Security and fire industries take up challenge of new Electronic Call Handling Operation project
The British Security Industry Association (BSIA), the Fire Industry Association (FIA) and the Fire & Security Association (FSA) are set to play a key role in the development of an all-new Electronic Call Handling Operation (ECHO) project.
The dedicated ECHO project aims to deliver a centralised and fully-automated electronic call handling service to reduce pressure on the Emergency Services and Alarm Receiving Centres (ARCs) by reducing their call handling times and errors that can occur from manual response handling.
ECHO will initially focus on automating the call handling process, but it will also bring about the ability to automate police Unique Reference Number (URN) management as well as exploit the potential for delivering both automated audio and visual alarm confirmation.
Although a similar service to this has been successfully piloted for some time with a limited number of alarm companies and police forces, the ECHO project represents a milestone change in enabling the technology to be rolled out to other police and fire Control Rooms.