Business alarm: what to ask the installer

Law 2518/1997 (art. 1 §1) lists among security services:

• (θ) installing, maintaining and monitoring the operation of security and alarm equipment and systems, except those fitted in cars;
• (ι) operating centres that receive, check and transmit alarm signals;
• (ια) carrying out studies and designing security systems for the above.

Any business carrying out these activities needs a special operating licence (art. 2 §1), valid for five years and renewable (art. 2 §3). Staff who design, install, maintain or work in an alarm receiving centre need a category B work licence, as do administrative staff assigned to plan this work; for the receiving centre specifically, a category A licence is also enough (art. 3 §3).

Ask in writing for the operating licence number and date, and the work-licence numbers of the technicians who will come. How to check a licence is explained in the guide to checking a security company’s licence.

• Perimeter and openings: doors, windows, skylights, shutters, loading doors, accessible roofs.
• What is protected: till, stockroom, server, records, high-value stock — and where it sits.
• How the space is used: opening hours, cleaning, deliveries, who opens and who locks up, areas active at night.
• What is already there: cameras, access control, an old panel — what stays and what gets connected.
• Power and communications: where the panel goes, which line or network exists, how much mobile signal the spot has.

Ask for the survey to be done by the person who will design the system, and to be handed to you in writing with the quote.

• Perimeter: magnetic contacts on doors and windows, shock or glass-break sensors — they trigger before anyone gets in.
• Interior: motion detectors in corridors and rooms an intruder has to cross.
• Critical rooms: a second layer of detection at the till, server room or stockroom.
• People: panic buttons where staff deal with the public.
• The system itself: tamper protection on the panel, siren and detectors.

Ask for part-arming too: the stockroom armed while the shop is open, or the perimeter armed while the cleaner is still inside. Where each detector goes also decides how many false alarms you will get — the usual causes are in the guide to the alarm receiving centre.

• Signalling path: over which line or network, and whether there is a second path when the first fails.
• Monitoring: who receives the signal — a receiving centre, itself an activity of a licensed business (art. 1 §1ι), or you through an app.
• Keyholders: who, in what order, how quickly they can get there, and who updates the list when it changes.
• On-site response: a patrol or keyholder, and when the police are called.

The path from detector to operator, and verification, are explained in the guide to the alarm receiving centre; what happens in the first minutes and when to call the police, in the business alarm and police procedure. From the installer, ask for all of this in writing before the system goes live, not after the first alarm.

• Personal codes: not one shared code; the panel log should show a name.
• Leavers: who deletes the code and fob when an employee or contractor leaves.
• Installer code: who holds it, and what happens if you change installer — agree in writing that the system is handed over to you without being locked.
• Training: arming, part-arming, disarming, what to do after a mistake, how to cancel with the receiving centre.

Many false alarms start with a user who did not know what to do. Ask for short written instructions in Greek next to the keypad, and fresh training whenever new staff join.

• Visits: how many a year and what each covers — detectors, batteries, siren, signalling paths.
• End-to-end test: that the signal really reaches the centre or the people on the list, not just that the panel lights up.
• Faults: which number to call, how soon a technician comes, what happens meanwhile.
• Nuisance zones: the cause is investigated when a zone keeps triggering, rather than the zone being switched off.
• Records: a log of visits, faults and changes, handed to you.

• As-installed zone schedule, with each zone named as it will appear at the receiving centre.
• Floor plan with the position of every detector, keypad, siren and the panel.
• Signalling paths, contact list and response order, as configured.
• User instructions in Greek and a list of users with codes (without the codes themselves).
• Equipment warranties, maintenance contract and the fault line.
• The installer’s operating licence number and the technicians’ work-licence numbers.

If the alarm will work alongside cameras and access control, the file is the basis for joining them up — see the guide to security systems integration. In OVIT’s alarm management, panels, sensors, zones and escalation rules are designed around how the site is actually used, and support covers maintenance, change and review.