New Dimensions Amplify Mass Messaging

Mass communication is often a blunt instrument. Notifying customers about a potential problem typically involves broadcasts on television, ads in newspapers or letters via snailmail – even if only a small number may be affected. And emergency communications when disaster strikes can be tragically chaotic. Targeted voice communications via the one device virtually everyone is sure to have – a telephone – has remained elusive until recently. But the technology for text-to-voice conversions and dialing engines is maturing. Coupled with geographic information systems (GIS) technology, voice messages can now be automated en masse, streamed to a specific area and orchestrated to send the right information to the right people.More sophisticated than the technology used by obnoxious telemarketers, the marriage of GIS and telecommunications for mass notification offers benefits to both the public and private sector.How It WorksThe communications meltdown that occurred in the wake of September 11 alerted organizations to the need for bulletproof emergency communications. Whatever the nature of a crisis, be it a catastrophic event or routine business interruption, the ability to make decisions based on real-time GIS information and communicate effectively can save lives and money, says Marc Ladin, VP of marketing at National Notification Network (3n) Inc., a mass notification systems provider based in Glendale CA. If a train with toxic chemicals derailed, the integrated system could model and map the toxic plume’s spread based on GIS feeds about local weather, topography and housing to allow an emergency response (ER) manager to make decisions about the radius to be evacuated. With the mass communications component, voice messages can be sent to marshal emergency responders and to notify all phone numbers within the affected area.GIS provides decision-makers a tool for visual representation and analysis by layering information on an area map. Most networks now have the bandwidth to support copious data feeds, says Matt English, a marketing manager at Toronto-based ESRI Canada, a GIS provider. "But once you have bigger pipes and can shove more data through, you need a useful way to put it together."Mass notification systems have some common features. They can store millions of contact phone numbers that have been geo-coded, or associated with a location, to allow organizations to create subsets based on geography and function. For unpredictable disasters, an ER manager can quickly create an area list on the fly and disseminate voice and text messages en masse to targeted recipients via any communication device. For pre-planned disaster scenarios (recurring events such as power outages and floods), pre-recorded messages can be set up and disseminated in accordance with a recovery plan.To ensure a human being has answered, not voice mail, the system can be programmed to have respondents react by inputting a number or pre-set PIN, and two-way communications via interactive voice response (IVR) technology is possible. Reports and status updates can also be generated; for example, people who don’t acknowledge the message can be identified and flagged for alternate forms of contact.Maintaining the accuracy of contact information is paramount, as the database is no good if it’s out of date, says Bryan Minnes, project manager at Markham ON-based VoiceGate Corp., a mass notification systems provider. This can be an expensive task for major organizations with thousands of workers and contacts. To deal with this, VoiceGate’s system periodically performs automated validation checks, calling contacts and redialing until the information is received. "This makes the ROI of the system easier to digest, as it removes the costs of human database management," says Minnes.With the proliferation of communication devices, organizations can select the contact paths depending on the priority of the situation – pager, cellphone, home number – and then the frequency of message delivery and escalation paths if the primary contact doesn’t respond, says Ladin. "The prioritization sequence must be set up so the system doesn’t blast the message out to all paths at once," he says, pointing out there is only as much capacity available as the carrier’s telephone network can handle. This can be an issue if there’s a major regional crisis, but 3n’s system has mechanisms in place to avoid overloading the carrier’s network, he says.Talking to the PublicGovernment agencies involved in public safety and emergency response have been early adopters. In the US, uptake at the municipal level has exploded recently, says Ladin. Cities can use the system to alert citizens about an array of issues at the neighbourhood level, from street closures to criminals preying on the elderly. The majority of municipalities are planning or procuring a GIS-based mass notification system over the next two years, he says. But in Canada, most municipal GIS systems are under funded, even in major cities such as Toronto and Ottawa, says James Boxall, director of the GIS Centre at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Many notification systems need addressing, land parceling and other GIS information collected by municipalities, but many cities lack the resources to update databases with new streets and developments. "Considering the reliance of so many sectors on this information, there is not enough support for it," he says."Voice is the next stage," says Paul Beach, project manager at the Community Geomatics Centre in Sault Ste. Marie ON, which uses its advanced GIS systems for text mailings via email and snailmail throughout the region. Most communities would be interested in a voice-based mass notification system, he says. "But for most of them, putting the communications in place is probably a lesser problem than getting the GIS data to support it."Utilities are also adopting the technology across North America. BC Hydro, for example, notified 250,000 residents about power outages last Christmas using an integrated mass notification system provided by Telus Corp., says Terry Tarle, director of geomatics at the telco.The Park Water Company (PWC) Inc., investor-owned water utility headquartered in Downey CA, has been using 3n’s system for about a year. PWC and its subsidiaries distribute well-pumped water over 800 miles of pipeline to more than 200,000 people in California and Montana. Regulated by environmental and public health agencies, the company is required by law to notify customers of any potential water quality issues. "We could be in compliance with just door hangers, but it’s a question of customer service," says Aaron Gutierrez, GIS co-ordinator at PWC. "We can efficiently pinpoint customers who will be affected if we shut down a well and only call them, instead of giving other people messages that wouldn’t be affected at all. And it keeps customers from calling to find out what’s going on."PWC’s customer contact numbers were duplicated on 3n’s system, he says. This data redundancy is an important feature in case there’s an earthquake or other regional event. "Our employees could log on to the system from home or our other sites to create a message to notify our customers," says Gutierrez.The company frequently uses the system to notify the right customers about routine maintenance issues, such as flushing fire hydrants or broken water mains. One problem that has surfaced is that not all customers have an answering machine, says Gutierrez. "There’s no way for us to leave them a voice message if they don’t pick up." And many don’t, on the assumption the call is from a telemarketer, which is a larger social issue, he says.Private Sector CommunicationsWhile mass notification systems were originally designed for public safety purposes, many companies in the private sector are eyeing this new area to broadcast messages to employees and boost customer service. The technology has varied uses across industry sectors. Banks and other major companies are implementing mass notification systems as part of their business continuity planning to marshal and communicate with large, dispersed workforces, says VoiceGate’s Minnes. Cable companies and other companies involved in service delivery to large customer bases across a geographic region are showing interest, as are companies involved in perishable goods delivery to plan their logistics, says 3n’s Ladin. Organizations with large numbers of unionized workers are also using the technology to notify employees about outages, he says. "A casino client had an outage that cost them millions – it had no way to contact its unionized workers but they must pay them anyways if they show up for work."Notification systems can also be used in conjunction with GPS location technology to track and inform workers in potentially dangerous situations. "We’ve had conversations with big insurance companies that often send claims adjusters into disaster situations – they want to know where their folks are and warn them about conditions," says ESRI’s English. "Many organizations want to know where their workforce is."In Canada, legislation that makes companies liable if employees are hurt while working alone in remote areas without a means of communication is also driving uptake, says Telus’ Tarle. And worker safety is also a factor driving uptake of Telus’ advanced vehicle location (AVL) service that helps companies manage their fleets and communicate wirelessly with their drivers, he says. While privacy advocates have been sounding alarms about telemarketers’ intrusions and the potential abuses of GPS cellphone location technology, mass notification services are in a different category, says Ladin. "What we do is sell services to organizations that have relationships with customers or employees. It’s an informed and permissioned audience that is expecting this form of communication and is educated to know it will receive calls," he says.

New Dimensions Amplify Mass Messaging

News | March 1, 2007

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