1. If you try to cut corners on a fire alarm system and its implementation, it will come back to bite you. Improperly designed or implemented fire alarm systems aren’t just more likely to miss a fire and risk liability, they’ll also trigger more false alarms. In the end, this may cost you far more than you thought you saved at the outset.

2. A modern fire alarm system isn’t just an alarm, it’s also a fire detection system. They’re designed with intelligence elements. Early fire detection systems can more accurately detect smoke and fire. This makes them more resistant to triggering a false alarm based on dirt, grit, steam, or malfunction. An intelligent system such as this can also notify you when particular smoke detectors need maintenance. A smart fire detection system like this cuts down on maintenance time, and it can cut down on time spent trying to find a failed detector.

3. This same intelligence factor can also tell fire departments how far a fire’s spread before they’ve stepped in the building. This can help fire departments combat a fire more swiftly and safely, thus preserving life and property more efficiently. By being able to convey information about where a fire started and how it spread, it can also aid you in your insurance claims.

We’ve designed and installed fire alarm systems for multi-building campuses such as schools, malls, and warehouses and for small businesses that occupy a single building. We understand how to provide the full scope of fire protection for you so that you can keep people safe, protect your property, and cut.

The post Three Crucial Elements of a Fire Alarm System appeared first on Commercial Electronic Systems.

Insurance Savings

You can save on insurance premiums by installing and maintaining an alarm monitoring service. Insurance companies know your business, personnel, location, and products are better guarded against fire and theft. You’re better guarded against liability. That means they’re better guarded against all these things in their insurance coverage of your business. They also know situations are more likely to be resolved more quickly, and with more evidence. That gives them peace of mind. Alarm monitoring often means you’ll get a discount in your insurance premiums.

Visible Theft Deterrent

A visible alarm system can serve as a theft deterrent in and of itself. Most thefts are crimes of opportunity – they focus where the risk is low and the reward is comparatively high. If it’s obvious that you’re better guarded than other businesses, then your location won’t be viewed as a crime of opportunity. Not only does an alarm monitoring service provide you better response to a theft, it actually acts as an active deterrent to one.

Direct Emergency Contact

You can use an alarm panel to directly contact emergency services, or to trigger a panic button or silent alarm. This allows you options that provide you flexibility for handling a range of different emergency situations that may arise.

Remote Activation

Alarm monitoring means that you can activate and de-activate the alarm remotely. This is useful for when something unexpected comes up in the middle of the night or when you’re out of town. It allows you to let an employee in without having to get dressed and troop on down in the middle of the night. You don’t have to give the employee the code, either. You can just remote de-activate the alarm, and re-activate it when the employee’s done.

The post 4 Less Obvious Benefits of an Alarm Monitoring Service appeared first on Commercial Electronic Systems.

How it Works

Alarm monitoring communicates automatically to the monitoring station of your security provider. It describes the type of event and the monitoring station communicates this to the appropriate authorities. You’ll be contacted regarding the event so that you’re aware of it. This allows you to respond and get to your business to help address the situation.

With a typical set-up, the first call goes to you. This way you can provide more detail about the alarm or tell them if it’s a false alarm. They’ll respond accordingly. If they can’t get hold of you, they’ll notify the appropriate emergency services. A burglar alarm will route to the police, a smoke alarm to the fire department, a medical alert to EMS, etc.

Customization & Operations

You can set different alarm conditions for different situations, such as an immediate alarm without a confirmation call for certain types of emergencies, and a silent alarm for other conditions, just to name a few additional options. If employees are in direct harm, they can always enter a false disarm code that will appear to shut off the alarm while still notifying authorities. You can choose a simple alarm set-up or an in-depth approach with many different options.

You can always operate the alarm manually as well, either by canceling or triggering an alarm depending on your current need. This is done with a code, so only you can cancel or trigger the alarm. You can share this with managers or employees when appropriate, of course. This manual operation can include remote operation of the alarm as well. This way, if you forget to set it, you can do so from afar. If you’ve asked an employee to retrieve something from your business, you can disarm the alarm remotely for them without having to go to the location itself, and then re-arm it remotely when they notify you they’re done.

Alarm monitoring for business can keep your organization and personnel safer, and help you keep a better peace of mind when you’re away from operations.

The post How Does Alarm Monitoring Help My Business? appeared first on Commercial Electronic Systems.

A mass notification system is the perfect way to notify your employees and customers in the event of an emergency, but it’s not enough to simply have a system installed. Instead, understanding how you might use it in an emergency is a must, and these tips can help you craft the right messages.

• Write Your Scripts Now: It’s not possible to know why you’re going to use your mass notification system every time, but it is possible to craft several messages in advance. Create a few templates and scripts that can be customized on an incident by incident basis so you can get your message out as quickly as possible.

• Keep it Short: Any message you craft needs to be less than thirty seconds in length. Almost anyone should be able to understand it too. Shoot for a message that works for those reading at a fifth grade level to be sure most people can understand it in case of an emergency.

• Include as Much Information As Possible: You want to let people know who the message is from, what the emergency is, and where to find more information. That will keep people from contacting emergency numbers when they’re just trying to get information. Make sure your tone is as reassuring as possible.

• Use The Same Person: If you’re using a person to read your mass notification scripts instead of a computer, try to have the same person record every single message. It helps create a level of continuity for listeners.

If you don’t currently have a mass notification system in place, we can help. Contact us today to learn more.

The post Creating Mass Notification Messages That Work appeared first on Commercial Electronic Systems.