In the event of a crisis - from severe weather to criminal activity - it is vital to keep community members informed, safe and calm. Experts agree that the best way to do that is to invest in a comprehensive mass notification strategy, which involves multiple layers of notification media. An often overlooked but immensely important part of a holistic notification plan is visual messaging through LED displays.

LED displays can be installed in public areas such as classrooms, cafeterias and other common areas that other means of mass notification may not reach. When no emergency messages are needed, these electronic signs default to a synchronized time and date display.

Visit www.inovasolutions.com to discover how OnAlert™ displays from Inova Solutions can help improve campus security.

When your customers reach your call center, what do they experience? Are they able to reach your representatives quickly and promptly, or are they stuck on hold forever? Is the quality of the audio crystal clear, or are the lines staticky? Is it is easy for a new caller to figure out what branch they need, or do they regularly get tangled up in the phone tree? Overall, is the call center experience your company provides positive or negative?

One of the key aspects of providing a positive call center experience for your customers is outfitting your employees with the best possible technologies, allowing them to do their jobs quickly and effectively. For instance, LED wallboards and LCD flatscreen displays can help call center agents work more efficiently because they can see the most up to date statistics.

Inova Solutions is an exclusive provider of this type of revolutionary call center wallboard – they make use of the Power over Ethernet standard, the same technology that powers IP phones. A single Ethernet jack is all you need to set it up – there are no other cabling requirements and there’s no electrical outlet to install.  Clearly, installation is easier and less expensive than other call center wallboards, and the incredibly low power requirements (only 15 watts) make this the most energy efficient display around.

Read more about Inova’s call center options here.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, August 20, 2008 — A web-based dashboard tool for call center management has expanded its capabilities from simple reporting to actionable alerts based on threshold values. These alerts occur in real-time, and allow managers to instantly compare actual performance against goals.

This real-time reporting tool from Inova Solutions, called Performance Tracker™ 2.0, consolidates call center operational data from sources such as ACDs, workforce management systems and internal databases and displays it graphically in the form of charts, gauges and grids. The unique value of the tool comes from the ability to set threshold levels for each Key Performance Indicator (KPI), so that call center management is instantly aware if current conditions deviate from pre-determined goals.

Accessible from any computer with web access, Performance Tracker is compatible with most contact center data sources and is based on the Microsoft SharePoint^TM platform. It is intuitively designed and offers customizable dashboard views tailored for various business roles. These views may be easily configured to display a contact center’s most valuable metrics, whether they are real-time or historical.

“The ability to set threshold values for data fields increases productivity,” said Inova Solutions President & CEO Tom Hubbard. “When call center management knows how actual performance relates to company goals, they may take proactive measures to ensure improved future performance.”

Reporting vs. Analysis

“Companies often confuse reporting with analysis,” said Hubbard. “When faced with vast amounts of data, true analysis becomes very difficult without the help of actionable alerts. Performance Tracker greatly simplifies the complexities of call center management by allowing managers to quickly analyze operational metrics and make informed decisions.”

Performance Tracker enables actionable business intelligence by providing:

· Unified dashboard views of multiple data sources that integrate real-time and historical information

· Actionable alerts that identify potential problems according to the company’s business rules and thresholds

· High-level business and operational metrics with drill-down capabilities

· Graphic representations of KPIs with charts, grids and gauges

· Wizard-driven tool that makes dashboards easy to create, view and edit

Companies interested in obtaining more information about Performance Tracker may view a brief demo at www.inovasolutions.com or call 866.686.8774.

Note: Product Photos and Interviews Are Readily Available

About Inova Solutions
Founded in 1984, Inova Solutions is a global provider of real-time visual communications that help call centers, public transit systems, schools, hospitals and others instantly communicate vital information.

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Virginia Tech’s initial project includes 220 OnAlert displays for mass notification in classrooms and common areas. When no emergency message is needed, the displays show accurate time and date to ensure synchronized school operations. The displays are powered by existing network connections using standard Power over Ethernet (POE) technology. Centrally networked, the comprehensive system is easy to install, manage and send emergency messages as needed.

“OnAlert is a simple, secure way for authorized school officials to issue emergency alerts,” said Gerry Gorman, Vice President at Inova Solutions. “The wall-mounted LED displays are visible from over 100 feet, inexpensive to install and easy to operate.”

State Requires Schools to Have Emergency Plan by January 2009

The Commonwealth of Virginia recently passed legislation requiring colleges and universities to establish comprehensive, prompt and reliable first-warning and notification plans by January 1, 2009.

Tips for Choosing Emergency Mass Notification Systems

For schools considering mass notification systems, here are a few considerations:

1. Use multiple technologies to deliver emergency messages, such as Visual Messaging, SMS/Text, Email and Public Address. This multi-tiered approach allows for communication overlap in the event of weak cell phone coverage or limited reach of other systems. Read about this comprehensive communication strategy in Inova Solutions’ free position paper, A Holistic Approach to Mass Notification, available for download here.

1. Coordinate public address and visual messaging systems for optimal reach, especially for large congregation spaces like student unions, cafeterias and lecture halls to minimize the impact of noise often accompanying a crisis and support the disabled population as required under the Americans with Disabilities Act.




2. For visual displays, LED screens deliver crisp, clear messages to large areas.
   1. LEDs are brighter than LCD screens and can be read easily at more than 100 feet, even through smoke and dust. (LCDs have up to 20-foot viewing range and limited viewing angle.)
   2. LED displays are durable, with an expected life of 10 years (three times that of LCDs)

LED displays consume far less power than LCDs. Ethernet-powered displays can use redundant network power to survive outages.

Enter the Inova OnTime™ network clocks, the perfect solution for providing accurate, synchronized time throughout your entire facility in a sleek analog format. Since the clocks are visible from over one hundred feet away, everyone can stick to a synchronized schedule with little effort. Moreover, these clocks are PoE, or powered over the Ethernet, making it possible to integrate into your facility with a minimum of effort.

This technology is especially useful for healthcare facilities that rely on synchronized clocks to deliver medications and check on patients, as well as schools and universities that require accurate timekeeping to transition students and faculty from one class to the next. Furthermore, OnTime network clocks are the ideal solution for corporate and manufacturing environments where synchronized clocks are necessary for productivity. Last but not least, the coordination and integration of security systems is enhanced by synchronized time.

For schools and university administrators, now is the ideal time to make an investment in a synchronized timekeeping system that will help your school run more effectively and efficiently.

Inova Honored for Excellence in the Call Center Industry Inova Solutions received the 2008 CRM Excellence Award bestowed by Customer Interaction Solutions magazine. This honor recognizes the outstanding contribution Inova products make on call center productivity, quality and morale. The award was based on the enormous success call centers have had in implementing and operating Inova’s OnTrack™ LED displays. Read more in the article by TMCnet’s Contributing Editor. Back to top.

Tim Montgomery Offers Insightful Webcast and White Paper Industry expert and popular speaker Tim Montgomery has developed a dynamic webcast and insightful follow-up white paper about moving beyond metrics and focusing on the real-time customer. View the webcast on-demand today and learn why 95% of survey respondents found the presenter to be “very knowledgeable and informative” and one attendee said the webcast was “excellent” with “lots of useful information to carry into my call center.” Then download the white paper to learn about even more ways to keep up with ever-changing customer demands. Take a look at the following excerpt from the white paper: “Call centers need to make it easy for everyone to understand what’s really happening now and what needs to change, and to provide such information on a real-time basis along with the required actions. Given the number of disparate systems, pulling everything together is no easy task. However the best companies are finding ways to make this happen.” Click here to continue reading. Back to top.

Share Best Practices in Real-time Management and Win $100! The call center industry is always changing, and Inova wants to know what you’re doing to keep ahead of the curve. Are you using specific tools that really work well for you? Or do you employ your own tricks to keep your center up to date with real-time information? Email a brief description of your most innovative ideas for real-time call center mangement and best practices for call center analytics to info@inovasolutions.com and you will be automatically entered in a drawing to win a $100 American Express Gift card! Entries must be received by 7/30/08. Only entries with complete and valid contact information will be considered. Please contact info@inovasolutions.com with any questions. Back to top.

Add High Availability to your LightLink Server Hosts A new capability is taking the worry out of server malfunction. Inova customers may now take advantage of High Availability technology, which guarantees nearly continuous operation of the LightLink server that powers your Inova products. If your server crashes, your LightLink application is guaranteed to be back up and running in less than 30 minutes, and you will not lose any data during this brief downtime. When call center reporting is mission critical to your daily operations, count on High Availability to keep you up and running. Contact your account rep or info@inovasolutions.com for details. Back to top.

Is there a topic you’d like covered? A different format you’d like to see? Then let us know. Send your feedback and suggestions to info@inovasolutions.com.

www.inovasolutions.com

Only 29% of North American Contact Centers Have Tested Disaster Recovery Plans, Lower Than Any Region in the World

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, July 15, 2008 — According to a 2006 global study by Dimension Data, only 29% of call centers in North America have tested disaster recovery plans, lower than any other region in the world. As a result of growing demand from contact centers for a solution that’s easy to deploy and maintain and supports business continuity, Inova Solutions is introducing an add-on capability that provides high availability to its suite of call center reporting products. For 25 years, Inova Solutions has been a leading provider of integrated software and hardware display solutions for call centers.

Inova Solutions’ award-winning middleware aggregates real-time and historical information from disparate systems, such as Automatic Call Distributors, workforce management systems and other business systems, then consolidates and displays call center statistics on a web-based dashboard, desktop, call center wallboard or LCD screen. Now, Inova customers may supplement their real-time call center reporting solution with high availability add-on capability, which provides a much-needed business continuity solution that 1) backs-up data, 2) quickly restores access to information and 3) ensures ongoing high availability for call center management.

What Are Crises for Contact Centers?
Most businesses have some type of failover/switchover plan, but the plan doesn’t always extend to call center reporting infrastructure, which are often mission-critical areas. Inova Solutions’ high availability add-on capability enables call centers to recover from several types of problems:

• Server crash
• Hardware failure
• Network failure
• System overload
• Natural or human-induced disasters and more

The Ease & Simplicity of Virtualization
“The solution is beautiful in its simplicity and ease of use,” said Rao Kachibhotla, Director of Product Management for Inova Solutions. “The high availability option simply creates a virtual system that sits beside a company’s in-use infrastructure, collecting the same call center metrics, so it can spring into action at moment’s notice. As more and more businesses view call center reporting as a mission-critical, the demand is growing for both information security and high-availability for business resumption, despite whatever conditions may arise.”

This method of virtualization lowers costs and increases flexibility without much impact at the application level. Currently, failover clustering can quickly move applications to different hardware in the event of a problem or server outage. With Inova’s new high availability add-on capability, there are no applications, operating systems or data coverage to move, which helps minimize downtime.

For more information about high availability and business continuity solutions, contact centers may call 1.866.686.8774 or click here.

About Inova Solutions
Founded in 1984, Inova Solutions is a global provider of software and hardware to enable real-time visual communications that help call centers, public transit systems, schools, manufacturers and others instantly communicate vital information. Keywords include: call center reporting, call center metrics, call center statistics, call center management, call center wallboard, call center reader board. For details, visit www.inovasolutions.com.

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Inova Solutions has unveiled Performance Tracker 2.0™, a new web-based tool for call centers that consolidates historical and real-time data from different sources to enable rapid response to changing conditions. The first such tool to be entirely web-based means that busy managers can access the dashboard from any place with web access.

Based on the widely popular Microsoft SharePoint™ platform, Performance Tracker is intuitively designed, compatible with most contact center solutions, and offers customizable dashboard views tailored to varying business roles.

“The volatile nature of contact centers means that managers must plan for the unexpected. Performance Tracker is the ounce of prevention that is worth a pound of cure,” said Inova Solutions President & CEO Tom Hubbard, explaining that by combining real-time and historical information from different sources, such as ACDs, workforce management systems and internal databases, management can continuously improve Key Performance Indicators, such as service levels.

“This tool greatly simplifies the complexities of contact center management. Executives are can now make quick decisions based on a combination of relevant real-time facts and long-view patterns,” Hubbard said.

Performance Tracker enables actionable business intelligence by providing:
· A unified dashboard view of multiple sites and data sources to integrate historical and real-time information
· High-level business and operational metrics with drill-down capabilities
· Graphic representations of KPIs with charts, grids, gauges
· Alerts of potential problems according to the company’s business rules and thresholds
· Wizard-driven tool that is easy to create, view and edit

Companies interested in obtaining more information about Performance Tracker may take a tour at http://www.inovasolutions.com or call 1.866.686.8774.

About Inova Solutions
Founded in 1984, Inova Solutions is a global provider of real-time visual communications that help call centers, public transit systems, schools, manufacturers and others instantly communicate vital information. For details, visit www.inovasolutions.com.

As tragedies and public safety issues become more apparent, so has legislation to implement mass notification systems on campuses and in public areas. For example, the state of Virginia recently passed legislation requiring colleges and universities to establish “comprehensive, prompt and reliable” first-warning and notification plans by January 1, 2009. While other states are considering similar legislation, many campuses are proactively developing emergency mass notification systems to protect their staff and student populations. The process can be complex.

“Comprehensive notification systems rely on multiple technologies to deliver time-sensitive critical information. Because campuses and public spaces need to make different decisions based on their size, location and layout, warning and notification systems will vary,” explained Gerry Gorman, Vice President at Inova Solutions, a leading provider of real-time visual displays. “All of these systems need to include a combination of visible and audible messaging to address the specific needs of students and staff in various locations.”

Considerations When Choosing Emergency Mass Notification Systems

Inova Solutions recommends that campuses make the following considerations when developing a mass notification system:

• Use multiple technologies to deliver emergency messages, such as SMS/Email, Public Address and Visual Messaging. (Students often do not read text/email messages in real time. Plus, they may be required to turn off cell phones in class, and large buildings often reduce cell phone coverage.)
• Coordinate public address and textual messaging systems for optimal reach, especially for large congregation spaces like student unions, cafeterias and lecture halls to: a) minimize the impact of noise often accompanying a crisis and b) support the disabled population as required under the ADA.
• For visual displays, LED is better than LCD screens to deliver crisp clear messages to large areas. LEDs are brighter and can be read easily at +100 feet, even through smoke and dust. (LCDs have up to 20-foot viewing range.) LED displays are more durable, with an expected life of 10 years, three time longer than LCDs. LED displays consume far less power that LCDs and ethernet-powered displays can use redundant network power to survive outages.

The Benefits of Ethernet-Powered Displays
Inova Solutions has developed the first Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) displays that are highly flexible, networked and centrally managed, and have impressive viewing capacity. The demand for Inova’s full line of networked displays and clocks, OnTrackTM and OnTimeTM, has increased significantly in the past year.

PoE devices are easy to install and maintain, and are extremely energy efficient. In fact, PoE-powered displays and clocks can save up to 75% in energy costs compared to AC-powered displays, without sacrificing brightness. The flexibility factor is huge: because there is no need for an AC outlet, the devices can be placed almost anywhere.

“Organizations that need to communicate quickly with dispersed communities in public access areas such as college campuses, K-12 schools, hospitals, mass transit facilities, utility companies, and more, are looking for affordable solutions to keep people safe,” said Gorman. “PoE devices are an economical, flexible and environmentally friendly source of power that enables emergency messaging to be managed centrally and remotely.”

About Inova Solutions
Founded in 1984, Inova Solutions is a global provider of real-time visual communications that help inbound and outbound call centers, public transit systems, schools, manufacturers and others instantly communicate vital information. For details, visit www.inovasolutions.com.