https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • Product Guides
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • Product Guides
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Call Center/Command


Industry giants join forces

Industry giants join forces

Motorola and Microsoft to jointly develop public-safety data applications
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 1st November 2005

Working under a new alliance with Microsoft, Motorola is marketing software it says will help public-safety agencies share mission-critical information more efficiently. The new solutions also make it easier for agencies to move data among different public-safety applications and mine raw data for strategic information, Motorola said.

Last month, the two giants announced that Motorola would develop solutions for the public-safety and criminal-justice market that are built on Microsoft platforms.

In the past, Motorola has built its public-safety products on several different architectures and database systems, said Tim Boyle, vice president for business development at Motorola’s Government and Enterprise Mobility Solutions sector.

Now, Motorola is heading to market with new Microsoft-exclusive applications, Boyle said. For products already developed in a Microsoft environment, such as its computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and records management system (RMS) solutions, Motorola plans enhancements to take better advantage of the latest Microsoft technologies, such as .NET — which provides a framework for developing Web-based services and software — and the Windows Server System, an operating system (OS) and set of related products.

Motorola currently is marketing an integrated suite, called Digital Justice Solutions, built on these Microsoft platforms. The suite includes modules for: RMS; mobile data for field reporting; CAD; mobile messaging, query and dispatch; and corrections management.

Motorola has joined forces with Microsoft for several reasons, Boyle said. One is that many of its customers ask Motorola to interface its CAD and RMS with applications from other vendors, and many of those are built on Microsoft platforms.

The new alliance will give public-safety users “the ability to tie the information that they have available in different systems into one common operating picture,” said Tom Richey, executive director of homeland security for Microsoft’s Worldwide Public Sector. For example, a police officer in the field who was dispatched to a domestic dispute could use his mobile computer to query the jail and court systems for information about the people involved, he said.

Another reason for moving to the Microsoft platform is that, in many cases, public-safety agencies’ IT departments no longer function as stand-alone operations, Boyle said. As they promote an enterprise approach to IT across the entire government operation, chief information officers (CIOs) are getting more involved in public-safety information systems.

“The CIOs are looking for a common platform across the enterprise, where interoperability and communications are optimized,” Boyle said. When IT systems across an entire government use a common software architecture and database technology, those systems are less expensive to operate, and “they don’t have to hire people with multiple skill sets,” he said.

Motorola’s plans for public-safety applications built on Microsoft technology
Year of release Microsoft-based products Components
2005 Digital Justice Solution NetRMS (law records management system)
Cruiser (mobile extension to NetRMS for field-based reporting)
Motorola CAD
Premier MDC (mobile messaging, query, dispatch)
Offendertrak (corrections management solution)
2006 Unified Public Safety Suite CAD, mobile data, records management and corrections management designed on a common operating platform. Suite will offer enriched feature functionality and will be optimized to function with Motorola network and wireless broadband solutions.
2006 Customer Service Request System Not applicable

CIOs also want tools to help them analyze data from public-safety applications. “If they want to import data from a CAD system to do response-time analysis, they want to be able to port that from a Microsoft type of solution to a Microsoft desktop solution, like a spreadsheet, without any difficulty,” Boyle said.

Finally, Motorola and Microsoft are both active in the push for Justice XML, a standard that will allow public-safety agencies working on different IT platforms to exchange data. Standardizing on Microsoft platforms will make it easier for Motorola to comply with that standard as it emerges, Boyle said.

Using Justice XML, Motorola can create an “integration hub” based on the .NET platform that will allow Motorola’s CAD, its RMS and its jail management system to share data, Boyle said. Different agencies and different jurisdictions will be able to access that hub to share data.

Since many portable data devices run on Microsoft operating systems, as Motorola migrates its mobile data technology to the Microsoft platform, “we’ll be able to easily work in the mobile data environment, on the laptop computer solutions in police cars as well as hand-held solutions for the more mobile work force,” Boyle said. Mobile phones that use Microsoft technologies also can form part of a public-safety solution, and moving to Microsoft technology “would certainly help us interface to those solutions as well,” he said.

Motorola expects the relationship to yield new public-safety applications in the future, although none of those has yet moved past the idea stage, Boyle said.

“They could be in areas of on-scene command-and-control capabilities, some areas in the corrections arena, as well as some applications that work in conjunction with the larger applications that will help agencies mine through data and analyze it better.” They could, for example, help police departments predict future criminal activity or help supervisors evaluate employee performance, he said.

One upcoming result of the Motorola/Microsoft alliance will be the Integrated Justice Solution, a Web-based service that lets public-safety agencies in multiple jurisdictions share information easily, Richey said. “No longer am I just making data calls against my set of legacy applications,” he said. “I can quickly expand those data calls against my neighboring regions, cities, states and move very quickly.”

However, Motorola’s move to the newest Microsoft environments does not, in itself, “distinguish them from other players in the market,” said Dan Hawkins, director of public-safety programs at the SEARCH Group Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides technical support to public-safety agencies. But the alliance will likely lead to stronger products as a result of tighter integration, he said.

Joseph Hindman, police technology director at the Scottsdale (Ariz.) Police Department, called the Motorola/Microsoft alliance “a very good move for the customer because I think it adds flexibility. It’s certainly easier to program in the .NET environment,” he said.

Scottsdale Police officials looked hard at Motorola’s Premier CAD system during a procurement in 2004 but ultimately chose another vendor to supply an integrated CAD, RMS and mobile data system, Hindman said.

“Functionality-wise, we were very pleased with what they [Motorola] were offering,” he said. “But when we got under the hood, so to speak, it was some older technology that was being used. So to me, this is an announcement that they’re moving to a state-of-the-art technology platform, and I see that as a good thing.”

Tags: Call Center/Command content Public Safety Wireless Networks

Most Recent


  • AR-based next-gen maps aim to rebalance detail and simplicity
    Every sat-nav user is familiar with the chagrin of missing their turn because the map’s lines and circles don’t resemble the real world. Yandex is blaming maps, not users, for these errors. At its annual conference in December, the company presented its re-designed maps boasting natural-looking 3D objects such as trees, bus stops, colored buildings, […]
  • Vodafone UK starts 'risky' shift to 5G standalone
    Vodafone’s Andrea Dona has unflattering words for some of the IT products that could sit inside his high-performance 5G network. “There are OSS limitations,” said the chief network officer of the UK service provider, referring to operational support systems from unnamed vendors. “If there is full automation on the 5G element, and the OSS is […]
  • ChatGPT may be fastest-growing app of all time, UBS Says
    OpenAI’s immensely popular chatbot ChatGPT may just have broken the record for the fastest-growing app in history, reaching an estimated 123 million monthly active users less than three months after launch. According a research note from UBS shared with AI Business, TikTok took nine months to hit 100 million MAUs and it took Instagram 2.5 years […]
  • Public-safety coalition renews efforts to secure federal NG911 funding
    A coalition of public-safety associations today reiterated its support for federal legislation that would provide the funding needed to pay for 911 centers to migrate from legacy technologies to an IP-based next-generation 911 (NG911) platform that is designed to support multimedia communications, as well as traditional voice calls. Representatives of the Public Safety Next Generation […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Private wireless networks in the US start going public
  • Microsoft patches 6 zero-day vulnerabilities under active attack
  • IoT connectivity spending climbs as COVID-19 cases decline
  • The battle over connected cars drags on

Commentary


How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023

3GPP moves Release 18 freeze date to March 2024

18th January 2023

Do smart cities make safer cities?

  • 1
6th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

AR-based next-gen maps aim to rebalance detail and simplicity dlvr.it/Sj4gdM

7th February 2023
UrgentComm

Vodafone UK starts ‘risky’ shift to 5G standalone dlvr.it/Sj4dPJ

7th February 2023
UrgentComm

ChatGPT may be fastest-growing app of all time, UBS Says dlvr.it/Sj4NfL

7th February 2023
UrgentComm

Public-safety coalition renews efforts to secure federal NG911 funding dlvr.it/ShwGfn

4th February 2023
UrgentComm

Newscan: Cyberattacks on DoE national labs draw lawmaker scrutiny dlvr.it/Shvpw3

3rd February 2023
UrgentComm

The shine begins to wear off 5G private wireless dlvr.it/Shth0P

3rd February 2023
UrgentComm

Phishers trick Microsoft into granting them ‘verified’ Cloud Partner status dlvr.it/Shqngn

2nd February 2023
UrgentComm

Shapeshifting robot can morph from a liquid to a solid dlvr.it/Shqk9K

2nd February 2023

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.