The goal of Preparis University is to give examples of ways to educate your team to make the best decisions in an emergency by providing information on the top threats to businesses’ employees, revenue and brands. In light of recent crises, such as the F5 tornado in Oklahoma, businesses not only need to be prepared for natural disasters but all potential crises such as explosions, bomb threats, workplace violence and hazardous chemical spills.

Preparis University provides a glimpse of all the online training content on dozens of threats which is available for our clients in the Preparis portal. Checklists, tabletop drills, and training courses are available in the portal which also comes equipped with two-way emergency notification to send text and email alerts, plus cloud-based document storage.

Also on the new Preparis.com, you’ll find updated pricing information on our technology and consulting services for both businesses and buildings, plus you’ll see more of our Preparis mascot: the Yeti. Yeti represents the ubiquitous and unanticipated threats which can strike a business anytime disrupting operations, curbing revenue, or worse…harming your own employees.

So ask yourself: are you ready for the Yeti? If you think so, check out more of Preparis.com to learn more. Be sure to follow Preparis on Facebook and Twitter for daily updates on the biggest threats to business continuity.

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Preparis X-force consultant, Kevin Beaver, has more than 24 years of experience in IT, the last 18 of which he’s dedicated to information security. He has served in various information technology and security roles for several healthcare, e-commerce, financial firms, educational institutions, and consulting organizations. Kevin has authored one of the best-selling information security books “Hacking For Dummies” (currently in its 4th edition), “Hacking Wireless Networks For Dummies”, and almost a dozen titles all about information security.

In the column, Beaver was quoted: “Executives are disconnected from reality when it comes to IT and security.” You can read the full article here.

To learn more about how Preparis can protect your business or building, check out Preparis.com, Preparis University, and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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Join Preparis as we review best practices for running tabletop drills with your crisis team. This session will be moderated by the Preparis team including Bryan Hill, our in-house Emergency Management Consultant, and Nathan Childers, Senior Vice President of Professional Services, with topics including:

- Lessons learned from recent disasters including the Boston marathon bombing and Superstorm Sandy
- Examples of BC and emergency preparedness plans in action
- Key steps every business can take to protect its people, revenue and brand through regular training drills

The format of this webinar will include a roundtable discussion from panellists, followed by a Q & A session from attendees. Questions can be submitted in advance to webinars@preparis.com or via Twitter. Registrants will also receive sample tabletop exercises to conduct with their crisis team.

Click here to register for the webinar. If you can’t make it from 2 to 3 p.m. on May 21, we’ll send you a recording, the slides and sample tabletop exercise following the session.

Bryan Hill is available to provide emergency training and tabletops for businesses and buildings by contacting info@preparis.com or call at 404.662.2950. Be sure to follow Preparis on Facebook and Twitter plus check back on the blog for more of practical steps to emergency preparedness.

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- Three-day supply of water (one gallon per person, per day)
- Non-perishable food and a can opener
- NOAA weather radio (in addition to battery-powered radio)
- Plastic bucket
- Heavy-duty garbage bags, plastic ties and disinfectant and bleach for waste and sanitation
- Moist towelettes for personal sanitation
- Plastic sheeting, duct tape and utility knife to shelter in place
- Fire extinguisher
- Rain gear and tent
- Matches in a waterproof container
- Mess kits, disposable cups/plates/utensils and paper towels
- Signal flares
- Extra change of warm clothes and extra blanket or sleeping bag
- Disposable camera
- Heavy work gloves and basic toolkit, including an adjustable wrench or pliers to turn off utilities

The post Hurricane Kit Checklist appeared first on Preparis.

Click here to read the full story, and here are a few of Hill’s quotes from the article.

“It’s going to take a long time to recover from this, longer than you think,” Hill said. “The hard part is having patience. It’s a long waiting game. There’s a long line of people and a lot of things that have to happen to get the money in place and to the right “¨people.”

But having patience doesn’t mean West and state officials should be complacent, Hill said. The areas that have fared best with disaster relief are those where people have aggressively lobbied the federal government for aid, he said.

“It really does take effort and championing,” Hill said. “You just have to push it through every level of government.”

Bryan Hill is available to provide emergency training and tabletops for businesses and buildings by contacting info@preparis.com or call at 404.662.2950. Be sure to follow Preparis on Facebook and Twitter plus check back on the blog for more of practical steps to emergency preparedness.

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Preparis applauds The Weather Channel for finding a creative way to bring awareness to this natural disaster as tornado season draws closer. To prepare your business for the threat of a tornado, we have free training available to download including a tornado checklist, tornado tabletop drill, and a whitepaper on the 7 Steps to Preparedness. For more information about proper tornado preparation, contact us at info@preparis.com or give us a call at 404.662.2950.Be sure to follow Preparis on Facebook and Twitter plus check back on the blog for more of practical steps to emergency preparedness.

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“Both explosions are going to be big investigations, even if the explosion in West was an accident, because a blast that size will create a massive crime scene,” said Preparis X-force member Bill Hildebrand, a certified Homeland Security expert and former Atlanta Police Department investigator. “From where they find the last piece of fragment from the explosion, they will double that to create the crime scene radius. So for example, if a piece of debris was found 300 yards from the explosion point, the crime scene will be 600 yards.”

While these two incidents differ in nature, preparation and response following an explosion is similar. Here are a few tips on proper explosion protocols:

Preparing for an explosion

Pay attention to your surroundings. Note escape routes and report any suspicious activity, unattended packages or strange-looking devices to security officials. Never accept packages from strangers and be mindful to not leave your belongings unattended.

After an explosion

Explosive devices may contain biological, radiological or chemical agents. You should treat every explosion as though it has a radiological element unless you know the cause (for example, a transformer exploding) or until you are told otherwise by the authorities. When responding, consider time, distance and shielding.

1. Time – Remove yourself as fast as possible from the source of the explosion.

2. Distance – Distance yourself as far as possible from the source of the explosion.

3. Shielding – Shield yourself behind a thick barrier that will provide protection from the source of radiation.

After a blast, there will be debris and dust at the affected spot, making it dangerous to breathe. So, cover your nose and mouth with a cloth-like material to avoid inhaling harmful particles while exiting the area. Don’t take elevators and always opt for the stairs instead. Once you are outside, move upwind and call 911.

Even if you think it is safe, don’t return to the building unless proper authorities give you clearance.

If you become trapped under debris

While your first instinct may be to struggle to get out of the debris, you should refrain from unnecessary movement and shouting to avoid stirring up and inhaling dust. Keep breathing through the cloth material and alert your rescuers with a flashlight or whistle or by tapping on the wall or pipe.

If a fire breaks out

Continue to evacuate, crawling low to the ground if there is smoke. If possible, wet the material you’re using to breathe through and cover your nose and mouth.

If you have to go through a door, check its temperature with the back of your hand and DON’T ever open a hot door. If the door feels cool, open it slowly with your body behind the door and don’t peek into the room.

For more information about proper emergency response, contact us at info@preparis.com or give us a call at 404.662.2950. Be sure to follow Preparis on Facebook and Twitter plus check back on the blog for more of practical steps to emergency preparedness.

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“The new version of our Knowledge Center provides easier access to the threat content which is most important,” said Kevin O’Malley, Senior Vice President of Product Management for Preparis. “We’re offering a more user-friendly experience. We have reorganized our content to provide all the training, checklists and tabletop drills for almost every threat you can think of into one interface.”

Preparis has reinforced the way it organizes the content library with clear threat-category colors and iconography leveraging the latest in interface design. The Preparis Knowledge Center is now more intuitive, delivering information more quickly when businesses need it the most. An emerging, significant threat was also added into the Preparis Knowledge Center, and one which every business needs to prepare for: Cyber Threats.

“We’re pleased we can now offer content on Cyber Threats to our clients to enable them to better align Preparis with their organization’s existing crisis structure and needs,” O’Malley said. “It’s essential for non-IT personnel know what to do when you have a data breach. We will be adding additional content throughout the year on topics surrounding social engineering and data breach and loss.”

Additional elements in the Preparis release include enhancements to the product’s emergency messaging service, group-based functionality, voice message performance, and text-to-speech for notification. “When it comes to responding and recovering from an incident, we know our users wear multiple hats,” O’Malley stated, “which is why we have developed these additional capabilities. This also enables the growing interest from our users to have all their response and recovery team members collaborate on an incident such as Cyber Threats.”

The input for these upgrades came directly from Preparis’ clients and users, something that O’Malley cited as a key aspect to their dedication to continuous improvement to their technology. “Our customers have given us the feedback that immediacy and connectivity are their two primary concerns, and we believe that our strategy will give them the tools to make the best decisions in both responding and recovering from an incident,” O’Malley said.

About Preparis

Preparis provides leading technology and professional services that drive its clients’ business continuity, emergency preparedness and life safety programs. They deliver the industry’s first subscription-based emergency preparedness platform, with a two-way emergency notification system that is simple and easy-to-use in the event of a crisis. The platform also combines expert information, response protocols and employee training, designed to help companies build and maintain a capable crisis response team and recovery teams to streamline communication during a disaster. For more information about using technology for your business continuity program, contact info@preparis.com or call at 404.662.2950. Be sure to follow Preparis on Facebook and Twitter plus check back on the blog for more of practical steps to emergency preparedness.

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1. Conducting a Risk Assessment
2. Developing Emergency Plans
3. Training a Crisis Team
4. Sharing Access to Critical Plans
5. Establishing an Emergency Notification System
6. Practice Emergency Preparedness Plans Regularly

Our 7th and final step is to use technology to make your business continuity plans accessible from your computer, iPad, or mobile device. An all-in-one technology platform can be a cost-effective way to build and maintain an emergency preparedness program for your organization. The proliferation of web-enabled devices and the ubiquity of smartphones has opened the opportunity for using technology to prepare for, manage and recover from disasters.

Technology can support an effective emergency preparedness program by providing:

“¢ Online training and certification can help managers and crisis teams make the right decisions during a crisis.

“¢ Document sharing makes it possible to store and share key plans and other documents in the “cloud,” and access them from any computer, tablet or mobile device.

“¢ Emergency notification system(linked) which can communicate with text, email, and voice capabilities, plus has the ability to create easy to use two-way messaging.

“¢ Expert content and response protocols from subject matter expert knowledge is available for a range of events and can be accessed at a moment’s notice.

“¢ Reporting and assessment tools letting you benchmark the effectiveness of your organization-wide initiatives.

For more information about using technology for your business continuity program, contact us at info@preparis.com or give us a call at 404.662.2950. Click here to download the complete 7 Steps To Preparedness eBook. Be sure to follow Preparis on Facebook and Twitter plus check back on the blog for more of practical steps to emergency preparedness.

The post 7 Steps to Preparedness – Step #7: Use Technology to Align Your Business Continuity Program appeared first on Preparis.

“¢ Regular exercises and refreshers for crisis team members and building management. Go over the crisis team roles and responsibilities regularly as well as threat-specific protocols. Make sure preparedness is top-of-mind and your team is up-to-date with regular training.

“¢ Tabletop drills for training your teams by department, locations, or the central crisis leaders. Gather your teams, decision makers, and building management representatives for a scenario walkthrough. In a tabletop, the group is given a crisis scenario and asked to work talk through how they would use the emergency program and plans to respond to the situation. As the situation unfolds, new information changes how the team responds. At the end of the scenario, the team discusses how they did and establishes goals and identifies changes that need to be made. These tabletops are not testing your people; they are testing your plans and finding any gaps or areas that can be improved.

“¢ Full scale office-wide evacuation and shelter-in-place drills. These annual or semi-annual drills are an educational tool for all employees. Work with property management and organize your businesses evacuation and shelter practice. These drills are not only required by law in most areas, they can really help in the event of a disaster and are a good way of giving your employees confidence in your crisis team and the ability of your organization to respond to a crisis effectively.

For more information about practicing customized emergency plans for your business, contact us at info@preparis.com or give us a call at 404.662.2950. Click here to download the complete 7 Steps To Preparedness eBook. Be sure to follow Preparis on Facebook and Twitter plus check back on the blog for more of practical steps to emergency preparedness.

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