Why Hexagon Became RapidSOS Ready: Enhanced Emergency Services for Nearly a Billion People

by Steve Marz, Vice President of Global Product Management

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve Marz is the Senior Vice President of Global Product Management for Hexagon’s Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial division. Steve is a versatile leader with international success developing and implementing strategies for business growth, revenue and profit through M & A activity and internal initiatives.

For almost 30 years, Hexagon has been on a mission to ensure the safety and security of people around the world. Today, our solutions help to protect nearly a billion people – a tall order if you ask me. 

Being a world leader in computer-aided dispatch (CAD) comes with a sense of global responsibility, with agencies from New York to New Zealand relying on us to create solutions to help them deliver the best services possible to the people in their communities. This is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and one we consider when selecting partners. We set the bar high, seeking out those who bring complementary solutions that enhance the end-user experience for our customers, which has positive impacts for the public. 

RapidSOS’s capabilities made it a natural partner for us. Its enhanced caller location information and supplemental caller data as an integrated component of HxGN OnCall® Dispatch, our industry-leading CAD solution, provides dispatchers and first responders the real-time data needed to protect citizens. Agencies can reduce response times, increase situational awareness, and improve breadth and accuracy of available information.

Why Hexagon became RapidSOS Ready

As more emergency calls are originating from mobile phones, the need for accurate location data is growing. As a RapidSOS Ready CAD system, HxGN OnCall Dispatch can now establish caller location quicker and more accurately using advanced mobile location (AML). When a call comes in via mobile phone, it is immediately represented on the map within HxGN OnCall Dispatch to assist the call-taker in locating the caller. Having location data decreases call-handling times, so resources can be dispatched to the scene faster and more effectively

Additionally, a call-taker can request multiple location updates from a caller, which will show if the person is traveling as they are talking to the Emergency Communication Center (ECC) . For example, if they are following a stolen car. The caller locations are stored, and a history is shown as a snail trail on the HxGN OnCall Dispatch map. 

The RapidSOS Portal, accessible within HxGN OnCall Dispatch, also contains additional intelligent data that can assist the call-taker in creating the event and the dispatcher in sending appropriate resources to the emergency. The ability to view and receive additional rich data provides more incident context for the responding resource to assess the situation prior to arriving on scene.

Each of these capabilities benefits public safety agencies, allowing them to better serve the citizens and visitors of their cities. With 1 in 9 people protected by Hexagon public safety solutions, this partnership has the potential to make a positive impact around the world. Emergencies can be resolved faster, impacts on communities can be reduced, and resources can be used more effectively.

As an existing partner with RapidSOS for our I/CAD solution, we are proud to expand our partnership to include HxGN OnCall Dispatch. We look forward to this next chapter of aiding emergency response together.  

To learn more about our partnership, read our press release here.

To learn more about sending your life-saving data to first responders through the RapidSOS Platform, talk to an expert today.