emergency notifications at uvic

Emergency Notifications at UVic

Ron Kozsan

February 15, 2012

(in 20 minutes or less)

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Emergency Notification System

A system to allow officials to quickly convey critical information to students, faculty and staff in the event of a major emergency.

HeadingUVic 19,000 students 5,000 faculty & staff one campus (162ha) 136 buildings

HeadingOur Issue (early 2008)

needed something didn’t have anything everyone else was doing something

☞ learn from others

Does your institution have a system in place?

HeadingConcerns

net-new systems & databases additional processes

☞ creating new silos, new issues costly solutions data ownership? privacy? information accuracy?

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Our decision

save $ build best efforts: deploy something

☞ will still have $ later to buy if need be

HeadingPrinciples

simplicity no perfection

use multiple delivery methods some is better than none duplicate msgs are ok

leverage existing assets Banner, email, phones, …

easy to use (no IT staff req’d) do not break anything

HeadingOwnership

Corporate Communications Campus Security Occupational Health & Safety

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IT/Systems (not an owner)

HeadingSystem Components

Console Banner (email & phone db) Channels

email (broadcast & directed) voicemail broadcast VoIP phone (text & audio) SMS/TXT (via provider)

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Broadcast• reach large audience quickly• “all or nothing” (no opt-out)

Directed• more time consuming• allows opt-in/opt-out

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HeadingFeatures

message templates short (SMS, VoIP phones) long (email) customized use of channels

signature blocks user groups

HeadingOpt-in / Opt-out ?

email – mandatory broadcast (Exchange dist list) directed

voicemail, VoIP broadcasts – mandatory

SMS – opt-in costs to phone owners

HeadingWhy Banner? already there:

email addresses for faculty, staff, students place for cell phone numbers

Needed: privacy impact? promote use of “Mobile Phone”

user-maintained through portal

HeadingWhat works well

broadcasts: email voicemail VoIP

SMS/TXT – not bad

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Not so well

SMS/TXT signal coverage lost/delayed messages beyond our control

directed email (slow) no automation for voicemail broadcast

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Success Factors

key stakeholders at the table clear ownership regular testing fast delivery (of messages) no technicians required

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Diplomacy:

The fine art of ensuring the other party gets your way

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Message Channel Clients

(#)

Estimated Success Rate(%)

Delivery Timeframe

Send Rate

Sent Received

Exchange Broadcast

4071 100 100 2 minutes 2000/min

Voicemail Broadcast

3400 100 100 2 minutes 1500/min

VoIP Phone Broadcast

1800 94 80 10 minutes 180/min

Directed Email 20000 100 90* 5 hours 4000/hourSMS/TXT Messaging

4362 99 75* 3 hours* 1100/hour

* indicates educated guess

Results (November 2009)

Subscriber Stats@ 2009-11-30

Mobile Phone

Email

Faculty & Staff 557 2740Students 3875 19208

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Next steps? business continuity (availability) improve directed email (speed) more channels (reach)

twitter auto-post to web sites

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Console Application Oracle APEX pulls email, cell phone numbers from Banner sends messages (multiple methods)

The Big Red Button

Emergency Notification System - Console

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Costs (one-time)

$2,700 – VoIP phones for lecture halls $700 – SMS provider (setup fee) 30 days Oracle/APEX programming**

$8,000 – Promotions & advertising

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UVic Emergency Alerts Poster

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The Big Question:

Have we ever used it “for real” ?

No(thankfully)

Questions?

Ron KozsanUniversity of Victoria

rkozsan@uvic.ca250.472.4825

http://www.uvic.ca/alerts

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