It has come to a time of the year where companies reflect on the impact of rising costs that affect the business and where planning is implemented to ensure the sustainability of the company and it’s staff to continue delivering quality service to our communities. Whilst discussions on price increases are never welcomed, it is imperative that service pricing covers all costs sufficiently and provides any company with enough margin to tackle unforeseen events in the year ahead.
Covid-19 has had (and is till having) a tremendous effect on all people’s lives. During the pandemic and after, ASK has tried to be as accommodating as was at all possible. In many cases service charges had to be reduced to accommodate client needs. During this time of course we also lost many clients who could not afford to pay for security services. Since the pandemic, we have opted to keep service pricing to most clients the same, meaning that no inflation based increases were applied to the bulk of our customers.
Regrettably, as a company we are no longer able to be lenient in this aspect and increases must be applied as of 1 January 2024. We have opted not to do a blanket increase across the board of a fixed percentage point. Instead, an approach was followed of “re-balancing” the books. This entailed looking at what each client pays vs. the average over the entire client base.
In many cases this would mean: Some clients paying high premiums were decreased. Some clients paying average premiums remained unchanged. Some clients had a very small increase whilst some had a larger increase. In this way, the burden is spread rather than to have a subsidized scenario. The major contributing factors to the increases are: The ever rising cost of fuel prices as well as maintenance costs. The high interest rates affecting repayments on the vehicles required for response and other services.
As a service company that is labour intensive, the cost of personnel rises with the raised cost of living. We fully abide by the stringent requirements as directed by PSIRA for the payment of our staff. Even though the last two to three years many new requirements were put in place (higher cost to company) we fully support this as our staff is our assets and the ones risking their lives for the protection of clients and their properties. Even on the Internet side, although from the outside it appears that internet is becoming cheaper, the truth is that the Rand/US$ rate affects us highly as IP Addresses are paid in US$ as well as international bandwidth and equipment needed to run and manage the ISP network. The following adjustments are made on a definitive scale:
OLARM: ASK Security is charged a monthly fee to connect your Olarm to the control room. Olarm indirectly replaced the prior “radio” that was installed on your premises, for which there is also a monthly fee. The advantage with the Olarm is that you will have a phone APP that you can control your alarm system with (Arm, Disarm, Panic etc). The company were carrying the cost of this in many instances but this is not sustainable. Clients who thus have an Olarm device will be charged a fee of R50 (VAT incl.) per month as from 1 December 2023. Clients currently paying the Olarm fee of R70 will be reduced to R50 as from 1 January 2024.
KEY MAMAGEMENT: This fee is associated with staff costs and will be charged at R40 per month as from 1 January 2024. Clients who are paying more than R40 (annual escalations) will be reduced to R40.
MYLIFELINE: Clients on the MyLifeline system will be increased to R200 per month. The following adjustments were looked at individually and adjusted accordingly. In these cases some clients will either pay the same, pay less or pay more.
RESPONSE AND MONITORING FEES: An overall view was taken of each client account and adjustments vary per client account.
WIRELESS INTERNET: We have discontinued our 1Mbps and 2Mbps offerings as these no longer serve the requirements of broadband internet. Clients are automatically upgraded to a minimum of 5Mbps at nominal fees. Again, in some instances where clients were paying an above average rate for these packages, a free upgrade was done.
FIBRE ON OPENSERVE NETWORK: Earlier in 2023 Openserve increased line speeds of fibre packages at a cost to the ISP. At the time we did not increase the speed nor the package price of clients. In November Openserve again increased the speed, this time without a cost increase. As an ISP when the line is set run at higher speeds, we need to purchase additional bandwidth to ensure we can deliver on the increased speeds. We have thus applied the new Openserve line speeds as below: 25Mbps and 40Mbps - Increased to 50Mbps 75Mbps - Increased to 100Mbps 150 Mbps - Increased to 200Mbps The 300Mbps and 500Mbps stays unchanged. Minor pricing adjustments have been implemented to cover costs as explained above. FIBRE ON SONIC NETWORK: The only changes applied here was that all 20Mbps and 30Mbps lines were upgraded to 40Mbps.
COMBO SECURITY AND INTERNET: From all changes, this is the one that will be more visible to the client. Whilst the combined service is and will remain our best value for money offering, we have split the packages on the invoices for it to be transparent to the client, knowing what is paid for which service. In splitting the cost to the client visibly we also earmarked many instances where clients were paying above average rates and we are sure there will be quite a few pleasant surprises for many clients. Conversely, clients who have opted for these packages overall has had no increases from the date of signing up and adjustments needed to be made to bring the pricing of the service offering in line with current market costs.
All the above may be a lot to take in. We are still a people-orientated company and we are open to discuss these changes with you. We do urge people who are struggling financially to reach out to us and discuss if you feel you may not be able to keep up with payments. We take the time to listen and will attempt our best at all times to be accommodating where the request is justified. From each one of us, thank you for trusting us with your security and internet requirements. Do know that we always strive to deliver our very best to you.
We rely on your continued support for 2024 and many years thereafter. May the festive season be a time of joy and peace, shared with your family and friends and may the year ahead bring prosperity to our communities. Kind Regards, Michael Kiessling