How this Startup is Simplifying Business and Home Security

As your enterprise grows, it is only wise to employ a security system that would serve as a higher eye. Recent technology has made security solution systems more accessible and faster. It’s now so flexible that you can monitor everything in your business and home space on a smartphone.

One startup making sure you worry less about your business and home security system is Olarm, a South African platform. Olarm allows users to view and control their alarm system from their smartphone remotely but offers more features, including your alarm status, such as arming, disarming, and bypassing zones. The software also allows users to add trusted family members, friends, or nominated staff members.   

Olarm PRO, is a multi-network communicator that connects alarm systems to monitoring software and the Olarm mobile app. So far, the company has partnered with over 500 security firms in South Africa.

A Look Back at Olarm

Serial entrepreneurs Mark Slingsby and Rob Gilmour, alongside technology experts James Roberson and Rober Henshilwood, co-founded the company in 2015 in Cape Town with the goal of giving customers more control over their alarm systems. 

“The solutions available at the time were impossible to install and did not work very well. One solution only emailed you when the alarm triggered, and it required complicated port forwarding to be set up on your home router. We set out to make the customer experience seamless, awesome and deliver a great product to customers”, Slingsby said.

To introduce the first Olarm communicator, the team united their skills in hardware engineering, software development, and internet connectivity, which was warmly appreciated by both customers and security firms. The next-generation Olarm PRO, which debuted in early 2021, brought Wi-Fi to the security communicator space, giving the device a third network aside from its dual sims. 

“We have radically simplified the installation experience for both installer and monitoring company, saving them time-on-site and improving the customer’s experience”.

“We sell our devices as cost-effectively as possible to bring down the barrier to entry. We spend a lot of engineering effort on keeping electronics production costs optimised. Unfortunately, the silicon shortage has thrown a few curveballs, but our hardware engineering teams have risen to the challenge, and there have been no supply disruptions for customers”, Slingsby said. 

READ MORE: Why are African Security Startups not Getting all the Buzz?