NICE News Special Edition - Volume 2, Issue 4

	UPDATE FROM JIM PARK NICE TELECOMMUNICATORS OF THE YEAR REEDY CREEK EMERGENCY SERVICES SELECTING AN IP RECORDING SOLUTION BEIJING METRO PICTURE YOUR PSAP IN NICE NEWS NICE QUICK CUSTOMER SURVEY - VOIP SEE NICE...




	Contact NICE: Email: Welcome@nice.com On the web: www.nice.com North America: Customer hotline: (888) 217-0593 Customer support: (800) 642-3611 (800) NICE 611 Europe, Middle East, and Africa: +44 (0) 207 2642064 +972 97753800
NICE Systems, Inc. 11480 Commerce Park Drive Second Floor Reston, VA 21091

REEDY CREEK EMERGENCY SERVICES: WORLD-CLASS CUSTOMER CARE FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD

Each year, millions of tourists visit the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. They're treated to a magical experience, thanks to thousands of Disney "cast members" who exemplify Disney's enduring tradition of outstanding guest service. The commitment to service is apparent in Walt Disney World's world-class accommodations and amenities, in the meticulously coiffed and lush resort landscapes, and - most of all - in the ample smiles and friendly demeanor of the Disney staff.

While most guests are far more likely to dial the concierge or front desk than 9-1-1 during their stay at Walt Disney World, they would still be heartened to know that the same commitment to quality service applies to emergency services at Disney, too. Dial 9-1-1 on the premises of Walt Disney World, and your call will be immediately connected to a highly-trained and well-equipped telecommunicator at the Reedy Creek Emergency Services (RCES) communications center.

Established in 1968, Reedy Creek Emergency Services was conceived for the very purpose of providing emergency and non-emergency fire service within the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a special taxing district created by the State of Florida that is responsible for providing various services to District landowners - the largest of which is Walt Disney World Resort - and to the public. RCES is staffed by 200 personnel including fire fighters, fire inspectors, paramedics, EMTs and telecommunicators.

Located adjacent to Walt Disney World's EPCOTŽ, the RCES communications center is the Public Safety Answering Point for the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which encompasses about 25,000 acres in the heart of Central Florida. Emergency calls to the RCES center could come in from visitors or employees of any one of the Walt Disney World theme parks or resorts, or from a handful of other businesses or private residences that are also located on District property.

Reedy Creek Emergency Services: service on par with Disney
The RCES is proud to provide service on par with Disney. "When guests come to the Walt Disney World property, they expect a level of service that they won't get anywhere else - and that ties into our 9-1-1 system as well," explained Assistant Chief Eric Ferrari of Reedy Creek Emergency Services.

With twelve telecommunicators, an average of four or five per shift, the center is big on technology, quality assurance and training. "We have a commitment to being on the cutting edge of technology with everything that we use," said Ferrari. The center, which will soon relocate to a brand new facility, is equipped to the nines - with multi-display monitors, alarm monitoring stations (connected via network to 5,475 alarm points throughout the District), an 800 Mhz Motorola trunked radio system, and an advanced Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system that employs GPS tracking and customized maps of the Walt Disney World complex detailing buildings and waterways.

The RCES center is also outfitted with a specialized Enhanced 9-1-1 system designed specifically to accommodate Walt Disney World's expansive properties (four major theme parks, and over 25,800 hotel rooms in 26 resorts) and Disney's mammoth 70,000 telephone line PBX system. The customized E 9-1-1 system provides the RCES telecommunicators with details that an ordinary system would not provide. For instance, if a call comes in from a hotel property, the system displays the room number, floor, building name and number, hotel name, hotel call-back number, and details on the number of people staying in the room and their native language. This helps the telecommunicator determine the exact location of the caller and the need for an interpreter.

About 450,000 calls come into the center each year, including a combined total of 28,000 fire, rescue and EMS calls. When a call comes in, the call-taker immediately evaluates the caller's situation, and then either transfers the call to the appropriate law enforcement agency, or dispatches the necessary fire suppression or medical assistance. A two-tiered system that employs Medical Assistance Response Carts (located in the theme parks and in Downtown Disney) and ambulances (strategically situated throughout the District) ensures a rapid EMS response.

"At RCES, we're known for a level of customer service that some agencies think is unattainable," said Ferrari. "But our telecommunicators achieve it each and every day."

All of the RCES telecommunicators are certified in EMD (Emergency Medical Dispatching). This means that they're trained to assist callers by providing life-saving medical instructions over the phone before a response unit or EMT can arrive on the scene. "EMD is critical to us in terms of being able to maintain the highest possible level of patient care and customer service," affirmed Ferrari.

To ensure its telecommunicators are following EMD protocols to the letter, RCES routinely reviews recorded EMD calls. The center's NICE recording and replay solution is essential to this quality assurance initiative. "We review as many calls as possible and spend a lot of time with our employees critiquing calls so they can continuously improve their level of customer service," said Ferrari.

RCES purchased its NICE system from Fort Lauderdale, FL-based Replay Systems in early 2004. (Replay Systems is a long-standing partner of NICE Systems and leading supplier of recording solutions throughout the Southeastern United States.)

As part of its routine EMD quality assurance process, each month, the RCES reviews about 100 to 150 9-1-1 calls involving an EMD response. "To become EMD accredited you have to review a certain number of calls," said Ferrari. "That means that my assistant who does the QA review actually has to sit down and generate a random selection of EMD files in the Priority Dispatch system, and then go out and find the audio associated with those calls. The new system makes this an efficient process."

"Once we implemented NICE's Scenario Replay software, we were able to reconstruct a call in a matter of minutes," said Ferrari. The new system has revolutionized the process of reviewing calls - no more hunting and pecking for audio recordings; enhanced search features help the QA reviewer find audio recordings fast. Calls are then graphically displayed on the user interface of the system's replay workstation. "With our new system we're able to see the call on the screen and just point and click and it loads the audio instantly," added Ferrari.

The bottom line: improving efficiency and raising the bar
The system also interfaces with Reedy Creek's 800 MHz Motorola trunked radio system to capture data, such as talkgroup IDs, radio IDs and aliases, which makes it easier to reconstruct incidents involving radio communications.

"With each recorded transmission, we're capturing data. I'm able to see who keyed up, what their alias is, what repeater they're on," explained Ferrari. He says this data is useful in a number of different ways. "If we're experiencing radio interference problems, for example, from one of the wireless providers near our property, I'm able to pinpoint it down to a specific repeater," he said. "It's making us more efficient and improving quality - that's the bottom line."

LEARN MORE...

Learn more about Reedy Creek Emergency Services at www.rcid.org/

Learn more about Replay Systems at www.replaysys.com

Learn more about NICE Systems' solutions for first responders at www.nice.com/solutions/public/first_responder.php