For years, integrators and monitoring centers have worked together to provide equipment, cameras, and monitoring to protect people and property. Historically, this relationship has focused primarily on the protection of property, with a gap on the people-side when they are not at home or at work. This gap is a massive opportunity to strengthen relationships with customers and partners and create a new revenue stream. The Incident GO safety app is designed to bridge this gap.
A person not at home or at work is dependent on 911, a dependency that has two major flaws: technology and resources. In 2007, the first affordable smartphone was made available, and today, according to the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) 80% of all calls to 911 are from mobile phones. The issue is that, thirteen years later, most 911 call centers still do not have the technology to properly receive calls from mobile phones. In fact, when a mobile caller reaches 911 virtually no information populates, as addresses do with landlines. The result is the 911 operator having to get very basic information, including location, from a person who is in a panicked state. With Incident GO, GPS is automatically reported whenever the app is used.
Aside from the technological aspect, the other concern is limited resources. Monitoring centers already act as a clearinghouse for alarms and are experts at escalating real events to 911 for response. The safety app Incident GO enables a similar escalation model from request to response. With unique features like panic buttons and virtual escorts, Incident GO offers more robust value to its users. A virtual escort can be requested by the user and essentially turns the user’s phone into a streaming device so that a monitoring center can see and hear what is happening in real-time. These features create an escalation model that can remove a lot of stress from 911. Not only are fewer incidents escalated but, more importantly, those that now include video and GPS locations are. This level of information sharing reduces the time a 911 operator is on the phone and gives the response higher priority due to the inclusion of video evidence in real-time.
“Duty of care” is the legal obligation by a business to take action to mitigate the possibility of harm. This extends to all employees ‘on-the-clock’, regardless of whether physically on business property. Implementation of a safety app lowers risk of liability lawsuits involving safety issues, critical in today’s world where liability lawsuits are commonplace. As a result of this legal precedent, businesses offer a unique revenue opportunity.
While there are several safety apps on the market today, almost all are universally dependent on peer-to-peer monitoring, meaning friends and family will be alerted of emergencies. During an emergency, when help is needed as quickly as possible, a user has to hope their contact is by their phone, available to drop everything to alert authorities for you, all while not being overwhelmed by panic. Relying on a friend to be your lifeline 24/7 when professional monitoring centers exist is like asking a friend to perform surgery on you or you performing the surgery on yourself despite professionals being available. Designed to be monitored by trained security professionals, Incident GO narrows this colossal margin of error.
Incident CO, the developer of Incident GO, offers a channel partner program for integrators and monitoring centers. Adopters can leverage existing customers to deepen a relationship or obtain new customers by offering Incident GO to enhance security posture.
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