Alertacall - Moving on from hard-wired alarm and warden call systems

This functionality meets the challenge that housing providers have traditionally had communicating with residents about routine and important issues because it is time consuming for housing officers to distribute information and impractical in emergencies. The technology allows housing providers to see which residents have received and read messages. The communication features of Housing Proactive include: • Daily contact available 365 days a year • Occupancy tracking for fire-safety and planning • Notifications of meetings and consultations • Changes of personnel e.g. housing officers • Notifications of visitors such as trades people on site • Asking residents to test smoke alarms • Providing warnings of bad weather • Emergency messaging such as power cuts • Maintenance and repairs updates • Changes to contact centre or repairs line opening hours More details are available at www.alertacall.com/housing High quality door entry systems Many hard-wired alarm and warden call systems included a “door entry” button, integrated in to a door entry system from the same manufacturer at the entrance to the building. This enables residents to unlock/ open the front door of the building to allow visitors inside. Whilst this singular approach might have been seen as “easier” at the time, it has in fact resulted in housing providers making significant compromises compared to modern alternatives. On that basis many housing providers and their residents would benefit from removing their hard-wired alarm and warden call system, where they have embedded door entry systems - and replacing them with a high quality door-entry system from a specialised manufacturer, which have greater capabilities and much lower running costs. A separate service, like Housing Proactive from Alertacall, can then be used for servicing the needs of the residents that works irrespective of property type. Door entry system manufacturers can provide low cost inexpensive handsets for door entry, videophones so that residents can see who is at the door, and even route door entry calls through to residents’ own telephones, mobile devices and in some cases tablet devices that can be provided to residents, all with greater functionality and lower running costs than a hard-wired alarm and warden call system. A quality hard-wired door entry system, whilst being materially better value and having lower running costs than a hard-wired alarm and warden call system - can also provide an “input” for smoke alarms in individual dwellings, and a route out to a monitoring centre, so that smoke alarms could continue to be monitored if the housing provider considered that important. Moving on from hard-wired alarm and warden call systems 8 www.alertacall.com