Rockefeller Group Technology Solutions, a provider of voice, data, cabling, and Internet services and solutions, is no stranger to good phone service. Its part of the company’s DNA.

 

To further its goal offering good service, the company sought to update its Enhanced, or E-911, service to better accommodate its VoIP needs. Officials said they wanted to make sure that when a tenant places a 9-1-1 call in an office building, emergency responders know the exact location from where it originated. Without E911, the location-based technology that enables emergency responders to pinpoint the whereabouts of people in distress, clients’ safety would be compromised.

 

But RGTS had some challenges. Many customers have remote branch offices spread throughout the United States. In addition, RGTS has a mix of Avaya (News - Alert) and Nortel switches with more than 45,000 stations. So, company officials contacted 911 ETC, an Everett, Wash.-based provider of E911 hosted solutions,to help solve the problem.

 

Thanks to 911 ETC, RGTS found a way to easily transition to a hybrid E911 solution, moving from a traditional Multi-Line Telephone System, or PBX (News - Alert) to an IP-based way of life.

 

RTGS, a longtime 911 ETC customer, already had phones that contained data location within a billing database. To help the firm, 911 ETC wrote a custom loader (Auto-MAC) to accept the data in its existing format. And with RGTS’ work performing hundreds of moves, adds and changes a day that solution helped the company save hours of work, officials said.

 

What’s more, 911 ETC implemented E911 for mobile IP users. Users log into a Web portal and enter their location. And for customers with remote branch offices, 911 ETC gave RGTS an IP based routing solution, which bypasses traditional PS/ALI and can route 911 calls to 99 percent of Public Safety Answering Points in the U.S. This move prevented RGTS from setting up and buying PS/ALI in every single state - a costly expense, 911 ETC said.

 

The company is one example of a growing number of firms that are deploying a hybrid platform to address their E911 needs. Few companies are transitioning all at once to an IP platform, and instead are slowly adding softphones to their PBX systems.

 

911 ETC implemented its Crisis Connect solution in 2005. Since then, Auto-MAC accepts data from RGTS. This, in turn, helps RGTS maintain an accurate database despite the hundreds of MAC’s, which ensures that emergency responders will receive the correct location information when any 911 calls are made.

 

“The Rockefeller Group Technology Solutions (News - Alert), Inc. brand is associated with the highest quality of customer support and satisfaction,” John Tarduno, president and CEO, said. “We continually strive to exceed client expectations. 911 ETC’s Crisis Connect solution is a superb tool for enabling RGTS to meet our daily commitment to our customer base.”