E911 Featured Article

E911's RedSky Intros RedBox Appliance for Enterprises

By Michael Dinan, TMCnet Editor

Addressing an increasingly critical need as more and more enterprises face frequent E911 compliance and liability issues, a Chicago-based provider of enhanced 911 solutions today introduces a new, all-in-one, low-cost appliance.

 

Officials at RedSky Technologies, Inc. say their “RedBox” appliance (pictured below) is designed to help organizations that are required to comply with multi-line telephone system or “MLTS” E911 legislation, or who simply want to protect their employees in case of an emergency. E911 uses location-based technology to pinpoint the exact whereabouts of distressed callers.

 

More than a dozen states – most recently Massachusetts and Virginia – have passed legislation requiring compliance with E911. Even in states that don’t have those laws on the books yet, experts say, E911 liability issues are increasingly a concern for companies.

 

According to Nick Maier, RedSky’s (News - Alert) senior vice president, RedBox delivers fully automated phone location tracking and location record management for organizations with a single PBX (News - Alert) or call server and up to 1,000 phones. With RedBox, organizations can now be E911 compliant in as little as 48 hours, Maier said during VoiceCon, an industry event that’s being held this week in San Francisco.

 

“RedBox packages RedSky’s award-winning enterprise E911 experience into an all-in-one, automated hardware solution that’s very simple to implement and priced for small and medium-sized organizations who need to comply with E911 legislation and protect their employees and visitors,” said Maier.

 

The compliance appliance comes bundled with E911 Anywhere Network Services, RedSky’s national 9-1-1 call routing and location update service that routes 9-1-1 calls to any public safety answering point, or “PSAP” in the United States. E911 Anywhere eliminates the need to buy PS-ALI or 9-1-1 call routing services from the local LEC and it handles national 9-1-1 call routing as well as location updates. E911 Anywhere Network Services are billed monthly based on the number of phones managed.

 

The RedBox appliance offers wide flexibility.

 

For organizations who want to use PS-ALI, the appliance offers the most complete suite of PS-ALI interfaces in the industry, enabling automated ALI updates to any PS-ALI database in the United States.

 

As noted above, the RedBox appliance meets or exceeds all MLTS E911 legislation and regulations and even supports nomadic softphone users who use RedSky’s Softphone Location Determination Application (sold separately) to update their location as they travel outside the enterprise. An on-site call notification feature sends SMS text or email to on-site security and administrators the moment a 9-1-1 call is placed. RedBox is available directly through RedSky or telecom resellers nationwide.

Michael Dinan is a group managing editor for TMCnet, overseeing TMCnet's Web editorial team and covering news in the IP communications, CRM and VoIP industries. He also oversees production of e-Newsletters in the areas of 4G wireless technology and smart products. To read more of Michael's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Michael Dinan

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