Motorola Solutions expands emergency comms with 3tc acquisition

After a history of supporting the UK’s police agencies with advanced dispatching capabilities and other communications systems, Motorola Solutions furthers its control and command centre portfolio with the acquisition of 3tc Software (3tc), a provider of control room software solutions for Fire and Rescue Services and Police.

Based in Leicestershire, 3tc is a provider of fully integrated, mission critical software applications to the UK public sector and global emergency services markets. The company’s flagship computer-aided dispatch (CAD) software is designed to maximise 999 call-taker speed and efficiency in high-stress environments. The single-screen software gathers and synthesises critical data that enables call takers to display the real-time location of the caller and the closest emergency responders to dispatch help more quickly.

Motorola Solutions and 3tc have worked together to serve the UK’s emergency services for over five years, and the acquisition is designed to further align the companies’ critical experience and innovation focused on advancing CAD for the UK’s public safety agencies. 

“We share a focus on developing solutions that streamline emergency workflows and are excited to enhance the services we deliver to our emergency services customers,” said 3tc CEO David Todd.

Mahesh Saptharishi, executive vice-president and chief technology officer at Motorola Solutions, added: “Every second counts in an emergency, and call takers count on CAD software to efficiently document critical information and quickly connect those in need with those who can help.”

Financial terms of the transaction – which has closed already – have not been disclosed, but Fergus Mayne, UK country manager and head of sales at Motorola Solutions, told Computer Weekly that the company has had some “really good wins” with 3tc over the past 18 to 24 months.

“[The deal] for us is a natural evolution of our hosted solution,” he said. “In the hub model that we’re using for fire services, [3tc is] an integral part of that. By bringing them in as an acquisition to us, it’ll allow us to continue that evolution of the solution and the product to further meet the demands of both UK policing and UK fire.”

The cloud is seen by Motorola Solutions as a fundamental element of the future of technology solutions for UK emergency services, allowing first responders to have significantly more capability in the volume of information they receive and the speed at which it arrives, and to have significantly more options in terms of the form of communications. For example, the hosted cloud solutions will allow first responders to gain access to video files of incidents.

“We’ve [already] got Pronto, which is the electronic police notebook,” said Mayne. “That integrates all the way back to the control room and allows integration into the CAD and allows push notices to be sent in and allows multimedia to be transferred backward and forwards.

“So, from that aspect, it allows greater and quicker decision-making at the point of the incident and greater situational awareness. And that’s exactly the direction that fire is going as well.

“Now that we have 3tc as part of Motorola family, we’ll be looking at how you can take in and ingest more multimedia from the public, because they don’t always just want to ring 999, they want to send in video. The hosted platform allows you to do that and, at the same time, push that information out to the first responders at the incident and en route, so that they have great awareness of what they’re going to see.”

Another key part of acquisition will see Motorola looking to develop further 3tc’s MODAS Professional mobile data system that has been designed to deliver situational intelligence that can lead to better decision-making and more effective communications before, during and after an incident. Precise and relevant situational intelligence is available to crew managers via intelligence databases en route to incident and at the incident ground.

The firms will also be working on creating a call assist solution that will act as a CRM platform sitting alongside the control room solution and the CAD. In the past, when an emergency call comes in, the operator doesn’t know much about that person apart from what they’re communicating at the time. Call Assist will automatically search a database and see if that person has called in before, and that alerts the operator immediately that the person may need to be regarded as a higher priority to which appropriate resources can be applied.

In addition to working on individual products, Mayne revealed that the acquisition – which follows the takeover of specialised, long-range camera provider Silent Sentinel, in February 2024 – has a strategic element regarding global business, centred around a cloud-based hub.

“We’ll be looking at taking it from a UK solution, and then [seeing] how we can expand further internationally with both our CRS control room solution, which would obviously include 3tc CAD,” he said.

“We are also seeing the demand pick up globally on hosted solutions. The key points on why we’ve been successful in the UK, especially around fire, is that flexible hub model that allows fire rescue services [FRSs] to have a reduced cost and get their latest technology, because they share infrastructure. But critically, and this is what fire chiefs tell me, in [crisis] conditions, they haven’t got enough people on duty – now they can overflow their calls to neighbouring FRSs or other [services] and dynamically look at resources to bring others in to help, whether a major fire or a major flood.

“That has been one of the critical enablers for them to improve their efficiencies. We are working with groupings [of FRSs like] with the Leicestershire, Bedfordshire forces coming together or wanting to work together. The hub is the enabler for them to do that, sharing resources, sharing real-time information on incidents.”

The two parties have already begun an onboarding process with personnel – including executive management – fully integrated into Motorola and with the 3tc brand being maintained post-acquisition.

“There’s a lot of expertise there that’s key to us,” said Mayne. “They’ve got some really good developers who put the 3tc solution, the CAD solution, on this path, and we’ll be bringing them into our teams to work together. [With executives], they’ll just be brought in and they’ll be part of our overall strategy and strategic teams.”