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AtHoc IWSAlerts to Provide Emergency Notification to All U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Employees

USPTO Deploys Network-centric Emergency Alerting System

BURLINGAME, Ca. (March 24, 2008) AtHoc, Inc., the pioneer and leader in network-centric emergency notification systems, today announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has successfully deployed AtHoc IWSAlerts to its 9,000 employees. The system will be used to provide emergency notification to all employees located at the eleven USPTO buildings as well as those working from their homes.

Using AtHoc IWSAlerts, USPTO sends alerts over the network to reach personnel at their computers and other network-connected devices. Operators can trigger alerts through a Web browser where they can select from preconfigured alerts or create dynamic custom alerts. The alerts can be sent to all personnel in the agency, regardless of their location.

USPTO can now reach all computers with intrusive emergency desktop alerts within five minutes. The alerts describe the emergency situation – for example a bomb threat, fire, inclement weather, or medical emergency – and provide instructions for action. With the system’s recipient acknowledgement and feedback capabilities, USPTO can then determine the status of its employees in near real-time.

Key AtHoc IWSAlerts capabilities include:

  • Scalability and Speed: AtHoc IWSAlerts is being used by some of the largest government organizations. Deployments range from thousands to hundreds of thousands of personnel, and alerts still reach all recipients within minutes.
  • Access and Security: Authorized operators such as security specialists or shift supervisors can launch alerts from any location using only a network-connected Web browser. Individual access rights determine who can launch specific alerts, to which groups, and for different possible scenario.
  • Network-centric Approach: AtHoc IWSAlerts leverages USPTO’s existing network infrastructure and transforms all computers into a physical alarm system.
  • Section 508 Compliance: The USPTO required Section 508 compliance in order to ensure that employees with special needs can receive alerts during emergencies.
  • Audit Trails: AtHoc IWSAlerts provides an audit trail of all alerts, including details such as when an alert was sent, by whom, to which groups of people, and the received responses.
  • Personnel Data Synchronization: Personnel data from various sources contains information about the organizational groups employees belong to. By synchronizing with this data in the Active Directory repository, AtHoc IWSAlerts automatically ensures that the right employees are alerted, using information such as names, buildings, floors, corridors and office numbers.

“The U.S. government is already protecting close to one million personnel using AtHoc IWSAlerts from several hundred emergency operations centers and command posts,” said Simon Berman, vice president of product marketing for AtHoc. “Though many agencies mandate the use of network-centric emergency notification systems, even those that haven’t typically find the network approach to be the most effective, reliable and scalable solution. For these reasons, the adoption of AtHoc IWSAlerts throughout the defense and civilian agencies has grown exponentially in the past two years. We’re proud to add USPTO to our ever-growing list of customers that have successfully deployed AtHoc IWSAlerts.”

About AtHoc

AtHoc is a recognized leader in providing enterprise-class, network-centric emergency notification systems to military, government and commercial organizations for physical security, force protection and personnel accountability. Millions of end users worldwide, in organizations such as the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Hawaii State Civil Defense, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Boeing, PricewaterhouseCoopers and eBay rely on AtHoc's unified management systems for their emergency alerting and critical communication needs. AtHoc has partnered with market leaders including Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Siemens, Avaya, Unisys and others to bring these notification solutions to the public and commercial markets.

For more information on AtHoc, please visit http://www.athoc.com.