Honeywell And Avaya Collaborate To Advance Emergency Response In Smart Cities Across the Middle East

Honeywell (Nasdaq: HON) and Avaya (NYSE: AVYA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to help advance the emergency response capabilities of regional law enforcement and smart city organizations.

The agreement supports the integration of the Avaya OneCloud^TM experience platform with the Honeywell City Suite to help regional governments accelerate their smart city initiatives. The combined platforms will not only improve citizen engagement but also deliver the means to support community safety efforts though improved emergency response capabilities.

This integration is already being rolled out in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, a greenfield smart city 45 kilometres east of Cairo. Once completed, the New Administrative Capital will be the new home of the country’s parliament, presidential palaces, government ministries and foreign embassies, as well as major private firms operating in Egypt.

Using the Honeywell City Suite Platform, integrated with Avaya OneCloud, city authorities will be able to monitor the city’s activities from an integrated Command and Control Centre. The centre also includes advanced video analytics solutions that can monitor crowds and traffic flow, track suspicious behaviour, and subsequently trigger automated emergency responses.

“Avaya and Honeywell are helping Middle Eastern cities to deliver the citizen experience of the future. In situations where every second counts, having a unified communications environment that capitalises on the availability of critical data can mean the difference between life and death. This collaboration will enable us to make these capabilities more widely available to governments across the region,” said Nidal Abou-Ltaif, president, Avaya International.

According to GlobalData research, global spending on smart cities will grow from $221.1bn in 2019 to $442.6bn in 2022 - at a compound annual growth rate of 12%.

“The future of our world lies in cities that provide a better experience by emphasizing safety, sustainability and liveability for their citizens. Through this collaboration, we will create a more secure, dependable and effective way for emergency centre operators in the region to manage crisis responses,” said Sultan Chatila, chief commercial officer, Honeywell Building Technologies, Middle East, Turkey and Africa.