Hampshire Constabulary Upgrades its APD Systems to Better Support Over Quarter of a Million Households across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight

APD Communications, a global leader in mobile information, resource location/tracking and control room solutions, today announced that Hampshire Police chose to upgrade the control room systems across two sites. The move has seen APD deploy CT Connect CTI software, helping the force better support 3,800 police officers, 500 special constables and 348 police community support officers.

The agreement saw APD upgrade the force's CORTEX Software Integrated Communications Control System (SICCS) with Syntellect's CT Connect CTI software. Hampshire Police have built a reputation of providing officers and the public alike with a first class service. The new deployment enables the force to replace older telephony technology, which had become out of date, ensuring staff have access to the latest technology. Control room operators log incidents and dispatch resources, leading to an efficient collaboration between the public, control room operators and front-line officers.

APD has deployed the CT Connect solution across 170 workstations in the force's Control Room at Netley and the Enquiry Centre at Winchester. The new software seamlessly integrates with existing Nortel Contact Centre 6 technology, which enables calls to be shared between the two sites that use APD supplied user-friendly touch screens. If call volumes are high, staff from the Netley command centre (where the majority of 999 calls are taken) can be supported by the Winchester facility, where public enquiries are taken. By enabling calls to be shared across the two sites the force can maintain a high level of service whatever the emergency.

Discussing the deployment, PC, Kevin Bowen of Hampshire Police stated: "At Hampshire Police we have the largest and one of the most advanced CORTEX-based control rooms in the UK; traditionally a deployment of this scale would require downtime, which could impair the service we provide the public. The team from APD was able to complete the deployment within days, without causing any loss of service."

"The implementation of the CT Connect software will provide our staff with a new platform on which to develop new technology. The system also enables us to remove old telephony equipment and MCA cards reducing the power consumption of both control rooms. This in turn will allow us to respond more efficiently to incidents ensuring we provide the local Hampshire community the very highest level of service," concluded Bowen.

The SICCS system is designed to meet the communication needs of a modern police force perfectly, by merging radio dispatch, call handling, video monitoring and web services; allowing control room operators to conduct their duties effortlessly. APD's new solution replaces a Nortel Meridian Option, which provided basic communications and computer telephony integration but did not have the advanced features and compatibility with other telephony platforms that the new CT Connect solution offers. The tailored system now enables staff to handle large volumes of calls as well as the monitoring and control of communications across a range of computer systems. Flexible and future proof, the CORTEX system accommodates TETRA digital networks and analogue systems.

Commenting on the successful deployment, Steve Denison, Managing Director of APD Communications said: "Despite the extremely bad weather conditions that caused a record number of calls to the emergency services, we were able to provide an easy, seamless deployment of the new CT Connect software. The deployment was completed within five days, which was a week earlier than expected and there was no need to rely on a fallback site. With the new functionality provided by this software, staff at Hampshire police will now be able to answer calls more quickly resulting in a more efficient emergency service for the people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight ," concluded Denison.

The CT Connect system is compatible with a wide variety of telephony switches and Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) solutions from leading providers such as: Avaya Nortel, Alcatel, Cisco, Mitel, Aastra Ericsson and Siemens.