Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Integrating your Dispatcher with your company's operations

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2003 22:02:28 -0400

Integrating Your Dispatcher With Your Company's Operations

by Paul Anderson
Norlhwest Airlines

When I read this months issue (Private Wireless Magazine, September 2003), I
couldn't help but see the similarities between dispatching in prisons and
hospitals. Both dispatchers must have immediate access to critical
information to perform their jobs, whether it is moving a patient
or an inmate. The days of simply sending a person from Point A to Point B
via radio waves are over.

In the airline industry, our dispatchers have always had to have the latest
information on a number of different topics, from the weather to the
status of the gates, crews and a medical team.

As our institutions become larger and more complex and air traffic
increases, we all will need access to more information in the coordination
of
our industrial activities. This requires more integration than ever before.

As new software is developed and Internet protocol technology is deployed in
private wireless systems, the line between so-called "back-office"
information processing and wireless dispatch will be gone forever.

With the integration of IP-based technology, back-office applications that
use TCP/IP protocol on their local or wide-area computer networks
will be available for use by the dispatcher. For example, Internet
protocol-based DataRadio systems are designed to provide a universal radio
gateway where the wireless network looks like a TCP/IP environment.

In the healthcare article, we learn that hospital dispatchers need to know
as much about the neighboring hospitals as they do about their own hospital.
And instant, on-the-spot decisions can be made using information from a
number of different databases, all tied into the dispatch console. With
today's heightened security concerns, more companies will want video
monitoring of sensitive areas integrated into the command center to help
dispatchers maintain control of the facility. In his article on mobile data
in this issue, Todd Ellis notes that utility managers were interviewed and
agreed that their dispatchers needed access to maps, customer information
and to remote dispatch capability.

Have you polled your dispatchers lately to see what information needs they
have that are not being met? During the working day, are your dispatchers
making decisions based on memory or gut instinct? Or are actions being based
on the most up-to-date information available? If not,
is your productivity reduced by the inefficiencies in dispatch? Are lives at
stake?

Today, there are still a lot of dispatchers looking through their desks for
information or calling across the room to someone who might know the
information they need. These are small, incremental delays, but they add up
over time. In the airline industry, it is obvious if you are efficient or
not. When a Boeing 747 comes in for a landing, all of your crews have to be
in place. And the more access the dispatcher has to information the smoother
the ride is for everyone.

We will have a panel of experts discussing systems integration at this
fall's Private Wireless Summit. I hope to see you at that session or one of
the others at our annual gathering.

http://www.ita-relay.com/wireless.htm

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/