As the nation faces disasters such as those brought about by
Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, and prior terrorist
activities such as Sept. 11, emergency preparedness is increasingly
on the minds of public officials and citizens alike.
As the nation faces disasters such as those brought about by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, and prior terrorist activities such as Sept. 11, emergency preparedness is increasingly on the minds of public officials and citizens alike.
PlanReady, founded in 2003 by Morgan Hill residents Lesley Miles, Noreen Bergin and John Phan, provides a service for other businesses, institutions, cities and schools by designing a specific emergency plan that will be immediately available to emergency agencies, including police and fire departments. The company will also take existing emergency plans and make them more accessible.
PlanReady’s product is a multi-faceted computer emergency model that can be viewed online or with USB keys plugged into computers.
The company has one corporate customer in Sunnyvale, but the company has begun offering the product to two schools, the Charter School of Morgan Hill on Monterey Road in south San Jose and Los Paseos Elementary on Avenida Grande in south San Jose.
The entire sites were mapped out for easy viewing by emergency personnel. The list of contacts for the schools are included, as well as pictures of the various utility shut-offs, any hazardous materials storage and any other important spot on the sites.
The original plan may be “layered” with other alternatives, including escape routes and HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Cooling) locations, which Bergin said is very important to firefighters because as a structure weakens, the units often fall into the building.
“This is what the original idea, the application, was intended for,” Bergin said. “We knew, however, that there were others as effective.”
Such as the City of Morgan Hill, for example.
“All of the agencies could be involved, and we could have all the information for the city mapped out, easy to access by computer,” she said.
Bergin said she believes funding is the issue for the city, but the company may be able to help them in that respect as well.
“The money is out there, especially with the Homeland Security funding that is available,” she said. “And if the concern is writing the grant, a lack of experience or time, we will supply a grant writer. We can help you find the money.”
There are different levels of pricing for different applications, she said. For schools, an elementary school would have a $4,000 implementation fee and a $1,000 annual subscription, while a middle school would need to pay an $8,000 implementation fee and a $1,875 annual subscription. A high school would cost more, with a $9,500 implementation fee and a $2,250 annual subscription.
Corporate pricing and pricing for putting an entire city on the system would depend on the various requirements for each entity.
Implementation includes orientation meetings, site visits, data collection, data standardization, data entry, system training, updates, maintenance and 24/7 telephone support, the USB keys and more.
The annual subscription amount pays for system hosting, updates, maintenance, telephone support and right to use software license.
The company also provides a team to visit the site, if desired, to take the pictures and walk through and gather the information. With the growth of the company outside of California, Bergin said it would obviously be more cost effective if the site would provide its own photographs and information, but a team could be provided for data collection if necessary.
Bergin and Miles just returned from a Homeland Security conference in Hawaii.
“It was very exciting,” Bergin said. “We learned a lot and were able to make quite a few contacts. The school district in Hawaii is very interested. I think Hawaii provides a unique opportunity for us as there is a feeling of vulnerability, that they’re so out there, but we can give them a sense of security.”
