Diebold is first major commercial provider to go ASAP

NORTH CANTON, Ohio—Diebold, the first commercial-focused company to participate in the ASAP to PSAP program, will be up and running in three cities by the end of November, Damon Kanzler, Diebold's VP centralized services and business processes, told Security Systems News.

“Both short-term and long-term, we have the same goal: reducing response times to provide faster, better service to Diebold customers,” Kanzler said.

Diebold is getting set up in Washington now. It brought a total of 400 accounts live in Richmond, Va., and Henrico County, Va., in September. Diebold has 60,000 accounts, Kanzler said.

It will eventually implement the service in all 11 cities where the program is active. “As we continue to realize the operational and customer benefits from joining ASAP, we will ramp up the speed of adoption.” Kanzler said.

The ASAP to PSAP program increases the speed and accuracy of sending alarm information from central stations to public-safety answering points. ADT and Vivint announced their participation in recent months.

Verifying alarm information is the “most labor-intensive part of the process,” Kanzler said. “It requires database matching 100 percent with the PSAP center” for better communications between the two. For example, a difference might be whether an alarm's address is on “Main St.” or “Main Street.”

James City County and York County—both in Virginia—are the next regions in line for Diebold in joining the program, he said.

Jeremy Brecher, Diebold's VP technology, noted that the ASAP program is still an early adopter model. “Diebold is the first regional/national commercial provider to implement the protocol. So you handle it very differently than a mature project plan that you just want to execute. There's active feedback involved, as it's early in its coverage areas.”

Diebold first started working on adoption a year ago, according to Kanzler.