Keyscan/SNA partner for hosted access solution

WHITBY, Ontario - Access control manufacturer Keyscan has announced a vendor partnership with the Security Network of America to supply its managed access control solution, Reverse Network, to dealers. The Reverse Network solution is positioned to help generate more RMR for SNA member central stations, according to Keyscan director of marketing Steve Dentinger.

"Keyscan's been working hard with a few of SNA's shareholders, specifically. Their core business, their role, ultimately, is RMR, and SNA shareholders drive a fantastic level of RMR,” Dentinger said. "Essentially what we've done is taken our robust access control that is very successful and added additional capabilities to make it extremely easy for them to drive RMR. Essentially, it's access control-as-a-service.”

Keyscan's new solution simplifies access control by negating the need for a lot of IT expertise and infrastructure. In fact, Dentinger said, all one really needs is Internet access and a Keyscan panel. "The interesting part is that you don't need any heavy IT experience. Your technicians can be the typical technicians doing access control or low voltage today. They don't need to have a high level of IT. They don't need to liaise significantly with the IT that's onsite, and that's been a real stumbling block for a lot of dealers and integrators and central stations that have tried to get into this,” Dentinger said. "They'll say, 'How much education do I need? I need to liaise with IT on what level? I don't have those resources.' This solution takes that away.”

SNA managing director Dave Carter said the partnership made sense since Keyscan's solution was a good fit for SNA's RMR focus. "All of our guys are all vertically integrated UL central station companies, and as such the recurring revenue model is clearly the model all our guys focus on,” Carter said. "Everything we do for our companies centers around hosted or managed services of different types, and Keyscan's Reverse Network solution fits in very clearly with where our guys are headed. We believe Keyscan will be a very good partner to help us leverage that to the greatest extent we can.”

Dentinger was excited about the opportunities the two entities could offer each other. "This is a big opportunity for us. I mean, you've got one of the largest central station groups in North America approving Keyscan as a vendor, and that has a real ripple effect,” Dentinger said. "This is really the cream-of-the-crop of central station organizations out there that gets the RMR model, that are looking at leveraging other solutions to drive additional RMR, and Keyscan is right there in that mix.”

SNA, founded in 1988, was created to help member companies share information resources. Today, the organization has grown to include 28 member companies across the United States and Canada. While each member company operates independently, SNA members provide monitored security to over 600,000 customers collectively, and crossed the $25 million recurring monthly revenue mark in Q4 of 2009.