By: Mark Turpin
Since the pandemic began, remote work has become the norm for many office workers. However, even when employees aren’t physically on-site, they are still subject to the Ray Baum Act.
The Ray Baum Act: A Brief Overview
The Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (RAY BAUM) Act is broad legislation including regulations for an enterprise phone system like yours. Section 506 of the Act requires you to provide automated dispatchable location information to 911 operators whenever an emergency call is placed using your phone system.
Beginning January 6, 2020, all on-site phones, be they desk phones or softphones, must provide 911 dispatchers with detailed location information so they can pinpoint the caller’s location. In addition to a valid street address, dispatchers must also be provided with information such as the building, floor, suite, room number, or directional information (for example, break room, third floor, southeast corner).?
Mapping the physical locations of phones within your office is tedious but straightforward. The mapping work, however, becomes significantly more complicated when considering your remote workers.
Keeping Employee Locations Up to Date is Critical
One of the most common hurdles organizations have when it comes to Ray Baum compliance for remote workers is ensuring all employees are updating their location information. Because of this, we make it easy for remote workers to update their location and for IT administrators to identify those who have not provided their location. That may seem simple, but for many organizations, actually getting employees to update their location information whenever they switch locations can present challenges.?
A significant difference in 9Line versus other industry solutions is how we treat remote workers that have failed to update their location. Should a remote worker forget or choose not to update their address, we will still accept the 911 call and ask the caller where they are to ensure we send the call to the correct PSAP the first time.?
Unlike solutions from other providers, we will never block a call to 911!
We at 9Line work to prompt and remind employees to update their location information; however, it is still important that leadership remind employees why compliance is vital.
Supporting Remote Workers With CER? 9Line is Here to Help!
At 9Line, we believe calling 911 is a right, not a privilege, so we don’t charge extra fees for remote workers. We include licensing for each user in the organization regardless of the number of devices being used or the location of those devices.
Remote Worker Functionality with CER
9Line is proud to be an approved Cisco Solutions Partner, and we are in the process of adding functionality for additional phone system platforms. One of the essential features we support in our Cisco integration is native support for Cisco’s free, off-premises feature, which supports mapping locations for remote worker’s phones. This feature is included with CER and is specifically designed to make it as easy as possible for organizations like yours to keep all your workers, remote and on-premises, safe at all times.
Once you have deployed CER and enabled OFP for your remote workers, your integration with 9Line will keep the remote worker’s home address and other location information up to date and ready to use should they need to call 911. For more information about CER, including cost estimations, please consider reviewing our article on? Cisco Emergency Responder Costs.
(As of 5/11/22 – HELD automatic location switching has now been implemented as it provides more advanced features. CLICK HERE to learn more about implementing HELD).
Ready to get started?
Don’t delay. You can book your free (virtual) compliance assessment by visiting our website.
Looking for help with employee training and other professional services? We would be happy to connect you with one of our approved resellers in your area.
Additional Reading
For more information, please consider reviewing our educational articles:
A Guide to Kari’s Law and Ray Baum: Now and in the Future
A Guide to 911 Compliance: What Businesses Need to Know
Enterprise 911 Checklist: Everything You Need to Know to Stay Compliant