The service allows administrators to broadcast voice or text messages to any communication device — phone, cell phone, e-mail, pager or PDA — which will help the university connect with people on and off the 290-acre campus, and improve response times for emergency personnel. It will augment other efforts like sending e-mails and voicemails, posting messages on the university Web site and providing information through the local media.

"With Instant Alert Plus, students, faculty and staff will immediately receive reliable, accurate information — wherever they are," said Courtney Tuell, director of public relations at Butler University, which has more than 4,400 undergraduate and graduate students. "Following the tragedy at Virginia Tech, and now Northern Illinois University, it was important that we look for new, faster ways to notify the campus in an emergency."

Instant Alert Plus can send up to 150,000 30-second phone calls and 125,000 text messages in 15 minutes, giving Butler University the ability to reach its contacts within minutes. The service also allows the university to send customized messages to specific groups, such as emergency responders or residents of a particular dormitory. And it provides real-time, Web-based reports that show who has or has not received a particular alert.

In addition, Butler University can poll and get feedback from students, faculty and staff with the service’s two-way communication function. Other features include the ability to automatically bridge message recipients into a conference call, and send attachments with text-based messages to provide more detailed information and instructions.

To activate an alert, administrators only need to place a phone call or type a message on an Internet-connected computer. Instant Alert Plus uses a series of distributed, redundant call center networks to distribute information. As a result, it is one of the most reliable means of emergency communication available.

"In todays mobile society, organizations are realizing emergency notification is not a one-size-fits-all service," said Luca Mazzei, director of Americas marketing at Honeywell Building Solutions. "It’s impossible to predict where people are or the best way to reach them. So Instant Alert Plus offers the features and flexibility that Butler University and other schools need to communicate with their students and staff."

Created for municipalities, colleges and universities, businesses, and healthcare and industrial facilities, Instant Alert Plus is an extension of Instant Alert for Schools, a notification service that helps K-12 school districts improve communication and emergency preparedness. More than 2,300 schools nationwide use Instant Alert to connect with parents and guardians.

For more information, please send your e-mails to swm@infothe.com.

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