Avaya Takes Seat on Committee for NGO Promoting Emergency Services Awareness in Europe

Avaya announced today that Markus Bornheim, EU Consulting Sales Engineer for Public Safety and Emergency Services, has been appointed as Vice Chair of the Technical Committee for the European Emergency Number Association (EENA), a committee dedicated to providing expertise in emergency services in Europe.
Set up in 1999, EENA is a Brussels-based non-government organization (NGO) dedicated to promoting high-quality services reached by the 112 number in the EU. The Technical Committee works to establish requirements to make emergency services accessible via IP communications, and interoperable with next-generation networks.
Markus Bornheim, Avaya Consulting Sales Engineer for Public Safety and Emergency Services in the EU, said: “While we are all accustomed to using a range of communications in our daily lives, standard voice communications still remain the primary way to reach emergency services.. Extendingfull access to emergency services, using any modality,can literally be the difference between life and death for people in crisis situations. I am extremely proud to be able to bring my industry expertise to bear in this extremely important role and look forward to working with my fellow members of the Technical Committee.”
Avaya, which has made improving all citizens’ access to emergency services a focus area for the business communications company since its inception, is pioneering a number of public safety initiatives globally. “Markus’ participation in EENA made him an obvious choice to fulfil this role in the EU,” said Mark J. Fletcher, Chief Architect Worldwide Public Safety Solutions. “Having Markus on the ground in the EU ensures we are capturing the requirements for public safety globally.” he added.
Specifically for the UK and EU markets, the company has developed a solution for emergency services contact centres to support the newly mandated eCall (Emergency Call) functionality, whereby in the event of an incident, telemetry data directly from the vehicle can be sent to emergency services, providing relevant information about the vehicle, its location and its occupants. In the EU, including the UK, all emergency contact centre services must be ready to support eCall by 1st October 2017, and all new car models type approved after 31st March 2018 must have eCall modules fitted.
In Europe, Avaya supports more than 600 emergency services contact centres, serving more than 150 million citizens, and fielding more than 80 million calls a year.