City of Everett Solves Fixed and Mobile Connectivity Challenges with Sierra Wireless

Quick Facts

Company

City of Everett
www.everettwa.gov

Customer Profile

Located 25 miles north of Seattle, WA, Everett is the largest city in Snohomish County with a population of more than 100,000. Today the city is home to Boeing’s aircraft assembly plant and a large naval base – Naval Station Everett. Because of the city’s proximity to Seattle, Everett has become a bedroom community and is now connected to Seattle via an interstate highway and a range of transit services.

Objectives

The City of Everett needed connectivity solutions to ensure law enforcement officers could respond effectively to calls for service, and to enable utility operations to better monitor and manage systems in remote locations.

Results

Law enforcement officers reliably connected in their vehicles enables them to better respond to calls for service
City utility workers can monitor remote locations and systems and avoid sending techs to investigate and resolve issues
IT team is experiencing lower calls for support, allowing them to focus on higher priority tasks

Sierra Wireless Products & Services

AirLink MP70 and AirLink GX450, managed via AirLink Management Service

Challenge

Managing the resources of a city is a huge challenge. With aging infrastructure and tight budgets, city managers need to find the right balance between offering citizens the necessary services for quality of life and doing so efficiently. City operations span a wide array of services and involve both mobile and fixed infrastructure. Much of the workforce in a city is mobile protecting the public and critical infrastructure. Police officers, firefighters, transit operators and utility crews all need to be connected to operations – to send and receive information during their shifts. Critical infrastructure also needs to be managed – like wastewater plants and utility substations.

The City of Everett was experiencing several challenges:

Police officers and fire fighters were experiencing connectivity problems in their vehicles which was affecting their ability to respond to calls for service,
SCADA systems in Everett Public Works needed to be connected so that they could be remotely managed and monitored, and
The IT team was experiencing high volumes of calls for support and having to either take vehicles off the street or dispatch support to remote sites to address problems

We selected the GX450 because it conformed to our security requirements but also can be remotely monitored and managed.

Kevin Walser
IT Project Manager, City of Everett

Solution

For the police force, the city needed a solution that would ensure officers could be connected reliably and securely, and one that would be simple to manage and maintain. This would improve not only officer satisfaction but also the productivity and efficiency of the IT team. They also wanted a solution that would be compliant with new federal and state security requirements – FIPS140-2.

To that end, the city did a trial with the Sierra Wireless AirLink® GX450 mobile router in a police cruiser. IT staff were able to configure and manage the device remotely, and officers noticed a dramatic improvement in connectivity. Following the testing, the City of Everett decided to deploy the GX450 in all police and fire department vehicles and AirLink® Management System (ALMS) for their IT team.

“We selected the GX450 because it conformed to our security requirements but also can be remotely monitored and managed,” said Kevin Walser, IT Project Manager, City of Everett. “Officers can access state and federal databases, receive real-time dispatch data and complete reports from their vehicles. And with ALMS, the IT team can configure, monitor, troubleshoot and diagnose issues from our office.”

For the SCADA systems in Everett Public Works, the city tested the AirLink^® MP70 LTE router and determined that it met their needs for ruggedness, reliability and remote management. Now SCADA system data can be sent wirelessly from remote locations back to utility operations automatically, and teams can take action to address problems proactively.

CS-City of Everett-Case Study-1120x600-3

Results

The city has deployed the GX450 in all police and fire department vehicles and is now doing a trial of the MP70 in its transit fleet. “We’re really pleased with the results”, said Kevin Walser, IT Project Manager, City of Everett. “The devices are reliable and stable, and we’re able to comply with federal and state security requirements. And the IT team is now able to proactively monitor and manage the devices from our office. We’re getting fewer support calls, we’ve reduced truck rolls for support, and the officers have noticed a dramatic difference in connectivity.”

“Having worked with Sierra Wireless in the past, we know the company to be a reliable and trustworthy supplier. We’ve seen excellent performance from both the MP70 and GX450, and the management system has changed the way we provide support to our various teams,” said Mr. Walser. “Ensemble Solutions Group has been a great partner in this project. We wanted to work with a team that could not only provide hardware, but all the engineering services and support we would need. They helped us identify solutions and put together an architecture that worked, and the support we’ve received has ensured a successful project.”

The IT team is now able to proactively monitor and manage the devices from our office. We’re getting fewer support calls, we’ve reduced truck rolls for support, and the officers have noticed a dramatic difference in connectivity.

Kevin Walser
IT Project Manager, City of Everett