The BSIA recently added a section on remote maintenance in its latest ‘Maintenance of CCTV surveillance systems – code of practice’ publication. This may not seem significant, but it will change the way you maintain your installations along with your revenue models.
Remote maintenance checking is nothing new, it’s been used in the IT industry for years, from warnings about depleted printer cartridges, to server outages, IT systems are monitored to reduce downtime to near zero in our ‘always on’ world.
But what about CCTV? The industry as a whole has been always has been and still is geared towards Annual ‘preventative’ maintenance, which generally means an annual service visit, and additional visits when the customer reports an issue.
This means that despite huge technological advances in CCTV products in the last 30 years, the way CCTV systems are maintained has barely changed at all.
CheckMyCCTV customers are changing that. By monitoring CCTV systems for faults, operational issues, and tampering using CheckMyCCTV, Installers can now offer their customers an unprecedented level of proactive CCTV maintenance. Nearly 10,000 CCTV installations are are already monitored this way using CheckMyCCTV, and this number is growing all the time.
So how does this change how CCTV systems are maintained?
A typical maintenance contract will normally include an Annual preventative maintenance visit, and in the words of the BSIA “A preventative maintenance visit allows the technician to carry out a complete audit / check of the CCTV surveillance system”, which is great, but between visits it is still down to the end user to detect and report issues.
The problem is that many faults are often only discovered after an incident has taken place which subsequently wasn’t recorded. Customers are left with huge risks for days, weeks, or even months when faults, tampering, or vandalism occurs.
There is another way…
The BSIA list 3 types of maintenance in their Code of practice document:
- Preventative maintenance – Planned scheduled maintenance.
- Corrective maintenance – Emergency maintenance to correct a fault.
- Customer and user maintenance – Basic maintenance carried out by the end user.
By using CheckMyCCTV to provide remote CCTV status checks, CCTV installer are providing a 4th type of maintenance for their customers:
- Proactive Maintenance – Systems are monitored for issues 24/7 and issues are detected, reported, and ultimately resolved in a timely manner.
With proactive maintenance, systems are checked automatically by CheckMyCCTV, so instead of waiting for the user to discover faults or issues, they are reported as they happen. This information can be used to provide the end-user with a proactive maintenance service, where issue are resolved before an incident occurs.
Benefits for Installers
Proactive CCTV maintenance can have huge benefits to installers and their customers:
- Targeted Response – You know exactly which of your installations need work, so they can be targeted accordingly.
- Reduced Downtime – Reduce the time it takes to rectify your customers’ CCTV faults.
- Do more with less – Proactive maintenance requires less manpower, time, and energy, allowing you to use your resources more effectively.
- Increased user satisfaction – Your customers know their systems are being checked 24/7 and faults are fixed in a timely manner.
The next time you bid for a maintenance contract, ensure you keep your competitive advantage by providing a proactive maintenance service using CheckMyCCTV. For more details or to arrange a demonstration, contact us on 0161 870 6137 or email sales@nullcheckmysystems.com
To download the BSIA maintenance of CCTV surveillance systems – code of practice document, click HERE or visit the BSIA website at www.bsia.co.uk