ERT Systems, LLC has developed a portable and rapidly deployable wireless personnel accountability and emergency resource tracking system for the emergency responder market.
The system, called OnSite ERT utilizes wireless tags that are worn by each responder (or put on apparatus) and small lightweight
ERT Systems was founded in 2005 by John Ellis, 25-year veteran firefighter and incident commander, and Dennis Carmichael, owner of a successful IT services company.
From his field experience, John knew that managing resources is one of the toughest challenges for an incident commander. He also knew that any solution would have to be completely automatic: responders don't have time for "overhead" at a chaotic and busy scene.
Working with Dennis, the pair came up with a system architecture that could do just that: fully-automatic tracking, locating, and environmental monitoring, in a rapidly-deployable product. ERT Systems was founded to develop that idea into a product. A Beta version was developed and deployed to its first customer, the Macomb College Firefighter Training Facility, in mid-2006.
From there, the company recruited Tony Mazzola, an accomplished software developer, to be its technical director. Using feedback from the Macomb installation, ERT Systems developed the first release version in 2007.
Since then, ERT Systems has earned a number of accolades, including:
– Dennis and John were awarded New Enterprise Forum’s 2006 Presentation of the Year
– The company won the Great Lakes Entrepreneur Quest 2006, New Business Idea category
– Dennis won the 2006 Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurship Business Pitch competition
– OnSite ERT was recognized as an innovative new product at the Michigan Homeland Security Consortium 2007 SELECT Awards
The product has also been included on the DHS Authorized Equipment list, approved for grant purchase
ERT Systems
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