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Throughout our lives, we form impressions, opinions, and ideas. At a very early age, my father ingrained in me the postulation that, ‘Any job worth doing, was worth doing the best of your ability’. Granted, as the typical pig-headed, know-it-all teenager at the time, I never realized that those thoughts and ideas formed who I was going to be as a person, and are the core tenants of what I believe in today.
Looking back, Public Safety has always been a large part of my life. Since my teenage years as a 1st responder on my local squad, then as an EMT, to my job as a dispatcher and a special officer, and beyond, I remained close to that industry completely gobsmacked by the lack of tech and automation deployed to solve simple problems. Throughout my IT career, I kept gravitating back to these inefficiencies questioning the proprietary siloed approach that seemed to be the norm rather than the exception.
In the ’80s as a police dispatcher, I used to rack my brain during the midnight shifts trying to comprehend WHY technology couldn’t provide me with the information I needed to do my job better? As a telephone PBX installer, I had always recognized the need for universal access to 9-1-1 and installed the appropriate programming so that access codes were never required for 9-1-1. This was a simple task, however getting the location data to the PSAP was still a mystery, to me. I had no idea how little information was being provided to the PSAP, never crossed my mind how it got from Point A to B.
Since a humble establishment in 1968, the task for the 9-1-1 network was simple: Make a 9-1-1 call reach the local 9-1-1 center PSAP from any phone. It wasn’t until later in the ’80s where location requirements were introduced, and the deployment of Enhanced or E9-1-1. Location was provided and it was the onus of the telephone companies to provide that information. After all, they knew where each line was installed, and the telephone numbers assigned to them. And it was here, where the ‘mission of 9-1-1’ initially got lead astray. You see, as technology progressed and cellular was developed – our devices became mobile. The interrelation of a telephone number and the location of the caller was a valid assumption.
In the Enterprise, the widespread deployment of VoIP technology caused a gradual drift into the next lane to become a hard right. Conversely, 9-1-1 continued straight and true creating a huge dichotomy between the requirements of the mission and the network capabilities to deliver the solution. Out of this environment, grew an opportunity to innovate, however, not everyone remains innovative, especially with corporate profits on the line. For this reason alone, it is imperative that enterprise IT administrators understand, or assign someone to understand, the public safety requirements in the technology that solves the problem. Without that internal knowledge, even the best staff runs the risk of being hoodwinked by an excellent magic show, not only creating a false sense of security but siphoning valuable financial resources out of a budget in the name of public safety.
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Now, some 45 years after my father taught me that valuable life lesson and a decade after his time here was over, I’m still applying it every day. I’ve stayed true to my mission of providing the most functional and feature-rich solution for enterprise public safety that is physically possible today. While others try to lay claim to the concepts I developed and introduced, they know quite well that they did nothing but follow in my footsteps.
Rather than trying to sell my solution, I educate the masses. I learn from my customers. I understand what they need to deliver during an emergency. Where I do not create, I think that I inspire others to do so. This is why my relationship with RapidSOS has existed since the beginnings of that company. This is why my friends at RapidDeploy continue down their path, and this is where the technology that I offer today can easily augment any other solution on the market or replace it in its entirety. It is also why our solution seamlessly integrates into one popular PBX provider platform yet remains open and interoperable with any vendor that chooses to consume our services.
One of the things that impress me the most about 911inform is that they share my lofty goals and requirements for a sustainable product. I believe that this is one of the main reasons why we were proud enough to win the Frost & Sullivan’s 2020 North America New Product Innovation Award in the enterprise safety solutions market. The management team at 911inform has agreed to make this report available to the masses at no cost.
You can download a copy HERE.
Once you understand what the solution does, how it performs, and witness the exciting new functionality of being able to GEOFENCE specific property lines and get notified of cellular 9-1-1 calls that occur inside of that Geofence, you’ll agree that the 911inform solution is the most technically advanced solution on the market today. Not only that, the solution is deployed now with proven installations. In fact, the product was added to the NJ State Contract with published order codes through Avaya, an industry first for NJ.
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Being around the longest is only valuable if the company continues to innovate. Those that can’t figure out the future, will just stagnate on the shelf. While others copy what we do, their innovation can only go so far. Not only from their lack of experience, but from their lack of network partners that are required to deliver the payloads to PSAPs.
If you’re investigating LIFE-SAFETY SOLUTIONS, shouldn’t you look at the best?
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The World According to Fletch . . . 