AUBURN, AL --[Emergency Notification News] -- October 30, 2007 - In the wake of recent emergency situations around the nation ranging from severe weather to campus violence, Auburn University has launched AU Alert, a personalized voice and text messaging system that will provide critical information should a need arise. Emergency messages will be sent via the Connect-ED® emergency notification system provided by the NTI Group of Sherman Oaks, California.
AU’s top safety official is urging students and employees to sign up for emergency notifications by logging on to www.auburn.edu/aualert. In a major emergency affecting the university community, people who have registered will be provided information and instructions through cell phones, home phones, e-mail or other text-receiving devices.
“Notifying all students, faculty and staff immediately is crucial in emergency situations, such as a severe storm or campus closure,” said Christine Eick, executive director of AU’s Office of Risk Management and Safety.
She added, “It is essential for students and faculty to enter all of their contact information into the AU Alert database. The more means we have to contact individuals, the better our odds are of spreading timely information and updates and keeping everyone safe.”
University officials will use the system only in emergency situations, Eick said. All people with an AU e-mail address will receive emergency alerts to their campus e-mail address, but only those who register will benefit from the text and voice messaging notification. AU Alert enables AU officials to schedule, send and track personalized voice messages to as many as four phone numbers and two e-mail addresses per person.
“Today we are forced to prepare for situations that we never could have anticipated happening and recognize the important role that immediate communication plays in keeping students safe,” Eick said. “AU Alert will allow us to keep students, faculty and staff informed no matter where they are.”
In addition to AU Alert, Auburn University employs a number of notification systems in emergency situations, including a new service that allows Auburn Public Safety to send emergency alerts directly to severe weather radios on campus.
Source: Auburn Wire Eagle
Auburn University implements Connect-ED® Emergency Notification System for Students, Employees
Pepperdine University Relies on the 3n InstaCom Campus Alert system to protect students, faculty and staff during the Malibu Canyon fire
GLENDALE, CA --[Emergency Notification News]-- October 30, 2007 – In response to the Malibu Canyon fire that began a devastating rampage through the small ocean-side community on Sunday, October 21, Pepperdine University actively used its newly deployed mass notification system provided by 3n (National Notification Network) to help relocate faculty and staff to designated shelter-in-place locations on the Malibu campus and to coordinate efforts to prevent the loss of life and property. The Southern California wildfires have burned half a million acres, including thousands of acres in and around Malibu, destroying businesses and residences directly bordering the Pepperdine campus.
According to students on campus, Pepperdine sent out five notifications during the first day of the fires. Two of the messages included instructions to students and faculty to relocate from dorms and classrooms and proceed to safe areas on campus. Faculty, staff and students not on campus were urged, at the recommendation of Los Angeles County Fire officials, not to return to campus until the roads leading to the Malibu campus were opened and deemed safe for travel. Pepperdine officials sent out two more messages providing status updates of the fires, urging the population to remain in designated safe areas and asking them to stay calm. A final message was sent out to officially close classes the next day.
Pepperdine initially decided to acquire the 3n InstaCom™ Campus Alert system earlier this year to further strengthen University emergency preparedness. The system was rolled out with the 2007 Fall Semester, and initial testing was completed in time to address the emergency that the Malibu fires created. The 3n InstaCom Campus Alert system enables Pepperdine to communicate with students, staff and faculty in minutes via a number of contact methods—including native SMS text messaging, almost any voice-enabled device such as cell phones and landlines, instant messaging, pagers, faxes and more—greatly increasing the likelihood that messages will be delivered and received in a timely manner.
Student response to the use of the 3n system was positive, with many on and off campus commenting that its use gave them confidence that the situation was being handled with the proper attention it deserved. Matthew Fiutem, a senior at Pepperdine stated, “The notifications that Pepperdine sent kept us informed about what was happening both on and around the campus and told us what we should do to stay safe. They cleared up a lot of confusion and uncertainty in a very stressful situation.” According to Andy Conales, Pepperdine’s Student Government President, “The student body is pleased with how Pepperdine has handled the Malibu Canyon fires, including how it used the new 3n notification system. Pepperdine contacted everyone quickly, relayed all the important information we needed and kept everyone informed as to what to do and where to go. In the end, Pepperdine kept everyone safe during a very dangerous, large-scale natural disaster.”
Source: Vendor Press Release
Photograph: Dr. Stephen Davis, Distinguished Professor of Biology at Pepperdine University and renowned expert on fires and chaparral ecology.
Rochester Institute of Technology selects RecoveryPlanner.com and 3n for Integrated Emergency Planning & Response System
Glendale, CA. --[Emergency Notification News]-- October 30, 2007 – 3n has announced today that Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) has officially selected the combination of 3n’s InstaCom 5.0 mass notification solution and Recovery Planner’s RPX business continuity software to expand RIT’s continuity planning and emergency communications capabilities.
RIT had a vision of an emergency planning and response system that could address all imaginable scenarios for their geographically diverse campus. “The more comprehensive and effective the emergency plan and the more accurate the data is that respondents rely on for immediate action, the more lives might be saved,” said Jonathan Maurer, Director of Business Operations at RIT. After an extensive review and system evaluation, RIT’s management found that the combination of RecoveryPlanner RPX and 3n InstaCom 5.0 was the complete solution to make their vision a reality.
“We needed a system that would provide us with the flexibility and integration that were a ‘must have’ requirement in our environment”, said Jonathan Maurer. “Recovery Planner’s RPX delivered on those needs through its flexible Enterprise Modeling Engine and BCP 2.0 architecture with real time integration facilities. By linking our student information system and Oracle HR straight into RPX we were able to reflect campus wide changes in real-time. From the time a student updates their information in our portal, it’s literally seconds before the changes are reflected in our emergency response plans. This means that our worst case scenario has gone from thousands of bad contacts to just a few. Given what’s at stake, this is monumental.”
RIT discovered that the best continuity and emergency response software programs typically integrated with “best of breed” dedicated two-way emergency notification systems. RIT decided that their ideal solution would be the combination of RecoveryPlanner RPX and 3n’s InstaCom 5.0. RPX and InstaCom 5.0 leverage the most technologically sophisticated platforms available today, with SaaS (Software-as-a- Service) architectures designed to provide the highest possible service levels and delivery speeds for urgent communication at an extremely low cost-per-message.
About RecoveryPlanner.com – Enterprise Continuity ManagementSM
Since 1999 a singular vision of - “True Continuity” - has propelled RecoveryPlanner.com. RecoveryPlanner.com supports institutions of all sizes through their Software as a Service (SaaS) platform for enterprise continuity management. Please visit www.RecoveryPlanner.com, or call 1- 866-925-3950.
Southern California Cities and School Districts Use NTI Group's Mass Notification Services to Keep Residents, Students and Parents Informed
As LA, Riverside, San Diego Counties and Cities Residents Evacuate, Cities and Schools Are Contacting Residents Regarding School Closures, Active Fire and Smoke Warnings, Evacuations and Volunteer Programs
SHERMAN OAKS, CA --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- October 25, 2007 – As horrific fires in Los Angeles and San Diego are forcing residents to evacuate their homes, officials sent over two million voice messages and 685,000 text messages within the state of California Monday to communicate important messages and alerts according to a press release issued by The NTI Group, Inc. (NTI) today.
City and school officials, using the Connect services provided by The NTI Group, Inc. (NTI), are able to send messages from any internet connection or just a phone line, in case administrators are evacuated, and reach thousands of recipients through home phones, cell phones, text messages and emails. And as families leave their homes, they are able to continue receiving these important messages through their cell phones, if registered, and stay connected to city and school announcements, even from evacuation locations when cell phone service is available.
According to the NTI Group, Inc. press release, one of every two students enrolled in California’s public schools is currently served by the Connect-ED service, and additionally, NTI is seeing heavy usage by school administrators who are currently sending messages regarding school closures and air quality issues, modifications to class and activity schedules, and to communicate with and mobilize staff.
NTI Group also announced:
- San Diego Unified School District sent close to 400,000 voice messages in six different languages Monday to update parents on school closures quickly and efficiently with a 95 percent success rate;
- Poway Unified School District, facing heavy parent and staff evacuations, sent over 280,000 voice messages;
- The University of San Diego used its Connect-ED service to keep students and staff up to date, sending voice and text messages to its students and staff as needed throughout the day;
- The city of St. Helena’s fire crews, in Northern California, used the service to call up its Strike Team units to Southern California to aid in fire containment;
- The cites of Villa Park and Laguna Woods to send messages to residents regarding unhealthful air quality conditions due to the Santiago fire in Orange County;
- Of all mass notifications messages sent Monday regarding the fires in Southern California, Connect-ED and Connect-CTY represented 68 percent of all voice call and 91 percent of all text and email messages delivered;
- In total, throughout the country, NTI sent over three million messages and 750,000 text messages on Monday through the Connect services.
Source: Vendor Press Release
Emergency Notification Technology Aids in Evacuation of More Than 500,000 Southern California Residents
REVERSE 911® and DCC Alert San Diego County Residents of Dangerous Wildfires, Mobilize First Responders 
Nashville, TN --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- October 24, 2007 - More than 500,000 families have found their way to safety from Southern California’s ferocious wildfires with the help of emergency notification technology. Two PlantCML subsidiaries -- REVERSE 911® and DCC (Dialogic Communications Corporation), have supported the wildfire evacuation and response effort with fast and accurate information.
During this tragic time, public safety agencies and county and city governments throughout Southern California and San Diego County have successfully utilized the company’s patented emergency notification system, REVERSE 911®, as well as Communicator! NXT and GeoCast® Web, to automatically alert thousands of residents and businesses of voluntary and mandatory evacuation orders.
“This is tragic situation, and we are firmly committed to helping communities across Southern California evacuate safely,” said Lorin Bristow, Vice President of PlantCML. ”In critical situations like wildfires, communication can be a lifeline. Our customers tell us emergency notification technology is playing a vital role here. During the coming days and weeks, REVERSE 911® and DCC will do everything possible to continue to assist in the wildfire response and recovery efforts.”
REVERSE 911® and DCC both provide emergency notification technology that automates the calling process, enabling public safety organizations to send voice and text messages by phone, pager, cell and email to thousands of residents in minutes.
In Southern California, residents are currently receiving automated messages containing voluntary and mandatory evacuation orders. Numerous public safety organizations, including law enforcement, fire and emergency management, will continue to use the software to evacuate residents as needed and provide pertinent information during the clean up and recovery efforts.
Aside from communicating with residents, the notification technology of REVERSE 911® and DCC’s is being used to mobilize first responders, EMS professionals and volunteers throughout the region. The software automatically contacts these individuals using all available communications devices, and then intelligently fills positions until the required teams are assembled.
Organizations throughout the U.S. depend daily on emergency notification technology provided by REVERSE 911® and DCC. Whether it’s being used to send a severe weather alert or a missing child report, emergency notification allows the user to quickly and accurately contact a wide audience during a time of need. It also allows them to get the feedback necessary for emergency response and recovery.
Source: Vendor Press Release
Ohio Wesleyan University Selects Connect-ED® for Campus Emergency Notification
DELAWARE, OHIO --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS] -- October 24, 2007 -- Ohio Wesleyan University reported today that this week it began implementing an emergency contact system that will allow the campus community to be notified of urgent situations via the telephone, e-mail, and text-message systems of their choice.
"Safety is a priority for college campus nationwide, including Ohio Wesleyan," said David Robbins, provost and interim president, on the Ohio Wesleyan University News & Media Web site. "This new contact system will enhance our efforts to keep students, faculty, and staff informed of critical situations and out of harm’s way."
Called “Connect-ED for Higher Education," the emergency contact system is offered by The NTI Group, Inc. of Sherman Oaks, California.
"This project is on the fast track," Theresa Byrd, OWU’s chief information officer and director of libraries was reported as stating, "We have appointed an implementation committee to keep the process moving forward as quickly and efficiently as possible."
"Once contact information has been input into the Connect-ED system, Ohio Wesleyan will test it, make any necessary adjustments, and then begin using it," Byrd said, "The goal is to have the system in place by the beginning of spring semester."
OWU also reported that Professor Barbara MacLeod, chair of the implementation committee, said, "The campus community needs to make providing contact information a priority to help enhance safety and ensure a timely implementation process. This initiative will strengthen the University and help to protect everyone who learns and works here. I encourage everyone to return information to us as quickly as possible.”
Additionally, the school reported that the data, which remain under the control of Ohio Wesleyan, will not be used by NTI for any purpose other than emergency notification and will be treated in a highly confidential manner. Notifications will include critical weather information, such as tornado warnings or snow-related campus closures.
“Connect-ED will be used to provide urgent information and instructions only,” Byrd was reported as saying. “We want people to know that when they receive a voice or text message via Connect-ED, it is vital for them to access it and respond.”
Source: OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY News & Media Web site
Ryder selects Send Word Now alert and response communication service
NEW YORK, NY --[Emergency Notification News] -- October 24, 2007. Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE:R), a global leader in transportation and supply chain management solutions, has selected the Send Word Now™ Alert service for its 28,000 global employees. Ryder will use Send Word Now to effectively communicate with its employees when severe weather or unforeseen circumstances arise, and to streamline and expedite everyday business decisions to ensure business continuity with its customers.
Commenting on the service, Ryder’s EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer Greg Greene said, “The safety and well-being of our employees is our number one priority at Ryder, so it’s important to us to be able to contact employees and their families when severe weather conditions or crises arise. Send Word Now complements our Emergency Management Plan and helps us better prepare for and respond to emergencies. Send Word Now utilizes multiple communication channels, including e-mail, cell phone, and office voice mail, and has proven to be effective in reaching our employees who are in the field."
Send Word Now CEO Tom Shoemaker added, “We are seeing a trend in which large organizations, like Ryder, are implementing Send Word Now’s alerting and response services across the entire organization to reach every person involved with that organization. Forward thinking companies, like Ryder, have envisioned, and are starting to reap the rewards of, both emergency and every day two-way communication with all employees.”
About Ryder
Ryder provides leading-edge transportation, logistics and supply chain management solutions worldwide. Ryder’s stock (NYSE: R) is a component of the Dow Jones Transportation Average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Ryder ranks 362nd on the Fortune 500 and 1,458th on the Forbes Global 2000.
Cistera Networks Deploys Advanced Emergency Communications System At Georgia Perimeter College
IP application services enable instant, multimodal communication during on-campus crises
DALLAS, TX -- [Emergency Notification News]-- Oct. 23, 2007 - Cistera Networks, Inc.® (OTCBB: CNWT), a provider of enterprise application platforms and engines for IP (Internet Protocol) Communications, today announced that Georgia Perimeter College, the third largest institution in the University System of Georgia, has deployed Cistera's Event and Alerting Notification (EAN), and Quality Assurance and Compliance (QAC) solutions to improve public safety communications.
"Cistera's multimodal capability is a lifeline to each building and it's the best way to relay important information quickly to a large population over a wide geography. Our campuses are safer with this technology, "said Chris Burge, IT consultant with Georgia Perimeter College.
Cistera's EAN also can link campus public safety operations with civilian authorities to create a seamless framework for inter-agency communications - including two-way radio interoperability - during a crisis. This helps organize and execute a more thorough response to events in an expedited manner.
Georgia Perimeter College has more than 22,000 students and about 3,000 faculty and staff on campuses throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area. The college looked to Cistera Networks, a Cisco Technology Developer Partner, to improve public safety communication and maximize IP communication capabilities at its four main campuses in Clarkston, Decatur, Dunwoody and Newton, with more than 36 buildings total. The college system's Cisco IP Telephony environment includes nearly 2,000 IP handsets including 300 phones in classrooms.
Cistera's EAN and QAC solutions for Georgia Perimeter include:
- Cistera RapidBroadcast™, an enterprise-level application engine that coordinates mass communication to multimodal devices during emergencies utilizing desktop phones.
- CallCenterRecord™ provides call recording and playback with high-quality, continuous capabilities for public safety purposes. This provides peace of mind from a liability standpoint by archiving all inbound calls for easy reference. It also allows for each call to be used as a training exercise to identify areas for improvement.
- Cistera QuickRecord™ offers call recording and playback on an ad hoc basis. Calls can be recorded at anytime during a conversation and span from the beginning to the end.
The QAC solution provides documentation and archiving capabilities that can record every communication received so that it can be referenced for training and liability purposes. Georgia Perimeter uses CallCenterRecord to chronicle inbound communication at its main public safety dispatch center, and QuickRecord at public safety offices on each campus.
Princeton test results of Connect-ED® Emergency Notification System reflect Increased Participation
87% of 12,971 recipients report receiving an emergency notification, with 70% of these receiving message in first 5 minutes. 
Princeton, New Jersey --[Emergency Notification News]-- October 22, 2007. Princeton conducted a campus-wide test of its emergency notification system on Friday, Oct. 19, and was encouraged that 12,971 contacts with registered personal information in the system, or 87 percent, received a test message via live phone delivery or answering machine. Seventy percent of the calls were successfully received within the first 5 minutes of the test.
The test of PTENS acquired from the vendor NTI Connect-ED, reflected improvements made to the Princeton Telephone and E-mail Notification System since its initial purchase in April 2007. During the PTENS test initiated at 1 p.m., the University sent simultaneous alerts to faculty, staff and students through landline phones, cell phones, e-mail and text messages, as could happen in a real emergency situation.
When the first test of the notification system was conducted in May, almost 2,500 individuals -- many of whom were graduate students -- were not included in the system. The number of individuals without at least one valid phone number in the system now has dropped to just over 1,000.
Also noteworthy was the increase in the number of people who provided text message information. At the time of the May test, 1,011 individuals had supplied SMS text message addresses, while more than 5,000 additional people opted-in to receive text messages as of Oct. 19.
The test reached the vast majority of University members in student and employee databases through 18,634 phone calls, 17,280 e-mails and 6,604 text messages. Live phone delivery of the test message was received by 50 percent of all contacts in the system, while 37 percent of contacts in the system received the message by voice-mail. The notification system can access up to six phone numbers per person, in addition to two e-mail addresses and a separate text messaging address.
Faculty, staff and students were asked to update their phone, e-mail and text messaging information through the appropriate University self-service websites in order to be notified during the PTENS test. 64 percent of undergraduate students had put their cell phone information in the system as of Oct. 19. In August, the number of undergraduates who had put cell phone information in the system stood at 42 percent. The number of faculty and staff who had registered cell phone information in the HR database also increased, from 27 percent in August to 55 percent as of the Oct. 19 test.
Brown University Implements MIR3’s Emergency Notification System
SAN DIEGO -- [EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS] -- October 16, 2007 – MIR3™, the technology leader in Intelligent Notification (IN®) solutions for global enterprises, announced today that Brown University in Providence, R.I., has enhanced campus safety and communications with the implementation of inCampusAlert™, an emergency notification system that supports all types of voice- and text-based communication devices.
Brown University will use MIR3’s Web-based inCampusAlert to deliver two-way advisories and instructions to nearly 20,000 students, faculty, staff and others via cell phones, satellite phones, land lines, wireless PDA, text pager, email and other communication devices.
Walter C. Hunter, vice-president of administration and chief risk officer at Brown University said, “The MIR3 emergency notification platform improves our ability to communicate quickly and effectively with our community in emergency situations.”
“We’ll emphasize the importance of keeping contact information, such as cell phone numbers and email addresses, current,” said Hunter. “We’ll also be testing the system regularly so that our students, staff and faculty know what to expect and can appreciate the speed and power of the system first hand. By periodically testing the system, we’ll also know what contact information needs to be updated.”
Brown University began exploring faster, more reliable communication solutions several months ago. After evaluating the technology of several emergency notification vendors, the contract with MIR 3 was signed during the summer, and the system is already operational.
According to Amir Moussavian, MIR3 president and CEO, “Using inCampusAlert, a school can set up a secure, high-speed notification system in minutes without having to purchase or install software, hardware or extra phone lines. Its flexibility and ease of use allow customers to send messages from almost anywhere, any time and to any type of device. Additionally, inCampusAlert can be used for both urgent and important message delivery to the entire campus or to selected groups, such as specific schools, buildings, dormitories or academic departments.”
Additionally, through its OEM partnership with Edulink Systems, Inc. in Anaheim, Calif., MIR3 has shown strong performance and market leadership in the K-12 arena. Edulink has helped more than 50 school districts dynamically build emergency call lists straight from their student information system and incorporate emergency notification capabilities into their parent communication plans. These districts include some of the largest in the United States, such as Prince William County Schools, San Bernardino USD and Arlington ISD.
Source: Vendor Press Release
3n Launches InstaCom™ 5.0 Mass Notification Solution to Meet Escalating Emergency Communication Needs of Organizations Globally
New Features Make It Easier Than Ever To Immediately Communicate With Large Groups Of People In an Emergency
GLENDALE, CA --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- October 11, 2007 – 3n (National Notification Network), a mass notification system provider, today announced the immediate availability of InstaCom 5.0 which gives 3n customers additional capabilities to organize and administer emergency communications in a hierarchical fashion according to organizational structure. It also allows customers to establish continuous, two-way, live communication with users, react to changes in a rapid and flexible manner, and become more precise with messaging to ensure that emergencies are handled quickly, appropriately and effectively.
InstaCom 5.0 leverages the most technologically sophisticated platform available with a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) architecture to provide the highest possible delivery speeds for urgent communications at an extremely low cost-per-message.
Enhanced features in InstaCom 5.0 include the following:
- Organizational Hierarchy, a unique offering from 3n that enables institutions to grant separate locations, departments or districts the power to manage their own data and execute emergency plans independently or in conjunction with the rest of the organization. 3n customers using Organizational Hierarchy free themselves from the numerous limitations created by less sophisticated notification tools that rely on groups to organize member information. Organizational Hierarchy ensures quick updates of information, easy additions and removal of members and reliable maintenance of the database as a whole.
- Premium Call-In, a new enhancement that enables 3n customers to provide their audiences with a single number to retrieve simple or complex, multi-part messages. This feature significantly extends 3n’s InstaCom capabilities to provide a full-featured inbound and outbound notification service.
- Express Call, which enables users to set up temporary groups on-the-fly and quickly send notifications without incorporating them into their member databases. Express Call is an ideal solution for organizations with frequently changing contact lists.
- Enhanced Polling, which expands 3n’s versatile and robust polling feature to allow organizations to send multiple-choice survey questions with up to nine different responses, as well as providing call transfer capabilities to enhance response options. Notification recipients now have the flexibility to provide additional information back to the message sender, such as dates, phone numbers, time of day and more. Message recipients also have the option to transfer to a number defined by the message sender, creating a powerful set of expanded options for how message senders and recipients communicate on a large scale in real-time.
"The 3n announcement of InstaCom 5.0 is a timely response to a marketplace in dire need of sophisticated mass notification solutions. The enhanced features of InstaCom 5.0, especially 'Organization Hierarchy' and 'Enhanced Polling', address the complexity of today’s business environment and allow message senders and recipients of automated alerts and emergency notifications to interact more efficiently and effectively during emergencies." says Ken Landoline, Program Manager of Customer Centric Strategies at Yankee Group.
“3n’s InstaCom 5.0 solution demonstrates our continued commitment to advance the emergency communication capabilities of organizations locally and globally to provide the most advanced, robust and reliable mass notification system available on the market today,” said Cinta Putra, co-founder and CEO of 3n. “InstaCom 5.0’s extensive capabilities, flexibility and ease of use are the key reasons organizations across the globe trust 3n for their mass notification needs.”
University of Delaware Emergency Notification Test Results Reported
As reported in delawareonline.com Oct.11, 2007, the campus-notification system SendWordNow, was tested at the University Of Delaware. What follows are details from the article.
Location:
University of Delaware
System:
SendWordNow
Test Date and Time: Oct. 10th, 2007, 10:00 am
Message Sent:
"This is a test of the UD Alert system. This is only a test. There is no real emergency."
Methods/Qty of Notifications:
Email: 27,000
Mobile: SMS: 10,000
Notifications Received*:
Email: Not Reported
Mobile: SMS: 33% Responded
System Cost:"More than $50,000 anually."
System Capacity:
"...send messages to 60,000 contacts, enough to cover both full- and part-time students and staffers."
Delawareonline.com reported:
"UD sent out e-mail messages to most of the campus community because students and staff receive school-issued accounts -- providing a cell phone number for text messages is voluntary. Test e-mails included instructions for users to provide a number for text messages."
Public Safety Director James Flatley said, "more than 98 percent of the text messages and more than 96 percent of e-mails were sent successfully during the test, judging by the low number of messages that "bounced back" from invalid e-mail accounts or phone numbers."
*No post-test survey was completed.
Source: delawareonline.com
Virginia Tech Reports 13% of Campus Confirms Receiving Emergency Alert
After 2 Hours, 13% percent of Recipients Confirm Receipt of Test Message
BLACKSBURG, Va., --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- October 11, 2007 -- Shortly after 11 a.m. yesterday, Virginia Tech initiated its first system-wide test of VT Alerts, an emergency notification system that can send text messages to cell phones, voice messages to non university telephones and cell phones, instant messages on the AOL, MSN, and Yahoo networks, and e-mail messages to non-Virginia Tech e-mail accounts.
As of yesterday, 18,266 students, faculty and staff signed up for the subscription service, which represents approximately 60 percent of the university community.
According to analysis provided by, 3n (National Notification Network), the California-based vendor who contracted with Virginia Tech to establish VT Alerts, the first attempt to deliver the test message to all subscribers was sent in 18 minutes. Second and third attempts to deliver the message (to those who requested multiple deliveries) were completed in 31 minutes. After the two-hour test concluded, approximately 13 percent of the recipients confirmed receipt of the message.
At 1 p.m. Wednesdsay, the university distributed a campus wide e-mail informing the community that the test was complete. Community members were asked to complete a survey regarding what they experienced during the test. As of 4 p.m. yesterday, 711 people reported through the survey that they did not receive the test message.
Of the 18,266 who signed up for VT Alerts, approximately 87 percent are students, 8 percent are faculty and 11 percent are staff (Note: totals exceed 100 percent because individuals may have more than one affiliation.)
Of the subscribers, approximately 43 percent opted to receive messages using one method, 30 percent selected two methods, and 26 percent signed up for the maximum of three delivery methods.
Text message is the most widely selection option of delivery; selected by 77 percent of all subscribers. A voice message to a mobile telephone is next at 34 percent, followed by an instant message (31 percent), a message to a non Virginia Tech e-mail (15 percent), voice mail to a home phone (10 percent), voice mail to an “other” phone (7 percent), and voice mail to an office phone (6 percent). Percentage totals exceed 100 percent because subscribers can sign up for more than one contact method.
The primary or first method of message delivery selected most by subscribers is a text message at 72 percent, followed by a voice message to a mobile phone (16.2 percent), an instant message (3.8 percent), a message to a non-Virginia Tech e-mail (2.9 percent), a voice message to an office phone (2.6 percent), a voice message to a home phone (2.1 percent), and a voice message to an “other” phone (0.5 percent).
VT Alerts is part of a fully integrated and coordinated notification system maintained by Virginia Tech’s Office of University Relations. It augments other communications tools, including the university homepage and the Virginia Tech News homepage, broadcast e-mail alerts, broadcast voice-mail messages, a recorded hotline (540-231-6668), the university switchboard, and a coordinated use of public media outlets, used to convey urgent messages.
Source: Virginia Tech
College of Charleston Adopts Connect-ED® Communication Service as New Emergency Notification System
Charleston, SC --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- October, 9 2007 - The College of Charleston announced that it has signed an agreement with Connect-ED Communication Service to provide an emergency notification system that will be capable of reaching faculty, students and staff within minutes of a campus crisis.
The service will be implemented with limited capabilities this month, with testing in phases throughout the fall. It is expected to be fully functional by the end of 2007.
Students will be notified as to how and when to update their contact information in the College’s Student Information System. The system will allow them to insert multiple notification phone numbers for themselves and for their family members.
The system will be used for emergencies only.
Connect Ed is an emergency telephone system that sends notification before, during and after an emergency. With this new system, the College of Charleston will be able to communicate in many modes including voice messages to home, work and cell phones; text messages to cell phones, PDAs and other devices; written messages to email accounts; and messages to teletypewriters and telecommunication devices (TTY/TDD) for the hearing impaired.
“This new emergency notification system will significantly enhance our ability to maintain a learning environment in which students feel safe, secure and comfortable,” says Victor Wilson, Executive Vice President for Student Affairs. “ We now have the ability to contact students and faculty in the event of an emergency any time, anywhere.”
The new Connect-Ed system is expected to cost approximately $30,000 or about $2 per person.
Source: College of Charleston
Northern Virginia Community College deploys Roam Secure Alert Network (RSAN)
Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) Launches Roam Secure Alert Network for Emergency Notification
Alexandria, VA --[Emergency Notification News]-- October 4, 2007 Roam Secure, Inc. today announced Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) has purchased and deployed Roam Secure Alert Network (RSAN). College and campus administrators and public safety officials can send targeted alerts via SMS text messages on cell phones and to students, faculty and staff. Students (or their parents) can register for the system, NOVA Alert, at no charge by visiting https://alert.nvcc.edu or by texting “NOVA” to 411911.
NOVA, the second-largest community college in the country is located in the heart of Northern Virginia’s technology corridor just outside Washington, D.C.; with campuses in Alexandria, Annandale, Loudoun, Manassas, Springfield and Woodbridge. With RSAN, the entire student body or those at selected campuses, both on and off campus, can be notified. The system is capable of reaching most text-enabled device including cell phones, pagers, e-mail, and BlackBerry. RSAN also integrates with other communication media that may be deployed such as message boards, sirens, and speakers providing a single using a layered approach to mass notification.
“NOVA has a very mobile student body with many full- and part-time students spread across the greater Washington region on campus, at work, home or on the road. Reaching our students quickly with emergency information is very important and we have taken great strides to keep our students, staff, and faculty informed via a variety of methods and technologies. Our students communicate at home, school and work through e-mail and text alerting on a daily basis. Now we can reach out to them quickly using Roam Secure. The system also integrates with the other alerting systems in the surrounding local jurisdictions via Roam Secure’s emergency information exchange,” said Dr. Steven Sachs, NOVA’s VP for Instructional & Information Technology.
About Northern Virginia Community College
Northern Virginia Community College is the largest institution of higher education in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the second largest community college in the nation. NOVA enrolls more than 60,000 students at its six campuses in Alexandria, Annandale, Loudoun, Manassas, Springfield and Woodbridge, and through the distance learning program at its Extended Learning Institute. For more information about NOVA and its programs or services, call (703) 323-3000 or visit the College’s Web site at www.nvcc.edu.
Source: Vendor Press Release
Connect-CTY(R) Service Provides Multi-language Message Capabilities to Ensure Emergency Notifications Reach Temple City's Diverse Community
TEMPLE CITY, Calif., Oct. 4 --[Emergency Notification News]-- The NTI Group, Inc. (NTI) announced today that Temple City has selected the Connect-CTY mass communication service. Temple City has implemented the Connect-CTY service to provide city officials the ability to communicate via multiple languages with its diverse community, regarding time-sensitive matters, such as unforeseen events or emergencies.
"The best way to keep residents safe is through communication, and the Connect-CTY service makes it easy to communicate with residents of a diverse community with its multilingual capabilities," said Robin D. Richards, Chairman and CEO of NTI.
The Connect-CTY service allows city officials to send and track personalized voice messages to thousands of residents, businesses, and local officials in just minutes, through a single phone call. Messages can be sent in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Mandarin and Vietnamese. The service requires no additional hardware; it can be used from any computer with Internet access or telephone, ensuring that officials can send vital messages from wherever they are located. The city also can track homes that were reached with a report on the results of outgoing messages.
City administrators can target messages to an unlimited number of groups -- everything from mobilizing emergency response teams to notifying necessary department heads. Authorized users also can use a map on the Connect-CTY system to contact people associated with specific geographical locations, sending messages only to select neighborhoods when needed.
Temple City will be conducting its first test-call today, to ensure all residents who would like to be included in the system are given a chance to correct their phone numbers. Primary residential and business phones in Temple City will automatically be included in the system. If residents do not receive the call, they should visit the city's Web site at http://www.ci.temple-city.ca.us and click on the "SIGN UP NOW -- SERVICES BY CONNECT-CTY" link to enter their contact information into the secure Connect-CTY database.
Source: Vendor Press Release
Multi-National Force-Iraq Deploys AtHoc IWSAlerts in Camp Slayer for Emergency Notifications
AtHoc's Network-centric Emergency Alerting System Now Fielded in Forward Positions to Rapidly Warn Personnel about Enemy Arms Fire
BURLINGAME, Ca. --[Emergency Notification News]- (October 2, 2007) -- AtHoc, Inc., the leader in network-centric emergency notification systems, today announced AtHoc IWSAlerts™ has been deployed in Camp Slayer, Baghdad, Iraq for the purpose of force protection. The Multi-National Force-Iraq is using IWSAlerts to provide emergency alerting for several hundred personnel, including rapidly warning them of enemy arms fire, impending attacks and severe weather conditions.
The alerts effectively and efficiently notify personnel of the emergency situation and provide details on how long the alert is in effect. Using IWSAlerts, military and civilian personnel in Camp Slayer rapidly receive warnings about threats, as well as clear instructions for action, such as temporarily increasing uniform posture in response to enemy fire. Within seconds, the operations center can activate pre-defined alerting scenarios, which turn networked computers into an integrated physical alarm system, capturing the attention of nearby personnel through loud audio and visual messages. The system can be integrated with sensors to automatically activate scenarios and warnings for incoming threats. Command centers now can proactively alert personnel of attacks and help ensure a quick and safe response.
AtHoc IWSAlerts was selected due to its ease and speed of deployment. AtHoc worked with local network technicians to install and configure the product within days. Army security specialists then ran numerous tests over a two-week period for information assurance certification before deploying the commercial-off-the-shelf software on their operational network. Initially deployed for Air Force personnel, the system was quickly extended to the Army and Navy who were co-located within the same joint command.
Source: Vendor Press Release
Los Angeles Unified School District Becomes the Largest School District in the Country to Implement a District Wide Mass Notification Service
District Selects Connect-ED® from The NTI Group, Inc. to Keep Students Safe and Parents Informed 
SHERMAN OAKS, CA --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- October 1, 2007- The NTI Group, Inc. (NTI) announced today that the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has selected the Connect-ED notification service. The system will be used for school-to-parent communication in the event of an emergency, but will also be used for regular attendance notifications, as well as important school and district announcements. “We applaud LAUSD officials for taking charge of student safety and utilizing the Connect-ED system to communicate with parents and organize staff during emergency situations,” said Robin D. Richards, Chairman and CEO of NTI. “Effective communication during emergency situations is vital to student safety.”
The Connect-ED service will also enable school administrators to increase their communication with the school community by sending messages in multiple languages to parents and 
staff members in a matter of minutes. This means that the district can ensure that parents will receive important information about the safety of their children in the language they use at home.
The Connect-ED service also allows LAUSD to engage parents by notifying them of important announcements, updates and meetings. The service can be used to inform parents of upcoming teacher/parent meetings and information about attendance, holidays, field trips and bus routes. It can also be tailored to send messages to parents with children in specific grades or to parents of students participating in a particular sports team or club.
The fully hosted service does not require additional hardware, so the Connect-ED service can be used from any telephone or computer with Internet access, allowing LAUSD administrators to send vital messages from wherever they are located – even if they are evacuated in an emergency situation.
To ensure that important messages and alerts reach students and staff quickly, no matter what their preferred method of communication is, the Connect-ED system sends voice and text messages through four different modes of communication:
- Voice messages to home phones, work phones, cell phones, and e-mails
- Text messages to cell phones, PDAs and other text-based devices
- Written messages to e-mail accounts
- Messages to TTY/TDD receiving devices for the hearing impaired
Source: Vendor Press Release
MIR3’s Campus-Notification System is Praised for Performance During Real-Life Threat at New York’s St. John’s University
MIR3 inCampusAlert is Praised by New York Governor, New York City Police Commissioner, State Assembly Member and University Administration.
NEW YORK, NY –[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- October 1, 2007 – After a masked gunman was spotted and subdued without a single injury on the campus of St. John’s University on September 26, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told a news conference, “St. John's newly instituted emergency text messaging system worked like a charm.” The inCampusAlert™ Intelligent Notification (IN®) system, provided to St. John’s University by MIR3™, a California technology company that specializes in automated emergency notification systems for corporations, governments and universities, was credited with quickly keeping the campus population informed and calm and for enhancing public safety during the crisis.
MIR3 claims that inCampusAlert is the only mass notification system in the market today which allows for true two-way texting. According to MIR3, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer praised the recently installed MIR3 campus-notification system at St. John’s University, and New York Assemblyman Rory I. Lancman offered legislation requiring universities to implement emergency campus-notification at college and university campuses throughout New York State.
Dr. James Pellow, chief operating officer of St. John's University, lobbied his administration for an emergency notification system shortly after the Virginia Tech tragedy in April 2007. inCampusAlert was installed in early September. Last week, Dr. Pellow was quoted in the media as saying, “No one thought that we would be testing this latest technology this quickly for an emergency”... it “allowed us to manage this mini-city of 20,000 people.” The initial emergency alert was sent using MIR3 technology to St. John University’s campus on September 26 by Thomas Lawrence, the university's vice president for public safety and a former deputy chief of the New York Police Department. The message read as follows: “From Public Safety. Male was found on campus with rifle. Please stay in your buildings until further notice. He is in custody, but please wait until the all clear.”
According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, more than 70 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds own a cell phone and 92 percent of them use text messages regularly. “The University's response serves as a national model,” New York Police Commissioner Kelly added. “Coincidentally, St. John's was one of the participants in our campus security conference last week, during which we examined the emergency response at Virginia Tech, and other campuses.”
Source: Vendor Press Release