What can a central station do when they are in the eye of a hurricane and their building and equipment are flooded? That was the situation this week when a company affected by Tropical Storm Isaias was left without power and needed assistance. Both DICE Corporation and Tristar Monitoring stepped in to help.

“We got a call from DICE asking if we were willing to assist,” said Tim LeBlanc, president and co-founder of Tristar Monitoring. “My immediate response was absolutely.”

Tristar had been in the same position before, aiding a central station in Florida for two months while the company returned to full operations. The process of transferring the signals to Tristar was a seamless process that was made easier with both central stations being DICE customers and on the Matrix platform. The IT teams from the three companies got together and Tristar was receiving full operations including all signals and phone calls in only 45 minutes.

Many of the signals Tristar received were low battery and power failures, as well as service calls. DICE helped clean the buffer and transferred the service calls back to the service technicians at the affected central station. DICE´s integrated iPBX solution, which is fully integrated with Matrix, enabled Tristar to easily process and manage all calls no matter the rate or load. 

“This is a challenging time we live in,” said Avi Lupo, co-president of DICE Corporation. “Originally, we were thinking of disasters such as hurricanes. Then we focused on the pandemic. We are now dealing with natural disasters as well as the pandemic. This situation shows how unexpected situations can arise and the need to be prepared.”

Currently, Tristar is continuing to handle the complete operations of the affected central station. At this time, restoring power and equipment is ongoing, but both DICE and Tristar are prepared to address any situation that may arise until all operations are transferred back.

“This situation shows how versatile DICE is in their software, products and support,” LeBlanc said. “They have designed disaster recovery and business continuity solutions so not only are we ready for any unforeseen disaster but also they provide us with peace of mind, knowing we are fully covered.”