Memphis Fire Department Saves 35 Hours a Week on IT Support with SOTI

Addressing public safety for the City of Memphis, the Memphis Fire Department (MFD) pursues excellence through quality coverage, equipment and staffing for the community they serve 24/7/365. Employing approximately 1,500 firefighters at 57 stations, the main priorities of MFD are to provide fire suppression, rescue services, environmental and hazardous materials response, emergency medical response, emergency pre-hospital services, fire code enforcement, fire investigation, disaster preparedness training and fire safety education.

The Challenge

The technology MFD had used for years became outdated and no longer met its needs. With over 213,000 emergency calls received each year, firefighters have just 90 seconds to get into their gear, into the truck and be on route. In an emergency, every fire truck and ambulance available matters. Having even one vehicle’s mobile device placed out of service causes downtime which can be detrimental to the community. With multiple devices that hold patient sensitive data, MFD needed to ensure it had a solution with security benefits that is able to track devices in the event they were lost or stolen. Additionally, if a device issue occurs in the middle of the night, the device would be down until it could be brought to the IT office the following morning. Add to that time for repairs which could be minutes, hours or even days. With only three IT personnel servicing 57 fire stations, the IT department is pulled in many directions to solve device issues quickly

The Solution

MFD found SOTI MobiControl and quickly realized the features offered were invaluable. With its RADAR (Rapid Assessment Determine and Redirection) program, a doctor or nurse practitioner can be sent to a non-urgent medical call, keeping an ambulance on the road and available for emergencies. SOTI MobiControl supports this service by allowing quick remediation of technical issues when they arise. With SOTI MobiControl, updates can now be made department wide and across all devices remotely. This has significantly reduced downtime as MFD no longer needs to update devices one at a time. Additionally, its GPS app supported by SOTI can track the location of all fire trucks and ambulances and provide the shortest routes for the emergency crew to get to where they need to be.

The Results

With SOTI MobiControl’s remote control functionality, the IT department can remote into over 700 devices in fire trucks, ambulances or other fire department vehicle’s remote computers to fix an issue. They can easily see the issue on the mobile device and fix the problem remotely in a matter of minutes keeping emergency vehicles on the road. Software issues that previously took 45 minutes to address, now take just 5 minutes. With approximately 10 IT support calls received each day, this saves MFD nearly 35 hours of downtime per week.

Additionally, MFD utilizes SOTI MobiControl’s lost feature to geolocate and lockdown any lost device. In the past, the team was able to successfully locate and lockdown a lost iPad, ensuring patient sensitive data on the device was protected. It is extremely important to stay vigilant and ensure information on devices is secured. SOTI MobiControl has provided MFD with not only major security benefits, increased productivity and reduced downtime, but the ability to keep its emergency crew focused on what truly matters.