This emerging market has much in common with both the selling and installation of current intruder alarm systems and presents new business opportunities for alarm installers.
Social care products are designed to protect people, and will complement the best selling traditional security systems whose main emphasis is on property protection.
Two new Scantronic products, the MRX two-way speech receiver and the Homelink Extra social alarm, combine to provide a locally-based community alarm service for nursing homes and central stations. They have been designed to be easy to use and install and, since there are relatively few competitive products, premium prices will be available in these early years.
This opportunity, however, is not confined just to elderly people. Installers should not forget the possibly greater potential from younger people, who need to find cost-effective ways to ensure the care and safety of aging relatives wherever they may live. (Indeed, Homelink Extra is ideally suited to the needs of other vulnerable groups such as the disabled, MS sufferers and post-operative patients).
EASY INSTALLATION
The Homelink products have been designed to be easy to use and install. The equipment is simply plugged into a standard telephone socket and a 13amp mains supply. The unit is programmed using an ordinary tone phone. Back-up safety, in the event of a mains power failure, is provided with emergency batteries ensuring continuity of the call service for up to 36 hours.
It operates in the same way as an intruder alarm communicator but incorporates two-way speech communication between the user and the central station. The technology is familiar to all alarm installers and provides a natural and profitable method of business expansion.
IN OPERATION
In the event of an emergency, the user activates the Homelink alarm via a neck-worn pendant or wristband radio transmitter. The unit will then automatically dial the MRX receiver at the monitoring station. It will display the unit ID number together with the alarm details i.e. emergency, fire, intruder etc. The operator can answer the call and speak with the caller to establish the nature of the problem. The integral microphone is very sensitive and can pick up sounds even through walls and doors. If it is not possible to establish a two-way conversation, the operator will instigate emergency procedures with the nearest available carer or key holder.
Accessories are available such as smoke detectors, door contacts and passive infra-red detectors, and with the devices able to open up two-way speech channels, intruders can be both heard and reported.
AVOIDING COMPLEXITY
Although there are many obvious synergies and similarities between the property and people protection market sectors, installers should be mindful during the sales cycle that older people can often be put off by the apparent complexity of the technology used in today's protection and security systems.
The most effective route to market share lies in the creation of strategic partnerships between installers and monitoring centres. Installers will be primarily responsible for selling the vision to such homes and providing and installing the hardware.
By housing all this functionality in a straightforward, single, built-in security alarm, Scantronic has made the system easier to sell by presenting it in a way far less complex and daunting to people unused to today's technology.
THE KEY TO THE MARKET
Key to the short term speed of acceptance of these systems will be the delivery capability at the monitoring facilities. These facilities are likely to take many forms including call centres, nursing homes, sheltered housing units or any suitable 24-hour business. For example, almost any call centre can add a two-way speech MRX receiver and then provide monitoring facilities by answering the alarm, calling a list of agreed contacts to find someone to help, or if necessary calling the emergency services.
Nursing homes can now add an extra level of comfort for their clients by extending this kind of service to people on their waiting lists who need care now, but can't readily get it any other way. This gives the nursing home a simple method of increasing revenues and defraying costs for a relatively small additional capital investment. They can also make better use of their existing trained staff, and at the same time provide themselves with a loyal stream of clients, ready to take any spaces that do become available in the nursing home.
They are also natural partners when considering the latest technology which allows the hardwiring of the system to include facilities such as indicator lights in windows and loud speaker microphones giving two- way speech capability in remote locations.
SUCCESS THROUGH PARTNERSHIP
Commercially the most effective route to market share and success almost certainly lies in the creation of strategic partnerships between installers and the monitoring centres. Installers will be primarily responsible for selling the vision to such homes, and providing and installing the hardware.
So what does the future hold? As this new generation of care alarms begins to penetrate the market the next generation is already under development. The potential of internet and telemedicine only underlines the fundamental change that will run through the industry in the coming years.
And with the major healthcare providers such as Norwich Union and BUPA looking to increase profitability by widening their product offerings, social care systems are certainly here to stay.
The market is quite simply huge. A central monitoring station could easily buy an MRX as a low cost entry to the speech monitoring market, quickly adding a substantial number of connections by actively building this side of their business.
By the year 2020 the predicted population of people over 55 in the UK will be more than one third of the entire population, and a similar pattern is emerging across the rest of Europe. Neither the public nor the private nursing sectors will be able to cope without a radical new approach.
Source
Security Installer
