When a public safety agency outsources AFRRCS radio support, programming and servicing to an outside vendor, they need to enter into an agreement with an AFRRCS Technical Administrator and/or Trust Technician for those services. So what are the criteria an agency should follow for selecting a Technical Administrator?

Your AFRRCS Technical Administrator and Trust Technician should have the 23 following qualities:

1. Years of experience supporting and maintaining 2-way radio systems
2. Experienced in implementing and supporting P25 trunked radio systems
3. Experienced in supporting the communications needs of public safety agencies
4. Trained and approved as a Technical Administrator by AFRRCS
5. Trained and certified by the specific manufacturer(s) of your P25 radios
6. Appointed as an authorized service centre, dealer, warranty agent and service centre by the P25 radio manufacturer(s)
7. Subscribed to the technical support resources of the manufacturer(s) of your P25 radios
8. Prepared to invest in ongoing P25 training by the manufacturer(s)
9. Have engineering talent experienced in trunked radio system design, and able to represent the agency’s interests at high level meetings with AFRRCS authorities
10. Have certified project managers on staff to manage complex projects and radio system deployments and migrations
11. Have “bench strength”. There should be multiple technicians trained and qualified to perform the required support activities.
12. Able to quickly deploy qualified technicians to any site where your P25 radios are deployed
13. Have support staff to provide user training and answer radio user calls and queries on an on-going basis
14. Have options for 24x7x365 on-call support
15. Invested in P25 radio test equipment and possess P25 radios for their own testing purposes
16. Have internal systems and processes for tracking many simultaneous user issues and equipment repairs
17. Have asset tracking systems in place to manage warranty issues and tracking of radio fleet
18. Have secure and reliable systems in place to maintain a database of customers’ radio fleet map and configuration profiles
19. Have systems in place to manage who can make changes to radio configurations and to track changes in configuration
20. Have in-house engineering talent experienced in designing fleet maps for P25 trunked radio systems
21. Be licensed to practise engineering in the province of Alberta
22. Have staff who have current police and security clearances of the appropriate levels
23. Have professional and commercial liability insurance

With that we’ve reached the end of our 3 part series of FAQ’s on all things AFRRCS. The first two can be found here FAQ 1, and here FAQ 2. While client agencies should always exercise great care in the selection of a capable integrator, the added complexities involved in the AFRRCS application and implementation process demand that certain qualifications and prerequisites must be met. I’d like to extend this opportunity to answer any questions you might have directly, and can be reached by filling out the form below. I look forward to hearing from you!

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