Pool Security

Tori Martinez General Security

What better place is there to hang out during a hot summer day than poolside? If you are fortunate enough to have a backyard pool, you know the pleasure of being able to step out of your house and into its cool surroundings. But with the enjoyment of a pool comes the responsibility of securing it.

Pool security is incredibly important because pools present a huge legal risk to the owner. While laws vary, in most cases you can be held liable if an injury or death occurs at your pool, even if the injured person was trespassing on your property. In fact, most pool accidents happen when the pool isn’t actively being used, which is why securing your pool area is critical.

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Never Stop Training and Learning

Tori Martinez Alarm Monitoring, Central Station Software

by Josh Tafoya, Technical Trainer

I visit multiple monitoring centers every year as a trainer for Bold. Our ManitouNEO software is robust and complex, but I enjoy showing people the most efficient ways to use it by translating “Manitou” into “English.”

The biggest thing I’ve noticed from all my time as a trainer is this: the most successful monitoring centers have people who never stop training and learning. It sounds simplistic, doesn’t it? But it’s the absolute truth. There are many, many people I talk to regularly who are the most capable Manitou users in their organizations because their training never ends; they continue to learn better ways to use the software.

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ATM Security for Consumers

Tori Martinez General Security

How much thought do you give to ATM security when you use one for cash withdrawal or banking? For many, the answer is “little to none.” ATMs were created for consumer convenience, but they also provide a convenience to criminals, who find ATMs and their users to be an easy target. Bank cards have changed over the years to include ATM security measures, such as CVV codes and chip-enabling features. These measures have helped reduce some types of fraud.

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The Scammers of Summer

Tori Martinez Alarm Monitoring, General Security

There are multiple “sure signs” of summer which nearly everyone enjoys… blooming flowers, evening barbecues, weekend camping trips, hanging out at the pool, etc.

And then there are the signs of summer we would rather do without – allergy pills, extra bugs, mowing the yard, and the perhaps the biggest pest, the return of solicitors. For the security industry, solicitors are more than just a nuisance to customers, they are a marketing nightmare. Deceptive door-to-door sales practices continue to create mistrust and a poor reputation that is difficult for even reputable companies to overcome.

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Automating Your Comments – An Introduction

Tori Martinez Alarm Monitoring, Central Station Software

By Josh Tafoya, Technical Trainer

During my time with Bold, I’ve worked with over a hundred different monitoring centers, from the very small to the very large. There’s one thing I’ve found common through most of the centers I’ve visited: the operators are forced to read a ton of Comments (or Notes or Special Instructions) to determine what needs to happen when handling an alarm. In most cases, the operators were forced to read these notes because the old software had no way to automate the behaviors described in them. But if you’re using Manitou, there are ways to automate many of the things described in Comments.

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