Intergraph(R) Incident Management Solutions Successfully Advance Public Safety and Interoperability during XXI Winter Olympic Games

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Intergraph®, the world leader in public safety and security incident management and reporting solutions, along with its long-time customers E-Comm 9-1-1 and B.C. Ambulance (BCAS), played a key role in successfully protecting the athletes, officials and spectators at venues throughout British Columbia during the XXI Winter Olympic Games.

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As the regional 9-1-1 answering point for southwestern British Columbia, E-Comm 9-1-1 answers more than one million calls each year and utilizes Intergraph public safety incident management solutions to support the 12 Metro Vancouver fire agencies it provides dispatch for, including those in the Games host region, Vancouver, Whistler and Richmond.  During the February 2010 timeframe of the XXI Winter Olympiad, Intergraph's integrated solutions successfully scaled to handle the increase in call and dispatch volume.  

The B.C. Ambulance service dispatches emergency medical response to more than 4.3 million residents in the province. Leading up to, and during the Winter Olympic Games, BCAS leveraged their integrated Intergraph CAD system to successfully respond to an additional 1,530 calls for service.

In addition, Intergraph's integrated incident management solutions promoted multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional interoperability for rapid incident response at Olympic venues in greater Vancouver and surrounding communities.  

Intergraph has extensive experience in providing public safety and security solutions for major events around the world. In addition to this year's Winter Olympic Games, Intergraph's large-scale event expertise includes protecting the thousands of visitors who attended the following events: the 30th G8 Summit in Italy in July, 2009; the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy; the 2006 World Cup in Germany; the 2006 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro; and the 2004 and 2009 United States presidential inaugurations, to name a few.  

"Intergraph's security solutions allow us to link our EMS resources from across the province to provide the most effective service to the public," said Stephen Clinton, director, BCAS Lower Mainland Dispatch Centre. "With the eyes of the world upon us for the Olympics, it was especially important that we were enabled to respond as quickly and accurately to calls as possible. Intergraph's suite of security solutions played a key role in giving our responders the tools they needed to do their jobs."

"The city of Vancouver is home to approximately 600,000 citizens, and including the surrounding communities, the population of metro Vancouver is approximately 2.2 million. E-Comm 9-1-1's Intergraph-based regional dispatching strategy plays an important role in our goal to provide highly efficient and effective response," said Doug Watson, E-Comm vice president of Operations. "The additional athletes, officials and spectators dramatically expanded our population during the Winter Olympic Games, but we were well-prepared to serve and protect those in attendance as a result of years of preparation including participation in multi-agency response scenario exercises and our use of Intergraph CAD."

"Intergraph's public safety and security solutions have proven successful in advancing command and control and security threat detection efforts at important large-scale events around the world," said R. Halsey Wise, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Intergraph Corp. "Our integrated security solutions provide a common operational picture that instills confidence and promotes better decision-making to saves lives and protect property. Intergraph is honored to have supported E-Comm 9-1-1 and BCAS in protecting the athletes, officials and spectators in attendance at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver."

Intergraph is the leading global provider of public safety and security emergency incident response, reporting, analysis, and records management solutions. One in 12 people in the world is protected by Intergraph public safety and security solutions.

About B.C. Ambulance

Created in 1974, the British Columbia Ambulance Service (BCAS) operates under the authority of the Emergency and Health Services Commission and is tasked with the provision of public ambulance service across the Province. Today BCAS is the largest provider of emergency medical services in Canada and one of the largest in North America. BCAS serves over 4.3 million British Columbians and responds to calls for service across six health authorities covering 929,730 square kilometres. In 2008/2009 BCAS paramedics responded to 516,547 events by ground and 8,356 by air.

BCAS employs 3,983 individuals who are dedicated to providing timely and high quality emergency medical services. BCAS paramedics and dispatchers deliver front line patient care, with support services staff including Communications, Finance, Human Resources, Information Management/Technology, Labour Relations, Medical Programs, Organizational Health and Safety and Policy and Planning personnel working to support paramedic efforts and ensure BCAS continues to deliver high quality care. BCAS operates 187 stations, 480 ambulances, 47 support vehicles and nine dedicated ambulance aircraft.

About E-Comm

E-Comm is the regional 9-1-1 answer point for southwest British Columbia, managing more than one million calls each year. E-Comm provides dispatch service for 24 police and fire departments throughout Metro Vancouver, Sunshine Coast and Whistler/Howe Sound.

E-Comm operates Canada's only fully interoperable radio system, one of only a handful in North America that enables all types of emergency responders (police, fire, ambulance) to communicate on one system.

About Intergraph

Intergraph is the leading global provider of engineering and geospatial software that enables customers to visualize complex data. Businesses and governments in more than 60 countries rely on Intergraph's industry-specific software to organize vast amounts of data into understandable visual representations and actionable intelligence. Intergraph's software and services empower customers to build and operate more efficient plants and ships, create intelligent maps, and protect critical infrastructure and millions of people around the world.

Intergraph operates through two divisions: Process, Power & Marine (PP&M) and Security, Government & Infrastructure (SG&I).  Intergraph PP&M provides enterprise engineering software for the design, construction and operation of plants, ships and offshore facilities. Intergraph SG&I provides geospatially-powered solutions to the defense and intelligence, public safety and security, government, transportation, photogrammetry, utilities, and communications industries. For more information, visit www.intergraph.com.

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SOURCE Intergraph