While the media debates the underlying cause of the UK riots, at Vocal, we reflect on the role we played and how we can improve the support we provide to our customers.

iModus was used to broadcast over 100,000 messages during the UK riots. Our 24/7 crisis support desk was inundated with customers who needed support to get information out via the system. We even offered the use of iModus and our CaptureCall solution, free of charge, to local authorities and Police forces that had no method of communicating to businesses and residents.

But did we do enough?

Many customers struggled with the challenge of informing people when contact details were unknown. This is where CaptureCall came into play. Some customers took action to tackle the challenge and implemented the CaptureCall solution. This gave them freephone numbers that they could publish online and through their other communication and media channels. Anyone could then use the freephone numbers to call in and register their mobile number to receive voice or SMS messages, which would inform them about the riots. We’ll be working with these customers to make the most of this capability.

In order for messages to be broadcast through iModus, someone has to put them into the system and hit send. Sounds simple and it is.

But the challenge is making sure that system administrators know how to do this and in some cases making sure they know they have a notification platform to use. During the riots, we could see inactive accounts. We got on the phone, all night long, contacting customers and helped them broadcast messages. Subsequently, we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of new administrators added to iModus accounts, ensuring that in a crisis, more users can be given access to the system to send messages.

We know that one of our challenges is the rate at which processes and roles change within organisations. This makes it an ongoing battle to keep customers trained on how to use iModus. In order to succeed, we need customer engagement. As a result, we will be organising private sector and public sector focus groups to begin to tackle this challenge. We will also be holding iModus group training sessions. This kicks off next week in London.

We are also taking action to source information feeds from other private organisations.  This will ensure that our Priority Alert customers have information coming through, regardless of what the police and councils in their local area are putting through the system. CSARN is one of the first organisations we will be partnering with providing their Security Risk Monitor for UK and Ireland together with a future roll out of the RED24 global information.

There is a famous quote by Barbara Reynolds, Centre for Disease Control, USA. She stated that “90% of a crisis response is communications”. We support this view and also believe that, what is or is not communicated can calm or flare situations. We know we have a great notification platform for customers to use. But we also know that someone needs to hit the send button. We know that we need to take greater action to ensure communications are broadcast through our platform. This is what you will see us do.

A simple three stage upgrade process is in place to ensure the smooth transition for Vocal customers from their current iModus system to iModus 2.0.

1. planning

The easy-to-use portal gives you control over when you upgrade to the new system and also offers training sessions for yourself and your organisation. The portal supports you, while providing you with control throughout your upgrade to iModus 2.0, bringing transparency and clarity to the entire process.

2. acceptance testing

This part of the process will test the initial and ongoing acceptance of the new iModus 2.0 system within your organisation. During this stage, the training you have booked will come into effect and your use of the new system will be evaluated to ensure that your organisation is comfortable using iModus 2.0 moving forward.

3. sign off

Once you have had your training and user level experience on iModus 2.0 and your organisation is using it as a complete replacement for the original iModus system, the evaluation stage can finish, and you can sign off the exciting upgrade to iModus 2.0.

Now is the time to embrace the next generation of iModus. Contact us on 0800  035 0081 or sales@vocal.co.uk for login details to the upgrade portal.

iModus 2.0 offers an extensive range of products, all servicing your business continuity management and communication requirements. Vocal has enhanced the functionality of existing products, introduced new products and features, and has created a fresh interface to improve your user experience of the system.

new features:

• menu system and user interface – an enhanced design, developed to be as user friendly as possible while still showing you every part of your iModus system.
• improved page design – a new clearer layout, particularly in data heavy areas such as administration and user profile pages
• dashboard overview – simple, effective and intuitive, this gives you a central control point to view and maintain the key features and products of iModus 2.0
• enhanced auditing – a clearer and more effective way of generating reports on your iModus 2.0 system
• improved integration with third party applications – integrate your HR system or CRM database with the next generation of iModus to save time and resources by automating your data importing process

enhanced existing products:

• IVR modules – adding new functionality to popular current products, at no additional cost. The live voice modules now benefit from improved usability, showing you key data from your module. This includes the number of current users, quick links to the audit functions of the module and information such as the public telephone number and outgoing voice message of your staff crisis lines
• IncidentManagement – a comprehensive incident management solution that combines resilient communication with concise emergency task management, providing you with a commanding overview of emergency incidents. IncidentManagement also brings brand new features such as incident templates, a dashboard status overview of current incidents and secure incident reporting.

new modules and functionality:

• multilingual – iModus 2.0 can be deployed in multiple languages, providing users located in foreign countries with the same important information in a language they understand
• Enterprise – the Enterprise version of iModus 2.0 allows an administrator to create new communication groups and crisis lines, as well as editing or deleting current ones. Further control is also available over the bespoke voice and text options, enabling administrator control over all of the bespoke elements of your iModus 2.0 system
• enhanced BlackBerry integration – Blackberry PIN has been added as a brand new method of notification delivery, adding another resilient level of communication for iModus users through their BlackBerry devices
• PlanManagement – a simplified document and content management system that overcomes the challenges of securely housing, actively updating and maintaining, and achieving company-wide commitment to your Business Continuity Plans

increased capacity, performance and improved system infrastructure:

• additional server power – Vocal has quadrupled the power and capacity of the suite of multiple servers which power iModus 2.0
• improved resilience – dedicated secure servers now handle the message dispatching process, massively increasing system capacity, with each device type available on iModus 2.0 using its own dedicated server
• new penetration testing for a new system – every part of this new infrastructure has been subjected to the same rigorous testing procedure as the original iModus system
• loading times decreased – these have been reduced on the areas used most heavily and have the highest weight
• faster speeds – performance testing shows iModus 2.0 running five times faster than the original system, specifically in critical high load areas such as the send message page and audit page
• system upgrade – iModus 2.0 enhances all IVR systems with faster delivery of voice based messages

one, comprehensive solution

The new generation of iModus has grown with the needs of the customer and leads the business continuity industry. The award-winning notification platform has been utilised globally, and has proven itself as a resilient platform, at the cutting edge of advancing technology.

By bringing together emergency notification, staff safety, advanced IVR functions, incident management tools and critical document storage, as well as business continuity plan management, you will be provided with a complete and fully integrated solution to your requirements.

Now is the time to embrace the next generation of communication and planning technology. Call us on 0800  035 0081 for more information or email sales@vocal.co.uk