ESA Members Rake in Monitoring Center Excellence Awards
ESA is proud to celebrate alongside their members’ success within the industry. This year, association members ADT, Affiliated Monitoring, Rapid Response Monitoring (RRM) and Universal Atlantic Systems (UAS) were recognized in all but one category of the 2021 TMA Excellence Awards for their dedication to professionalism and exceptional service.
Each year, The Monitoring Association (TMA) recognizes FM-approved Intertek/ETL or UL-listed monitoring centers and their outstanding employees who go above-and-beyond for customers and co-workers, while retaining the highest professionalism that significantly contributes to the betterment of the alarm industry. The Excellence Awards are co-sponsored by SDM magazine.
This year, several ESA members received recognition:
- ADT won the Marvel Technology Award.
- Affiliated Monitoring won Monitoring Center Operator of the Year & Monitoring Center Support Person of the Year.
READ MORE ABOUT AFFILIATED MONITORING
- Rapid Response Monitoring (RRM) won Monitoring Center Manager of the Year & Monitoring Center Support Person of the Year.
READ MORE ABOUT RAPID RESPONSE MONITORING
- Universal Atlantic Systems (UAS) won Monitoring Center of the Year — Small-to-Medium Business Level.
READ MORE ABOUT UNIVERSAL ATLANTIC SYSTEMS
Monitoring Center of the Year – Small-to-Medium Business Level – UAS
To achieve greatness takes daring leadership who sets purposeful goals and works hard to turn them into reality. This has been the past 10 years at UAS.
“Then Central Station Manager, Rich Rhodes, declared that he would lead the UAS initiative to make the UAS Central Station into a monitoring center worthy of the TMA Monitoring Center of the Year Award,” Bill Fisher, current central station manager, UAS, tells ESA. “Time and persistence paid off. Rich will be retiring later this month with this award being the crowning achievement on his career success within both the industry and UAS.”
Looking back over 2020, it was a difficult year filled with the possibility of severe illness and unknowns. For businesses, immediate response and action was necessary to remain relevant and functional for survival. For UAS, company President Scott R. Elkins, along with the senior management team, immediately developed a strategic plan that contemplated the worst-case scenario, preparing for the long haul with a laser focus to protect and support employees and customers.
“As a result, UAS has not only come through 2020 as strong as ever, but in many ways, UAS is a better company and monitoring center as a result of preliminary actions taken back in March 2020 and the continued team effort required to effectively navigate the pandemic,” says Elkins.
During the pandemic, UAS developed and deployed a variety of products and services to meet the needs of their customers — for example, a quick deploy alarm solution intended to provide near immediate monitored alarm coverage for previously secured premises that were forced to close on a moment’s notice.
“This past year we have expanded our outdoor protection monitoring platforms to include cutting-edge technology such as solar power, thermal video verification, advanced analytics, point-to-point networks and audio talk down,” Fisher lists.
UAS continually strives to lead the industry with high-tech solutions that address customer concerns, which is one of the many reasons Fisher believes UAS won Monitoring Center of the Year.
“Everyone at UAS is honored to receive this award, and we would like to thank TMA and SDM for this incredible acknowledgement,” he concludes.
Monitoring Center Manager of the Year – Jonathan Rainbow and Monitoring Center Support Person of the Year – Michelle Quattrini, both at Rapid Response Monitoring
When ESA asked Morgan Hertel, VP of Technology and Innovation at RRM why he thought Rainbow and Quattrini won awards, his answer was blatantly honest and profoundly simple: “They deserve it …,” Hertel says with a laugh before diving into what makes Rainbow and Quattrini stand out.
“I think both staff members have a ‘can-do’ attitude which is important in a fast-moving, ever-changing environment like Rapid Response, and I think they both possess the willingness to make sure others know how to do their jobs,” he says. “While some people who worry about job security typically don’t share knowledge, both make sure that the people around them are continually updated and kept current.”
Hertel points out that making a career out of a job is unique and rare these days.
“Both Rainbow and Quattrini have never been happy with the status quo,” he says, “instead, they are constantly trying to get to the next place or make themselves more valuable to RRM. This allows us to continually promote or create positions for them to work in.”
RRM continually works on initiatives and services to stay ahead of the technology curve — some of which are years away from becoming a reality.
“In order to do that, we need people like Michelle and Jonathan who can adapt and consistently work on how we can do something and not spend their time worrying about how we can’t do something,” Hertel says.
Monitoring Center Operator of the Year – Diandra Dean and Monitoring Center Support Person of the Year – Deepak Bysani, both at Affiliated Monitoring
The Affiliated team is a big, extended family, according to Michael (Mike) Zydor, managing director, Affiliated Monitoring.
“We do not offer jobs,” he says. “We offer careers with long-term personal and professional growth opportunities for exemplary individuals, like Diandra and Deepak, who are equipped to provide the exemplary experience our dealers have come to expect and rely upon over the past 44 years.”
Dean and Bysani represent company values, and their dedication and resilience has been demonstrated throughout the craziness of COVID, exhibiting leadership qualities Affiliated strongly promotes and values.
“In different but equally important ways, they both rose to the occasion when the unimaginable occurred,” explains Zydor. “Deepak was essential in our near overnight switch from facilities-based monitoring to a highly distributed model, mixing at-home and on-premise monitoring agents, while Diandra made sure every member of her team, whether at home or at one of our monitoring centers, was supported and had the resources they needed to continue to provide a seamless monitoring experience.”
Bysani’s expertise with software and IP telephony is vital to Affiliated’s growth while Dean’s IT background has made her a highly effective member of the company’s monitoring team.
“The rise of IoT, IP communications and ubiquitous 4G and 5G connectivity has radically shifted the skills needed to operate an effective, cutting-edge monitoring center,” Zydor admits, while complimenting Bysani and Dean for being excellent examples of how important technical and engineering skills are to the security industry.
In addition to the Excellence Awards, ESA Member Company, ADT, took home this year’s Marvel Technology Award, which is co-sponsored alongside TMA by Security Sales & Integration (SSI) magazine and recognizes professional monitoring centers for innovation/implementation of cutting-edge technology, with their SoSecure App.
“Since the launch, the SoSecure App has focused on usability to make it easy to send an alarm to ADT,” explains Leah Page, vice president, Mobile Security & Strategic Projects at ADT. “Features like voice activation of an alarm, home screen widgets so the user does not need to launch the app and allowing users to train a secret phrase all exemplify ADT’s commitment to ease-of-use for all mobile app customers.”
SoSecure allows agents to stay with customers and reassure them while proactively check-in with customers. This enables ADT and the company’s monitoring agents to serve customers on a broader spectrum for their security needs, and because customers can chat with agents, it becomes contextually relevant to their situation.
“It creates a more personalized experience,” says Page. “We have seen customers engaging with us when they are uncomfortable in a situation, but it has not escalated to an emergency dispatch request.”
With the SoSecure App, ADT has extended protection beyond the home, placing peace of mind into the palm of customer’s hands.
“We are in a unique time where people are working from new environments; experiencing new, unique ways to get from place to place; and working in the gig
economy, for example, grocer delivery, ridesharing, etc., that places them in situations where they encounter strangers,” Page says.
SoSecure also allows ADT to reach a broader demographic of security seekers.
“We know our expertise in monitoring and allowing agents to extend into helping customers in new ways, and with all the interactions in their lives, it will help solidify our mission of keeping people safe — inside and outside of their homes.”
The ESA team is proud of ADT, Affiliated Monitoring, Rapid Response Monitoring (RRM) and Universal Atlantic Systems (UAS) for their amazing achievements within the industry!
