Brivo and Alula join forces

BETHESDA, Md.—Brivo, a global leader in cloud-based physical security solutions, and Alula, inventors of the BAT-Connect communicator and the Connect+ intrusion and automation platform, recently announced a cloud-to-cloud integration partnership between their respective platforms to provide unified access control and intrusion capabilities for the commercial market.

The newly announced partnership will provide Brivo customers with single-point control and monitoring of key alarm functions and intrusion reporting data. This delivers a true UL-compliant security package and ensures alarm signals are reported from both intrusion and access platforms.

Customers will be able to arm and disarm their Alula-enabled intrusion systems from within the Brivo Onair web UI or the Brivo Onair Mobile Administrator app, available on both iOS and Android. The Onair activity log and reporting tools will also include event data from the intrusion system to provide a single source of truth for system administrators and GSOC operators.

“We see this as an important extension of our platform to provide simply better security to our customers, with a maintenance-free cloud-to-cloud API integration that leaves all the technical details to us so that integrators can install and configure both systems quickly in the field,” Brivo President and CEO Steve Van Till said in the announcement. “What we like about Alula is that, like us, they are a hybrid IP-native product and cloud company that provides extensive connectivity to over 100 of the top independent central stations, which is what we need to cover the needs of our 1,000+ dealers and resellers.”

Van Till told Security Systems News that the response from dealers has been extremely positive. At the recent Brivo-Eagle Eye Systems Cloud Security Summit, a dealer-focused event held in Austin earlier this month, Van Till said that dealers “were really happy to hear [about the partnership] because our dealers have wanted an intrusion integration for many years.”

He continued, “On our side, we have wanted an intrusion integration for quite awhile, but we also place a high value on the data that we are going to get from the intrusion side of any installation. Part of what we are doing in our road map right now is focusing much more on extracting value from data — analytic, machine learning, things like that — so we have taken a very data-hungry posture and any new source of data that we can combine into a clearer picture of a customer's location means we can deliver more value to them.”

Van Till also noted how important it is that Alula can connect to other existing control panels, which is “an ideal solution for us in this space because there are so many different kinds of panels out there,” he said. “So the universality of the Alula platform was one of the big appeals for us in selecting them as a partner and for the dealers in terms of understanding what it means to them.”

As he pointed out, the breadth and flexibility of Alula's product line made it a natural fit for the partnership, as Alula offers intrusion and automation solutions for every potential small business scenario, from new installs, upgrades and takeovers, including popular panels from Honeywell and DSC.

“We are extremely excited to partner with Brivo on this important integration in the commercial small business market,” Alula CEO Brian McLaughlin said in the announcement. “Our solutions perfectly complement each other and will greatly simplify employee management services, giving customers the best of both worlds.”

Van Till said the partnership adds to what has already been “a very good year” for Brivo. “The company is growing and we have added a lot to engineering in the past year so we are starting to feel the bump in new product output, which is very exciting.”