Posts Tagged ‘Higher Education’

Ouachita Baptist Alerts Students and Staff About an Emergency Situation Involving an Armed Robbery with InformaCast

Excerpt from the Ouachita Baptist Website

“The alert system operated effectively and we were able to clear the outside areas of campus very quickly.” – Dr. Keldon Henley, vice president for student services at Ouachita Baptist University

August 24, 2010

Ouachita Baptist University officials activated the university’s emergency notification system in response to a police search for a possible armed robbery suspect near campus.

An initial alert was issued at 10:29 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 24, with an all-clear message issued at 12:18 p.m.

The initial alert notified students, faculty and staff that “police are searching for a possible armed robbery suspect in the area behind OC Bailey and Anthony Halls” and instructed individuals to “go inside until further notice.” Follow-up alerts instructed recipients to “please go inside the nearest building until further notice.”

Following notification by Arkadelphia police that the suspect had been apprehended, university officials issued a message noting that “the emergency situation has now ended. You may continue normal activities.”

Ouachita’s extensive campus emergency notification system, launched in 2007, includes e-mail, text messages, outdoor loudspeakers, campus phone messages and computer pop-up alerts.

According to Ouachita President Rex Horne, “An emergency situation in Arkadelphia this morning resulted in our securing the campus and bringing all students and employees indoors.  A bank robbery was reported and Arkadelphia police advised us to issue an alert. We did so promptly.” He added that everyone on campus was safe and “taking every precaution” throughout the emergency alert.

Dr. Keldon Henley, vice president for student services, noted, “We were tremendously pleased by the response of our students and others on campus when the alert was announced. The alert system operated effectively and we were able to clear the outside areas of campus very quickly.”

Read More – Excerpt from the Ouachita Baptist Website

Colgate University uses Singlewire InformaCast to alert faculty, staff and students about an incident on campus.

Excerpt from the Colgate University News Blog – Click to Read Full Story

We would like to provide you with more information about the emergency situation that occurred on campus earlier today. An individual inside a car near the Oak Drive entrance to campus attempted to harm himself, which made it necessary for local law enforcement officials to surround the car in order to contain the situation. The individual was not a member of the Colgate community, and the situation was resolved peacefully.

Though law enforcement officials expected the emergency to be contained to Oak Drive, as a precaution we advised faculty, staff, and students to remain in their buildings until the situation was resolved. In addition, all entrances to campus were closed.

The university’s emergency response plan includes a number of communications tools to inform the campus community quickly and effectively prior to, during, and following an emergency. Today, we utilized the Campus Alert email system, as well as the Informacast recorded message system over campus telephones.

Click to read full article

Appearing in the Colgate University Blog

Colgate has installed a new campus emergency public address system, which is part of the university’s comprehensive emergency notification plan. The new public address system is intended to provide timely warnings to the campus community in the event of a life-threatening emergency that requires immediate and widespread notification. It is important to note that it is highly unlikely the public address system will ever have to be used.

INFORMACAST is a component of the campus VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) telephone system installed in 2009. INFORMACAST allows prerecorded and live voice messages to be distributed to campus VOIP telephones, which include those in staff and faculty offices. While Colgate Alert is the primary tool for notifying the campus community in the event of a major emergency, INFORMACAST provides an additional layer of communication.

Read the full story on the Colgate University Blog at – http://blogs.colgate.edu/2010/08/colgate-installs-new-outdoor-e.html

SNAP System Combines SchoolMessenger and Singlewire InformaCast to Deliver Mass Notifications Across 68 Campus Locations, Reaching 100,000 Students and 10,000 Employees With the Push of a Button

Santa Cruz, CA and Madison, WI – April 16, 2010 – The Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), the largest provider of postsecondary education and workforce training in Kentucky, was recognized as a Laureate by the Computerworld Honors Program for creating a statewide emergency notification system. Known as SNAP, or Safety Notification Alert Process, the system combines technology from SchoolMessenger and Singlewire Software, LLC that reaches across its 16 technical colleges and 68 campus locations to alert more than 100,000 students and employees to emergency conditions with the push of a button.

Each year the Computerworld Honors Program recognizes the most outstanding user achievements in technology. Honorees from around the globe are nominated for visionary applications of information technology that promote positive social and economic progress. This year’s honorees will be commemorated during an Awards Evening in Washington DC in June.

“Each Laureate selected for this honor understands the importance of using one’s resources and technical prowess to benefit one’s fellow man,” said Bob Carrigan, Chairman of the Computerworld Honors Program Chairmen’s Committee and CEO of IDG Communications Worldwide.

The KCTCS system consists of two parts. Singlewire InformaCast provides on-campus and intra-campus messaging that allows administrators to direct notifications to a specific college, campus, or building. If needed, audio and text messages can be sent, interrupting calls and turning IP phones into loudspeakers to broadcast critical news and updates. At the same time, bright-colored bars can be run across color computer terminals to deliver a clear message with detailed directions.

With no dorms on campus, communicating directly to students who commute up to an hour daily is equally important. SchoolMessenger’s massive communications capabilities enable thousands of personalized and timely voice calls, text messages, and emails to be sent instantly in any language.

“We applaud KCTCS for the honor that has been bestowed on it and the vision it has shown in creating a statewide crisis communications system that is unmatched,” said Sanford Kenyon, president of SchoolMessenger. “With just a push of the button students, parents, faculty, and staff anywhere in the state can be alerted to threatening conditions, and then kept up-to-date as the situation unfolds.”

“KCTCS has done something truly extraordinary with their emergency notification system in Kentucky and deserve the notoriety and accolades it has received,” said Brad Parkel, director of marketing at Singlewire Software. “They have created a powerfully informed system of campuses that can communicate directly with each other, through a variety of devices, to ensure that safety remains the number one priority at all times.”

A congratulatory video produced by SchoolMessenger and Singlewire.

About KCTCS
Since its formation in 1998, KCTCS has become the largest provider of postsecondary education and workforce training in Kentucky serving more than 500,000 citizens. The statewide system of 16 colleges and 68 campuses has a current enrollment of more than 100,000 students, with more than 10,000 faculty and staff. KCTCS also houses the Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services and the Kentucky Fire Commission. kctcs.edu

About Singlewire
Singlewire Software LLC, based in Madison, WI, develops and supports innovative voice applications centered around secure, fast, and reliable mass notification capabilities. Main offerings include: InformaCast, InformaCast CK, PushToTalk, and DORA, and allow customers unprecedented control in designing mass notifications, assigning them to specific recipients, and determining the medium for dissemination—IP phones, IP speakers, email, etc.—all with the peerless capacity for customization to our customers’ specific environments. To learn more, please visit www.singlewire.com.

About SchoolMessenger
SchoolMessenger is a leading provider of notification solutions for education. Thousands of school districts, public schools, colleges, universities, private schools and other educational facilities in all 50 states depend on the company’s innovative solutions to connect and effectively communicate with millions of parents, students and staff every day. Founded in 1999, the company is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California. For information, visit http://www.schoolmessenger.com or call 888.527.5225.

# # #

Media Contacts:

Brad Parkel 
Director of Marketing
Singlewire Software, LLC
608.661.1154
media@singlewire.com

Madison, WI (March 29, 2010) – Singlewire Software, LLC, (www.singlewire.com), developer of innovative voice applications centered around secure, fast, and reliable mass notification, today announced the release and publication of an online video and written case study highlighting the recent implementation of InformaCast as the network-based paging and emergency mass notification system for KCTCS. The case study is located at http://www.singlewire.com/kctcs

Singlewire’s InformaCast is a full-featured notification system that allows users to simultaneously send an audio and/or text message to a variety of endpoints including IP speakers and overhead paging systems. It is implemented by more than 2,000 organizations in 35 countries worldwide.

For sending emergency notifications, KCTCS developed the SNAP system—or Safety Notification Alert Process—its own, branded emergency notification system. InformaCast stands as the backbone of the SNAP system, allowing KCTCS to set up messages, create recipient groups, and select the devices that will receive those messages.

Through InformaCast’s group functionality, KCTCS can send notifications to a particular building on campus, to a campus, or to a college. “We can hit one button, and it does it all,” said Derrel Cone, Technology Solutions Project Coordinator at KCTCS.

InformaCast can reach Cisco 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 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,” said Bob Hammonds, System Director – Crisis Management, Environmental Health, and Safety at KCTCS. “The same situation is possible with InformaCast combined with the Desktop Notification System. 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.”

“KCTCS has done something truly extraordinary with their emergency notification system in Kentucky,” states Brad Parkel, Director of Marketing at Singlewire Software. “KCTCS has managed to tie together all of their policies, networks, and endpoints into a single button that can be pushed to send notification to students, staff, parents, and the community. Any organization faced with protecting the public and initiating emergency notification should take a few minutes and watch this video.”

In addition to the written and video case study, additional video footage covers topic ranging from discussions on ROI to details on policy integration, technical integration, and the challenges to implementing a project of this size across a dispersed, state-wide organization. The case study is located at http://www.singlewire.com/kctcs.

About KCTCS: Since its formation in 1998, KCTCS has become the largest provider of postsecondary education and workforce training in Kentucky serving more than 500,000 citizens.  The statewide system of 16 colleges and 68 campuses has a current enrollment of more than 100,000 students, with more than 10,000 faculty and staff. KCTCS also houses the Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services and the Kentucky Fire Commission. kctcs.edu

About Singlewire Software: Singlewire, based in Madison, WI, develops and supports innovative voice applications centered around secure, fast, and reliable mass notification capabilities. Its main offerings include: InformaCast, InformaCast CK, PushToTalk, and DORA. These applications allow customers unprecedented control in designing mass notifications, assigning them to specific recipients, and determining the medium for dissemination—IP phones, IP speakers, e-mail, etc.—all with the peerless capacity for customization to its customers’ specific environments. To learn more, please visit www.singlewire.com.

In January 2009, Kentucky was hit with a severe ice storm that affected large areas of the state. The storm caused damage to systems and infrastructure that was so dramatic that it was comparable to damage sustained in an earthquake of 6.2 in magnitude.

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System, which has 16 campus locations located throughout Kentucky, had several schools that were severely impacted by the storm. Through the KCTCS “SNAP” emergency notification system, which includes Singlewire InformaCast and SchoolMessenger, officials were able to send notification to students and staff alerting them that school locations were closed and the dangers associated with the storm.

Click to Learn More

Watch this short video to learn more about how this event unfolded at KCTCS and how they used their emergency campus notification system to send the alert. Visit http://www.singlewire.com/kctcs.

Cisco Case Study – Elon University uses mass notification and ip paging functionality of InformaCast as part of their campus security strategy.

Located in North Carolina, Elon University is a private university with 5400 students and 1150 faculty and staff. The university’s 100 buildings are situated on a beautiful and historic 575-acre campus, away from urban centers. “Students feel very safe here, and that’s part of the university’s appeal,” says Christopher Waters, the university’s assistant chief information officer and director of information systems. “At the parent orientation in 2008, one of the most popular question from parents was whether the campus had video surveillance.”

Elon’s campus security department can now view real-time and archived video surveillance footage on demand, thanks to the Cisco® Video Surveillance Operations Manager. The system operates over Elon University’s existing Cisco network, which is also used for Cisco Unified Communications; a Cisco digital signage solution; and for intercom, using Singlewire Informacast software and the built-in speakers of Cisco Unified IP Phones.

Click to read full case study featured on www.cisco.com – PDF

Singlewire InformaCast has been featured in documentation for the Cisco Notifi-Ed program on Safety and Security for Education Application Deployment Guide. This document represents best practices in designing and deploying an IP based security solution for K-12 and Higher Education environments. This guide includes information on how to deploy InformaCast for IP overhead paging, emergency notification, zoned paging, bell scheduling and more.

Read more – http://bit.ly/2o2cBR

However, in this particular case, the ROI was that InformaCast was cheaper … In this case, we were able to use the InformaCast system, and folks were off …

Read the article at Campus Technology