President’s Message
By Robert Few
Thank you for your continued loyalty to GMS! Our team is working hard to support you through this difficult time. First, we hope you and your families along with your team members are healthy. We also hope you have been able to find some silver linings, like more quality time with your family and catching up on projects around your home or business, despite the quarantine measures we have all had to take over the past couple of months.
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I’d like to highlight a silver lining from GMS. Paula McKiness
is one of our central station lead operators and she took this time to make a positive difference for others that are less fortunate. Paula has been a member of our GMS team since 2007 and has held several roles as a Trainer and Lead Operator during her time with us. Paula has been instrumental in assisting with newly trained employees and has always provided impeccable customer service to our dealers, which is why our dealers love Paula. In fact, you may have worked with Paula yourself from time to time and we are confident she worked with you to resolve any concerns or issues you may have had.
Paula makes it a habit to go above and beyond for our dealers and teammates. She is always loving, passionate, and caring internally with her peers and externally with our clients. It is this care and compassion that I want to recognize and share with you.
Paula inspired our GMS family to come together and donate what we could to a local shelter earlier this month. She spread the word about what she was doing and asked for donations. Our team responded and together we were able to gather women’s and men’s clothes, children’s and adult books and even a microwave. These items will make a big difference to those that receive them and I’m so proud of our team that rallied to help Paula give back. My hope is that learning about how Paula took action to fill a need will inspire you to do the same so that we can all help each other and especially those with the most needs during such an unprecedented time in our history.
In addition, I want to reassure you that we continue to take steps to protect our team so we are able to provide your business and customers with all of the support and responsiveness you expect from GMS.
As states begin to loosen restrictions, we remain focused on following the guidelines set forth by the CDC including but not limited to:
- Enhanced cleaning and disinfecting procedures
- Providing ample space for our team members to social distance
- Providing PPE to all of our employees to ensure their safety
Restrictions are beginning to loosen up across the country and as such we have seen an uptick in activity. As you also get back to work or ramp up to pre-pandemic levels, we want you to know that we are here to support you. We will adjust with you as your businesses begin to recover and activity levels get back to or exceed the levels you saw prior to the outbreak. Let’s also continue to support our local economies, as they are the ones who support all of us.
Finally, I sincerely want to hear from you. Please call or email me anytime to discuss ways we may be able to better support your business or how we can help with any specific challenges you are facing.
Sincerely,
Robert Few
CEO & President
General Monitoring Services, Inc.
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Security Businesses Keep Calm and Carry On
How an alarm company and a central monitoring provider have steadied their companies in the face of a pandemic:
Author - Robert Few, President - GMS
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Dealer Support | Software Upgrades
As part of our regularly scheduled software upgrades, the format of your reports will look different beginning with your daily reports on 5/20/20.
Currently, your reports are sent to you as an attachment. They will now be sent with a link you can click that will generate the report in real time as a PDF file in your browser.
This setting will apply to all automated reports you and your customers receive.
If you would like to continue to receive your reports as an attachment, please contact Dealer Support
after
5/20/20 at 888-467-1119.
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Looking for a “Smart” way to add significant RMR, Look no further!
Smart Fleet Management
This service uses multi-carrier SIM technology that automatically connects to the strongest signal for less dead zones while traveling. You get much more than just GPS tracking. You will know the drivers' performance, like speed, arrival times and any deviation from route. Vehicles can be geo-fenced at a specific address each night or in a larger territory during the day. Also includes an impact sensor to detect accidents and an accelerometer to detect unscheduled movement after hours.
More features:
RFID Authentication to verify if the person in the cab is allowed to start the engine.
Automatic Engine Shutdown (Idle Kill) shuts off the engine after the requested number of idle minutes. Often the savings in gas pays for this service. Idling is not allowed in some states so this also saves on the cost of tickets.
Smart Asset Tracking
Track anything from fine art to perishables in an 18 wheeler or any other mode of transport. You will know the temperature, humidity, air pressure, and light level. As with Smart Fleet Management, this device also includes an impact sensor to detect accidents and an accelerometer to detect unscheduled movement after hours.
If stolen or any other Smart Event is triggered, GMS' 24-hour staff can alert Law Enforcement or designated Responsible Parties of the location - anywhere in Canada, U.S. and Mexico.
You can add significant RMR by providing these IoT technologies to your existing or prospective new customers.
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Are You Maximizing the Value of Your Alarm Accounts?
Jim Wooster, Jr.
Alarm Financial Services, Inc.
In the security and fire alarm industry, we all love RMR - Recurring Monthly Revenue from monitoring and related services. It’s how we measure the value of our businesses, it’s the high-margin cash flow that keeps on giving. It’s what we hope to cash in on someday for retirement. And over the years, through good economic cycles and bad, the value of RMR has held up.
But are you maximizing the value of these recurring revenue accounts day in day out? Certainly you are benefiting from the cash flow, any billable service, the referrals, the upgrade and add-on opportunities, the marketing visibility that comes from yard signs and window stickers. However, perhaps the most underutilized value of RMR accounts is your ability to borrow against them.
By tapping into the value of these assets to borrow money, you can increase marketing, expand geographically, and most importantly make acquisitions - yes, put on 200 new accounts or $6,000 in RMR, for example, with no money out of pocket. This allows you to add more RMR to your company, increase your borrowing ability and continue the cycle of growth.
Of course, you have to be careful about keeping your level of debt reasonable relative to the value of your assets, just as in all aspects of your life. But a responsible amount of borrowing helps you increase the worth of your company. That’s why they call it leverage! If you’re not looking into how you can borrow to grow, you are not maximizing the value of your alarm accounts.
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Industry News and Tips Links
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Security Systems News has created a home for Industry coronavirus-related stories.
Stay up to date on the pandemic and its impact on the security industry by visiting and bookmarking this page linked below:
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2020 Access Control Deep Dive
Security Sales & Integration’s 2020 Access Control Deep Dive includes statistics and insights from nearly 150 dealers and integrators from throughout the United States and Canada.
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Does your organization have an impressive project?
SecurityInfoWatch.com, Security Business and Security Technology Executive (STE) magazines, in coordination with the Security Industry Association (SIA), will honor the industry’s most innovative and collaborative security projects with this new industry award. The coveted accolade recognizes the most impressive integrated technology and solutions project of the previous year – highlighting the lead technology vendors, systems integrator, consultant and the end-user client.
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Camera Market Could Reach $16 Billion by 2029 Due to Growing Need From Pandemic
Many governments across the world are ramping up their security measures to protect critical infrastructure from perimeter intrusion attacks. Future Market Insights says CCTV-based video surveillance systems are in great demand to protect critical assets within these infrastructures.
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Referral Program
Current and Active Dealer Partners will receive up to $1,000.00 in the form of an invoice credit for referring a new dealer to GMS for Monitoring Service Solutions.
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