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Elevating Emergency Communication in Higher Education with Targeted Alert Systems

University_of_Southampton

  • Industry: Education
  • Use case: Emergency Communication
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Employees: 6,000
 

Rapid emergency alert distribution

 

Targeted messaging efficiency

 

Improved message relevance and impact

Company overview

The University of Southampton is ranked among the top 1% of global universities and is a founder member of the prestigious Russell Group. Its world-class teaching and research activities are delivered across 5 faculties, each of which hosts several subject-specific schools and departments.

Summary

General communication tools weren’t effective enough for the University of Southampton to handle urgent campus incidents. So they implemented a targeted alert system to quickly deliver emergency-only notifications about infrastructure failures, malware outbreaks, and other critical issues. With this approach, the university improved response times, increased the relevance of messages, and ensured immediate action during emergencies.

img University of Southampton

Challenge

The university identified a massive gap in service provision and looked around for products that filled that need.

Solution

The University of Southampton implemented DeskAlerts, a tool that enabled the university to quickly send targeted messages to specific groups of users. This addressed the absence of a reliable method for rapidly disseminating important information, especially in emergency situations or for addressing issues affecting particular segments of the campus community.

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In order to make sure that users don't get "message fatigue",' we only use DeskAlerts for "emergency only" messages - in other words, for short-notice core infrastructure failures, for targeted issues that affect specific groups of users or rooms, or for quick spreading malware attacks.

We tend not to use it for "informational" messages simply so that users get used to the fact that if a DeskAlert appears, they know it’s something important and directly relevant to them, and they should read it. It’s certainly a very cost-effective solution.

Nick Williams
Senior Computing Officer

Result

The University of Southampton improved emergency communication by introducing a system that delivers targeted alerts to specific groups of users. This allowed the university to quickly notify affected staff and students about urgent issues such as infrastructure failures or malware attacks.

By limiting usage to emergency-only events, the university ensured that alerts remain highly relevant and trusted. As a result, messages are read and acted upon immediately, reducing response times and improving the effectiveness of campus-wide crisis communication.

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