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KCTCS Case Study - Written Version (PDF)

Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) was formed in 1998 and grew into 16 technical colleges with 67 campus locations, 105,000 students, and 10,000 employees. KCTCS also houses the Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services and the Kentucky Fire Commission. KCTCS has no dorms; all of its students commute, with some of them travelling over an hour to attend class.

The Business Challenge

KCTCS recognized the need for a crisis management plan/process that remained consistent across its many campuses and could reach all of its students and staff easily, quickly, and through as many technologies as possible to ensure receipt.

KCTCS gathered together a committee comprised of personnel from Crisis Management, the IT Department, Public Relations, and different college representatives in order to gain a wide perspective of the needs that must be filled by a comprehensive emergency notification system. Said Bob Hammonds, System Director - Crisis Management, Environmental Health, and Safety at KCTCS, "We didn't want to just make a decision, arbitrarily, and hand it down to the colleges. We wanted their input and buy-in from the start."

Having set its evaluation criteria and receiving buy-in from multiple groups across campuses, KCTCS assembled a list of vendors and began evaluating them. Singlewire's InformaCast was the clear winner. "It fit our particular needs. It was the product that simply gave us the tool we needed to culminate our crisis management plan." said Hammonds.

InformaCast can send out audio and text messages to IP phones and speakers and legacy paging systems. Through InformaCast's group functionality, KCTCS can send notifications to a particular building on campus, to a campus, or to a college. By pairing InformaCast with Singlewire's Desktop Notification System application, KCTCS could get its messages out using not only IP phones, IP speakers, and legacy paging systems, but also to computer desktops. With the additional purchase of SchoolMessenger, KCTCS could also send messages via SMS messaging and email. The combination of InformaCast, the Desktop Notification System, and SchoolMessenger allowed KCTCS to use every piece of technology available to it to get emergency notifications out.

Crafting the Solution

Once the decision was made, KCTCS worked with its VoIP provider, CBTS (a subsidiary of Cincinnati Bell), to prepare the network environment needed to support such a solution. Singlewire and CBTS worked closely together to ensure that the implementation went smoothly and KCTCS was happy with the final product.

Said Derrel Cone, Technology Solutions Project Coordinator at KCTCS, "We took the InformaCast product and put it at [CBTS's] location where our CallManager server is. And so, it was rather painless in the fact that we didn't have to go to multiple locations. We were able to go to one spot, load it, and get it working."

Since KCTCS uses Microsoft Active Directory and InformaCast can import that information, KCTCS used its Active Directory structure to control staff's access to messages and their rights as users.

With the software installation complete, KCTCS began shaping SNAP-or Safety Notification Alert Process-its own, branded emergency notification system. SNAP can reach 8,000 IP phones and countless computer desktops, and it's integrated with KCTCS's text messaging system, meaning that it can reach thousands of phones in minutes. "We are able to pick and choose how we want to structure the system," said Hammonds. "We have the ability in the system office to blast it to the entire state--all of our offices, all of our colleges, campuses. We have also given each college the ability to break it down as they see fit."

For the broadcast of messages over IP phones, a main component of InformaCast, KCTCS can virtually take over any phone included in the broadcast. Said Hammonds, "We can actually take over all of our phones and turn [them] into loudspeakers....We control the volume-we can interrupt phone calls-to give the message and get that message out." The same situation is possible with InformaCast combined with the Desktop Notification System. According to Hammonds, "Our computer screens turn a bright color. We kind of take over the computer screen and put a bright message, and then there's a bar that goes across and gives them the message with directions." For students who have signed up for text message alerts, messages appear in much the same way on their cell phones, with the aid of SchoolMessenger.

Results: A Reliable and Versatile Emergency Notification System

In January of 2009, KCTCS really put SNAP to the test. An ice storm in Kentucky caused communications infrastructure damage the equivalent of a 6.2 earthquake. KCTCS's communications were unaffected: it was able to get notifications out to campuses, and campuses could contact each other because of the redundancy and ease of use built into InformaCast and the SNAP system.

Said Hammonds, "It's something that's used much more frequently than we ever anticipated. We knew we had emergencies and we knew things went on, but since we've implemented the system, it's been phenomenal."

Students are appreciative of the level of communication KCTCS has adopted. According to one testimonial, "As a new student, I really appreciated being informed of the school closing early in the morning. I live in Clarksville and SNAP saved me a good 45- minute drive to school just to find out that the school is closed."

By allowing KCTCS to set up messages, create groups who will receive those messages, and choose the devices that will receive those message, InformaCast stands as the backbone of the SNAP system. "We can hit that one button, and then it does it all," said Cone.

The end result is a powerfully informed system of campuses that can communicate directly with each other, students, and their parents through a variety of devices, ensuring that, in the case of an emergency, everyone is apprised of the situation and can act accordingly. Says Hammonds, "One person's life is worth much, much, much more than what we've invested in this system. The comfort that it gives a person in my role is I know we can't prevent things from happening, but I feel comfortable ... knowing we can alert people ... and potentially save lives."

 

Additional Links

KCTCS Website

Singlewire Emergency Notification Solutions

InformaCast Solutions on Google

Federal Emergency Management Agency

 

Video Transcript

DR. JAY BOX: Kentucky Community and Technical College System was formed back in 1998. Today we have grown to sixteen comprehensive community and technical colleges with 67 campuses across the state of Kentucky.

BOB HAMMONDS: There are no dorms at any of our campuses. e do not have dormitories. So, all of our students commute. Several of our students due to the nature of their colleges and remote locations travel up to an hour, an hour and a half each way to attend class on a daily basis. Five years ago is about the time we started our, our overall crisis management process. The culmination of this process has been the implementation of a emergency notification system.

DERREL CONE: We have the ability with our Voice Over IP phone to hit a services button and it brings up a menu and we can choose the message. This is a pre created, pre recorded, pre scripted message and we can choose that message right there by hitting a button. And then we can choose what group we want to send it to. This campus, or that campus, or all of our campuses. We have the ability right then and there to send that message. So, if it's a critical message and seconds count, we can make it happen.

Snap is the name we've given our emergency notification system here at KCTCS. The system goes immediately to about 8,000 or so Voice Over IP phones. It can go to desktop computers. And also we're tied into a text messaging which gets out thousands of messages in minutes. InformaCast does what we consider internal messaging. It sends to the internal phone, the internal PA's, the internal IP speakers, the desktops on our campus. SchoolMessager is our external component. It sends out SMS tags to anybody who have signed up for the SMS tags. It sends out the emails to anybody who signed up for the emails. Well when you send out an infomaCast message, we have the script. And then what that message does is goes out, logs in to the school messenger, runs a pre created job with SchoolMessengerand then does what we asked it for. We can hit that one button and then it does it all.

BOB HAMMONDS: It's something that's used much more frequent than we anticipated. We knew we had emergencies and we knew things went on. But since we've implemented the system it has been phenomenal.

DR. JAY BOX: We have several testimonials from our students talking about what a great concept this has been. They love the idea of the quick notification. Plus from the safety prospective it's, it's that feeling more secure. That when an incident does happen, we have a process now in place that can notify our employers and our students in case of that emergency.

BOB HAMMONDS: One person's life is worth much, much, much more than what we've invested in this system. The comfort that it gives a person in my role as being Director of Crisis Management for this system is I know we can't prevent things from happening. But I feel comfortable at night knowing that if something happens tomorrow we're going to be able to alert people, let them know what's going on and potentially save lives. And for me the cost is . . . the benefits far out weighs any cost we have incurred.