The latest survey conducted by the Campus Safety magazine shows that one in two campus protection professionals say their institutions plan on or are considering deploying new/upgraded emergency alert solutions in the next year.
Robin Hattersley Gray of Campus Safety explores this year’s trends in “Campuses Continue to Invest in Emergency Notification Systems and Upgrades” article.
According to the article, hospitals, schools and institutions of higher education are actively seeking more robust emergency notification solutions, according to the results of Campus Safety magazine’s 2014 Emergency Notification survey. More than 700 campus security, law enforcement, emergency management and other protection professionals completed this survey in March, and just over half of the respondents indicate they plan on or are considering deploying new or upgraded solutions in the next year.
Not a single system covered in this year’s research experienced a decrease in buying interest compared with Campus Safety’ last mass notification survey in 2010. The percentage of campuses upgrading or buying new external loudspeakers has increased from 15% overall in 2010 to 24% overall in 2014. Those buying fire alarm systems with voice evacuation increased from 11% to 17%. Interest in pop-up alerts via computers/projectors rose as well from 18% four years ago to 24% in 2014. Text message systems saw the biggest climb in overall interest from 32% in 2010 to 43% this year.
The prevalence of SMS text messaging systems currently deployed on campuses has increased by eight percentage points from 58% overall in 2010 to 66% in 2014. Deployment of fire alarm systems with voice evacuation increased from 20% overall four years ago to 28% now. The biggest increase, however, is with social media. In 2010, only 15% of Campus Safety survey respondents said they used these portals for mass notification. Now, 38% use social media.
Talkaphone introduces WEBS Contact Plus™
To meet the growing demands for a flexible, integrated, and multi-layer mass notification platform, Talkaphone has introduced WEBS Contact Plus™, a hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) mass notification solution that is reliable and is scalable enough to send thousands of notifications around the world almost simultaneously.
Recipients are able to receive notifications through various methods such as phone call, SMS (text message), email, and Android™/iPhone® mobile app.
The platform is also capable of broadcasting intelligible audio messages to WEBS®-enabled devices through the use of optional Geographical Information Services (GIS), which helps notify those who need information in the case of regional threats.
To learn more about the product, watch the “Comprehensive Approach to Mass Notification” video, or visit the product page.
