Effective Communication Needs to be Simple!

A recent conversation with a new client reminded us why ZipBridge exists…
This client (from a prestigious university) had a system to bring a response team of 20 individuals onto a conference call from their Emergency Operations Center (EOC). It worked something like this – does any of this sound familiar?

At the start of a reported incident, the EOC would initiate a conference call with the Response Team so they could confer and determine the best course of action according to their Response Plans. The process to initiate this call first started with:

- - Accessing their Mass Notification Tool and sending out a broadcast text, email and phone call announcing the need for an emergency conference call.
  - Initiating a GoToMeeting Conference call so that the attendees could use the Dial-in and PIN to join the bridge. The EOC had two iPads on hand just to initiate the Mass Notification alert and the GTM (GoToMeeting) Conference Bridge.

The next step was for the attendees to respond to the notifications to then call into the GTM call.
Repeat process as needed during an incident.

The above scenario is rife with issues such as:

Human delays in kicking off two systems to facilitate the call.
Technology and training issues to access the systems from dedicated iPads.
System issues which often resulted in someone’s voice mail message “joining” the call and call termination when the “host” left the meeting.
Maintenance issues keeping two systems current and synced with correct call-in information.

How could this be better with ZipBridge?

ZipBridge was designed for this exact situation and is not a cobbled-together “solution” using disparate systems. With ZipBridge’s emergency response solutions, everything is maintained in one system, and the notification and conference calling platform are the same (meaning ZipBridge notifies participants of the need for a conference call with a phone call and they join the call by simply pressing 1). No need to dial-in separately or coordinate two different systems. Just immediate team communications when seconds and simplicity count most!

In conclusion, effective communication NEEDS TO BE SIMPLE…