2021 Monitoring Center Award Winners Approach Challenges With Compassion

The winners of The Monitoring Association’s 2021 Monitoring Excellence Awards show that leading with your heart is just as important as leading with your mind.

Whenever a natural disaster or tragedy strikes, many invoke the words of popular children’s television host Fred Rogers, told to him by his mother: “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” For these Monitoring Center Excellence Award Winners, the helpers are in the central station, helping all the time, even when they’re off the clock.

In 2020 alone, despite the challenges created by COVID-19, Vivint — Monitoring Center of the Year (Enterprise) winner — and its employees raised more than $1.5 million during the company’s annual Charity Week in June.

Universal Atlantic Systems, Monitoring Center of the Year (SMB) winner, has an employee with multiple sclerosis who holds fundraising events to support the National MS Society. Workers at UAS have contributed more than $2,000 to support their coworker and their cause.

The award-winning personnel also go above and beyond in their job duties. During Hurricane Sandy, Deepak Bysani, Support Person of the Year representing Affiliated Monitoring, made careful decisions that allowed the central station to operate while being in the path of a super storm. His coworker, Diandra Dean, Operator of the Year winner, stayed on the phone with a distressed elderly subscriber after a fall, reassuring the customer and talking about current events to calm them down.

Although the awards ceremony was virtual again due to COVID-19, the 2021 Support Person, Operator, Manager and Monitoring Center of the Year finalists and recipients serve as examples of those who passionately lead their teams, no matter their position in the company, with empathy and understanding.

Since 2006, The Monitoring Association (TMA) has recognized the top performers in monitoring with its Monitoring Center Excellence Awards (previously called the Central Station Awards).

The Excellence Awards, hosted by TMA and co-sponsored by SDM, recognize personnel and monitoring centers in the industry (both TMA members and non-members) that are certified by an approved Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL), such as UL, FM Global and Intertek/ETL.

This year’s TMA Monitoring Center Excellence Award winners are:

• Vivint, Monitoring Center of the Year (Enterprise)

• Universal Atlantic Systems (UAS), Monitoring Center of the Year (SMB)

• Jonathan Rainbow, Rapid Response Monitoring Services, Manager of the Year

• Diandra Dean, Affiliated Monitoring, Operator of the Year

• (Tie) Deepak Bysani Affiliated Monitoring; Michelle Quattrini, Rapid Response Monitoring Services, Support Person of the Year

To learn more about the TMA Excellence Awards program and past recipients, visit www.sdmmag.com/TMA-Monitoring-Center-Excellence-Awards or www.tma.us. Award applications open at the beginning of each year and the final deadline is in early spring.

Vivint was previous awarded Monitoring Center of the Year in 2017 and 2012. According to Amy Becht, director of monitoring and customer solutions, the company looks back over its previous applications when it’s eligible to apply again.

“It’s amazing to see how we have evolved and innovated over that period of time since the last application,” she says. “So not only does the award acknowledge excellence, I think the pursuit of the award continually drives excellence year over year.”

It’s this continual pursuit of excellence that has led Vivint to be awarded Monitoring Center of the Year again for 2021.

The excellence begins with training. New hires participate in a comprehensive 15-week training program. To ensure mastery and prevent information overload, only one alarm type is taught in the first two weeks. Trainees then learn other alarm types during the remaining weeks of the program. During floor training, all alarms handled by a new monitoring specialist are reviewed by floor coaches.

According to Becht, innovation starts in the central station.

“The baseline is being brilliant at the basics, meaning consistently hitting key metrics for a stable environment,” Brecht says. “When we do that, it frees up the team to innovate, push the operation to new levels of performance, and implement tools to get smarter, work smarter and enhance the customer experience.”

Vivint adopted its disaster plan in 2010, and reviews and updates it every six months. It includes provisions for using its two central stations if one becomes incapacitated, and protocols for when a specific state or region is affected by a disaster. But COVID-19 was an event that impacted both central stations simultaneously.

During COVID-19, the company worked closely with UL to implement new work-from-home monitoring guidelines, and created resources for employees, like trainings on how to promote leadership in a remote setting. Employee health was a priority even before the pandemic; the company provides an onsite medical clinic for its employees and their families to get healthcare, and counseling services through its Employee Assistance Program.

“We created resources at the Vivint clinic for COVID-19 testing and mental health support,” Becht says. “We also did regular survey check-ins across the organization, just to stay close to how everybody was doing at a high level.”

Employee morale is a large part of the Vivint ethos. The company’s bonus incentive program centers around HOME, which stands for Honest, Outstanding, Measured and Engaged. The incentive program rewards outstanding performance, with both a formal and informal recognition program.

“There’s a range of awards, from pictures on the wall with other winners to gift cards, or even special lunches that we do with management,” Becht says. “We all acknowledge the work of our team members through a weekly report to the company that highlights customer testimonials.”

Although central station operators are often the first line of defense to prevent a false alarm call, Vivint customers have the ability to request dispatch or report a false alarm through the text communication and Vivint app. This feature allows operators to take the appropriate actions much faster, instead of having to call the customer to determine whether it is an actual emergency or a false alarm.

Vivint avoids 6,400 unnecessary dispatches per day due to customers’ ability to report false alarms through the Vivint app, and an average of 650 unnecessary dispatches because of the text messaging feature.

According to Becht, customer education has also been imperative in reducing the number of false alarms.

“Customers generating a high number of false alarms will receive an auto email with helpful tips on how to prevent false alarms as well as additional education regarding their system,” she says.

The company also innovates in the alarm space through its Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro and the Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro. With the Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro, the customer chooses the area of their property they want to protect by defining a surveillance zone. The camera is designed to intelligently detect people within this zone, not pets or passing cars. The camera’s AI determines if someone is a lurker based on how long they remain on the property, a customizable setting that ranges from one to 90 seconds. The camera will then deter any lurkers with a red light and a warning tone. Similarly, the Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro will intelligently detect a package and actively monitor porches. If someone attempts to steal a delivery, it will activate its deterrent features: a flashing red LED light ring and a warning tone to alert the person that they have been spotted.

“They really move beyond simply recording crime to actually helping prevent it,” Becht says.

The company’s dedication to service goes outside the central station. To date, more than 50,000 Vivint volunteers have traveled more than 25 million miles to donate 250,000 service hours. Vivint and its employees also have raised more than $21 million to help those in need.

“Helping people is really core to our DNA of Vivint,” Becht says. “It really all comes back to that anchoring value of helping people.”

As CEO of Universal Atlantic Systems, Scott Elkins doesn’t believe that other monitoring centers are competition. Rather, they serve as inspiration.

“The minute you stop learning is the minute you’re really stifling your organization’s success and your organization’s growth,” he says “By learning what some people are doing, I don’t believe in any way, shape or form that it negatively impacts our company or theirs. I think it has the ability to raise both.”

With an “always learning” mindset, UAS proves that local stations can do big things with its first time win in the new Monitoring Center of the Year (SMB) category.

This democratic approach to learning starts in the central station. Dispatchers have access to UAS’ Central Station Wiki, which is a depository of central station knowledge, including panel programming manuals, alarm handling instructions, raw data guides, receiver information, training videos and weekly training tips.

Ongoing training initiatives include various contests, where dispatchers are presented with situations like, “What does this raw data code mean?” and “Fix this account.” The contests allow UAS to gauge trainee knowledge in a fun, creative way while preparing them for emergencies.

“During emergencies, this is the type of thing that you need your dispatchers to do,” Elkins says. “We make sure to not only provide that training, but also make it fun.”

The company utilizes technology to reduce false alarms, but for accounts that have a high number of false activations, UAS assigns an employee to reach out to each account and talk to the customer about how they can collectively reduce alarm counts.

“All the technology in this industry is great, and it works tremendously well in reducing false alarms,” Elkins says. “But there’s nothing quite as impactful as a phone call from someone at UAS directly saying to a customer, ‘I understand that you’ve had false activations, let’s figure out why those activations are happening.’”

With commercial customers making up 99 percent of UAS’ customer base, taking that time to reach out to a customer is important, since there’s constant training and refreshing of information due to new management and employees.

“It's simply a commitment to maintaining that level of interaction with our customers and making sure their needs are met,” he says.

The company completely revamped its disaster plan in 2020. In order to comply with work-from-home standards set by UL, every dispatcher was equipped with a laptop, monitors, phone and a secure VPN in their homes. UAS was one of the first companies to have been part of the remote UL audit, and was asked to give the auditor feedback on the process to help other central stations with their work-from-home transition.

In fact, weeks before a state of emergency was declared in Pennsylvania, UAS was already transitioning its employees to working from home.

Although some in the industry would say the work-from-home transition was a challenge, Elkins saw it as a learning opportunity.

“The entire industry had an opportunity to go learn in real time,” Elkins says. “We had an opportunity to use the UAS core value, which is simply operating with maximum integrity across all of our constituents, our employees, our customers and the extended UAS family. We made sure during the pandemic that we took care of all of our employees.”

That philosophy was already embedded in the company culture. When employees start working at UAS, they’re immediately engaged in a variety of events at the company. And, according to Elkins, that doesn’t stop when first shift ends.

“We make sure that the second shift and third shift get to participate in [company celebrations],” he says. “It’s very important to make sure that a third shift dispatcher has as close to a UAS experience as a first shift dispatcher, or really anybody in the company.”

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, UAS allowed its employees to volunteer during work hours, allowing eight hours of paid time when volunteering for local organizations like the Friends Association for Care and Protection of Children, Safe Harbor of Chester County, and Meals on Wheels of Chester County.

The initiative was incredibly popular among employees, with a significant percentage of staff taking part.

“It helps to keep that institutional value passed down from longer tenured employees to newer [employees],” Elkins says.

According to Elkins, the personal and professional growth at UAS gives its employees something more than clock-in, clock-out employment.

“We say here at UAS, ‘While UAS may not be a great place for a job, it’s a terrific place for a career,’” he says. “If you come to UAS as a dispatcher, you can walk throughout the rest of the building … and see 100-plus other employees, many of which actually started in the monitoring center.”

Jonathan Rainbow Was Central to Rapid Response Monitoring’s Coronavirus Leadership Task Force

Jonathan Rainbow uses a bit of Disney magic every day when working out of Rapid Response Monitoring Services’ Syracuse, N.Y. office, thanks to his Disney Institute Employee Engagement certification.

“Disney Institute is a part of everything you would assume is Disney,” he says. “It’s basically best practices, as told by Disney in all their years of experience.”

As director of operations, he has created new onboarding practices for hires, provided mentorship opportunities and has established town hall meetings between the central station and operations teams — no magic wand needed.

Additionally, he developed and implemented an employee incentive program that rewards employees based on quality of service rather than productivity or efficiency.

“That is something that we take a lot of pride in,” he says. “You don’t just have one winner every month or one winner a year. Everybody is receiving recognition for what they’re doing. I’ve enjoyed seeing that grow since we revamped it.”

His greatest feat, however, was implementing COVID-19 work plans. He ensured all safety guidelines were adhered to throughout the pandemic with consistent messaging — which was incredibly important when guidelines changed almost weekly. He also built different processes and a tracking system for testing and contract tracing; quantifying time lost due to COVID-19 leaves and a process for daily employee temperature screenings.

“It was probably one of the more challenging scenarios or circumstances I’ve ever run into,” he says. “The first part of the challenge was, how do you create a safe and comfortable work environment in the middle of a worldwide pandemic? The second side of that was, once you got to … a cruising altitude, where you’ve got your temperature checks in place; you have social distancing in place; you have your mask policy in place; how do you manage the staff? How do you build those same relationships when you can’t be next to them?”

Rainbow’s dedication shows through his actions and words. During the Monitoring Excellence Awards ceremony, he thanked his team. In fact, he doesn’t consider this honor an individual award, but more so a reflection of the entire Rapid Response Monitoring group.

“The first thing that I thought of was, ‘Wow, this is a great recognition for our team,’” he says. “Because I wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for them.”

Diandra Dean Helps Colleagues Feel Comfortable in the Workplace & Reach Their Full Potential

Along with serving as a monitoring specialist and team lead at Affiliated Monitoring, based in Union, N.J., Diandra Dean also organizes a potluck around Thanksgiving and organizes the birthday celebrations in the office.

This keeps employees’ bellies full, but it also boosts team morale in the office, which allows them to work better as a team, she says.

“Making employees feel comfortable in the workplace allows them to focus on the job at hand and not be preoccupied with what is going on around them,” she says. “This leads to better outcomes for everyone. Having happy colleagues who enjoy working here allows them to reach their full potential.”

This sense of togetherness also helps create a welcoming environment, she says.

“Our monitoring family knows that they will not experience the friendly, caring team atmosphere we can offer at Affiliated Monitoring anywhere else,” she says.

Along with TMA operator training, Dean has focused on IT technology in her education, receiving a network systems administration certificate from ITT Technical Institute in 2006 and an associate’s degree in applied science – desktop support and network administration from San Jacinto Community College in May 2019.

“There are multiple situations, both with customers and in the station with employees, where my IT background has helped to troubleshoot and problem solve,” she says. “Even if I am not super familiar with a particular product, my IT training has helped me to think and act analytically.”

She says great customer service skills, from staying patient on the phone, to controlling not just your emotions but the situation at hand, are important attributes to have as a monitoring center operator. She not only talks the talk, but walks the walk: Dean once assisted an elderly subscriber who experienced a serious medical emergency from a fall and stayed on the phone with her until help arrived.

It’s this ability to help, she says, that makes her job rewarding.

“I enjoy my job; and knowing that I can have such a big impact on the lives of our customers is truly gratifying,” she says.

Being recognized for her dedication to customer service makes her feel acknowledged at Affiliated and in the monitoring industry as a whole.

“It is [great] knowing that the years of service and dedication to Affiliated have not gone unnoticed,” she continued. “I am proud of how far I have come and look forward to my continued growth.”

Despite Serving in Different Departments at Separate Companies, Michelle Quattrini & Deepak Bysani Share a Deep Commitment to Ensuring Smooth Operations

They say two is better than one, and the winners of this year’s Support Person of the Year Award are a perfect example.

Michelle Quattrini first worked at Rapid Response Monitoring Services during college as a data entry representative. She graduated college in 2009 with a degree in music education — “a terrible time to graduate with a degree in music education” due to the recession — so she decided to stay at Affiliated.

“The longer I stayed in the company, and the more that I learned about the industry, the more I enjoyed what I was doing,” she says. “I just decided to make a career out of it.”

Her current position is a hybrid role: she works with some dealers exclusively, but she also uses her education experience to help with training in different departments.

“I just love being able to help solve problems and make a customer experience better,” she says. “Internally, I am in a position now where I'm able to coach and train our department. So with my experience, I can identify those areas where we need more coaching and training and really just provide the tools necessary to provide that higher level of customer service to our dealers and end users.”

She hasn’t given up music, however. She is a member of the Camillus Community Band and works as the music and drill coordinator for Auburn High School.

“Music for me is just a huge stress reliever,” she says. “It’s nice to just go home and hang out with these marching band kids who I genuinely love. They’re my family.”

As the director of information technology, Deepak Bysani is responsible for maintaining alarm receivers, Affiliated’s automation system, its telephony platform and its computer telephone integration, all of which are integral parts of operating the monitoring center.

“My golden rule for 100 percent uptime is redundancy, redundancy and redundancy with automatic failover of services,” he says. “Being on call 24/7/365 can add pressure; and even after years with Affiliated, there is always a small pinch of nervousness when we get a call on an issue. But we are very lucky here at Affiliated that our infrastructure is more or less bulletproof.”

Bysani isn’t fazed by pressure. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped get more than 300 laptops configured for work-from-home operations while assisting with training, procurement and delivery of equipment. During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Bysani made careful choices that allowed Affiliated’s facility to operate with minimal disruptions, despite being in the path of the super storm.

“Being a technical person, I’m very happy to be involved in this challenging, highly redundant area of the security industry,” he says. “I enjoy being able to be innovative when providing unique and robust technical solutions.”