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Air Force Reserve Command Completes Deployment of AtHoc IWSAlerts to 37 Air Force Bases and Units Supporting Over 76,000 Personnel
Deployment of Emergency Management System Reaches AFRC Personnel Across the United States Using Centralized, Network-Centric Architecture
| Source: AtHoc
BURLINGAME, CA--(Marketwire - September 14, 2007) - AtHoc, Inc., the leader in network-centric
emergency notification systems, today announced the Air Force Reserve
Command (AFRC) has successfully completed deployment of AtHoc IWSAlerts™
at 37 of its 42 Air Force bases and tenant units throughout the United
States. Now more than 76,000 AFRC personnel are better protected and
rapidly accessible in times of emergency or recall.
The command purchased IWSAlerts in May 2007 to create a command-wide,
network-centric emergency management system (EMS) for emergency
notification and personnel accountability. Now deployed, IWSAlerts is used
to alert AFRC personnel throughout the country when an emergency event
occurs -- including 30,000 active duty personnel and 46,000 reservists and
civil service employees. The system is capable of reaching all online
personnel within three minutes by leveraging the command's IP network.
"Following the difficulties in reaching personnel after Hurricane Katrina,
we began looking at EMS systems to provide emergency notification and
personnel accountability. Two-way communications during a crisis is
important for any command, but for one as large and widespread as the Air
Force Reserve Command, it's absolutely critical," said Colonel John Hayes,
CIO of AFRC. "Now that the system is deployed, we're much better able to
alert and mobilize our personnel and account for them during emergencies."
The AFRC EMS works within the command's existing network to deliver alerts
to networked devices, including desktops, laptops, PDAs, cell phones and
land phones. All forms of alerting are managed and triggered through
IWSAlerts' unified management system, combining a network alerting system
(NAS) and a telephony alerting system (TAS). Future phases will also
integrate the base's Giant Voice outdoor loud speakers into the system for
comprehensive unified alerting.
Instead of installing servers and software at each base, AFRC installed
IWSAlerts at command headquarters. From this centralized location, and
using the IP network, AFRC supports command personnel distributed across
the country. The rollout was done incrementally, with an average of one
base per day being brought online across 29 states. By having the AFRC
bases use the system, the command achieves benefits such as centralized
management and reduced system maintenance, consistent training, and
standardized emergency procedures at the command level.
Through secure and permission-based networked access, command post
operators at each AFRC base or tenant unit can access the system and
activate alerts to their personnel, either on base or off-site. AFRC
commanders are also able to activate command-wide alerts or target
appropriate personnel across multiple bases.
"We deployed AtHoc IWSAlerts in a centralized fashion across the command in
order to benefit from faster emergency responses, improved consistency
across the numerous locations and increased visibility for commanders on
force status," said Robert Tharp, AFRC EMS program manager. "This
enterprise-class, command-wide approach was far more cost effective than
independent, base-by-base deployments, and it reduced our costs per base by
more than 50%, including additional cost savings in training, maintenance
and other operations."
"As AFRC wraps up the command-wide deployment of IWSAlerts, the footprint
of the AtHoc systems across the Air Force increases significantly. AtHoc
now has a presence at about 70% of all U.S. Air Force bases in the United
States," said Guy Miasnik, president and CEO of AtHoc. "With our
enterprise-class capabilities, we're able to offer our customers the
flexibility to operate on multiple different levels -- from the local
command post up to the command headquarters level and beyond."
About AtHoc
AtHoc is a recognized leader in providing enterprise-class, network-centric
emergency notification systems to military, government and commercial
organizations for physical security, force protection and personnel
accountability. Millions of end users worldwide, in organizations such as
the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Hawaii State Civil Defense, U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office, Boeing, PricewaterhouseCoopers and eBay rely
on AtHoc's unified management systems for their emergency alerting and
critical communication needs. AtHoc has partnered with market leaders
including Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Siemens, Avaya and others, to bring
our notification solutions to market.
For more information on AtHoc, please visit http://www.athoc.com.