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Alarm Master Technical Description
Alarm Master is an application written specifically for the Security Industry and embodies functionality targeted at Installers and Maintainers of Intruder, Fire, Access, CCTV and other security systems. Specifically records are kept which are consistent with the requirements of Industry Regulatory bodies such as NSI and SSAIB. The system has inbuilt facilities for the specification and control of systems installed to PD6662 and other European Standards.
Processes covered by the system are
Initial Customer Enquiry
- Customer Quotations and System Specification
- Customer Contracts and As Built Specification
- Customer Correspondence
- Regular Preventative Maintenance
- Jobsheets for Corrective and Call Out Maintenance
- Stock Control
- Invoicing, including Annual and Call Out Maintenance
- Mail Merge Letters and Documents using Microsoft Word
- Comprehensive built in reporting with custom Report Generator.
The system is not, in itself, an accounting system. By default Alarm Master has links into Sage Line 50, however interfaces can be written for other packages.
The system has a PDA interface (additional cost module to Premium system) to which jobsheets can be despatched to Engineers over the GPRS Network. When complete, together with signatures etc., the data is then sent directly back to the office for checking and invoice.
For systems of over 5 users, the Alarm Master operates on a Client/Server SQL database, Advantage Server, produced by IAnywhere (a division of Sybase). The Server database controls the number of concurrent users connected to the database. Data stored within the database is held in an encrypted format. Advantage is used because of its inherent database stability and low database administration requirements.
User Interface
The Alarm Master application can run on separate workstations connected over a reasonably fast network (100Mbit) or, for remote users, in a Terminal Services Environment where the client server database is installed and users connect via broadband. We do not support connections over wireless networks or VPN connections to the server from remote clients – both due to performance issues.
Letters and documents are created using Mail Merge enabled Microsoft Word documents. After printing these can be stored in a customer correspondence file, for future reference.
Alarm Master Mobile PDA Interface
This is an additional cost module which uses GPRS communications between PDA and Server. Jobs are sent to the PDA in the form of xml documents which are then completed by the engineer and returned to the server for final processing.
Specifications
Server Operating Systems
- Microsoft Windows Server 2000 or 2003
- Novell Netware 5x or greater
- Linux (IP)
We would normally set Advantage to use port 2004 and the PDA software to use port 2001.
We understand Windows 2003 server has load balancing features which may be of use in a multi server environment.
If remote access is to be used Microsoft Terminal Services Server will be required.
Server Sizing
Requires disk space of 300Mb. This may be significantly increased depending upon how many documents are stored in the correspondence folder – logos and images on documents can significantly increase the correspondence folder size. For example 2300 files on a sample system takes 90Mb.
Client Operating Systems
- Microsoft Windows 2000, XP or Vista
- Microsoft Office 2000/XP/2003 – with latest Service Packs
- Allow 40Mb of disk space for each client.
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For further details, please contact:
Personal Computer Data Services
135a Belgrave Drive, Boothferry Road, Hull, HU4 6DP
Enquiries/Support Phone: 01482 607350 - Fax: 01482 326393
Email: sales@pcdata.co.uk
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