Treos, BlackBerrys, Mobile Phones and Pagers are Critical Communications Devices for both Crisis Situations and Everyday Issues
New York, NY, --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- March 5, 2007 - Send Word Now™, a provider of on-demand alerting and response services, today announced that the Port of Seattle has expanded its relationship with Send Word Now to encompass over 750 users. Initially provisioned last year for the executive crisis team, in 2007 the Port of Seattle will increase Send Word Now’s alerting and response service to communicate with over 80 different groups within the airport and seaport – including the Airport Communications Center, the Transportation Security Administration, airline representatives, fire and police.
Nick Milos, who manages corporate emergency operations for the Port of Seattle, states, “We saw the value of Send Word Now and have been able to use it as a means of reliably activating our policy room should an emergency be declared. We now have a very easy, quick way to get in touch with all the members of the corporate emergency team. The primary value of Send Word Now is the absolute swiftness of notification. In a recent test we sent an announcement out to twenty top executives, and nineteen of the twenty responded within fifteen minutes.”
Milos contrasted this to the older system where a dispatcher would be called to notify a duty chief. The duty chief would then pull out a spreadsheet and manually start calling numbers, often not getting through and having to leave messages. He describes this as a very time-consuming, cumbersome and stressful process, and lauds the vast improvement with Send Word Now’s Smart Alerts.
Ernie Hayden, chief information security officer, adds, “I was given the task to implement Send Word Now at our 24- hour airport operations facility – the Airport Communications Center (ACC) – to replace our less than reliable paging system. The ACC uses Send Word Now to notify people of emergencies such as a fuel spill or a security breach, and for routine alerts such as minor flooding and snow removal. Send Word Now is becoming a very nice, layered communications tool for us. Now the police and fire department are starting to use it, and seaport security wants to implement Send Word Now. So, it’s rapidly moving out into the organization.”
Hayden continues, “With Send Word Now, you have many options on how to initiate messages. You can use the web-based capability, the quick send code, you can do it by email, use a Treo, or by calling the operator. Those are pretty impressive capabilities someone thought through the idea ‘How in the world can I get a hold of everyone and get this message sent out when it’s really urgent?’”
Send Word Now’s SWN Alert Service is redefining the way organizations mobilize people during an emergency or in everyday, time-sensitive business situations. This is especially important for airports and seaports and other organizations that deal with critical security and homeland protection issues.
