EIDO: Making Interoperability Operational

I returned from the blistering heat at APCO 2026 in San Antonio thinking about the expansive interest in the Emergency Incident Data Object (EIDO) and incident data interoperability. EIDO is increasingly recognized as an opportunity both to ease integration across Next Generation 9-1-1 functional elements and CAD providers and to create a pathway for authorized, secure data sharing across dispatch centers.

But it is one thing to build to a standard. It is another to make interoperability work in the real world.

Every CAD system—and often every agency—has its own data fields, conventions, workflows, and implementation nuances. Sharing that data requires more than simply moving an EIDO from Point A to Point B. Data may need to be normalized, permissions applied, sensitive information masked or obfuscated, and the inevitable implementation “quirks” managed along the way.

That challenge is the basis for our team building a normalization, privacy, and “quirk” management engine alongside the Resilient Link IDX. More importantly, the same approach allows incident data to move beyond traditional public safety systems and interoperate with authorized third-party platforms such as utility outage and work management systems and local government ERP and service platforms.

The potential became particularly clear during recent conversations with several Midwestern 9-1-1 centers that had experienced severe weather. They described the sheer volume of power outages, wires and poles down, and related incidents reported into dispatch centers—many requiring manual disposition and communication with outside agencies.

It raises an interesting question: Why should interoperability stop at the walls of the PSAP?

If an incident reported to 9-1-1 is also actionable by a utility, public works department, emergency management agency, or another responder, an incident data exchange can provide the governed bridge between those organizations. The appropriate information can be normalized, protected, routed, and shared without requiring dispatchers to manually recreate the same information across organizational silos.

That is where I believe the promise of IDX becomes much larger than another interface standard. Combined with an intelligent incident data exchange, it can provide the foundation for a broader first-responder ecosystem—helping agencies coordinate resources, improve situational awareness, and ultimately restore critical services faster.

Standards give us the common language. The next challenge is putting that language to work.