What is a Dealer?
An alarm dealer is a third-party business or individual who sells, installs, and services alarm systems on behalf of an alarm monitoring company, often acting as a bridge between the customer and the monitoring service.
As it relates to Manitou, a Dealer can be any entity that groups customer records together for management related to the group. For example a retail organization may use Dealers to group their regions for reporting, schedule, and responsibility management. Other organizations may use dealers, and sub-dealers to manage specific areas or track specific service types.
Preparing to Add a Dealer
Prior to creating a new Dealer in Manitou be sure to have all the information required to ensure speedy and accurate data entry of the Dealer record. Items to consider prior to creating the Dealer are:
- Dealer ID - The code that easily identifies the Dealer record within Manitou. Common IDs are a short version of the customer name such as AAASEC, or INSTWEST, or the like. Other organizations may use numeric or regional indicators as the Dealer ID. Data Entry supervisors, may provide specific naming conventions for the organization.
- Name and address of the Dealer.
- If linked to an Accounting system, the A/R company and A/R number for the Dealer.
- Language and Time Zone.
- Contact Points for the Dealer - These include the contact telephone numbers, call-back numbers, and any emails receiving notifications.
- Services and Options
- NotifyMe - If licensed and applies to the Dealer.
- On Test Authorization for Customers - Will the Dealer's customers be able to place their own accounts On Test?
- Monitoring Group - If separated into an individual group.
- Time Format - If the Dealer's customers prefer AM/PM time over 24-Hour time in reports.
- Email Override Address - Chooses which email address to display on the dealer's customer's reports.
- Contacts for the Dealer persons - These may include technicians, owners, and other organization contacts.
- Contact Lists - If required.
- General Schedule requirements for Keyholders, Call Lists, or Action Patterns.
- Comments - Notes that relate to the Dealer and are true across all the Dealer's customers. These should be kept to a minimum.
- Transmitter Types - If restricted, which Transmitter Types the Dealer may apply to their accounts.
- Action Patterns - If necessary, overrides from default standards.
- Billing - If required.
- Control Panels - If restricted, which Control Panels may the Dealer use on their accounts.
- Reports - Any required reports for the dealer to receive activity or dispatched events and how often.