Next-generation dispatch software marks rebrand
Three years after being acquired by the NEC Corporation in a deal worth £475 million, Northgate Public Services has now rebranded to align with its owners.
As of this month, it will now be known as NEC Software Solutions. APD Communications, acquired by Northgate Public Services in January 2019, will also operate under the new name.
Tina Whitley, chief executive officer of NEC Software Solutions, said: “With our new name, we have become closer to an organisation that has a long history of bringing pioneering technology from concept to reality.”
The rebrand comes as the contract for the company’s core policing platform Connect, which provides the backbone of Athena, the largest-ever joint police information sharing project, has been extended by the nine forces involved until 2029.
Athena, the biggest investment in police technology in a more than a decade, allows forces to share information, align processes and share costs.
The Connect platform merges intelligence, investigation management, case preparation and custody data so that it is easier to use and removes time-consuming manual processes. As well as other police systems, it also connects with the Crown Prosecution Service and court systems.
The nine participating forces are Kent Police, Essex Police, Cambridgeshire Police, Bedfordshire Police, Hertfordshire Constabulary, Norfolk Constabulary, Suffolk Constabulary, Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police.
APD Communications marked its rebrand as NEC Software Solutions with the launch of new technology designed to revolutionise the dispatch of emergency services teams.
The cloud-based Dispatch software, developed with input from control room staff, enables dispatchers and call handlers to prioritise and record incident calls, identify the status and location of resources and dispatch them effectively to incidents.
Dispatch enables two-way information sharing between frontline responders and control room operators, can be accessed from any location, and is integrated with the Police National Computer.
The software also identifies duplicate incidents and enables the easy sharing of information with colleagues within the control room as well as other agencies.
Initially available to UK police forces, Dispatch integrates with NEC’s other cloud-based applications on its Public Safety OS platform – Maps and Stream. Maps optimises emergency services’ response time by enables blue light teams to reach locations quickly with pinpoint accuracy, while Stream allows 999 callers to live-stream video from emergency incidents.
Dispatch also integrates with the Cortex communications control system, the contact management solution Aspire, and the Connect platform.
NEC Software Solutions director of control room, Rhiannon Beeson said: “Our new Dispatch software has been built with control room employees’ feedback throughout the development process to ensure it is the very best it can be at an operational level, meeting the needs of the emergency services now and into the future.
“This is a truly next-generation solution which will revolutionise how control room teams dispatch resources to incidents. It pulls data from multiple sources in real-time and presents them on one screen, integrating seamlessly with other systems to provide a full end-to-end control room solution and deliver enhanced operational efficiency.
“All of this means control room teams are better informed and equipped than ever before to protect people and communities.”
Dispatch is also compatible with Tetra (terrestrial trunked radio) and LTE (long term evolution) networks, future-proofing it for the Home Office’s new Emergency Services Network.
Other features include the ability to manage the full lifecycle of an incident, from creation to dispatch and reporting, ‘tagging’ control room colleagues in an incident log for support or input, and the facility for operators to see who is on shift and available to respond, as well as their skillsets.