of benefit to national and regional alarm companies, companies that monitor national accounts and third party monitoring companies.
AICC is a committee made up of the CSAA, NBFAA, SIA, Ademco division of Honeywell, SNA, and Vector. As such, it is a "pan-association" committee administered by CSAA. The committee's purpose is to oversee and facilitate the industry's response to wireless and wireline matters to the FCC and Congress and promote appropriate legislation. Since Licensing and Reciprocity deals with alarm signals traveling across state lines, it falls squarely within the committee's scope. With NBFAA rejoining the committee, AICC is almost back to its full strength. According to Fiore, the committee is attempting to recruit other companies from among the larger dealers and manufacturers.
Teaming Up
Software House (part of the Tyco Fire & Security Access Control and Video Systems business unit), is joining forces with National Security Integrators (NSI). NSI, founded a year ago, is comprised of eleven systems integrators who provide the design, installation, maintenance and monitoring of access control, CCTV, and other security systems throughout the U.S. and Canada.
"As system integrators, we often found that corporate and government entities that had offices spread throughout the country had a difficult time ensuring that all of their systems operated the same way and were supported with responsive personal service," states Alan Kruglak, president of NSI. "National Systems Integrators solves that problem by ensuring that every integrator in the network carries the same products. For more information, visit www.nationalsecurityintegrators.com or www.swhouse.com.
Making Membership More Accessible
The Open Security Exchange (OSE), a cross-industry forum dedicated to delivering best practices guidelines in the area of security management and vendor-neutral interoperability specifications for physical and cyber security systems, is making significant changes to its membership structure. OSE is a introducing a $5000 annual membership category, designed to make it easy for any company with a desire to play an active role with defining interoperability specifications and best practices to become an OSE member.
"The strength of the OSE lies in its ability to attract member companies of all sizes and from a number of backgrounds," says Eric Maurice, chairman and executive director of the Open Security Exchange.
Sorry, Charley!
Once Brenda Judy, general manager, received word that Hurricane Charley had changed course and was heading for central Florida, she and other key staff put their emergency plan into action.
"In an emergency situation, our services become as critical as that of our UL central station customers. When our customers have a situation calling for our technical support, they need assistance now. The minute we heard that the storm might come our way, we started calling all our central station customers on Friday, before the storm hit, to alert them of a possible emergency and to explain our emergency procedures. Within twelve hours after the storm, we had our employees contacting customers informing them that our office was without power or phone service, but our emergency technical support plan was in place should their need arise," Judy explains.
Every Micro Key Software employee had suffered some damage from the storm, but that didn't dampen their spirits. Management devised a plan to re-route critical services to pre-determined remote locations.
By doing this, Micro Key's customers had technical support even though Micro Key's office was without power or phones. Having put together a plan prior to the storm kept Micro Key running and able to support their clients during this disastrous time.
Makin' The Move
Affiliated Services, Inc., (ASI), has moved into a larger, new corporate
headquarters in Severna Park, MD. The new headquarters is located at 411 Ritchie Highway. For additional information, visit www.asi-integrated.com
2004
October
22-27 - CSAA 2004 Annual Meeting, Westin Resort & Villas in St. John, USVI. For the preliminary schedule of events, meeting registration form and additional information, visit www.csaaul.org.
27-29 - BISEC (Buenos Aires Int?l Security and Safety Exhibit and Congress, Blue Pavilion and Access Hall, ?La Rural? Palermo Fair Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina. For more information, visit www.bisec.expoart.com.ar.
November
3-4 - International Security Conference East, Jacob Javits Convention Center, New York City, NY. For more information, visit www.isceast.com
2005
April
6-8-International Security Conference West, Sands Expo and Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV. For more information, visit www.iscwest.com.
Send In 2004 Conference, Meeting And Expo Event Announcements
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