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AtHoc Inc. has announced that the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center will deploy AtHoc IWSAlerts to provide emergency mass notification to its entire population of around 2,500 personnel across the U.S.

 

Army’s top research lab, ERDC, is part of the Corps of Engineers and provides research and development in the areas of war-fighter support, environmental quality, water resources and civil works, and information technology.

 

The deployment of AtHoc IWSAlerts IP-based mass notification system is expected to enable the command’s emergency planners to deliver emergency alerts through multiple devices. These multiple devices include computers, cell and landline phones, and also ERDC’s existing public address system via a single, unified Web console.

 

ERDC plans to deploy AtHoc’s network-centric emergency notification solution to leverage its IP network to reach personnel through any network-connected device in case of an emergency.

 

ERDC officials said that their adoption of a unified, network-centric alerting system represents another step in the Department of Defense’s rollout of third-generation mass notification technology.

 

Officials believe that by leveraging existing IP networks and integrating existing mass notification capabilities results in an “effective” enterprise-wide system that is able to alert all personnel and receive feedback on their status.

 

AtHoc IWSAlerts is expected to be deployed centrally at ERDC headquarters in Vicksburg with a secondary failover site in Champaign. Officials said that each lab will be able to access AtHoc IWSAlerts via the Web to notify local personnel and commanders. Also, the deployment will provide emergency operators at Vicksburg the ability to alert all personnel at all locations as necessary.

 

Moreover, to ensure up-to-date personnel contact information, AtHoc IWSAlerts will be integrated with ERDC’s Active Directory system. With AtHoc IWSAlerts self-service module, ERDC personnel can update their own contact information directly via a portal, according to officials.

 

Colonel David W. Brown (Ret.), director of U.S. Army operations at AtHoc, said that

ERDC is responsible for mission-critical projects ranging from measuring Arctic temperatures to testing vehicle mobility in sand.

 

“We are delighted to be able to help support the ERDC in its mission by keeping the research center informed and safe in times of emergency,” he added.

 

AtHoc is a provider of enterprise-class, network-centric emergency notification systems to military, government and commercial organizations. Company’s products are used for physical security, force protection and personnel accountability, recall and regulatory compliance.

 

Earlier in July, company officials announced a deal with the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss to deploy a network-centric emergency alerting system.

 

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