When you hear the word ‘consolidation,’ the first things that come to mind are somewhat negative: shutting down call centers to create a single larger one; saving money by using fewer staff, fewer systems, and reducing overhead; and so on. While on the surface, the main purpose of consolidation might be to save money, consolidation is actually one of the best ways to improve operations. By that I mean - you can utilize resources more efficiently and more effectively, while improving service to the public.

In this blog published in SMT Online, Jamie Wilson, EMEA Security marketing manager for NICE Systems, examines the future of Command and Control in the UK and asks what lessons might be learned by the emergency services from practitioners in the security world.

I am a single mom. No, a supermom. I like to say I have two jobs – my day job, and my rest of the day job. Most days the lines between the two blur and it all just seems to run together in one long marathon. But with the kind of work I do (marketing) – even if I’m working late, I can at least check my job at the door at the end of the day. Probably not so for those who work in 9-1-1.

Historically, PSAPs (Public Safety Answering Points) have used recording technology to capture and preserve their 9-1-1 and radio communications. Recordings are the crucial link to reconstructing incidents. They recount who said what to whom and when — from the first chaotic moments of a 9-1-1 call to its eventual response and conclusion. But much has changed in the four decades since the first 9-1-1 call was placed. PSAPs now have sophisticated technologies available to them that they could have only dreamed of in the late 1960s. Today, there is vastly more multimedia information available to unlock the incident timeline of what happened, when. And even more is coming with Next Generation 9-1-1. This article, published in the winter edition of Government Buyer magazine, shows how the NICE Inform multimedia incident information management solution is helping PSAPs like the City of Westminster prepare for Next Gen 9-1-1.