In this update, we’ll share a few quick reminders, then dive into the latest features in the AFAM AlarmTech App, along with enhanced IoT detector floorplan views in the Property Portfolio Portal for both service agents and property managers.

We’ve had a surge of enquiries lately from customers looking for alternative monitoring options after, once again, receiving price increase notices from competitors.

If you or your customers are in the same position, we’d be happy to provide a no-obligation comparison quote. We’re confident you’ll be pleasantly surprised, not just by the cost, but by the level of service and how simple it is to switch.

Feel free to call us on 03 341 0464 or email [email protected].

Easier Access to Floor Plans on Mobile
Where IoT detector data and floor plans are available, service agents and property managers can view live detector information directly on building floor plans.

We’ve now made this even easier to access on mobile, just a couple of clicks from the Summary page, which can be reached by:

• Clicking the “View in Solomon” link in the AFAM AlarmTech App, or
• Using the link at the bottom of any state change SMS or email

Detector Level History on Floor Plans
You can now view history at an individual detector level directly from the floor plans.

We’ve recently released an updated version of the AlarmTech App for Android, with the Apple version coming shortly. 

Alongside general improvements and bug fixes, there are two key upgrades to alerting and notifications:

Customisable Alerts
Previously, only Fire (and Fire + Defect) events triggered alerts. Now, users can choose which message types generate alerts, ideal for roles like sprinkler technicians who may want to prioritise defect notifications.

Rules-Based Alerting
We’ve introduced a rules engine that allows specific messages to be elevated to alerts based on defined criteria.

For example, you might want:

• Alerts for all defects at a specific site or customer, but
• Notifications only for others

We’ve improved the “Subscribe to All Messages” feature to make it more mobile-friendly.

As a reminder, this allows you to temporarily receive all messages for a property, even if you’re not usually a recipient for that property. This is especially useful when working on sites outside your usual area or conducting inspections.

To subscribe:

1. Navigate to the PFA
2. Select “Subscribe to All Messages”
3. Choose a duration between 1 and 8 hours

That’s it, you’ll receive all messages for that site during the selected period.

We’ve released a couple of new short videos covering competitor price increases and what sets us apart:

• Competitor Price Increases
• Quick Update from the Bay of Plenty

If there’s something you’d like us to cover, just let us know.

​In this update, we’ll cover recent improvements to our services, share a few market updates, and highlight some changes resulting from the latest Apple and Android phone updates.

Over the summer, we made a number of enhancements and introduced several new features across our products and services. We’ll explore these in more detail over the coming newsletters, but here’s a quick preview of just a few of them:

• New AFAM AlarmTech App – Faster message delivery and new controls that let you customise which alerts and notifications you receive
• Floorplan & Detector Enhancements – Service agents can now access individual detector history, along with improved IoT message decoding for Ampac, Bensan, and Pertronic panels. We’ll cover this in more detail next time
• Property Portfolio Portal Updates – Improvements to mapping, test and state history displays, and floorplan views
• Subscribe Function – Now simpler to use on mobile, making it easier to subscribe to all site messages during surveys or inspections
• PFA State History & Test Exports – Streamlined export functionality for a more intuitive experience

​We understand that one of our competitors has recently advised customers of another price increase, the second in the past 18 months. In some cases, this latest increase is up to 10%.

If you or your customers have received a price increase notice, we’d be happy to provide a comparative quote. We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, not just by the price, but by the level of service you could be receiving.

As a reminder, transferring a customer from one of our two competitors to us is a simple, painless process and something that we do multiple times a week, often daily. 

When we transfer a customer AFAM:

• Supplies all required monitoring equipment, at no cost to the customer
• Organises, and pays for the installation of the monitoring equipment, at no cost to the customer
• Coordinates directly with FENZ and the incumbent monitoring provider, at no cost to the customer
• Organises the incumbents monitoring hardware to be returned to them, at no cost to the customer

If you or your customers are considering a switch, get in touch and we’ll take care of the rest.

We’ve just released the first in a new series of short form videos. The first video covers fire alarm monitoring and how it fits in and was filmed in a Wellington café during a recent customer visit. 

Watch it here: What does AFAM do? or by clicking on the image below.

We’ve received reports that some customers and technicians are not receiving AFAM SMS alerts following recent Android and Apple updates.

These updates can cause messages containing links to be filtered or blocked:

• Android devices – Messages may be marked as spam and moved to the Spam & Blocked folder. In some cases, the sending number may also be blocked.
• Apple devices – Messages from unknown numbers may be filtered into the Unknown Senders list, meaning no notification is triggered.

The fix is simple: save our SMS node numbers in your phone contacts. This ensures messages are delivered normally.

You can add the numbers manually, or contact our support team and we’ll send you a contact card for easy setup.

​In our next newsletter blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the new detector history features for service agents, walk through updates to the AFAM AlarmTech App, and share more general news and updates.

We explored AFAM’s Reports & Analytics — what’s available and how you can access it. If you missed it, you can catch up here Reporting & Analytics.

This week, we’re taking a closer look at the AFAM Property Portfolio Portal, which we introduced briefly a few weeks ago.

The AFAM Property Portfolio Portal is designed for property owners and managers with multi-property portfolios.

​Traditionally, visibility into the state of fire alarm systems relies on updates from service agents. The Portfolio Portal changes that — giving owners and managers direct, independent access to live system information across all their properties.

At a glance, you can see the overall state of your portfolio, then drill down to granular, real-time data — even individual IoT detector-level information where available.

When you first log in, you’ll see a comprehensive dashboard summarising key details across your portfolio, including:

• Total number of properties
• Properties where a service agent is currently or was recently on site
• Properties providing IoT detector-level information
• Percentage of properties tested last month and so far this month
• The current overall system state across all sites

From the dashboard, you can move into a map view (with a familiar maps style interface) or switch to a table view if you prefer structured data. As you would expect with the map view, the level of detail changes as you zoom in revealing street data, buildings, and features such as parks and trees.

Both views allow you to filter by:

• All properties
• Properties in an ‘off-normal’ state (e.g., isolated or in defect)
• Properties not tested last month
• Properties not yet tested this month
• Properties with IoT detector-level data available

For properties with IoT connectivity, the portal offers deep, detector-level visibility — showing detector types, zones, states, and recent changes.

Where available, floorplans can be uploaded, allowing detectors to be placed visually on each level. Their icons update in real time to reflect live status and individual detector history can be accessed. For multi-storey, or larger single storey properties, multiple floorplans can be uploaded to best represent the property.

(The example shown here displays live data from a seven-storey building in Wellington.)

Access to the portal is completely free. We actively encourage property owners and managers to take advantage of it. Please contact our support team who can enable access to it for you.

If you manage multiple properties, or have clients who could benefit from the portal, you can download our overview brochure by clicking on the image below.

Next week, we’ll take a short break from our usual product and service deep-dives to share some exciting news about AFAM. We’ll also be announcing a major new feature launch and providing updates on a few developments we’ve mentioned in recent weeks.