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Phoenix arises

Phoenix arises Original developers re-release Phoenix software bought from MDI

ROUND ROCK, Texas--American Business Monitoring Systems, a software development company, in June released significant upgrades to its recently purchased central station software platform, Phoenix. The company, which was formed in July 2007 and employs several of the original developers of the Phoenix software, purchased ABM Data Systems and the Phoenix platform from command-and-control software maker MDI Security Systems in September 2007. The company purchased ABM Data Systems with a loan backed by MDI, said Scott Lawson, president of American Business Monitoring Systems. Details of the purchase were not disclosed and repeated phone calls to MDI for comment were not returned. Following the purchase, American Business Monitoring Systems plans to increase R&D of the software as well as widen its customer base. “The June release will be a new upgrade to the existing software,” said Lawson. “The upgrade will be very simple with no hardware configuration required, just a software upgrade … it will provide [central stations] with a new reporting application and a new archive/purge utility as a few of the things we have planned.” In addition to the upgrade, known as Phoenix x.4.1.3, the company anticipates the release of a new product in the fall of this year, which it hopes will further the software’s integration into the commercial market. “We need to catch up in some [development] areas in order to be competitive in the commercial central station market,” said Lawson. “Most Phoenix customers are proprietary central stations, but in order to play in the larger market, we know we need to have an integrated accounting package. We’re working on making that available in the fall also.” Since purchasing the Phoenix platform, American Business Monitoring has been working to further develop the software to meet the needs of its customers. Bob Fleming, president of TLP Technologies, is a security integrator based in Long Island, N.Y. who installed the Phoenix platform in a large Northeast police station. “I asked Scott if we could modify the Phoenix software to work the way I needed it to work and they did. We’ve made huge changes to the software to meet our needs,” he said. Some of the huge changes include using the software to track radio IDs, rather than alarm signals, which the software then transfers directly to the electronics division at the police department.

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