Despite a difficult year for many businesses navigating a slower economy, one Chicago-based provider of enhanced 911 solutions came through in fine form, officials say, thanks to timely product launches, a focus on targeted vertical markets and the emergence of new legislation that requires the E911 services.

 

Year-end highlights for RedSky Technologies include the launch of products and services to support UC and SIP clients, E911 client apps for smartphones and the launch of a service that helps groups such as enterprises accept and route 9-1-1 calls from anywhere in the nation, according to Nick Maier, the company’s senior vice president.

 

In an interview with TMCnet, printed in full below, Maier also pointed to the launch of RedSky’s (News - Alert) new all-in-one, low-cost “RedBox” appliance, which 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.

 

“With RedBox, enterprises can be E911 compliant in as little as 48 hours,” Maier said.

 

Maier also went into some detail about the new state E911 laws on the books and offered his viewpoint on what RedSky is expecting for 2010.

TMCnet:  We know you recently introduced your RedBox appliance and that 2009 was another big year for RedSky – in part, because the profile of E911 solutions is rising. Talk to us about what your major announcement was this year – whether a deployment, partnership, product or service.

 

Nick Maier: 2009 has been an incredible year for new E911 products and services. RedSky has launched products and services to support Unified Communications (News - Alert) clients, SIP clients, WiFi voice clients, as well as E911 client applications for smartphones. We launched our E911 Anywhere Network Service that can accept and route a 9-1-1 call anywhere in the United States, which is especially suited for enterprises that are consolidating their entire voice network into major datacenters and connecting all locations using IP trunking. Finally, we launched RedBox, a low-cost E911 compliance solution for small and medium enterprises. With RedBox, enterprises can be E911 compliant in as little as 48 hours.

NM: Massachusetts passed an E911 law that requires businesses, education institutions, and government agencies to provide E911 protection to employees, students and visitors. Also, the Virginia state E911 regulations went into effect. These are two big states with large populations for enterprise that now need to implement E911 to be complaint. The Avaya acquisition of Nortel (News - Alert) is huge, but since RedSky is certified with all Avaya and Nortel platforms, is doesn’t affect our product strategy which is to provide the most comprehensive enterprise E911 solutions of any vendor in the market.

TMCnet:  We entered this year in a recession that’s seeing signs of lifting. How did the economic slowdown affect RedSky, if at all?

NM: RedSky did quite well in 2009 by focusing on key verticals and by taking on next-generation projects. With all the new products and services we developed in 2009, we are very well positioned for 2010 and beyond.

NM: In 2010, we expect the economy to grow slightly but we expect to grow nicely and take market share. We have some exciting new integrations and products underway which we will launch in 2010 which will add to our momentum.