Vocal have announced today that iModus has been selected as the emergency notification system which will be used by the Cross-sector Safety and Security Communications (CSSC)during the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The CSSC Project is a partnership that has been formed between business, the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office in London. iModus will sit at the centre of the project to facilitate all tier one communications from the CSSC Hub – between the National Olympic Co-ordination Centre, the Metropolitan Police, the London Resilience Team, the Home Office, Transport for London and business liaison officers to all designated Industry Sector Leads. The Industry Sector Leads will then cascade information out to their own vast number of industry contacts and organisations therefore reaching millions of people in London.
Terry Hanley, Project Officer for CSSC explained how the decision to select iModus was made, “In June 2011 a scoping document was developed by London First identifying the need for a secure and reliable communications vehicle able to cascade information out from a central point and uniquely, to receive reverse information feeds from multiple recipient groups simultaneously. A number of organisations presented their solutions to the CSSC project team and after a 5 week review process we selected iModus from Vocal. There were a number of reasons that led to our choice. Firstly, communications was the core function of iModus and this we identified as being the most important aspect of any selected product. The ability to communicate was critical and iModus is a system well known for its message broadcast capabilities. Secondly, Vocal iModus already has an established foot print across a number of Police services and local authorities throughout the country and iModus is a proven product in its ability to deliver messages. In addition, we became aware that a number of the larger corporate organisations use the system or are aware of it, which meant that training requirements would likely be reduced. Lastly, throughout the process, we dealt with Trevor Wheatley-Perry, the MD of a UK based organisation who has worked closely with the CSSC project team to adapt and deliver a workable solution as we have moved into the live working environment of the CSSC Hub. The flexibility of the wider Vocal team in supporting us during the set up of the system and during the desktop exercising process has helped the project team in developing a wider and more versatile product, enabling us to support our wider Industry Sector Lead audience.”
The iModus emergency notification system has been implemented to mirror CSSC processes and to provide the HUB administrators with full visibility of all communications issued and received through iModus. The Industry Sector Leads will also have full visibility off all communications issued and received for their own sector communication group. The CSSC has the ability to control message delivery with the use of a sophisticated message sequence. Messages will be delivered to specific individuals in the sequence that matches their working pattern and shift cover, first by email, and then voice then text. Recipients can confirm receipt of a message and they are also able to respond and ask questions back to the HUB, engaging in conversation. The Industry Sector Leads are then able to cascade approved and authoritative information out to the businesses within their sector.
“We are pleased to have been awarded this contract and to be a partner of the CSSC, playing an integral part and supporting them with such an important and high profile project. Additionally, this project links together much of the work we have been involved with helping our customers to prepare for the upcoming Games. This contract demonstrates the flexibility of our consultative approach to delivering such solutions, our commitment to customer support and the real world experience we bring to these projects.” stated Trevor Wheatley-Perry, Managing Director, Vocal Ltd.
Additionally, the CSSC is the first organisation to have implemented iModus IncidentLog, a recently developed iModus module. It will keep a daily communications audit for the London Resilience Team, Business Liaison Officers and the Metropolitan Police. The inclusion of IncidentLog enables every HUB administrator to collaborate on one live record to seamlessly log and track any note, comment and communication, as it happens. Every day, a new communication log will be opened. Every action and note taken will be recorded in the system and a daily report with providing the CSSC with a clear view of everything that has been communicated in a day, eliminating the need to keep a manual log of things that happen. Communication log reports can be exported from iModus. The iModus IncidentLog is a new feature module launched to help organisations track, manage and audit incidents as they unfold.
The use of the iModus emergency notification system, together with IncidentLog, has already been tested during a 3 day simulation which took place between 24th -26th April. The Hub was in Virtual mode until 17th May 2012. The Olympic ‘live’ period was from the beginning of the Torch relay on 18th May 2012 to the end of the Paralympics games on 9th September 2012.
Any organisation wanting to sign up to receive alerts from the CSSC Hub can register via the CSSC website, or by emailing the [email protected].
