With postal strikes leaving us unsure about when we should expect to recieve our mail, it could cause problems in terms of people receiving letters from their GP surgeries about when and where they need to be vaccinated, leading to appointment chaos and many people missing their slot.

The alternative is to ring around every person to let them know when they need to be vaccinated. This is clearly a very time consuming job and may not always be effective in reaching the intended recipient. If GP surgeries were able to send out a tailored recorded message to individuals, SMS text or email, or indeed a combination of all three, they are far more likely to be able to reach each person and it would be less time consuming for an already over stretched Health Service…

Business Benefits include:

Control: The customer is in complete control of adding, deleting and amending recipient data as well as issuing messages via any channel of communication.

Simple: Through a secure web based interface, any member of the customer’s organisation with the appropriate authority can issue any number of messages via any selected channel of communication.

Flexible: Through GemaTech’s innovative tagging system, messages can be targeted to individuals or groups of individuals via a prioritised list of communication channels at any time of day or night.

Resilient: Any delay through the network is minimised as the RCO uses higher priority message delivery channels. Resilience is also insured as data is stored, protected and sent through GemaTech’s 4 geographically disparate and secure data centres.

Remote: The system can be activated from literally anywhere in the world via a secure web browser on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop or stand-alone PC.

Automatic: If required, the RCO system can be triggered by any number of means including telephone, web, email, IM, fax, SMS, alarms e.g. fire or intruder, triggers such as temperature sensors, API and Twitter.

For further information email k.jones@gematech.com

The RCO product enables Inmarsat to simultaneously contact all of their employees, or groups of employees, with a voice message or SMS text should they need to notify them of any disruption affecting their offices and any appropriate action that the employee may need to take.

Inmarsat are also able to use the product on an everyday basis should they wish to send out any information regarding latest news items or relevant issues affecting the company’s employees.

The company are also looking forward to upgrading their RCO module when GemaTech’s advanced features are launched in the near future, including fax to email capability. Watch this space for further information on the RCO upgrade, or for further info contact Karen Jones at GemaTech.

Author: Karen Jones

There were a number of speakers throughout the day with reports on:
– The Tripartite run excersises
– The threat of cyber attacks – KPMG
– The swine flu pandemic update from the Cabinet Office
– How the City of London police managed the G20 protests
– The plans for the Olympics from a transport point of view and of course a presentation by our man Graham Chick on how flexible working is the only true way of coping with a disruptive event.

My overall impression of the event was that though the talks, particulalry on the Olympics and the G20 protests, were very interesting, the presentations didn’t offer anything too ground breakingly new. However what was encouraging was the number of people who could see the benefit of a rapid notification product to be used at the beginning of a disruptive event to communicate to employees simultaneously advising them what to do. The penny does seem to be dropping that telecoms continuity is a neglected area and needs addressing which is really encouraging to see.

It was interesting to see the plans the Olympic commitee are making to keep transport moving during the Games especially as I’m sure this will have a big impact on organisations in the London area. A dedicated ORN (Olymoic Route Network) will be instated inlcuding some dedicated ‘Olympic lanes’ on certain roads. Also encouaging is that road works will be managed such that there will be no roadworks wherever possible in central London during the Games.

A presentation from Standard Chartered picked out some very interesting lessons from their flu pandemic planning, including advice for multinational organisations to consider the actions of foreign governments and how they deal with infection. He quoted the hotels in China which the government there quarantined for 7 days and how offices, hotels and areoplanes can all be subject to containment if just 1 case of flu is diagnosed. The knock on effects this can have on organisations’ regional offices could be major.

If you were at the event what did you make of it, was there anything valuable or interesting which you can use in your organisation? Would love to hear your feedback and also what you would want to hear about next year.