TFCCI.comEmergency and Mass Notification Solutions - TFCC Alert

Collierville Emergency Alert System Saves Local Family

admin — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:10:05 +0000

Collerville, TN: AlertCollierville, Collerville’s emergency notification system, can save lives and a great example of this happened earlier this month.

A year ago the Town of Collierville, in partnership with Twenty First Century Communications, Inc., instituted a community-wide emergency notification system called AlertCollierville that sends time-sensitive, targeted messages to residents and businesses within the corporate limits of Collierville.

On April 3, unusually strong straight-line winds pummeled Collerville, Tamara Springfield was sitting in her Amelia Cove kitchen when she received a severe weather notification from AlertCollierville. Tamara and her family quickly moved to a safe part of their home. Fifteen minutes later a tree came through their roof, inches from where Tamara had been sitting when she received the alert. Thrilled with AlertCollierville, Tamara posted a message on the Collierville Police Department Facebook page saying “Thank you for your reverse 911 system. We had a tree come down on our house this morning but because of the 911 call, everyone, including our animals, was in the center of the house away from windows and none of us were hurt. I have no words for how thankful I am.”

“Tamara’s story highlights the importance of our emergency notification system because the faster we can notify residents of severe weather, the better chance people have to take cover,” said Chip Petersen, emergency management coordinator for the Town of Collierville. “But our success rate can be tripled if Collierville residents take a minute to register their cell phone, VOIP phone and email address on the AlertCollierville web site.”

According to Petersen, only 600 Collierville residents have registered their cell phone number and email address with AlertCollierville. “That’s less than two percent of our town which means the other 98% is at risk of not being notified in an emergency. That’s why we’re pushing so hard for everyone in the Collierville area to register all their phones and email addresses.”

Capable of reaching landlines, cellular and VoIP phones, BlackBerrys, pagers and TTY/TTD devices for the hearing impaired, AlertCollierville also sends alerts via text messaging, fax and email. Petersen reports that the primary use of AlertCollerville is to send messages pertaining to the health, safety or welfare of Collierville citizens when affected by a perceived, emerging, or imminent emergency event. “Examples of such situations are severe weather warnings, water contamination alerts, chemical spills, pandemic advisories, and train accidents, Peterson said.

AlertCollierville uses the 9-1-1 database provided by the local telephone carrier to call landline telephones in an emergency, but more and more Collierville residents rely on their cell phone for daily communications. “Public safety is a top priority,” said Petersen Because AlertCollierville uses the 9-1-1 database, only landline numbers are in the system, but the AlertCollierville can do so much more. During an emergency it’s crucial to quickly send high volumes of information to the right people at the right time, using any communication device. AlertCollierville is more than capable of doing this but only if Collierville residents take a minute to register their phones & email address on the AlertCollierville web site. “If everyone registered their cell phone and email address in AlertCollierville, we could contact Collierville residents in a matter of minutes, and when severe weather hits and lives are on the line, every minute counts.” Petersen concluded.

As severe weather continue to plague Collierville, and near-record flooding is predicted along the Mississippi River early next month, it’s good to know the Town of Collierville stands ready to alert citizens of emergency situations. To register for AlertCollierville, visit the web site at www.collierville.com/emc-notify-new-user.

Contact:

Chip Petersen
Emergency Management Cioordinator, Town of Collierville
Phone: 901-457-2770
Email: cpetersen@ci.collierville.tn.us

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ologie — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:00:25 +0000

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TFCC Announces Biennial Client Meeting

admin — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:24:46 +0000

Columbus, Ohio: Twenty First Century Communications (TFCC) a leading provider of technology that connects people to technology when it matters most, announces their biennial Client Meeting to be held at the Memphis Hilton May 3 – 5, 2011.

Organizations from TFCC’s client base are planning to take advantage of this highly anticipated convergence of people, ideas and the latest customer communications solutions. The meeting is a collaboration of experts in various industries including utility, public safety, government and business continuity.

The meeting is divided into two tracks based on industry type. Utility clients will meet on Wednesday May 4th to discuss topics ranging from changing customer interactions, mobile outage communications and IVR best practices, to proactive outbound communication, smart grid customer communication and utility crew call out solutions. Clients using TFCC’s emergency notification system meet on Thursday May 5th to learn about industry trends, generating public awareness, IPAWS, and an open forum and peer-to-peer discussion.

“it’s our goal to continuously delight our clients by providing opportunities for them to gain insight on industry-related issues, interact with peers, and learn how to maximize their TFCC solutions,” said Greg Ablett, TFCC vice president and business leader. “This is an opportunity to showcase TFCC’s commitments to offer world class service and achieve our customer service promise.”

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West Corporation Acquires Twenty First Century Communications

admin — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:54:30 +0000

Omaha, Nebraska: West Corporation, a leading provider of technology-driven, voice and data solutions, today announced it has acquired Twenty First Century Communications, Inc. (“TFCC”), a provider of automated alerts and notification solutions to the electric utilities industry, government, public safety and corporate markets. Most utilities use a high volume call answering system developed by TFCC to field the heavy incoming call traffic associated with power outages. “Public and private organizations use our automated notification and call-handling solutions to support their call center, respond to a crisis, protect people, mobilize first responders, and much more,” said James Kennedy, Founder and CEO of TFCC.

TFCC will be a part of West’s Unified Communications segment. “Adding TFCC’s specialized solutions to West’s market leading offerings will enhance our alerts and notifications solutions and further position us as a leader in the utilities industry,” said Todd Strubbe, president of West’s Unified Communications operating segment. “We have been partners with TFCC for over 15 years and have been extremely impressed with the TFCC team, their industry experience and expertise.” West Alerts and Notifications provided over 700 million multichannel notifications in 2010 across many verticals including utility, healthcare, finance, communications and transportation. West customer engagement solutions include preference management, campaign management tools, vertical customer life cycle outreach campaigns, web based enterprise reporting and intelligent analytics, all across a high volume and compliant data processing platform.

About West Corporation
West Corporation is a leading provider of technology-driven, voice and data solutions. West offers its clients a broad range of communications and network infrastructure solutions that help them manage or support critical communications. West’s customer contact solutions and conferencing services are designed to improve its clients’ cost structure and provide reliable, high-quality services. West also provides mission-critical services, such as public safety and emergency communications. Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, West serves Fortune 1000 companies and other clients in a variety of industries, including telecommunications, banking, retail, financial, technology and healthcare. West has sales and operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America. For more information on West Corporation, please call 1-800-841-9000 or visit www.west.com.

About TFCC
By using technology to connect people to information, TFCC provides time-sensitive communication solutions that help clients quickly receive and send high volumes of information to the right people at the right time, using most any communication device. For more than 20 years their suite of web-based, high-speed, high-volume notification solutions have been the industry standard. Backed by the largest and most reliable telecommunications network in North America, TFCC’s reliable inbound and outbound communication solutions are in place at hundreds of government, corporate, utility, education and healthcare organizations all across the country. For more information visit: www.tfcci.com

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “may,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “intends,” “continue” or similar terminology. These statements reflect only West’s current expectations and are not guarantees of future performance or results. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, competition in West’s highly competitive industries; West’s ability to keep pace with its clients’ needs for rapid technological change and systems availability; the loss, financial difficulties or bankruptcy of any key clients; the effects of global economic trends on the businesses of West’s clients; the non-exclusive nature of West’s client contracts and the absence of revenue commitments; the cost of pending and future litigation; extensive regulation affecting many of West’s businesses; security and privacy breaches of the systems West uses to protect personal data; the cost of defending West against intellectual property infringement claims; West’s ability to protect its proprietary information or technology; service interruptions to West’s data and operation centers; West’s ability to retain key personnel and attract a sufficient number of qualified employees; increases in labor costs and turnover rates; increases in the cost of voice and data services or significant interruptions in these services; the political, economic and other conditions in the countries where West operates; changes in foreign exchange rates; West’s ability to complete future acquisitions and integrate or achieve the objectives of its recent and future acquisitions; future impairments of our substantial goodwill, intangible assets, or other long-lived assets; and West’s ability to recover consumer receivables on behalf of its clients. In addition, West is subject to risks related to its level of indebtedness. Such risks include West’s ability to generate sufficient cash to service its indebtedness and fund its other liquidity needs; West’s ability to comply with covenants contained in its debt instruments; the incurrence of significant additional indebtedness by West and its subsidiaries and the ability of West’s lenders to fulfill their lending commitments. West is also subject to other risk factors described in documents filed by the company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which the statements were made. West undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law.

Media Contact:
Mack McKenzie
402-963-1324

BroadBlast Managed Communications Joins TFCC Reseller Program

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 15:30:47 +0000

Columbus, Ohio: Twenty First Century Communications today announced an agreement with BroadBlast Managed Communications to serve as a reseller of TFCC Alert®, the industry leading emergency mass notification system.

With TFCC Alert, government, corporate, utility, education and healthcare clients can send targeted messages to select groups or geographic areas by landline, cell phone, VoIP phone, PDA, pager, text, email, fax and TTY/TDD machines. Recent enhancements to TFCC Alert include an easier to use system, weather alerts, a new user interface, advanced security controls, social media integration and an enhanced public sign-up page.

Since 2007, BroadBlast has helped dozens of clients implement mass notification systems. According to BroadBlast president Amy Friedman, “The ability to quickly communicate life-saving emergency alerts and information using any device is a must-have for any municipality, public safety organization, corporation, or educational institution.” “Adding TFCC Alert to our notification service portfolio brings a new depth of products and service to our growing list of top tier clients,” Friedman added.

Bently Collier, TFCC vice-president of sales says partnering with a reseller the caliber of BroadBlast brings a wealth of experience tailoring emergency notification systems based on each customer’s unique needs. “Amy and her team add real value by digging deep into customer business issues, requirements and success criteria,” Collier concluded.

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About BroadBlast Managed Communications
BroadBlast is a privately held, nationally certified, woman owned, small business based in New York. BroadBlast, Inc. has national relationships with Tier One technology providers to provide responsive, integrated best in breed technology services that focus on mass communication, emergency alerting, notification and time sensitive communication. Customer service and satisfaction is BroadBlast’s main focus, ensuring each entity that it works with has a technology system designed to meet its specific needs. BroadBlast assists Tier One technology companies in developing and enhancing features that meet these specific needs. Their expertise is in the sales and marketing of the specific systems and customizations to meet the clients’ unique needs. For more information visit www.broadblastonline.com.