We have seen some very interesting issues over the last 24 months and never have I witnessed some of the surprises that some of our new customers have encountered lately.  Case in point, a calling customer described their discovery of the evaporation of the unstable equipment vendor they used when a security system activated and also the domino failure of vendors of the entire notification system.  How did it happen?  

When they arrived to their warehouse and opened the door, out flowed the water that had been gushing out during the night while the plant was closed.  Information from the customer’s water bill, reported some 20,000 gallons of water had flowed into and through their warehouse manufacturing facility.  The damages to their facility wasn’t their final surprise either.   

The obvious question surfaced, why wasn’t someone notified.   In the pursuit of the answer the customer discovered that the company that had installed the equipment, had vanished.  Evaporated, phone-turned-off and no further information available.  Next they contacted the company that sent them their bill monthly for the monthly services.  Low and behold they had no information listed for the account!  No contact information, no numbers and no signals.  The business became the victim of  “sold to another company”.  The purchasing company did not have a record of the customer or customer contacts, yet billed and subsequently cashed payments for the fire system monitoring.  Monitoring company blind!  On a FIRE SYSTEM! 

Unfortunately we have seen this over and over again in the last 24 months.  The alarm industry is not the only industry that has seen this either.  We have seen it in multiple manufacturers, banks, telecommunication companies and even some government municipality organizations.

But when it comes to a security system and for your protection, you need heads up.  When you don’t have it, problems like this above are caused and often surface after the damage is done.  Rottweiler systems not only give you “heads-up” details but also provide you with the ability to arm, disarm and open doors or activate lights.

Just as important, we also provide a web tool called our “web sight” that allows you to view all the details of billing history and service history, contracts and other documents that are involved with your security system.

If you choose, you do not have to remain uninformed any longer.  A Rottweiler system is a great investment and to provide you with “real security” we provide you with insight into your security system and our belief is that you also need to have access to the records that involve your account as well.

* * * Remember to check your security systems once a month to insure that they are functioning correctly and the information that is on file works and has not changed.

With the resignation and/or the firing of General McCrystal last week started me thinking, is this another “Wag the dog” distraction from a seated democratic President?  To determine its roots, you have to look at the original event that keyed the term “Wag the Dog”.  Ironically, this time it happens to the leadership charged with military action in the same clouded country of controversy, Afghanistan.  Now you might ask the question, what does this have to do with Rottweiler and ”wag the dog” issues in security or telecommunications?  The problem is actually very common in our industry.

When a dog wags its tail that usually means it is happy, expects some admiration from the owner or a reward.  But when the tail wags the dog in  the Rottweiler world though, it is just the opposite.  The cause of such wagging of the dog?  Summer.  Georgia’s stretch of continuous days of heat and thunderstorms have caused equipment outage calls all over Atlanta due to lightning, power surges and heat stressed overloads.  What can your business do to help stop the wagging of the Rottweiler dog?

1. Make sure you have a large enough backup power supply to carry the power load of your critical equipment that runs your business when the power goes out.  If you have batteries in your system, do a simple power outage test by removing power to the backup unit.  If it fails, replace it.
2. Conduct a simple lightning inspection review of your lines, power backup units and look for vulnerabilities that need to be addressed.  If you are not certain how to do that, have a professional take a look at it.
3. Check to see if your business insurance covers lightning damage and update your policy.  If you don’t need this rider on the policy, you may and the cost of equipment replacement exceeds the cost of the insurance.
4. Take time to call the vendor that you are using to insure they are still in business and support your system.  2009 was a year of purge in equipment vendors and the necessity to find a vendor may increase your down time, your delivery of service and repair for a failed system.
5. Our Web Enabled Security Systems transmit notification of power outages to personnel so that when you have an outage of power at the office you can take the action necessary prior to other staff members arriving to find numerous issues when they arrive, giving you the proactive edge.  It also has a cellular unit and is not telephone line dependent.
6. If you have other critical equipment such as generators, freezers or water pump failures our Environmental Security Notification Systems can notify you of temperature drops, pump failures and generator on / off activity.  (It can also notify you of fuel levels).
7. Explore system replacement and upgrade options.  If you are already on the brink of replacement, take the time to get the review costs and start addressing issues that will be required in the preparation of equipment requirements.  If it needs a data rack, put it in place.  New electrical receptacle, get it installed.  A little foresight takes the stress away and proper planning just makes things smoother.

Good leadership takes action as appropriate which brings me back to General McCrystal.  Why was General McCrystal assigned the task in Afghanistan?  Answer, the same reason he was fired / resigned…he spoke his mind.  Had McCrystal remained silent we would not have had a shining light towards the leadership in charge of the Afghanistan war and consequently the lives of America’s young service men.  You may disagree with this statement, but when you look at the indecisiveness of the current administration and their lack in developing a stable government that can withstand the political pressure of the various sects in the country of Afghanistan, you too will question our current leadership staff at the White House.  The problem with poor leadership is their inability to address the issue.

Our best advice, which may be your best solution, is to take a few minutes, follow the few steps we have listed above and if your business experiences an equipment outage you will have taken some steps so that it will resolve quicker, your business will stay in business and you will have helped stop the the wagging of the dog .

Yesterday was an interesting day of sorts.  Starting off with the usual “we had a burglary over the weekend” phone call.  It seems that upon breaking into one structure, the perpetrator stole a very expensive camera from the site and since the burglar felt really confident he did it again less than a half mile away.  You guessed it, right into one of the structures Rottweiler had a security system.  This in turn changed the outcome of the stolen camera and the burglar.

For what was discovered at the crime scene was that the burglar needed to put down the camera in order to kick in the door in which was necessary to obtain access into the structure.  When the door was kicked in, the alarm activated which caused the burglar’s sense of awareness to become blurred and he forgot that he left the camera behind on the ground to the good news of the camera owner.  The total loss to the business of burglary?  One door, door frame, one window and $ 35.00 dollars cash that was left on a desk in the quick grab out the door when the alarm sounded.

 Next stop of the day is what really caught my attention and the intention of this BLOG article.  A medical practice in Gwinnett County is migrating from one dial tone carrier to another for their dial tone and Internet services.  My instructions from the carrier is to check to see if there was room on the backboard for the router, ground and an electrical outlet necessary to power the router.  We call this the “site survey”.  Part of the site survey is to ask about faxes, credit card machines and security system numbers.  This usually brings up the topic of checking the security system monthly.  When asked when the last time she checked it, she stated that she never had checked it for the entire time she has worked there.

Now, what do you say to that?  You see the medical facility serves thousands of patients in their area.  The facility contains thousands of social security numbers, medical information on the patients, copies of drivers licenses of parents, home addresses, telephone numbers and other various personal information on the children in this practice.  When I reflect upon the risk factor, I wonder if they realize the risk they place upon their patient’s private information when security is compromised.  If you don’t checkup your security system in a medical practice, it could be fatal to both the practice and the patient’s that you serve.

This also brings me to another topic which is, if you don’t see a security system sticker on a medical facility you use, don’t give them any personal information!  In the end, it will be your information lost and the fatality will be yours and not theirs, your personal information compromised. 

So, here are a few rules you may need to remember about your security system tests.

1. Test them monthly, even if you did it last month, do it again.  What this does is that it allows you to know that everything is functioning as it should.  Here in Georgia we have had storm after storm of lightning and damage happens to security systems often.
2. Our recommendation is to check them on a Tuesday night as this gives time during the week to address issues if there are any such as ordering parts, repairing lines etc.
3. Test your smoke detectors at the same time.  It is a good reminder to let you know that smoke detectors are recommended replacement every 10 years.  So if they are aged, time to replace.
4. Know the line that the security system is on.  Less confusion allows for better communication when it is needed.
5. Review your call list.  This is often overlooked because people change numbers, job titles, leave the company or often will leave on vacation during the summer months so if your list is inaccurate you may not be notified of a break-in quickly.

Our belief is that in a mobile society that you should have text messaging on a security system, especially for businesses.  This gives you the Who/What/Where factor quickly and precisely without the guess work.  There are a host of other benefits with our email gateway systems and in my opinion, well worth the money.

Every day of the week we are told stories of crime and loss that happens in and around Metro Atlanta.  So we preach, we train, we instruct and then we do the job beyond the expectations of our clients trying to protect them from those losses.  Like all businesses,  Rottweiler has one charge for the services that we deliver.  

Do it right, do it well and treat the client with respect.  So when you call, expect to be treated with an answer.  The answer may not be the one you are looking to hear and probably you will have to spend some hard earned cash but in my opinion, it will be well worth your investment which brings me to the call of the week.

Often we receive calls asking about the required annual fire inspection for the fire system which monitors the building and is attached to the fire sprinkler system.  The reason for the inspection is to inspect, test and verify that the fire system is working properly.  (Now think about it, if you are trapped IN the building when a fire occurs, wouldn’t you want to know that the fire system is in fact working?)  So we preach…

We preach about safety, about lives that will be affected and the costs involved when a fire occurs.   And when those that we know keep serenading the problem get trapped or caught, we witness it in the pain they experience.  Which brings me to again mention some reminders that I think you should know, plan and implement with a monitored fire system.

• If you have a fire system in the building, check it monthly.  If there are issues with the communicator, the issues need to be resolved.  If the equipment fails, get it repaired.  Don’t wait because you will forget about it if you don’t.  Always check functionality of fire or security systems monthly.
• Do the annual inspections for the fire system.  It’s a code compliance requirement but more importantly you know that every device was working at the time of inspection and can repair or replace defective items.
• If you have a flow control device on the fire system, check it monthly as well.  The fire system should notify both monitoring and the fire station so make sure you notify them of the test.  If you don’t test them, system failure could cause tragedy such as in the case below.
• When Rottweiler installs a fire system it notifies us as well upon failure so we may address the issue.  A fire system should also “ping” monitoring daily and if it is programmed correctly notifies someone if it fails to communicate due to failure so that the issue can be addressed.
• Over the year you may have changed dial tone companies or cancelled service to a line you did not realize was the line used to communicate by the fire system.  Either way, simple tests catch an issue before a tragedy.
• Replace smoke detectors every 10 years.  Most people do not realize that is what manufactures recommend.  I know it costs some money but if you budget the expense you know they will perform at their maximum potential.

You may not take into the consideration the expense for procrastination or failure if you don’t do the above recommendations.  You may choose to serenade the risk as one of our clients did.  We’ve had the discussion every year and every year, inaction and procrastination.  Yesterday we received the call. 

Because of the intense heat we have had this week in Georgia, a sprinkler head went off in one of the manufacturing plants we provide other services to.  We have preached both system conversion and inspection to this client over the years.  Each time with resistance.  The call was different this time.  It was different because this time employees arrived to a foot of water in the warehouse!  Pallets of inventory destroyed, special computerized machines used to run production underwater and tens of thousands of gallons of water wasted.  Total cost for inaction, probably over a million dollars, total loss of production runs and damage issues that will take months to repair.

The message from the Rottweiler Preacher…  Don’t serenade risk!  Take action.  You’ll be glad you did.  As with other products or services BACR Discounts apply for fire system inspections.

Summer means hot weather in Georgia and along with the heat, it brings its friend humidity.  Put the two together and you have a formula that brings along some powerful weather one of which is lightning and the other is the loss of power.  So, How do you prepare yourself for when the lights go out in Georgia? Here are a few tips.

• Have a survivability strategy when it happens.  When business managers forget to take into consideration the complete outages of either network, business telephone systems or business security system (security systems usually contains its own backup power source) for extended periods of time, the result is complete collapse.  Rottweiler provides a hosted platform for such occasions.  All you need to do is forward that main number to one of our DID numbers, record the greeting and gives us email addresses and you are up and running in minutes.  We can also deploy IP phones immediately for those occasions when you know you will not be up in a few days.
• Install and connect the largest uninterrupted power supply for the telecommunications equipment.  Most dial tone providers only provide the minimum rather than the maximum in backup power.  If that is not bad enough then often others follow behind and plug in an assorted electronic hardware that draws from the available energy in the small UPS causing it to provide only 15 to 20 minutes of battery backup.  Solution:  make sure that the ups is large enough to carry the systems you are demanding it to carry for at least an hour.
• Lightning protection!  Put it on anything that might receive a surge from the power company.  Usually the units cost an additional 10% of the overall cost of the electronic hardware.  But if you have it installed when the hardware goes in, it could save your equipment.
• Ask to see if your hardware provider offers a lightning rider in their maintenance or warranty provisions.  Most do not and often the costs exceed the replacement costs of the hardware they protect.
• Just as important, check to see if you already pay an insurance premium for the electronic equipment in your office.  Severe storms that produce lightning happens  frequently during this time of year and if you have not talked with your insurance agent or the policy provider lately, take 10 minutes to insure they are still in business!  Many were sold during the year of 2009 and discovery of their survivability takes only a few phone calls.

Hopefully your lights don’t go out in Georgia this year, but if they do and you take the necessary steps now, your business should survive the crisis discussed in this article.

It has been stated that “nightmares may be upsetting, but they are not “real” and can’t harm you. And if you have one, you’re in good company” or are you?  Like all nightmares we see in office communications, it usually is caused because innocent, yet unsuspecting people make bad choices by NOT involving a communications professionals from the beginning.  This time, their nightmare even involved a complaint to the Georgia Public Service Commission.

Rottweiler, contracted to move a company’s communication system, we became involved in this nightmare and subsequent rescue of their business starting Monday with a never-ending set of issues as the customer moved from one location to another and from their current dial tone provider to a new dial tone provider. 

The nightmare started with porting numbers from one dial tone carrier to another.  What the customer did not know and subsequently impacted their cut-over was that the lines were not owned by the carrier who was releasing the numbers.  Years earlier this customer has subscribed to Birch Telecommunications which sold the same service at a lower rate than Bellsouth.  That was fine, but when they no longer wanted the total package of services with Birch aka Bellsouth they migrated part of the services over to Network Telephone which later sold to Cavalier Telephone.  So now you have Birch, Bellsouth (which is now known as at&t) and Cavalier.  So every telecom player in this story has merged or become part of another telecommunications company.  No current company wanted to communicate to either, the dial tone salesman was on vacation and all left the customer with only Rottweiler to defend their interests.  Oh and the story does not end there…

When the port was authorized, part of the numbers ported to the new service carrier and part were left behind!  With who?  You guessed it, the “new” global at&t!  We spent the next 6 hours on the phone pounding out calls to every at&t number you could get and personally I was so tired of hearing “thank you for calling the new at&t” I could scream!  Every possible number I called and subsequently person we engaged said they could not help us and transferred the call to another person who could not help us or the now down customer.  Calls to Cavalier Telephone did not produce any results either other than to say they refused to acknowledge that they even had the numbers until we produced the bill for the charges.  Their response was….oh (long silence), could you please hold on a few minutes.  That had to be a classic and this now required a new strategy.

Tuesday morning, we filed a PSC complaint on behalf of the customer and by 9 am had the PSC on the phone for followup.  By 11:30 we had Cavalier Telephone acknowledge that they needed to be engaged in the resolution and a hand-off to at&t that stated “we can’t help them” response.  We continued to engage the impact with at&t and finally by 3:30 had at&t involved in resolution.  This is one of those situations that if we had not engaged the PSC quickly this customer would have been out of business by Friday when they had to vacate the existing structure.

How this customer, and subsequently your business, can avoid a vulnerable situation such as this can be accomplished with little effort.

1. Engage a professional (like Rottweiler for example), to handle the moving of your voice & data services.  If you do not do this until move day, the vendors involved do not have the knowledge they will need to correct situations from happening to you.  Never assume that a dial tone carrier has your interest at heart.  A quality vendor is worth their weight in gold.
2. Have available current copies of all phone bills available prior to customer.  More often than not something is missed on cut-over day and then you are left with an after cut-over-cut-over.
3. If you can avoid the confusion of multiple dial tone carriers, do it!  Too many cooks in the kitchen ruin a good meal and in this case having several made everything confusing. 
4. If you sign long term contracts or you only engage the provider for the dial tone and Internet services, you are asking to receive what this customer got one BIG nightmare and subsequently a bill for the rescue!

I believe Life should be lived in such a way as to experience extremes along the way.  I have been fortunate to have seen a child born, had a picnic while sitting at the base of Mt. McKinley, had breakfast watching moose eat in the lake outside Many Glacier Lodge and stayed one night in the Ahwahnee Lodge watching Yosemite Falls out our window.  Yes, I have had some extremes in my life and this week was another.

Rottweiler has been flooded with requests for numerous security systems, telephone systems and card access requests for about a month now.  As businesses see improvements in their bottom line they now are willing to acquire that needed system or to invest in the replacement or upgrade to that existing system that they have needed for so long.  Outgrowing their ability to keep pace brings forward the realization that they must replace them putting a decision on the table. 

This phenominon has caused one of those extremes.  Wednesday started as any day does with the usual emails, appointment reviews and yes, my coffee.  But this day would prove to be one of those extremes that I mentioned earlier.  You see, what I did not know was that because of our reputation and business credentials this day was about to press me wide open and by the end of the day we would have agreements to install 6 different rather complex systems in one day, an event that I never have experienced in my lifetime.

Two card access systems, two security systems, one surveillance camera system and a 150 cat6 voice and data wire installation project all left me wondering how did we receive so much business in a day and each customer requesting installation as soon as we could schedule them.  This also posed two other issues that needed to be focused on almost immediately, supplies and talent.  A good estimate for this bundle of work would be approximately two technicians a full month and with technicians now in short supply acquiring the talent needed for these installations poses a challenge.  The ordering of material is routine, so I thought.  Unknown to me I had a hidden challenge.

The hidden challenge, the surge of system orders and the requests for material has caused product shortages.  Upon the placement of the materials needed for the installations it was disclosed to us that there is now a shortage of product needed for the installations.  Apparently manufacturing plants stopped producing product and started reducing inventory in 2009 due to a lack of purchases.  They in turn let go or laid off their workers and the inventory continued to deplete throughout 2009.  Now, due to the depletion of product on the shelf, there is now a growing shortage of available cable types.   To my surprise, the 26 boxes of Cat6 cable we need for one of these jobs is not even available in Atlanta.

So now my next challenge delivers to my door, six systems delivered in six weeks to customers waiting to receive training, now another extreme challenge.   And for you my friend, you definitely have to see some of the sites I mentioned earlier.  God has been good to me in allowing me to see such sites.

May 13th, just a day in the week and a member of the month.  Like other days at Rottweiler the day began with a cup of java and the usual e-mail reads.  Then the phone rings.  “Has the Samsung phone system arrived yet?  Our business is really unable to operate without the new equipment.”  she stated.  A call later with tracking number in hand, we can see that it will arrive shortly. 

Another call and the installation for the business security systemwill have to delay for an hour due to a delay of the customer stuck in traffic.  A call to the contractor coming in to assist lets him know that he can delay as well.  2 hours later both installer and contractor head to install the security system.  But before they leave, we receive a frantic caller asking if we can provide a fire system proposal?   It seems their general contractor had informed them that he needed to cover ceiling grid and the fire system needed to be prewired before they did.  This being true and after a brief explanation that fire systemstake longer in the bid process, a few calls later and we had prints and were working on getting them submitted to the Fire Marshall.

Amid the calls of “my browser will not find a page” and “how do you program speed dial on my phone?”  comes the usual calls of would you like to advertise in our magazine and is the office manager in.  By now it is a little after 10 and time to head off to the first service call of the day.  Prior to leaving the site we receive a call from a man that had seen the Channel 5 report on our Rottweiler Driving Coach © ™,  texting drivers and reasons why this device is so valuable.  He stated that he could see the importance of it and wanted to know how to become a dealer.  

After driving 30 minutes, customer is in and is completely unprepared to record the greetings required for their voice mail system.  We do what we can for them and address a few questions.  A short phone call later and system has arrived back at the office.  I called and re-routed a contractor for the pressed installation and drive back to the office to address email issues and off to the site. 

System installs flawlessly and after a small training class their business is up and running.   While finishing up this install in comes the call of a person who has had the appliances stolen from a new home they had just closed on.  After some questions, they asked could we install a security system in the next day.  After a little juggling of schedules and a couple calls later, contractor scheduled and ready for that installation.

Then the most troubling call of all.  This customer has an 88 year old mother who has a caretaker who he believes is abusing his mom.  She has Alzheimer’s and can not tell him what happened.  He a set of eyes over her care yet she has the bruises and had stitches the week before.  Now, with more than enough reasons, I informed him this was the reason we provide covert cameras in the home for elderly in home caretakers.  Within a short while, you will have your answer.  We scheduled the meeting and when I hung up the phone I wondered if others knew what we go through in a day here at Rottweiler.

We listen skeptically to the news these days which seems to always advertise crime is down, yet mysteriously the statistics stay the same.  Often they are followed by a forked tongue politician that does not have a clue.  We hear the same thing when it comes to the economy.  But if you are the 10% that is unemployed, your economy has not improved!  So what do you believe?  I can tell you that both Rottweiler and Centerpoint Digital Services, Inc. are seeing every indication that companies are hiring again and we are too.

About six weeks ago orders started coming in to add a telephone or computer needed for a new hire.  And we also received orders to install a few phone systems for one of the hiring agency companies we support.  A dozen calls later we started to realize that the economic situation appears to be improving.  Then came the flood, the flood of proposals!  Phone systems, camera systems, security systems, card access, wiring and the list goes on!  In all our years of doing business, I don’t think I have ever seen such a flood proposal requests come in all at any one time.  Each day working until 9 pm just to get them out.  To date we have quoted over 1 million dollars in quotes this year and sold more phone systems than in all of year 2009 and it is only the beginning of May!

To add to the upswing, Centerpoint Digital wants to hire two individuals.  We advertised for a sales manager early in the year, unfortunately posting this position has not generated that key individual yet.  We also are currently looking to hire someone that can set appointments, handle and close the quotes as they arrive and interact with customers for their communication or security needs.  If you know of someone that may fit either of these two categories, please have them contact us.

We also have had more wire, fiber and cabling requests this year due to the “Proposal Flood” we have experienced.  As companies position their work environment to different office space wire installation has to precede the move.  Usually this will take a few weeks lead time to insure proper wire installation and if you are Rottweiler customer, don’t forget to take advantage of the savings in the BACR program!

Depending on the installation, BACR customers usually save about 10% off of multiple installs but can save as much as 21%.  So if you would like to save your business some money on your move, become a Rottweiler Security customer.  You’ll be glad you did and Rottweiler Security has the only Mobile Security Solution on the market.

I hope your economy is improving but if you have not I want to encourage you.  Don’t give up and keep engageing businesses.  Since we already know they are starting to hire now is the time to keep your resume current and reengage your job hunt.  May God bless you in your job search!

Just when you think you have heard it all there is one more burglary story that really puts all the rest to shame and yesterday was no exception.  In came the phone call about the need for a security system, happens almost every day now and you expect the usual story of a home invasion when they happen.  This is usually followed with statements of ”they took my stuff and thank God we were not home when it happened.”  This one was different and I had to keep myself composed as I heard their testimony of events that had happened to them.

If they had taken the time to have a security system installed ahead of time, the conversation would have never happened.  Yes, their home was burglarized, their computers taken along with a few other personal items but what made this different was that they also stole their dog too.  It seems that they had a young poodle puppy in the home and before the thieves made off with their loot, they grabbed the dog on the way out.  I am sure they will miss fluffy as they were somewhat angry over the theft of the dog verses the loss of the data in the computer.  It reminded me of anther customer that called me over a dog incident early in 2009.

Early last year I received a call about a burglary that had taken place in Kennesaw and the caller asked for a security system for their neighbors home.  I asked why and they stated that their home, not the neighbor’s, was burglarized.  Intrigued I asked why then would you be calling for your neighbors and not your home.  Their statement, “we have a dog and don’t need one.”  I said, “But yours was the home that was burglarized!”  She said yes, but our dog is usually home.  When our home was broken into our dog was away with the other home owner.  Now what do you say to that!

I am not sure sometimes on what planet some folks are on some days.  It would seem to me that most would be concerned about a fire starting in your home, carbon monoxide too high, broken water pipes, air conditioner theft or some other event that is much worse than death but I see now that making sure fluffy is not stolen is also now a concern.  Crime always changes here in the Metro Atlanta area. 

So, to insure identity of your pet should they be stolen (or lost for that matter), you will need to micro chip installed.  This device is the size of a small grain of rice and technically you should have this installed as soon as your vet recommends it.  We do not do this service, nor have any plans to do so.  Call your vet as they probably already have them.  This way if the cat burglar steals your dog too, you will have the means to identify your dog.