Security Sales & Integration October 2022 - 29

just one minute earlier during an emergency
due to better location accuracy and more
detailed information, 10,000 lives could be
saved per year. Every second counts.
Who are the primary people responsible
for developing, implementing, fi ne
tuning and maintaining this initiative?
Folsom: Developing SMART has been a full
team eff ort. Along with myself, some of the
key people involved in the process included
Executive Vice President and COO Don
Young [an SSI Industry Hall of Famer], Vice
President of Customer Monitoring Technology
Tom Nakatani and Carie Small, director
of SMART monitoring engineering [see sidebar].
Once the technology was put together, a
formal program was put in place that brought
multiple business units together to deploy the
solution to our customers.
ADT's fi eld operations and monitoring
both report to Young, ensuring a high level
of coordination among the teams. Every team
played an important role, including sales, IT,
marketing, legal, operations and many others.
What modifi cations of the plan have
been made along the way? How costly
of an undertaking was it and what is
the ROI?
Folsom: SMART was so successful based on
our pilot program that we increased our deployment
rate from 100,000 to 500,000 customers
per month. Th ere is multiyear roadmap
for SMART that includes providing even
better information, analytics, alarm scoring,
video and more. ADT is making signifi cant
investments in monitoring and has dedicated
tens of millions of dollars in funding for technology,
training and marketing. Th e SMART
program is still ongoing but in terms of pure
costs has already returned more than the initial
investments.
What have the customer challenges and
law enforcement feedback been relative
to implementing the plan?
Tom Nakatani: Th e customer feedback has
been overwhelmingly positive, and they fi nd
it easier to respond to alarms via text message.
Since many people do not answer unknown
calls, the SMART texting element helps to
better ensure they receive communication
about alarm issues and can respond quickly
securitysales.com
OCTOBER 2022 Security Sales & Integration 29
SMALL PLAYS BIG ROLE
IN SMART'S SUCCESS
SMALL
Director of ADT SMART Monitoring Carie Small, who has
been an integral part of the program's development and
rollout, also contributed to this article. When she took
over the SMART teams there were fewer than 100,000
customers on the platform. By the end of 2021, there
were more than 3.3 million locations being protected
with the service.
According to ADT, Small helped spearhead what is the fastest adoption
of monitoring technology in the history of the alarm industry. That accomplishment,
says this year's PDQ Award winner, is just another example of
her dedication to bringing more safety and security to ADT customers, 911
centers and fi rst responders.
ADT's Larry Folsom
contends verifi cation,
whether through video
or other means, is
going to be required
for basic alarm
handling in the future.
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