If you've got a voice-over IP phone at home through a company like Vonage (News - Alert) or your cable provider, you'll know that when you installed the phone, you had to take extra steps to indicate that you understood that picking up the phone and dialing 9-1-1 in an emergency could be problematic. Because of the nature of IP telephony, emergency dispatch centers won't necessarily know where you are, and where to send emergency services. For that reason, many VoIP providers ask that you carefully register and maintain your current address (many VoIP providers are now required by law to sign their customers up for special E911 services) so if you do call 9-1-1 from your Internet-based phone service, emergency services know where to show up with assistance.

So you know why it's important at home, but what about at work? If your company or organization has more than a few employees, some of them may not even know that the phones are using a Internet-based phone technology and a PBX (News - Alert) to connect individual extensions throughout the organization. As a result, they may not understand that they need to stick close to the phone and provide an operator with a street address and specific location inside the building in case of an emergency. Even if the company or building has a way to connect to special E911 services, if the building is large, emergency workers may have no idea which floor, wing or room the phone called was placed from.

A new study conducted by a market research firm found that less than one-third of IT managers in K through 12 schools and higher education institutions had enabled a E911 response system that would enable a call from the school or building to provide the precise location of the caller. Though 70 percent of the IT managers surveyed were concerned about risks and liability associated with their PBX technology, an astonishing 78 percent had done nothing to mitigate risk due to this lack of knowledge.

E911 management solutions provider RedSky (News - Alert) is looking to raise awareness of this lack of E911 preparedness. The company, which developed and patented the first automated solution to manage 911 location data, offers on-premise and cloud-based software solutions and services for virtually any telephony platform to help large and small organizations of all types capture, manage and deliver the detailed location information necessary to provide effective 911 emergency response, comply with state E911 regulations and meet business requirements for safety, risk management and efficiency.

To help schools and higher education institutions understand the importance of properly managing their E911 preparedness, RedSky will be exhibiting at the upcoming ACTUA (Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education) Annual Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, Florida.