REDUNDANCY, DIVERSITY & REDIRECTION…
Only a complete mirror of emergency response center would meet disaster recovery time of 3-4 hours. We suggest a second facility which can be used for training, QA work, development & testing, thus all redundant systems are also working assets.
BEST PRACTICES
The Defense Acquisition Guidebook is an interactive, on-line resource for government agencies. The document is designed to serve as a companion to acquisition guidelines updated in 2003.
Five factors influence buying decisions: flexibility, responsiveness, innovation, discipline, and streamlined and effective management. The Defense Acquisition Guidebook is available at akss.dau.mil/DAG.
RISE OF THE CISO
Media surveys show that Chief Information Security Officers have more influence -- and greater challenges -- than ever before.
DRAWING THE LINE
How do you define Emergency vs. Crisis in your corporate culture?
Here are a few suggestions: is it localized and controllable, vs. imminent threat or harm to business, networks, people, property, reputation?
The more widespread the event and the risk become, the more critical are immediacy and initiating the appropriate response. An issue is not a crisis with no immediate harm or disruption. If ignored, it can escalate to a controversy, and eventually …a crisis.
One helpful practice for your staff and management is to create a diverse list of events and then “rate” each from one end of the Emergency continuum to the other!
Find out more about Forum’s Emergency Collaboration and ALERT Crash systems. Contact Forum Communications at 972-680-0700 to schedule a demonstration.
AIRLINE/AIRPORT EMERGENCY NEEDS
Giovanni Bisignani, Director General and CEO of International Air Transport Association told the European Civil Aviation Conference in Paris that Infrastructure Safety is one of the Six Critical Points for the industry, "A global industry requires global solutions. Standardization is critical to improving safety. The industry needs a common safety benchmark that crosses borders, alliances, business models and consumer groups.” Forum Communications provides the benchmark in Emergency Response Communication.
CRITICAL RESPONSE IN ENERGY INDUSTRY
Emergency management and accountability are mandated and monitored by federal agencies and the local community for both personal safety and power-reliability. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supervise and grade emergency drills and practice scenarios. Outdated communications technology can impact those scores and jeopardize business and energy delivery for a major population.
“We need 100% reliability for all our drills. The system has definitely met our expectations,” reports one Emergency Response manager about the new Confer ECS system installed in their location. “We have the ability to add additional parties into the call after the initial warning call. We have flexibility that we did not have with the old response system.”
As with any utility or agency, group notification, immediate communication and safety are critical. Daily operations require distribution of equipment, technical specialists and maintenance teams, as well as power distribution. Distances between facilities make face-to-face meetings impractical for many events.
Replacing 20 year old technology that was no longer available and no longer repairable, the team contacted Forum Communications to meet reliability and redundancy needs for emergency communications, but was also to get the best value for their community.
Confer ECS is the most practical solution for their needs and their budget. The Confer Design and Support teams worked very closely with the on-site telecom team to provide personal support.
The decision to deploy the ECS was based on a number of factors. The Confer system met or exceeded all the following:
- Reliability – with over 8000 conference systems worldwide, Forum systems are used in critical government agencies, national media networks and other 24/7 business locations. The utility ran daily practice runs for 3 weeks, creating multiple emergency scenarios to test the ECS.
- Value – the Confer ECS made cents (and sense). Forum has always been committed to providing the best solution at the best pricing. The ECS provides a unique set of first responder functions that other more expensive conference systems can not.
- Immediacy – with connectivity in seconds, the ECS consistently exceeded government notification standards.
- Customer Care – with availability of a Forum engineer and technical team for one-on-one support, the on-site telecom team was able to get questions answered, fine tune their internal procedures and customize the interface for their installation.
- Ease of Use – the Forum systems install easily. Multiple, programmable phone lists let the agency set up and edit both primary and secondary call teams, and create lists for different response teams and shifts. The graphic user interface (GUI) is intuitive and shows port activity in real-time.
- Stability – regulatory and local requirements mean daily testing of telephone lines and equipment, including the crash system.
- Redundancy – crash blast can be initiated 3 ways: via off-hook crash phone, GUI interface or secondary initiator code. System can be used for meet-me conferences and cleared for priority crash calls.
- Feature Set – the Confer ECS provides a subminiature jack for recording, voice prompts, meet-me capability, crash blast and global crash blast functions, self mute/unmute, drop individual lines, clear the bridge, full duplex audio, automatic gain and echo cancellation. The system is expandable in 8 port increments to 72. Spare components are available for ECS, ALERT and ALERT Plus packages.
The Confer line of audio conference bridges was developed in the early 80’s to provide affordable, on-premise conferencing when other bridge-makers focused only on bureau-size mega-conferencing.
Forum Communications’ latest success story is its innovative emergency response solutions, the Confer ALERT (Advanced Localized Emergency Response Teleconferencing), ALERT Plus and the Confer ECS (Emergency Collaboration System), starting at just under $20,000 for 16 ports. Forum’s versatility allows end users to host board meetings, strategic planning meetings and to connect emergency teams together, saving on time and travel while ensuring continued team efficiency.
