Amy Sebring:On behalf of the EIIP, I am pleased to welcome you to a special event in our Tech Arena. Our topic today is "Security in the World of Crisis Management," software tools for analysis and response from Essential Technologies, Inc. Amy Sebring:Please hold all questions and comments until we get to the Q&A portion of the program about half past the hour. We will review the instructions at that time. Amy Sebring:I will also point out for any newcomers that when a full URL is typed in the message area, it becomes a hot link, so you can just click on it, and a webpage will display in another browser window. Amy Sebring:And now, it is my pleasure to introduce once again, Merrily Powell, Regional Sales Manager for Essential Technologies, Inc. ... Amy Sebring:We have run into Merrily a number of times at various conferences, and she has previously participated in two Live From! chat presentations... Amy Sebring:Welcome again Merrily, and thank you for taking time to be with us today. Merrily Powell:To begin, a big thanks for inviting us to present today. We will be showing you an overview of 3 security software products using PowerPoint slides. The press release for these 3 products is going out this week and is available on EIIP's homepage under ON-LINE EVENTS for today, November 18th. Merrily Powell:The 3 software products are Essential Security SuperTab, NBC Warning! and BLAST! These 3 new software products work in combination with EIS/GEM InfoBook to help an organization train, exercise, and respond more quickly should it become the target for an act of terrorism. Merrily Powell:Let me give you an overview of each product. Essential Security SuperTab is the important security supplement to EIS/GEM InfoBook, which is our all hazards/crisis management software product. Essential Security SuperTab focuses on security concerns and needs (e.g. bomb threats, kidnapping, disgruntled employees,...) rather than all natural and technological hazards. Merrily Powell:NBC Warning! is a plotting and reporting program to predict the impact of nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) agents such as Sarin, Lewisite, Tabun, Chloride - Anthrax, Ebola, Q fever, Ricin - and more. NBC Warning's plumes display on maps, another feature of our software products. Merrily Powell:BLAST! is an explosion modeling program for quickly assessing your organization's vulnerability to bombings. It calculates how an explosion would impact people (extent of damage to ears, lungs and lethality) and property (extent of damage to walls and windows) in a certain building or area. And, BLAST! is the first and only software created for individuals without engineering expertise. Merrily Powell:OK, enough of my longer text paragraphs. Now, let's begin by looking at threats to security where these 3 programs can help. Amy, slide 1 please. Amy Sebring:http://www.emforum.org/varena/mp1.jpg Merrily Powell:Our software lets you prepare for and respond to security related threats and incidents such as bomb threats, kidnapping and hostage-taking, civil disturbances, workplace violence, and the movement/security of critical individuals. Merrily Powell:The next slide provides a little more detail about each product. Amy, slide 2 please. Amy Sebring:http://www.emforum.org/varena/mp2.jpg Merrily Powell:Our software is very graphical and easy to use. It looks like a 3 ring binder with tabs and pages that turn. It also lets you, the user, create your own pages to make it even easier. Let's take a brief look at Essential Security SuperTab. Merrily Powell:We apologize that in converting the PowerPoint slides to HTML format, the text on the InfoBook pages is not very readable. The 4 areas you will be seeing on the next slide are: Vulnerability & Threat Assessment, Security Plans and Procedures, Response Guides, and Support Data. Amy, slide 3 please. Amy Sebring:http://www.emforum.org/varena/mp3.jpg Merrily Powell:Mapping, aerial photos and other images are an important capability of our software. You can graphically show critical information on a map, including the spread of a biological agent like Anthrax using NBC Warning! Or the extent of a possible explosion in front of a particular building using BLAST! A picture is sometimes worth a thousand words, especially during a stressful incident. Amy, slide 4 please. Amy Sebring:http://www.emforum.org/varena/mp4.jpg Merrily Powell:Let's look at the Essential Security SuperTab page where you select the type of security threat you might need to deal with to a BUILDING; or to a FACILITY/SITE; or regarding TRANSPORT/MOVEMENT; or to an EVENT/AREA; or regarding EXECUTIVE PROTECTION. Amy, slide 5 please. Amy Sebring:http://www.emforum.org/varena/mp5.jpg Merrily Powell:When you click on "B" for Facility/Site vulnerability and threat assessment, a flowchart page will display for ease of gathering and assessing the critical information you need if you are faced with a threat that affects a Facility/Site. And any of the information for this and the other threats can display on maps, aerial photos and any other images. Merrily Powell:The InfoBook text that is pointed to but is not very readable is: "Add Site Pre-Plans"; "Locate Building Characteristics"; "Add Threats" with 6 threats from "Human Offender", "Fire", "Natural Disaster", "Other", "Chem/Bio", and "BLAST"; "Add Internal Support"; and "Special Needs" for "Handicapped", "VIPs", "Daycare" and "Other". Amy, slide 6 please. Amy Sebring:http://www.emforum.org/varena/mp6.jpg Merrily Powell:And in addition to the flowcharts for gathering the information in PREPARATION FOR a threat, we have flowcharts for RESPONDING TO an actual threat. We have separate flowcharts for Human Response, WMD Response, Fire Response, Natural Disaster, and Bomb Response. Let's look at one of the flowcharts in Essential Security SuperTab, the Bomb Response Guide. Merrily Powell:Again, the unreadable text that is pointed to is: "Log and Locate Incident", "Activate Notification List" where you can have a pre-defined group(s) of those people/agencies that must be notified, "Retrieve Vulnerable Sites", "Current Duty Schedule", "Retrieve Intelligence Information". The lower-left InfoBlock gives you one-click access to "Public Relations Statements" that you might need. Amy, slide 7 please. Amy Sebring:http://www.emforum.org/varena/mp7.jpg Merrily Powell:And, in early 1999, we are releasing the 4th security product, Essential Security InfoBook. Amy, the last slide, number 8, please. Amy Sebring:http://www.emforum.org/varena/mp8.jpg Bruce Zelis:Merrily, I can't get any of these charts when I double click the web site. I only got one. Amy Sebring:(I will help you Bruce, just a moment.) Amy Sebring:Please continue Merrily. Merrily Powell:This was a brief overview of our 3 new security products, Essential Security SuperTab, NBC Warning! and BLAST!. Essential Security SuperTab works with EIS/GEM InfoBook to help you manage all threats to security. With both Essential Security SuperTab and EIS/GEM InfoBook, you have the most comprehensive software products for managing not only threats to security, but also all natural and technological hazards/crises. NBC Warning! and BLAST! are sold separately. Merrily Powell:With the 4th product, Essential Security InfoBook, you will NOT need EIS/GEM InfoBook. Essential Security InfoBook will include NBC Warning! and BLAST! and will help you manage all aspects of a security threat/incident from assessment, training, and exercise to response. Merrily Powell:Feel free to visit our Web site for additional information about these products at www.essentech.com. Merrily Powell:I want to thank you all for participating today. Now I'll turn it back to Amy for Q&A. Amy Sebring:Thank you Merrily ... Merrily Powell:you are very welcome. Brockway:James T. Brockway Amy Sebring:We would like to take a moment here to review how we will handle the Q&A so that we have an orderly session. Amy Sebring:We ask that you indicate that you have a question by typing just a question mark (?). Amy Sebring:Then you can prepare your question, but PLEASE HOLD (don't hit end or send) your question until you are recognized. Amy Sebring:If we run out of time, you will have a chance to ask afterward in the follow up session in the Virtual Forum. Amy Sebring:Ok, we are ready for questions now. Brockway:? Daryl Spiewak:? Amy Sebring:Yes please James. Brockway:Merrily, what is the intended market for the fourth product, vice the EIS/GEM with Supertab, Blast and NBC Warning. Merrily Powell:It would be for those who only need to manage security related threats... Merrily Powell:as opposed to those who might have to manage both security and all other hazards. Amy Sebring:Daryl please. Daryl Spiewak:The web URL returns an error. Please check the spelling. Merrily Powell:it'a www.essentech,com Merrily Powell:oops. www.essentech.com Brockway:? Daryl Spiewak:OK. This one works. Amy Sebring:(That's OK. It was the punctuation.) Amy Sebring:James pls. Bruce Zelis:? So Merrily, knowing what you know about what we are trying to do, what's the recommended product? Merrily Powell:Tom, I think we should talk offline for your particular needs. Amy Sebring:Ok, that was Bruce I believe ... Amy Sebring:James Brockway, your question? Merrily Powell:Sorry, Bruce. Brockway:Right, I think COL Z pretty much summed up my questions. Amy Sebring:Ok, thank you. Merrily Powell:I will call you Bruce to chat about this. OK? Amy Sebring:Merrily, can you briefly describe how the Blast! product works ... Amy Sebring:you mentioned it was for non- engineers ... Merrily Powell:Sure. It is a very easy to use modeling program... Amy Sebring:what do you have to know for input? Merrily Powell:you select the type of bomb if you know it... Bruce Zelis:OK, Thks, also as I told Amy. I got on late, saw only one slide. so maybe we can get the inof later. Merrily Powell:the size if you know it... Merrily Powell:and the type of building construction and windows where you intend to see your vulnerability... Merrily Powell:then the program calculates the effects of that bomb... Merrily Powell:to human ears, lungs and lethality... Merrily Powell:as well as to the extent of damage to the building and windows... Merrily Powell:Based upon the number of feet where the varying degrees of damage occur... David Crews:? Merrily Powell:you can make educated decisions. jsaleh:It also creates a plume footprint that you can overlay on existing maps Amy Sebring:Thank you. David please. David Crews:Is this conventional weapons or small nuclear ones too. Merrily Powell:BLAST is not nuclear devices. Bruce Zelis:so, if a given number of population is in the affected area, will it give you predictive results, i.e. datehs, building damage, etc/ Daryl Spiewak:? Merrily Powell:yes. Amy Sebring:Daryl pls. Merrily Powell:let me add... Daryl Spiewak:What about explosive devices containing chemicals or biologicals? Merrily Powell:the footage is what is critical... Merrily Powell:if within 15 feet you can expect major damage vs.. Merrily Powell:the footage is 200 feet. Merrily Powell:Daryl, that is a good question... Merrily Powell:my knowledge is that BLAST! models a number of specific as well as ubnknown explosives... Merrily Powell:It does not have a biological component in it... jsaleh:the explosive materials include TNT, C-4, ANFO, and Primacord Merrily Powell:However, NBC Warning! does just that for nuclear, bio & chem agents. Amy Sebring:Yes, can you describe the Warning! module a little more Merrily. Merrily Powell:Certainly... Merrily Powell:It is also simple to use... Merrily Powell:you select the agent, the weather conditions... Amy Sebring:(That is Joe Saleh of Essential helping out. Hi Joe.) Merrily Powell:the way it was released, e.g. missle, shell, and dispersed and others... Merrily Powell:above the ground, under the ground if you know... Merrily Powell:and a second location and agent can be entered... Merrily Powell:then it also calculates the plume for the effect of the agent... Merrily Powell:and that plume may be displayed on maps. Amy Sebring:Have you had international interest in these products Merrily? Merrily Powell:most definitely... Merrily Powell:we also have int'l distributors throughout the world. Amy Sebring:Further questions from our audience? denis:? Amy Sebring:What will the license for the new product cost approximately Merrily? Merrily Powell:costs are... Avagene Moore:? Merrily Powell:Essential Security Tab for $1495 for a s/u license Merrily Powell:NBC Warning! is $2495... Merrily Powell:BLAST! is $2495 as well... Merrily Powell:We have discounting for multiple licenses too. Amy Sebring:The new product being released early next year? Merrily Powell:Yes. I do not have a release proce yet, but... Merrily Powell:I think it will be between $5000 and $9000. Amy Sebring:OK, Denis please. denis:does this replace cameo used in the public sector or augment? Merrily Powell:Denis, no... Merrily Powell:Cameo is just a chem plume modeling program... Merrily Powell:and we include Cameo in our EIS/GEM software.... Merrily Powell:NBC Warning! is chem and nuclear and bioogical... Merrily Powell:BLAST is for explosives... Merrily Powell:And Security SuperTab is a management tool that Cameo is not. denis:? Amy Sebring:did you have a follow up denis? denis:will working models be avail at the project impact summit Merrily Powell:If you would like, I can certainly have them available and would like to do so. Amy Sebring:Avagene pls. Avagene Moore:Since there is concentrated training highlighted in selected cities on terrorism, are you finding an increased interest as result of the training in certain areas? Or interest because some areas realize the need and haven't yet received training? Is there a relationship between terrorism training and the need for technology? (Sorry for the length of this.) Merrily Powell:Yes I believe so. Our software help cities cope... Merrily Powell:with the difficulties of assessing their culnerabilities... Merrily Powell:and being able to develop plans and procedures for dealing with an incident... Merrily Powell:We have had a greeat deal of interest from cities all over the USA. David Crews:? Amy Sebring:David pls. David Crews:What kind of learning curve is there on your software? Merrily Powell:We feel that we have improved our learning cureve from earlier versions.... Merrily Powell:With the very graphical flowcharts... Merrily Powell:and the ability to create your own "pages" ... Merrily Powell:users can only put those functions on a page.... Merrily Powell:that they know they will want to get to... Merrily Powell:the fact that the software does so much more may not be impoortant ... Merrily Powell:at the time of an emergency. ... Merrily Powell:just getting to the most critical info very quickly and easily. Amy Sebring:Does this sort of vulnerability assessment also help cities ... Amy Sebring:to mitigate against these types of events? Merrily Powell:absolutely.... Merrily Powell:they can decide if certain places are more vulnerable than others and take actions accordingly... jsaleh:Users have started publishing their pages on county/agency websites for example http://www.whghosp.com/wocoes/wocindex.htm Merrily Powell:they can also know what is in harm's way in the event of an incident ... Merrily Powell:so they are more prepared to protect those entities and people. Amy Sebring:Further questions? David Crews:? Amy Sebring:Yes pls David. David Crews:Many users are over 40 with limited computer skills what kind of training will they need? Merrily Powell:David... Merrily Powell:I believe that being able to offer regional training is good... Merrily Powell:but I also feel that our being able to help the user cfreate these paperclip pages.... Merrily Powell:is very important. This reduced training time to almost nothing... Merrily Powell:Imagine that a page can have InfoBlocks to to the following: Merrily Powell:1. enter a new incident.. Merrily Powell:2. enter e message for an incident or request or task... Merrily Powell:3. find a resource... Merrily Powell:4. find a person... Merrily Powell:5. find an organization... Merrily Powell:with this, you don't need any training... Merrily Powell:If we can get our users to tell us what they need EIS/GEM to do... Merrily Powell:the training issues are very much reduced. Amy Sebring:How about a short synopsis of mimimum system requirements Merrily? Merrily Powell:Well, a Pentium with 32 megs of ram and of course some decent disk space... Merrily Powell:especially if yiou have a lot of maps or other images that are useful to you... Merrily Powell:our software itself doesn't take up that much room. David Crews:? Amy Sebring:David. David Crews:Who puts the data in for the ease of use!? Merrily Powell:The user does... denis:? Merrily Powell:but I would like to add that we are keenly aware of the limited time that EMs have... Merrily Powell:We have a very simple to use import program... Merrily Powell:that allows almost any digital data to be brought into EIS/GEM... Merrily Powell:digital data means spreadsheets and other database programs... Merrily Powell:even word processing files are very useful for SOPs and we can bring them into EIS/GEM easily. jsaleh:Data can be imported from various sources , spreadsheets, other datbases, save several hours of data input David Crews:Thats why I brought up the over 40 crowd and the learning curve! Amy Sebring:Denis pls. Merrily Powell:We understand... Merrily Powell:and we try to help as much as we can... Merrily Powell:the graphical nature of the software helps we think. denis:has fema seen the value for use by local em officials and are they taking any active role Jim Cook:As an example of how easy Blast! is to use the size of the device is calculated by Small Container (briefcase), Car, Van, Small Truck, Med. Truck, Large Truck, Tanker and User Input. You do not have to know the actual weight of the explosive. Merrily Powell:Let me address the FEMA ? Amy Sebring:Please Merrily. Merrily Powell:FEMA I think has its hands full with the nat'l picture... Merrily Powell:However, what I can tell you is that we hope to have a LOCAL EM InfoBook shortly!!!!!... Merrily Powell:Yes, that is something that we have been trying to develop for a long time... Merrily Powell:if we are successful, and we should know within a month or so... Merrily Powell:we will have a klowcost product with the major funcitonality that.... Merrily Powell:local EMA's need.... Merrily Powell:Maybe another EMforum for that????? Amy Sebring:now that IS exciting Merrily. Amy Sebring:Will the new Security product be stand-alone or will a LAN version be available? Merrily Powell:We also think so. denis:how will the local infobook differ from the eis/gem infobook Merrily Powell:I believe it will only be a s/u version, but I'm not sure if that has been cast in stone. Amy Sebring:We may have to do another session on that one Denis... Amy Sebring:Merrily, let's wrap up by telling folks ... Merrily Powell:and the price will be about $1495. Amy Sebring:where you will be during the upcoming weeks or months ... Amy Sebring:and where they can see these products in person. Merrily Powell:right here at 800 999-=5009, ext 3064. Merrily Powell:I live here or so it seems. Amy Sebring:You have plans for some upcoming conferences or events? ... Merrily Powell:Our website is a good spot, but... Amy Sebring:I thought you lived on the road! Merrily Powell:I have PpowerPoints that go into each product in depth... Merrily Powell:if anyone wants them, jsut email me and I'll send you a CD with all of them... Merrily Powell:my email address is: mpowell@essentech.com Amy Sebring:Thank you very much Merrily. We will have the transcript of today's session and the links to the slides posted in the Tech Arena in about a week. Just follow the Transcript link on our home page. Merrily Powell:You don't need powerPoint at all to view them... Merrily Powell:that's for those who may not be at the "cutting edge". Amy Sebring:We would like to take a moment here to mention what we have coming up. Avagene? Avagene Moore:Thanks, Amy. Before upcoming events, I want to tell Merrily that she did a great job in this session today! ... Merrily Powell:thanks. Avagene Moore:Tomorrow night, Thursday, 8:00 PM EST, is our Mutual Aid session; since we used this time for WEBEX preparation for about 3 months -- we are now ready to get back to an informal discussion at this time and invite you to join us then. ... Avagene Moore:Next Tuesday, November 24, 1 PM EST, is a Round Table session. This is a time period for Partners to step forward with a topic. At the moment, we need a Partner to do just that. ... Avagene Moore:Should add that IAEM will be moderating one Round Table session each month starting in December. ... Avagene Moore:Next Wednesday, November 25, 12:00 Noon EST, Maria Younkers, FEMA, will be hear to discuss FEMA's Compendium III of Exemplary Practices in Emergency Management. ... Avagene Moore:We will have 3 or 4 of the winning entries represented also to discuss their exemplary practices. ... Avagene Moore:As a sidebar, the EIIP Virtual Forum made it in the new compendium as an exemplary practice -- we are very happy to be in such good company this year. ... Avagene Moore:Back to you, Amy. Amy Sebring:Thanks Avagene and thank you audience. Since our time is up, we will close down the Tech Arena for today, but we will be in the Virtual Forum room for a few minutes longer, and you are welcome to join us there for open discussion. Thank you for your cooperation.