Navigation: Central Station Monitoring: Automating Alarm Processing Procedures This Help File Page was issued on 09/30/2017 This Help File Page was last Modified on 10/12/2024

❑First, a brief Overview of the various Alarm Monitoring data components:

a.What are they?

b.Where are they defined?

c.What is their connection with each other?

 

•Communicator Formats and their associated Panel Zones - Most of the major Communicator Formats are predefined when MKMS and MKMSCS are installed.  

 

Communicator Format Form - Panels Zones Form

 

✓Each Communicator Format has its own (somewhat) unique set of Panel Zones which represent almost all of the Alarm Signals and Supervisory Events that will be transmitted by that type of Communicator.

 

•Alarm Conditions - Identifies what type of Alarm Signals may be received by assigning each a Description and an Alarm Code, the Skills required to process those Alarm Signals, and the Priority Level of those Alarm Signals.

 

Alarm Conditions Form - Operator Skills, Priority & Reporting Options

 

•The Subscriber's Monitoring Information is entered in the Edit View - Monitoring Tab on the Subscribers Form

 

Monitoring sub-tab within the Edit View of the Subscribers Form

 

•Each monitored Subscriber will have at least one (but may have more) CSID - Central Station Identifying Digits - defined in the Panel Info tab within the Subscriber Panels section of the Edit View Monitoring Tab on the Subscribers Form. That the Panel Info tab will also contain the Communicator Format (and by association, the Panel Zones for that Communicator Format) which is being used to transmit Alarm and Event Signals.

 

Subscribers Form - Monitoring sub-tab - Subscriber Panel(s) section - Panel Info tab

 

•For any Subscriber who has special alarm processing needs, CSID Zones may be defined as a substitute for the default Panel Zone information.

 

CSID Zones Form option in the Subscriber Panels section of the Monitoring sub-tab in the Edit View of the Subscribers Form

 

✓All Panel Zone and CSID Zone records are identified with an Alarm Code (i.e., the Alarm Condition) and so inherit that Alarm Condition information (e.g., the Type of Alarm, the required Skill set needed, and Priority Level of that assigned Alarm Condition).

 

•Verification Responses - Identifies the Verification and/or Notification Responses which the Operator is likely to encounter during a during Verification, Dispatch, and/or Notification Contact, and in so doing, specifies the appropriate follow up step(s) that should be taken when that particular Verification and/or Notification Response is encountered.

 

Verification Response Form

 

❑The Central Station Monitoring module provides two types of Guided Alarm Processing methods:

1.Operator Guided Response - The Operator Guided Response methodology, created to Process Alarm Signals, actually "walks" the Operator through each required step, assuring the proper completion of each of these steps, and in the appropriate order, so that each Alarm Signal - regardless of which Operator Guided Response steps are needed - can be handled correctly.

✓The tools that are used to implement this Operator Guided Response methodology are:

a.Alarm Condition Codes - An Alarm Condition Code - when assigned to a Panel Zone and/or a CSID Zone - sets the Priority Level of each type of Alarm Signal, identifies the Operator Skill set which is required to properly handle the Signal Processing procedures required for this Alarm Condition and also establishes Reporting Options.

 

Alarm Conditions Form - Operator Skills, Priority & Reporting Options

 

b.Verification Responses - Identifies the Verification and/or Notification Responses which the Operator is likely to encounter during Verification, Dispatch, and/or Notification Contact, and in so doing, specifies the appropriate follow up step(s) that should be taken when that particular Verification and/or Notification Response is encountered.

 

Verification Response Form

 

c.Panel Zones and/or a CSID Zones which specifically identify each Alarm and Event, a who, when and how a Response may be required.

 

CSID Zones Form within the Subscriber Panels section of the Monitoring sub-tab within the Edit View of a Subscribers Form

 

2.Action Plans - An Action Plan enables the Central Station to know exactly how selected Active Signals for specific Alarm Conditions, CSID Zones, CSID Zone Overrides, Panel Zones, Panel Zone Overrides, and/or Alarm Dealers should be handled by the Operator.

 

Action Plans Form - Actions button - Action Plans (Steps) Designer Dialog

 

✓These Action Plans, when assigned to Alarm Conditions, CSID Zones, CSID Zone Overrides, Panel Zones, Panel Zone Overrides, and/or Alarm Dealers, will automatically replace the default Operator Guided Response normally associated with the Active Signal, and substitute the designated Action Steps established within the assigned Action Plan.

✓An Action Step within an Action Plan may include (any or all of) these additional instructions:

a.A Title (called the Action Step's Subject) that indicates the type of Action Step that is being performed.

b.A Script for the Operator that will not only show the Operator exactly what to do, but also will instruct the Operator as to exactly what to say.

c.A Force Note command which will require that an Operator enters a brief note or comment explaining the results of a (just completed) Action Step.

d.A Next Step based on the results identified by the Operator as the current Action Step is completed.

✓This combination of Show & Tell, coupled with the resulting Do & Say instructions; and predefining the options for the next action, make Action Plans the ultimate solution to managing how specific Active Signals will be processed.

 

❖Also Read:

1.Smooth Operator chapter - about how to define (identify and configure) certain procedures that will provide Automated Signal Processing (predefined alarm signal processing functionality) in the background while the Central Station software is Processing Signals within MKMSCS.

2.MKS Customer Connect Service and its subordinate chapters - about how it that processes the MKMS communication requests such as Notification Emails for Invoices and Receipts processed by the Fully Automated Recurring Billing process, Signal Processing Notifications, and other types of Email and Text Communications which need to be sent to Subscribers.

3.IVR and SMS Management and its subordinate chapters - about implementing Low Level Processing using SMS and IVR (Voice) communication services

4.Automated System Action Plan Service chapter for related information