If you are like most seasoned contractors, you understand the importance of trust and loyalty with your electrical equipment suppliers. You may have already settled on which manufacturer’s electrical equipment you want to use on most of your projects to maintain consistency, which improves the efficiency and reliability of installations. This also helps to ensure your technicians know how to efficiently install the supplied equipment.

Due to your loyalty to the distributor, you receive their best price, and they make sure your needs are met most often before other “one-time” customers. You also receive the benefit of any training from the equipment manufacturers that sell their products through your distributor. They will also keep you advised of what National Electrical Code (NEC) changes affect the equipment installation.

For all these reasons you will most likely try to convince specifying engineers why your favored electrical equipment is equal to whatever they have specified. I have in fact seen electrical contractors provide two bids to show that what is specified will be more expensive to install even if it’s proven that the specified equipment is somewhat less costly, because the installed cost of your preferred equipment will ultimately serve the owner better, since your technician’s familiarity with the equipment will provides for a more efficient installation. All of this makes sense, and for many projects you are successful in changing the specifying engineer’s mind.

However, I have found that this mindset does not seem to carry over to fire alarm system equipment suppliers. In this instance, one of two things usually happens: you either provide what is specified, or you take the low bid and try to convince the specifying engineer to accept that low bid equipment as equal, generally because you did not carry a high enough amount to cover the specified equipment cost.

Because you are dealing with life safety equipment, you are going to discover that when you succeed in supplying the low bid equipment, you will have lost several intangibles that will ultimately delay the certificate of occupancy (CO). When this happens, no matter how well you installed your standard electrical equipment, the owner will only remember how you delayed the project opening. Many of these intangibles will not be apparent until nearing the end of the installation.

What should you look for in a reliable fire alarm equipment distributor? The answer, of course, is it depends:

1. Whether you want turnkey fire alarm system installation, or
2. If you want your technicians to install the raceway, cable and devices with the fire alarm control unit installation and programming by the distributor, or
3. If you want your technicians to install the complete fire alarm system, including the ability to program the fire alarm control unit. This will require dedication to ensure a senior technician will attend the fire alarm equipment manufacturer’s programming school.

Number 2 above requires that you ensure clear communications with the fire alarm equipment supplier to ensure the raceway and cable is installed in accordance with the supplier’s drawings. Failure to communicate in this instance will result in extensive rework of the raceway and wiring and will lead to a delay of the CO.

First, determine if you want to deal with a manufacturer’s branch office or an authorized distributor of a particular manufacturer. The difference should be obvious, but a manufacturer's branch office typically does not maintain a large inventory of parts to ensure availability when needed where an authorized distributor might. This last inventory question should be one you should ask regardless of who you choose as a supplier. An authorized distributor for a manufacturer is an independent company and can often be more responsive to your needs. There is at least one fire alarm equipment manufacturer who offers both types of distribution.

What you want to look for in a reliable fire alarm equipment distributor should include a review of the following important criteria:

1. How long has the distributor been in business?
2. How many fire alarm equipment manufacturer-trained technicians are on staff?
3. Is there a NICET Level IV technician on staff?
4. Is there a licensed professional fire protection engineer on staff? This item is important especially if you need design services.
5. How many trained and factory-qualified programmers are on staff?
6. Is the company an authorized distributor of the fire alarm systems they sell?
7. Will the distributor/branch office provide your staff with training for both equipment and codes and standards?
8. Does the distributor/branch office maintain a large enough inventory to support your installation efforts?
9. Will they have any large projects with other clients that will be finishing at the same time as your project, and if so, will they have enough programmers on staff to ensure your project will not be held up at the finish or CO stage? (Always ask this, regardless of the type of supplier.)
10. Can or will the supplier interface with the AHJ as necessary to ensure acceptance at the final stages of construction?

This list is not all inclusive, but it is certainly the top 10 questions with which to judge your supplier. Once you have decided on a fire alarm system equipment supplier, give them the lion’s share of your business, and build a trust relationship. Your reputation will be enhanced through this relationship.