New Hosted National Automatic Fire Alarm System From Unisys Helps the New Zealand Fire Service Quickly Respond to Emergencies

As-a-service IT delivery frees NZFS from IT responsibility to help agency personnel focus on quick and efficient response to emergencies

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Unisys Corporation

Oct 06, 2015, 09:00 ET

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Oct. 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Unisys (NYSE: UIS) Corporation today announced it has been awarded a contract to manage and maintain the New Zealand Fire Service (NZFS) national automatic fire alarm messaging system, delivering this critical service to the country's citizens under a new as-a-service model.

The alarm system transports fire alarm messages from over 20,000 monitored fire alarms in more than 6,000 commercial and industrial buildings across New Zealand.

Unisys provides the Signal Transport System Message Handling System, a customized IP-based alarm monitoring and messaging solution developed by Unisys in conjunction with the NZFS and Automatic Fire Alarm Service Providers (AFASPs), that is the back-end architecture for the overall NZFS automated fire alarm system.

When alarms are triggered, the system quickly and reliably transmits messages within high-availability, resilient and secure Unisys data centers and telecommunications networks to NZFS Communications Centers to deploy first responders to protect people and property. The NZFS operates approximately 440 fire stations across New Zealand, with more than 10,000 personnel, including 8,000 volunteers.

Under the five-year contract, Unisys is delivering the alarm system via an as-a-service model run on Unisys-owned hardware and central computing infrastructure in its Kapiti and Auckland data centers through a high-availability, distributed operations model. Unisys will have full responsibility for managing and maintaining the system, allowing the NZFS to focus on its life-critical business of responding to fires and other emergencies.

"Moving to a hosted-IaaS model allows the Fire Service to focus our people and resources on being first responders to emergencies, rather than managing the overhead of the infrastructure core of the national automatic fire alarm system," said Stuart Waring, information and communications technology manager - data and intelligence, NZFS. "The end-to-end national fire alarm system will continue to be managed and supported by NZFS, which includes AFASPs, Fire Alarm Service Agents, building owners, and the NZFS Communications Centers. We have worked with Unisys since 1996, so they understand the life criticality of the system."

Steve Griffin, country manager, Unisys New Zealand, said: "The new infrastructure-as-a-service IT model frees the NZFS from IT responsibility for the infrastructure core of the fire alarm system. Unisys has a strong heritage in supporting mission-critical systems and operations. We have a dedicated 24-hour data center team focused on the provision and support of the alarm system to deliver fire alarm messages quickly and reliably."

About Unisys
Unisys is a global information technology company that works with many of the world's largest companies and government organizations to solve their most pressing IT and business challenges. Unisys specializes in providing integrated, leading-edge solutions to clients in the government, financial services and commercial markets. With more than 20,000 employees serving clients around the world, Unisys offerings include cloud and infrastructure services, application services, security solutions, and high-end server technology. For more information, visit www.unisys.com.

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SOURCE Unisys Corporation