Retailers - Watch out as URN costs for Panic Alarms start to become a reality.

ACPO have agreed to a temporary stay of execution for introducing URN's for Panic Alarms (PAs). Because of the very high risk of false alarms, ACPO had previously decided to introduce the idea of allocating a URN specifically to PAs from April 2012. This has now been delayed until October 2012 providing customers with PAs time to review their plans and strategy.

Retail is the market where a significant number of fixed PAs are deployed, normally under the counter at the point of sale. Everyone from banks to supermarkets, betting stores to corner shops use them despite the propensity for false alarms. Historically, these false alarms haven't directly impacted the store's URN but going forward they will. Stores using PAs will need to hold a separate(chargeable) URN as well as that they may have for their intruder system. Whilst this cost wont be huge, the cost and risk of losing the URN in the event of a false alarm will be significant. Any retailer having to deal with trying to regain a URN after its lost will tell you that the cost is high, both for upgrading their technology AND the management time involved.

So this I believe is a major reason why more and more savvy retailers are turning to using Identicom instead of traditional PAs. Not only does Identicom help capture more credible audio evidence and work for the staff both inside the store and outside (e.g. when opening/cosing the store) but it also comes with a URN which is held at the Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) and not the store.

If you want to know more about how Identicom can be deployed in retail and talk to some retailers who have already seen the benefits then let me know.