Reading through this year’s winners and runners-up for the 2025 TMA Excellence Awards, you may notice some common threads: namely, each of these monitoring centers, managers, operators and support persons are passionate about the mission of protecting their customers. Not only that, but they are advocates of technology advancements and industry standards such as AVS-01, ASAP to PSAP and the use of AI to enhance their performance, decrease false alarm rates and offer the best customer service.

It isn’t just about the job. From the winning monitoring centers down to the support person of the year, they all recognize that this industry is at its heart about people — those that they protect, and those they work with. These outstanding companies and individuals care just as much about their employees’ mental health, preparation and career growth, and have put in place real efforts to grow their businesses inside as well as out.

For 19 years, SDM has proudly sponsored the TMA Excellence Awards, honoring monitoring centers and exceptional professionals who demonstrate the highest standards of performance and contribute meaningfully to the advancement of the monitoring industry. This year’s nominees, finalists, and winners exemplify the deep commitment this industry holds in its mission to safeguard life and property.

In late April, the final awards were presented in each of the following four categories:

• Monitoring Center of the Year
  • SMB (up to 40,000 accounts)
  • Enterprise (40,001 or more accounts)
• Monitoring Center Manager of the Year
• Monitoring Center Operator of the Year
• Monitoring Center Support Person of the Year

The following stories of the finalists and the winners in each category were drawn largely from their award submissions (which were then judged by in independent panel of monitoring professionals). These accounts reveal an unwavering commitment to continuous improvement, and, yes, excellence. Their innovative approaches to monitoring serve as both inspiration and a source of practical insight for the monitoring industry.

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.

Affiliated Monitoring operates two fully connected redundant monitoring centers: one in New Jersey (pictured) which was built in 2012 and most recently updated in 2021; and the other in Houston, renovated in 2017 to meet the company’s stringent requirements. Image courtesy of Affiliated Monitoring

Affiliated Monitoring believes that exceptional service begins with exceptional training. For new monitoring center operators their journey begins with a six-week training program culminating in a requirement to pass the TMA Level 1 Operator certification test. This is followed by ongoing training and education, coaching and performance assessments.

The company says it has developed one of the most rigorous and effective training programs in the industry, noting in its application: “Since implementing our interactive Learning Management System (LMS) in 2016, we’ve revolutionized the way we train new hires and provide ongoing professional development. By combining advanced e-learning tools with hands-on instruction, we deliver a comprehensive, structured, and results-driven training experience that sets our team apart.”

Five-Diamond certified since 2005, Affiliated’s monitoring centers — one in New Jersey and another in Houston to ensure uninterrupted service in the event of weather, power outages and other disasters

To achieve this, Affiliated leverages solutions such as business intelligence — utilized by its Data Analytics Team to discover actionable insights that optimize performance — as well as AI to help identify patterns and forecast operational needs.

“At Affiliated Monitoring, we don’t just embrace cutting-edge technology — we use it to lead the industry, elevate our service, and stay ahead of the competition,” the company wrote in its application.

This attitude also extends to the issue of false alarm reduction, which the company is committed to minimizing across its operations that encompass all 50 states and Canada.

In 2016, the company launched AlertMessage, a text-based customer notification and response system that has since been adopted by the vast majority of its dealers. Version 2.0 of AlertMessage was released in 2022 to allow seamless texts from any mobile device, improve adoption and further reduce false alarm rates.

Affiliated also actively promotes the use of video verification technology, with a dedicated technical support team ready to help dealers implement these solutions.

The company’s HEART team (high and excessive activity reduction team) has worked with dealers since 2015 to help eliminate more than 28 million unnecessary signals and prevent more than 1.6 million false alarms — and has earned the company’s “Rock Star Department of the Year” award multiple times over the years.

“At Affiliated, we’re not just responding to alarms — we’re actively shaping the future of false alarm reduction through cutting-edge technology, expert-driven strategies, and relentless innovation,” the company wrote on its application. “And as a supporter and user of both ASAP to the PSAP and the AVS-01 Alarm Validation and Scoring standard, we are working with our industry partners to support ECCs and response agencies at a time of limited budgets and staffing resources.”

Affiliated was one of the first wholesale professional monitoring companies in the country to implement the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP) to PSAP, and remains actively committed to ongoing technology refreshes that will help drive further adoption. The company also continues to work closely with TMA on this program to help advocate for the expansion of the technology to new jurisdictions, working closely with AHJs, PSAPs and local policymakers to get the word out about the benefits of automated dispatching.

Since 2024 Affiliated has also implemented the AVS-01 alarm scoring system for applicable alarm dispatches and is proud to have played a role in helping to shape the standard as a participant in the AVS-01 development committee.

Beyond technology, Affiliated serves its community, promoting causes such as food insecurity, supporting adults with disabilities and mentoring local students. Recently the company supported two students throughout their high school years, helping them move on to college.

The company also seeks to foster a positive employee culture, frequently promoting from within, as well as highlighting individual successes with a multi-level awards program — from monthly milestones like employee anniversaries to quarterly and spontaneous awards. Because “great work should never go unnoticed.” The company also offers a host competitive benefits and perks and premium pay for weekends and overnights.

“This award belongs to every member of the Affiliated team,” says Daniel Oppenheim, CEO. “It reflects our continued commitment to combining technological innovation with genuine care for our partners and their customers. Seven years after our first TMA Excellence Award, this recognition confirms that our focus on professionalism, advanced technology, and superior customer service continues to set the standard in our industry.

“This recognition from TMA affirms our relentless commitment to being the best provider of life safety monitoring services in the industry.”

As a Sonitrol franchise, Kimberlite-Sonitrol specializes in verification. Its central stations (one primary and one fully redundant) rely on various streams of information, including both audio and video, to verify what is truly happening at a site when a call comes in.

But verification technology is only as good as those using it understand how to use it, which is why the company’s training is both extensive and ongoing.

This begins even before hiring: All potential operators go through a screening process that includes a skills assessment, typing assessment (to ensure accuracy for record keeping purposes) and a critical thinking assessment. Potential dispatchers are told up-front the training process will be six to eight weeks before they are independently assessing calls.

Once a candidate is hired, the immersive onboarding process goes through the company history, the employee ownership culture (Kimberlite-Sonitrol is an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP) and the company’s mission to protect the communities it serves. A training coordinator is assigned to each new employee and will be their personal guide through the entire process.

During week one they learn how to focus their attention and how to validate and respond to alarms. Week two is spent shadowing a busy day shift, learning how to monitor alarms, test and troubleshoot systems and respond to customers. All of Kimberlite-Sonitrol’s trainers were operators themselves and were promoted to trainers after years of exceptional performance.

The first three weeks cover standard operating procedures, as well as the difference in audio, as all of the alarms come in with audio as a Sonitrol dealer.

“This Audio integration means that our new hires don’t just have the challenge of training their minds, they also have to train their ears to detect the differences in sounds,” the company wrote in its application.

After the first three weeks, the new hire graduates to a regular shift and will work closely with a trainer for the next two to four weeks until they are ready to become a full dispatcher. Even after that, for the next 60 days they are placed on a console directly in front of their shift supervisor with their trainer on a data support console behind them.

“A large part of our training philosophy is to ensure that our new hires have all the possible tools they could need to be set up for success,” the company wrote.

Training is equally important for the customers to make sure they are using the system correctly and annual onsite inspections to repair any devices causing false alarms, update maps, review the call lists and verify site conditions.

The company wrote: “While we can’t prevent every false alarm, we have maintained our focus to tackle decreasing our false dispatches. … False alarms are danger to our communities. False alarms can also lead to a sense of fatigue and distrust with law enforcement, which can create a situation where law enforcement safety is compromised. On average, we have decreased from a 9.5 percent false dispatch rate to an 8.7 percent false dispatch rate. What’s even more impressive about the hard work of our central station is that they accomplished this while we continued to grow.”

While the ultimate goal is zero, the company is particularly proud of the progress it has made so far, given the challenges the industry faces when it comes to false alarms.

With an average of 261,000+ signals per week, with more than 109,000 of those requiring operator intervention, this was no easy feat. Operators handle about 1,800 in-bound and 6,200 outbound calls per week.

Kimberlite-Sonitrol invests heavily in their employees from the start and the company also takes pains to recognize them for their efforts, with three key employee recognition and referral programs. Existing employees are paid a bonus once someone they refer completes their training, when they complete 90 days and when they have been with the company for a year. This motivates employees to recruit quality candidates and also invests them in those candidates’ success. There is also a peer award for central station excellence and service awards for milestone years.

Kimberlite began as a local company and is still heavily invested in its community and culture, participating in at least one community event per month per branch. As a 100 percent employee-owned company, every member of the team is invested in the success of the company and its mission.

“This ownership culture led to our leadership team developing an AVS-01 in house training to support our verification efforts and support law enforcement as this is adopted,” the company wrote.

“We are humbled and honored to receive this recognition,” says Joey Rao-Russell, Kimberlite-Sonitrol president and CEO. “We began over 50 years ago with a mission to provide world class customer service and ensure safer communities. Our team has lived this mission for over 50 years, specializing in verification. Though technology has changed, our dedication to being a partner with law enforcement to create safer communities and provide our customers peace of mind has never faltered.”

Shari Wilson brings 41 years of experience to her role as director of customer care and monitoring at ADT. Beginning her career at Multimedia Security as a monitoring operator, she moved up through the ranks and was promoted to monitoring director when the company was acquired by Protection One. Her career continued to move into more senior roles until ADT acquired Protection One and she was appointed director of monitoring, overseeing a much larger operation and leading the integration of both companies’ monitoring services.

In her current role, Wilson helps shape the strategies and operations that drive ADT’s success in monitoring services and ensures that each team operates efficiently and lives up to the highest industry standards and customer satisfaction. She holds multiple industry certifications and has also completed ADT’s Inclusion, Diversity and Belonging training as well as the AVS-01 Alarm Verification Standards training.

Moreover, she has brought what she learned to her team. As a champion of mental health and wellness, Wilson introduced a resiliency training program to help operators gain essential self-care tools for handling distressing emergency calls. This program became the highest-rated training component in the organization. In 2024, Shari led training for the AVS-01 UL Certification, which was successfully granted on the first attempt.

She also created a “customer experience workshop” for her team, an intensive program where agents perform self-assessments by reviewing their own customer interactions.

These efforts and many others have led to a monitoring center environment where continuous improvement isn’t just encouraged but expected. By connecting individual development to customer outcomes, Wilson has fostered a culture where agents understand the impact of their growth on both personal career advancement and organizational success. Wilson’s theme for 2024 was “elevate.” She inspired her team to continuously improve performance and customer experience and challenged them to make each day, week, month, and year better than the one before, pushing everyone to reach new heights in their work and outcomes.

Wilson’s direct management team is one of the most tenured at ADT, averaging 20 years. An important part of her success lies in her commitment to developing young leaders.

The company wrote in its application, “She makes a point to spend meaningful time with each emerging leader, focusing not just on metrics, but on their personal growth and development. By doing this, she sends a clear message: ‘You matter, and your growth is important to us.’”

She also shows this in more concrete ways, like when she increased pay for emergency dispatch operators in 2024. She also focuses on recognition, sharing a monthly “life saver” story during the company’s town hall, highlighting a life-saving action from one of her operators.

Wilson is committed to technology advancements and exploring cutting-edge solutions. In 2024, she created test pilot groups for the capabilities of artificial intelligence. She also championed the adoption of the AVS-01 standard, working closely with her team and end users to get their feedback during the pilot rollout. She routinely tests new developments like AVS-01, the State Farm integration and other new offerings with her specialty team to refine and perfect it before performing a broader rollout.

Perhaps one of the best and most fun examples of her leadership style came when she set the “impossible” goal of achieving 100 percent call containment for her team. To motivate the team, Wilson promised to get a tattoo if they reached the goal. Over a year later her team achieved the goal and Wilson honored her commitment and got the tattoo.

The company wrote of the achievement, “For Shari, it wasn’t just about reaching the goal. It was about the journey, the teamwork, and showing that with dedication and collaboration, even the impossible can be achieved.”

Terrell King’s path to winning this award was anything but smooth. He began working at ADT as a technical support agent in 2005, but early on in his career faced a life-changing event when he was a victim of gun violence that left him a paraplegic.

The company wrote in its application, “It was a devastating moment that could have crushed his spirit, but Terell refused to let it define him. Instead of giving in to despair, he found a renewed sense of purpose. The tragedy that tried to diminish him sparked an even stronger determination to protect and serve others, fueling his passion for his work at ADT.

“Embracing life with newfound appreciation, Terell became a force of inspiration. He didn’t just overcome his challenges; he soared. His love for competition led him to wheelchair rugby, where he became an award-winning player, showing the world that limitations are only in the mind. His loyalty to his beloved Georgia Bulldogs is matched only by his unwavering support for his colleagues, always lifting them up when they need it most.”

In 2016, King transitioned to the role of emergency dispatch operator, showing his aptitude for high-pressure situations. His outstanding performance and leadership qualities were rewarded in 2021 when he was promoted to his current role as emergency dispatch operator support lead. In this role he manages alarm calls, provides guidance to both new and experienced operators, and leads team meetings to facilitate communication. He handles customer escalations, ensures alarm verification and response meet AVS-01 standards, and acts as a liaison between departments to enhance collaboration.

King consistently demonstrates exceptional customer service, technical expertise, and attention to detail while contributing to false alarm reduction and fostering a positive team environment.

In 2023, he earned the prestigious Circle of Excellence Award, ranking in the top 1 percent of employees based on KPIs. In 2024, he achieved a perfect 100 percent reliability score, reflecting his commitment to adhering to schedules and processes. King continually seeks opportunities to improve and exceed expectations. His excellence in customer service is evident in his ability to resolve complex inquiries, maintaining a 100 percent agent resolution rate.

This professionalism was on display in a call he received from a frightened customer who was experiencing repeated break-ins. Understanding the customer’s fear, King immediately tailored their alarm system to trigger responses for every signal, leaving no room for error. He took extra time to explain the panic button feature and made sure the customer knew how to quickly alert authorities in an emergency. He then tested the system to confirm its reliability.

The company wrote, “King’s personalized approach went beyond reassurance. He empowered the customer with the knowledge to take control of their security, shifting their mindset from fear to confidence. By optimizing their system, teaching them crucial features, and ensuring everything was in perfect working order, he provided the customer with the tools they needed to protect their property and feel secure. The call ended with a connection over shared love for University of Georgia football, further building trust and rapport.”

King is also an active member of ADT’s Disabilities and Black Business Employee Resource Group. The company described a presentation he gave recently for the Disabilities Employee Resource Group: “His insightful and inspiring message was so impactful that it not only boosted membership within the organization but also achieved the highest engagement of any speaker series in 2024. Terell’s ability to connect with others and share his personal journey made the event unforgettable, further strengthening the sense of community and inclusion at ADT. Every day, Terell’s energy and positivity prove that no matter what adversity life throws at you, the human spirit has the power to rise, inspire, and triumph.”

Michael Christatos received his bachelor’s degree in information technology and informatics from Rutgers University, which prepared him well to enter the security industry 11 years ago. Affiliated Monitoring hired him straight out of college, recognizing his potential. But while he started at the help desk, his managers quickly singled him out for the leadership track, putting him through a six-month immersion training that gave him hands-on experience in alarm monitoring, customer service and data entry.

Starting out as an alarm signaling and receiver operations analyst, Christatos has continued to rise up the ranks to his current role as senior manager of monitoring technology, which he has held for the past two years. In this role he is responsible for driving the technological innovation behind Affiliated’s monitoring operations, becoming an invaluable driving force behind Affiliated’s success, and continuously pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in monitoring technology.

One of Christatos’ standout achievements has been the development and implementation of Affiliated Monitoring’s STELLA omnichannel customer communications platform, which leverages AI-driven interactive voice response (IVR) to dramatically improve response times, enhance customer satisfaction, and optimize workflow efficiency. This innovation led by Christatos has helped transform the day-to-day experience for the company’s monitoring specialists. By automating tedious, low-value tasks such as handling test signals and reporting on low-priority alerts, STELLA has freed these specialists to focus on what truly matters — delivering rapid, high-quality assistance in critical situations.

As a manager and team leader, Christatos prioritizes keeping his team engaged, motivated, and continually developing. He fosters a culture of growth, ensuring his team members become well-rounded professionals capable of tackling any challenge Affiliated faces.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Michael played a critical role in adapting technology to support remote operators, ensuring seamless operations in a time of unprecedented uncertainty.

The company wrote in its application, “Michael’s performance can be summed up in one word: exemplary. He consistently exceeds expectations, taking on complex, high-impact projects that not only succeed but also drive meaningful advancements for Affiliated. His ability to anticipate industry trends, implement cutting-edge technology, and streamline operations has been instrumental in enhancing efficiency, improving customer experience, and strengthening our competitive edge.”

They added, “Christatos has an in an innate ability to anticipate challenges and opportunities before they arise, ensuring our organization stays ahead of the curve. Long before AI became a trending topic, Michael recognized its potential and spearheaded its integration into our operations. His relentless work ethic and forward-thinking mindset have been instrumental in Affiliated’s growth and success over the past decade. … Michael’s leadership in developing the STELLA platform stands as a defining achievement. This groundbreaking initiative revolutionized how we monitor alarms, delivering the single most significant improvement in efficiency and performance in our company’s history.”

Christatos said of his award, “I’m honored to receive this recognition, but it truly reflects the collaborative spirit of our entire team. At Affiliated, we’re constantly pushing the boundaries of what monitoring technology can achieve, all with the goal of providing better protection and service. This award motivates us to continue innovating for our partners and their customers.”