AvantGuard offers hybrid monitoring options

OGDEN, Utah—AvantGuard Monitoring is now offering dealers several new monitoring options, including redundant monitoring capabilities, providing the back end to local operators, and part-time monitoring for an account base.

“Hybrid monitoring, in many ways, allows you to outsource the pieces of your monitoring that you may or may not want to do, whether it be the technology side or complete redundancy, and lean on a third party monitoring platform such as AvantGuard,” Justin Bailey, AvantGuard's COO, told Security Systems News.

AvantGuard has identified three different options under the new umbrella of hybrid monitoring, according to Bailey. With one option, dealers can maintain their central station, complete with receivers and operators, and have AvantGuard's centers serve as back-up facilities.

A second option would be for AvantGuard to maintain the back-end, with alarm dealers having local operators at in-house workstations responding to alarms in their account base. This option is similar to a cloud-based monitoring model; however, this option comes supported with AvantGuard's facilities for back-up, Bailey said.

With a third option, dealers could have local operators for some of the time, such as normal business hours, while AvantGuard's centers monitor overnight, on weekends or on holidays. AvantGuard would also tailor each of these offerings to best fit the needs of individual dealers, Bailey added.

How will the company keep track of which accounts are and are not being monitored by AvantGuard? “The stages platform is set up in a way that those accounts can be kept separate, really a lot like what we do with our current dealers,” Bailey said.

Customers can use this model on any level, or use it to gradually transition from operating their own central station to having their accounts monitored by a third party monitoring center.

“A lot of people are hesitant to give up that complete control over that experience with their customers, and we think there's some opportunity there for them to have the right amount of control without having to have all the expense of running their own central station,” Bailey said.

The main restriction with this hybrid monitoring is that they would need to transfer to the company's Stages platform, Bailey said. The Stages platform is also a benefit, as smaller dealers who typically might not have the ability to run the platform can now take advantage of it.

AvantGuard has been working on its hybrid monitoring options for more than a year, Bailey said. AvantGuard specifically talked with Stages about the process and discussed potential options with dealers.