Kevin Meagher, General Manager (Europe) at RSPNDR, reveals all about ‘the company using the Uber model for alarm response’.

Tell me a bit about you and your background?

I specialise in Cloud based interactive services and have worked in both the US and UK to launch a range of new security systems.

On one of my projects, I met the CEO of RSPNDR and he explained how fast their new Uber-like alarm response service was growing in Canada.

I thought it was a great idea that could help address many challenge the UK security industry face and before I knew it, I was hooked and agreed to help launch the business in Europe.

Who is the RSPNDR system for and how does it work?

The easiest way to think about us is ‘Uber for mobile response’.

We have a Cloud platform that links into a monitoring station, so they dispatch guards to alarm events with the click of a button.

We also have a network of guard companies across the country and their officers carry our app so we can see their location.

When we get a dispatch, we quickly identify the nearest available guard, pass them details of the event and direct them to the property so they can check it and report.

This approach removes significant cost and speeds up the entire guard response process.

This new response service is ideal for small business and residential customers that really can’t justify police or traditional keyholding costs.

Why is your business model different?

It is very different in terms of price, speed of response, and ease of adoption.

We typically charge an installer less than £1 a week for a domestic customer with small businesses starting at just £2/week.

This subscription covers the cost of up to two call-outs per annum and if we are not on site in 30 minutes, the call out is free.

Installers can mark this up when selling their bundle to their customer.

In effect, we run an insurance model with each customer paying a small premium to cover the cost of responses.

We think everyone wins with this model.

More affordable response services will generate new sales which in turn give ARCs and installers a new revenue stream.

How does this fit with traditional police and keyholding options?

I think we can fill a big gap in the UK market by making monitoring and response more attractive and affordable for customers.

Linking alarms to RSPNDR rather than the police will save installers money but still deliver a quality service.

Traditional keyholding should be largely unaffected by us as they service a niche market with larger businesses that need key management and can afford the cost.

How do you see the market evolving over the next year?

The disruption with public switched telephone network (PSTN) could be significant because customers will need to upgrade their systems and this will be a big hit on their wallets.

I think wrapping our service into upgrades will act as a sweetener that will make this easier for installers to sell and customers to swallow.

Obviously, increased competition will continue to drive change and we think we can help installers challenge the bigger brands that offer guard response in their bundles.

This article was originally published in the April Edition of Security Journal United Kingdom. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.