NOTIFY 18,000 PEOPLE WITH ONE CLICK
ABOUT BROCK UNIVERSITY
With over 17,000 students and 900 staff, Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario faced a huge challenge when it came to communicating urgent messages to faculty and students. With 40 buildings spread over 400 acres, and an ongoing $114 million expansion, the challenge becomes even more critical.
Add a variety of notification methods: wallboards, scrolling marquees, emails, phone calls, and text messaging – and Brock’s desire for one-click global notification, and their challenge becomes nearly insurmountable.
Before installing Connexall®, Brock did not have a single emergency notification communications solution for the campus community. In the past, multiple notifications were sent out manually - this led to delayed notification, individuals not getting noti€ied because of missed calls, and an unclear communication escalation process.
THE CONNEXALL SOLUTION
Working with Connexall staff , Brock’s Emergency Notification Initiative team identified all events that should trigger a notification and who should be on the recipient list in each case. From there, defining rules, escalation processes, and backup methods of contact was easy with Connexall’s intuitive assignment system.
Brock’s Connexall integration provides the ability to “fan-out” a notification to previously-designated recipients with just a double-click on the appropriate icon.
Messages can be received by email, displayed on wallboards, and on numerous wireless devices - which is vital when trying to reach a wide audience, all with different notification preferences. This also minimizes the need for training and the time lag between installation and roll-out.
INTO THE FUTURE
Because it is built to be scalable, Connexall’s emergency notification system will grow with Brock. And as the number of individuals with different communications devices expands, Connexall’s ability to communicate with virtually any device will become ever more valuable.
CONNEXALL RESULTS SUMMARY
Connexall gives Brock the ability to deliver urgent messages to staff, faculty, and students at the click of a mouse. With such a large number of people dispersed over so much space, they needed a solution that would broadcast messages through a variety of technologies and mediums.
Other benefits that Brock realized from their custom-built Connexall solution:
- Near-time notification to the right people with a simple double-click. Each event - storms, campus lockdowns, building lock-outs, hazardous material spills, etc - has a unique icon, customized list of recipients and escalation process.
- Response tracking and automatic escalation mean that manual tracking and callbacks – and potential human error - is a thing of the past.
- The dispatcher can notify any number of teams in near time and track the acknowledgement status for more than one event simultaneously.
- Drastic reduction in emergency notification time by automating processes.
- Dispatcher only sees pre-specified call points, increasing confidentiality and security.
- Intuitive, user-friendly, click and drag interface minimizes the need for training and the time lag between installation and roll-out.
- Records and reports notification time, acknowledgement status, escalation levels, devices, responses etc.
WHY CONNEXALL?
“Connexall’s solution proved to be the right fit for Brock University’s Emergency Notification Initiative. The multi-layered approach to emergency notification by integrating existing technologies was cost effective and is scalable to accommodate future growth. By using multiple technologies, the message can still be dispatched even if one of the delivery mechanisms fails. New technologies that will be available in subsequent years will easily be integrated into the system. Icon-driven displays make triggering Virtual Call Points user friendly, so that emergency personnel can send out time-sensitive emergency notification messages quickly. The Connexall team was very helpful in designing a solution that is specific to a university environment.”
- Edward Blasinski
Director, Telecommunications and Network Services
Brock University
