JasonOfOz

James, you are the second person to recommend HKC in recent weeks. What's so good about this system? The keypads look quite dated so there must be more that meets the eye. Is it graded? Does it has good functionality? (we normally signal using CSL Dualcom so it would be good to get your thoughts) Thanks.

Looks great breff!!

Hi Everyone, I have been asked to put together an ANPR solution for a car park but I can't seem to get a list of all the technology providers. All I seem to find is companies that provide parking control services (i.e. penalty notices) One of the primary requirements is for individual tenants to be able to log in remotely (ideally via a web portal) to manage the vehicle details for their own staff. As it's Xmas, the only other wish would the ability to put a maximum number of vehicles per tenant (as they are each allocated a set no. of spaces based on the size of their office) Failing all of that, can anyone recommend brands/software I should be looking into? ps. I know Vista / Nedap have systems but not sure if they are any good, so other suggestions would be useful Thanks in advance

wow yes - thanks for this - I haven't used these ones before - definitely worth having a look at. Yes well as it's near the lifts, one of them will be the final exit one. So can someone explain what the rule is on overlapping areas? Previously I thought by using a TMD would mean I would only need a single detector - now i understand that's not the case, so what is the point of a TMD?

That's a good idea. Mind you I tend to give lift companies a wide berth because they seem to have a license to print money when you ask for the simplest of things. Plus generally any wiring needs to be run from the lift motor room which is sometimes quite labour intensive. Hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised, so will ask the question. Thanks!

Hi Everyone, We have a clent's offices where the lifts open directly onto the office floor. I have put a dual tech detector across the front of the lift doors but need something else to give me a confirmed alarm. Has anyone got any thoughts/recommendations as to what to install onto lift doors? (Is there a contact that can be installed onto them?) Alternatively, could we just position a quad detector infront of the lift area (so that it doesn't overlap with the dual tech) to give us the confirmed if anyone steps beyond the area where the keypad will be located? Thanks

Police are stretched enough as it is - I really can't see why this is a feature for standard risk properties. I suppose it's all "perception" isn't it?

Hi Everyone, Just wondering why insurance companies ask for Level 1 Police Response as standard on many of their policy terms and conditions? I can't see how having it mitigates the risk of a claim occuring since intruders have no idea whether the system is on police or just keyholder response. Of course, is this just to encourage the client to ensure the alarm is installed by a reputable company that can request a URN? I am asking because most of our clients just have PC's and standard office equipment - nothing major like lots of cash/gold/diamonds etc. Thanks.

Not really sure where to post this but here goes. We've just had a heated debate in the office about whether or not Engineers should be offered a lunch allowance each day (£5). We have considered this quite a lot and it seems to make sense. Apparently since Engineers have no "fixed" work place, so they can be given lunch without any impact on tax (not sure if this is true but happy to be corrected). It would be great to get a straw poll on whether your employer pays for your lunch or if you are an employer, do you provide lunch to your staff? We would like to do this as it seems like the right thing to do but it would be great to get your views.

Amen to that!! (staring down the sharp end of a £15k investment) But then there's something called opportunity cost.... Realistically I don't think I could build a CASH replacement for less than £15k. The biggest downside I can see is that I can't get into it and start tweaking it to the way we want to use it (fair enough though). Does your in-house system take in all the alarms info from the ARCs as well as have tablet integration for the Engineers (which would be something else to code)?

We were tempted to do this - even within a Salesforce / SugarCRM framework but got too scared to do it because we're not software people and really don't have the time to be doing something that we're not pros at, even though the benefits of having something just for us is highly important - sometimes you need to sacrifice by focusing on what we're good at. We have built software in the past but never again - I guess we're not really good at managing these things. Plus if there are companies out there whose bread & butter is to do this every day of the week, we thought that they can't be that bad or they wouldn't be in business... Here's a question though, what did CASH and the other systems not do/provide, that you needed?

HI Everyone, I have been researching alternatives to CASH (Mentor RBS). Here is a list of my research so far - feel free to add / edit / comment. http://www.mentorbs.com/utcfs/Templates/Pages/Template-66/1,8070,pageId=75501&siteId=408,00.html http://www.pcdata.co.uk/html/alarm_master.html http://www.advancedfieldservice.com/industry_sectors.aspx http://www.connect2field.com http://www.redzebrasoftware.com/demo/ http://www.tesseract.co.uk http://www.myservicemanager.com/cctv-security/ http://www.pdasolutions.co.uk/index.php?q=faq ps. CASH's monthly fee seems high - has anyone had any experience of getting a discount on this? pps Please feel free to share with us any other tips/hints that you would consider now you are using the solution you have in place.

It saved me having to run cable under a solid floor (because by the time the Receptionist asked for the PTE on her desk, the hardwood floor was already laid). Actually was simply going to suggest she Remote Desktop onto the software to release but when checking with Paxton, the 1st line support engineer had heard about this app but never used it. He tried it and was thoroughly impressed himself. In fact. I ended up just emailing the link to the client and they installed it themselves saving our Engineers a visit and our Client's a call-out fee. Nice when we can find solutions like that for Clients - it makes them Client's of a lifetime How's that for an endorsement

This is an amazing little app. Thanks to whoever put it together!!

LOL ...

Agreed that London is horrendous when it comes to CC and parking in the west end. We've been thinking about electric vehicles (but that's another thread!) Thanks for everyone's thoughts. I think we all agree that a day rate is for a day. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he has it confused with a call-out rate or something.

Thanks Norman With manufacturers warranties extending beyond 2 years (and for some of the systems we install - up to 5 years) I think it would be unrealistic for clients to expect us to swap them out for nothing. Mind you I think it's fair that if we get charged, then so should the client.

Thanks everyone for weighing in on this! The part is definitely under manufacturers warranty (not sure if it is extended or not) so there is no charge/cost to us and therefore there should be no charge for thsi part to the client. However this part failing, nothing to do with either the way it was installed by us or the way it was used by the Client, has meant we need to send Engineers to identify, diagnose and resolve the fault. I'm pretty sure manufacturers won't pay for us to attend so it's just going to be us (and possibly the Client) who wears the cost of someone else's failure. Seems unfair! ps. I guess we could just ship the Client the part and suggest they either fit it themselves or pay us to fit it for them but that doesn't sit well either. I wonder what other industries do?

Hi Everyone, Would be great to get a cross section of views on this one... We installed a system for a client over 12 months ago. In that time they have not chosen to take out a maintenance contract. One of the parts failed but fortunately they are still covered under warranty and so the manufacturer replaced it. However by the time the issue was diagnosed and resolved, many hours passed and cost of labour became substantial. I am positive our client will be happy to pay for our expertise / time. Having a been a client myself, I was wondering whether or not I would be "happy" to pay, since the problem was down to faulty equipment not necessarily neglect (and even if a maintenance contract were in place, I doubt we would have found this particular problem). Sure we can deal with this through the T&Cs and "fine print" but we don't like to leave a sour taste in our client's mouth. Should the manufacturer wear the cost? After all it's their equipment? In this case we will charge since it is not under maintenance but it would be great to get your views. (If it were maintained then we would possibly provide the labour at cost) Thanks, Jason

ok..so the advice is to stick the wooden spoon where exactly??hehe Thanks for all your thoughts. We're probably not that harsh to not pay him at all but I understand your sentiments. A fair pay for fair work. I just don't like to be bullied into having to pay him if he has genuinely not worked the time as agreed. I'll certainly be more careful in future and get them to sign/agree the rate of pay so there's no confusion. I've even paid for his parking and congestion charge which we normally don't do for any other subbies but as they say, "give them an inch...." Thanks for all your comments and I hope others reading will also be able to get something out of this.

Thanks for all your comments so far. Surely there's got to be one person out there who believes this guy is in the right? (would love a balanced view) Perhaps I should offer to pay him a higher hourly rate than the pro-rata day rate (£16.25 per hr based on £130 day rate).

Yes it was verbal. Complexity is what is interpreted as "Day Rate". I thought that implied a full day. Obviously he didn't.

HI Everyone, Just wanted to get some advice from you all about your understanding about day rates. An electrician told me that his day rate was £130. He only turned up at 3pm and finished at the first site at 4.30pm. I then asked him to work on another site as we had time and I had work elsewhere anyway so would get the most of a day's work from him but he was unable to join me as he had a prior engagement. I then told him to just invoice me for the 2 hours (thinking £130 / 8 hours x 2 hours). Today I had a full day's work for him starting at 9am but he didn't arrive until 10am and then mentioned he needed to leave at 2pm for another appointment. Again I was only looking to pay for his 4 hours work since he left of his own accord. Tonight he has sent me a bill for £130 x 2 days. Is this right as I feel it seems unfair? If I had asked him to leave early due to lack of work then that would be different but he left of his own accord. What should I do? I feel bullied but if you think he's in his right to 2 full day's pay then we'll do the honourable thing. Thanks!