Everbridge Expands Cisco Deal to Include E911 with Webex Calling

Everbridge, the provider of critical event management (CEM), has extended its partnership with Cisco to provide Enhanced 911 (E911) solutions. It’s part of Cisco’s new Webex Calling.

To help its customers meet federal and state compliance guidelines, Cisco will include the E911 solution from RedSky, now part of Everbridge, with its Webex Calling and Unified Communications Manager (UCM) cloud platforms. The capabilities help save lives by offering location information to dispatchers when 911 calls come in.

Lorrissa Horton is vice president and general manager of Webex Calling and Online.

Cisco’s Lorrissa Horton

“At Webex, our team has been hard at work reimagining the calling experience to deliver next-generation collaboration capabilities,” Horton said. “Since we connect 8 billion phone calls each month, we have a huge opportunity to impact how people work. We want to ensure our customers have access to the latest calling and collaboration features to provide them with the best possible experience.”

The partnership is among a recent series of WebEx Calling and UCM cloud platform collaborations. Cloud communications provider CallTower just expanded its portfolio through a partnership with Cisco.

Meeting Emergency Service Needs

Cisco’s Nomadic Enhanced 911 functionality with dynamic location support utilizes the Everbridge E911 solution within the Webex App. When placing emergency calls anywhere from the Webex App, emergency responders will now have accurate location information. However, if the Webex App determines the caller has moved to a new unknown location, it will prompt users to state their address.

Federal and state regulations have changed the market to require all multi-line telephone systems (MLTS) to provide a “dispatchable location” to an emergency services’ public-safety answering point (PSAP) when making a 9-1-1 call. In addition, regulations state that notifications must be provided to security personnel, administrators, in an email, text notifications and so on. Moreover, Jan. 6, 2022 looms. This is the final federal regulation due date for all U.S. organizations to ensure E911 systems are in place. Based on a longstanding relationship, Cisco chose to expand its partnership with Everbridge. It will meet these requirements for its U.S. customers currently on Cisco Webex Calling and Cisco UCM Cloud platforms.

Strategic Technology Partnership

Everbridge’s RedSky has been a Cisco technology partner since 2015, providing E911 support for Cisco customers. Nomadic E911 uses a combination of services. These include Control Hub and Webex App enhancements, Cisco endpoints and RedSky’s E911 Anywhere and Horizon Mobility. They provide a complete set of tools for a customer to implement Nomadic E911 solution, the companies said.

Everbridge’s Doug Dahl

Doug Dahl is general manager of Everbridge Enhanced 911 Solutions.

“Both companies are working together on Future of Work innovation to meet the demands of mobile, remote, and in-office work forces,” said Dahl. “Together, location-based E911 solutions, integrated into Webex, offers organizations 100% compliance with state and federal rules and regulations.”