In an increasingly mobile society that continues to replace landlines with cellular phones and smartphone devices, how does one ensure that he or she can easily be found when a 9-1-1 call must be placed?

 

At the same time, companies continue to add new, dispersed locations where billing addresses differ from physical addresses. How can emergency responders find a distressed caller if information is skewed?

The answer is in enhanced 9-1-1 or "E911," and leaders in government, education and the corporate world are implementing the proper measures to ensure emergency preparedness and security for their operations, communications and people are on the same platform as today's technology solutions.

When landlines were the only telephone communication available, the 9-1-1 system worked well to ensure emergency responders could get to the person calling. In a multi-line telephone systems however, things became more complicated as the billing address of the location may differ greatly from the location of the 9-1-1 caller. Enter mobility into the mix and determining location can seem almost impossible.

While humans are an organization's most valuable assets, not all organizations have taken the necessary steps to protect its people. The FCC (News - Alert) has been encouraging E9-1-1 adoption for years, yet it is just recently that the tide is turning toward greater adoption. Organizations of all sizes and in all verticals are starting to understand the important reasons for adopting E9-1-1.

A recent RedSky (News - Alert) white paper, A Closer Look at E91: Legal, Regulatory and Technology issues surrounding Enterprise E911, examines four key reasons to adopt E9-1-1 systems. The first and most important reason: the protect employees and assets. The organization can better protect its employees and assets from loss due to fire, an act of violence or a medical emergency when E9-1-1 is in place.

Second, E9-1-1 helps to protect the enterprise from a lawsuit that could be brought in the event first responders are not able to find the individuals in danger due to an oversight by the company. In this litigious society, companies cannot afford to be vulnerable to multi-million dollar suits.

Third, owners and managers are being held to a greater standard of care regarding the safety of their employees, tenants and guests. It is a matter of business ethics to provide employees with E9-1-1 protection.

Consider the expert advice from Mark Lies, a partner in the Chicago law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP. An expert in Occupational Safety and Health Administration law, Lies said that OSHA could leverage a general regulation to cite employers and issue penalties that range from $7,000 to $70,000 per day for failure to protect their employees by providing E9-1-1.

 

Finally, it is the law in many states. In fact, 16 states have now adopted some form of E9-1-1 legislation for office environments. Such laws generally require an enterprise to define the location of callers within their buildings so emergency responders can provide prompt response - essential when a life is at stake.

"I will tell you, as you might expect, that common law in this country is very dynamic and it changes with technology," Lies said. "So as new devices come onto the marketplace, there are new issues regarding liability."

Those companies who have not yet taken the steps to start implementing E9-1-1 within the enterprise are not only putting employees at risk, they are also risking putting the organization in a vulnerable position. Lies noted that more legislation is on the way, so companies may fare much better by making their own decisions before they are forced to by law.

 

Go here to read the full white paper.