Alertus is a vendor of alerting technology and systems. While they offer many options, the UI has procured their emergency messaging desktop feature (http://www.alertus.com/desktop). This feature allows a UI Department of Public safety administrator to launch an alert which will cause any computer with the service to be overridden with a screen “pop-up” message. The message can be tailored to the situation and the recipient is forced to hit an “acknowledge” button in order to close the window.

Alertus can be integrated into our current dashboard provided by RAVE allowing the continuation of using just one system to launch alerts via multiple channels. Alertus requires a client to be downloaded and installed on each computer to establish a connection to the Alertus server and be able to receive alerts.

The software has been evaluated by the Information Security and Policy Office and has been deployed to campus via a combination of automated distribution, and voluntary installation.