-- Network-based Alerts for Assured Mass Notifications: Transform the
existing network infrastructure into an instantaneous, pervasive and cost-
efficient mass warning system, reaching each individual's laptop, desktop
or PDA via desktop popup alerts. Leverage the network's capability for
assured, prompt delivery with acknowledgement of receipt. Use email only
for non-emergency communications.
-- Shared "Kiosk" Computers as Warning Stations: Leverage existing kiosk
computers, lab workstations and other shared computers, as a network-based
computerized warning station. This provides both audio alerts and
instructions for action (i.e. evacuation map) for people in its vicinity.
-- Text-Messaging for Outside Mass Personal Notifications: Use text
messaging/SMS alerting to reach people on their mobile phone while they are
outside of their normal work or study space.
-- Phone Notification for Targeted Personnel: Use phone alerts for small
subset of population such as first responders and campus leadership. Phone
alerts take more time to deliver, require more communication resources and
may get congested if used for mass communication.
-- Track Recipient Feedback: For some alerts, emergency managers need to
know the intended recipient received the message. Incorporate a delivery
and user response acknowledgement mechanism that tracks who has received
the alert and their response.
-- Special Needs Community Alerts: Make sure your system supports
alerting to people with disabilities. This is a legal requirement under
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, the American Disability Act and
related presidential directives.
-- Single Activation through Integration of All Notification Systems:
Create a single interface for all alerting systems, including network
alerting ("NAS"), telephony alerting ("TAS"), public address and sirens.
Such integration reduces response time, assures consistency of message,
creates redundancy between delivery media and reduces training and
management resources required.
-- Reliable Recipient Contact Information: Focus attention on gathering
and maintaining updated user information for all people in the facility.
Select systems that provide robust tools to manage users, integrate with
existing user directories and support organizational hierarchy and group
management.
-- Automatic Tie-In to Emergency Information Sources for Real Time
Situational Awareness: Integrate with and capture sources of emergency
information from the National Weather Service (NWS), DHS, etc., and be able
to automatically trigger alerts to emergency managers and leadership.
-- Interoperable Alerting with Other Organizations: Because emergencies
regularly require alerting other organizations (fire, rescue, police,
sister organizations, federal agencies, etc.), it's important to be able to
"forward" alerts to other facilities as appropriate. It's also important to
have the ability to capture such alerts as needed. To make this possible,
it is important to use an alerting offering that supports standards for
emergency communications including CAP (Common Alerting Protocol), XSDL and
others.
-- Launch Alerts through the Web: When emergencies happen, a
communications center may be down, or the person who uncovers the situation
may be in a different location. An alerting system should provide the
ability to launch an alert from anywhere a Web browser can be accessed.
-- Delegated and Distributed Management and Activation: Beyond control
via a centralized emergency operations center or crisis management team,
enable subunit and local security officers (in a specific building or
department) to access the system, activate alerts related to their domain
and manage their users. This will shorten response time and assure that the
people who can immediately respond can do so in a "short-loop" process.
-- Establish Standard Operating Procedures for Emergency Notifications:
Emergency notifications should be an inherent part of any emergency
response plans. Incident scenarios should be planned in advance - who to
notify, what is the message, how to deliver the message and what response
to expect. Defining who is allowed to approve and/or activate the emergency
notification procedure is just as important. That may differ per type of
incidents (i.e. security threat may differ from fire), by location of
affected building or even the personnel notified (i.e. should everyone be
able to alert leadership).
-- Secure Access: Assure that access to the system is well secured
through appropriate authentication means and security permissions tools.
-- Offsite Backup System: Always have available an offsite backup
capability in case the internal notification system is down.
About AtHoc
AtHoc, Inc. is a recognized leader in providing enterprise-class,
network-centric emergency notification systems used for force
protection, installation alerting, public safety and critical enterprise
communications. Millions of end users worldwide, in organizations such as
the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, Boeing, PwC and eBay rely on
AtHoc's alert delivery and management systems for their critical
communication and alerting needs.
AtHoc has partnered with market leaders including Microsoft, Northrop
Grumman, Siemens, Unisys and others to bring these notifications solutions
to the public and commercial markets.
For more information on AtHoc, please visit http://www.athoc.com.
Contact Information: Contact: Ivy Eckerman Spire Communications (540) 373-2963