Guardian increases tech efficiency with mobile app

WARRENDALE, Pa.—A new mobile app that Guardian Protection Services' technicians are using has dramatically streamlined their work schedules, giving them more time to devote to customers, according to Randy Tecza, Guardian VP of operations.

“It's a huge step forward for our whole organization,” Tecza told Security Systems News. He said that Guardian, which is one of the nation's largest privately-held security companies, with 11 offices around the country, has gained 4 percent in efficiency since its 120 technicians started using MASmobile Technician in January.

He said the app eliminates as many as nine calls per technician per day. “There's been a lot of time put back in our techs' day,” Tecza said. That means they're able to devote that time to educating customers and answering their questions, providing “a higher quality experience,” he said.

Also, thanks to MASmobile, he said, Guardian's operations managers are able to “focus on other priorities instead of being a dispatcher all day.”

MAS is a provider of security automation software and is a part of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp.

Guardian is among the first customers to integrate MASmobile Technician into its business, according to a news release from MAS and Guardian.

One of the key efficiencies achieved with the app in the three months of its use is eliminating many of the phone conversations between techs and their managers, Tecza said.

“Before we launched MASmobile there were multiple phone calls that the technician actually made to complete their job,” he said. “They called in multiple times to achieve the day's job agenda.”

For example, he said, they would call to find out their assignments, report in as they traveled to job sites, when they arrived and also when leaving sites.

Now, MASmobile makes most of those calls unnecessary.  Guardian's techs use company-supplied Samsung S3 mobile devices to deploy the app, the news release said. “Guardian technicians now have access to an electronic work order and the ability to receive updates to that work order while en route to the site. Other features include a real-time, view-only snapshot of the customer's MAS-based job, event and test history; capability for the technician to place the customer's system on and off test mode, to verify signals and to perform a 'system clear' from the site or the job; and capture a signature on completed work orders.”

In a later phase Guardian will be implementing, MASmobile also will allow techs to capture an electronic payment, set up return jobs and activate interactive services, the news release said.

Guardian says that not only has MASmobile given techs more time to spend with customers, but the company also believes that customers view the techs more positively because they have everything they need to do the job at their fingertips.

“The customer perception is more positive when [the tech] walks in with that smartphone and that app, rather than a stack of papers,” Tecza said.