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Middlebury College Selects MessageOne for Emergency Notification System
| Source: MessageOne
AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwire - August 6, 2007) - MessageOne (www.messageone.com) today announced
that Middlebury College administrators have selected MessageOne's AlertFind
to provide an automated emergency notification system that can be used to
send simultaneous alerts to thousands of students, faculty and staff within
minutes. Middlebury is planning to implement the system during the
2007-2008 academic year.
Immediate, Global Communication is Key
Emergency communications is a key challenge facing college and university
leaders. Operating numerous buildings populated by hundreds of faculty,
staff, and students makes running a college akin to overseeing a small
town. Located in Vermont, Middlebury also operates the C.V.
Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad at 28 sites in 12 countries. With students,
faculty and staff in Middlebury and spread around the world, it would be
very difficult to deliver emergency instructions or account for college
community members in the event of a crisis or disaster.
AlertFind Provides Framework for Crisis Communications
Once the new system is implemented, Middlebury will be able to rapidly and
automatically communicate with faculty, staff and students in the event of
any crisis or disaster. Administrators will no longer have to distribute
critical messages manually through a broadcast e-mail or voice mail. When
an incident occurs, Middlebury crisis managers will be able to quickly and
automatically send important notifications to affected community members.
As long as the recipient has access to a landline, text messaging device,
cell phone or email, they can receive an emergency notification anywhere
around the world. The system, which can differentiate between a real person
and voice mail, is able to deliver a spoken electronic or recorded message
and even ask questions such as "Are you okay?" in the event of a crisis.
These responses will be available to crisis managers in real-time.
AlertFind will allow Middlebury administrators to make all users or a
select group of users immediately aware of public safety warnings, provide
up-to-date inclement weather advisories, or disseminate information on
issues in foreign countries potentially affecting students or faculty
abroad.
Dedicated System for Emergency Broadcasts Needed
Unlike free text message systems backed by advertising dollars, AlertFind
is a dedicated, robust solution for text and voice-based emergency
communication. Since the system is only used in emergencies, AlertFind
prevents the "message fatigue" associated with ad-based systems where users
may ignore important notifications, assuming they are spam.
"We want to be proactive in ensuring the safety of the college community
and this system provides one step we can take towards that goal," said
Middlebury College Dean of Planning John Emerson, who is a co-chair of the
college's emergency planning steering committee.
"Due to its multiple campuses abroad, Middlebury needed a unique solution
for emergency notification," said Bryan Rollins, vice president of product
marketing at MessageOne. "By analyzing the institution's needs, we were
able to provide a solution with the flexibility and reliability to make
safety and security the school's highest priority." According to Rollins,
once Middlebury has completed the process of gathering up-to-date personal
information from students, staff and faculty, and established new contact
procedures, AlertFind can be deployed quickly.
About AlertFind
With more than one million users, AlertFind is a powerful crisis management
and communication solution used by customers around the globe. MessageOne's
AlertFind has kept companies, communities and universities operating and
enabled them to ensure the safety of their employees during and after
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the July 2005 bombings of London's public
transit system, the 2004 Southeast Asia tsunami, and the 2003 Northeast
power outage. AlertFind customers include the American Red Cross, Motorola,
Allianz, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and Eckerd College of Florida.
About MessageOne
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, and founded by Adam Dell, MessageOne is the
leading provider of managed services for e-mail management, archiving and
business continuity. For enterprise e-mail and wireless messaging systems,
the company's Email Management Services (EMS) provides comprehensive e-mail
archiving, storage management and e-Discovery with the total continuity,
recovery, and security protection only available from a managed service. In
addition, MessageOne's AlertFind provides guaranteed emergency notification
to help companies protect their employees during any crisis or disaster.
Millions of users around the world depend on MessageOne for its
award-winning managed services.
For more information, please visit www.messageone.com.