Transforming 9-1-1 Dispatch Operations

Answering 9-1-1 calls and dispatching the right personnel to respond to emergency situations is crucial for municipalities. In most cases, emergency centers are staffed with municipal employees or police officers who require significant training to understand telecommunication operations or complex technologies. Consequently, they spend a huge amount of resources and time overseeing, managing, staffing communications centers, and training 9-1-1 dispatchers instead of focusing on their primary mission of keeping peace and enforcing the law.

IXP Corporation, a public safety managed service company, is changing this traditional paradigm by providing municipalities with industry-standard 9-1-1 dispatch operations as a managed service. The company hires experienced talent for every position and ensures 24/7 service with guaranteed contractual performance metrics. It uses the highest quality accredited training programs to achieve this goal and resolves the challenges related to budget, operations, and technology changes while ensuring financial predictability, reduced costs, and improved operational efficiency.

Offering a collective set of services, including consulting, technology integration, and 9-1-1 managed services, IXP begins each client engagement by assessing the governance, operations, and technology of their emergency communications center. It uses a system assurance integration framework (SAIF^®) methodology that aligns with industrystandard best practices and ensures timely and cost-effective management of projects. The delivered business case includes all the elements a community requires to improve their 9-1-1 services including estimates for long-term costs and implementation schedule.

Following a fixed-priced, multi-year contract model, IXP ensures cost-efficiency by bundling together all expenses associated with 24/7/365 staffing and management of an emergency communication center. This includes routine overtime, uniforms, hiring, training, and backfilling during time off.

Municipalities also save between 15 to 20 percent of their operating budget costs by eliminating long-term pension and healthcare liabilities for communications center staff as well as all aspects of HR management. In addition, municipalities can deploy their law enforcement and fire personnel back into the field to provide the community services they have been trained for.

“Our clients rely on us to meet their public safety technology and emergency communication services and reduce their responsibilities,” says Bill Metro, chairman and CEO of IXP.

For instance, IXP delivered unparalleled call-taking and dispatch services in a fixed-price contract for over ten-years to Chattahoochee River 911 Authority. Originally, unhappy with their previous County service provider, the Authority approached IXP to explore some outsourcing concepts. They worked closely with their stakeholders to plan, design, build, furnish, staff, refresh, implement, and operate a consolidated 9-1-1 center through a turnkey solution. IXP developed a business case outlining its approach, including ways the municipality could generate subscriber revenue, and implemented the emergency communications center plan along with the necessary technologies to fulfill the cities 9-1-1 call-taking and dispatching requirements. In addition, IXP recruited, hired, and trained 65 telecommunicators and management staff to operate the center on a 24/7 basis. Currently, it is in charge of ChatComm, the country’s first fully outsourced private-sector 9-1-1 communications center.

Our clients rely on us to meet their public safety technology and emergency communication services and reduce their responsibilities

Dedicated to driving maximum value for clients, IXP has evolved its technical services over the past 23 years to offer a broad spectrum of project lifecycle services, from analysis, design, and implementation to long-term management of the emergency centers and staffing.

“The communities we serve are experiencing higher levels of customer satisfaction and customer service excellence,” says Larry Consalvos, president and COO of IXP.

Clients also experience a significant reduction in the number of people contacting them with complaints about their services and responses. Together with the help of a public-private partnership model and a vision of making communities safer, IXP continues to deliver creative, practical, and affordable 9-1-1 solutions, providing new vitality to the public services offered to the communities.