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From the General
Manager's Desk
The focus of this issue is on
our customers and what we're doing to improve the
service we provide them every day. With the steady
increase in the number of new customers and the
product enhancements we're making available to
existing customers this year, a key part of that
service is training. Last November we announced the
2009 Training Symposium in Gaithersburg, MD,
September 21-23. We're pleased to report
that by moving the event to another venue (same
dates/same city) we're able to reduce the cost by
about $200. We know that dollars, especially for
out-of-state travel, are tight, but the training and
the interaction with other customers at the
Symposium can save money by reducing the amount of
time and resources spent "back at the office"
configuring and deploying our products. As one
attendee at our last national training conference
said, "I came with an objective to find out about
upgrade procedures and new products. The conference
met all of my objectives." We've scheduled this
event to coincide with the next major release of our
mobile data software, so attendees can get hands-on
assistance in upgrading. There's more information
and a link to the registration site in the first
article below.
Another key component of customer service is
support, which is the topic of two other articles.
We've recently improved our 800 Customer Support
line with a new call distribution system. We know
that customers depend on us to respond quickly and
we think this new system can help us do that. We're
also asking for your help in identifying key
contacts for Customer Support alerts.
Finally, we think that an important part of service
we provide is information on federal grants, and the
follow up emails and calls we received to the recent
customer email alerts on Stimulus funding back that
up. There's updated grant information in this issue
that we hope you can use.
Best Regards,
Ken Souza
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2009 National
Training Symposium:
Costs Reduced
Customers who attend
our 2009 National Training Symposium will save as
much as $200. We've moved to a different hotel to
take advantage of lower rates offered by Hilton
Washington DC North/Gaithersburg. The dates
(September 21-23) and city location (Gaithersburg,
MD) haven't changed, but room rates at the Hilton
are about $30 per night lower and we're able to
reduce the standard registration fee and save
registrants another $100. To register or get more
information,
click
here.
This no-cost (other than registration fee) training
event is designed for both new and experienced
customers. We'll be contacting registrants directly
in the coming months on agenda topics, so we
encourage customers to register soon to ensure that
the final agenda addresses their specific needs.
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Customer in the News: Baltimore
Police
The Baltimore Police
Department's use of PocketCop® as "A New Tool in the War
on Crime" was recently featured in a televised news
story.
Click here to listen to Lt. Ian Dombroski
describe how BPD's Violent Crime Impact Division is
using PocketCop to positively identify suspects on the
street.
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New Support Call Response
System Goes On-line
In April Bill Goodwin and his
BIO-key Customer Support team implemented a new
Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system that
improves our ability to respond quickly and
appropriately when a Customer Support agent is not
immediately available to answer a call on our 800
support line during normal support hours. The new
ACD system lets us prioritize calls based on
criticality. If a customer indicates that they are
calling with a major loss of functionality, our new
system allows us to move that call in front of any
other lower priority calls. With the new system we
can also easily redirect callers requesting product
information or other non-support questions, which
will help keep the 800 support line open for
customers with support issues so they get immediate
help.
If you call, you may receive a follow-up email-based
questionnaire. We welcome your comments and ideas to
help us continuously improve the customer support
experience.
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 Help
Us Get Technical Information to the Right People
In February we sent out two email alerts to
customers regarding a compatibility issue with a
Microsoft Internet Explorer update. Because we
don't currently have a list of just the key
technical contact(s) at each customer site, we
sent the alerts to all Newsletter recipients. To
help us reduce the number of redundant emails
your agency receives regarding
technical issues by limiting future distribution
to just those who need to know, you can click
here and enter the appropriate contact (or
contacts) for customer support-specific
communications.
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Product Spotlight
InfoExchange RMS
Sharing Update
Since we introduced InfoExchange® almost
two years ago, police departments across the country
have successfully used it to give officers on the
street access to all the relevant person information
in the agency's RMS or other case management
database. With InfoExchange, when the officer makes
a standard NCIC/CJIS query by name/DOB, by SSN, or
by OLN via MobileCop or PocketCop, a person query is
also automatically generated against the RMS Master
Name or other target database. With InfoExchange,
there's no separate query data entry, and the
response is exactly where the officer expects it to
be - in the MobileCop NCICDisplay or PocketCop
Summary Screen. Also, multiple InfoServers running
InfoExchange can be securely connected
together, enabling agencies to quickly and easily
set up regional data sharing networks, even if they
use different RMS products.
Today we offer off-the-shelf adapters for RMS
systems from Cody, Denali, E*Justice, Enforsys,
Pamet and PSSI, as well as court case management and
Intel database systems from CourtView and InfoShare.
If your department uses one of these systems you can
quickly install InfoExchange® - with absolutely no
change (or change orders) to the vendor's software -
and be up and running immediately. If you're
interested in InfoExchange but you have a different
RMS or case management system, we offer a price
discount to the first customer for each new adapter
for commercially-available systems. For more
information contact us at (800) 400-6311.
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 Federal
Grant Update:
Department of Justice/Justice
Assistance Grant (JAG) Program
In response to the two customer email alerts we've
sent out recently, we've received a lot of calls and
emails requesting more information on the JAG
Stimulus grant programs. For
jurisdictions eligible for direct local funding,
the deadline for grant application submission is
May 19th. Please contact us at
leinfo@bio-key.com if you need more information
about the grant process or BIO-key products, like
InfoExchange, that provide the immediate impact on
law enforcement effectiveness that these grant
programs require.
Department of Homeland
Security/Assistance to Firefighters (AFG) Grant
Program
DHS recently announced the application deadline for
the FY2009 AFG Program, under which $507 million is
available this year to Fire and EMS agencies. The
application deadline is May 20th.
This is a competitive program with a local match
requirement of between 5 and 20%, depending on
jurisdiction size.
This year's
Guidance and Application Kit specifically states
that "mobile data systems are eligible" (under the
Firefighting Equipment Acquisition/Mobile
Communications category), and notes that "the
purchase of any communications systems or equipment
should have the intent or goal of solving
interoperability problems."
BIO-key MobileCop customers, including Dubuque, IA
and Rock County, WI, have used AFG grants to fund
the deployment of
MobileRescue™ in fire apparatus, ambulances and
command vehicles. With MobileRescue, Fire and EMS
units from different departments can easily
communicate with each other in mutual aid
situations, and, when they're running on the same
InfoServer, they can interoperate with
MobileCop-enabled police units, when necessary.
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 Upcoming
Events
Over the next few months we'll be at several
national and regional events where you can meet our
staff and get more information on our products,
including:
IACP Law Enforcement Information
Management (LEIM) Training Conference and Exposition
in Ft. Worth, TX, May 18-21
South Florida Police & Security
Expo in Palm Beach, FL, June 3-4
Mid-Atlantic Police & Security
Expo in Atlantic City, NJ, June 23-24.
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BIO-key Newsletters Now
Available Online
Looking for information you
remember reading in a past Newsletter edition? You
can
click here or just
go to "Newsletters" under "News and Events" on the
BIO-key home page to access recent Law Enforcement
Newsletters. We've also posted the most recent
edition of our Biometrics Newsletter on the site.
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BIO-key International, Inc. | 300 Nickerson
Road | Marlborough | MA | 01752
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