Microsoft .NET
Customer Solution Case Study
Emergency Response System Formed to
Ensure the Safety of Indian Citizens
Overview
Country: India
Industry: Healthcare, Public Safety
Customer Profile
The Emergency Management and
Research Institute (EMRI) was formed in
India to meet the need for a state-of-the-art
emergency response system that could
help save millions of lives.
Business Situation
In India there is no single number like 9-11, no single agency to coordinate
emergency response, and no specific
standards exist for ambulances. A strong
need emerged to have a centralized
system of emergency response, which
would assist a victim in the least possible
amount of time.
Solution
EMRI, along with its technology partner,
Satyam, created an emergency response
system using Microsoft® .NET.
Benefits
 Provides a state-of-the-art response
center that saves thousands of lives
 Provides life-saving ambulances quickly
“108 is accessible by anyone and provides the
quickest response to any distress call at any time of
day, just like in the U.S.A. or Europe.”
Venkat Changavalli, CEO, EMRI
Mr. Ramalinga Raju, Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd.,
strongly felt the need for a state-of-the-art emergency response
system that could help citizens in a timely fashion and save millions
of lives. The Emergency Management and Research Institute
(EMRI) was formed by the Raju brothers as a not-for-profit entity
with a view not only to providing emergency management, but also
to conducting research related to emergencies and providing
various training programs. EMRI wanted to create an end-to-end
system that would automate all the activities of a call center, such
as reaching the emergency, ambulance tracking, and monitoring
the patient care process. EMRI, along with its technology partner,
Satyam, created an emergency response system using Microsoft®
.NET. All activities of the call center have been automated and 108
now provides a state-of-the-art response center that has saved
thousands of lives by providing timely emergency services.
“The system has helped
us to provide a better,
faster, cheaper, larger,
and steadier emergency
response.”
Dr. Sudhakar Varanasi, Sr. Vice President,
Satyam Computers Ltd.
Situation
India—a democratic country of more than a
billion people—has lacked a coordinated
emergency response system. Eighty-six
thousand people are killed in accidents every
year. Typically, at least 30 to 45 minutes
elapse before an accident victim arrives at a
hospital. Twelve percent of the institutions in
the trauma care sector have no access to
ambulances. Only 50 percent of the available
ambulance services possess the acute care
facilities needed to keep an accident victim
alive during transportation; and only 4
percent of personnel staffing these services
receive certified formal training.
In India, there is no single phone number for
a citizen to call, unlike the U.S. (9-1-1) and
the European Union (1-1-2) public emergency
systems. Police, fire, and public and private
hospitals have separate numbers; precious
time is lost while researching the appropriate
number to call. Not only that, secondary
injuries occurring during transport may be
worse than the primary injuries sustained,
due to the lack of appropriate ambulatory
facilities. Compounding this problem is the
lack of well-trained Emergency Medical
Technicians (EMTs) and paramedics.
Mr. Ramalinga Raju, Chairman of Satyam
Computer Services Limited, strongly felt the
need for a state-of-the-art emergency
response system that could help needy
citizens in a timely fashion and save millions
of lives. The Emergency Management and
Research Institute (EMRI) was formed by the
Raju brothers as a not-for-profit entity with a
view not only to provide emergency
management but also to conduct research
related to emergencies, and conduct various
training programs. Its goal is to be the best in
the world in emergency management.
As a first step, EMRI was recognized as a
nodal agency by the state government of
Andhra Pradesh in order to provide
emergency response throughout the state, in
Public-Private Partnership. The chairman has
set a time frame for EMRI to launch the
service in four months to cover 10 million
people in five cities.
Through the Andhra Pradesh state
government, EMRI approached the
Government of India for the allotment of a
single, toll-free number. 1-0-8 was already
reserved for emergency and disaster
management, so this is the number that was
allocated.
EMRI and Satyam Computer Services Ltd.
decided to create an Emergency Response
System that automates all the activities of
the call center: reaching the emergency site
by Emergency Response Vehicle (Police, Fire,
Medical), tracking the ambulance (for
medical cases), monitoring the emergency
care process, informing the police about the
accident, and integrating the voice-logging
systems for voice replay. EMRI has a
physician available in the call center at all
times. It also operates 30 ALS and 40 BLS
ambulances. The EMRI ambulances are
equipped with the latest in technology
equipment and are installed with highly
receptive communication equipment. The
ambulances are equipped with the extrication
tools, fire extinguishers, rescue blankets,
shovels, and so on, needed to rescue an
accident victim. Ambulances are owned by
EMRI with trained Emergency Medical
Technicians (EMTs) aboard.
Solution
A Modern Call Center
EMRI and Satyam Computer Services Ltd.
signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) making Satyam EMRI’s technology
partner. Satyam IT professionals started
developing and integrating several vendorsupplied systems to create a single seamless
solution including Computer Telephony
Integration (Computer Communication Toolkit
- CCT), Voice Logger system, Geographic
Information System (GIS)/Maps, Global
Positioning System (GPS)/Automatic Vehicle
Location Technology (AVLT), and Mobile
Communication.
Emergency Response System is complex
software that integrates with many critical
third-party systems for managing
emergencies. It automates all the activities of
the call center and support activities of
emergency handling, such as medical
assistance to critical patients, ambulance
management, equipment management and
partner tracking.
When a citizen calls 1-0-8, from any of the
cities, from a fixed-line or mobile telephone,
the call is instantly connected to a central site
in Hyderabad, which handles medical, fire,
and police emergencies through a Nortel
Meridian1 Option 61C PBX. A Nortel
Communication Server 1000 IP PBX
immediately routes the call to one of EMRI’s
Communications Officers using Nortel’s
Contact Center Manager Server technology.
Simultaneously CCT passes a message with
call details to the Communication Officer’s
desktop application, and then it creates an
entry interface (pop-up) with the caller’s
location and caller’s previous call’s details,
allowing the agent to verify the address of the
emergency. The Communication Officer
determines the emergency type and records
details about the victim. Help is dispatched
by either the medical dispatch officer or by
the police dispatch officer. GIS maps of the
cities are of great help in locating the
emergency. AVLT is useful to quickly locate
the nearest ambulance or first responder that
is available. Since location information is not
yet available from mobile phones, the officers
depend on the information provided by the
caller and the expertise of the dispatch
officer. The interaction of the caller with the
staff of EMRI is recorded. A six-way call center
conference is possible among the caller,
medical, police, fire dispatch officer, a
medical doctor, and a supervisor.
Solution Architecture
Application architecture is based upon
advanced technologies such as Microsoft®
ASP.NET, Microsoft .NET, and Windows®
operating system–based client applications
and services. The software is built using
highly distributed components that enhance
scalability and reliability.
Microsoft .NET version 1.1 helps build widely
distributed applications. In this case, it
provides interaction with other hardware,
such as Nortel Switch, and applications such
as the GIS-ESRI application for the Client Call
Manager application. Microsoft ASP.NET–
based Web services provide functionalities
for various remote distributed applications. A
Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 database is
used as the storage for the applications.
A Windows service built for mailing SMS is
used to send alerts and messages to mobile
devices. A shared third-party well-managed
mail server with SMTP service provides the
gateway for sending e-mail messages for the
core application. The Client Call Manager
application was developed using Windows
Forms (the development library within the
Microsoft .NET Framework for building rich
Windows-based applications) to capture the
details of the emergency calls received. This
information is communicated to the
application using the Microsoft .NET remoting
client and the Microsoft .NET remoting
components hosted on the remote server.
The system was implemented with the
objective of 99.999 percent up-time with
fault tolerance and back-up provisions. This
system is also designed for handling
200,000 emergency calls a day.
Benefits
Commenting on the success of the project,
Venkat Changavalli, CEO, EMRI, says, “108 is
accessible by anyone and provides the
quickest response to any distress call at any
time of day, just like in the U.S.A. or Europe.”
Provides a State-of-the-Art Call Center
When a citizen calls from a fixed-line or
mobile telephone, the call is instantly
connected to a central site in Hyderabad. The
system finds the location of the call and
immediately dispatches help.
The dispatching system uses the help of GIS
and AVLT to dispatch the service. AVLT is a
system that tracks the ambulance vehicle as
it moves. The dispatch officer can visually see
it on his system and give the directions to the
pilot or driver, based on the address
information of the emergency incident. This
helps in reaching the emergency site faster.
The dispatch officer can even help the driver
with suggestions such as alternate routes to
reach the place.
Provides Life-Saving Ambulances
Quickly
An integrated approach in ambulance design
was followed to provide best-in-class services
to emergency victims. The response time has
been cut from 60 to 180 minutes to 5 to 30
minutes through the use of the solution and
has helped in saving more than 2000 lives.
“The system has helped us to provide better,
faster, cheaper, larger, and steadier
emergency response,” concludes Dr.
Sudhakar Varanasi, Sr. Vice President,
Satyam Computers Ltd. who spear-headed
the development.
Future Plans
Because urban cities are covered by GSM
service from various providers, GSM has
been chosen as the main medium for
communication between emergency
response center and mobile vehicles
(ambulances and other response vehicles).
However, other technologies, such as GPRS
and WiMAX, are also being evaluated for the
future. A number of innovations are also
being worked on.
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at (800) 4269400. In Canada, call the Microsoft
Canada Information Centre at (877) 5682495. Customers who are deaf or hard-ofhearing can reach Microsoft text telephone
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in
the United States or (905) 568-9641 in
Canada. Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access information
using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com
For more information about Satyam
Computers Limited products and services,
call +91-40-55854343 or visit the Web
site at:
www.satyam.com
For more information about EMRI products
and services, call +91-40-23462222 /
23462600 or visit the Web site at:
www.emri.in
Document published May 2006
Microsoft .NET is software that connects
people, information, systems, and devices
through the use of Web services. Web
services are a combination of protocols that
enable computers to work together by
exchanging messages. Web services are
based on the standard protocols of XML,
SOAP, and WSDL, which allow them to
interoperate across platforms and programming languages.
.NET is integrated across Microsoft products
and services, providing the ability to quickly
build, deploy, manage, and use connected,
secure solutions with Web services. These
solutions provide agile business integration
and the promise of information anytime,
anywhere, on any device.
For more information about Microsoft
.NET and Web services, please visit these
Web sites:
www.microsoft.com/net
www.msdn.microsoft.com/webservices
Software and Services
Hardware
Products
− Microsoft SQL Server 2000
− Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Standard Edition
− Microsoft Office Visio® 2003
− Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET 2003
 Technologies
− Microsoft .NET
− Microsoft ASP.NET


© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case
study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO
WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Microsoft, Visio, Visual Studio, Windows, the Windows logo,
Windows Server, and Windows Server System are either
registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in
the United States and/or other countries. All trademarks are
property of their respective owners.
Microsoft .NET
About Satyam Computers
Satyam Computer Services Ltd. (NYSE: SAY)
is a global IT Consulting Services Provider
offering a range of expertise aimed at helping
customers re-engineer and re-invent their
businesses to compete successfully in an
ever-changing marketplace. Over 28,000
highly-skilled professionals at Satyam work
onsite, offsite, offshore and near shore, to
provide customized IT solutions for
companies in several industry sectors.
Satyam’s ideas and products have resulted in
technology-intensive transformations that
have met the most stringent international
quality standards. Twenty Satyam
Development Centers in India, the U.S., the
U.K., the U.A.E., Canada, Hungary, Malaysia,
Singapore, China, Japan and Australia serve
469 global companies, of which 156 are
Fortune Global 500 and Fortune U.S. 500
corporations as of March 31, 2006. Satyam’s
presence spans 55 countries across six
continents.
DL 380, dual processor,1 gigabyte (GB)
RAM, 512 kilobyte (KB) cache, two 18gigabyte (GB) hard disk drives
Partners

Satyam Computers Limited