Emergency Notification Systems and Crisis Communication – Blog

If you haven't heard the news, the mobile safety app LiveSafe was acquired by Vector Solutions, an e-learning and performance management provider. While we can't know all the reasons for the sale, we can certainly speculate how business might look given the dirty little secret of app-based systems like LiveSafe. Customers may want to take this opportunity to reevaluate their options, as technologies are often discontinued or underfunded in these situations. 

In an emergency situation, it is difficult to predict the outcome. With that said, the advanced technology and reporting capabilities of an Emergency Notification System can allow safety officers and emergency managers to measure the effectiveness of emergency alerts and notifications, gain visibility to subscriber status, and ultimately reduce risk.  An emergency notification system with easily accessible administrative reports enables you to better prepare for a crisis.

In the COVID-19 world, there is a lot of misinformation and confusion about how to safely reopen organizations, campuses, and schools. The reality is there is no magic bullet for contact tracing programs. Contact tracing requires self reporting and HIPAA compliance for data privacy. For those reasons, our focus remains on providing safety officers, campus police, and school administrators with comprehensive, credible resources and suggestions for best practices to help inform decision-making in preventing the spread of infectious diseases, saving lives, and protecting people.

Omnilert recently partnered with Campus Safety Magazine on the webinar, “Severe Weather Preparedness: Educating Students, Staff and Faculty on Proper Responses,” featuring meteorologist Dr. Kevin Kloesel from the University of Oklahoma. The webinar raised questions about weather safety practices on university campuses and highlighted how administrators can fulfill their duty of care to ensure the safety of students and visitors. Preparedness for severe weather requires foresight, planning, education, and demands improvement on campuses.

Many emergency mass notification vendors are focusing their efforts on making service available primarily through apps. After all, doesn't everyone love apps and love their mobile phones? Well, yes and no... The most recent Gartner Market Guide for Emergency/Mass Notification Services reports, "...no EMNS vendor Gartner follows can demonstrate that these enhanced mobile device apps are being adopted in great numbers..."

We recently partnered with Campus Safety Magazine on a webinar entitled, “Post-Columbine: Top Lessons Learned About Active Killer Situations,” featuring a presentation from Chief Stephen Lopez of the New Mexico State University Police Department. The webinar examined our changing responses to the threat of active shooters on campuses and aimed to explain the evolution of law enforcement practices, education safety procedures, and community responsibility since the Columbine tragedy in 1999. The ensuing nationwide discussion on campus safety and security led to a host of reforms and changes in practice to keep students and communities safe today and into the future.