Life-saving innovation provides emergency services with accurate
incident location and other vital information, helping responders react
more effectively
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Avaya
Holdings Corp. (NYSE: AVYA) today announced that Portugal’s emergency
services have adopted its suite of communication solutions to transform
their existing systems in preparation for eCall, the next-generation
automated vehicle aid system.
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A life-saving innovation that is mandatory in all new passenger-vehicle
types approved for sale in the European Union from April 2018, eCall
allows telemetry data to be sent from a vehicle to emergency services
when an accident occurs, providing accurate incident location and other
vital information that dispatchers can use to send help much faster and
more effectively to help save lives. With 25,670 fatalities in 2016 and
over 135,000 serious injuries on EU roads and motorways in 2014,
according to the European
Transport Safety Council’s Road Safety Performance Index, eCall is
estimated to reduce emergency response time by 40% in built-up areas and
50% in the countryside, saving as many as 2,500 lives and over EUR 130
billion in costs to society each year.
As a result, emergency services across Portugal have been running tests
to demonstrate readiness to receive and respond to these new automated
calls. As the global market leader in contact center solutions, Avaya
was selected because of its ecosystem and open platform structure,
enabling integration across a variety of different systems. The
solutions deployed include: the creation of a new center in Porto to
increase resiliency and geographic redundancy; a complete refresh of the
existing emergency service data center in Lisbon; and an upgrade of the
existing communication environment, including a subsequent integration
into its dispatching application.
Markus Bornheim, Consulting Sales Engineer for Public Safety and
Emergency Services at Avaya, and Vice Chair of the European Emergency
Number Association (EENA) Technical Committee, said:
“Emergency Services communications require intricate coordination
between a number of different channels, from voice calls, to calls from
mobiles and now to eCall. It’s important to deliver a solution that can
accommodate both present and future needs without putting undue pressure
on those working in call centres or on the front line. Avaya’s eCall
solution was designed to integrate with existing systems and provide a
clear platform for further development. We are pleased to see our work
achieve a strong result for Portugal, and look forward to extending this
further elsewhere in Europe.”
Implementation of these solutions was carried out by Avaya’s local
integration partner PAPTI/DECUNIFY, which worked with core tech provider
Oecon and software developer Engelbart Software to adapt and modify the
existing application development platform and allow integration with
Portugal’s emergency services. As a result, Portugal’s 112 services can
now receive, interpret and respond to messages sent through eCall; as
well as integrate other eCall-associated technologies and similar
third-party services for motorcycles, heavy goods vehicles, car
manufacturers, assistance companies and automobile clubs. With Avaya’s
support, solutions and architecture, Portugal achieved full preparation
for the onset of eCall, in advance of the EU conformity assessment.
Colonel Vitor Judicibus, Head of the Critical Communications
Multidisciplinary Team at the
General Secretariat of Internal
Administration (Secretaria-geral da Administração Interna) said:
“eCall is a major milestone for the European automotive and safety
communities, with next-generation technology being widely deployed to
help people and save lives. Providing Portugal’s dispatchers and
emergency services call centre workers with the tools they need to
incorporate eCall is essential to achieving the aims of this initiative.
We are pleased that the Portuguese 112 service has been upgraded to
fully respond to eCall, while also becoming faster, more reliable, and
future-fit.”
Francisco Gomes, Deputy Secretary General for Technologies of the
Ministry of Home Affairs (Secretaria-geral da Administração Interna)
said:
“According to Nikola Tesla ‘Science is but a perversion of itself
unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity.’ I
think the same about technology, and eCall is one of the best recent
examples of a major improvement in Europe for emergency reaction. The
overall purpose of being more efficient on preserving human life after
traffic accidents will progress immensely with the introduction of
eCall. Our Ministry tech teams and our partners together, made possible
for Portugal to be fully ready to do the best in emergency situations.”
About Avaya
Avaya is a global leader in digital communications software, services
and devices for businesses of all sizes. Our open, intelligent and
customizable solutions for contact centers and unified communications
offer the flexibility of Cloud, on-premises and hybrid deployments.
Avaya shapes intelligent connections and creates seamless communication
experiences for our customers, and their customers. Our professional
planning, support and management services teams help optimize solutions,
for highly reliable and efficient deployments. Avaya Holdings Corp. is
traded on the NYSE under the ticker AVYA. For more information, please
visit www.avaya.com.
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expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable,
such forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known
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Statement on Form 10 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
may cause its actual results, performance or achievements to differ
materially from any future results, performance or achievements
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the Company’s SEC filings may not contain all of the material factors
that are important to you. In addition, in light of these risks and
uncertainties, the matters referred to in the forward-looking statements
contained in this report may not in fact occur. The Company undertakes
no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement
as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as
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Source: Avaya Newsroom
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Avaya
Iman Ghorayeb, +971-4-404-8275
ighorayeb@avaya.com
Source: Avaya Holdings Corp.