"Windows 2000 is a very robust system that will better serve our mobile user needs for Plug and Play, power management, and dependability, particularly on laptops."
--John K. Fuller, vice president of marketing, Plant Equipment, Inc.
Company Profile
Formed in 1968, Plant Equipment, Inc. (PEI) has grown to become the technological leader in public safety communications systems. The privately held corporation, headquartered in Temecula, California, employs 250 people and provides 9-1-1 telecommunications equipment to some of the nation’s largest public safety answering points (PSAPs).
Situation
Public safety answering points (PSAPs)—otherwise known as 9-1-1 call centers—respond to the nation’s emergencies, relying on sophisticated computer telephony systems to route calls to the nearest PSAP, then to help the PSAP pinpoint trouble and dispatch the appropriate response teams. Not surprisingly, reliability and dependability lead the list of requirements for public safety technology solutions.
Business Solution
Public safety technology epitomizes the need for reliability. Plant Equipment, Inc. (PEI), the maker of a family of 9-1-1 technologies that have consistently set industry standards, is putting its trust in the Microsoft® Windows® 2000 platform. PEI uses Windows 2000 Professional on all its sales engineers' laptops, and has developed the first public safety application based on the new operating system.
Windows 2000 Improves PEI’s Technological Reliability
PEI’s sales engineers are responsible for demonstrating the benefits of the company’s applications to prospective PSAP customers, and the quality of these demos reflects directly on PEI’s credibility. PEI recently migrated all its sales engineers’ laptop computers to the Windows 2000 operating system.
"Even in its beta form, Windows 2000 Professional is proving to be more robust and faster than either Windows 98 or Windows NT® Workstation,” says John K. Fuller, vice president of marketing for PEI. “The demos work better on the laptops running Windows 2000, the systems are more reliable, and the sales engineers are able to present more impressive and credible product demonstrations."
Las Vegas Entrusts its Y2K Backup to PEI and Windows 2000
Already, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) has been convinced to adopt PEI software and Windows 2000 for an Alternate Dispatch Center (ADC) to provide backup emergency response for New Year’s Eve, 1999. Las Vegas anticipates that this busiest night in its history could lead to record call volume for 9-1-1 operators.
Taking no chances on the eve of 2000, LVMPD will deploy an ADC in a secure location in case the main communications center experiences a failure or has to be evacuated for any reason. The ADC will feature a network of laptop PCs running Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, and an incident tracking application called Call-Details from PEI. This combination of Microsoft products and PEI technology will be critical in keeping New Year's Eve revelers safe.
Private Safety Takes its Lead from the Public Sector
With consolidation among PSAPs nationwide and the fact that most PSAPs have already installed some kind of computer telephone technology, PEI is looking to the growing market for private safety products for much of its future corporate growth. As the only Microsoft Certified Solution Provider in its industry, PEI plans to make Windows 2000 a core part of its overall strategy.
"The bundled, turnkey systems that PEI provides—with their high levels of functionality, redundancy, and reliability—are ideally suited for public safety, as well as for private branch exchanges serving corporate and university campuses, governmental facilities, large hotels, and casinos,” says Fuller. “We expect that Windows 2000 will play a crucial role in PEI’s public and private safety solutions."
Software and Services
Microsoft® Access
Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Office 2000
Microsoft SQL Server™ 7.0
Microsoft Windows® 2000 Professional and Server
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products or services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (800) 563-9048. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information via the World Wide Web, go to http://www.microsoft.com/.
