From State Tech Magazine
InformaCast has been helping government personnel keep people safe since its inception. From national government agencies to smaller local government buildings, emergency notifications from InformaCast help share critical information during potentially dangerous situations. The city of Newburgh, NY deployed InformaCast in its City Hall, and State Tech Magazine highlighted their efforts in a recent article.
With the Cisco UC system deployed, Newburgh’s IT team will now add Singlewire Software’s InformaCast IP paging and emergency notification features. The fire, public works and water departments are already using it; the police department and the city’s other first responders are next.The software allows city officials to preprogram specific alerts — or send new messages on the fly — through their IP phones or computers. For example, the fire department has deployed an overhead paging system that enables fire officials to pick up a phone and broadcast announcements to every phone at headquarters, Kurcon says.
By the end of the summer, the IT department plans to preprogram specific alerts on speed dial. With the city’s previous system, the alarm company provided no details to police other than the fact that an employee pressed the silent alarm. The new system can provide greater event details, including the specifics of what’s happening as well as location information.
“We can notify emergency responders much faster, and they are aware of the exact issue, as opposed to a general button that could mean anything,” Kurcon says.
Later this year, the IT staff plans to expand the use of the system to send emergency notifications to first responders and key city officials on their mobile phones whenever a major emergency occurs.
“It’s a quick and easy way to send mass notifications to the staff and get responses back if they can come in to deal with the emergency,” he says.