Ringing endorsement for alarm app

APP ALERT: Sarah Simmonds, a team leader at Alarm Watch, displays the phone app developed for the Wanganui firm.PHOTO/ STUART MUNRO 160715WCSMAPP1

A smartphone app developed in Wanganui is giving another Wanganui company an edge on its competitors.

Alarm Watch, which monitors security systems across the country from its Guyton St base, has had the app created for it by NZ Computing Solutions, a city business which itself is at the cutting edge of computer technology.

Wade Coneybeer, general manager of Alarm Watch, told the Chronicle the app allows their customers to directly interact and respond to alarm events without the monitoring staff having to call them.

"It means there is zero delay in the client getting a notification about potential intrusion and allows them to quickly change emergency contacts when going away," he said.

"Traditionally, if an alarm goes off it dials through to the monitoring centre and goes into a queue, depending on its priority. If you have a high-priority alarm it will go to the top of the queue. That's standard across the industry.

"We're still doing our job as we do normally, but if you've got your phone in your hand you can actually communicate with the monitoring centre. And it also lets people arm their alarm via their phone, no matter where they are in the world."

Mr Coneybeer said it was a function receiving growing attention in Auckland, Alarm Watch's biggest market.

"There are alarms that have apps, but they're expensive. Our app works with any alarm. It's a free add-on and the take-up has been huge."

He said Alarm Watch pursued the idea to give it a point of difference from its competitors because they needed to add value to their product. To get it, they hired NZ Computing Solutions in Wicksteed St to create the app for them.

"They're a clever bunch down there. I don't think many people know that there are people in Wanganui who can write apps."

Mr Coneybeer said there were other "exciting things" ahead for the company, but that detail remained under wraps at the moment.

"But our growth is ramping up, and that's only through the relationships we're constantly developing."

Alarm Watch monitors alarm systems across the country but another growth area has been its work as a call centre, answering phones for businesses that normally close their doors at 5pm.

Call centre staff are on duty 24/7 and at the busiest periods there will be 10 staff on duty.

"We're not a finished product. We're continually trying to innovate. It's the only way to grow the business and keep ahead.

"We put our growth down to employing the right people, because having a good product is only half the battle in business."

Mr Coneybeer said local people really had little idea about the company, the extent of its business "and especially the numbers of local people we employ".

"We're extremely proud of our growth and have taken a small company set up in the late 1980s to the point where we are the largest NZ-owned monitoring centre in the country."

He said growth had been a long process since taking over monitoring in 1999. Every year it had been a matter of attracting customers from other providers. In 2012 the staff numbered 25. Three years later that has increased to 43.

"In wages alone we're putting through $1.5 million a year into the Wanganui economy. But the thing is 90 per cent of our revenue is gathered from outside the city and mainly from Auckland," Mr Coneybeer said.