As a self-monitored security solution, SMB provides organisations with the ability to manage their own site's security. Site Managers will receive a notification when an alarm is triggered and then make the decision on who to respond to that incident.
There are two types of alarms that can be activated on a site:
Intruder Alarms
Intruder alarms are activated by sensors, such as motion detectors (PIRs) and window or door sensors (reed switches), and produce 'incidents'.
About incidents An incident is a real-time timeline of activity following an alarm activation. An incident shows which sensors have activated at your site, any other alarms that have occurred, and when each happened. The incident will also show any response to the incident by a Site Manager or, if you have the Guard Monitoring add-on, a Security Guard.
Alarms included in an incident After the first alarm, which creates the incident, any additional alarms that occur within 20 minutes of the previous one are also added to the incident. The close time frame of the alarms means that it is likely they are related.
Viewing an incident Alarms from the security system, the sensors and outputs, will always be displayed on the left-hand side of the incident screen. Any response to the alarm, including the person who claimed or silenced the alarm and any manual or automated guard call-outs, will display on the right-hand side of the incident screen.
Closing an incident An incident stays open until it has been closed by a Site Manager or after 24 hours (see auto-closing of incidents). A site could have multiple open incidents but it is unlikely. If there are multiple incidents open, only one incident (the latest one) can be in progress at any time.
Gallagher SMB has three solutions for managing alarm incidents:
Gallagher SMB was designed as a self-monitored security solution. Site Managers are notified when an alarm is triggered, and receive details about what is happening on their site. Site Managers can then decide what to do next - request a security guard to check on your site (AU & NZ only) or investigate further and silence the alarm.
To request a Security Guard when an alarm incident occurs, Guarding must be enabled for the site. Gallagher has partnered with First Security (NZ) and Wilson Security (AUS) to provide the ability for Site Managers to request a guard to their site by clicking a button within the SMB app. The Security Guard will attend the site and provide a full report back into the app about what they found.
The third option for monitoring a site is opting for third-party monitoring. If your alarm is triggered, the monitoring company will notify relevant parties in accordance with an agreed action plan. This could be people from your site, your security technician, or a guarding company who will send someone to check your premises.
If Third-Party Monitoring is enabled, the Site Manager will receive
Panic button activation notifications
Controller offline
Controller configuration changed
Test Mode disabled
and will not receive any other alarm incident notifications.
Gallagher has partnered with security solution providers First Security® in New Zealand and Wilson Security® in Australia to offer a reliable guard call-out service. If an alarm is activated on your site, you can request a guard directly from the Gallagher SMB app, or you can configure the system to automatically call the guard for you.
The security solution provider will respond to the alarm, check out your site, call the police if needed, and provide you with a full report. You'll be updated at each step through the app and have full transparency of what's going on.
Once the guard has registered that they are on-site, we make an interface available to our guarding partner to disarm the site, so the guard can enter. This interface is only able to be used while the guard is on-site. When the guard has completed their on-site checks, they can also re-arm the site prior to leaving. As a fail-safe backup, as soon as the Gallagher system receives an update that the guard has left the site, we will also re-arm the site remotely.
For information about Guarding eligibility and fees, see Enable Guarding.
To request a Security Guard:
Tap the Actions button at the bottom of the Incident Details page.
Select Request Security Guard.
A warning displays to ensure you want to proceed and are aware the call-out could result in a call-out fee.
Click OK to call a Guard or CANCEL to not proceed with a Guard call-out.
Once agreed to proceed, you would need to call the Guarding provider to cancel. Fees may still apply.
From the SMB app, the Site Manager can set up a guard to be automatically requested after a chosen period of time. This safeguard will ensure the site is in good hands, even if you miss the alarm notification.
To set up automatic guarding:
Within the SMB app, go to the hamburger menu in the top right-hand corner.
Select Site Settings.
Use the toggle to enable Automatically Request Guard.
The Request a guard after drop-down list will appear.
Choose the time you would like the system to wait before it calls a guard (1-15 minutes).
A pop-up message will show when the settings have been saved automatically.
Cancel an automatic Guard call out
If an incident occurs on your site and a Site Manager claims it before the set time has elapsed, the guard call-out will no longer be triggered automatically. Instead, a Site Manager can manually request one. The incident needs to be claimed before the timeout to stop the auto-call-out. Disarming the area or site doesn’t stop the auto-call-out; only claiming the incident does.
If an auto-call-out was initiated and received by the guarding company, it can still be cancelled by calling their support number and asking them to not send the guard.
What triggers an automatic Guard call out?
Any PIR-like input being triggered (open) when an area is armed or tampered with or a Controller being tampered with, at any time of day will result in an automatic guard call-out after the configured timeout if the incident is not claimed.
Only intruder alarms will trigger a guard call-out. The only exception is if an incident starts with a system alarm, and a subsequent intruder alarm is triggered; in this case, a guard call-out will also be requested.
In situations where organisations or Site Managers are apprehensive about managing their own alarms and don’t want to take on this responsibility outside of work hours, Third-Party Monitoring can be configured for the site.
Alarm messages are sent from the Controller at the site to the nominated monitoring station in a standard format in accordance with a set of rules. Monitoring stations will have software that interprets messages received and sends notifications to nominated personnel at the site or displays details on a workstation at the station in a form that is easy for an operator to action.
Actions taken by the monitoring station will depend on the response plan defined by the customer.
Possible actions are:
do nothing
monitoring station software sends an automated notification to nominated people at the site
telephone nominated personnel at the site one by one in an escalation sequence
call a guard out
contact police.
The required response by the monitoring station may depend on:
the day of the week and/or time of day
what happened
the value of property at the site
the level of trust the business owner has in the people who have access to the site
how much the business owner is prepared to pay monitoring for the service
whether the system is police graded and/or the alarm has been verified. The rules and requirements for calling the police vary by country and jurisdiction. If required, verification could be by someone at the premises, video verification, or following dual activation.
If Third-Party Monitoring is enabled, the Site Manager will receive
Panic button activation notifications
Controller offline
Controller configuration changed
Test Mode disabled
and will not receive any other alarm incident notifications.
If an alarm at your site is activated, the Site Managers will receive a push notification on their phone saying which sensor was activated. Opening the notification will take you directly to the incident, or if you don’t click on the notification then an incident banner also appears on the home screen of the SMB app.
If any other sensors are activated within 20 minutes of the previous, these will appear in the timeline of the same incident and a Site Manager will need to respond to the incident. The Site Manager can claim the incident to inform the other Site Managers it's under control, silence the alarm, optionally request a Security Guard if enabled, or close the incident. If automatic guarding is enabled and the Site Manager does not want a Guard to be called to the site, the Site Manager must claim the incident before the automatic request period has elapsed.
If Third-Party Monitoring is enabled, the Site Manager will not receive notifications of alarm incidents.
This option only displays if 'Link to Video App From Incident' has been enabled in Site Settings. Select this option as a convenient way of opening your video app if you wish to find footage relating to the incident.
Tap the Actions button at the bottom of the Incident Details page.
Select Open Video App.
Your Video Management System (VMS) app opens to its default/home screen if it is installed. If it is not installed, you are taken to the app store page for that app.
Claiming the incident informs other Site Managers that you are going to handle the situation. They will receive a push notification to tell them you have claimed it. They will also be able to see this in the details of the incident.
To claim an incident:
Tap the Actions button at the bottom of the Incident Details page.
Select Claim Incident.
An entry will appear on the right-hand side of the incident timeline showing that you have claimed the incident.
If you'd like to turn off the siren during an incident, you can do so by silencing the alarm.
To silence the alarm:
Tap the Actions button at the bottom of the Incident Details page.
Select Silence Alarm.
An entry will appear on the right-hand side of the incident timeline showing that you have silenced the alarm.
When the incident is complete, you or another Site Manager need to close it. When doing so, you provide a reason as to why the alarm was activated. The reasons to choose from are:
Intruder
Maintenance
False Alarm
To close the incident:
Tap the Actions button at the bottom of the Incident Details page.
Select Close Incident.
Select the reason for closing the incident.
An entry will appear on the right-hand side of the incident timeline showing that you have closed the incident and the reason for closing.
The incident is then recorded under the Activity > Incidents tab.
Until the incident is closed, the incident banner will remain on the home screen (Site page) of the app.
If an incident is not closed by the Site Manager within 24 hours, the system will automatically close the incident if the following criteria are met:
The incident is open.
There is no guard call out in progress for the incident. If there had been a guard call out for the incident, it must have been closed or cancelled.
The incident has no active alarms.
The most recent alarm assigned to the incident occurred more than 24 hours ago.
The Incident Log will record the Incident as Closed as inactive by System.
If there is an incident stuck in the SMB app and the customer can't close it or claim it, the SMB controller will need to be restarted. Please contact your Security Technician.
On the Incidents tab (on the Activity page), Site Managers can view the details of all previous alarm activations.
Tap on an incident to open the details and see:
Which alarms were activated
Who actioned the alarm and how
If you need the details of a past incident in an exported format for insurance or police reasons, please contact the Gallagher SMB Support Team.