UL's new online certificate program `ready for primetime'

NORTHBROOK, Ill.--Underwriters Laboratories recently announced the launch of new features at MyHome@UL.com. The new services allow alarm service companies to apply for certificates, check the status of applications, and validate and print certificates, all online and in real time, for presentation to AHJs. Steve Schmit, North American operations lead for Alarm Certificate Service at UL, said that MyHome@UL.com has been running in a pilot program with about a dozen alarm companies, and that so far reaction is positive. "There are a dozen or so alarm companies that are using the MyHome pilot system. As pilot users they've helped us find ways to make it more useable." The purpose of the pilot program was to generate user feedback that UL has used to tweak any last bugs in the system. Judy Borchardt, customer relations manager at Trans-Alarm, Inc., one of the alarm companies in the pilot program, said, "It's been in the pipeline for probably five years." Borchardt said the value of the system is that it tightens everything up. There is a reduction in paperwork, increased certificate accuracy, and increased turn-around time. "It's awesome," Borchardt said. "It's less paperwork. It's less errors, because they're not retyping it." Schmit said that the way things used to be done was "all paper and pencil." Obviously, he said, such a system for certificate application and delivery, the standard for so long, has seen its day. "The nature of the new system," Schmit said "is to speed transactional time with alarm companies." MyHome@UL.com has done just that according to Lisa Wurth, agency coordinator for Bay Alarm Company, another pilot program participant. "It makes receipt of the certificate much faster. It's a matter of minutes, rather than days." Added Borchardt, "This will keep UL current in the market. It's a huge move on their part." "We're ready for primetime," Schmit said, adding that now that the pilot program has successfully run its course, UL will be rolling out the online certificate program at MyHome@UL.com in a phased approach.