I came across your blog while searching for alternatives to AlarmWin. My company has also had similar experiences with Z-Micro. In fact, there have been some major bugs that we told them about 2 years ago, and they are still not fixed. Every time we call and mention it, they act like it is new information and promise us that it will be fixed in the next version. It never is. The way that their SQL database is laid out makes me nervous. To know that we are entrusting our company’s future to this software package makes me more than nervous.

So, I am looking at something to replace Alarm and Pursuit and I had a couple of questions for you. If you would be so kind as to answer a few of them, I would appreciate it.

Was your transition pretty much headache-free?

Were there any other software programs that you looked at as alternatives to Alarm?

Does SedonaOffice take care of quotes and proposals (like Z-Micro’s Pursuit does)?

If you don’t mind me asking, how much did the software package cost you? A ballpark number would be great, just to give us an idea.

In the time you have been using the new package, have you noticed any major differences of things that you can’t do with Sedona that you could with Alarm?

I really appreciate your help and time in responding to me. We need to get rid of Alarm, and this looks like it might be our solution.

Thanks again!

Hi Jeff!
I worked very hard on the data conversion from alarms for windows to Sedona as did our conversion person at Sedona Office (Rob). It really went over pretty well. Considering we had almost 10,000 accounts (only about 1/2 are active) I was expecting it to be a big mess. I have been in the Alarms Topspeed database quite a bit so I kind of knew what I was dealing with.

We paid a lot of money for the software. We have 10 users and for us it was close to $40,000. Before you choke, REALLY look into it. All the other packages I saw seemed very similar to Alarms for Windows (not so great database design, etc). I didn’t like any of the interfaces, either. We did have to buy a server running Microsoft SQL Server. I have been in the Sedona Database quite a bit and their database design is very sound. The owner of Security One said a very fast “NO” when he saw the quote, but when I kept seeing what problems we were having the Alarms for windows, etc, I really saw that it would pay for itself. You can do your credit card processing DIRECTLY in the software (and post electronic payments to the accounts with a click of a button) and that alone made a big difference in time spent as well as in billing mistakes.

For proposals, Sedona can tie into QuoteWerks which looks like pretty good software. I currently have a scheduler for jobs that creates a lot of the documents on the fly (with the customer data) so we’re not going that route quite yet, but I do think we will in the next 6 months or so.

There’s a job queue where you can keep track of pending and open jobs, a cancellation queue to keep track of who is in the process of cancelling (and can create tasks for different types of cancellation so you don’t miss something), and a collection queue which I LOVE. The collection queue can automatically put accounts into it according to the rules you set up. It absolutely ROCKS. Our debt collection person isn’t too computer savy and he likes it a lot, too.

Do you currently have scanned documents in the documents section of Alarms for Windows? We had over 30,000 files scanned that I had to put into Sedona. Their database stores the actual file data in the table instead of linking it to a file on a computer somewhere. I really like it because you don’t have broken links to files like Alarms for Windows.

I really can’t say enough about the software. The only thing I don’t like so much is the monthly fees for support. They are CONSTANTLY upgrading the software and adding new features, but you have a support fee for Sedona Docs, EFT processing, Quotewerks, etc. I don’t like using more features of the software and having to pay more every month for it. That said, you do get something for the money…the software is not stale and they listen to your needs and are always improving things. The monthly fees cover that and you will never end up with old, out of date software.

I don’t get anything for you buying Sedona (not a penny!) so don’t think I’m just trying to sell you to make a commission or anything. I highly recommend contacting Paul Victor at Sedona Office and setting up an online demo of the software.

Oh, one more thing!! Something I didn’t know about until later, but they do have an online version where you don’t have the hardware costs, etc. You pay a monthly set fee and access the data through a web browser. I don’t know how large your company is but if it’s not really large, this might be a good place to start and then as you get bigger, the conversion to the in house software would be super easy.

If you go with Sedona, let me know and I can give you some pointers on things to do in Alarms for Windows to prepare. Cleaning things up before moving the data out can help a lot.

Thanks for your reply, I really appreciate it.

“Cleaning things up” is a very relative term when it comes to the Alarms database, but thanks a lot for the offer. If it were up to me, we would get a demo and spend the money, but it has to go through a few other people who might not be so willing to change. So, I will keep this blog bookmarked and let you know when and if we decide to do it.

Thanks again!

No problem. If you have any questions, please let me know. In my opinion (and experience!) the sooner you get away from Alarms for Windows, the better!
I know of a company about my company’s size out of Maryland that is using it. They also switched from AFW. Just know that you and I aren’t the only ones that have experienced bad things with that software.
My father in law (who owns the company) is very reluctant to change and didn’t get this business where it is by spending a lot of money on software (very frugal man – in a good way). However, he’s even been pleased with the software…that is no small feat! LOL