NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Intermedix preparedness division announced Tuesday the release of eICS for Higher Education, a web-based incident management system that provides emergency management teams at universities and colleges, with enhanced visibility into resource availability and the capabilities needed to manage notifications during incidents taking place across an educational institution.
eICS improves operational resiliency by allowing institutions of higher education to document and oversee events based on their own set of needs and requirements, while simultaneously disseminating key details to local jurisdictions to create optimal situational awareness.
“In recent years it has become critical for the academic community to have reliable preparedness processes in place,” said Bob Watson, president of preparedness technology at Intermedix. “By incorporating incident-management technology into these programs, universities and colleges can maintain consistent situational awareness, interoperability, share up-to-date accurate information with necessary stakeholders and most importantly provide rapid response when it’s needed most.”
Through the electronic event log, users can document and track various incidents taking place across campus, as well as at their satellite locations. These events can range from a routine daily operation, such as a special speaker being on campus to a criminal threat which may cause a potential campus lockdown. Having the ability to monitor and oversee these types of situations in one system is essential to ensuring safety at college campuses.
The Clery Act requires colleges and universities to think about safety in a proactive manner by requiring them to disclose security policies, produce crime logs and provide timely warnings to students and employees regarding campus threats. However, the process of preparing for, responding to and recovering from emergencies and events presents unique challenges within the higher education space. These organizations need to have the ability to manage events and any subsequent actions independently within their own infrastructure.
The electronic record-keeping functionality eliminates the need for time-consuming paper documentation and altering individuals through telephone correspondence. With eICS, university emergency management teams have the tools needed to collate and communicate incident information more efficiently through generated reports and mass alert notifications.
The eICS solution creates transparency from both a university and government standpoint, by having the ability to connect and instantly share information with local and state governments’ WebEOC instance. Intermedix’s WebEOC, the industry-leading incident management software, is used by a majority of emergency management organizations at all levels of government.
“eICS is unique because of its ability to unify and regulate daily operational security needs while disseminating key information to government agencies when needed,” said Watson. “By having the ability to connect to WebEOC, the solution provides effective regional collaboration and fully integrated communication methods to ensure continued stability at our nations’ college campuses.”
The official eICS product launch will take place at the 2017 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference on October 31.
