Pacific University Launches Innovative "Give-away" Program to Encourage Opt-in Participation
Forest Grove, Oregon, --[Emergency Notification News]-- November 9, 2007 - Pacific University announced a new, state-of-the-art alert notification system powered by e2Campus called "Boxer Alerts" to send urgent news to students cell phone and email. Boxer Alerts will send notifications to students and faculty registered mobile phones, Blackberries, wireless PDAs, pagers, smart or satellite phones, email addresses, and RSS feeds. Messages can also "pop up" to anyone using Google, Yahoo, or AOL as their home page.
Once intended recipients sign up for Boxer Alerts, Pacific University will be able to text student and faculty cell phones with timely information about inclement weather conditions, campus closings and imminent emergencies. Depending on personal cell phone plans, there may be a nominal fee from carriers to receive text messages, but there is no charge from Pacific University to use the service. The service is available to all current students, faculty and staff of Pacific University. To learn more and to sign up, go to www.pacificu.edu/alerts and click on the button labeled "Sign Up". All students, faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to register.
Students, Faculty, and Staff -- Sign up to Receive Boxer Alerts and be Entered to Win a "FlyTech" Dragonfly.
The FlyTech" Dragonfly is the world's first radio-controlled flying insect. What better way to get out an urgent notification than with a dragonfly! To be eligible for the FlyTech" Dragonfly drawing you must register for Boxer Alerts before 5:00 pm, December 10th, 2007. For more information check out the Boxer Alerts web site at www.pacificu.edu/alerts
Source: Pacific University
Pacific University Launches Emergency Notification System powered by e2Campus
MIR3 Debuts World’s First Apple iPhone Emergency Notification Solution
iPhone Empowered as Mobile Emergency Command Device;
IT Alerts, Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, CRM and Other Important Enterprise Notifications can be Initiated and Managed with the Touch of a Screen
SAN DIEGO, CA -- [Emergency Notification News] -- November 6, 2007 – MIR3™, the technology leader in Intelligent Notification (IN®) solutions for global enterprises, today announced the availability of the first emergency notification and enterprise notification command interface for the Apple iPhone™ mobile communications platform. These full-featured Web-based management applications from MIR3 run under Apple’s mobile Safari™ browser to enable corporate executives and IT administrators to initiate emergency notifications and remotely manage enterprise notification systems and response teams using Apple iPhone device.
“Apple’s new generation mobile communicator is growing in popularity among corporate users because of their larger screen sizes, easier-to-use touch screen keyboards and anywhere network access,” said Amir Moussavian, CEO of MIR3. “With this new application, MIR3 has empowered the Apple iPhone as a remote emergency command device. MIR3 has a history of technology innovation and is committed to delivering support for all mobile devices, all mobile platforms and all modalities. We believe that as iPhone is adopted more widely and accepted as an enterprise communications device, corporate iPhone users will represent an important segment within the mobile-enabled enterprise notification and emergency response industry.”
MIR3’s iPhone interface also functions as an automated mobile command dashboard that allows executives to instantly notify and initiate live voice conferences among the appropriate response-team members, and access MIR3’s real-time reporting features to track notifications and responses on their iPhone.
“Disasters and emergencies are almost always unexpected, and there’s a high probability that many executives and first responders will not have access to their desktops when crucial decisions must be made and quick action steps taken,” Moussavian added. “Mobile devices may be the only functional option for decision makers during an emergency, and we believe that the iPhone, with its game-changing communication capabilities, will be a preferred crisis management and emergency communications tool for many of them.”
MIR3’s Web-based iPhone notification applications are 100% compliant with Apple’s current guidelines for iPhone software development using the mobile Safari browser.
Source: Vendor Press Release
Picture: Eddy Ruble - Tsunami Grief in Aceh, Indonesia
Auburn University implements Connect-ED® Emergency Notification System for Students, Employees
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
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.