The geographic information systems professional will develop technology and implementation strategies for state and local governments across the U.S. 

Geospatial Project Manager Brooks Lastinger, GISP, has been hired by Woolpert to help lead the firm’s Next Generation 911 (NG911) efforts with state and local government clients. Lastinger has more than 17 years of experience in local government GIS, with a focus on geospatial data integration for addressing, centerline management, and NG911 technology and applications.  

Before Woolpert, Lastinger served as the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) NG911 lead for New York City, where he helped convert the city’s GIS data model into a NENA format to elevate public safety and emergency management throughout the five boroughs. Through this role and previous county 911 GIS positions in South Carolina and Georgia, Lastinger has become adept at managing, implementing, and integrating GIS for computer-aided dispatch (CAD), asset management and permitting, and licensing and land-use systems, while supporting location-based data integration for improving NG911 capabilities. 

Lastinger stressed the importance of proper NG911 implementation, which he said hinges on clear communication from address and street name assignment to dispatch. He said, once fully developed, NG911 will enable emergency calls to be instantly transferred to the correct public safety answering point (PSAP), providing appropriate local emergency service recommendations whether the call is via text, video, or voice. 

“Gone will be the days of a 911 dispatcher frantically trying to determine the correct PSAP to transfer a call to because a caller was outside their jurisdiction,” he said. “PSAP directors also will have a reliable, statewide and high-quality source of GIS data for their CAD systems, permanently removing one of their biggest worries, aside from battling aging call handling equipment and staffing.” 

Lastinger said Woolpert’s decades of experience supporting the geospatial and engineering needs of state and local governments across the country give it an advantage in NG911 GIS implementation. 

“Woolpert has a comprehensive understanding of location-based data workflows specific to municipalities, and this is supported by its global mapping capabilities and Google partnership,” Lastinger said. “I have known about Woolpert since college, where I passed my Fundamentals in Land Surveying exam. I am excited to join this outstanding geospatial team and provide unique insight into the statewide aggregation of datasets to advance NG911 GIS implementation.” 

Woolpert Market Director Shelly Carroll said she is looking forward to working with Lastinger on this vital initiative. 

“Brooks understands the care and feeding of local government addressing systems, with a sharp focus on establishing GIS coordination between 911 and local addressing authorities,” Carroll said. “This expertise is central to understanding how addressing, centerlines, and parcels support GIS data products, and is key to making nationwide NG911 a reality. We are excited to have him with us.”

Oracle and Cerner have announced an agreement for Oracle to acquire Cerner through an all-cash tender offer for $95.00 per share, or approximately $28.3 billion in equity value. Cerner is a leading provider of digital information systems used within hospitals and health systems to enable medical professionals to deliver better healthcare to individual patients and communities.

"Working together, Cerner and Oracle have the capacity to transform healthcare delivery by providing medical professionals with better information—enabling them to make better treatment decisions resulting in better patient outcomes," said Larry Ellison, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, Oracle. "With this acquisition, Oracle's corporate mission expands to assume the responsibility to provide our overworked medical professionals with a new generation of easier-to-use digital tools that enable access to information via a hands-free voice interface to secure cloud applications. This new generation of medical information systems promises to lower the administrative workload burdening our medical professionals, improve patient privacy and outcomes, and lower overall healthcare costs."

"We expect this acquisition to be immediately accretive to Oracle's earnings on a non-GAAP basis in the first full fiscal year after closing—and contribute substantially more to earnings in the second fiscal year and thereafter," said Safra Catz, Chief Executive Officer, Oracle. "Healthcare is the largest and most important vertical market in the world—$3.8 trillion last year in the United States alone. Oracle's revenue growth rate has already been increasing this year—Cerner will be a huge additional revenue growth engine for years to come as we expand its business into many more countries throughout the world. That's exactly the growth strategy we adopted when we bought NetSuite—except the Cerner revenue opportunity is even larger."

"Cerner has been a leader in helping digitize medical care and now it's time to realize the real promise of that work with the care delivery tools that get information to the right caregivers at the right time," said David Feinberg, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Cerner. "Joining Oracle as a dedicated Industry Business Unit provides an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate our work modernizing electronic health records (EHR), improving the caregiver experience, and enabling more connected, high-quality, and efficient patient care. We are also very excited that Oracle is committed to maintaining and growing our community presence, including in the Kansas City area."

"Oracle's Autonomous Database, low-code development tools, and Voice Digital Assistant user interface enable us to rapidly modernize Cerner's systems and move them to our Gen2 Cloud," said Mike Sicilia, Executive Vice Precedent, Vertical Industries, Oracle. "This can be done very quickly because Cerner's largest business and most important clinical system already run on the Oracle Database. No change is required there. What will change is the user interface. We will make Cerner's systems much easier to learn and use by making Oracle's hands-free Voice Digital Assistant the primary interface to Cerner's clinical systems. This will allow medical professionals to spend less time typing on computer keyboards and more time caring for patients."     

Highlights

• The all-cash tender offer for $95.00 per share, or approximately $28.3 billion, is immediately accretive to Oracle's earnings.
  • Accretive to Oracle's earnings on a non-GAAP basis in the first full fiscal year after closing and will contribute substantially more to earnings in the second fiscal year and thereafter.
  • Cerner will be a huge additional revenue growth engine for Oracle for years to come as Oracle expands Cerner's business into many more countries throughout the world.
  • The transaction is expected to close in the calendar year 2022. The closing of the transaction is subject to receiving certain regulatory approvals and satisfying other closing conditions including Cerner stockholders tendering a majority of Cerner's outstanding shares in the tender offer.
  • Oracle anticipates retaining an investment-grade credit rating.
• Oracle brings significant experience helping power the largest industries.
  • Oracle provides industry solutions that run the core operations for customers in the world's largest industries.
  • Industries covered by Oracle today include, among others, Financial Services, Telecom, Utilities, Pharmaceuticals, Hospitality, Retail, Food & Beverage, Construction & Engineering, Manufacturing, and Government.
  • Oracle also brings best-in-class cloud infrastructure to drive digital modernization, substantially lowering the total cost of IT in these critical industry sectors.
• Cerner is a leader in the healthcare IT industry and a complementary business to Oracle.
  • Cerner is a leading provider of digital information systems used within hospitals to enable medical professionals to deliver better healthcare to individual patients and communities.
  • Cerner has over four decades of experience modernizing electronic health records, improving the caregiver experience, and streamlining and automating clinical and administrative workflows.
• Together, Oracle and Cerner will protect customer investments and transform healthcare.
  • According to a recent study by the Mayo Clinic, physicians spend 1 to 2 hours on EHRs and desk work for every hour spent in face-to-face contact with patients, as well as an additional 1 to 2 hours of personal time on EHR-related activities.
  • Working together, Cerner and Oracle have the capacity to address these issues and transform healthcare delivery by providing medical professionals with better information—enabling them to make better treatment decisions resulting in better patient outcomes.
  • Customer investments in Cerner are also protected with this combination and will grow in value over time as more modern and connected technologies are made available.
  • With Oracle's resources, infrastructure, and cloud capabilities, Cerner will accelerate the pace of product and technology development to enable more connected, high-quality, and efficient care.
    • Oracle's focus on usability and voice-enabled user interfaces will dramatically reduce the amount of time that medical providers spend dealing with systems and increase the time they spend directly caring for patients.
  • Significant opportunity to help customers use Oracle's modern technologies such as cloud, AI, ML, and other innovations to make care more accessible, secure, efficient, and effective for patients and caregivers.
    • Cerner systems running on the Oracle Gen2 Cloud will be available 24 by 7 by 365. The goal is to deliver zero unplanned downtime in the medical environment.
    • With Cerner systems running on the Oracle database, only specifically authorized medical professionals can access patient data. IT professionals running the systems are unable to look at patient data.
  • Oracle and Cerner are committed to continuing and enhanced stewardship of health information, which will be bolstered by Oracle's global operational infrastructure.
• Cerner will be organized as a dedicated Industry Business Unit within Oracle.
  • Cerner will be Oracle's anchor asset to expand into healthcare and together we will improve medical care for individuals and communities around the world.
  • Oracle intends to maintain and grow Cerner's community presence, including in the Kansas City area, while utilizing Oracle's global footprint to reach new geographies faster.