Reading a Supplier's Claims

This market sells reassurance, which is the hardest claim to verify and the easiest to buy.

When reading a supplier's claims also depends on reliable work records, the software page can support time, attendance and workload review without being treated as the emergency response itself. Compare any workflow with ICO employment guidance and keep alarm ownership, escalation and dispatch responsibilities explicit.

"Man down protection"

Describes a detection feature, not protection.

Nothing here prevents a fall, and detection misses the cases described in its own note.

Ask: what detection profile, what does it miss, and what is the false alarm rate on work like ours?

A supplier with real answers has tested it in the field.

"24/7 monitoring"

May describe a staffed centre with a contracted answer time, or an office that is technically open.

Ask: contracted answer time, measured how, reported how often, and what the distribution looks like rather than the average.

And what happens when our escalation list is unreachable, which is the question that separates suppliers who have thought about failure from those who have not.

"Real-time location"

Means a position transmitted at an interval, and indoors frequently means nothing.

Ask: what accuracy, in what environment, and what is transmitted when there is no fix?

Then test it at your own worst location, because the answer will be about a car park and your risk is in a basement.

"Fully compliant"

Compliance is a property of your assessment and arrangements.

No jurisdiction requires a particular product, and a supplier implying otherwise is selling on a misunderstanding.

Ask instead: can continuous tracking be disabled, is audio activation-only, can retention be set per category?

Those three answers tell you whether a defensible configuration is available at all.

"Used by [large organisation]"

Tells you the procurement was won, not that the system works.

Ask for a reference in your sector and your geography, and ask that reference the specific questions: answer times at night, false alarm rate, anything changed without notice.

"Reduces incidents"

Almost always a before-and-after at a customer site, with no comparison group and several other changes happening at once.

Which is not evidence of much, and repeating it in your own business case creates a promise you cannot meet.

Claim what is demonstrable: faster awareness, a location for responders, a record, and a discreet summons.

The general test

Any claim without a number, a named condition or a screen you can break is a statement of intent.

Convert each into a question and ask it in writing, because written answers are more careful and can be attached to the contract.

And the carefulness of the answer is itself the information, more reliable than its content.

What to attach to the contract

Answer times with evidence.

The field list: what is collected, when, and what can be disabled.

Notification before firmware or monitoring changes.

Data return and deletion on termination.

And a device replacement term, which at scale is the running cost that quietly doubles a quote.

Comparing on total cost

Per-user monthly pricing looks simple and hides the differences.

Ask what is included: monitoring, replacement devices, SIM, portal, training, annual review.

And build a three-year total, because device replacement lands in year three and is excluded from most quotes.

Two suppliers within a pound of each other per user can differ by a third over three years, which is invisible in a comparison table built from the headline figure.

The reference call

Ask a customer in your sector and your geography four things.

What is the answer time at three in the morning?

What is the false alarm rate on your work?

Has anything changed without notice?

Would you buy it again?

A supplier unwilling to provide such a reference has answered the last question for you.

What a good supplier does differently

Asks about your escalation arrangement before describing their product.

Volunteers what their detection misses.

Offers a trial on your worst locations rather than a demonstration at their office.

And gives a contracted answer time without being pushed.

Suppliers doing all four exist and are identifiable within one meeting, which is the most efficient filter available in this market.