Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Avaya Helps Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Deliver on its Commitment to Public Safety

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 07 Apr 2004 14:43:19 -0400

Avaya Helps Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Deliver on its Commitment to Public
Safety

* IP telephony solution supports rapid response, will link over 60
fire-rescue stations, reduces costs and provides continuity of
operations for the largest emergency services team in the Southeast
* Cost-effectively extends advanced communications capabilities to other
high-profile county agencies

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Avaya Inc.
(NYSE: AV), a leading global provider of communications networks and
services for businesses, is helping Florida's Miami-Dade Fire Rescue
(MDFR) team to deliver on its commitment to public safety and to extend
its new, state-of-the-art communications capabilities to other
high-profile county agencies.

With more than 1,800 employees and a coverage area of almost 2,000
square miles, MDFR is the seventh largest emergency response unit in the
U.S.  The department serves more than two million residents and
businesses within the county and its 25 municipalities -- responding to
more than 191,000 emergency calls in 2002 alone.

The experiences of September 11 influenced MDFR's decision to upgrade
its communications network.  The department wanted a highly reliable
solution capable of handling sudden, large surges in call traffic and
providing "fail-safe" communications continuity even in the face of a
local or national catastrophe.  The agency's sprawling territory made it
imperative that any new communication network be simple and
cost-effective to administer, allowing MDFR to focus its time and
resources on emergency response.  North American Communications
Resources Inc. (NACR), an Avaya Platinum BusinessPartner and four-time
winner of BusinessPartner of the Year, designed a converged, Internet
protocol (IP) telephony solution that allowed MDFR to migrate from the
agency's existing Avaya communications platform to a new, high-capacity
Avaya Media Server with Avaya Communication Manager IP telephony
software.  The server includes a backup processor for survivability,
delivers 50 times the processing power of the previous platform, and has
the ability to manage tens of thousands of calls simultaneously.  Avaya
Media Gateways installed at larger Division offices provide the local
backup the agency required.  If the primary servers fail for any reason,
the local gateways continue to provide uninterrupted service.  The media
server and gateways will distribute Avaya Communication Manager software
to each of Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue sites, which include 60 stations and
the Miami-Dade County Emergency Operations Center, the "eye of the
storm" for coordinating public and private agencies and activities in
times of trouble. Avaya Communication Manager software supports more
than 700 distinct telephony features-from malicious call tracing to
built-in conferencing capabilities that allow MDFR to set up conference
calls on the fly.  The Avaya Extension to Cellular application, which
automatically bridges calls made to an office phone to a cellular phone,
has proven particularly popular with MDFR Battalion Chiefs.

"Our Battalion Chiefs think it's incredible since they can get calls
whether they're in the fire truck, in the back room at the station or in
their office," said Michael Crisler, MDFR's telecommunications
director.  "They can answer the call on their cell phone, walk back into
the office and pick up the same call on their office line with no
interruption." By reducing administration costs and eliminating
unnecessary toll lines, the Avaya solution is estimated to save the
county about $1 million over five years.  The new converged voice and
data network and Avaya IP phones at each site eliminates the need for
individual key systems and multiple phone lines in each location, which
also reduces costs for administration and maintenance by up to $150 per
station each month.

The ease of operations has allowed MDFR to support the entire
telecommunications network with a single manager, instead of the
predicted, 2.5 full-time personnel.  Even as the "lone gunman," Crisler
has slashed the time and costs required to handle requests for moves,
adds and changes.  Three-week turnaround times and price tags of $50 to
$75 per move are a thing of the past.  Instead, Crisler uses a simple
web interface to reassign a port, while end users simply plug their
phones in at the new location.  "Now 99 percent of our moves, adds and
changes are done before the next day - and 85 percent of them are
accomplished within the hour," Crisler said.  MDFR's successes with the
network and its ability to rapidly deploy IP telephony at remote
locations have turned the department into the "go to" organization for
other Miami-Dade County agencies that want excellent communications.
The County's Elections department joined the MDFR network to take
advantage of new, state-of-the-art communication capabilities.  So did
the Miami-Dade County 311 Answer Center, a contact center set up to
answer public inquiries.

Miami police turned to MDFR to establish emergency communications backup
when protesters threatened to shut down the city during a recent, major
free trade conference.  Nearly two hundred Avaya IP telephones were
quickly installed in strategic locations and brought online when
disturbances began.

About Avaya

Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more
than 1 million businesses worldwide, including 90 percent of the FORTUNE
500(R).  Focused on businesses large to small, Avaya is a world leader
in secure and reliable Internet Protocol (IP) telephony systems and
communications software applications and services.  Driving the
convergence of voice and data communications with business applications
-- and distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services -- Avaya helps
customers leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior
business results.  For more information visit the Avaya website:
http://www.avaya.com.

About NACR
NACR is headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota.  Launched in 1993 with only
five employees, the company has grown to more than 300 employees and 55
locations across the country.  As an Avaya largest Diamond, Platinum and
Three Star Dealer, NACR is dedicated to designing, selling, and
servicing Avaya solutions exclusively and offering the entire Avaya
product line.  For more information about NACR, call 1-888-321-NACR
(6227) or visit its Web site at nacr.com.

SOURCE Avaya Inc.
Web Site: http://www.avaya.com http://nacr.com

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