Have You Ever Wished for a NG9-1-1 Easy Button?

One truth our team has found in the work we’ve done at the local, county and state levels to help clients develop meaningful GIS data for use in NG9-1-1 is that we often don’t really know what we don’t know until we take our first steps toward NG9-1-1 GIS readiness. The realities and challenges presented to us can drive down our confidence at first but, working with a trusted partner, we can quickly build knowledge and develop wisdom as the path unfolds in front of us.

Living in a one-click world, many of us have secretly wished for that big red button labeled “NG9-1-1 GIS” to pop up on our desks. While we’re not quite there yet, we are confident that DATAMARK VEP will provide you with integrated, intuitive, and cost-effective solutions to successfully create and manage NG9-1-1-compliant GIS data and empower you to navigate the often-disparate workflows and internal relationships between public safety and GIS organizations.

NENA: The 9-1-1 Association has done remarkable work to establish and define the standards, best practices, recommendations, and the roadmap for location data that lies at the heart of NG9-1-1. These standards, best practices, and recommendations show us where we need to be with respect to GIS data for NG9-1-1, but how we get there is unique to each state or county.

Deploying VEP eliminates the need to develop data management tools, processes, and workflows from scratch, which is costly and inefficient. The DATAMARK team offers the right combination of next-generation public safety and GIS expertise offering modern GIS data management and validation tools to prepare you for NG9-1-1. We haven’t quite created the holy grail of a Big Red Button for one-click data creation, aggregation, validation, and provisioning, but VEP is going to feel very close.

Your Data May Not be Ready for NG9-1-1, but VEP is Ready for You
Historically, GIS organizations have supported land management and public addressing which adhere to comparatively fewer standards than GIS used in NG9-1-1. Datasets are often static and somewhat simplistic in nature to build and maintain. Robust and reliable GIS data for NG9-1-1 supports real-time emergency call routing, needs to follow a complex set of standards that extend far beyond address points or road centerlines, and requires dynamic maintenance. Integrating new or refined NG9-1-1 GIS data into your existing GIS environment is a complex task where completeness is imperative, and this requires a paradigm shift to ongoing maintenance and validation of your GIS database.

The initial confidence boost that comes from discovering reasonable alignment between GIS, MSAG, and ALI can lull us into a sense of readiness and lead us into the false trap of thinking we’re good as we approach 98% synchronization. However, the match rate isn’t a magical talisman granting NG9-1-1 readiness and developing NENA’s Required layers isn’t the finish line; these are just the starting points. NG9-1-1 GIS data follows a number of standards beyond the match rate between GIS, MSAG, and ALI and the migration to NG9-1-1 from legacy GIS management requires us to consistently ask:

• Is our GIS data available, and what are we missing?
• Is our existing GIS data complete, and does it reflect the real world?
• Is our GIS data available when it’s needed?
• Is our GIS data consistent between and across the systems in which it’s used?

VEP is designed to take you Beyond the 98%^TM by delivering intuitive and impactful solutions that provide in-depth spatial comparisons, comprehensive data validations, and flexible web-based tools for data maintenance, editing, and multi-jurisdiction aggregation that adhere closely to NG9-1-1 GIS standards.

Developing a GIS database that meets the legacy GIS goals, is built to support NG9-1-1, and continues to support legacy and transitional 9-1-1 requires a GIS data solution that provides you with a one-stop shop for creation, maintenance, validation, and multi-jurisdictional aggregation. It should be flexible, web-based, and have a minimal impact on operational budgets.

VEP is Where it All Comes Together
True Cloud-Based GIS Data Management
VEP’s cloud-native architecture provides you with a flexible, adaptable, and efficient Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that can be accessed securely without requiring costly additional software licensing and server equipment.

VEP’s cloud-based software supports multiple data schemas and the management of GIS data used in a broad range of public safety, 9-1-1, and NG9-1-1 applications.

Subscription to VEP Editor delivers a full suite of cloud-native GIS data editing functions within a map environment including versioned editing, detached editing, and the ability to check data in and out, along with observation functions and all of VEP’s validation features.

Intuitive, Scalable, and User-Friendly User Experience
VEP provides an intuitive user-friendly interface through a secure network connection using major web browsers, wherever you and your GIS team are located. The VEP user interface is designed to be easy to use for experienced GIS professionals and non-GIS users alike. VEP is inherently scalable, offering multiple subscription models to support the validation, editing, and aggregation requirements of our clients and multiple pricing tiers enabling our clients to tailor their solution to their GIS staffing and budget requirements.

Are You Ready to Hit the NG9-1-1 GIS Easy Button?
If you are running into roadblocks on your path to NG9-1-1 GIS readiness or want to deploy a one-stop solution for to manage your GIS environment, please reach out to us today. DATAMARK’s team of public safety GIS professionals is ready to help, and our comprehensive suite of GIS data management solutions will equip you to meet your existing GIS needs and prepare your data for NG9-1-1.