When Seconds Count
Automated Notification in the Mission – Critical Environment

By Dave Krikac

Government agencies must alert personnel and communities-at-risk when HAZMAT incidents, chemical releases and inclement weather prompt evacuations.

Corporations must notify employees when power outages, security breaks and data disruptions jeopardize business continuity.

When seconds count, immediate and precise notification can determine the success or failure of a response operation. Until this decade, the only option of notifying "key" individuals was the manual call tree.

However, the introduction of interactive voice processing technology, coupled with state-of-the-art automated notification systems has revolutionized the emergency notification process. Now, one telephone call can initiate 100’s of calls instantaneously.

CALL-OUT SCENARIOS

Calling efficiency is increased through pre-defined scenarios, which may include some of the following:

• Roster data of the personnel/residents to be notified (telephone & fax #’s, pager ID’s, etc.)
• Sequence to perform the call-out
• Message or instructions to deliver
• Prompts to determine the availability of the personnel

The call-out results may be monitored in a real-time mode or stored in the form of a system status report for an accurate and comprehensive audit trail.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER…

Users cite system speed, reliability and integration capabilities as primary factors to consider when selecting an automated notification system.

Speed
To determine the size and speed of the system necessary to perform call-outs effectively, consider three important elements:

1. Number of persons to be contacted
2. Amount of time required to contact them (message length, the entry of yes/no responses to qualifying questions, E.T.A., etc.)
3. Number of telephone lines to access at the time of the notification For example, an 8-line system is capable of contacting 50 people with a 30 second message in approximately 3.5 minutes, while a 24-line system can contact 1000 people with the same message in approximately 21 minutes.

Reliability
Effective crisis management is completely dependent upon the operation’s ability to keep everyone informed and in the communications loop. A consistent message can be delivered to all affected persons with a confirmation notification receipt and a record of vital information such as E.T.A.s.

Consider the following checklist when evaluating systems:

• Past performance in actual emergencies, tests or drills
• Use of UPS
• Power loss recovery capabilities
• Off-site back-up or notification services
• Mirrored systems in separate places

Integration
As with any major software acquisition, it is far easier to justify the cost of an automated emergency notification system when it integrates with current communications tools and data sources. Seek systems that are capable of seamlessly transferring telephone numbers, pager ID codes and fax numbers from existing databases and spreadsheets. This one capability will quicken system installation and implementation, and will add value to the communications technologies already in use, such as:

• Alpha/digital paging
• GIS (desktop mapping)
• Emergency management/disaster recovery solutions
• Conference bridging
• Weather radar

Other factors to consider are ease-of-use, distributed access, security, reporting capabilities and technical support.

Automated systems will increase the speed and accuracy of emergency notification. The risk of human error is reduced and most important – personnel are able to focus on the critical situation at hand – to save lives and protect property.

About the Author
Dave Krikac is the VP of Marketing for Dialogic Communications Corporation, Franklin, TN. For more information on this topic, please call (615) 790-2882 or visit their website at www.dccusa.com.