Enterprise-Grade E911 Solutions Now Available for UCaaS Providers

13 Aug 2012

When 911 is dialled, the emergency call is delivered to an emergency operator, who answers the call and implements the emergency response. Enhanced 911 (E911) service automatically displays the telephone number and physical location of the 911 caller on the emergency operator's screen. This is unlike Basic 911 service, where the distressed caller has to tell the operator where he or she is calling from. E911 is crucial in circumstances where the caller cannot communicate his or her whereabouts, as it ensures the operator is still able to send emergency response services to the correct location. E911 also involves Selective Routing, whereby the 911 call is routed to the appropriate PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) based on the caller's physical location. PSAPs are dispatch centers staffed by emergency operators, which receive 911 calls and dispatch fire, police, or medical services, depending on the nature of the emergency. PSAPs are generally controlled at the city or county level.

Organizations using IP-PBX systems face certain challenges when it comes to E911, including:

  • Meeting state E911 legislation

  • Ensuring 911 calls are delivered to the right PSAP in the caller's local area

  • Providing reliable E911 support for remote workers

  • Keeping locations of IP phones up-to-date in a simple and efficient manner

  • Notifying on-site security of 911 calls in progress

These challenges have been well met by 911 Enable's E911 enterprise solutions and competitive alternatives. Today, however, many enterprises are making the strategic decision to move some or all of their UC capabilities to the public cloud. One of the key challenges faced by UCaaS providers is implementing a flexible and dependable E911 solution that provides customers with the same E911 experience they would receive from an on-premises solution, while also meeting state and federal E911 legislation. This can be further complicated if the provider needs to deliver and manage E911 support for multiple UCaaS platforms, requiring them to understand and manage various E911 solutions for each platform. This is more likely the rule than the exception. For example, AT&T will support midsize and large enterprises on a platform that combines Cisco HCS for VoIP/voice mail with the AT&T Connect platform. Smaller businesses will be supported with a BroadSoft-based platform. BT is working with both Cisco and Microsoft. And the list goes on as the big UCaaS providers hedge their bets by offering multiple hosting platforms.

911 Enable's solutions help UC hosting providers meet their E911 challenges while keeping a tight rein on TCO. The current solution, just recently announced, focuses in on UCaaS. Here UCaaS is limited to hosted UC wherein each customer is given their own dedicated virtual instance of a UC platform operating on shared hardware located in the UCaaS provider's network. A solution intended for the hosted multi-tenant provider like BroadSoft was launched in October 2011.

UCaaS Solution Components

911 Enable's solution for UCaaS providers consists of two key elements: the Emergency Gateway (EGW) and the Emergency Routing Service (ERS).The ERS may be deployed on its own, or in conjunction with the EGW, to efficiently meet an organization's precise requirements.

Emergency Gateway

The EGW is UCaaS platform-independent E911 management appliance, available as either a hardware or virtualized appliance, which is hosted alongside the UCaaS platforms in the service provider's network. This is the net new component in the current announcement. Up until this launch, the EGW was designed as an on-premises appliance for enterprises. The cloud-based EGW may be viewed as a value-added option available to UCaaS providers to enhance their offering by providing many of the E911 management functions previously limited to enterprises with on-premises IP-PBX systems.

The EGW helps an organization keep track of all its phones, issue security notifications, manage 911 call recording, etc.

  • Automatic IP Phone Discovery: Automatically tracks and assigns locations to IP hard phones, softphones, and wireless phones as they move on the corporate network using layer 2 (switch-based), layer 3 (subnet-based), and/or wireless LAN tracking. The E911 Softphone Locator (ESL) is software that allows the EGW to automatically track the location of on-campus softphones. It also enables E911 support for many advanced UC features such as shared line appearance, extension mobility, concurrent logins, and shared workspaces.

  • Security Desk Routing and Notification: Delivers 911 calls and custom email alerts to on-site security personnel, notifying them of the emergency and providing them with the caller's precise location information.

  • Additional Features: Include call management and reporting features, such as misdial protection and call recording, to allow for improved solution performance and administration.

EGW Pricing

There's a onetime purchase price for the base virtual appliance or the HW appliance, whichever way the customer wants to go. The EGW comes with perpetual license pack for 2,500 end users. As a UCaaS provider's customer base grows, more licenses must be added. A single end-user license is valid across all UC hosted platforms that the service provider has.

Emergency Routing Service (ERS)

ERS is a standards-based call routing system that conforms to all state and FCC regulations, and follows National Emergency Numbering Association (NENA) i2 standards, helping organizations to meet their state and local E911 regulations by delivering 911 calls and location information to over 6,000 PSAPs across the US and Canada. Since 2005, it has delivered 100% up-time while handling an average of 250K 911 calls per year. Redundant datacenters are in New York and Los Angeles.

It's important to emphasize that 911 Enable does not answer calls. They're just connecting 911 callers to the PSAP in their geographic area based on user provisioning information. The ERS allows for the provisioning of 911 caller-location information down to the building, floor, room level, or any other user-identifiable area. To ensure up-to-date ALI (Automatic Location Identification) for all VoIP users, regardless of location, 911 Enable provides a single national ALI database (nALI) that maintains records from all 50 states and Canada. Locations are pre-validated using the Master Street Address Guide (MSAG) and any errors are automatically returned in realtime, along with suggested alternatives. This ensures locations are civic-valid and properly formatted to display at the PSAP. For enterprises with branch offices in different regions, the nALI eliminates the complexity of managing records in different regional ALI databases, simplifying administration and reducing costs.

ERS Pricing

This is a monthly subscription service based on total number of devices provisioned in the ERS cloud for the UCaaS provider, not the number of UCaaS customers.

What This Means to UCaaS Providers

911 Enable's UCaaS solution offers two key differentiators form competing E911 solutions. First, their UCaaS solution has been certified with most major hosted UC platforms available in the market today including: Cisco HCS, Avaya Collaborative Cloud, Microsoft Lync, ShoreTel M5, Alcatel-Lucent and BroadSoft BroadWorks. Second, they have the only end-to-end cloud-based solution on the market. As mentioned above, the cloud-based EGW may be viewed as a value-added option available to UCaaS providers to enhance their offering by providing many of the E911 management functions previously limited to enterprises with on-premises IP-PBX systems. It isn't a necessity. It's a nice to have. In this regard, there are other E911 providers with competitive solutions which should be looked at including: RedSky, Intrado and TCS.

In the UCaaS space 911 Enable goes to market strictly through its direct sales force. However, in the enterprise space, a two-tier disti-reseller model is engaged in addition to its direct channel. The direct channel will not compete with allied resellers who register a particular deal. There are no exclusive reseller carve outs in the enterprise market.

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