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DICE Corp. expands offering to monitoring facilities

DICE Corp. has launched a suite of software and services for the professional monitoring industry under the moniker the New DICE — a rebranding of sorts for the Michigan-based company.

Avi Lupo, co-president of DICE, said the company has invested millions of dollars in new technology for its Matrix Monitoring suite, designed to provide its customer base (central stations and the dealers that utilize their infrastructure) with the advantages that come with advanced analytics and IoT tools. Lupo likened the technology refresh to the cell phone industry — the idea of mobile voice communication has been around for about three decades but the service delivery has changed vastly in that time, as have the phones themselves. Likewise, monitoring has advanced beyond just strictly alarms to include other services like video monitoring and health monitoring, particularly in recent years.

Avi Lupo, DICE Corp.

“There’s a perception in the industry that DICE is a company that does monitoring station solutions, when in reality, we do much more,” said Lupo.

The company’s Matrix Interactive cloud-based solution includes integrated audio and video, enabling services such as virtual doormen and virtual guard tours, as well as embedded PBX and remote features like device activation and voice-down communication. The platform is designed for services beyond just alarm and video verification, said Lupo.

The idea includes more automation, added Cliff Dice, CEO and founder — an AI-based platform can make quicker and more accurate decisions than a human-based system, which is prone to the natural foibles of fatigue and inattention over long periods of time. People are still an essential part of the equation, though staffing requirements may be reduced.

Even removing one guard shift could result in thousands of dollars in annual savings, indicated Lupo.

DICE also provides a Matrix Accounting module which is embedded with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and includes a suite of services such as the ability to track key metrics; incorporation of quotes, proposals, contracts, and the like; as well as interactive dashboards, analytics and mobile access.

DICE offers its software at different levels, making the technology available to smaller monitoring facilities through a “Matrix Lite” package.

Clifford Dice, DICE Corp.

The overall vision is one that expands a monitoring facility’s mandate beyond security to be a service provider, said Lupo. “We see cameras, sensors, smoke detectors, fridges… all as IoT devices,” he said. PERS (Personal Emergency Response Systems) is evolving beyond medical alert devices, for example, to lifestyle enabling tools, allowing seniors to continue living independently for much longer. DICE is working towards technology that can build a profile of a user over time (when they wake or go to sleep; when they take meals, etc.) and provide a clearer picture of what their health needs may be in a given situation. Given this detailed profile, a smart sensor could more effectively detect when a user may require assistance or know when to contact a family member or health-care provider.

Some of this technology will be available in the near-future, but most is available now, said Dice, and is already changing the industry. The platform is iterative in that the AI and analytics steadily improve over time based on innovation. The Matrix platform can also be integrated into existing monitoring and analytics tools, should the station or dealer wish to build upon what they already have. DICE also offers full redundancy to monitoring clients through its data centre facilities in Bay City and Marquette, Mich.