RedSky (News - Alert) recently issued a good white paper on E911, finding that E911 implementation is a critical security and corporate liability issue that must be addressed... promptly.

True enough, and the paper presents “the factors that enterprises should consider when evaluating E911 including the risk and liability factors, regulatory issues, what the experts are saying, the benefits accrued by enterprises that have Implemented E911 and the solutions available.”

With basic 9-1-1 service, it notes, “an emergency dispatcher knows only the billing address for the phone. But if an enterprise has a multi-line telephone system, the billing address may be quite different from the location of the 9-1-1 caller.”

E911 allows enterprises to create location records (ALI) for every telephone or every Emergency Response Location, the paper says, adding that E911 “enables the delivery of a detailed location record to 9-1-1 dispatchers so they have not only the address of the building but detailed location information that describes the location of the 9-1-1 caller, such as the conference room in the west hallway on the 12th floor.”

Lots of other issues of concern to enterprises, such as security: “According to a recent survey of major corporations, workplace violence is the primary security concern. Nearly a third of respondents say they have observed workplace violence in the past year. In fact, about 1,000 people are killed each year because of personal attacks in the office.”

The paper has a lot of useful advice on selecting your 9-1-1 system, including things to think through and identify: What do I really want to accomplish with E911? What regulatory requirements do I need to meet? Do I have a specific “use case” that is a pain point? How does E911 need to fit in with a larger security initiative or organization? Does my enterprise prefer to buy products and services as a capital purchase, a capital lease or an operating lease? Are we a purely hosted environment?

Such advice is helpful, since a wide variety of E911 solutions are available today. “For example, E911 can be implemented most simply by purchasing a PS-ALI account from the local LEC. This will allow an enterprise to put ALI records into the LEC’s ALI database. If you are a small enterprise with a limited number of phones and the phones never move, this might be the right solution for you.”