Pole Star and CriticalArc expand safety partnership

Pole Star and CriticalArc have expanded a 10-year partnership to pair indoor location technology with SafeZone’s emergency response platform. The deal adds support for connected panic buttons and aims to improve response times in hospitals, universities and other complex facilities.

Why it matters: - The expanded partnership gives organizations more precise real-time location data during emergencies. - Hospitals, universities and other large facilities can use the combined system to find people faster indoors and outdoors. - The move broadens safety coverage beyond smartphone alerts to connected devices.

What happened: - Pole Star and CriticalArc signed a 3-year agreement to strengthen their technology partnership. - The collaboration brings together CriticalArc’s emergency response software and Pole Star’s indoor positioning and real-time location technology. - The companies have worked together for more than 10 years. - CriticalArc makes SafeZone, a unified safety, security, wellbeing and emergency management solution.

The details: - CriticalArc first integrated Pole Star’s NAO Mobile SDK into the SafeZone mobile app. - When a user sends an alert, the SDK provides the smartphone’s real-time location. - Pole Star’s indoor positioning technology can identify a person’s location down to the floor and room when GPS is unavailable or weak. - The system gives security and response teams live visibility of the person requesting help. - The technology supports safety use cases in healthcare, higher education and sporting venues. - The joint solution is used to help protect nurses, doctors, caregivers, students and staff. - CriticalArc is now integrating Pole Star’s NAO Track technology to support the real-time location of connected panic buttons. - The integration extends CriticalArc’s staff safety offering with a Badge as a Service model and adds another alerting option beyond smartphones. - Current customers say Pole Star’s positioning tools can run over existing wireless infrastructure. - Those deployments can reduce budgets by up to 70% by avoiding a separate proprietary location network. - Pole Star was founded in 2002 in Toulouse, France. - Pole Star says it has deployments in 35+ countries. - Pole Star’s technology is used across healthcare, cruise ships, airports and other industries. - SafeZone is designed to help large organizations fulfill duty-of-care obligations and mitigate risk. - SafeZone uses real-time visualization, communications and response coordination to streamline emergency operations. - CriticalArc says SafeZone is quick to deploy and easy to use. - Pole Star’s website is more information. - CriticalArc’s website is more information.

Between the lines: - The deal suggests both companies see demand for location-aware safety tools that work across smartphones, badges and other connected devices. - Extending indoor accuracy into complex buildings is a key differentiator for environments where GPS alone is not enough. - The emphasis on using existing wireless infrastructure points to a lower-cost deployment model that may make indoor positioning easier to adopt.

What's next: - CriticalArc will continue integrating Pole Star’s tracking technology into SafeZone. - Organizations using the platform should gain more ways to locate people and coordinate emergency response across indoor and outdoor spaces. - The partnership is likely to focus on broader device support and faster incident response as adoption grows.

The bottom line: - Pole Star and CriticalArc are turning safety software into a more precise, multi-device location system for emergencies.