SAN MATEO, Calif., Nov. 13, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AtHoc, Inc. today announced the release of the new AtHoc Interactive Warning System (IWS) - aimed specifically at the needs of the oil and gas, chemical and heavy manufacturing sectors. The AtHoc IWS solution supports Environmental Health & Safety teams' mission of fostering zero-injuries in the workplace. Eastman Chemical, Sadara (a Saudi-Aramco/Dow Chemical company) and USS-POSCO Industries use AtHoc to protect workers and assets during any critical situation, ranging from active shooter to hazardous vapor release and fire.
Protect Against Workplace Violence: A growing concern in all enterprises is the disturbing and frequent instances of workplace violence and active shooters. AtHoc helps reduce the risk of injury by giving the facility's first responders the power to immediately warn personnel about the threat, account for everyone's status and follow through with differentiated and targeted messages throughout the life of the threat to further ensure everyone's safety, including messages about continuation of shelter in place, buildings/areas to avoid, evacuation instructions and directions for response teams as to the precise location of the threat.
Modern and Complete Tool for the Environment Health & Safety (EH&S) Team: In an emergency, a trusted communication tool is paramount for effective crisis management. AtHoc gives EH&S managers the power to use all assets in their facility to immediately and reliably get the word out. Specifically, AtHoc unifies analog and digital systems over the IP network, and as a result, warning messages can be sent across widely dispersed areas to reach everyone using any combination of sirens, radios, computer desktop popups, instant messengers, digital signs, texts, emails, VoIP work phones, mobile or smartphones and more. With a push of a button, all of these systems can be activated for a mass warning that provides unprecedented completeness in reaching everyone for the EH&S team.
In addition, the communication is fully interactive and closed loop, such that anyone is able to confirm his or her arrival at designated rally points, provide an update on status and location and importantly, from their smart phones, be able to send photos, videos and maps of incident data back to the remote security operations. The real-time feedback from the field brings visibility to the emergency operations center and provides valuable insights that help with dispatch decisions.
"Our safety and security solution for the industrial sector harvests valuable lessons learned from AtHoc's entire U.S. military and Homeland Security customer base," said Guy Miasnik, CEO of AtHoc. "One of these lessons is the power of mobility. Because smartphones are so ubiquitous and powerful, they have become the de facto go-to communication device for nearly everything that has to do with emergency management and communications. We are honored by the trust that the industrial EH&S community has placed in the AtHoc Interactive Warning System, which brings together the power of mobility and the IP network to provide a complete interactive communications solution for safety and security in the workplace."
About AtHoc
AtHoc is the recognized leader, innovator, and trusted partner in
safety and security focused network-centric interactive
communication systems. AtHoc's products are used for physical
security, employee protection, personnel accountability and
regulatory compliance for military, homeland security, government,
healthcare, industrial, and commercial organizations.
Millions of end-users worldwide rely on AtHoc's unified notification systems for their emergency alerting and critical communication needs in organizations such as Microsoft, Eastman Chemical, USS-POSCO Industries, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Baylor Health, Scott & White Health System, Raymond W. Bliss Army Medical Center, UCLA, U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
AtHoc was recently awarded Government Security News' (GSN) 2012 Homeland Security Award for Best Mass Notification System and has also been recognized by Gartner, Inc. as a leader in its Magic Quadrant for Emergency Mass Notification Services and by IHS Inc. as The Fastest Growing Mass Notification Software Supplier. For more information about AtHoc, please visit www.athoc.com.