Bold releases ManitouNEO

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—ManitouNEO, Bold Technology's latest version of its central station automation platform, is commercially available as of today.

Rod Coles, Bold's CEO, called ManitouNEO “the first major re-architecture of the software. … This is version two.” Bold Technologies released its first version of Manitou in 2003, 14 years ago, and Coles expects this version to hold up just as long. Bold has about 600 customers using Manitou; the upgrade is free for current Manitou customers.

ManitouNEO will be browser-based, and feature a new user interface. “The reason that we've chosen a browser-based application means that its portable,” Coles told Security Systems News. The software can now run Windows, Linux, Mac and even on a phone or tablet, he continued.

“With ManitouNEO, we can use exactly the same application for dealers as well as central station staff. It's just permissions based,” Coles said. This makes Bold's maintenance and dealer support easier, according to Coles.

ManitouNEO is starting out with options for both a new user interface and Manitou's existing interface. This allows companies and their employees to learn the new interface at their own pace, according to Coles. “We've done a lot of work to allow them to have both [user interfaces available], and they can gradually move from one to another.”

Many of NEO's new features are also available in the previous Windows interface. Previously, Bold had offerings in separate interfaces, such as its GPS-focused BoldTrack. “Now we've been able to pull that and other things all into one user interface. It just brings a lot of different parts of our products together,” he said.

Bold, in addition to the new interface, has enhanced its action patterns, which give users specific instructions and information on alarm handling. These action patterns now include more conditional items, Coles noted.

Bold's cloud-based automation platform, Manitou Cloud Services, will be upgraded to ManitouNEO as well. “This application will work within a central station, just like our existing platform does. But, of course, it's a natural fit for the cloud,” Coles said. This upgrade should take place in the next few months, he said.

“NEO itself will improve the upgrade process,” according to Coles. “Because it is web-based application, then all we have to do is literally update the server and then all of the work stations are effectively upgraded.”

A new feature coming soon to NEO is a communications center that will allow operators multiple avenues to connect with alarm users at the same time, such as text messaging capabilities while also being on the phone.

Training new employees could become easier, as people are generally familiar with browser-based applications, according to Coles.