Tech Solutions
Back-Office Software Provides a Single, Integrated Solution for Managing a Security Business
While security integrators are in business to integrate security systems, often there’s nothing integrated about the business of security itself — from the central stations, interactive service providers and point solutions, to the myriad homegrown systems implemented and jury-rigged together over the years.
Unfortunately, this complex web of systems has resulted in multiple silos of business and customer data. Without the ability to collectively harness the information housed in these disparate systems, integrators are often blind to the rich insights that lie within their very own data. What’s more, this lack of integration can be frustrating for employees and customers alike, and especially for owners and managers who aren’t able to efficiently scale their businesses.
Such was the experience of Miles Fawcett, CEO of FieldHub Inc., Washington, D.C., when he started his security integration company in 2008. “I looked at the software available to run a business and felt a real gap,” he said. “My background was in software development ... I had a clear vision of the product I wanted to use to build and grow my business, and I had relationships with software developers. I made the decision to build a platform for my company. I wanted something that could eventually be spun off and provide cloud-based services for other integrators.”
Johnson Controls Introduces Cloud Support for Enterprise Access Control
Johnson Controls announced that its flagship access control and event management system, Tyco Software House C-CURE 9000, is supported on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), enabling customers to take advantage of the many benefits of cloud computing with the choice of best-suited service providers.
With C-CURE 9000 deployable in the cloud, integrators and end users can leverage cloud service providers like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform to reduce server infrastructure and maintenance costs with greater business options.
Beyond IT modernization and cost management, organizations are approaching cloud adoption strategies through the lens of broader enterprise business efficiency and growth objectives. As organizations identify and migrate critical application workloads to the cloud, physical security operations are able to increase C-CURE 9000 application availability by leveraging redundancy and disaster recovery infrastructure that geographically extends well beyond their on-premise constraints.
“Companies are aggressively moving to the cloud to maximize their IT spend while improving their agility to respond to business needs and market changes,” said Jason Ouellette, general manager of Enterprise Access & Video Solutions, Building Technologies & Solutions, Johnson Controls. “When moving infrastructure to the cloud, learning how to provision the right type and size of resources for customer-specific environments is critical to optimize performance and cost. Customers who take this approach in their C-CURE 9000 cloud migration planning can easily avoid overspending while maintaining flexibility to quickly scale resources based on actual need.” For more information, visit www.johnsoncontrols.com.
The result was FieldHub, a single cloud-based SaaS platform designed to manage the full lifecycle of a security integrator’s or dealer’s field service business. Eventually, Fawcett decided it was time to spin off his integration company and move on to the next phase of his vision. “We put eight years into developing this product,” Fawcett said. “It was only last year we took in some selective customers to refine the product.”
One of these was SMART Security Pros in Hyattsville, Md. “When we transitioned to FieldHub it was like a godsend because there was an orderly fashion to our operations. It put everything into one place and made it more streamlined,” said Founder/Owner Shawn Scarlatta.
AlulaConnect Mobile-Friendly Portal Streamlines Installations
Alula launched AlulaConnect, a new partner portal that makes it easy for security professionals to connect customers to the Alula Platform, according to the company. AlulaConnect replaces the previous portal, AlarmDealer.com, which will remain available throughout the year as security professionals begin a phased migration to the new interface at www.AlulaConnect.com.
“A new look, new features and a new name — we have rebuilt this element of our platform from the ground up,” said Brian McLaughlin, CEO of Alula. “We extended the capabilities to elegantly manage the full suite of services: security, video and home automation. Additionally, we aligned this with our Connect family of products as it really brings all the elements of our vertically integrated solution together — from sensor to hub to network and data.”
AlulaConnect employs the same open APIs that partners can use to create accounts at point of sale and which allow security professionals to connect seamlessly to their customer-relations management (CRM) systems such as Salesforce.
AlulaConnect will also offer improved diagnostic and configuration for communicators and support for Alula network products such as BAT-Connect and Connect+. The portal will feature a framework for enhanced analytic and reporting tools, which Alula will continue to build into the platform.
The new portal was being rolled out to select Connect+ installers in May. It will be available for use with BAT-Connect this summer and open to all users by the end of the third quarter 2019. Alarmdealer.com will continue to be available throughout 2019 during the transition.
Visit www.alula.net for more information.
Built by security integrators for security integrators, FieldHub’s SaaS solution replaces multiple point solutions delivering a single, integrated solution for managing a commercial or residential security business.
With integrated CRM, field service management, inventory, revenue management, accounts receivable and payable, general ledger and process management functionality, it’s optimized for the needs of today’s security landscape.
Looking for quick answers on security topics? Try Ask SDM, our new smart AI search tool. Ask SDM →
Vintra Integrates With Genetec to Enable AI-Powered Video Analytics
Vintra, a maker of video analytics powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence, announced an integration with Genetec Inc. unified security, public safety, operations and business intelligence solutions. Genetec customers can now benefit from FulcrumAI, Vintra’s deep learning video analytics solution integrated with Genetec Security Center to deliver real-time, total-environment intelligence from any camera source, fixed or mobile.
Vintra has built its proprietary, deep-learning-powered video analytic solution, FulcrumAI, from the ground up, and has optimized its machine-learning models to take advantage of the latest GPU hardware and acceleration techniques. The company’s solution can be easily deployed to augment the majority of enterprise-grade security, safety and productivity needs and scenarios. The full power of FulcrumAI is now available as an SDK integration with Security Center. FulcrumAI gives organizations the brain capable of analyzing the burgeoning amount of video data streaming from fixed and mobile cameras, integrated directly into Genetec’s Security Center platform.
“The integration of Vintra’s FulcrumAI with Security Center can help prevent potentially harmful events from unfolding and know exactly where those might occur, delivering fast and accurate results as well as timely situational awareness,” said Jordan Jaumeau, director of development partnerships at Genetec Inc. “The integration leverages Genetec Security Center UI, allowing Security Center operators to gather intelligence and make decisions using their familiar Genetec environment.”
FulcrumAI integrates with Security Center to provide customers with rich analytics functionality as a task from within the familiar Security Center user interface. Users can now easily create and activate both real-time rules for objects and face recognition-powered block lists from a tab within the Genetec software. Alarms and alerts generated by real-time rules are received in Security Desk’s Alarm Monitoring task. They are handled, identically, alongside any other alarms received by the system.
Users can quickly search massive amounts of video from fixed cameras, PTZs, body cameras, drones, dash cameras and mobile phones. Additionally, users can search for and set alarms on a growing list of descriptive attributes of objects such as people and vehicles, and within specific camera zones of interest. Relevant detections can be saved for investigative case reporting purposes.
Visit www.vintra.io or www.genetec.com for more information.
“One of the challenges I found with the available platforms was they weren’t integrated across sales, field management and accounting functions,” Fawcett said. FieldHub takes the integrator or dealer from the sales process to project management to accounting, he explains. “You can track a smoke detector from the time it is received at the warehouse to installation, through service throughout the life of the customer. FieldHub gave us the systems and processes to optimize the sales process, quality of service and cashflow. It was a critical tool for building our business.”
Security Funding Associates Partners With InfoSafe
Security Funding Associates announced its affiliation with InfoSafe, an Invisus cyber security compliance and certification program. SFA will have the rights to market the InfoSafe program to alarm dealers and central stations nationally, and then roll out specialized cyber security solutions to alarm subscribers.
InfoSafe is a SaaS service that provides participants with risk assessments, information security plans, vulnerability testing, employee training and more in order to secure certification. InfoSafe Certification confirms that alarm dealers and central stations comply with the myriad laws and regulations related to data privacy and cyber security.
“I am thrilled with this new relationship that will provide the industry with a critical and measurable baseline of compliance with required data security and privacy regulations,” said Tony Smith, CEO of SFA. “We are in a new realm where security and risk goes beyond physical to cyber. This partnership will not only allow for compliance, but also offers dealers huge RMR opportunities.”
Visit http://securityfundingsolutions.com/ for more information.
With processes that span work orders, invoices, accounts and inventory, data integrity is maintained throughout the full customer lifecycle. Since proposals pull from the same material list as work orders — and are converted in the same system to jobs and then invoiced — the accuracy and speed of project implementation and completion is increased.
At a time when RMR-based business is particularly critical to both security dealers and, increasingly, security integrators, FieldHub can help track that as well, Fawcett added. “It provides a lot of analytics for reporting on RMR. For example there is an RMR roll forward report. In most systems it is manual, but because our system has grown out of the security industry it shows where RMR started at the beginning of the month, where it ended and what factors led to it increasing or decreasing … They can see in real time how they are doing or what areas are growing that they should invest resources into.”
Visit www.fieldhub.com for more information.
Briefs
Kidde reported that it is the first smoke alarm manufacturer to receive certification to the UL Standard for Smoke Alarms, UL 217, 8th Edition, set to take effect in May 2020. The new Kidde smoke alarms utilize Kidde’s TruSense sensor and are designed to reduce common cooking nuisance alarms and respond faster to different types of fire.
The significantly revised UL standard incorporates new tests related to cooking nuisance alarms and smoldering and flaming polyurethane. These requirements are in addition to the standard’s wood and paper tests. The three new tests were added to better represent the smoke profiles and behavior of modern home fires to help ensure next-generation sensors are designed to give residents more time to evacuate safely.
Visit www.kidde.com for more information.
Allegion announced the debut of Overtur Mobile. The new mobile-friendly solution expands upon Allegion’s Overtur platform to simplify the design, construction and management of openings through improved communication, collaboration and efficiency. The Overtur Mobile application provides the freedom and flexibility to connect to door hardware data and collaborate with colleagues while in the field or away from their traditional work station.
“We live in a world of constant connectivity, where having access to project data and information at any time can be crucial. Overtur Mobile ensures project participants have access to shared data and information at any time,” said Shawn Foster, construction lead at Overtur.
Overtur Mobile is now available in the Apple and Google Play Stores, and can be accessed using either an iOS or Android system.
Visit www.allegion.com for more information.
Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!
