Emergency Communications Management

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Emergency Communications Management

• Jonathan Rood
• CIO and Associate VP, San Francisco State
  University
• Laine Keneller
• Business Continuity Planner Project Manager,
• University of California, Davis
• Rodney Petersen
• Government Relations Officer, EDUCAUSE

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EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference 2008
Planning for the UN-planned

• Real time Connections
• With Technology
• Emergency Communications Management

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• Emergency Communications System
• Great Expectations
• Can notify 40K individuals in seconds
• Will be able to explain exactly what action to
  take
• Will know when to send updates and what
  information to include
• Everyone will know what to do especially
  faculty, as students will turn to them in a
  crisis
• Appropriate individuals will be available at the
  exact start of the emergency and be available to
  collaborate

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• Emergency Communications System
• in Practice (Reality Check)
• Takes time to make messages that are clear,
  instructive
• Need many backups of responsible assigned staff
• Overlapping messages may cause confusion
• Txt and voice message must be brief but
  recipients have many questions
• System is needed beyond initial incident Plan
  beyond the message, with pre-established roles
  for faculty, staff, managers
• Message should follow pre-set guidelines which
  include
• message delivery times
• anticipated number of follow-up notices
• user comprehension
• type of emergency
• understanding of pre-established leadership roles
• all established procedures

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• System Requirements
• More Than a Little Software
• Extensive feature set, including
• Schedule/send to multiple phones peer user plus
  text, e-mail, TTY
• Group management
• Reporting tools with statistical results
• Contact administration for delete, add, change
• Assurance that calls have priority routing
• Hassle-free data upload with flexible attributes

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Integration with Civic Infrastructure

• Adoption of city / state emergency communication
  systems
• Tap into civic services / notifications
• Two-way communication call / response for
  skilled resources
• e.g., need available electricians/nurses/language
  translators
• Identification, notification, and authentication
  by skill/certification
• Campus can both request and provide resources

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• Ready, Set,
• Delivering a System
• Need policies, procedures, task assignments
• Whos involved? University Police, Information
  Technology, Human Resources, Public Relations /
  Communications, Enrollment Services and
  Registrations, Student Affairs, Health Center,
  Faculty Affairs, Administration Finance and
  more
• Security of personal data and policies for use of
  contact data
• Collecting datahow to encourage, mandate vs.
  opt-in
• Testing, small, medium and full scale
• Creating a feedback loop
• Ongoing review process

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UC Davis Emergency Notification System

• UC Davis began RFP process in June of 2006
• Committee representation from Police Department,
  Operations and Maintenance, Purchasing and IET
• September 2007, the last phase in the purchase
  process was completed

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We Have Your Number!

• Chancellors Taskforce created in October 2007
• API built from on-line directory to WARN
• 54,000 records uploaded
• December 2007, Chancellor sent email asking
  faculty staff to update contact info

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Network Test

• 5 separate tests
• Clearly defined goals
• 2 day time frame
• 13,000 participants
• Staff, Faculty Students

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Interesting Test Facts
First message acknowledged 1 second from test
initiation

• Speed of Delivery per Device
• SMS Text Messaging / Cell
• Email
• Work Phones
• Pagers

Number of emails delivered on campus within 5
seconds 76

• March Incident Approx 55,000 emails sent and
  received within 16 minutes

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Technical Issues Identified

• Incoming carrier trunk capacity issues
• Missing calls not received during test
• Majority of pager messages not delivered
• Approximately 800 emails unaccounted for

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Whats Next?

• Modify on-line directory to accept emergency
  information
• Public Awareness Campaign
• Determine ongoing testing schedule
• In the absence of industry standards, need to
  establish UC System benchmark
• What of population should be notified?
• How soon should they be notified?
• Continuous improvement

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Implementation Tool Kithttp//vpiet.ucdavis.edu/e
ms/

• Functional Requirements
• RFP
• Vendor Scoring Matrix
• Chancellors Charter Letter
• Emergency Notification Policy
• Test Plan
• Test Results
• Communication Plan
• FAQs

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Discussion

• Share your experiences and questions with your
  colleagues as together we sketch out a roadmap to
  providing this important service.
• Who must be involved in the planning and
  management of these systems?
• What policies are needed?
• What is happening on your campus?
• Other questions?

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Resources

• EDUCAUSE Emergency Communications Constituent
  Grouphttp//www.educause.edu/15272
• EDUCAUSE Connect Emergency Notification
  Systemshttp//connect.educause.edu/term_view/Emer
  gencyNotificationSystems
• NACUBO Campus Safety and Security
  Projecthttp//www.nacubo.org/x10053.xml