How Manila’s 911 Dispatch Center cut dispatcher interruptions by up to 60%
Industry:
Government / Emergency services
Team size:
4 dispatchers + 1 supervisor per shift
Rollout approach:
Structured pilot, defined success criteria
Platform:
T-Max SIP softphone (non-UC)
Up to 60% fewer interruptions
Based on operational observation: -10 mid-call interruptions per 8-hour shift; reduced to approximately 4-6 during moderate to high activity.
Instant supervisor floor awareness
Supervisors can now instantly identify which dispatchers are occupied and redirect tasks to available personnel – without verbal check-ins or walking the floor.
Behavioral change. No training required.
Team members naturally stopped interrupting occupied dispatchers. The signal was obvious. The etiquette followed without a single instruclion or process change.
“For our type of environment – a 24/7 emergency operations center -visual call-status indicators are particularly valuable because they help maintain focus and reduce communication delays during high-activity periods.”
01 – The situation
A 911 operations floor runs on awareness.
The City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Department in Manila operates a 24/7 emergency dispatch center.
Four dispatchers work each shift in close proximity in an open operations room,
with a supervisor monitoring the entire floor.
Every call handled is an emergency.
Every second of lost focus has consequences.
The challenge was not technology. It was visibility. When a dispatcher is on a live emergency call, there was no reliable way for colleagues – or even the supervisor- to know it without walking over, asking, or waiting for a signal that might not come.
The team needed two things: at-desk visibility for colleagues seated nearby and distance visibility for supervisors reading the entire room without moving.
02 – The problem
Two friction points were slowing down emergency operations.
Both were silent problems. Both created real friction across the entire operations floor during every shift.
Mid-call interruptions
Staff approached dispatchers during active emergency calls to ask questions or check availability, with no visible way to know a call was in progress. In a 911 environment, a single unnecessary interruption during a live incident can cost critical seconds.
Supervisor blind spots
Supervisors had no reliable way to read floor status without walking over or interrupting via internal comms. During simultaneous incidents -multiple hotlines and radio channels active at once -task redirection was slow and disruptive
03 – The solution
One device. lmmediate awareness. No UC platform required.
kuando Busylight was deployed across all dispatcher stations, with a supervisor unit providing floor-wide status at a glance. Because the center runs T-Max SIP – a non-UC softphone – the deployment was
configured for call-state-based triggering without native integration. Busylight works in an environment well beyond Teams or Zoom.
Clear on-call signal
A lit red Busylight means the dispatcher is handling a call. The entire operations floor reads it instantly – no app, no checking, no asking.
Available at a glance
Green means available. Supervisors can redirect tasks and coordinate resources across all stations in real time – from anywhere on the floor.
Works without a UC platform
The deployment used call-state-based triggering via the SIP softphone – no Microsoft Teams or Zoom integration required or plugin. Done.
kuando® Busylight
| Connection | USB |
| Platform | Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Cisco +40 |
| Setup time | Under 2 minutes |
| Deployment ready | Mass deployment via MSI |
04 – Rollout
How it was deployed
Standardised. Simple. Built on a foundation of agreed success criteria before a single light was powered on.
01
Pilot scope defined with Plenom
Before deployment, the team worked with Plenom to define exact success criteria: Interruption reduction, visual signalling per dispatcher, supervisor floor awareness, and team feedback targets. Eight outcomes. All measurable.
02
Trial across 4+1 stations
Four dispatcher stations and one supervisor station were equipped across the operations room. The team observed behavior during standard shifts, simultaneous incidents, hotline activity, and radio coordination.
03
All 8 success criteria met
Every defined outcome was confirmed by the operations team. No training was delivered. No process change was mandated. The behavioral improvement happened because the signal made the right behavior the obvious one.
05 – RESULTS
What changed across the operations floor
40-60% Fewer interruptions per shift
Based on operational observation, approximately 10 interruptions per 8-hour shift were reduced to 4-6. Improvement observed across hotline call-taking, radio coordination, incident logging, and resource dispatch.
lnstant Floor-wide status awareness
Supervisors now identify occupied and available dispatchers in real time – without verbal check-ins, without walking the floor, and without disrupting ongoing communications during active incidents.
80%+ Positive team feedback
More than 80% ol team members who directly used or observed the system expressed positive feedback, specifically citing improved situational awareness and reduced distractions during active calls.
If your team works in a high-stakes environment where a single mid-call interruption costs more than time – give everyone a clear signal.
Emergency services, dispatch, utilities, and transport control. Busylight works without a UC platform, without complex integration, and without training. Red means busy, Green means available. Done.
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