Tenet’s PINpoint for BlackBerry® Tested Under FEMA’s NIMS STEP Program

PRLog (Press Release) - Mar 26, 2010 -
NIMS, the National Incident Management System (www.fema.gov/emergency/nims) provides a systematic, proactive approach to guide departments and agencies at all levels of government, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector to work seamlessly to prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents, regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity, in order to reduce the loss of life and property and harm to the environment.

FEMA’s NIMS Supporting Technology Evaluation Program (www.NIMSSTEP.org) provides an objective evaluation of commercial and government software and hardware products to assist in the implementation of NIMS. Evaluation activities are designed to expand technology solutions and provide the emergency response community with an objective process to evaluate their purchases. The NIMS criteria assessment is conducted by assessors with knowledge and experience in the areas of emergency response and management.

“This is a very important milestone for us”, remarked Rick Jordan, Tenet’s Director of Mobility Sales & Alliances, “as it will enhance our ability to expand our presence in US federal and state agencies, as well as NGOs and private sector organizations. We greatly appreciate the support we received from our partners, in particular Research in Motion® and AT&T.”

A comprehensive evaluation of PINpoint for BlackBerry® was conducted in early March at the NIMS Support Center (NIMS SC) in Somerset, Kentucky. The NIMS SC is equipped to evaluate products that support emergency managers/responders in decision making prior to and during an incident. A final report will be available within 4-6 weeks, and will be posted on FEMA’s Responder Knowledge Base website (www.RKB.us), which provides government officials and other end users with access to evaluated products and results.


“BlackBerry smartphones, and the infrastructure that supports them, make them ideal tools for emergency management and continuity of operations”, noted Carlos Paz-Soldan, Tenet’s President and Chief Technology Officer. “Using PINpoint, organizations can implement plans that adhere to NIMS principles and follow ICS/IMS best practices, and they can do this in a very cost effective manner.”


In a nutshell, PINpoint:
 Collects information – from internal or external authoritative
sources, including BlackBerry Servers, corporate Directory,
content servers, XML web services (including CAP alerts and
EDXL messages), RSS feeds, etc.
 Organizes it – into lists of contacts and collections of documents
presented as BlackBerry channels
 Targets it – based on organizational roles, NIMS/ICS functions,
geography, language, etc.
 And delivers it – on schedule, on command, on demand, or invoked
by systems or processes
 To mobile users – directly into the cache memory of enterprise-
activated BlackBerry smartphones
 Automatically – easy set-and-forget configuration for preparedness
phase and proactive operation during response phase.

“We were impressed by the level of professionalism of the SAIC/NIMS SC staff, as well as the experience and knowledge of the subject matter experts that were flown in from various states to conduct the assessment”, said Paz-Soldan. “Their comments and feedback have been invaluable, and will certainly be incorporated in our product roadmap. The NIMS STEP program is a win-win for practitioners, providers, responders, and the communities they serve."

BlackBerry®, RIM®, Research In Motion®, SureType®, SurePress™ and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of Research In Motion Limited and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world.

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