Q&A with Alex Richardson of IHS Markit about control-room, public-safety trends
What is in this article?
Q&A with Alex Richardson of IHS Markit about control-room, public-safety trends
Why should industry professionals be interested in this report?
Our command-and-control-room research offers very comprehensive insight into an incredibly diverse and dynamic market. Not only are there vast differences between the individual technology markets, but also between macro-regions and even between countries within the same region.
Often, technology vendors are very focused on a specific geography, vertical or technology, and while they may be experts in that domain, they may not have the depth of insight into other markets. This is where our research comes in.
We speak with vendors across the ecosystem, from CAD suppliers to voice dispatch—large and small—across the globe. We end up interviewing experts at about 20-30 different firms per edition of the study and attend various industry events like IWCE, Critical Communications World, IACP and other security tradeshows & conferences.
What this means is that we have a truly detailed picture of the market, which offers insight that industry professionals may not be able to get otherwise. Our clients use our reports for a variety of reasons: some to better understand the competitive environment, others to assess new geographic markets and others to understand the impacts of disruptive technologies & trends. Often, they plug our data directly into their own models to guide their forecasting and enhance strategic decision-making.
As competition intensifies, are you seeing any trends for new technologies entering the market?
Yes, there are a few:
- Cloud—With the control-room-consolidation trend, tight budgets and the need to deploy technology faster than ever before, cloud has become an area generating significant interest. In the past, especially on the public safety side, agencies were hesitant to use cloud services, because of the fear that it wasn’t secure enough. Now, because of budget constraints, it’s not always feasible for an agency to store all of its incident data, video, etc., n premise, because of the high costs associated with this route. On top of the cost benefits, cloud is much more scalable, meaning users and be added on or taken off quite easily. Cloud also allows control rooms to share data much more easily and pursue virtual consolidation where a physical consolidation may be impractical. We’re also seeing more and more solutions such as CAD, GIS and analytics offered via cloud, and often these are a substitute for the existing on-premise versions.
- Broadband devices—The deployment of broadband networks like FirstNet are making access to rich, multimedia data for first responders a reality. Whereas in the past, when the radio was the main communications device for these personnel, tablets and ruggedized smartphones are quickly becoming an alternative.
- Video integration within control rooms—We’ve been witnessing more and more video integration with CAD systems. For big city agencies, this is a huge differentiator, because they can get an actual view of the field attached to a CAD incident.
- Transition to IP-based call-taking—This is opening up the market for various public-safety applications and different forms of contacting emergency services.
Why is control-room consolidation important to the market?
Some people will argue this point, because consolidation is sometimes associated with layoffs and eliminating certain positions. While it is true that this is sometimes the case, it is often negligible and agencies generally try to work around this by attrition through retirement and/or building in additional job duties. In most dispatch centers, for instance, dispatchers and call-takers will be transferred to other agencies, because the organizations want to keep the skill sets. Rarely are there massive layoffs.
There are several benefits to consolidation. Among them are the cost savings that can be achieved – for instance, reducing duplicate spend on comparable systems and maintenance, as well as personnel. Agencies can also gain greater visibility into operations when working under one roof, because data can be shared more seamlessly. Often, an agency is also able to upgrade its equipment more often, because of pooled budget resources. Overall, this creates great efficiencies, because better technology can be employed, resources can be dispatched more effectively, and taxpayer dollars are used in a more impactful manner.
Consolidation doesn’t always have to be physical. Increasingly, we are hearing cases where control rooms are being consolidated and sometimes managed virtually. Estonia is the example I like to use. They have one control room in each province, of which there are 4. Each is connected virtually by a “centralized control room.” All calls/incidents are picked up by this center and routed to the provincial control room, based on the situation. This is the type of model I see going forward for many countries.
What are the key challenges new technologies are addressing?
Resource sharing & interoperability—Cloud and CRM-type software.
Gaining intelligence out of vast amounts of data analytics on video, via GIS and on records databases.
More efficient dispatching—GIS platforms with different “layers” on a map.
Better call/contact handling—Next-generation 911/112 initiatives are helping transition emergency call-taking infrastructure to IP, which provides the ability to handle images, texts, social media from callers. This is also working at improving caller-location identification, which is currently a huge issue in the United States.
Faster dispatching—Automated alerts coming from sensors and video surveillance, which create a CAD incident and feed into a PSIM platform.
Being better prepared for incidents in the field—Broadband devices and access to more data
For deeper insight, you can get the full Command & Control Rooms Report for 2017 as part of the Command & Control Rooms Intelligence Service – Annual from IHS Markit.