Monitor America V.P. Stuck Sees Commercial Stickiness in Hosted Services

The October issue of SSI features a guide to selecting a third-party central monitoring station in which nine providers are spotlighted. I conducted extensive interviews with executives from all of them, most of which could not be shoehorned into the print publication. In this exclusive bonus blog, Monitor America Vice President of Operations and CMO Jay Stuck discusses power of video-based monitored services, value of training and hot markets.

How have changing signal transmission methods impacted your company as well as your dealers’ businesses? Challenges? Technical issues? Sales issues? Pros/cons? Opportunities?

Jay Stuck: Monitor America is dedicated to providing video services to dealer/integrators and enterprise end users. We believe that the future of the monitoring industry is in providing video services, including video verification of alarms. In the next three to five years, the industry will be mandated to provide video verified services by local municipalities and authorities having jurisdiction. Dealers and integrators should be making plans today to move their monitoring into facilities capable of handling these types of video services.

Why is a security dealer better off contracting with a third-party monitoring provider than bringing monitoring in-house?

Stuck: Dealers and integrators should be looking for monitoring partners that can teach their sales and installation teams how to sell and maintain monitored video and access control services. In many cases, dealers are afraid of the new technologies and their local sales force is not equipped to properly sell these new “lifestyle and convenience” services. Central stations should provide this type of training going forward in order to assist dealers in increasing their average revenue per user each month.

In what specific ways do you help contracted security dealers increase their recurring monthly revenue?

Stuck: Training, training, training. Dealers need to find a central station partner that is willing to be in it for the long term with them, and are willing to grow by helping the dealer grow. Central stations are like a good marriage, both parties have to work at it.

Describe your company’s approach to newer technologies/service offerings such as PERS, video monitoring, GPS, energy management, managed access control, etc.

Stuck: It is all about new technologies going forward for our industry. Lifestyle and convenience features are rapidly outstripping the old-time basic burglar alarms. This is a new day in our industry for sales and monitoring revenue opportunities.

What types of end customers are showing the top growth right now for monitored services and what are the drivers?

Stuck: Monitor America is seeing a huge interest in the commercial sector for hosted and managed services such as video and access control. In many ways, businesses can find immediate return on investment by using third-party central stations to handle these services in an automated platform that eliminates the need for massive human capital and resources. Enterprise-level businesses such as hospitality, retail, education, and local, state and federal government agencies are looking to increase expenditures and show ROI on their security investments. Monitored services and new technologies can help eliminate security concerns and investment.

Scott Goldfine

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About the Author

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Scott Goldfine is the marketing director for Elite Interactive Solutions. He is the former editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Security Sales & Integration. He can be reached at [email protected].

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