ImpactWeather, Inc. Chooses MIR3 Platform to Power Weather Alert Services

Automated voice message from ImpactWeather alerted more than 650 customers five days prior to Hurricane Charley

San Diego, California --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- August 31, 2004 – MIR3, the technology leader in Intelligent Notification™ solutions, today announced that ImpactWeather, Inc., a Houston-based provider of weather forecasting services, has chosen and deployed MIR3’s Intelligent Notification to automate the process of severe weather alert notification. ImpactWeather is utilizing MIR3 Intelligent Notification to notify customers located throughout Texas and the Southeast in the petroleum, manufacturing, energy and utility industries, as well as government agencies and school districts, about pending weather conditions that could adversely impact business continuity or jeopardize personal safety.

ImpactWeather provides a variety of weather forecasting, alert, monitoring and notification services available 24/7. The company relies on the latest software, hardware and scientific technologies to produce accurate, timely and personalized forecasts. Key to the company’s success is its ability to provide weather information to its customers in a timely manner, whether it be via land line or mobile phones, email, wireless text messaging or fax.
According to Mike Gauthier, VP of Business Development at ImpactWeather, it made perfect sense to adopt the latest in intelligent notification technology from MIR3 to automate communications to its customer base.

“Prior to deploying MIR3 we had a team of meteorologists making phone calls to each customer personally to deliver weather alerts,” said Gauthier. “This was very time consuming and definitely not the best use of employee time. By automating the notification delivery process we are now able to send out hundreds of alerts to any device, whether it be to a phone or wireless device, such as pagers and PDAs, within just minutes. We were recently able to send out hundreds of messages notifying our customers on the severity of Hurricane Charley in advance. No other technology would allow us to send automated messages, with our meteorologist’s voice, so quickly. "

Furthermore, Gauthier adds, “For some of our customers, such as oil refineries that take days to shut down, time is of the essence. If we had used the phone to calls to initiate the same Hurricane Charley alert it would have take taken one full
working day to make sure our customers were properly notified. Giving our
customers more time to react and prepare for such natural disasters helps
reduce the potential for loss of life, minimize property damage and get a jump on disaster recovery efforts.”

Gauthier estimates that ImpactWeather will soon complete integration between the company’s GIS tracking system and MIR3’s Intelligent Notification. This will allow ImpactWeather to notify corporate and residential customers in a designated geographic area as soon as severe weather information is available. The integration between GIS and MIR3’s Intelligent Notification will further advance the weather forecasting industry by increasing its overall efficiency through automation of alert triggers.

“ImpactWeather is truly an ideal partner in that the application showcases how intelligent notification can add value to time-urgent services and provide immediate ROI benefits,” said Margi Schmidt, MIR3’s Vice President of Business Development. “ImpactWeather sought out MIR3 to provide an intelligent notification platform that is not only fast, efficient and reliable, but one that is easy to use and includes reporting capabilities that allows the company to successfully track the receipt of highly urgent communications.”

About Impact Weather
Headquartered in Houston, ImpactWeather, Inc. was created in 1998 to serve the weather forecasting needs of business, government and industrial operations worldwide. Impact Weather provides a wide variety of forecasting, alert, monitoring and notification services. The company’s clientele includes government entities, petrochemical operations (both onshore and offshore), school districts, manufacturing plants, the entertainment industry and a large variety of marine concerns.

ImpactWeather is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Universal Weather and Aviation, Inc. Created in 1960, Universal® is the world’s largest provider of corporate aviation service management. ImpactWeather was created to serve the global weather forecasting needs of Universal’s non-aviation clients and business partners.