Understanding Alarm.com
An American cloud-based security and automation solution is now available in Australia. Jacob Harris takes a look at Alarm.com.
Back in the 1990s, an American data mining, business intelligence company called MicroStrategy started buying up five letter domain names and trying to build businesses around them: Alarm.com was among them.
In the beginning, Alarm.com’s business centred on a wireless home security service that was set up to avert the risk of physical telephone line cuts. Basically, it was a pager network that sent wireless signals to a server, which in turn sent them on to a central monitoring station.
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Over time this evolved and the company was responsible for the first native iOS app for a security application. Fast-forward to today and Alarm.com is providing integrated security solutions to 2.5 million end users, through a network of over 5,000 authorised dealers in 14 countries. And now it’s turning its attention to the Australian market.
“Demographically, I think this market is very similar to the US – it’s just smaller,” says Alarm.com’s global business development manager Nate Wysk.
“There are three or four major security dealers in Australia. If you multiply that by 15 (which is the approximate population difference) the market can be considered roughly equivalent to the US, where there are 45 or 50 big dealers. The rest of the market, in both countries, is made up of little mum and dad security shops and maybe some AV guys. Some installers might only do one or two installations a month, but others will do 70,000+.”
Powered by an intelligent cloud service, the Alarm.com security system enables users to stay connected to what’s happening in and around their home or business from remote locations. The system features a dedicated communication channel that will continue to work through telephone line outages, power loss and internet disconnection. The system will even sound the alarm if the control panel is damaged or tampered with.
“Alarm.com also delivers a high level of personalisation by adapting to the user’s lifestyle,” Nate says.
In Australia, Alarm.com will be integrated with DSC and Nortech panels at a firmware level allowing installers to remotely adjust all panel settings via the Alarm.com app or web interface. For end users, the service offers security, video monitoring and home automation with app and web interfaces that allow the system to be controlled simply and remotely.
“One of our mantras is ‘one app to control your home’. You can have 27 different apps to do 27 different things but that’s not the way technology is going. The whole point of home automation is to make more efficient systems and create interplay between different devices,” says Nate.
Complete with geo-fencing capabilities, the app can be set to complete tasks like reminding the user if they leave the house without arming the system, or turning on the lights if the user returns home between certain hours.
“We use Z-wave controllers. Once the communication module is installed in the security panel, the panel essentially becomes a Z-wave controller – so with that we can control lights, locks, thermostats, garage door controllers and so on.”
Alarm.com has no sign up fees and only charges dealers for the level of security they provide. It bills on a monthly basis with any changes to customer accounts calculated and dealer charges adjusted accordingly.
“We’ve spent a lot of time and money in the Australian market and we’re dedicated to its success. We’re not just going to pull out if in six months we don’t have a certain number of customers. The market research we’ve done has said this is a good place to be.”
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