AvantGuard Monitoring Centers

Central station monitoring is a service most alarm dealers would otherwise have to build themselves, and AvantGuard Monitoring Centers sells it to them on a wholesale basis. It runs staffed stations that take signals from a dealer's customers and dispatch help, so that an installation company can offer round-the-clock monitoring without operating its own center. The company belongs to the Becklar group, and its own site now directs visitors to a monitoring page on the Becklar website.

Wholesale monitoring for installers

The company describes itself as a premier provider of wholesale, or third-party, monitoring. Its pitch to installers is cost and simplicity: fewer staff, less equipment and no need to invest in a second central station. It positions its stations as able to handle any event at any hour, and it says it adds redundancy to a dealer's service because alarms can be handled across more than one station.

What gets monitored

Core work covers burglar alarm, smoke and carbon dioxide detector signals from homes and businesses across the United States. It also monitors personal emergency response devices, using a process it calls streamlined for assessing a situation and sending help. Beyond security, fire and personal response, the company has extended its systems to environmental sensors and crash detection technology, and it notes that monitoring of connected devices keeps growing. It also describes video verification, meant to cut false alarms and discourage crime at residential and commercial properties through interactive video monitoring.

Cloud automation for dealers

The company supplies cloud-based automation software to its dealers. Features it lists include automated action plans, personalized scripts, programming interface extensibility and receiver-less signals. The idea, in its words, is to reduce a dealer's technology spending and to give a dealer's own central station the option of cloud monitoring with backup capacity.

Integrations and dealer resources

The site stresses integrations with the platforms dealers already use, and the older text mentions a smooth link with Alarm.com. A pricing calculator on the site lets a dealer estimate costs from the number of alarms received per day. A resource center carries articles, webinars, guides, a glossary and a help center, plus industry news and a mobile app download.

Who it is for

The customer is the alarm company, not the end user: security dealers of varied size that want monitoring support and a partner to handle questions. The company makes its own claims about quality and says its aim is to protect property and give peace of mind, but those are its statements and not an independent assessment.