Verizon takes emergency notification to businesses

The shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech on April 16 renewed interest on college campuses and businesses in finding ways to quickly notify students and employees of an emergency through voice and data over multiple devices.

Verizon Business, a division of Verizon Communications, on Friday said its notification service, launched in mid-February and targeted at government and academic users, will soon be expanded to business customers.

"Our service was introduced in February, but enhanced ever since, and we've seen an uptick in demand, mainly because of Virginia Tech," said Barry Zipp, executive director of managed business applications for Verizon Business, in a phone briefing with reporters and analysts.

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The shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech on April 16 renewed interest on college campuses and businesses in finding ways to quickly notify students and employees of an emergency through voice and data over multiple devices.

Verizon Business, a division of Verizon Communications, on Friday said its notification service, launched in mid-February and targeted at government and academic users, will soon be expanded to business customers.

"Our service was introduced in February, but enhanced ever since, and we've seen an uptick in demand, mainly because of Virginia Tech," said Barry Zipp, executive director of managed business applications for Verizon Business, in a phone briefing with reporters and analysts.

A Verizon spokesman added that since the launch of the notification services, which are hosted with Verizon to lessen the need on a company's or university's data center resources, six government or academic customers have signed up with another six in contract negotiations.

Fairleigh Dickinson University, with two campuses in New Jersey and about 12,000 students, was named by Verizon in May as one of its customers. Capabilities of that system allow the university to send notices via text, voice or e-mail or a combination, using any end-user device, Zipp said.

"Keeping in touch with our student body, faculty and staff during planned and unforeseen events is important to helping ensure our university continues to operate efficiently," CIO Neal Sturm of Fairleigh Dickenson said in a statement in May. "Every minute matters. With an effective communications system in place, we can provide immediate and valuable information to our students on campus."

Zipp predicted strong interest by business users of the service, which he described as more seamless and fault tolerant with Verizon than if a university tried to offer the service in-house or used a conventional service method with only one or two data centers.

An administrator can activate a notification from a smart phone or other device in a remote location, he noted.

The service is priced in three parts, including set-up, annual licenses for the user organization and an annual charge for the number of recipients in the system, Zipp said.

Zipp said a number of smaller vendors are offering emergency notification services.

AT&T, a major Verizon competitor, has been involved in providing notification technology and began working last year with Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., on a trial to provide smart phones to some students that could be used for notifications.

However, IT managers have noted that technology isn't the only answer to providing quick information or warnings in a crisis. Students turn off cell phones in their classrooms, and business executives cannot always be reached when in meetings or on flights, making it difficult to reach them quickly.

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