Covid changed our world…but it didn’t change our commitment to our customers’ security.
When the Covid-19 pandemic started to break in America, several central stations sent their operators home with laptops out of fear of an internal outbreak.  Operators would login to their central station’s automation and dispatch authorities from their homes. Because it happened so suddenly, it took several months for the industry standards to catch up.
Guard Tronic’s Regional Manager for Fort Smith (where our UL Listed / FM Approved Central Station is located), Jordon Brown, joined the Task Group for Underwriters Laboratories to adapt UL827, the standard for Central Stations, for global pandemics and other disasters. They started in April 2020 and completed their work that September. By then, many central station operators had become accustomed to working from home.  Many of the nation’s largest Central Stations asked UL to adapt the standard to a permanent work-from-home environment.
Guard Tronic spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fortifying our central station, exceeding the UL and FM standards. We have redundant phone systems, phone service providers, internet service providers, power providers, and alarm receiving equipment to ensure continuity. None of these are provided for or could be verified in a home environment.
An alarm industry expert and author who serves on the UL827 committee, Jeffrey Zwirn, has spoken out about operators working from home. His article is linked below.
Guard Tronic will continue to serve our monitored customers in our UL Listed / FM Approved Central Station in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  We owe it to our customers to be the strongest link in their security chain….not the weakest.
Where is your alarm system being monitored?