City of Grand Rapids Deploys In Motion Technology to Support City-Wide Mobile Office Initiative

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We wanted to enable the same level of connectivity that we provide to our 1300 office-based workers to our mobile workforce, and improve productivity and timeliness of our responses.

Vancouver, BC and Grand Rapids, MI (PRWEB) September 10, 2013

In Motion Technology, the leader in mobile enterprise networks, today announced that the City of Grand Rapids has deployed its system to support an innovative city-wide “mobile office” initiative. The system supports unparalleled secure mobile access to the City’s corporate network for hundreds of mobile workers in law enforcement, fire, building inspection, code compliance and water and environmental services departments.

In 2010, the City defined its vision to extend its corporate network to mobile workers, in order to support an improved level of service and responsiveness to citizens. City IT staff searched for a solution that would enable hundreds of workers to have access to resources from their vehicles. “For our mobile workforce, their vehicles are their offices”, said Eric Mundt, Mobile Office Solution Coordinator. “We wanted to enable the same level of connectivity that we provide to our 1300 office-based workers to this force, and improve productivity and timeliness of our responses.

The City selected In Motion Technology’s onBoard system, which provides a mobile router for each vehicle that supports any wireless network. The companion management system enables administrators to monitor not only the status of communications, but network usage and vehicle location over time.

“The changes in wireless technology forced us to look for a solution that would endure changes in the environment,” said Mundt. “In Motion’s products are built for a mobile office environment and give flexibility to individual departments to connect the applications and use the networks that best meet their needs.”

The City has deployed onBoard Mobile Gateways in its vehicles that require mobile office capability, and uses In Motion’s onBoard Mobility Manager to monitor and manage the fleet.

The impact of the technology for the City has been three-fold:

•     Improved Network Reliability: Field workers are reliant on cellular data to connect to City programs and applications. If there are network issues, the management software allows for easy pinpoints of network usage and potential “dead zones”. The gateway also allows for changing of cellular carriers if a superior or faster network emerges.
•     Improved Customer Satisfaction: The ability to match available resources, call locations and demands for service allows the city to provide improved response times and improves overall satisfaction levels for its services. GPS can be forwarded from the gateway to dispatch systems so that precise vehicle location is known, and the closest unit can respond to calls using an optimized route.
•     Improved Accountability: Knowing vehicle location for all mobile workers enables the city to show where workers are and where they are not at any point in time.

“Now that we have the infrastructure in place, I’m excited to see where we go from here,” explained Mundt. “Our workforce is seeing the value of being connected, and this paves a path to a lot of potential new applications including vehicle telemetry or asset tracking.”

“With this new technology, citizens of Grand Rapids are getting improved service levels, and the City is seeing higher customer satisfaction,” said Tony Morris, In Motion Technology VP of Sales and Marketing. “We are very proud to provide a solution that enables secure, reliable access to the applications that mobile workers need to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively.”

In Motion Technology Inc.

In Motion Technology is the leader in mobile enterprise networks that provide customers with fleets in mission critical environments with a secure, managed end-to-end communications system. The company’s solution includes a powerful management platform, an application suite designed to improve situational awareness, industry leading mobile-optimized security and a rugged in-vehicle mobile router. In Motion’s solutions are used by hundreds of public safety, transit and utility fleets across the United States and Canada. For more information please contact Louise Labuda at (604) 523-2371 or visit In Motion Technology, Twitter, and Facebook.

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