19 Jul 2010

NICE and Esri join hands to integrate their surveillance solutions
The companies have entered into an OEM agreement to enhance NICE Situator with Esri's GIS capabilities
NICE Systems Ltd., a leading global provider of intent-based solutions that enable enterprises and security organisations to extract insight from interactions, transactions and surveillance to drive business performance, reduce risk and ensure safety, and Esri, a leading provider of geographical information system (GIS) software, announced that the companies have entered into an OEM agreement to enhance NICE Situator with Esri's GIS capabilities, for enhanced situation management. Under the OEM agreement, the Esri ArcGIS software engine will be embedded and integrated into the NICE Situator solution. The new integrated solution will serve the security operations needs of seaports, airports, public transport, railways, city centres, military organisations, as well as enterprises.

The integrated solution combines NICE Situator's data fusion, analysis and automated response capabilities, with Esri's spatial analysis, data management, and GIS mapping, to improve situational awareness and real-time situation management. NICE Situator correlates data from diverse security, safety and operational systems, alerting operators in real-time to incidents that require attention. All of the relevant information is then overlaid on an intuitive GIS interface, so control centre operators can visualise situations in a geographic context, using Situator's pre-programmed response plans to help guide and automate their response. For example, operators alerted to a situation can immediately see the locations of various sensors in alarm mode, and view nearby video cameras, mobile responders, vehicles, and other location-aware devices, all dynamically updated in real-time. Automated decision support checklists in NICE Situator also help operators manage resources for an effective situation response.

"Computerised mapping technology is a pre-requisite for organisations around the world that are focused on security," said Terry Bills, Esri Transportation Industry Manager. "Now, by adding GIS capabilities from Esri to the real-time situation planning, response and analysis capabilities of NICE Situator, command and control centres can be automatically alerted to a situation, be able to better visualise the situation as it's happening, and respond more effectively with a pre-defined plan."

"We are happy to be working with Esri on enhancing NICE's leading-edge capabilities for improving situational awareness and incident management," said Israel Livnat, President, NICE Security. "Command and control centres are increasingly looking for a solution that combines computerised mapping capabilities with real-time situation management. We're looking forward to working with Esri on a solution that offers these enhanced situation management capabilities, to command and control centres."