Updates

Coach2100 Announces First Online Communications Hub for Emergency Responders

VERO BEACH, FL -- 03/21/2006 -- Coach2100, Inc. today announced Coach2100 Command & Control, the first online mobile communications environment that enables diverse emergency response teams -- including fire, police, medical, public works, military personnel, government and civilian agencies -- to collaborate closely to save lives and protect property during natural disasters, industrial accidents, and terrorist attacks. The Coach2100 Command & Control system marks a critical breakthrough for 'first responders' by leveraging the Internet to provide an easily accessible, always on, and totally secure environment for coordinating emergency response efforts on any geographical scale -- from neighborhoods to continents -- and at any government level -- from cities to federal agencies.Coach2100 Command & Control implements advanced Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), interactive database, broad band and satellite communications technologies to provide an environment and location that government agencies can use to talk to one another, marshal resources, and direct the actions of law enforcement and other key responders. Users from top-level administrators to emergency personnel in the field can securely access the system from any device with a web browser. Then -- reflecting their role-based authorization -- they can view information and instructions, collaborate across all organizations as necessary, create new directives, and update the system's interactive database to show activity progress, completion or other status.The first customer implementation of Coach2100 Command & Control is the City of O'Fallon, IL, located 16 miles east of St. Louis, MO. According to Mayor Gary Graham, the system is now being rolled out to O'Fallon's police and fire departments and its emergency medical service (EMS) consisting of ambulances and paramedics. Later this year, it will be extended to include the public works department."Being able to communicate and direct operations among all of these organizations in the event of a large-scale emergency is a top priority for us," said Mayor Graham. "We face multiple threats, more than most municipalities do. We are in an earthquake zone on the New Madrid fault, which is very active seismically. We are in tornado country. We are close to Scott Air Force base. And we have a railroad that runs through the center of town that carries hazardous waste. So we are especially motivated to assure our 26,000 citizens that we can continue to operate on behalf of their safety in the event of an emergency. Our Coach2100 system gives us the infrastructure to do this.""The Coach2100 system is the only one we have seen that provides a realtime hookup for continuously staying in contact with all of our people in an emergency situation," Mayor Graham added. "The key for us is its simple and affordable infrastructure of laptop PCs, battery packs, cellular broadband and satellite communications uplink to a state-of-the-art interactive database environment -- which enables everyone to beam in, collaborate, report, discuss and be directed in a secure communications environment at the same time." The Coach2100 Command & Control system can drive rescue and recovery efforts in any emergency scenario. "Once it becomes clear to everyone that this kind of infrastructure is available, local governments are going to have to implement it," Mayor Graham concluded. "If they don't, they will be held accountable by their citizenry if a disaster happens and their response efforts get a failing grade."Coach2100 President James Camp observes that the company's Command & Control system iseal for enabling government at all levels to communicate and coordinate across all barriers with a central communications infrastructure for disaster response."Every assessment of the lessons learned from the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrinaentify better coordination between government, civilian agencies and the military during a disaster as absolutely critical," Camp said. "Our Coach2100 Command and Control system makes it easy to achieve this goal. Its use of cellular broadband or data satellite links to the Internet makes incompatible radio frequencies across response organizations a non-issue. And its central interactive environment makes radio-controlled 'command posts' with their 30-minute-old information obsolete By ensuring 'same time' communication of detailed information to large teams on a minute-to-minute basis, we are providing an unmatched communication solution for emergency preparedness, rapid response, coordination and mission accomplishment."How It Works, BrieflyThe central element of a Coach2100 Command & Control implementation is a Project defined by an administrator such as a Chief Administrative Officer. Project teams can be set up to include managers, consultants, police, firefighters, medical personnel, public works personnel, as well as response teams in other organizations, civilian or military. Team members can be added or removed at any time, allowing 'hot team building.'Users access the system through the web browser on their PC or handheld device. (The system can automatically send an email or phone call alerting a user to access the system.) As authorized, each team member views the project they are assigned to. Within the project are the areas or sections containing the instructions and information pertaining to his or her assignment. Users can collaborate, respond at any time and check off completed tasks, creating an activity audit trail for later use in assessing performance andentifying 'lessons learned.' The system operates within the Sun Solaris and Trusted Solaris environment, ensuring secure communications at all times.The Coach2100 Command & Control system can drive rescue and recovery efforts in any emergency scenario. For example, an observer on a military helicopter can give Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates via the system to civilian rescue boats, directing them to stranded flood survivors. Likewise, a driver of a truck laden with supplies can communicate the vehicle's progress toward a stricken area, and ensure that the supplies are delivered to the exact location where they are needed. The applications are virtually unlimited -- spanning emergency situations involving commercial and military flights, coastal and port protection, chemical spills at industrial plants and in transit, and many other threats to public safety.Pricing and availabilityThe Coach2100 Command & Control system is available now. Pricing is diverse depending on size and user community.About Coach2100Coach2100, Inc. was founded in 1998 to provide off-the-shelf, web-based collaborative software solutions. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Coach2100's management recognized that the proven capabilities of its offering for creating and managing virtual teams made iteal for organizing and directing the collaboration of emergency response teams. Today, the company is targeting its Coach2100 Command & Control system to government organizations at all levels as well as Global 2000 companies. Coach2100 is a member of the Sun Partner Advantage Program. For more information, please visit Coach2100.com.PR Contact:Marina Rosales GreenwoodActiva PR for Coach2100415.776.5350SOURCE:  Coach2100