CollegeSafetyNet News and Media Coverage
Louisville Business First Newspaper Article Featuring College Safety Net
BY SARAH JEFFORDS PISTER| STAFF WRITER
spister@bizjournols.com
Last year's tragic shooting at Virginia Tech left many people searching for a way to prevent a similar incident from happening elsewhere.
And although no one can predict when an outbreak of violence might occur, one Louisville company now offers a technology that can alert students and staff to the danger.
For the past year, Instant Alert Systems LLC has been developing a Web-based application that can send emergency notifications via e-mail and text messages. The application also converts the text into a voice message that is relayed to cell and dorm phones.
Marketed under the name CollegeSafetyNet.com, the system can send about 10,000 messages in 10 minutes, said Joe Zanchi, a partner in Instant Alert.
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Addressing an ongoing concern
The technology debuted in February, and the company already has signed Centre
College, Union College and University of the Cumberlands.
In addition, duPont Manual High School's lacrosse team is using the system to notify players of a canceled practice or other event.
The schools sign an annual contract,
and the cost averages about $3 to $5 per person - student, faculty or staff - who is signed up to receive the alerts.
The model seems to appeal to college administrators.
"We've had a very receptive audience," Zanchi said. "When we take it to the college and demonstrate what it can do, people's ears perk up. It seems like we've hit the market at the perfect time for this
type of product".
Part of the early success stems from the fact that campus safety is a growing concern, and most schools do not have a comprehensive notification system in place. And although other companies provide similar services, Zanchi believes CollegeSafetyNet.com's capabilities make it an attractive alternative.
For example, college administrators can send the alerts, track the messages and generate reports.
The application also makes multiple attempts to reach a student, and by the second try, the success rate is about 90 percent.
Tornado watch gave Centre a trial run
Randy Hays, vice president and dean of student life for Centre College, said he was very pleased with how the system performed during a recent weather emergency.
Last month, the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for the Danville, Ky., area. So, at about 2 a.m., school officials sent an alert to tell students to move into their designated shelter areas. After the watch was lifted, another message was sent to inform them that the danger was over.
Hays said the alert woke people up and got them moving, and the technology was much more efficient than relying on phone calls to each dorm.
That type of scenario is exactly why Centre College officials were interested in the technology.
Hays said the school had been re-searching various warning systems but found that many were not affordable. Some notification services are free, he said, but they often came with a daily or weekly message from advertisers, which the school wanted to avoid.
Then, Instant Alert approached Centre College about testing its technology. Hays said the service fit the school's needs, and it has more than met expectations so far.
"This could be a real life-saving kind of service," he said.
Homegrown technology
That potential to save lives is one reason Zanchi latched onto the concept.
He said a friend, whom he declined to identify, initiated the idea. He recruited Zanchi to help him bring it to fruition because Zanchi had the technical ability to develop the application. He also had access to IT expertise and infrastructure as the majority owner of Louisville Web-hosting firm Empire Data Technologies Inc.
Why not leverage those resources and develop an application that could notify students about impending danger?
So the two formed Instant Alert last year to develop and market CollegeSafetyNet.com.
Although a separate entity from Empire Data, the two companies share office space and some IT resources. For example, Empire Data hosts the Web site and application.
The relationship between the two firms allowed Instant Alert to get up and running with limited capital. The partners invested about $10,000 in startup costs, including the purchase of dedicated servers and software licenses.
At this point, the only Instant Alert employees are the two partners. That will change as the company continues to grow, Zanchi said.
Potential to move into other markets
The company works with a network of sales representatives who market the product in multiple states on a commission basis.
Plans call for a strong marketing push in the next couple of months so that incoming schools can come online before the start of the 2008-09 school year, Zanchi said.
Along with targeting colleges, the sales representatives also will call on other organizations outside the education sector.
Zanchi has begun to register other domain names, such as MetroGovernmentSafetyNet.com, HospitalSafetyNet.com and CorporateSafetyNet.com, in prepara-tion for moving into those markets.
These groups potentially face the same danger of violence and weather-related incidents that schools do.
And, as with CollegeSafetyNet.com, Instant Alert's applications allow a company or hospital to create customized groups of subscribers, so a message can be sent only to doctors or nursing staff members, for example.
That expands the functionality of the technology, Zanchi said, adding that the alert system can be used in a variety of situations.
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