Phoenix G2 Testimonials

We couldn’t be happier or more satisfied with your product and customer service. It’s been a godsend, what a night and day difference it’s made. We definitely want to be associated with your company and be on the page of customers.

Thank you very much for all your hard work and sticking with us all those years as we fought all those years to make this a reality.

Thank you for your knowledge, support and quick responses to questions. It’s a testament to your company.

We are really enjoying your product, it has not only replaced and improved our dispatch system, it has also increased our performance.

“GOT THE PRODUCT WE WANTED QUICKER!” We got the product from US Digital Designs that we wanted, were able to save tax payer dollars, and met our procurement requirements by piggybacking off the contract. Everybody wins with FireRescue GPO/NPPGov!

Our prior system required the dispatcher to take the call, take down all of the information and talk over the speaker, which meant putting the caller on hold. Now we’ve got it down to 13 seconds from taking the call to pushing the button and sending the dispatch. Meanwhile, the dispatcher can still talk to the caller and continue to take down information.

The U.S. standard is six minutes from call to scene. All fire departments must have an average six-minute response time. Therefore, we’re looking for ways to shave off time. Previously, it had been roughly five minutes from the time we took the call to the time we dispatched and were en route. The Phoenix G2 system gives us more time to get to the apparatus with more information at hand. Our average response time now is about 4.5 minutes. I think the whole thing has been a really good experience.

“Response times are very critical in an emergency. In a fire, it will grow exponentially over time, so if we can shave off 30 seconds or a minute in our response, it may be the difference between just the couch being involved in a fire, or the whole room, or possibly a large portion of the house. We are looking to save every second possible in the process, and the new [integrated station alerting/CAD] system allows us to do that in a number of ways.

Under the previous system, a person who received the 911 call would be trying to do three things simultaneously: talk to the caller, start alerting the fire stations and talk over the radio to the firefighters to tell them what was going on and where, and also flipping through flip charts trying to give pre-arrival instructions to the by-standers on how to help this person before we get there. Now, because the system is automated, as soon as key information is entered into the system by the dispatcher, it automatically sends that information to alert the firefighters in the stations and starts that process happening sooner.

It [Phoenix G2] just helps alert them in a timely manner and provides them a variety of methods that ensures that it gets their attention through sounds and lights and other devices, and passes that information to them very effectively to help speed their response to the emergency.”

“This [Phoenix G2] system has many different parts and facets that we will be able to utilize to reduce response times, get our firefighters out to response scenes quicker, get them better information before they get there, and also reduce some stress on our people.

[Through automated alerting], we’re able to avoid human error. We’re able to avoid certain accents or people that speak too fast or people that speak too slow. We’ll be able to do all of these things that affect the critical need to get this information out to our first responders as quick as possible.”

The standard, quite simply, is . . . the expectation . . . that a dispatch center that receives an emergency call is able to receive that information, process it in 60 seconds or less, 90 percent of the time. And that was the one area of glaring weakness that we had, mainly due to our outdated technology. Our dispatch processing time was not even coming close to meeting that standard. So we looked at the technology, and we found US Digital Designs as a technology that can improve our dispatch processing time. That single piece of technology literally cut our dispatch processing time in half.

“We would be looking at 8-, 10-, 12-, 15-minute response times. Looking back, it’s almost like that was totally unacceptable. The public is very critical of us. They expect a lot out of us and we expect a lot out of ourselves.”

“During the design and construction [of our new fire stations], we wanted to improve our capabilities to alert the firefighters more efficiently and quickly. [The new Phoenix G2 system] will alert all the systems simultaneously, instead of stacking them one after the other with the radio system like the old system worked. Let’s say [we experience] a structure fire call where we are alerting five pieces of apparatus … that last station [out of five] wasn’t actually alerted until 30-40 seconds after the first one.

Seconds count. Fire doesn’t give us a pause when things are going on, so every second matters.”

“[G2 Message sign] screens in the fire stations will spell out the call’s location. That can help firefighters verify whether they heard, for example, ‘Grand Avenue’ or ‘Graham Avenue.'”

“What firefighters know is what works and what doesn’t work, and what’s important is, for us, is that it works. And US Digital Designs’ package works. It’s extremely reliable equipment, it’s extremely well made, it’s first-class, and it performs for us.

Station alerting… I know for a fact that it shaves seconds off of calls. The earlier we get there, the quicker we can [save a life].”