Title
Global Connect Emergency Notification System
History
In March, the Finance Committee briefly discussed that staff would be researching emergency notification systems that would allow the Village to communicate critical information to all or part of the community via a prerecorded telephone message.
The current Code Red system has become too expensive to use especially when community wide notification is needed. Other systems have been identified that provide the same functionality but that are based on a flat rate rather than a “per minute” charge with pricing ranging from $1.91 to $.55 per household.
After reviewing proposals from several providers, staff concluded that Global Connect is the most cost effective solution and provides some enhanced functionality over the current system; including the ability to schedule calls to be launched on a specific date and time, and the instant call back feature that can be used for immediate customer response. After receiving a call, customers can be instructed to press a key to be instantly connected to a specific call back number, extension or call center. This would be a very useful feature to have in the case of a missing child or person.
The system has the capability to send email messages with up to three attachments as well as phone calls. Unlimited phone calls and email messages are included in the price but if the Village also wants to use the text messaging feature, there is an additional cost of $0.25 per message.
The cost for the system is based on the number of households and businesses in the community which has been estimated at 24,000. With the vendor offering two months of free usage the actual cost is $0.46 per household/business for a total of $11,125.00.
On May 2, 2011, this item was reviewed and approved by the Finance Committee and referred to the Board for approval.
Financial Impact
There is $10,000 budgeted in account number 010-1101-499.42-60. The actual expenditure is slightly hig...
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