​This week we’re sharing some new reports, a new video, a reminder that you should never sign a long-term contract for fire alarm monitoring, and a few other updates.

​A couple of newsletters ago, we mentioned that we were developing a range of new reports that incorporate floor plans where they’re available.

The example below shows one of the new reports, displaying the detectors that have changed state between two points in time, along with the relevant details for each detector.

We think these reports will be particularly useful for annual surveys, commissioning and general troubleshooting. As always, we’d welcome any feedback on them and ideas for how you’d like to see them used.

We’re not currently the largest fire alarm monitoring company in New Zealand, but we are the fastest growing. We believe that’s down to the service we provide, and the time, energy, and money that we reinvest back into providing new solutions and features for customers and the wider fire industry.

Our contract terms are deliberately simple and fair: a three-month minimum term and a three-month cancellation period. That’s it.

We’d rather customers stay with us because of the value and service we provide than because we’ve locked them into a long-term contract.

We’ve become aware that one of our competitors is locking in customers on extremely long term multi-year contracts. If they were innovating in any way other than how to charge their customers more money that could be explained, but they’re not. They’re also nearly always more expensive than us.

All but one of the fire alarm monitoring providers in New Zealand offer terms broadly similar to ours. So if you’re not currently with AFAM and your provider asks you to sign a long-term contract, just say no.

There’s simply no need to lock yourself in. Migrating to AFAM is free, and you’ll generally be financially better off as well.

Before you sign a multi-year contract, talk to us first.

​Anastasia and Becka have put together a short introduction video. You may have already seen it on LinkedIn, but if not, click on the image below to have a look.

​As mentioned in our last newsletter, Fire NZ 2026 is being held in Christchurch from 8–10 September.

Anastasia and Kieron will be attending the conference as delegates, while the rest of the team will be visiting the trade show at various points throughout the event. If you’d like to catch up with anyone from the team, just let us know.

We also enjoy showing people around our Christchurch office and giving them a first-hand look at how we’re set up, what we’re working on and what we have in development.

Our office is only about a 15-minute drive from the Fire NZ venue. If you’d like to visit while you’re in Christchurch, let us know and we’ll put the kettle on.

​Our post a couple of newsletters ago generated a few questions about the 3D spatial building models we’ve been working on.

As a reminder over the past few months we've been quietly exploring ways to transform our existing two-dimensional floor plans into fully interactive 3D building models, with every detector accurately positioned using latitude, longitude and elevation coordinates. 

Traditionally, creating models like this requires every detector to be individually surveyed using GPS or laser measurement equipment, making the process both time-consuming and expensive. We've developed a much faster and lower cost approach that derives the 3D model directly from the existing floor plans.

If you click on the image below you’ll see a short video of a model of a real multi-storey building in Wellington rendered in 3D space.

The questions we received were mainly about how the models could actually be used.

The 3D rendering itself, while interesting to look at, isn’t something we see having much practical application on its own. Where we see the real potential is using the underlying model to enable other functionality, particularly augmented reality applications.

For example, a technician could point a phone running the AFAM AlarmTech App at a ceiling and instantly see the detector above them, along with its current status, history and other relevant information through an augmented reality overlay.

Another potential application could be for FENZ. Imagine being able to see which detectors have activated inside a building before deciding whether and where to enter. This could be particularly useful when responding to false alarms.

While that might sound a little far-fetched, developing what we already have to provide this type of functionality isn’t actually a giant leap into uncharted territory. Much of the underlying technology would already be in place.

For now, there’s limited demand for this type of functionality, so it will remain in our ‘future development’ pile. But we’re always looking ahead. If customer needs change, we’ll already have much of the technology required to make it possible.

Over the next fortnight, members of the AFAM team will be visiting Auckland, Dunedin, Hamilton, Wellington, Invercargill, and Christchurch. It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks!

If you’d like to arrange a meeting, grab a coffee, book a demonstration or discuss how AFAM can provide greater visibility across your fire alarm portfolio, we’d love to catch up.

​In our next newsletter, we’ll share more of what we’ve been working on and what’s happening around AFAM.

This week we had planned to take a detailed look at the new Site Map Portal, but we’re going to save that for next time while we finish the supporting videos.

Instead, we’ll cover some developments across the other portals, upcoming app releases, and a few general updates.

We’ve created a brochure specifically for Service Agents BDMs and Account Managers to use with customers and key accounts. 

The brochure helps explain how AFAM’s additional free services, including the Property Portfolio Portal and floor plan functionality, provide added value and benefits to building owners and property managers. 

Before making it generally available, we’re looking for feedback. If you’re a BDM or Account Manager who thinks this may be useful and you’d like to review the brochure, let us know and we’ll send you a copy.

If you’ve recently had a demo of the Property Portfolio Portal, you may already have seen this feature we’re close to releasing.

The idea is to assign a score to each individual property based on factors such as recurring defects, aged defects, testing history, and other key indicators. These scores are then combined to create an overall portfolio score.

This allows you to compare your portfolio against anonymised portfolios of a similar type, while also identifying the individual sites and contributing factors that may benefit from remedial work to improve the overall score.

We’ll share more details and examples of this feature in action very soon.

The updated Apple version of the AFAM AlarmTech App will be released within the next couple of days.

There’s nothing special required to upgrade — the app will update automatically in the same way as your other apps.

This release brings the Apple version in line with Android and includes:

• New controls for selecting which message types generate notifications and alerts
• A new rules engine that allows alerts based on specific words or phrases
• Improved user interface and usability
• General performance improvements and bug fixes

The rules engine can be particularly useful for identifying specific defect types or prioritising notifications for key customer sites.

The AFAM AlarmTech App is now being used by just under 100 companies and branches.

We considered offering something special to the 100th group to sign up, but it’s difficult to discount something that’s already completely free.

Remember, the app allows you to view all properties you manage or maintain — not just those monitored by AFAM.

If you’d like to get set up, or would like a walkthrough of the functionality, get in touch and we can arrange a demo or assist with onboarding.

Just a reminder that we maintain a full inventory of monitoring equipment spares at our Auckland office.

If you’re in Auckland and urgently need equipment or parts, contact the office and we’ll arrange the fastest possible shipment.

​In our next newsletter, we’ll take a deeper dive into the Site Map Portal, with more detail, visuals, and a look at additional enhancements currently in development.

This week we attended Fire Australia 2026 in Melbourne. Below is a recap from the event, along with an introduction to a new type of portal we’ve recently launched.

​Fire Australia 2026 was held at the Melbourne Conference and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), a venue spanning more than 70,000 square metres of event space. During the conference, several other events were taking place simultaneously—including a national HVAC exhibition, regional conferences, and graduation ceremonies—yet the scale of the venue meant each event operated seamlessly without overlap.

The conference featured a trade show with over 90 exhibitors, alongside a comprehensive program of educational sessions. This year, sessions were delivered across six streams, covering topics such as fire engineering, regulatory frameworks, current industry challenges, and emerging areas like AI adoption and battery energy storage systems (BESS).

While in Melbourne, we also met with several of our customers who are based locally and manage commercial property portfolios in New Zealand.

We’ve included a selection of photos from the event below.

​We’re pleased to announce the launch of our new Site Map Portal. This tool provides a real-time, graphical overview of fire alarm system status across a geographic site—such as a hospital, campus, or industrial facility.

In addition to live system monitoring, the portal delivers an audible alert in the event of a fire, which continues until the alarm is acknowledged. This feature is particularly valuable for sites that require on-the-ground response actions before emergency services arrive.

The portal has been developed in collaboration with customers who need both immediate fire service dispatch (which we continue to handle as standard) and coordinated internal response procedures.

We’ll share more details in our next newsletter, including screenshots and a video demonstration of the portal in action.

As regular readers will know, we maintain a full inventory of monitoring equipment spares at our Auckland office. Anastasia captured a short video of our latest shipment arriving—take a look by clicking on the image below.

Over the next two weeks, our team will be in Wellington and Hamilton, alongside our teams in Auckland and Christchurch.

If you’d like to meet, ask questions, or arrange a demo, feel free to get in touch.

​In our next newsletter, we’ll take a deeper dive into the Site Map Portal, with more detail, visuals, and a look at additional enhancements currently in development.