Executive summary
The goal - Are 911 system communications hindering first responders?
The proliferation of wireless devices over the past few years has changed the meaning of "Call 911." Today, even the most routine incident can generate a large number of cell phone calls and text messages with attached photos or videos. While communications has always been at the heart of emergency response, getting accurate information to the right people as quickly as possible is the key to saving lives and protecting property. There is a lot of pressure for authorities to implement the latest capabilities. Public safety solutions from IBM and Avaya can help.
The advantage - Near real-time situational awareness
Public safety solutions from IBM and Avaya can infuse your emergency response infrastructure with the advanced functionality needed to answer calls—both emergency and non-emergency, from a growing number of consumer technologies—more quickly and effectively. They can also help coordinate the necessary resources to address the situation, whether the calls represent one personal emergency or a broad-scale disaster.
By consolidating multiple geographic centers and dispersed networks, your agency can expand the pool of public safety call-takers, share advanced applications and distribute the cost over several sites. Newer technologies provide the ability for call-takers to accept, and interact with, new forms of communications—photo, video and text messaging. And when the call volume supersedes capacity at one location—or when a center is physically inaccessible—our solutions make it easier to manage the overflow.
The benefits - Shave seconds off your response time
IBM and Avaya public safety solutions focus on meeting the critical needs facing emergency agencies and emergency responders. Our solutions can help you:
- Enhance the speed of information exchange and collaboration across agencies and jurisdictions.
- Handle a wide range of communications and call surges—whether from landlines or cell phones with pictures and location identification—for more accurate and effective emergency response.
- Consolidate emergency and non-emergency responder interagency communications with intelligent call routing.
- Enable better control over communications costs and network infrastructure investments.
- Enhance interagency ability to reach and collaborate with expert resources.
- Protect your existing technology investments and enable you to schedule future investments in accordance with your budget constraints and cycles.
- Consolidate contact center functions and inbound calls to simplify and lower service costs.
Business view
The goal - How rapid is your emergency response?
In the case of emergency and life-threatening situations, clear and concise communications can save critical time and assure fewer errors. But the lack of interoperability between agency resources can dramatically affect first responders' actions. How do you satisfy growing service needs with exceptional speed, while coordinating between agencies and making the best use of personnel and resources? Public safety solutions from IBM and Avaya can help.
The advantage - Our strengths address the barriers to your strategic goals
IBM and Avaya offer solutions and expertise to improve emergency responsiveness and day-to-day communications.
- We provide public and private sector customers with comprehensive, integrated solutions to align safety and security with core enterprise government strategies.
- IBM is a leader in privacy policy, forming the Worldwide Center of Competency for Privacy Consulting.
- IBM founded the Institute for Electronic Government in 1995 as a resource for public sector leaders worldwide in electronic government.
- IBM's vast experience in deploying converged communications networks and solutions can help clients save time, reduce costs and lower total cost of ownership.
- More than one million businesses globally, including more than 90% of the Fortune 500, use Avaya solutions for IP telephony, unified communications, contact centers and communications-enabled business processes.
The benefits - When wasted time can be life-threatening
For agencies tasked with securing the safety of constituent's lives and property, public safety solutions from IBM and Avaya can speed responsiveness to both emergencies and day-to-day requests. Our services and solutions can help you:
- Provide higher levels of service, and the interagency interoperability and collaboration expected by government and the public.
- Accept and interact with new forms of communications whether photo, video or text messaging.
- Define a clear roadmap of the processes and tools that best support your strategic goals.
- Support hybrid, multi-platform environments, protecting existing technology investments and allowing your agency to pace your investment to suit your budget.
- Maximize employee productivity.
- Share advanced applications and distribute costs over several sites by networking with other call centers.
The approach - D.C. 911 calls answered within five seconds
Washington, D.C., residents can expect their 911 calls be answered within five seconds thanks to a public safety solution system from IBM and Avaya. With the Unified Communications Center, 99.7% of emergency calls are answered within five seconds, with most calls answered in less than one second. That compares to a national average of about 10 seconds.
The new communications system from IBM and Avaya integrates emergency contact centers for D.C. police, fire and emergency medical service (EMS) responders, which handle an estimated 2.65 million calls annually. The new integrated system eliminates the need to transfer calls between incompatible systems, facilities and agencies, which will save time, reduce the potential for errors and dispatch first responders more quickly and efficiently. It also automatically identifies callers and their location when they place a 911 call, even if they're calling from a cell phone.
And finally, the system provides the ability to collect information so the center can identify trends and patterns, which will give staff insight into the changing needs of the community.
The financial advantage - Enhanced communication for less cost
Rely on IBM and Avaya to deliver enhanced emergency response capabilities designed to enable better control over communications costs and infrastructure investments. Our solution can:
- Enhance interagency collaboration, which can lead to better use of expert resources.
- Consolidate inbound calls to simplify and lower the cost of managing multiple public safety answering points (PSAP) and 911 services.
- Consolidate responder skill pools across jurisdictions to help enable better load balancing during peak periods and make it possible to more easily redeploy and maintain continuous operations.
Technical details
The issues - Implement the latest 911 capabilities
Is your 911 system overworked and outdated? Do multiple calls about the same incident put your system in jeopardy? Lack of interoperability between agencies and legacy technologies on complex networks of proprietary systems place people and property at risk. Public safety solutions from IBM and Avaya provide a flexible, open infrastructure that can support both multiple modes of communication, as well as split-second interagency and cross-jurisdictional collaboration.
The benchmark - What sets us apart from the competition?
IBM and Avaya have been making it easier for public service agencies to communicate at every level for decades—including in our own and many other mission-critical businesses.
- IBM is ranked as a leader in IT services and middleware, and we have strong relationships with leading public safety application providers.
- From servers with security features, security software, confidentiality classifications and passwords to network firewalls, cryptography and smart cards, IBM can provide the tools needed to simplify your mission.
- IBM and Avaya solutions for telephony, unified communications, contact center and communications-enabled business processes are used by more than one million businesses worldwide.
The components - Proven technology for effective emergency responses
Public safety solutions from IBM and Avaya support multiple channels—voice, Web, text, graphics and video—to simplify information sharing and collaboration across agencies and jurisdictions. Solution components can include:
- IBM Converged Communications Services—build a single voice, data and video IP network infrastructure with access to technical and business process expertise, tools, roadmaps and other intellectual property that allow you to confidently and cost-effectively deploy technologies such as:
- IP telephony
- Unified messaging
- IP-based call center operations
- Near real-time collaboration
- IBM WebSphere® software—leverage our integration software platform which includes the servers, services and tools needed to write, run and monitor 24x7 industrial-strength, on-demand Web applications and cross-platform, cross-product solutions.
- Avaya Unified Communication Center—easily access important communications tools and information through virtually any telephone using simple and intuitive speech commands.
- Avaya Contact Center Express—provides cost-effective, easy-to-implement voice, e-mail, Web chat and Short Message Service (SMS) messaging to address multichannel contact center needs.
The implementation - IBM and Avaya power faster, more efficient emergency response
Like most emergency response systems, the Washington D.C. 911 network evolved over time, with communications split between police and fire facilities. Other city agencies handling emergency and non-emergency calls also functioned separately. With nearly 2.65 million 911 and 311 calls annually, the disparate telephony, dispatch and radio infrastructures had inherent limitations that kept agencies from achieving state-of-the-art best practices. 911 in particular suffered from an overly complex routing system that sometimes caused delays in answering.
Now, thanks to a system implemented by IBM and Avaya, 911 calls are answered more rapidly, so the caller rarely even hears a ring tone. While the national average for answering a 911 call is ten seconds, the District now answers over 96% of emergency calls in less than five seconds, with most calls being answered in less than a second.
The cost of ownership - A converged infrastructure can simplify and lower costs
Public safety solutions from IBM and Avaya provide one converged network infrastructure to handle multiple citizen services, as well as routine agency administrative communications. This can simplify and lower the cost of managing multiple public safety answering points (PSAP) and 911 services. Our solutions also provide sophisticated backend and internal capabilities for reporting, continuity and security, and deliver:
- Near real-time performance reporting—provides accurate, up-to-the-minute status reports.
- Continuity—reduces the likelihood of an outage or disruption with flexible redundancy and fail-over options that can speed recovery.
- Security—provides security-rich communications with strong authentication capabilities and encrypting systems such as call set-up exchanges, voice and message contents, conference calls and wireless links.
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Questions? Contact an IBM-SAP specialist.