You’re sitting in your office after everyone else has gone home. This is the perfect time to get some work done, right? Absolutely! However, this is also an ideal scenario for something tragic to occur – a heart attack, fire, break-in, or some other situation in which you need emergency police, fire, or medical services. You might be able to call 911, but if you can’t quickly tell them which office you are in, you could be in a world of trouble.

E911 Service – What it is and why it matters 

Enhanced 911, or E911, allows for the automatic delivery of a caller’s location to Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) operators. In the event of an emergency, the operators know exactly where the caller is and where to dispatch help. This information is displayed directly on their call screen and is particularly helpful in situations where the caller is unable to speak or give specific location instructions. There have been many cases where 911 services were unable to assist callers due to an incomplete or non-existent E911 solution.

Evaluating your E911 service 

If you already have an E911 service in place, you might believe you and your employees are good to go if something goes wrong at the office. However, it would be wise to check with your provider to ensure that all IP phones are listed, and the information for each phone is accurate and up-to-date. This will ensure that emergency assistance has the right information if and when they ever need to dispatch services to your office locations. Otherwise, emergency personnel may not be able to locate the specific floor or office of the person in need. Even worse, they could be dispatched to the billing address associated with the call, rather than the physical address.

Don’t have E911 service? LanYap Networks can help. 

We’ve helped many customers find and deploy E911 services for their business locations. Before you choose a service, it’s crucial that you consider how those services will work with your existing phone and unified communications systems. Give us a call and we can discuss how to implement or improve your E911 service.