TMA Mourns the Passing of Daniel Demers

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Shared by Patrice De Luca, Consultant

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of friend and business mentor Daniel Demers. He passed away Nov. 10th after an 18-month battle with sarcoma, an aggressive and relentless form of cancer. As always, he faced this final challenge with dignity and determination.

Daniel entered the electronic security industry in 1993 as Director of Finance for Protectron, a division of Videotron. He was promoted to President and CEO in 1997. During his 22 years at the helm of Protectron through four successive majority financial owners (Videotron, Wellspring Capital, Reliance Income Trust, Alinda), Daniel has grown a $10 million annual regional business into a $160 million Canadian national player with 400,000 subscribers to its monitoring services. In 2014, he led the sale of Protectron to ADT for $500 million USD. Throughout this journey, Daniel has consistently secured seamless financing to support the company’s growth and development. He also ensured that the investor-owners understood that high quality products and services were the foundation for sustainable growth.

A few years after the sale to ADT, Daniel also led the creation of GardaWorld Security System from 2017 to 2020.

Over the years, Daniel established himself as one of the leading figures in the North American security systems and monitoring industry, leading Protectron to the 15th position on this list and within a few months of the number one position in Canada before the sale to ADT. A self-taught entrepreneur, he has built a solid and fast growing organization. He has created a “Work Hard Play Hard” culture and a strong sense of belonging by always insisting on total integrity. He also built an extensive business network in Canada and the United States, which allowed the organization to share best practices with many of North America’s best-run companies.

Daniel will be missed as a father by his daughter and son, both in their twenties, as a spouse and as a brother. He will be missed by many as an influential business leader and mentor, and as a true and genuine friend to those who were fortunate enough to be closer to him.

Enter the 2023 TMA/SDM Excellence Awards Beginning Dec. 1

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Looking for a way to differentiate your company and brand in today’s crowded and competitive landscape? Awards are one of the best ways to stand-out and convey your commitment to quality and to your customers. The Monitoring Association (TMA) and SDM magazine joined together nearly 20 years ago to establish the Excellence Awards. A combination of five awards is presented annually to recognize excellence demonstrated by monitoring centers and outstanding monitoring professionals. The winners are recognized in an SDM feature article.

The application period for the 2023 TMA Excellence Awards will open December 1, 2022. Applicants must be a member of TMA. The submission deadline will be January 6, 2023. The awards will be presented virtually in conjunction with TMA’s Mid-Year Meeting in April.

Go to http://tma.us/events/awards/excellence-awards/ for complete award details. If you have any questions, please contact communications@tma.us.

Reduce Wasted Time While Increasing Operational Efficiency

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The need for speed When it comes to customer satisfaction and operational efficiency in the alarm monitoring business, the ability to respond quickly and efficiently to an incident is paramount. Being able to offer reduced  response time can mean the difference between keeping a customer or losing one. Your customers want the quickest possible response […]

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Town of Leesburg VA Police Department Goes Live with ASAP-to-PSAP

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The Town of Leesburg VA Police Department Emergency Communications Center (ECC) is the 117th ECC in the United States and the 21st agency in the state of Virginia to implement the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP).

The Leesburg ECC went live on Thursday, November 3, 2022, with: Vector Security, Rapid Response Monitoring, Stanley Security, Tyco (Johnson Controls), Brinks Home Security, Affiliated Monitoring, the National Monitoring Center, Securitas, Guardian Protection, Protection One, United Central Control, Security Central, Vivint, and ADT.

TMA Members Contribute Over $5k to Local Florida Charity

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TMA members donated over $5,000 to local Marco Island charity – My Daily Bread – on Wednesday, Nov. 2nd. Funds were raised in conjunction with TMA’s 2022 Annual Meeting, which took place at the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort, October 30-November 2.

The donation combines individual donations, as we well as donations of prize funds from the Halloween Costume Contest and the raffle.

Our Daily Bread Executive Director Amanda Nelson accepted the donation from TMA president Morgan Hertel and CEO Celia T. Besore during the meeting general session.

The charity provides weekend groceries for students and families in the Marco Island community. The need for food has increased significantly within recent weeks as a result of Hurricane Ian.

TMA President Recognizes UL Solutions’ Schmidt at AM22

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TMA President Morgan Hertel recognized the outstanding contributions of UL Solution’s Steve Schmit on Nov. 1st at TMA’s 2022 Annual Meeting in Marco Island, FL. A plaque and gift were presented to Schmit during the AM session.

Schmit has worked closely with TMA on many key standards initiatives. Schmit played an instrumental role in the development of Work From Home guidelines and standards at the onset of the pandemic. He’s recently initiated a new certification inline with TMA’s proposed ANSI standard – AVS-01, which is expected to be released by year’s end.

Steve will be retiring from his position at UL Solutions in November 2022.

TRG Associates Releases 2021 Industry Annual Attrition Study

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TRG Associates’ John Brady shared highlights from his Industry Annual Attrition Report in TMA’s 2022 Annual Meeting’s first session on Nov. 1st. He opened by stressing the importance of knowing why your customers are leaving.

In 2021, RMR for participating companies reached a record $784k with “moved” jumping to the second position in the ranking of reasons customers left.

John announced the December 2022 launch of a new series of quarterly webinars on attrition. Look for details coming soon!

View and download your copy of this year’s study at http://trgassociates.com/attritions/

If you’re interested in taking part in future studies, please contact TRG Associates.

TMA 2022 Achievement Highlights

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The value of TMA Membership is demonstrated with an 89%+ renewal rate for 2022. Many thanks to each of you! With your support and participation, TMA has advanced the following initiatives as of September 2022:

  • After two years, TMA’s Alarm Validation Standard (TMA-AVS-01), which uses alarm activation data to evaluate what is occurring at the protected premise and inform public safety, is finalizing the ANSI approval process, and it is expected to become an ANSI Standard by November 2022.
  • TMA has submitted additional changes to the Work from Home section in UL 827, it will be voted soon on by the appropriate UL committee.
  • The Five Diamond Designation was extended to Video Monitoring companies, hosted by a UL827 registered data center. These companies still need to fulfill all the requirements of the Five Diamond program.
  • The ASAP-to-PSAP service continues its exponential growth this year, with 113 active ECCs and plans to reach 120 by year-end. The ASAP infrastructure is being moved to a virtualized cloud environment. ASAP now covers almost 13% of the US population, that’s over 42,000,000 people nationwide!
  • In collaboration with the Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC), TMA continued to advocate for a delay in the AT&T 3G Sunset. While the sunset was not postponed, AICC and TMA were able to get accommodations from the FCC and AT&T. Following the resignation of Louis T. Fiore as AICC Chair, TMA has assumed additional management responsibilities.
  • The 2022 Mid-Year Meeting was delivered virtually over the course of three days in April. Session topics covered current hiring challenges, the hybrid work environment, and some of the latest technologies and services for monitoring centers.
  • TMA successfully conducted 2022 OPSTech as its first hybrid meeting in September, TMA’s first in-person meeting since Covid. While most of its attendees participated in Charlotte, NC, some attended virtually. In-person attendees toured TMA member CPI Security’s new state-of-the-art monitoring center.
  • Since January 1, 2022, we have sold nearly 2,400 online courses, including TMA Online Operator Level 1 & 2 Courses, with 1,767 students having successfully completed courses.
  • TMA has added 58+ new securityceu.com courses offering 75+ CEUs in its upgraded TMATraining.org platform. TMA is offering member discounts for the CAA’s National Training Program (NTP)’s Field Service Technician (FST) program. TMA is currently further upgrading its training site to facilitate purchase of all courses with one log in.
  • A group of 53 staff and volunteers participated in TMA’s 2022 Long-range Planning (LRP) meeting, developing recommendations to the TMA Board on membership structure, growth strategies, and TMA’s responses to future challenges and opportunities. LRP discussions were led by Mark Hillenburg, Kirk MacDowell, and Pam Petrow.
  • The NextGen group continued with its well-received Meet Your Mentor Series. To date, co-chairs Ryan Brady and Jessica Lambert have conducted 8 video interviews with respected industry leaders including our first in-person session at OPSTech22.
  • TMA launched the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Award (DEI), in partnership with Security Systems News magazine. It recognizes a TMA member company that demonstrates a commitment to creating a DEI culture within their company and community.
  • The TMA/SSI Marvel Award, in partnership with Security Sales and Integration magazine (SSI), opened the 2022 award to all member companies to encourage solutions-based entries. SentryAI and USA Central Station won the 2022 Marvel Award. The 2022 TMA/SDM Excellence Awards drew a combination of entries from small-to-medium and enterprise-sized member companies. 2022 winners included: Monitoring Center of the Year – Enterprise: AvantGuard Monitoring Centers; Monitoring Center of the Year – SMB: EPS Security; Monitoring Center Manager of the Year: Marcos Reyes, Kimberlite-Sonitrol Corporation; Monitoring Center Operator of the Year: Sydney Johnston, EPS Security; and Monitoring Center Support Person of the Year: LaMar A. Shroyer, Dynamark Monitoring.
  • In September GSOC Council Chair Richard Flores and Council member Randy Rickert shared a glimpse into the future design of the GSOC to a group of security professionals at GSX, ASIS’ annual exhibit and conference. The goal of the presentation was to raise awareness of TMA and the benefits membership offers security professionals within GSOCs.
  • TMA continues to issue certificates for the FirstNet National Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN), with 54 companies participating in the program and 48 certificates issued so far this year.
  • TMA’s Installation Quality Certification Program “IQ Certification,” the only quality control program for installations, maintenance and service of electronic security systems is growing with 13 IQ-certified companies.
  • An article in spring issues of the TMA Dispatch, shared the results of a research on post-pandemic education (“Training and Development Trends: TMA Members share their approach to education post pandemic,”).
  • As a reflection of their growing relationship, TMA and Priority Verified Alarm Response (PPVAR) signed an agreement for TMA to provide administrative, clerical, accounting, and other business services.
  • TMA has published the Spring and Summer issues of TMA Dispatch magazine and 38 issues of TMA Signals weekly e-newsletter. TMA conducted a readership study to evaluate the two publications. TMA social media communities, which include LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, have grown throughout the course of 2022.

TMA would like to acknowledge and thank our many volunteers; your efforts allow us to succeed in elevating the professional monitoring industry. With your continued support and engagement, we look forward to another productive year.