China subsidiary showcases solutions with the Ministry of Public Safety
Last month, our China subsidiary hosted a Microsoft Public Safety & Justice customer seminar for the Ministry of Public Safety in Beijing. Fourteen members from the ministry attended, including Mr. Dong Li, the Vice Director of Security. They want to transform the ministry by digitizing processes and operations that create meaningful data to promote organizational innovation and better security services for the air and rail transportation hubs in China. This includes making the most of mobility solutions for staff, first responders, and field operators by using mission-ready devices to help meet the goal of increasing public safety.
The event was held in the Microsoft China Center One (MCCO) facilities in Beijing. It was the perfect venue to establish the “wow” effect with the ministry right from the beginning by conducting a tour of the facility—complete with the latest demos of innovative Microsoft technologies and devices. In addition, we were fortunate to be able to schedule Winnie Chen, from our local CELA team, for a presentation on the Digital Crimes Unit from the Microsoft Cyber Crimes Center. She discussed PhotoDNA technology and applications and also showed some very compelling, real-time cybersecurity visualizations based on the extensive sensor network that Microsoft customers can access in order to better protect their systems.
In addition to brief talks from the subsidiary and MCCO, we heard wonderfully relevant presentations delivered by our Worldwide Government and Defense Solutions team on big data/analytics (Jorge Lopez, Team Lead) as well as mobility and devices (Eric Basha, Devices). Microsoft has the right analytics solutions for assessing potential emergencies, determining their projected impact, and then facilitating the execution of incident action plans. We do so by combining information from different sources (e.g., location, tracking, sensors, video, traffic reports, hospital status, weather reports, social media, and other dynamic data) with GIS data (e.g., imagery, elevations, streets, and critical infrastructure).
We also demonstrated how we could support the ministry’s transformation plans with devices that enable highly secure collaboration and mobility while helping to safeguard sensitive information with built-in information protection capabilities to prevent unauthorized access. Additionally, we were able to bring in Genetec and iOmniscient—ISVs with “world class” public safety solutions built on the Microsoft platform—to address specific capability gaps raised by the customer with respect to CCTV video storage, management, and analytics.
Mr. Dong was also very interested in Microsoft’s ongoing work with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He was also keen to know about our work with the TSA in American airports, because their agency must abide by TSA guidance as well or else flights departing from China may not go to US destinations. 
Of course, we referenced the recent sale of Microsoft Aware Unified Search and Analytics to the TSA’s Transportation Security Operations Center (TSOC).
This success was the result of persistent hard work and deep collaboration across Microsoft, with ESRI as our subcontractor/partner and with TSOC business leadership. Microsoft Aware was procured via the Microsoft Department of Homeland Security IDIQ contract.
The solution will provide instant search, alerting, visualization, and analytics of incidents/threats associated with air and surface transportation across the United States. The TSA leadership is partnering with Microsoft to transform situational awareness, and additional phases are planned to add more data sources, enable more Aware functionality, and support more users.
As part of the seminar, we also had a long discussion about using data and analytics to enhance public safety at air transportation hubs. One area of focus was a project in which Microsoft provide a big data analytics solution for the Auckland Airport in New Zealand.
Our meeting went very well—100 percent positive feedback with tons of Q&A. The attendees from the ministry stayed way past the appointed time due to interest in Microsoft and our partner ISV solutions, which they felt were very relevant for their current needs and future plans.
To learn more, visit our Windows solution for Public Safety.
