MEET THE PLAYERS
Gary Armstrong
President, Armstrong’s Communication
Tell us about Armstrong’s Communication Armstrong’s Communication is only one of a few third-party monitoring stations listed by Underwriters’ Laboratories of Canada for Burglar, Fire and Financial Shared Service alarm monitoring. I am also proud to say that we are the biggest third-party, two-way audio station in Canada. Our company philosophy is that we do not sell, install or quote on security tenders, but specialize in secu- rity monitoring services for independent security installers. It is the sole purpose of our business, and that is why our company slogan is “Armstrong’s is your Partner, Not your Competitor.” We have an ULC-listed central station lo- cated in Dartmouth, N.S., and our sister fully bi-lingual station is in Moncton, N.B. The two [stations] are linked to- gether along with our disaster recovery site in Plano, Tex., which gives Arm- strong’s complete redundancy.
Tell us about yourself
I started in the business when I was 17 years old and since then I have never worked for a company as an employee. In 1989, I partnered with some friends who had an answering service in Chip- man, N.B., my hometown, and opened up a division selling two-way audio. I built the business slowly, adding alarm monitoring and then expanding the monitoring station to Nova Scotia. I also have two other companies, a man- agement company with properties and a local high-speed Internet company, which I started mainly to bring Internet to our office.
On a more personal side, I have an identical twin brother, Barry. When he was 21, he was diagnosed with leukemia
and given only three weeks to live. He survived because we went to a hospital in Seattle as part of a medical experi- ment involving six sets of identical twins, with one twin of each set diagnosed with T-cell leukemia. Then, in 2008, he had a liver transplant. We are both motiva- tional speakers and continue to return to Seattle to help others with cancer. I am also a volunteer firefighter and a commercial scuba diver. I used to re- trieve bodies for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I have learned to be fair in business and life. I got to know many of my competitors personally. Whenever anyone needs help, I never turn them down. We even invite our competitors to our hospitality suites. My philosophy is that once they get to know you and see you are a good player, they won’t go after your customers.
What makes your third-party monitoring station different? Our people make the difference. I have surrounded myself with good people, such as Kim Schellenberg and Dan Small, who have been in the industry for many years. We also mould ourselves to our customers’ needs. The reason we don’t have a dealer program is because we customize our services for everyone. Armstrong’s Communications is the only third-party central station that has its own tech support department.
What new technologies and monitoring services do you plan to add in the future? We are working on building a new central station for two-way audio and planning on adding video monitoring and GPS technology. We have shied away from video monitoring in the past because
38 SECURITY PRODUCTS CANADA| Winter 2011
Gary Armstrong (top) has built a successful business by hiring good people, like Kim Schellenberg (middle, left) and Dan Small (bottom).
there is no standard and there is a need to buy multiple receivers. We also have a patented product we sell called AIM (Armstrong Intelligent Monitoring). With AIM, when a zone gets broken, it sends an alarm to a smart phone.
What are some of the challenges facing today’s monitoring stations? Some of the biggest challenges are a shrinking dealer network due to smaller companies selling to bigger companies, and staying ahead of technology. I am proud that we have stayed with the times. For a small monitoring station that started in a small town to what we have now become has been an incredi- ble accomplishment.
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