Today’s affordable wireless security-technology solution options can completely cut third-party monitoring service providers (and their fees) out of the picture.

This ugly truth for traditional monitoring providers comes along with the growing selection and availability of options, and is significant for both their customers and the providers themselves. It's a big deal because recurring monitoring fees have been coming out of customers' pockets and going into monitoring service providers' coffers for decades.

This all reminds me of my initial experience with the concept and value of the "monthly monitoring fee" model in business.

The year was nineteen-ninety-something.

When I was a young man, around 1990, I worked for a while as an alarm system installer for a small burglar- and fire-alarm company in southern Illinois. Although we occasionally worked on some unique projects, the company primarily installed basic, hard-wired commercial and residential alarm systems, which included at least a control panel, a keypad, a motion detector or two, a fair amount of magnetic door contacts, and a horn/loudspeaker — all for next to nothing out of pocket for the customer.

I really think that whole basic security system package ran the customer less than a hundred dollars, and that included the time and labor of two installers to put the system in and get it tapped in to your telephone land line so that your system could be monitored 24/7.

And that’s where the company’s revenue came into play: through the telephone line. They weren’t making much money (if any) on the alarm equipment, but they were selling monthly service contracts that generated income.

You see, if your alarm system was ever tripped, the siren would go off at your home or business, which is of course what any alarm system should do at its most basic level: notify you that it’s been tripped; however, the only way to ensure that all of the proper authorities (including you) who weren’t within earshot of the event as it happened were also notified, you had to pay a monthly monitoring fee to the alarm company.

It was a modest fee and was required as part of the agreement you signed in order to get the equipment and have it installed with almost no upfront costs, and it gave you a live person sitting at a screen day and night, waiting for an event to happen at your place so that they could pick up the phone and notify you, police, fire, and anyone else on your emergency contact list — one after another, and one at a time. It was about as good as it got back then, and well worth the peace of mind. That business model obviously worked insofar as to sustain the business and keep two installation/service teams, management, monitors, and others employed.

Fast-forward to 2021.

Today we have the ability to custom design and install wireless security systems that utilize every current wireless technology, including lightning-fast Internet (something not available back when I was installing alarms), RF (two-way radio), and cellular LTE connectivity in some of the most challenging spots and environments imaginable (and if you’ve ever been an installer and pulled wire like I was, you can imagine a lot) for costs that are surprisingly manageable and affordable for companies and organizations across the spectrum, in terms of needs and budgets.

Our experts design and install systems that don’t require a third-party provider to sit at a screen and wait for an event to happen so that they can start making phone calls.

Along with the usual sirens, bells, and whistles that go off to alert people at your properties when an event happens, instant wireless notifications are also sent immediately to you and your team via two-way radios, text messages, PC alerts (on your desktop computer), and phone calls. You decide who gets notified, and how.

While those third-party monitoring services still exist and are practical in some situations, they're often an expense that can be shed when you partner with us on a custom security technology solution.

We can put together almost any kind of system you can dream up, including solutions that allow you to see and communicate with people coming and going from your properties, and open locked doors and gates for them remotely, as well as equip your people campus-wide with dependable wireless panic buttons that send out location-based notifications when pressed.

With today's available wireless security technology and alert-notification possibilities, the sky's the limit.

Coverage and range are near limitless.

The most important thing the system does is to create a sense of security for our staff. They know if someone presses a button, police will respond immediately. (Officer Chris Luttrell, Joliet Junior College)

This in-depth case study shows how a junior college in Illinois found the perfect solution for a duress system to cover their one-million square feet of buildings with wireless panic buttons by using the very affordable and highly expandable Centurion system by Response Technologies. Using this and other modern wireless security technology allowed them to maintain all of their security in-house and drop the expense of a third-party monitoring provider altogether.

Although we weren't involved in this specific case, it's a really good example of what our experts can do with our great partners like Response Technologies and others.

Affordable wireless alert notification is here, and it can usually play nice with your existing equipment.

Besides the duress and intrusion alarm, video surveillance, and access-control solutions we've discussed so far, our experts can also integrate into your current system monitoring devices, or provide fresh, custom solutions for monitoring your equipment, environmental conditions, room temperatures, moisture and water levels, power loss, door access, gunshot and intrusion detection, and more.

Contact our experts to discuss Centurion, video surveillance, and other wired and wireless security-technology solutions in St. Louis, Southeastern Missouri, Southern Illinois, Chicago, San Antonio, and Houston.