RapidSOS launches app store with public-safety software partners

RapidSOS today announced the launch of the RapidSOS Partner Network, an application store of software solutions that integrate with RapidSOS to deliver critical information to 911 personnel, command centers and public-safety officers that is designed to improve emergency-response efforts.

While RapidSOS is known for delivering data tools to 911 centers and partnering with other solution providers, the RapidSOS Partner Network is being established to make it easier for emergency call centers (ECCs) to access new capabilities through an app-store experience, according to Jessica Reed, vice president of global sales for RapidSOS.

“It’s a new community of RapidSOS Ready public-safety software vendors, and they are delivering their product offerings through RapidSOS Portal,” Reed said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “For the ECCs, they’re able to access all of these different public-safety technologies into the one unified platform, thereby solving that multiple-screen problem. It’s an enhancement on top of that existing community that we have.

“For public-safety software companies, it means that they can partner with us to seamlessly distribute their offerings to the rather fragmented North American 911 ecosystem. We wanted to provider our partners with an easier experience, in terms of the distribution. For the public-safety agency’s 911 first responders, they’re able to receive these cutting-edge technologies through this one platform.”

RapidSOS is free to ECCs, and access to the RapidSOS Partner Network also will not involve any cost, although 911 centers will have to pay the software partners, if they use them. Meanwhile the public-safety software vendors will pay RapidSOS to be part of the new partner network, according to Reed.

“The ECCs will be paying the partners for access to their tools—it will be available through RapidSOS, but they will be paying the partners,” she said. “In terms of the financial arrangement between these Partner Network partners and RapidSOS, they do pay us to provide that distribution channel for them.”

To be part of the RapidSOS Partner Network, public-safety software vendors must work with RapidSOS to ensure integration, as well as demonstrate levels of data privacy and security, Reed said.

“Our platform is mission critical, and we take that incredibly seriously—data privacy, security,” Reed said. “Every single partner—regardless of whether we’re talking about the B2B partners or these Partner Network partners—for them to be RapidSOS Ready, they have to have gone through our vetting.”

There are 20 initial members of the RapidSOS Partner Network—a platform designed to build upon the existing RapidSOS network of public-safety software companies like Motorola Solutions, Hexagon and Central Square—that hope to gain access to the more than 5,000 ECCs that use RapidSOS.

Of this group of 20 companies, the following are available immediately through the new partner network:

One company that is expected to be available on the RapidSOS Partner Network early next year is Axon.

“Many agencies already rely on both Axon and RapidSOS to manage emergency response,” Jeff Kunins, Axon chief product officer and executive vice president of software, said in a prepared statement.

“By enabling our solutions to work seamlessly together, we empower first responders with a single source for mission-critical information, as well as the ability to deliver industry-leading tools for agencies to securely and more efficiently manage resources and thereby respond faster than ever.”

RapidSOS CEO and co-founder Michael Martin said that he believe the RapidSOS Partner Network is reflective of the company’s philosophy and evolution.

“RapidSOS was built over the past eight years through partnerships with every major public-safety software company and thousands of first responders,“ Martin said in a prepared statement. “I’m excited to expand on that work by allowing our partners to distribute best-in-class technologies directly into the existing software systems used by 911 agencies across North America.”