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| Challenge |
| Government agencies, offices and facilities are facing emerging physical and cyber
threats from ever-evolving sources. Because they are potential targets, they all share a requirement for quick
access to information during emergencies in order to respond effectively to protect people and property.
Threats can take the form of terror and criminal acts, fires, accidents or extreme weather. Alerting thousands
of individuals quickly about the situation and delivering clear instructions for action ensures an effective
and safe response. |
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| Government agencies must deploy a reliable, state-of-the-art solution that complements
and leverages their existing communication channels and infrastructure for disseminating relevant information to
the general population, specific groups of people and special needs individuals, through multiple means of
communications, in a matter of seconds. Being able to communicate the right information at the right time
helps to ensure that in times of emergencies, government organizations can provide the delivery of essential
government services by instituting a formal COOP plan. |
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| Audience |
| Building and facility managers, security managers, crisis management teams, fire and safety personnel, IT managers and organization executives |
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| Sectors |
| Federal, state and local government agencies, offices and facilities |
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| Solution |
IWSAlerts is a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solution that turns an organization’s
existing IP network into a comprehensive emergency notification system. IWSAlerts integrates with other alerting
channels such as PA communications, sirens, telephony and text-messaging services and provides a single, unified
console for managing, triggering and controlling the emergency notification process across all delivery
devices.
This allows organizations to quickly and efficiently communicate a consistent yet individually tailored alert to
personnel, first responders, senior management, security managers and surrounding communities. The information is
sent via multiple and redundant means, including desktops and laptops, cell phones, PDA’s, BlackBerries, landline
phones, PA systems and sirens.
Alerts can be activated in seconds, reaching thousands of people on the network in an average of one minute. And
because the network uses multi-directional communication, acknowledgements from every alerted recipient can also
be tracked in order to provide an instantaneous picture of personnel status and accountability. |
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| Figure 1: IWSAlerts Manages Emergency Notification Process |
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| Solution Benefits and Capabilities |
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Provides rapid mass notification using existing IP network |
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Notifies personnel through multiple channels (PCs, cell phones, PDAs, pagers, BlackBerries,
computer kiosks, landline phones, sirens, PA systems and digital billboards) |
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Consolidates IP and traditional notification channels into a single alerting platform |
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Sends intrusive audio-visual desktop alerts to recipients |
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Sends alerts to other organizations such as emergency services and neighboring facilities |
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Section 508 compliant - Provides alerting for special needs community |
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Tracks recipient feedback in real-time |
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Establishes standard operating procedures for emergency notifications |
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Manages alert recipient information and integrates with user directories |
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Integrates with sources of emergency information such as the National Weather Service |
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Allows operators to trigger alerts from any Web browser using secure login credentials |
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