“The safety of our academic community is our primary concern,” says Dan Hutt, manager of the 36-constable UTPS squad. “Our force is on duty 24/7 and 365 days a year, so effective communications during any emergency is critical and this cutting-edge software tool goes the full nine yards in helping us keep everyone informed quickly and consistently at a time when information is crucial.”

Hutt and the university’s director of Telecommunications, Debbie Stewart, viewed the system’s capabilities  at the Mississauga, Ont. headquarters of Bell Canada. “That was early in 2005 and, by then we’d already been searching a long time to find something as powerful as this. We were impressed,” says Stewart.

Following that demo, the university’s administration partnered with Bell Canada to roll out EMRS. “In times of crisis, this tool will help the university’s emergency responders communicate effectively,” she says. “The system ensures we can provide a safe environment for our large and diverse population.”

Currently, the university has 70,000 students on three campuses — in downtown Toronto’s 110-acre site in over 180 buildings, as well as in Scarborough (33 buildings) and Mississauga (44 buildings) — with more than more than 2,500 academic staff, 150 librarians, almost 470 lecturers and instructors and approximately 5,000 support staff. 

The research and development for the communication system was conducted over a two-year period by ERMS Corp., an Oakville, Ont.-based software developer founded in 2002 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City.

ERMS is Internet-based and housed on Bell Canada’s secure servers in three locations: Toronto, Montréal and Quebec City, thus providing security options in a scenario that if one server goes down, the system automatically switches to one of the other two for continuity during a major campus catastrophe.

Those charged with the responsibility of emergency communications at the university  can log on and start contacting hundreds, even thousands of “need-to-know” staff members, including assigned backup contacts in case the primary member can’t be located, through multiple channels — cellphones, e-mail, BlackBerries or by fax. Notifications can be sent to large audiences using text to speech (TTS) or digitized voice messages. Messages may also be sent to smaller targets such as individual response teams. Delivery requires the recipient to enter a PIN before receiving the message.

“ERMS can be used effectively ”“ not just by educational institutions — but by anyone who has to contact a large number of people in a short period of time, during any event, man-made or natural,” says Renato Discenza, Bell Canada’s senior vice-president of enterprise group sales. “They need to deliver accurate information and instructions through a wide variety of devices and connectivity, and this type of end-to-end information communications technology solution will enable the university to focus its resources on managing the events and responses of their employees and students to enable swift action."

The ability of ERMS to synch with an organization’s contact information database will be a great time saver and make for quicker response times by emergency responders, Hutt notes. “Before the implementation of the system here, if a serious event occurred, we had a series of people pulling paper documents with long lists of telephone numbers; then calling people individually. Not very reliable, as those documents might be housed in an inaccessible burning building. Now we’re using 21st century technology as a key component of our emergency contingency plans. The main challenge is keeping contact information always updated.”

Tasked with executing the system across UofT, David Black explains that although ERMS is complex in design, it’s also user-friendly. “There’s little downtime in training personnel to navigate its suite of functions and linkages,” he nods. “The ERMS prototype is being tested by our campus police and implementation is being phased in on the St. George campus, beginning with after-hours trades and building maintenance staff; further phases include the senior university executive and emergency contacts for all our three campuses, which should be up and running across the university’s network by 2006.”    

ERMS is organized and pre-programmed with each divisional crisis response plan stored within the program, Black explains. The software can reach a range of communications devices, increasing the probability of reaching every designated contact in a timely manner. The system also generates status reports that can be distributed by e-mail or published as PDFs, and accessible for a specified period of time to ensure that older, inaccurate information is deleted. All communications are logged and can be reviewed for effectiveness in the aftermath of a critical event.

The ERMS software package consists of six modules, each sharing the identical critical contacts database.
Intended to provide full crisis response and control in both an in-crisis and pre-event response mode, “Crisis Manager” (combining both web and voice applications) is the key module upon which the others hinge, points out Sylvain Rollin, director of Partnerships Sales Support for ERMS Corp. “From the integration of an automated Event Log to the production and dissemination of Event Status Reports, every emergency response and control requirement is fully supported,” he states.

Allowing a single gateway number that all stakeholders may tap into to report real-time information on their status, “Roll Call” can be initiated for a single site or group of sites depending on the nature of the event. At any point in time after initiation of a roll call, an outbound call can be delivered to those employees and stakeholders that belong to the facility but have not reported in. Status reports are available via the ERMS web interface reflecting the current status of a roll call, including who has reported in as okay or not okay, and if any voice messages have been received.   

Enhancing an organization’s ability to communicate with employees and stakeholders during a crisis through the integration of advanced voice and computer technology, the “messenger” module utilizes speech synthesis technology, in which typed messages are converted into voice messages delivered to standard voice-enabled devices.

“HotLine,” featuring web and voice applications, allows an organization to provide a centralized toll-free number that stakeholders can access to obtain real-time information on the status of business. Stakeholders can also report their current status if a roll call has been initiated. If an employee has a problem, this is automatically recorded and the personnel department can follow-up to assist with corrective action. “Hot Line” also informs whether a site is or is not operational.

Web-based “HotDocs” acts as the principal repository for crisis-related documents that can be accessed by users. Storing the documents at a remote location from the primary operating site ensures an organization can retrieve vital information should an event require staff vacate the primary site for any reason.

“Personal Communicator” lets employees manage a contact list with two phone numbers per contact. In an emergency, an employee can call the “Personal Communicator” phone number, record a message and have it delivered immediately to all individuals on their contact list.

“An advanced communications system like ERMS has been on my wish-list for years,” says Hutt, adding that other Ontario universites and colleges, as well as the provincial and federal governments are viewing with interest how the system’s deployment unfolds at UofT. “In my view, there’s no peer to ERMS. There may be other auto-dialers on the market, but nothing comes close to this system in offering a spectrum of communications tools to carry out a well-planned crisis management strategy.”