Contact: Jennifer Hollingshead
Office: (573) 882-0601
E-mail: hollingsheadj@umsystem.edu
The University of Missouri's four campuses will expand their emergency notification capabilities through a new partnership with 3n (National Notification Network), the leading mass notification system provider.
The University and 3n announced Monday that the 3n InstaCom Campus Alert system has been selected to automate emergency communications with students, faculty, staff and administration on the UM campuses in Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla and St. Louis. The 3n system will be installed during the coming weeks.
Using 3n's InstaCom Campus Alert system, the University of Missouri will be able to communicate quickly and reliably in any situation. The 3n system notifies message recipients using a variety of modes of communication, including phone, e-mail, text messaging, instant messaging, pager, fax and BlackBerry devices.
The system will allow fast communications with multiple electronic devices on or off campuses, greatly expanding the University's capacity and confidence in delivering quick and reliable crisis notifications to the entire UM community, or to targeted audiences on a specific campus. This will enhance the University's existing notification efforts, which include phone call lists, voice messages and e-mail.
"The University of Missouri is committed to providing a safe and secure environment to learn, live and work," said Dr. Gordon H. Lamb, Interim President of the University of Missouri. "By partnering with 3n for its mass notification services, the University builds on that commitment in a significant and strategic way. This will help us to quickly and efficiently communicate with our students, faculty, staff and others using an array of technologies."
"The incident at Virginia Tech reinforced the need for colleges and universities to adopt a crisis notification solution that communicates rapidly and reliably across newer technologies popular with students, such as instant messaging and native text messaging, during the first critical moments of a crisis" said Cinta Putra, CEO and co-founder of 3n. "We are excited to support the University of Missouri System and the State of Missouri in their proactive efforts to ensure the safety of their constituents with the most comprehensive and reliable notification solution available."
With about 64,000 students plus thousands of faculty and staff spread statewide across four campuses, the University of Missouri's crisis notification and communications needs are far-reaching and complex. The University needed the capacity to issue event-based alerts tailored to specific, targeted audiences as well as the ability to communicate rapidly across a single campus or system-wide for large-scale emergencies.
The University identified several key criteria in its notification system selection process: ease of use; ability to integrate with existing systems; guaranteed infrastructure security and reliability; and ability to address challenges specific to a campus environment, including delivering messages using student-friendly contact paths, such as instant messaging and true two-way Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging.
About the University of Missouri
The University of Missouri is the state's land-grant, research and doctoral-granting public higher education system, with campuses at Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla and St. Louis. The University was founded in 1839 as the first public university west of the Mississippi River and the first state University in Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase territory. For more information, log onto the University of Missouri System homepage at www.umsystem.edu
About 3n (National Notification Network)
3n (National Notification Network) is the leading global provider of mass notification solutions to Global 2000 corporations, government agencies, healthcare systems, and educational institutions in more than 70 countries with the ability to communicate in more than 230 countries worldwide. 3n's innovative and powerful mass notification system is the most advanced, efficient and easy-to-use on the market today, enabling organizations to respond rapidly and effectively to crises and achieve considerable bottom-line savings in routine and emergency situations. For more information about 3n, log on to www.3nonline.com/pr or call toll-free at 1-888-366-4911.
Reviewed 2010-06-17