The Importance Of Having Your Monitoring Provider Accredited

CCTV, Security, Maintenance, Surveillance, Access Control, Remote Monitoring, Temperature Cameras, Watch Systems, Birmingham, Edgbaston, UK, West Midlands, Integrated Security, Bespoke Security, CCTV Maintenance, Access Control Maintenance, Intruder Alarm Maintenance, Intercom Maintenance, Gate Automation, Vehicle Barrier, Installation

It is incredibly important for your monitoring provider (ARC) Alarm Receiving Centre to meet strict and thorough requirements around, staff vetting, the physical security of the building and their service resilience procedures to reinstate services in the event of a catastrophic failure. To ensure these requirements are met, only use BS8484 accredited ARCs – This accreditation is the industry standard ensuring that there are many safe-guarding features such as air lock doors, ram-raid bollards and several other security measures to protect against a wide range of issues.

Here at Watch Systems Limited we are partnered with EMCS as our Alarm Receiving Centre.

EMCS have been awarded NSI Gold for intruder and fire alarm systems, are recognized by the SSAIB and are accredited to ISO9001-2008. They were also one of the first Alarm Receiving Centres to be accredited to BS8418 for CCTV monitoring.

The Alarm Receiving Centre is completely self-contained.

All of EMCS’ facilities are resistant to both physical attack and power failures, and in the extremely unlikely event of a main system failure, they are still able to provide a continuous, uninterrupted back- up service.

Only accredited ARCs are granted a Unique Reference Number (URN) by the UK police force. Call’s from these ARCs are prioritized by police as ‘Level 1’ emergencies and can significantly reduce response times. The ARC’s who are not accredited will have to go through the 999 system which can take longer as operators will need to verify the service required, the location and verify the call before it will be escalated. For more information on obtaining a URN please see our latest post here.

Please remember that not all those companies who claim to be BS8418 compliant are. There are providers who have not received the accreditation, these companies will not have gone through the same strict auditing processes – You should always ask to see a company’s certificates.

Please don’t hesitate contact Watch Systems Limited to find out more for your monitoring needs.