Fujitsu completes Tassie emergency services upgrade

Fujitsu has successfully completed the implementation of an Emergency Services Computer Aided Dispatch (ESCAD) system for Ambulance Tasmania.

This completes the integration of emergency systems across all emergency service organisations in Tasmania, including Police, Fire Service, Ambulance, and State Emergency Service.

The first true all-agency system in Australia covering all emergency services, this project provides multi-agency capabilities between all emergency services organisations across Tasmania.

This allows for real-time sharing of incident details, resource location, hazards, and warnings as well as status tracking between Police, Fire, SES, and Ambulance agencies, significantly improving operational response time and improving the safety of frontline responders and the Tasmanian community.

A key benefit of the ESCAD system is the simplification of handling calls for assistance, including calls made to Triple Zero (000).

This system removes a number of manual processes and inefficiencies caused by disparate systems to provide streamlined handling of calls between emergency services response units, including reducing or eliminating the need for phone calls to multiple agencies to coordinate a response.

This, in turn, reduces double-handling and improves the overall response time and accuracy of critical incident information.

"It's a seamlessly integrated system between all our emergency services allowing us to share information in real-time across agencies for improved response," says Tasmania Police Deputy Commissioner and Chairperson of the ESCAD Steering Committee Scott Tilyard.

"We are confident that this world-class system will play a key part in saving lives of Tasmanians for years to come.

The implementation of ESCAD was initiated in April 2016 and saw the Tasmanian Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management appoint Fujitsu to deliver the ESCAD alongside configuration, customisation, interface development, training materials and ongoing support and maintenance services.

The first agency to go live was Tasmania Police in October 2017 followed by the Tasmania Fire Service in November 2018, which first enabled the multi-agency functionality.

"Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand is honoured to have helped to streamline the emergency response process for Tasmanian Emergency Services," says Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand CEO Mike Foster.

"This is a great example of how digital transformation can deliver real business value and, in this case, contribute to saving lives across Tasmania.

In other Fujitsu news, the company recently outlined the megatrends and business opportunities of retail.

Fujitsu has compiled these insights into a report, entitled Fujitsu Future Insights Digital Transformation in Retail.

In the Digital Transformation in Retail report, Fujitsu describes its vision for the future of digitalised retail services and proposes how retail and other industries will be transformed by its digital technologies.