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Louisiana State Judiciary Turns to AtHoc to Provide Centralized Emergency Warning System for Employees
Network-Based Emergency Notification System Deployed for the Louisiana Supreme Court and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal
| Source: AtHoc
BURLINGAME, CA--(Marketwire - January 30, 2008) - AtHoc, Inc., the pioneer and leader in
network-centric emergency notification systems, today announced two courts
within Louisiana's state judiciary have successfully deployed AtHoc
IWSAlerts™ to provide emergency alerting to warn personnel in response
to emergencies. The Louisiana Supreme Court (which includes the Louisiana
Judicial Administrator's Office) and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal are
both located in a recently restored, historic courthouse in the heart of
the New Orleans French Quarter.
The two courts were initially looking for separate systems to answer their
emergency notification needs. After performing a comprehensive market
study, they decided to consolidate efforts and find a single system that
could handle each court's individual needs while also serving as an
overarching solution for alerting both courts. This centralized approach
provided the courts with significant benefits, including the ability to
alert the courts together as well as manage each separately, reduced
overall procurement costs and lower ongoing maintenance and support
overhead.
The deployment consisted of a single centralized instance of AtHoc
IWSAlerts which contains a virtual private system for both courts as well
as for the Louisiana Judicial Administrator's Office. This provides the
courts with the flexibility of sending alerts to their own personnel, while
also allowing the facility security team to alert all employees across the
entire building when required.
"We purchased AtHoc IWSAlerts notification system as it greatly improved
our pre-existing telephone and paging systems," said Tommy Anderson,
Director of Security, Louisiana Supreme Court. "We can now reach all
personnel in the courts on their desktops in an average of one minute.
Other delivery means are also used to ensure broad reach, including SMS
text messaging and phone calls. When an emergency occurs, triggering an
alert from a single console and achieving that type of response time is
critical."
The Louisiana courts began evaluating emergency warning systems in response
to recent events, particularly Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. A key
requirement was the ability for multiple court operators to concurrently
manage and trigger alerts from a Web browser, whether in the building or
remote, while reaching employees via their desktop PCs, office phones, cell
phones and BlackBerry devices.
The system is now in use to warn personnel, including judges, clerks and
administrators, for a wide range of emergency situations such as extreme
weather, facility outages, fires and criminal acts of violence. Intrusive
alerts pop up on computer desktops, providing details about the emergency
situation, including instructions for action. Recipients can then
acknowledge the alert and provide feedback which helps with personnel
accountability.
"Louisiana has had more than its fair share of emergency scenarios in the
past few years, and the judiciary system is taking proactive steps to help
protect court personnel as well as the general public," said Simon Berman,
vice president of product marketing for AtHoc. "They have implemented a
state of the art warning system which will ensure quick notification and
response when it matters most -- when something can still be done to
protect people."
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, Unisys and others to
bring these notification solutions to the public and commercial markets.
For more information on AtHoc, please visit http://www.athoc.com.