HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Intergraph((R)), a world leader in public safety and security, has been named a member of the Emergency Support System (ESS) Consortium approved by the European Commission to begin research and development of a portable emergency command and control system that incorporates real-time data collection technologies. The system will provide actionable intelligence to managers during crisis events and will be used as a framework for future crisis management systems.

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ESS will leverage Intergraph's extensive public safety and security expertise to develop the core of the ESS portal, the Data Fusion Mediation System (DFMS), which will collect data from different data sources and harmonize them into one comprehensive dataset. This dataset will then provide input to the Web-based ESS portal to help support decision making in crisis situations. Intergraph will also have a significant role in the development of all work packages of the ESS project.

Part of the Seventh EU Framework Program, ESS is a four-year project expected to run until 2013. The European Commission will contribute euro 9.1 million over the next four years. The ESS consortium, which is led by Verint Systems, is comprised of 19 leading European technology companies, research institutes and end-user organizations.

The purpose of ESS is to enable improved control and management of major crisis events such as terror attacks, industrial accidents and natural disasters. The idea guiding the development of ESS is real-time fusion of various forms of field-derived data including video, audio, weather, location tracking, radioactivity, bio-chemical, telecom derived data, affected population reports and other information. The data will be communicated via both portable and fixed platforms including wireless communication devices, UAV, air-balloon and field-vehicles. Fusion of the data is handled within a central system which performs information analysis and provides decision support applications for Web-based command and control systems. This provides flexible, yet comprehensive coverage of the affected area.

Once available to the market, the ESS concept would offer real time synchronization and information sharing between first responders and support forces at the site of the incident such as police, rescue teams and firefighters as well as out-of-theater command and control centers of the various involved authorities (e.g. municipalities and homeland security). ESS will also enable the commanders to communicate with the affected on-site personnel by sending text (SMS) or recorded voice messages.

"We are proud to advance our innovative concept in the field of civil security through partnership with world-leading industrial and research organizations," says Gideon Hazzani, director of technologies for Verint Systems, who initiated the ESS concept and serves as the consortium coordinator. "Crisis situations are usually characterized by random location, uncertainty, stress and the availability of partial information according to which commanders need to make life and death decisions. By using independent, portable and quickly deployable command and control systems which share information between all the parties, decision makers can make decisions based on better quality, clearer and more complete data. As such, ESS will help limit the scope of the crisis and ultimately save lives," explains Hazzani.

Elie Berdugo, EMEA FP7 coordinator at Ernst & Young added, "The start of the ESS project is a great achievement for the ESS consortium. The European FP7 platform offers a unique opportunity to develop advanced concepts such as those included in ESS."

"As a global leader in public safety and security incident management and reporting solutions, Intergraph is honored to play an integral role in this important European Commission initiative," said John K. Graham, president, Intergraph Security, Government & Infrastructure. "Intergraph's global experience and integrated security solutions will not only be leveraged in the ESS portal to provide actionable intelligence to enable decision makers, but also as the framework for future security systems to save lives and promote public safety and security."

Intergraph is the leading global provider of incident management software and reporting solutions. One in 12 people in the world are protected by Intergraph public safety and security solutions.

About the ESS Consortium

The ESS consortium consists of 19 European partners that come together from a wide spectrum of operational, industrial and academic fields, ranging from sensor design, electronic communications, security applications and civil protection. The members of the consortium include: VERINT Systems (Israel)- the consortium coordinator, Ernst & Young (Israel), Centre d'Essais et de Recherche de l'Entente (France), Fraunhofer IAIS (Germany), CS (France), GMV (Spain), Intergraph (Czech Republic), Alcatel-Lucent (Italy), Algosystems (Greece), ITIS (UK), IMEGO institute (Sweden), KEMEA-center for security studies (Greece), FAENZI (Italy), ANCO (Greece), APD Communications (UK), International Geospatial Services Institute (Germany), Magen-David Adom (Israel), Aeronautics (Israel), Wind Telecommunication (Italy(. For more information, please contact Email Contact

About Intergraph

Intergraph is the leading global provider of engineering and geospatial software that enables customers to visualize complex data. Businesses and governments in more than 60 countries rely on Intergraph's industry-specific software to organize vast amounts of data into understandable visual representations and actionable intelligence. Intergraph's software and services empower customers to build and operate more efficient plants and ships, create intelligent maps, and protect critical infrastructure and millions of people around the world.

Intergraph operates through two divisions: Process, Power & Marine (PP&M) and Security, Government & Infrastructure (SG&I). Intergraph PP&M provides enterprise engineering software for the design, construction and operation of plants, ships and offshore facilities. Intergraph SG&I provides geospatially-powered solutions to the defense and intelligence, public safety and security, government, transportation, photogrammetry, utilities, and communications industries. For more information, visit www.intergraph.com.

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