Group 4 is well known throughout the UK as a guarding company, and the provider of prisoner escort and courtroom services. Now, though, the security giant has thrown its might behind a monitoring systems division that boasts the fastest-growing Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) in the UK. Brian Sims travels to Belfast to meet operations director Rory Mallon and ARC manager Paddy Downey, and to find out what it takes to run a dedicated monitoring service for end users.
So often in the news because of the troubles that have plagued the Province for decades, Northern Ireland has become synonymous with the word 'security'. Images of armoured cars rolling down the Falls Road, barbed wire fences and Sectarian killings have been splashed all over the mainland's media for decades and, until very recently, all attempts at making the peace were doomed to failure. True enough, the troubles seem to have abated of late, but security is still crucial for the Province's hardy 1.5 million inhabitants.

Security services company Group 4 is no stranger to Ulster, originally providing Control Room facilities in Belfast for Group 4 Northern Ireland's manned guarding business. It was not until the late 1980s that it entered the UK alarm monitoring sector, initially limiting the operation to the Province.

Early on in 1995, Group 4 acquired an Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) in Leicestershire that had UK-wide connections. Later that year, an ARC was 'founded' on Belfast's Ormeau Road and, subsequently, all operations were amalgamated into this NACOSS-approved, ISO 9002-accredited ARC.

Today, that ARC is the fastest-growing of its kind. Operating to BS 5979 standards, it boasts over 50,000 connections to sites right across the Province and the UK mainland (averaging no less than 700-1,000 new connections each month, with a present growth rate of 20%). Proof positive, then, that the decision to seek new business avenues was the right path to take (Group 4 already handles 20% of the Northern Ireland guarding market, so a new commercial strand was essential to the operation's continued expansion).

Over the past few years the number of UK ARCs has almost halved, primarily as a result of acquisition. Monitoring charges have also fallen, and yet the security industry's end users – not to mention the police service – are perhaps more demanding of monitoring centres than at any time in the recent past. With business so competitive and almost purely price-driven, the ARC companies must be able to offer that little bit extra on top of merely receiving details of alarms and passing them on to the relevant authorities.

Of course, being part of the international security giant that is Group 4 Falck has its advantages in that regard, but why has the Belfast-based monitoring operation grown at such a phenomenal rate when others have fallen by the wayside? According to Rory Mallon – the ARC's operations director and general manager for Group 4 Northern Ireland – it's all down to degrees of service.

"Service, the use of cutting-edge technology and experienced, friendly operators are the crucial ingredients for an end user and installer-friendly ARC," states Mallon. "We're able to provide monitoring facilities for all current signalling methods, including RedCARE and GSM RedCARE, DualCom, Parknet, Digital Communicator, Point ID and SIA, as well as all the standard forms of alarm verification. In other words sequential, audio and visual verification, as required by the ACPO Security Systems Policy". All of the monitoring operations are currently based around the Turbo Caams alarm handling software package developed by Mentor Business Systems.

Installers and their customers also enjoy access to other services provided by the organisation, including alarm and keyholding response, keyholder escort, the aforementioned manned security operation and mobile patrols. This little lot ensures that the Group 4 ARC is the only one of its kind able to offer installers the capability of providing a single brand, total security solutions package to sell on to the end user.

Given that this is what many end users are looking for in this day and age, it's not hard to see why Group 4's prescient approach has struck a rich business vein.

Operational requirements
Group 4 Monitoring Services is subject to some of the most stringent operational requirements and procedures of any individual Group 4 company, monitoring various types of alarm for commercial and industrial premises. These can generate anything from an intruder or fire signal through to medical alerts, freezer and boiler alarms and personal attack alarms.

The majority of false alarms are caused by end users. That’s because they adopt a cavalier attitude and assume the police will sort their problems out for them. They see police response as their right. It’s not

Paddy Downey, Manager, Group 4 ARC

Inevitably, this places a strain on the ARC managers and operators to deliver a first-class service. It places an even bigger strain on the quick-thinking Rory Mallon, who has to justify himself and his actions to Peter Black – managing director of the UK operating company Group 4 Total Security.

"We have to treat each call on its own merits," says Mallon, "and of course there's a likelihood that it's not going to be a false alarm. Our operators have to be sensitive about a given caller's state of mind at the time. They must be people-friendly". Mallon adds: "What we're talking about here is a service industry. They are inherently a nightmare to work in, as you're only really as good as your last mistake. We always strive to minimise those mistakes, but we're only human. Dealing with 2,000 'phone calls a day can be a stressful business."

An ARC is a strange environment to be in. As you'd expect, internal and external security is watertight, the atmosphere is intense and staff are working on a rolling shift pattern. It takes a 'people person' to manage an environment like that, and Mallon is lucky enough to have one in ARC manager Paddy Downey.

"Our ARC cannot not work," says Downey, who fell into the business "by accident" following a spell as an alarm installation manager. "We're responsible for 80% of after-sales service to end users. We must get it right."

Downey feels that, in many respects, the expectations placed on an ARC's management team by the security industry are unrealistic. "We're critical to the police, installers and end users, but they all want a top class service without being prepared to pay for it," states Downey, who has strong opinions on the ACPO Security Systems Policy.

"Nine out of every ten alarm calls passed on to the police are false," he opines. "The fact that the industry managed to meet most of the requirements laid down by the 1995 ACPO Policy is largely due to the filtering techniques adopted by ARC's like our own. False alarms in general haven't been reduced, though. The majority of them are caused by end users. That's because they adopt a cavalier attitude and assume the police will sort their problems out for them. They see police response as their right. It's not."

Downey feels that there needs to be a "heavy promotional commitment from both Government and the police service" to raise awareness among end users when it comes to the problems surrounding false alarms. "Industry regulations state that two inspections must be made every year to a given commercial or industrial site to check that alarm systems are in order," adds Downey. "Why, then, can't there be a new ruling to say that these are also going to be the occasions when end user re-training takes place? If that were the case, I think you'd find false alarm rates would fall."

More often than not, installers go to site, put in the alarms, show the end user how to switch the systems on and off and that's about it. "They'll not tell the end user how to re-set systems, but end users should insist on this," urges Downey. Industry Codes of Practice state that written instructions must be left for the in-house team, and indeed they usually are, but if they're offered to a non-technical security professional what real use is that?

Thankfully, DD243:2002 – the Code of Practice for the installation and configuration of intruder alarm systems designed to generate confirmed signals – is encouraging installers to take on more responsibility where end user education is concerned.

There’s not enough policing of standards in the industry. The authorities should be far more stringent in saying who can enter the alarms market. End users would then have an improved confidence, and begin to see a greater return on their investment

Rory Mallon, Operations Director, Group 4 ARC

At this moment in time, Downey is at a loss as to what else the industry can do to reduce false alarms. "The installation and regulatory bodies ought to be driving through change, but they're not. The BSIA, NACOSS and the SSAIB should be working in harmony with each other and the 43 police forces to enforce change, but it doesn't seem to be happening."

He continues: "Even with the advent of confirmation technology about 85% of signals are still false. This industry has to stop naval gazing and ask itself where it's going wrong."

Rory Mallon cuts in at this point, wholeheartedly supporting his ARC manager's conclusions. "There's not enough policing of standards in the industry," adds Mallon. "The authorities should be far more stringent in saying who can enter the alarms market. End users would then have an improved confidence, and begin to see a greater return on their investment."

Calling on the insurers
In more ways than one the insurance industry would seem to be in a prime position to drive matters forward here. Insurance companies could insist that end users employ only approved alarm installers, for example.

The weak link in this particular security chain, in Paddy Downey's eyes at least, is the fact that insurers are tough on stipulating the electronic part of the bargain, but not so tough on insisting who responds to those alarm systems. "An end user could entrust their systems response function to their worst enemy if they're not careful".

For Downey, speed of response is ultimately the key to satisfying end user requirements. Group 4's ARC operators are able to undertake multiple functions from one operating position (ie putting sites on/off test, polling RedCARE systems, producing reports and handling alarms). In essence, when an engineer calls the Group 4 ARC for whatever reason, the responding operator can deal with everything that's needed without having to transfer the caller to a host of different departments.

"The right support needs the right people to implement it," suggests Downey. "With this in mind, we've instituted a structured customer support programme whereby each installer is visited regularly. This maintains our contact with them, and resolves any problems which they might be experiencing. These visits may be once, twice or four times a year depending on the level of support needed. Installer reports are compiled and analysed on a regular basis so that the level and quality of service offered by us to them is continually improved."

At the end of the day, Downey is intent on making sure that end users are 'on message'.