project on marketing strategy of personal emergency notification service in kolkata

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MARKETING STRATEGY OF KNOWLARITY COMMUNICATION Pvt.Ltd

for PRODUCT PERSONAL EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SERVICE (PEN) in

KOLKATA

A report submitted towards the partial fulfillment of the requirements of the two years

full-time Post Graduate Diploma in Management.

SUBMITTED BY: SUBHASISH BHATTACHARJEE

POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN MANAGEMENT

ROLL NO.: 2K10IB24

(2010-12)

ASIA-PACIFIC INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

3, Institutional Area, Jasola, New Delhi 110025

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ASIA-PACIFIC INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT 3 & 4 INSTITUTIONAL AREA, JASOLA NEW DELHI – 110025

FORWARD I hereby forward the project report entitled “MARKETING STRATEGY OF KNOWLARITY

COMMUNICATION FOR PERSONAL EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SERVICE (PEN)” submitted by

SUBHASISH BHATTACHARJEE (Roll No. 2K10IB24 of 2010-2012) under my guidance and

supervision in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of two years full

time “POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN MANAGEMENT”.

Dr. JITENDER BHANDARI Program Director Department of International Business Asia Pacific Institute of Management Countersigned by:

Dr. PANKAJ KUMAR Program Director Department of PGDM General Asia Pacific Institute of Management

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CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project report entitled “MARKETING STRATEGY OF KNOWLARITY

COMMUNICATION FOR PERSONAL EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SERVICE (PEN)” submitted by

SUBHASISH BHATTACHARJEE (Roll No. 2K10IB24 of 2010-2012) under my guidance and

supervision in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of two years full

time “POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN MANAGEMENT” is a bona fide work.

Dr. JITENDER BHANDARI Program Director Department of International Business Asia Pacific Institute of Management Countersigned by: Dr. PANKAJ KUMAR Program Director Department of PGDM General Asia Pacific Institute of Management

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My sincere acknowledgements to be granted to my project guide Prof. Jitender Bhandari for his invaluable assistance in the completion of my project. His guidance makes half the work done. He has always been a source of true inspiration for me. I also express my sincere thanks to Dr. Pankaj Kumar, Dr. Prachee Mishra for providing me with opportunities always at the top and who with his warm support always encouraged me in accomplishing my work. I am also thankful to all of the faculty members of Asia-Pacific Institute of Management for their kind co-operation in successful completion of my project. DATED: 2011 SUBHASISH BHATTACHARJEE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS 2010-2012 ASIA PACIFIC INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT ROLL NO. 2K10IB24

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CONTENTS SERIAL

NO. PAGE NO.

i ABSTRACT 7

ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 8 1. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT 10-20

S U B T O P I C

1.1 Brief about the project 11 1.2 Project Objectives 12 1.3 Scope & Uses 12 1.4 Justification of the Project Title 20

2. INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPANY 21-40 S U B T O P I C

2.1 Knowlarity’s Story 22 2.2 Company Details 23 2.3 History & Developments of the Company 27 2.4 Nature, Structure & Characteristics of the Company 34 2.5 Company Performance 37

3. INTRODUCTION TO PRODUCT, MARKET & INDUSTRY 41-60 S U B T O P I C

3.1 Brief about the product 42 3.2 Product Nature & Characteristics 48 3.3 Product Pricing 50 3.4 Product Performance in the Industry & Market 50 3.5 Comparative Analysis of the Product 52

4. LITERATURE REVIEW 61-77 S U B T O P I C

4.1 Review of Document & Literature of Similar Firm 62 4.2 Article Review Related to the Project 69 4.3 Critical Analysis of Review & Derivation of Facts 76

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CONTENTS

SERIAL

NO. PAGE NO.

5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 78-88

S U B T O P I C

5.1 Brief about the Methodology of the Project 79 5.2 Period of Study 81 5.3 Types of Data Collected 81 5.4 Selection, Design, Area & Size of the Sample 81 5.5 Methods of Data Collection 82 5.6 Techniques used in Data Analysis 88

6. CLASSIFICATION & ANALYSIS 89-100 S U B T O P I C

6.1 Classification of Data 90 6.2 Analysis of Data 92 6.3 Findings 99 6.4 Remarks 100

7. PROMOTIONAL & MARKETING STRATEGY 101-112 S U B T O P I C

7.1 Promotional Strategies adapted in the Project 102 7.2 Identification of Target Market 105 7.3 Marketing strategies adapted in the Project 106

8. CONCLUSION 113-115

9. RECOMMENDATION 116-119

10. BIBLIOGRAPHY 120-122

11. APPENDICES 123-132 S U B

TOPIC

Appendix A Sample Qualitative Survey Questionnaire 124 Appendix B Sample Quantitative Survey Questionnaire 126

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ABSTRACT

In the recent new communication mode of 21st century is Cloud communication System.

Cloud communications are Internet-based voice and data communications where

telecommunications applications, switching and storage are hosted by a third-party outside of

the organization using them, and they are accessed over the public Internet. Cloud service is a

broad term, referring primarily to data-center-hosted services that are run and accessed over

an Internet infrastructure. Until recently, these services have been data-centric, but with the

evolution of VoIP (voice over Internet protocol), voice has become part of the cloud

phenomenon.

Cloud communications providers deliver voice and data communications applications and

services, hosting them on servers that the providers own and maintain, giving their customers

access to the “cloud.” Because they only pay for services or applications they use, customers

have a more cost-effective, reliable and secure communications environment. Companies can

cut costs with cloud communications services without sacrificing features.

In the past, businesses have been able to do this for IT services, but not telecom. Cloud

communications is attractive because the cloud can now become a platform for voice, data

and video. Most hosted services have been built around voice.

Personal Emergency Notification Service (PEN) is a telephone cum web-based emergency

notification system designed to provide instant communication with people around the corner

or around the world. The system gets an edge because of its Cloud Communication

Technology. The system is off-site, redundant, reliable and completely scalable. With PEN

Installed, a mobile phone will become a trigger for the Emergency Alarm. The call will be

made on the mobile number of each person present on the database and will be followed up

with instant massage (SMS).

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The increased prevalence of crime, disaster and accident rates in India since year 2000 has

led to public demands for emergency services and protocols. Warning systems fall into two

broad categories:

1. Emergency broadcast systems providing blanket notifications over television, radio, and

internet.

2. Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies to send messages to citizens in a

defined geographic area.

Currently, emergency notification technologies are widely used in the United States and

elsewhere, and there are several vendors providing products and services to emergency

authority and government clients. However, Indian telecommunications companies are not

highly regulated under the Telecommunications Act, and must conform to the Terms of

Service assigned by their governing body, the Indian Radio-Television and

Telecommunications Commission. Therefore, roadblocks to blanket implementation of

emergency notification systems in India haven’t found a strong grip till now.

Rather than managing an emergency notification system in-house, a more cost-effective and

efficient solution is that the people should adopt a “wait-and-see” approach on implementing

telephony-based emergency notification systems or they can adopt the more appropriate and

cost-effective solution “PERSONAL EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SERVICE

(PEN)”.

Personal Emergency Notification System is a part of ‘Emergency Response

Communication and Coordination Services’ (ERCC).The Personal Emergency

Notification Service (PEN) generates a phone call to each person enrolled in the event of any

emergency for that person. One must provide his/her cell phone number as well as contact

numbers of the person you want to be in touch with in case of an emergency in to the system

directory in order to get the system work. All numbers are held in confidence. Personal

Emergency Notification Service is a customized, telephone cum web based emergency

notification system designed to provide instant communication to people around the corner or

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around the world. With PEN Installed, the mobile phone will become a trigger for the

emergency alarm. The call will be made on the mobile number of each person present on the

systems database and simultaneously instant messages will be sent to those numbers.

People of India should take advantage of this service currently offered by Knowlarity

Communication Pvt.Ltd to ensure safety and most needed assistance from friends or relatives

who is most nearby during their emergency situations.

In this project work I had specially concentrated on five objectives by completing which I can

give few recommendations to the company in order to improve their promotional and

marketing strategy in Kolkata.

In the project report I had discussed about the scopes and uses of Personal Emergency

Notification Service as well as I had also discussed about the Company profile of Knowlarity

Communication Pvt.Ltd. The elaborated discussion about PEN system & service were also

discussed in the project.

Personal Emergency Notification Service is a unique product of its kind in India and

Knowlarity communication Pvt.Ltd is the only company which offers this product. So, in the

literature review I had chosen reviews which is related to my project and critically analyzed it

and derive out the facts.

The next and probably the most important phase of this project is methodology where I chose

Qualitative (Paper-based interview) and Quantitative (Online Survey) in order to satisfy the

objectives I set in this project. After I am done with my surveys I classified and analyzed

those gathered data’s and concluded them. In order to benefit Knowlarity communication

pvt.ltd for its future venture with Personal Emergency Notification Service I had also took the

liberty to recommend few promotional and marketing strategies in this project report.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT

1.1 Brief about the Project 1.2 Project Objectives 1.3 Scope & Uses 1.4 Justification of the Project Title

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1.1 Brief about the Project

The project is based on ‘Emergency Notification Service’. In a general way when we hear

about emergency, we basically think about calling an Ambulance or Police or a friend. But

that could really take time to reach to the spot at time or there is a possibility they did not

picked up the call. So, in that case one can be in a deep trouble. In this project I had worked

on a product which is also an Emergency Notification Service but with an edge. The product

is ‘Personal Emergency Notification System’ (PEN).

In this project, as the product is very new to the Indian Market and has a complete Monopoly,

my work was to find out different new ideas to build up public awareness about the product

and in the mean time to make as much sale as possible. I was also responsible to do the

necessary promotions in pre-allotted places so, that people could easily recognize the product.

While doing these I also gathered feedback about the product from people of different

sampling area with the sampling size. These feedbacks were very necessary to do the future

market research for the product and to decide the future marketing strategies. Comparative

Analysis of the product was also a part of my project work.

In these 2 months long live project; I was given few Personal Emergency Notification Number’s

(CARD’s) for selling, which is a product of ‘Knowlarity Communication Pvt.Ltd’. I need to

approach the customers and describe them about the product & give demonstration if needed.

I also had to generate my own leads to contact corporate sector personals. This project cannot

be classified as Business to Business (B2B), Business to Customer (B2C) or Business to

Government (B2G) marketing because the product is compatible with everyone and basically

depends on the sales person & his way of approach.

In the sampling process the area I selected was North & South Kolkata. The reason behind

this was I wanted to gather feedback from the people who reside in Urban areas & also from

the people who live in rural and coastal areas. These primary data’s are useful for the

company to take decision on the product segmentation, development

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& promotional strategies. These feedbacks are also very useful to find out the percentage of

market penetration of the product.

As discussed earlier Personal Emergency Notification Service has a complete monopoly in

the Indian market and it has an edge of Cloud Communication Technology. Cloud

communications are web-based voice & data communication where telecommunications

applications, switching and storage are hosted by a third-party outside of the organization

using them, and they can access it over the public Internet.

1.2 Project Objectives

A. To study the degree of willingness of adaptation of PEN services and product

effectiveness from the people point of view in Kolkata.

B. To study and create public awareness about Personal Emergency Notification Service.

C. To identify different promotional strategies for Personal Emergency Notification

Service in selected sample areas.

D. To identify proper Marketing Strategy for Personal Emergency Notification Service.

E. To gather feedbacks from the people regarding PEN Service.

1.3 Scope & Uses

Scope

The Emergency Notification market all over the world is growing fast with median revenue

growth of 37% and 29%. So our first emergency notification Market Scope focuses on

enterprise-level offerings and has an overall Positive rating. The interest

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and need for PEN services continue to grow among all markets. The benefits of using PEN

service include:

A. More than one person can be notified in minutes.

B. A documented notification audit log can be provided for real-time.

In the Indian market there are five main scopes for Personal Emergency Notification Service:

A. Business operations notifications, such as workforce management roll call or

mustering, call-outs to parents for absentee students, upcoming and special

event announcements, important meeting reminders, and so forth.

B. Business context-based alerting that gets triggered from another business

process. For example, checking account overdraft, late payment, flight delays,

work availability options by locale — "Send Work Now," grade delivery,

incoming injured patient and so forth.

C. Emergency/crisis events that require mass notification.

D. IT service alerting support. (Elaboration: Note 1)

E. Reverse SOS and enhanced SOS. (Elaboration: Note 2)

Note 1 IT Service Alerting Support IT service alerting support is not just another group to be notified. The difference is that these

tools specialize in building the integration/adapters to the IT operations

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management tools that are the source for the notifications. Only a handful of tools specialize

in the IT operations alerting/notification — Alarm Point, MIR3/Telalert and Attention

Software. The Emergency Notification Service can be a successful option for alerting service.

However, I haven't seen any success for them as stand-alone products in that space. We have

seen them successfully "up-sell" an existing IT alerting/notification customer who also

purchases them for emergency/disaster notification.

Note 2 Reverse SOS and enhanced SOS Reverse SOS is a communication system that allows emergency services to quickly contact

members of a community or organization with information. It is so named, because SOS is

the telephone number used for members of the community to communicate with emergency

services (police, fire and EMS) in India.

But this system allows emergency services to do the "reverse," usually to inform the public

of a known hazard. Reverse SOS can be designed to provide a list-based communications

with key audiences. Reverse SOS may also target specific lists of people (for example, first

responders and a neighborhood watch group).

Market-Scope Defined This Market Scope does not imply that the product meets all, few or none of the evaluation

criteria. This Market Scope evaluation is based on a weighted evaluation of the Knowlarity

Communication Pvt. Ltd products in comparison with the evaluation criteria.

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Uses

In India there are several uses for Personal Emergency Notification Service. For example:

A. College Parent/Student When a child is going to college. This is an extraordinary milestone for any parent, and for

the child. When a parent drops out kids off at their new dorm, many of them worry. What if

there's an emergency? What if something happens? What if I cannot get in touch? But now

with the help of PEN, one can send their child off to college and still stay connected.

PEN gives you the tools you need to create an information safety net for your family, even

when you're far away. When you create your Personal Emergency account, you enable a full

contact personalized emergency alert system that ensures that no matter what happens- if

your dad has a heart attack, if your son is rushed to the hospital with a concussion at an

intramural football game, if your daughter has a car accident, if there's a natural disaster -

everyone who needs to know is contacted. Your PEN emergency alert system is fully

customizable to empower you to provide emergency responders with the most current, most

important contact information that they need.

B. Cell Phone Only

The cell phone is a part of our daily lives. 790 Million Cell phone users in India and over

39% of homes have chosen to replace their land lines with mobile devices. Cell phones are

not listed. A hospital or police doesn’t have your cell number. They don’t have your wife’s,

children, parents or your brother’s number. If you are taken to the hospital, they won’t

necessarily go through your phone. Chances are, they will just turn it off and put it with your

belongings. They don’t have to search who in your vast list of contacts is the person they are

allowed to talk to under current emergency

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situation. Truth is, less than 9% of the time a cell phone contains the needed information, it’s

not even looked at. But with PEN only through the press of a button everyone on your list

gets that emergency Phone Call and Text Message to let them know they are needed.

Whether it is your mother, father, brother, sister, good friend, co-worker… Everybody.

C. Drivers

If someone has a teen or an elderly person who drives his/her car to work in his family they

cannot stop the worrying but PEN can make sure that they know as soon as possible should

anything happen to their teen or senior driver.

PEN system can be used by the person who is driving to instantly notify everyone on his/her

contact list in the event of an accident. Everybody on the list will receive Text Message and

Phone calls for life threatening situations.

Teen statistics:

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers.

18 year-olds have higher crash rates than drivers of any other age.

18-year-olds are three times more likely to die in a motor vehicle crash than the

average of all drivers.

o Drivers age 18-20 accounted for 30 percent of all the drivers involved in

police-reported crashes in 2010.

o More than half (56 percent) of young drivers use cell phones while driving.

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o 69 percent said that they speed to keep up with traffic.

o 64 percent said they speed to go through a yellow light.

o 47 percent said that passengers sometimes distract them.

Nearly half said they believed that most crashes involving teens result from drunk

driving.

Senior Drivers:

Drivers aged 30-65 years and older have a 37 percent higher crash rate than younger

drivers.

Next to Teen drivers, senior drivers have the highest accident rate.

81% of all accidents involving a senior happen during daylight hours. (while you are

likely not to be home)

In these situations Personal Emergency Notification System become very handy to contact

several people at once and tell them about the situation.

D. Medical Condition

If someone is rushed to the hospital, his/her family and friends need to be alerted

immediately. When someone activates his/her PEN account, they enable a full contact

personalized emergency alert system that ensures that no matter what happens, everyone who

needs to know is contacted. PEN emergency alert system is fully customizable to empower

you to provide emergency responders with the most current, most important contact

information that they need. There is no database of cell phone

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numbers, e-mail addresses or work numbers for emergency responders- even many home

numbers fall through the cracks. Only PEN uses the most current technology to contact

everyone in your emergency contact database. PEN system will call everyone in the database

and even text them also to be sure everyone who you decide is important to notify is notified

immediately.

E. Crime Victim Being the victim of a violent crime is one of the scariest things one can imagine. Not being

able to quickly get a hold of those you love immediately could make this difficult situation

worse. One as the victim might be so shaken by the experience that you cannot think clearly.

If you can remember any phone number at all, it would be limited; who remembers phone

numbers anymore.

Personal Emergency Notification Service is a simple one call solution to let everyone on your

list knows where you are, what happened and how to be at your side. No matter where they

are in the world, PEN will make sure they get the message phone call and text message.

Violent Crime in India:

One Violent crime Every 20 minutes.

One Physical Assault Every 1 hour.

One Sexual Assault Every 40 minutes

One Teenager victimized Every 30 minutes

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F. Single Parent Someone might be a self-reliant, independent and a strong parent. Someone may be the rock

for their children’s. But he/she should make it sure that even in an emergency, they have a

system in place, ready to help them when they cannot be there. Personal Emergency

Notification system could be their emergency planning lifeline. If they are ever been into an

accident or have an emergency, let the PEN contact system alert friends, colleagues and

childcare providers. With this service installed, the person actually can be sure that his/her

friend knows to come get the kids at school when they are in a fix and best friend knows how

to get to their hospital bedside.

This only scratches the surface of when Personal Emergency Notification system can be

used. What about severe weather? One can instantly make call to several person who already

exists in the PEN database and follow up the call with an instant massage to let everybody

know that he/she is OK.

G. Fishermen Safety Fishermen involves in an accident in India:

One fisherman dies every 4th day in a month due to insufficient mode of

communication.

2-5 fishermen face Physical injuries every month.

One-two groups found missing every year.

There are huge numbers of fisherman who lives near coastal areas and go for fishing miles

away from the coast for daily income. These people actually face lots of emergencies in their

daily work. Sometime they had to face very bad weather; life taking storms and many of

them loses their life in these atmospheric hazards. They

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don’t have any option to inform the coast guards in an emergency situation accept cell phones

which might not be enough for them to let everyone know about the emergency at a time. In

these situations PEN can be a very good tool for these people. With these services the

fishermen can feel much safer than before because now they can let their own people as well

as coast guards and other help lines know if there is any occurrence of an emergency.

There are so many other uses of this product one just cannot list them all.

1.4 Justification of the Project Title

In this project, after finding out the degree of willingness to adapt Personal Emergency

Notification Services, I tried to create awareness among the people of Kolkata about the

product “Personal Emergency Notification Service” by strategizing different promotional

tactics and product demonstrations which people can easily recognize and gathered customer

feedbacks from different areas where the needs and financial condition of the people are also

different. This gave me several parameters to identify the proper segmentation for the product

of Knowlarity Communication Pvt. Ltd. After assembling all these data’s including the

secondary data’s gathered from the company I tried to identify a proper strategy for market

penetration of this product PEN.

Because, for any organization these procedures are used for development of a proper

Marketing Strategy for any product before launching it in the market.

So, the title of the project: “Marketing Strategy of Knowlarity Communication Pvt. Ltd

for ‘Personal Emergency Notification Service’ (PEN)” in Kolkata is justified.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPANY

2.1 Knowlarity’s Story 2.2 Company Details 2.3 History & Developments of the Company 2.4 Nature, Structure & Characteristics of the Company 2.5 Company Performance

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Knowlarity’s Story

Reminisce of a Close Witness & Cloud Telephony Evangelist

When innovation is married with blood, sweat, and passion, true success stories emerge.

Knowlarity, a fresh technology startup born on the Indian soil, has the potential of bringing

game-changing innovation in the domain of telephony to the developing markets, rapidly

changing the very way phones are perceived. Within two years of its inception, the company

has grown in leaps and bounds, servicing major brands and constantly spreading out to the

masses. Yet, it shows no signs of slowing down. What's behind their ambition?

The founders of Knowlarity cruised through their courses, and easily landed lush jobs in the

Silicon Valley with big names. Soon, cars and bay-area apartments followed, with

possibilities of growth inside their respective companies. Yet, their ambition was elsewhere.

In 2003, they left the valley, sold everything they had, returning back to India to explore the

rising elephant. Friends and family raised eyebrows, as it wasn't at all common back then.

Opportunities were everywhere, yet, basic information infrastructure was largely missing.

Their first few attempts met unexpected road-blocks from a failed startup in real-estate

domain, to early struggles in making an idea cash-worthy; through sweat and struggle, they

were slowly discovering the secret-sauce that is often known as 'Indianization' of an idea.

Within a few years, one of them had already successfully created the first Voter Relationship

Management platform of the country, and turned it revenue positive as well. The other

founders were toying with a number of other ideas.

One day, when the initial grassroots lessons were learnt, they hit upon an opportunity - to

create a simple easy way to reach out to the masses. So, Knowlarity was born, with a product

named Super-call, which allows easy volume calling. Yet, it was when they started on

building their first product, did they realize the true potential of what they had breached -

thinking of telephony as a platform on which numerous vertical applications can be

conceived. Then followed two more vertical products within the same year, quickly turning

the company revenue positive, and dazzling the early investors with their growth.

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With their drive and ambition to create the most streamlined of telephony products in the

country and abroad, Knowlarity's journey has just begun. In the coming years, it may well be

called the first true Google-scale startup out of India.

2.2 Company Details

Knowlarity Where Knowledge Collapses into Singularity

Knowlarity Communication Pvt.Ltd is the pioneer of cloud telephony based solutions in

India. The company has cluster setups in Delhi, Noida, Lucknow, Mumbai and Muzaffarpur.

Knowlarity Communication has developed a distributed and extensible telephony platform

that utilizes and combines the calling capacity of each cluster on demand to serve high

volume requirements for any of its telephony products or services. Company has developed a

massively parallel super computing platform which can process up to 60 Lac phone calls a

day. Knowlarity Communications Pvt. Ltd. is a pioneer in automated voice technologies with

an inexpensive hosted custom voice solution that organizations use to make personalized

calls to lacs of their customers in a day.

The Vision

The Small and medium size enterprises in India are the growth engine of India economy.

Collectively they contribute $110 Billion of revenue with high growth rate and provide

employment to 75% of workforce in India through the manifestation of the relentless

entrepreneurial dreams. These entrepreneurs run their business on that small piece of mobile

phone. The founders of Knowlarity Communication Pvt.Ltd dreamed to enable these millions

of entrepreneurs with innovative, inexpensive and hosted telephony based business products.

The Mission

Knowlarity Communication Pvt.Ltd started in early 2009 with a vision to enable SMEs in

India with productivity telephony solutions. The company has since then launched products

that have been sold in wide range of sectors from the SME

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industry. Knowlarity is focused to deliver simple and useful telephony products that can help

businesses improve their bottom-line.

The heart of Knowlarity is a cloud telephony platform called "KNOWLUS". Knowlarity is

proud to be the first in India to deploy a cloud based telephony platform. The end to end

platform has been developed in-house by our hard working engineers using open source

technologies. Knowlus has proved faster and flexible than any of the competing platforms.

The mission continues to deliver ground-breaking telephony solutions over Knowlus to

improve the way businesses use phones in India.

More About Company

Knowlarity Communications Private Ltd, founded by engineers from IIT and CMU, is a

pioneer in automated voice technologies in India. Company has created a cloud telephony

platform through which it powers its products for Click 2 Call, Personalized Voice Calls,

Conferencing, Virtual Reception and Voice Based Emergency Alert Systems.

A. Designed for fault tolerance, massive scalability and quick extensibility.

B. Proprietary technology developed for first time in India.

C. Developed as a platform for quick iterations of market inputs and product

development.

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Information Security – ISO 27001

Knowlarity Communications has been awarded the ISO 27001 Compliance Certification for

Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) by JAS-ANZ.

ISO 27001 provides a model for organizations to implement appropriate controls in order to

preserve confidentiality, integrity and availability of information assets. It helps organizations

to better access its risks and protect information assets. ISO 27001 is the most widely

recognized Information Security Management System (ISMS) standard. This international

standard has been prepared to provide a model for establishing, implementing, operating,

monitoring, reviewing, maintaining and improving an Information Security Management

System (ISMS).

By accomplishing the ISO 27001:2005 ISMS Certification, Knowlarity Communications

symbolizes it's commitment towards maintaining quality in safeguarding information and

intellectual property assets within the organization and boosts the confidence of customers

and other stakeholders assuring business continuity under diverse circumstances.

The Company's capability to "design, develop, and implement cloud telephony based

solutions" has been certified under provisions of ISO 9001: 2008 by JAS-ANZ.

Products offered by Knowlarity Communications Excluding PEN

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Knowlus System Architecture

We handle over 10, 00,000 calls on a daily basis just for our hosted telephony systems.

Knowlarity has tied up with multiple service providers, in case if the service of a provider is

down, load is transferred to other service providers, hence robust and unique system.

System architecture of Knowlus

Knowlarity Communication uses multiple PRI lines across different operators, hence

equipped with higher bandwidth. Our system is scalable; hence they can add more PRI lines

according to the requirement.

Ensuring Redundancy and High-Availability

A. Network is self-healing. In the event of any unplanned outage, failover occurs

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automatically at the port, system, node, and route level. All systems and connections are fully

redundant, fault-tolerant, hot-swappable, UPS-powered with generator backup, and located in

carrier-level telehousing facilities around the world. The network is designed as a seamless

pool of geographically dispersed delivery ports, each of which is capable of supporting call

traffic distribution, as needed.

A. The network is designed such that any one node can handle the entire network’s

messaging distribution on its own; in the event of catastrophic failures affecting

multiple nodes in multiple countries or regions, the network as a whole remains up

and running – just more slowly.

B. Failover latency varies from instant and automatic (as per a traffic congestion

situation, a processor or system failure, etc.), to approximately five minutes to reroute

major network components which may require manual intervention. The network is

architected such that no traffic is ever lost if any failover situation should occur.

2.3 History & Development

History

Knowlarity Communication Pvt.Ltd was conceptualized in July 2008 by Ambarish Gupta

and Pallav Pandey, graduates from the renowned Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), for the

development of large scale telephony call processing platform. Company has created a cloud

telephony platform through which it powers its products for Click 2 Call, Personalized Voice

Calls, Conferencing, Virtual Reception and Voice Based Emergency Alert Systems. The

company started its journey when there is recession going on all over the world but its growth

was at a blazing fast speed.

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Development

Knowlarity Communication Pvt.Ltd a company which is merely 3 years old is spreading its

roots from cutting edge technology to enterprise, from breakthrough solutions to government.

Knowlarity is doing it all and surprisingly at a blazing fast speed.

The Growth Record

In a very short period of time we have achieved high growth from a garage startup to a 60

people company with revenue ranging in 200 cr. The success has come through the focused

leadership and exceptional contribution from each and every single employee. The company

is now looking beyond the geographical boundaries to foray into developed markets where it

can deliver cutting-edge telephony products leveraging the benefit of inexpensive

infrastructure from India.

Enterprise Solution with cutting edge technology

Knowlus platform from Knowlarity is a raw calling power with extended usability through

programmable applications. Here is some most useful development delivered by Knowlarity

Communication to several of its Enterprise customers.

A. Custom IVR

Custom IVR deployment is a very common requirement of most of the Enterprises. Be it a

user centric business or purely B2B business, IVRs have become a commodity tool for

performing several operational tasks for Enterprises.

Knowlarity provides service to create custom IVRs and host them on the Super caller

platform. Knowlarity has engineered custom IVR solutions for Enterprise client from

domains reigning from financials to recruitment to sports and entertainment. With the added

service to host and run IVRs on our cloud telephony platform, our Enterprise clients don't

have to look anywhere else for a reliable and integrated custom IVR solution.

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B. Super Sales

A super sale App for Sales force enables you to make calls and receive inbound calls from

within the Sales force interface. This powerful application increases the productivity of any

CRM center by managing calls with intelligent call routing, on screen call alerts, one step

click-to-call feature and automated audio logs for all calls with complete date/time stamps.

Super sales App works completely within the browser without requiring any expensive

hardware or custom components installation on your machine that makes it super easy to

deploy and maintain. Users of the App can access it from any supported browser from any

supported operating system. This flexibility puts super sales App generations ahead of any

other competing App available in the market.

A. Phone payment IVR

Phone payment IVR system combines the power of IVR with the payment gateway solutions.

Phone Payment IVR gives Enterprises the opportunities to cater new markets. With Phone

Payment IVR you can close the sale with your clients and customers over the phone and

securely receive payment through an automated voice prompt driven IVR system. Knowlarity

provides Phone Payment IVR solutions to be integrated with clients existing payment

gateway, or if required Knowlarity also helps client setup a payment gateway with India's

leading service provider. With the Phone Payment IVR any business can reach the 600

million phone users in India with support for most of the payment instrument available

including, debit cards, credit cards, net banking or cash cards.

B. Facebook Voicelet

Facebook Voicelet is another simple but very creative and powerful application from

Knowlarity. With Voicelet any user can call a service number and post a voice message on

Facebook wall. Idea is as simple as of voice based blogging but with the

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marketing scope within Facebook it becomes a very powerful branding and social networking

solution, for example, for a talent hunt show with a Facebook page, anyone can leave a song

in his/her voice for the show judges and the fan community to screen talent.

For Enterprises, Voicelet opens loads of brand building possibilities. While it's a fun way to

engage your customers for any kind of communication, it also has massive reach and is a

very efficient way to manage and filter such kind of communication.

Government Sector Solution

Helping Build Better Infra for the Country

Just like the Enterprise sector, at Knowlarity they believe that for India to progress the

Government sector also has to adapt to newer and cutting edge technology faster. Mobile

phones are the most deeply penetrated medium in India, therefore to communicate with the

masses there cannot be any way other then the phone. Knowlarity is committed to provide

cloud telephony solutions to government projects to help them collect or distribute

information or communicate with the masses.

Knowlarity Communication not only helped the government of India with its different

technological advancement it actually showed India a way to become as developed nation as

U.S.A at least in the communication sector. Here is some most useful development delivered

by Knowlarity Communication in the various project of Government of India.

A. NREGA

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act aims at enhancing the

livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage-

employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do

unskilled manual work.

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Knowlarity Communication provided a web hosted solution to NREGA to register daily

employment of male and female workers and to prepare a report for the officials. The cloud

telephony based solution calls daily call 52000 panchayats in 842 blocks of 72 districts of

Uttar Pradesh to collect the daily employment male and female workers.

B. Mid-Day Meal

The Mid-day Meal Scheme is the popular name for school meal program in India. It involves

provision of lunch free of cost to school-children on all working days. The key objectives of

the program are:

1. Protecting children from classroom hunger.

2. Increasing school enrolment and attendance.

3. Improved socialization among children belonging to all casts.

4. Addressing malnutrition.

5. Social empowerment through provision of employment to women.

A solution over Super-caller using Knowlus application generates Interactive Voice Response

(IVR) based phone calls to over 1.5 lakh teachers between 10 o’clock to noon daily in all 72

districts of Uttar Pradesh. It asks for the number of students for which the meal has been

cooked that day. The teacher responds simply by punching the number of students on his

phone. The data is automatically fed to the server set up in Delhi headquarter which is

connected with the website of Mid Day Meal Authority of Uttar Pradesh. Officials who have

access to the system can check the data anytime.

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A. Police Helpline

Police helpline for Madhya Pradesh government is another remarkable solution developed by

Knowlarity. The system allows any person form anywhere in the state to call register a

complaint over a phone. The system senses the location of the person and connects to the

police station that has jurisdiction there. On the other side of the call is the police officer

responsible for registering the complaint. The complaint gets registered with the voice

signature of both the police officer and the person who is making the complaint.

This solution allows audio logging of complaints and a definite proof through the voice

signatures of the police officer that the complaint was actually registered. Madhya Pradesh

government is using the solution to crack the corruption and improve the turnaround time in

resolving a complaint.

B. RSBY Helpline

For people living below poverty line, an illness not only represents a permanent threat to their

income earning capacity, in many cases it could result in the family falling into a debt trap.

When the need to get the treatment arises for poor families they often ignore it because of

lack of resources, fearing wage loss, or wait till the last moment when it’s too late. Rashtriya

Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) has been launched by Ministry of Labor and Employment,

Government of India to provide health insurance coverage for Below Poverty Line (BPL)

families. The objective of RSBY is to provide protection to BPL households from financial

liabilities arising out of health shocks that involve hospitalization. But there is a missing link

- i.e. to be able to connect the poor people with the RSBY service.

Knowlarity has provided a cloud telephony based helpline service for the RSBY project

where the person can just call and record his or her health related problem from any pay-

phone or mobile phone available. The hospital nearest to the person would send required

medical care to the patient in no time.

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A. Political Campaigning

Knowlarity provides campaign service to government officials, ministers and social servants.

A pre-recorded message is sent out at scheduled time to the target audience.

In 2008, Knowlarity Communication helped the Chief Minister of Orissa connect with Crores

of his voters with Super-caller when time was running out during elections. Everyone's

beloved Navin Patnaik could not reach the remote corners of his state even when flying in his

helicopter day and night. Super-caller helped Navin Patnaik send his voice to 60 Lakh voters

in time span of 2 weeks.

Same solution was then used by Nitesh Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar in his 2010

campaign. Super-caller sent out Nitesh Kumar's personal recorded message to 70 Lakh voters

in just 15 days.

Except all these developments Knowlarity is also developing in other ways:

Knowlus APIs

The application of cloud telephony platform is endless. For creative minds and cutting-edge

service providers we provide development APIs to the telephony platform to make and build

our very own cloud telephony application. This way one’s business does not have to worry

about the telephony infrastructure and can still utilize the complete power of the cloud

telephony to make calls, receive calls, schedule calls, set various calling parameters, view

extensive calls logs and if required also host his/her application with Knowlarity

Communication and harness the power of cloud telephony with Knowlarity.

Development Summary

We can easily notice that Knowlarity Communication Pvt.Ltd has started developing from its

very beginning and still in the process of development. It has taken the cloud telephony

system to a new height in a country like India and not only that Knowlarity, with its rich

technological advancement started spreading its root from Enterprises to

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Government Sectors. Despite of the fact that cloud communication system has several

disadvantages like:

I. Online storage and client applications. A company which utilizes cloud

communication to host its calls can be shut down if a cloud hosting company

experiences downtime.

II. Security is also a potential disadvantage to cloud communication Etc,

Knowlarity, with the help of its Knowlus Architecture has made cloud telephony system a

privilege for common people of India to use and experience the power of cloud in the

simplest manner possible.

2.4 Nature, Structure & Characteristics of the Company

Nature

Knowlarity Communication is a privately owned ‘TELECOMMUNICATION’ industry

which provides ‘services and solutions’ to several enterprises, government and common

people. Basically Knowlarity deals in cloud telephony system which is the most advance

feature in today’s telecommunication system.

Knowlarity Communication not only deals with Business (B2B) this company also deals with

Individual Customers (B2C) and Government sectors (B2G). In 2009 the total number of

employees in this organization was 60. Now, in 2011 this strength had been increased to 160.

Structure

In Knowlarity Communication Pvt. Ltd the total numbers of employees are 160. The

company has several posts divided according to skills of the employee. The structure

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of the company is basically vertical, but sometime due to the change in members of the

advisory board makes it horizontal because even if the employee gets his/her chance to be a

part of the advisory board but the rank of the employee does not change and also the

employee become the part of advisory board for a certain period of time and this makes the

structure of the company more critical. So, in totality we can afford to say that the company’s

structure is HIBRID.

Knowlarity Communication consists of following Hierarchy:

1. Vice President (VP) 6. Business Unit Head (BUH)

2. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) 7. Quality Control Head (QCH)

3. Chief Operating Officer (COO) 8. Senior Manager (SM)

4. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) 9. Executives

5. Business Development officer 10. Trainee

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Diagrammatic View of Knowlarity Structure:

COO CTO CEO

BUH (SALES) BUH (FIN) BUH (OPS)

SM (SALES)

AM (FIN)

SALES EXEC.

AM (SALES)

Sales Trainee

OPS EXEC.

SM (OPS)

AM (OPS)

FIN TRAINEE OPS. TRAINEE

FIN EXEC.

SM (FIN)

ADVISORY BOARD

BDO

QCH

BUH (HR)

SM (HR)

AM (HR)

HR EXEC.

VICE PRESIDENT (VP)

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Characteristics

A. Knowlarity Communication is a privately held, telecommunication

service providing organization.

B. Knowlarity Communication works on Cloud Telephony Systems.

C. Knowlarity Communication is the pioneer of Cloud Telephony System

in India.

D. Knowlarity Communication poses monopoly in the Indian market.

E. Knowlarity Communication is involved in different government

projects all over the country.

F. Knowlarity Communication also provides telecom solutions to the

different large & small scale enterprises.

G. Knowlarity Communication is focused to deliver simple and useful

telephony products that can help businesses improve their bottom-line.

2.5 Company Performance

As told earlier Knowlarity Communication, in a very short period of time had achieved high

growth from a garage startup to a 60 people company with revenue ranging in several Crores.

Today Knowlarity poses a good market share in the telecommunication service & solution

provider industries. This is not only because of the products and services they deliver to their

customers; also there are other factors involved.

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A. Information Security Management

Knowlarity Communications Pvt. Ltd. ensures that:

1. Information is only accessible to authorized persons from within or

outside the organization.

2. Confidentiality & integrity of information is maintained throughout the

process and stored with appropriate confidentiality procedures.

3. All breaches of information security and suspected weaknesses are

reported and investigated.

B. Quality Policy

Knowlarity Communications’ Goal is to provide the most innovative, reliable & cost

effective Cloud web based & IVR based IT solutions to meet the growing needs of the

market.

Knowlarity commits to comply with the legislative requirements & continually review &

improve our products & services in the market by keeping ourselves up to date with today’s

and tomorrow’s technology, and thus ensure their customers always have the best tools

available with them.

C. Privacy Policy

Knowlarity take user privacy very seriously and operate in compliance with the international

laws and standards set by the internet and telephony communities to provide useful, secure,

protected and user friendly telephony solutions to their customers.

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A. No Spam Policy

Knowlarity products may require users to provide contact information (like name and email

address). Knowlarity may use this information to send customers important announcements

and product updates but will never share the information with any other service provider or

any individual or party interested in collecting this information for sending unsolicited

advertisements or messages to the user.

B. Security

Knowlarity has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the

information under our control. These measures include secure servers, encrypted data, and

other security measures to guarantee the privacy of their users.

Total Market Share

As discussed earlier, Knowlarity Communication has a monopoly in the Indian market for

Personal Emergency Notification Services as it is the only company which deals in this kind

of product and has cloud technology as an edge. But for the sake of comparison if we

consider SOS services and Police Helpline services then also Knowlarity communication

will give them a tough fight in today’s market scenario.

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The reason behind this amount of progress and growth of Knowlarity is the quality, security

and privacy they maintain and also the positive hardship of company employees. This are the

reasons Knowlarity had gained a good amount of reputed clientele in India in this very short

period of time.

Prominent Client’s of Knowlarity Govt. of Uttar Pradesh Johnson & Johnson PepsiCo

Proctor & Gamble Naukri.com Times of India

Tata AIG Unitech Religare

Radisson Asian Hospital Metro Hospital Yellow Pages India times Airtel

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INTRODUCTION TO PRODUCT, MARKET & INDUSTRY

3.1 Brief about the Product 3.2 Product Nature & Characteristics 3.3 Product Pricing 3.4 Product Performance in the Industry & Market 3.5 Comparative Analysis of the Product

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3.1 Brief about the Product

Personal Emergency Notification System (PEN) of Knowlarity Communication System is

basically a product of Emergency Response Coordination & Communication (ERCC) and it

also has properties of Super-dialler.

So, before discussing about PEN we will first discuss about ERCC and Super-dialler.

Emergency Response Coordination & Communication (ERCC)

ERCC is a Web-based emergency notification system designed to provide instant

communication with people around the corner or around the world. The system is off-site,

redundant, reliable and completely scalable. With ERCC Installed, one’s mobile phone will

become a trigger for the Emergency Alarm. The announcements will be made on the mobile

number of each person present on the database given by that person.

How ERCC works

1. In case of emergency, call the ERCC Number from any of the designated mobile

phones.

2. Specify the nature of emergency by pressing keys on your mobile phone as instructed

by ERCC.

3. ERCC System pulls the pre-specified phone book from the server containing numbers

of people to be alerted.

ERCC gives the business owner the sense of assurance that if something goes wrong in his

office, his employees can be contacted in seconds and not hours. An emergency alter system

that can ring several mobile phones in parallel notifying them about the emergency situation.

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Features of ERRCC

1. More Secure: With ERCC make your premise more secure for workers and visitors.

Manage Panic and reduce casualties in case of natural or man-made emergency.

2. Multiple Emergencies in Multiple Languages: ERCC gives an option to

broadcast up to 9 pre-recorded messages in multiple languages. This feature is

especially useful in reaching out to a multicultural environment.

3. Call Record and Broadcast: ERCC allows you to record your own message and

broadcast it simultaneously to intended recipients allowing efficient handling of

unforeseen emergencies.

4. Instant Alert to Many people: With ERCC Cloud Telephony platform,

emergency alert can be broadcasted to a number of people in 30 seconds.

5. Extensive Run time Reporting: Automated report is generated immediately

after and an emergency happens or a mock drill is conducted. The report can be

downloaded and recorded for audit purpose.

6. Hosted solution: ERCC does not involve any on-premise hardware for its

functioning.

Super-dialler

SuperDialler brings the power of cloud telephony to a conventional autodialler. An

autodialler is limited by the communication bandwidth of the single telephone line or SIM

Card that is connected with it. SuperDialler overcomes this limitation by using the

conventional autodialler to trigger an emergency alarm on the Knowlarity's Cloud Telephony

platform ‘Knowlus’. In the event of an emergency Super-dialler can call many numbers at a

time.

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Uses of Super-dialler

1. Educational Institutions: Super dialler is very useful for the Parent Notification

system (PNS) & Student Notification system (SNS), where institutes can inform all

the latest happening or information of their institute to the ward of students like

Results, Leave, Parent Meeting, Circulars etc. Similarly students can also be informed

within few seconds about any latest happening, event, lectures, test, dates etc on their

phone.

2. Corporate Offices: Super-dialler provides the most economical and advanced

emergency notification system for corporate offices. Super-dialler can be integrated

with any existing Fire alarm panel or burglar alarm panel which is connected with

smoke detectors, temperature sensors, magnetic sensor etc. It is very useful and

reliable system to inform multiple employees on their mobile phone in case of any

emergencies. It overcomes all limitation of existing autodialing system and PA

system. Super dialler is most economical solution for emergency evacuation system.

3. Government Projects:

a. Traffic Police management system.

b. City surveillance and Emergency Notification system.

c. Fire Management system/ Ambulance.

d. Airport management system.

e. Natural Disaster Management.

4. Financial Institution: Super dialler provides globally acclaimed solution for Banks

called Bank Management system (BMS). BMS consist of different solution like:

I. Bank premises security through Burglar Alarm or Fire Alarm system.

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II. ATM security solution.

III. Cash carrying Van security solution.

Now, as we know few things about the features and uses of ERCC & Super-dialler, it will be

much easier for us to understand about “Personal Emergency Notification System (PEN)”

because, this product is a part of both ERCC & it also has attributes like Super-dialler.

Personal Emergency Notification System (PEN)

Working women, senior citizens and those living alone at home feel un-secure and un-

protected several times during a typical day. The night time work culture has added to the

criminal activities against young workers. There has been a need for a communication

mechanism that can send a distress message in case of an emergency to the employer, police,

guardian or friends.

Knowlarity has solved the problem with a cloud based telephony service called Personal

Emergency System or PEN. It works by first registering the user mobile number, list of

people (phone number) to alert in case of an emergency and a personal emergency message

on the PEN website. Now in case of an emergency user just dials the PEN service number

and within seconds the prerecorded emergency message reaches close to 20 people on their

phones.

For employees working in BPO and Media industry where work happens in night shifts PEN

is the system which can be configured as a Speed Dial on the mobile phone for personal

emergencies. The system can be triggered by press of a single button on the mobile phone.

Emergency message can be recorded on phone and relayed to Family, Friends, Employers

and Police at the same time. The system is also useful for Senior Citizens for health and

safety related emergencies.

Personal Emergency Notification System Service is a customized, telephone cum web based

emergency notification system designed to provide instant communication to

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people around the corner or around the world. The system is off-site, reliable and completely

scalable. In an emergency, speed is critical, PEN Service provides reliable contact for women

workers when in potential danger as a result of being alone or in an un-safe situation.

Personal Emergency may be of any kind like Sexual Harassment, Snatching of Vehicle,

Accident, Critical Illness etc.

PEN system converts the mobile phone into a device for communicating any emergency

message to Parents, Friends, Co-workers, Neighbors, Employers and Police in less than 45

seconds.

The Personal Emergency Notification Network generates a phone call to each person enrolled

in the event of any emergency. But in order to, that the system works efficiently, one must

feed the cell phone numbers of the persons in the software he/she wants to notify in an

emergency situation in order to get connected. There is no charge to the participant and all

numbers are held in confidence.

This service is very useful especially for Working Women, Elderly & Senior Citizens,

Students and People living alone. In an hour of emergency, PEN service will be of great help

for communicating emergency within seconds.

PEN account Activation Procedure 1. One Personal Emergency Notification Card is been given to the user.

2. User have to visit www.superdialler.com

3. In the web page the user need to go to the new user section, type the serial no given in

the back of the card and click verify.

4. After activating the serial number a pin number box will appear, here the user need to

put 8 digit pin number provided in the back of the card.

5. Then user needs to provide an email id, user’s Mobile number and set the password.

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6. Now when the account has been activated user can login to his/her account and

customize the PEN database.

7. User can enter 1-20 mobile/telephone numbers he/she want to get in touch in case of

any emergency situation.

8. The user can change his/her name to nickname so that people can easily understand

who made the call or sent the SMS.

9. Now user has to put one toll free Trigger Number on his/her speed dial list so he can

contact the persons in the list of PEN database only by one single press of the mobile

button.

How PEN Works 1. In an emergency situation the person needs to dial the trigger number.

2. Then the person needs to record his/her emergency massage, if not possible simply

the system will record the sounds of the surrounding.

3. Within 45 seconds it will stop recording and a call will be generated to all the

numbers (1-20) that were saved into the PEN database.

4. If the person is unable to attend the call, it will be followed by an instant SMS.

5. If the person picks up the call he/she can hear the emergency massage recorded along

with the name of the person who is in the emergency situation.

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3.2 Product Nature & Characteristics

Nature

1. PEN is designed to provide instant communication with people around the corner.

2. The system is off-site, redundant, reliable and completely scalable.

3. PEN uses the ‘cloud’ technology which is a revolution in the age of fast

communication. The service is been hosted on the cloud telephony server of

Knowlarity.

4. PEN system can be installed in any mobile phone and on any service provider like

Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone, Reliance etc.

5. PEN actually works on Knowlus platform which is has a very powerful intelligent

server which can recognize different languages and differentiate between emergency

and non-emergency massages.

6. If someone uses the service in a non-emergency situation than his/her service got

caught by the intelligent server and service becomes unavailable.

7. PEN service is a completely toll free service. So, even if the consumer does not have

any balance in his/her mobile phone, still he/she can use this service.

8. PEN system software and service is very much user friendly and secure.

9. PEN services can be used for enterprises, for Personal use or it can be used as an

alternative to police and medical helpline.

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10. Detailed report of usage by user is available in the log sheet of PEN system. The

consumer can check the call log any time he/she wants to.

Characteristics

1. 20 emergency call recipients can be edited or deleted anytime.

2. Activator phone number can be changed anytime.

3. Emergency call will repeat itself until recipients answer the call.

4. SMS is delivered to recipient’s mobile giving activator name and number after call.

5. Activator is sent SMS acknowledgment once call goes to all recipients.

6. Emergency call can be made even though there is no balance in mobile phone.

7. Access to individual account is password protected; hence no one can access it.

8. PEN System is functional throughout India.

9. Emergency call sound clips can be provided anytime upon request.

10. A 24 X 7 technical backup is available.

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3.3 Product Pricing

Annual Subscription Per Individual Rs 500

Annual Subscription Per Individual (If more than 100 cards) Rs 450

Note: The number of mobile can be changed as per need. © Knowlarity (P) Ltd. All Rights Reserved

All values given above are in INR

The charges given above are exclusive of any levies and taxes

API Interface application is for annual basis and can be renewed

Charges given will remain valid for a period of 15 days from the date of this proposal

Taxes as applicable at the time of invoicing will be applicable over and above the given charges

3.4 Product Performance in the Industry & Market

In India the concept of ‘Personal Emergency Notification Service’ is very new and it was

first introduced by Knowlarity Communication Pvt. Ltd. Before PEN in case of any

emergency people use to call Hospitals, Police or their relatives manually and in many cases

they find that the person they wanted to contact did not received the call due to some reason,

some time they ran out of balance, few of them can’t remember the phone number of fire

station department and they are in such a situation that they have no time to search for it. But

PEN system not only helped them to come across these problems it also showed them the true

power of ‘Cloud Telephony System’.

As we all know that in today’s world the Indian market is the most developing market and the

scope for product like PEN is huge. In this situation the biggest advantage that Knowlarity

Communication as well as the PEN System poses is, they are the only company in India who

manufacture this kind of product. So, there is no competition or we can say it’s a Monopolist

situation for Knowlarity & PEN.

Though the PEN service is a new launch in the Indian market still it is gaining a good amount

of popularity among the people because of its outstanding features and

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quality.

Few examples will make a better understanding of the product performance:

Police Collaboration

Uttar Pradesh Police Department requested Knowlarity Communication to include their 24 X

7 helpline number in the PEN system so that every person in Delhi who uses this service will

have the number of police helpline as well.

Facebook Collaboration

Knowlarity and Personal Emergency Notification service is also collaborated with Facebook

and huge number people are interested about this new product and enquiring about it through

facebook and the numbers of likings are also increasing day by day.

College going students

A good number of college going youth is showing interest in this product and few of them

had bought it also.

So, we can easily understand that the demand of personal Emergency Notification Service is

increasing day by day and people are now understanding the importance of having a personal

notification system which might become very handy in an emergency situation.

In India Personal Emergency Notification Service was launched on March 2011 and if we

build a graphical representation of the performance of the product in comparison with other

emergency notification system available in the market then it will be like,

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So, from this graph above we can say that Personal Emergency Notification System is slowly

but steadily taking over other emergency services like SOS system, Police & Hospital

helpline services in India. Now, if we talk about the competitor of PEN in the Indian market

there is none. PEN is the only one of its kind in India. So, if someone wants to use this

service only Knowlarity Communication can provide it and this is one another reason that the

awareness & popularity of PEN is increasing day after day. Even in some cases government

itself is showing their interest regarding the use of Personal Emergency Notification System.

Overall we can say that until now the performance if Personal Emergency Notification

System is good and it has a very good future up ahead in the Indian market.

3.5 Comparative Analysis of the Product

In India no other company manufacture or deals in Personal Emergency Notification System

except Knowlarity Communication Pvt. Ltd. So, I am left with no other option other than to

compare PEN with the similar product of other company which is

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situated in abroad and also provide its services in abroad.

Details of the company & product with which PEN is compared with:

Company Name: EverybodySafe

Company Location: United States of America

Product Name: Emergency Contact

About Everybody Safe

EverybodySafe is complete Emergency Notification Solution Company in which anyone can

join online by paying a very less amount of money. This is a company that uses email, text

messaging and phone calls to make sure that everyone who needs to know will be informed

in case of an emergency. People are asked to contact EverybodySafe in one of two simple

ways.

1. Via our website (user will find the alert button at the top of each of our pages).

2. By calling 800-399-0295. Everybody Safe provide the contact information user need, and

follow this up immediately with alerts to user’s chosen emergency contacts via email, text

message or phone calls (in life-threatening situations) to user’s emergency contacts.

When someone joins Everybody Safe they receive everything they need to make sure

everyone they want will be told.

A. Hard Plastic ID Card

The user will receive a personalized photo ID to carry with you that explains EverybodySafe

and how to contact us in an emergency in four languages that the user can choose.

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A. Multiple ID Stickers

Sturdy plastic laminated stickers are included with user’s membership. These stickers can be

placed on user’s driver's license, student ID, passport, cell phone, bicycle helmet or anywhere

they can be easily found.

B. Optional Metal ID Tag

Available for a small fee or included with an upgraded package bundle, user will receive a

metal laminated ID tag that can be worn as a dog tag, added to users key chain, tied to their

running shoes or attached to any garment user wish. This tag includes users name, ID

number, phone number and EverybodySafe logo as well as their emergency phone number

and logo identifying user as a member of EverybodySafe.

Except all these EverybodySafe also offers Unlimited Emergency Alerts which is absolutely

free of cost and Access to system Upgrades where the user will also be able to take advantage

of new vital services. This company also allows the user to add unlimited number of personal

contacts.

In order to provide this kind of service flawlessly the company introduced the product

Emergency Contact.

About the Products

The products of EverybodySafe are highly developed and completely user friendly. Before

discussing about the products we need to know that EverybodySafe is a Associate Member of

the American Hospitals Association. The American Hospital Association (AHA) is the

national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals, health care networks,

and their patients and communities. Close to 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks,

other providers of care and 37,000 individual members come together to form the AHA.

Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of

information on health care issues and trends.

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Emergency Contact

Emergency Contact is the reason EverybodySafe exists. The chaos of the moment reigns.

Patients are shaken by their experience. Details and logistics are lost in the Commotion.

Emergency Contact is the stable bridge between emergency responders and user’s emergency

contacts. People expect that if they have a driver’s license or cell phone with them, the

hospital will be able find that who is important in an emergency. It's simply not the case.

There is no central database of people and their emergency contacts. Hospitals, police, fire

and other emergency responders have only the phone book, the internet and whatever clues

user may have on his/her to identify those important to them. A cell phone is not even

enough. The Los Angeles Fire Department did a study and found that more often than not, the

cell phone, even when containing the necessary information, was simply not used by first

responders seeking emergency contacts. Cell phones can be password protected, damaged,

lost or unfamiliar the first responder or hospital staff. Luck and guesswork is a major part of

the emergency contact process. EverybodySafe.com has changed that.

In these situations Emergency Contact is your voice in an emergency. It was created to

ensure user’s family's peace of mind and to offer you the necessary resources to take control

of events that are often beyond user’s control. There are 3 levels of alert which can be send to

the person available in the consumer’s contact list.

A. Life Threatening Alert

This alert is designed to be used by emergency responders such as hospital, police, fire or medical examiners to identify and reach out to a member's emergency contacts. This alert would be activated in case of heart attack, stroke, car accident, injury, natural disaster or severe illness.

Emergency Responders Emergency Contacts

Contact List Displayed Online Email

Phone Call

Text Massage

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A. Non-Life Threatening Alert

This alert is designed to be used when a minor incident has occurred and emergency

responders, employers, friends or even you are simply looking to share information. This

alert could be used in case of broken leg, illness at school, to call in sick to work or for any

other ailment that requires your emergency contacts to be notified.

B. I’M OK Alert

This alert is strictly for peace of mind, a simple one button solution allowing the user to

instantly let those they care about know that he/she are just fine. After a natural disaster, if

user is running late or if their plane has just landed, they can give their emergency contacts

the comfort of knowing that they are OK.

Benefits of Emergency Contact



Text Massage



57

In case of a medical emergency such as heart attack, car accident or other injury, or just to let

people know you are OK, Emergency Contact Service will make sure those you have chosen

to be notified are made aware. User can also use the system just to let people know that

he/she is OK, e.g. after a natural disaster, after taking a long trip, or anything else user can

think of.

How does the Product Works

A. User’s EverybodySafe photo ID card and their passport affixed with their

EverybodySafe ID sticker alert authorities in multiple languages (user’s choice of

three different languages from nineteen language options) that their emergency

contact system is in place and provides instructions on how to access

EverybodySafe’s system.

B. The emergency responder is instructed to go to EverybodySafe’s website to activate

their emergency contact system.

C. Everyone user has listed as an emergency contact will immediately receive an e-mail

and an SMS text message with the information they need. In a life-threatening

emergency, company’s operators will personally call users contacts to ensure that they

receive the message immediately.

Important Features of the Product

1. User receives their personal ID kit so that hospitals, police and anyone else could

know where to call in an emergency.

2. Being a member of EverybodySafe, users get registered to different hospitals where

the contact details in case of emergency are sent beforehand.

3. User can customize their contact details.

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4. User gets an option to send I’M OK alert if he wants to.

5. In case of emergency alerts were sent through e-mail, sms and phone calls.

6. Product acts as an alternative to 911 services which makes the product more reliable.

7. Availability of different languages makes the product more users friendly.

8. One can make unlimited phone calls, SMS and e-mails in an emergency situation.

9. Different alert levels are available so that users can choose which level of emergency

situation they are into and send massages accordingly.

10. Emergency workers are given contact names, relationships, and appropriate

authorizations.

Comparison between PEN & Emergency Contact

A. Technological Comparison

B. Price Comparison

Personal Emergency Notification Emergency Contact

This service uses high-tech CLOUD telephony technology.

This service does not use CLOUD telephony technology.


The service is much more cost efficient then Emergency Contact.

The service is less cost efficient than PEN.

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A. Feature Comparison

B. Product Development Comparison

C. Market Comparison

D. Product Versatility Comparison


1. In this service user do not receives any identification kit.

2. In this service user do not get registered with any hospitals.

3. In this service user can’t send I’M ok alert to their family or friends.

1. In this service user receives identification kits.

2. In this service user get registered with several hospitals.

3. I’M ok alert is available in this service.


The product is a newly launch product and further development in future is very much needed.

The product is mature product but further development is needed.


The product is a newly launch product and market awareness is not that much.

The product is a pretty much known to everybody in the market.


1. The product does not give the user any option to choose language in which they are fluent.

1. The product gives the user option to take liberty of choosing three languages in which they are

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A. Market Comparison

B. Product Versatility Comparison

Product Comparison Concluded

From the above comparisons we can come to a understanding of the facts that, though

Emergency Contact is a better option in terms of its features but in terms of cutting edge

technology Personal Emergency Notification have an edge over Emergency Contact. In terms

of market comparison emergency contact has better market share but it’s because this

company is in the market from at least 7-8 years where PEN was launched on March, 2011

and the kind of attention it is gathering right now, we can say that after a few development

and add-on’s in the product this product will be a bigger success than Emergency Contact in

the near future.


The product is a newly launch product and market awareness is not that much.

The product is a pretty much known to everybody in the market.


1. The product does not give the user any option to choose language in which they are fluent.

2. The product does not work as an alternative mass alert system.

1. The product gives the user option to take liberty of choosing three languages in which they are comfortable to speak.

2. It also works as an alternate 911.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

4.1 Review of Document & Literature of Similar Firm 4.2 Article Review Related to the Project 4.3 Critical Analysis of Review & Derivation of Facts

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4.1 Review of Documents & Literature of Similar Firm

EFFECTIVE EMERGENCY NOTIFI CATION TO THE RESIDENTS

Executive Analysis of Fire Service Operation in Emergency Management

Michael J. Gagnon

Derry, New Hampshire Fire Department

April, 2008 A comprehensive review of material relating to community emergency notification was

completed in an attempt to evaluate what other communities and organizations have learned

about this important subject. The review encompassed: available methods to distribute

information; what methods do the residents most routinely utilize to obtain information; and

appropriate improvement strategies to enhance information dissemination. Private industry

has an incredible amount of information regarding methods of emergency communications to

their employees which were developed during their business continuity planning process.

“People are the most important asset an organization possesses and never is that more true

than in times of crisis” (Jennings, 2002, 54). After the September 11, 2001 attacks,

communications with employees of each of the companies affected was a tremendous

problem. Much was learned from this tragedy, and companies either updated their existing

business continuity plans or developed their original business continuity plans as a direct

result of this incident. “With the efficiency and reliability of an emergency notification

system, the company is the first source of information and ensures that only factual

information is disseminated” (D'Arcy, 2006, 46). Automation of communication methods has

pr oven extremely valuable to private industry professionals. “An average manual call tree

delivering 1,000 messages takes four hours and is only 35 percent effective, while an

automated notification system takes only 15 minutes (on average) to actually reach 95

percent of recipients” (D'Arcy 2006, 46). Municipalities

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are learning from private industry in this area of emergency service delivery. “Automated

emergency notification systems are gaining significant momentum within the public safety

world for obvious reasons – because of their ability to swiftly communicate important

messages to emergency officials and the general public” (Levitan, 2004, 72). requirements

(D’Arcy, 2006) to be evaluated when choosing an automated system are: to assure that an

appropriate infrastructure exists to support capacity requirements of the system; accurate

contact information must be maintained; system must be easy to utilize in times of stress; data

must be secured; and the chosen system must be capable of accepting inbound

communications as well as outbound. “These (systems) are intelligent, interactive systems

that combine advanced communications hardware with relational databases and powerful

software” (Jennings, 2002, 54). Communities such as Blacksburg, Virginia have purchased an

automated emergency notification system they refer to as Blacksburg Alert. “Blacksburg

Alert is a homeland security solution that serves a dual purpose as a day-to-day public

notification system and a unique emergency communication tool” (Hoffman, 2004, 38).

Hoffman added that in addition to emergency information, the system also provides

community service information about traffic issues, public hearings, garbage pick- up,

recreational events, and information about the local bus system. It is important that the

community leaders utilize these systems for more than just emergency notifications.

Personnel who are responsible to utilize these systems must be proficient in their operations,

and this is best accomplished by repetitive utilization for non-traditional purposes. Available

researches on private industry notification systems primarily address hardwire telephone

systems, “Because more than 94 percent of the nation’s population can be reached by wire line

telephone, this method is far more comprehensive than other alternatives” (Fincher, 2003, 49).

However, as technology advances in the area of emergency notifications, other methods of

communications may be of equal or greater value. “While emergency telephone notification

has tremendous potential, it also has two significant pitfalls – the notification may not always

reach the intended audience or it may be too slow to be effective” (Fincher, 2003, 4). Several

methods of reaching the public through automated mechanisms exist also to include text

messaging to pagers, text messaging

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to cellular phones, telecommunication devices for the deaf (TDD), and electronic mail alerts.

Several companies exist that provide emergency notification systems for a variety of uses. An

example of such is FirstCall™, FirstCall™ is an emergency telephone, pager, and wireless

device notification network for communities, businesses and industries, designed to protect

lives and property in emergency situations, such as hurricanes, chemical spills, and power

outages, as well as provide critical information instantaneously in situations such as child

abductions (Weiss, 2006, 64). During the Hurricane Katrina event, FirstCall™ delivered over

900,000 emergency notifications to residents and businesses that were in the path of this

storm. A tremendous benefit of this type of notification is the ability to give detailed

information pertinent to specific geographic regions. One message does not have to be

delivered to all recipients. Other companies such as, 3n – National Notification Network™,

provide this service. “Redundancy is one key to the success of notification solutions – not

only are messages sent to a given recipient on multiple pathways, but the systems themselves

are designed with multiple physical redundancies” (Stuver, Keene, & Carlisle, 2004, 7).

National Notification Network™ authors (Stuver, Keene, & Carlisle) provide a clear vision as

to the importance of automation as they detail - why communications fail during emergencies:

communication systems are damaged; communication lines are overloaded; multiple agencies

can’t communicate with each other; the disaster coordinator’s location is inaccessible;

employees aren’t where they were expected to be; contact information is out of date; one-on-

one communication takes too long; polling responders is difficult; and inconsistent

information is issued. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the

Emergency Alert System (EAS) was originally designed to allow the President of the United

States to address the American People in the event of a national emergency (Federal

Communications Commission [FCC], 2006). Since that time, this system has evolved to

allow local messages to be broadcast by emergency preparedness representatives in all areas

of the country y. “The FCC’s goal is to make EAS capable of disseminating emergency

information as quickly as possible to the people who need it” (FCC, 2). The EAS has been

designed by the FCC to be implemented through the Federal Emergency Management Agency

(FEMA), the National Weather Service (NWS), and the State

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Emergency Management Agencies. Emergency Alert System (EAS) – The Emergency

Broadcast System (EBS) was initiated in 1963 at the height of the civil defense era to allow

the president to address the entire nation in an emergency. EBS replaced the CONELRAD

system instituted in 1951. The EBS was later further expanded through an inter-agency effort

with the FCC and the National Weather Service (NWS) to permit the system to be used for

state and local emergencies. The EBS was replaced by the Emergency Alert System, or EAS,

which was initiated in 1994 and fully implemented nationwide in 1997 (Wikipedia, 2008) .

Residents are familiar with this system, as routine testing has become entrenched with local

radio and television programming. It is suggested that the result of these routine tests of the

system may result in complacency from the viewing public. “Both academic research and

practitioners’ experience indicate that, in the absence of an actual emergency, residents are

often reluctant to pay attention to risk information and preparedness messages” (Conn & Rich,

1995, 23). Persons with disabilities are addressed in the rules as established by the FCC, “any

information that is intended to further the protection of life, health, safety, or property, such as

immediate weather situations, civil disorders, evacuation orders, school closings, relief

assistance, etc., is accessible to persons with disabilities” (Federal Communications

Commission [FCC], 2004, 1). It is important to note that the FCC has determined that there

are no exceptions to this rule, regardless of whether the broadcast operator is cable, satellite, or

a local system. The Federal Emergency Management Agency Strategic Plan for fiscal years

2003- 2008 clearly identifies emergency communication capabilities as one of its primary

goals. Goal number four is to: Serve as the Nation’s portal for emergency management

information and expertise by creating and managing a single, convenient portal for emergency

management information; by serving as the Nation’s knowledge manager and coordinator of

emergency management information; and by establishing a National warning capability

(Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA], 2003, 2). FEMA has also provided local

emergency managers with a Warning Annex template to be included in each community’s

emergency response plan; this function deals with the dissemination of the appropriate

government officials and the public timely forecasts of all hazards requiring emergency

response actions. This warning

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information is vital and must be made available in order to ensure that emergency responders

and the public take appropriate protective actions to avoid death, injury, and/or damage to

property (Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA], 1996, 1). The National Weather

Service (NWS) provides emergency information to the public. “Working with other Federal

agencies such as the FCC, and EAS; the NWS Radio is an all-hazards radio network, making

it the most comprehensive weather and emergency information available to the public”

(National Weather Service [NWS], 2006, 1). Information provided by the International City

Managers Association highlights the importance of maintaining a relationship with local

media outlets. Emergency Managers can take a number of steps to develop a good

relationship with local news media: Communicate regularly and honestly to build trust well

before disaster strikes. Make an effort to understand the media’s needs. Take every

opportunity to educate reporters and editor s about emergency management (International

City/County Managers Association [ICMA], 2007, 78). It is interesting to note that on

September 11, 2001 the Emergency Alert System was not activated to disseminate information

to the public. This system was available f or use by both the President and Governor Pataki.

O’Meara noted, while there is little doubt most Americans consider the September 11 terrorist

attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to have been of national emergency,

the nation’s emergency alert system remained silent. Why? And if the outrages of September

11 did not constitute a national emergency, what would? (O'Meara, 2003, 1).

The research suggests that the system was not utilized due to the fact that there was no

warning. However, there was warning with regards to the third plane, and the system could

also have been utilized after the event to provide consistent information to the public.

Municipalities across the Country have been utilizing different versions of public notification

software for several years. Reverse 911™ is one example of a company that has been

marketing its software to municipalities. “Reverse 911™ is a browser-based program that

uses a patented combination of database and GIS mapping technologies. The system enables

you to quickly target a precise geographic area and saturate it with thousands of calls per

hour” (Sigma Communications, LLC, 2007, 1-2).

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Other types of systems utilized by fire service personnel are Mass Notification Systems

(MNS), commonly utilized in specific facilities. “A Mass Notification System is used to

provide information and instructions to people in a building, area, site, or other space using

intelligible voice communications and possibly including visible signals, text, graphics, tactile,

or other communication methods” (Fire Protection Engineering, 2005, 58). Emergency

communication deficiencies create an opportunity to learn and enhance performance in the

future. With regard to Hurricane Katrina - Stuver suggests that, the scale of the disaster,

deficient contingency and disaster recovery plans, and communication and equipment failures

were serious problems that led to slow recovery efforts. However, the lack of a reliable mass

notification system between agencies and civilians was most significant. Many problems

could have been prevented with the use of a mass notification system for effective

communication planning and notification of government agency workers (Stuver, 2006, 32).

A variety of new technologies have been developed in recent year s. According to Anderson,

more accurate alerts with increased information validity greatly enhance public safety.

Emerging technologies, such as location-based mobile, Internet protocol (I P) and Global

Information System (GIS) applications provide more detailed up-to-the-second weather

information and precise targeting of severe weather events. These new technologies will

enable the evolution of traditional alert systems. New developments in early warning systems

allow emergency managers to better meet the public needs – and ultimately, to better protect

residents at school, home and on the go (Anderson, 2007, 16). The National Fire Protection

Association has developed Standard 1600 – Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management

and Business Continuity Programs to assist municipalities and private industry with these

issues. “Emergency communications and warning protocols, processes, and procedures” shall

be developed, periodically tested, and used to alert people potentially impacted by an actual or

impending emergency”(National Fire Protection Association [NFPA-1600], 2004, 5.9.3). Art

Botterell, Community Warning Systems Manager for Contra Costa County, California notes

that a multi-pronged approach to notify to residents is an important concept to consider.

“When people get the same warning message multiple

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times from say, the radio, the TV and a telephone call, they begin to take the warnings

seriously” (Emergency Management [EM], 2007, 32). The Derry Emergency Management

Agency has updated its Emergency Operations Plan with a Public Information Emergency

Support Function (ESF). This plan states that “first priority should be given to providing

information needed immediately for the protection of life and property, such as evacuation

routes and sources of emergency assistance” (Town of Derry, New Hampshire [Derry EOP],

2006, 14-1). Further it is noted that “detailed and factual information and instructions that are

well presented can reduce the incidence of panic among the threatened population” (Derry

EOP, 14-3).

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4.2 Article Review related to Project

Article - 1

Evaluating the Emergency Notification Systems of the NASA White Sands Test Facility

Leading Community Risk Reduction

Alfred Paul Chavez

Deputy Fire Chief

NASA Fire and Emergency Services

The purpose of this literature review is to gather and review pertinent information regarding

the questions posed for this applied research project. Four questions are to be addressed.

First, what are similar facilities using to alert the employees of an emergency? Second, are

the current emergency notification systems suitable for the community hazards on the

NASA White Sands Test Facility? Third, what is the NASA Fire and Emergency Services

using to measure the effectiveness of the emergency notification systems? Finally, what are

the current training methods used to train personnel to the emergency notification systems at

the White Sands Test Facility? First, what are similar facilities using to alert the employees of

an emergency? The NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas uses several

systems. The first system is an outside Emergency Warning System known as EWS. This

system uses warning tones to alert facility personnel of an emergency. The EWS can also

broadcast verbal messages to give employees instructions to take action for the emergency.

Another system the facility uses is a computer-based system that can send pop-up messages

over the computer workstation. These pop-up messages also give instructions or information

about the situation. Johnson Space Center also uses a

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closed network television channel that is used to broadcast information and instructions for

employees. The last system the facility uses to alert employees of an emergency is an

emergency telephone number. This requires the use of a dedicated phone line that has a

preprogrammed message to keep employees informed about an emergency. Personnel can

either access the line locally or they can dial a toll free number. The messages are updated on

a daily basis (D. G. Perrin, personal communication, November 12, 2003). The NASA

Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Langley, Virginia has a unique perspective on

emergency notification systems. In the LaRC Emergency Response Plan it states, “A good

warning system is one of the community’s most valuable emergency management assets,

having great potential for saving lives and preventing injuries” (2003, p. C-1). LaRC uses

multiple sirens located throughout the facility to alert employees of an emergency. The

Emergency Dispatch Office and the Emergency Operations Center control these sirens.

However, management will determine when it is appropriate to alert the employees of a

public threat. Once the sirens are activated and

personnel hear the sirens, they are trained to tune their building television to a channel that

will give them information and instructions. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

in Greenbelt, Maryland has a new system for employee emergency notification. In the article

The Global Alert Resolution NETwork (GARNET), A Unique Alert and Alarm System

describes GARNET as a system that, “Will have the capability to communicate from a single

source over a

network to other various notification mediums including PCs, pagers, phones, messaging

centers, Public Address (PA) systems, fire alarms, closed circuit TV, and e-mail” (2003).

GSFC implemented this system in October 2003 to deliver time critical information to the

workforce. Some examples of some of the emergency alerts handled by GARNET are fire

alarms, facility closures, severe weather information, and computer virus attack. Second, are

the current emergency notification systems suitable for the community hazards on the NASA

White Sands Test Facility? The NASA White Sands Test Facility has developed a

Hazard/Threat Identification Analysis by identifying 20 possible hazards that may threaten

the facility. These hazards have a rating of high, medium, and low. The rating designation

signifies the

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likelihood of occurrence on the facility. For instance, a hazardous materials release is ranked

high, while a tornado is ranked low (NASA, 2002, p. 1). The Occupational Safety and Health

Administration (OSHA) ensure that a facility, such as WSTF, has suitable emergency

notification systems for the community hazards. OSHA is a governing entity that develops

standards to ensure employee safety in the workplace. The OSHA standard 1910.165 outlines

employee alarm systems. The

purpose of this standard is, “To reduce the severity of workplace accidents and injuries by

ensuring that alarm systems operate properly and procedures are in place to alert employees

to workplace emergencies” (1980). This regulation also emphasizes that an employer can use

any type of alarm system as long as the employee is aware of a threat or hazard when the

alarm is activated. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is a consensus bureau

that develops consensus standards that impact emergency response and daily workplace

operations. Regarding emergency notification systems, NFPA has developed a guideline to

ensure facility employees are kept safe from hazards. The purpose of standard NFPA 5000,

the Building Construction and Safety Code, is to provide safe guards in the workplace to

protect the occupants in the event of an emergency. This standard focuses on keeping the

facility safe from hazardous materials, and states, “Facilities containing high-hazard contents

shall have the goal of protecting people and property from the consequences of unauthorized

discharges, fires, and explosions involving hazardous materials” (2003, 4.1.3.4). The facility

uses the emergency notification systems to keep the facility informed and safe from a hazard

that may threaten the facility. Third, what are the NASA Fire and Emergency Services

currently using to measure the effectiveness of the emergency notification systems? In order

to be proactive to ensure the facility can handle an emergency, the facility established the

WSTF Emergency Preparedness Plan. The overall purpose of this plan is to, “Mitigate the

effects of hazards, preserving life and minimizing damage.” (2002, p. 1). The plan also

contains 20 annexes that are updated regularly and outline specific direction to the facility

organizations to ensure proper mitigation of an incident. Examples of the specific directions

are warning, training, and communications. One way the effectiveness of the plan is

measured is to conduct a yearly site wide emergency drill.

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This drill tests all aspects of emergency response by the facility, which includes the operation

of all emergency notification systems. The EPPB designs a scenario that has a high likelihood

of threatening the facility. The systems are measured by how well the system operated in the

scenario, how personnel reacted to the system, and how well ESS utilized the emergency

notification equipment (NASA, 2002, p. 6). The site wide drill tests the overall capabilities of

the emergency notification systems. However, to ensure continued operational readiness, the

NASA Fire and Emergency Services test several of the systems on a regular basis. An

example of this is

testing the emergency red phones on a weekly basis. This system uses a dedicated phone line

for the purposes of passing critical information of an impending threat to the facility. There

are 33 emergency red phones on the facility and neighboring facilities. This particular system

is tested every Monday morning at 8:30 a.m. The Alarm Room Operator (ARO) uses a

checklist form that is outlined in an ARO job instruction. This checklist calls out each phone

location for accountability. When the person at the phone location acknowledges the call, the

ARO then checks off the area. This signifies that the area participated in the test. The form is

reviewed by fire department personnel and kept on file for record keeping (WJI-PAD-Fire-

0006.A, Section C 1, 2003). The chemical spill sirens are another emergency notification

system that is tested for effectiveness by the fire department. This system is used to advise

facility personnel of a chemical spill that is threatening the facility. The sirens use an air raid

type of sound and are located in two areas. The effectiveness of the sirens is measured by

testing this system once every three months and during non-working hours on the first

Monday of the month. The main control for operating the sirens is located in the fire

department control center, and it is operated by the ARO. When testing the system, the ARO

will operate the sirens for one minute. The NASA Fire and Emergency Services developed a

standard operating guideline, Alarm Room 3.0 Emergency Notification Systems, that outlines

the specific testing requirements for the sirens (2004). Finally, what are the current training

methods used to train personnel to the emergency notification systems at the NASA White

Sands Test Facility? Collona noted (as cited in Demers and Jones, 2001), “Individuals who

have participated in drills and received training in emergency response react faster and with

73

better decision making than those without training.” The facility is directed under the WSTF

Emergency Preparedness Plan Annex T to conduct site wide and local area training focusing

on emergency situations. The philosophy of this document is that the primary training tools

for the facility will be new employee orientation, drills, and a critique of the drill. Each

individual area is responsible for implementing and outlining a training program specific to

the areas particular needs and hazards. The area manager and supervisors are then,

“Responsible for internal departmental training programs that exercise emergency situations

(spills) in support of the emergency management program” (NASA, 2003, p. 2). WSTF

places a strong emphasis on safety training to new hire employees. These new employees are

given awareness training on the emergency notification systems. Beauding, Jacoby, and

Quick noted, “Educational programs that facilitate a change in safety attitudes and teach

technical skills must strive to actively involve the learner in the learning process” (1997, p.

29-32). When a new employee is hired on the facility, it is a requirement for the employee to

attend a new hire orientation for training on the facility’s hazards, systems, and emergency

actions. In the orientation, the facility safety officer gives a safety presentation and gives

every new employee a Safety Orientation Guide that contains safety information and

instructions such as emergency phone numbers, fire alarms, and the emergency notification

systems. For instance, when a siren is heard, depending upon which area the employee is in,

the employee must report to an assembly area until further advised (2003, p. 14). OSHA has

created a regulation for training employees on the types of emergencies the facility may

encounter. OSHA 1910.38 is geared towards training employees on emergency action plans.

The method in which the employee is trained on is left up to the employer; however all

employees should be trained on what to do in the event of an emergency (OSHA, 2002).

Training is conducted by the facility whenever the plan is changed or updated.

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Article - 2

A Decision Analysis Framework for Emergency Notification

Zhengchuan XU Yufei YUAN Fudan University, P.R. China McMaster University, Canada [email protected] [email protected]

Shaobo JI

Carleton University, Canada

[email protected]

Emergency management, a field that has been established in order for people to learn how to

act and cope with disasters during crises, mainly consists of four time-oriented stages,

mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery, with the first two being pre-emergency

activities and the other two post-emergency activities. In respect with emergency responses,

most researchers focus on the concept, process and components of emergency response

systems and some have proposed emergency response frameworks. Yuan and Detlor (2005)

have even worked out details by identifying eight major tasks of emergency response

including monitoring, reporting, identification, notification, organization, operation,

assessment, and investigation. The functionality of the emergency response systems,

especially the decision support function, has also been addressed. Moreover, some

researchers have examined the system design issues on the development and the integration

of emergency response systems with knowledge management. A few practical Emergency

Response Systems have been proposed, designed, and applied in some special domains such

as the rural Emergency Medical Services system (EMS), the Information Management

System for Hurricane disasters (IMASH), and Knowledge Management Systems for

Hurricane Katrina Response. This kind of initiatives and implementation has made it possible

to

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achieve demonstrable public good in terms of lives saved. It has to be pointed out;

nevertheless, most of these studies have focused only on supporting specific foreseeable

crises. Coping with emergency, that is no foreseeable crises, requires prompt decision

making. Due to the nature of emergency (i.e., the presence of threat, danger, urgency and

uncertainty), it is however difficult, and almost impossible, to rapidly develop adequate

decision models and apply them efficiently in a real-world crisis. Decisions must be made by

considering three constraints: limited time, limited information, and decision load; and there

is an increasingly greater need for decision-making skills in case of emergencies. Therefore,

decision making under emergency is an important research field. Vroom and Yetton have

proposed a normative model that describes corresponding relationships between three

problem characteristics (quality, acceptance and urgency) and three actions (consult, act and

delegate). Some specific emergency decision making models have been analyzed, for

instance, evacuation-decision making in a nuclear reactor leaking emergency, decision

making during severe weather emergency. Frameworks have been proposed for decision

support systems, for information exchange between key decision makers, for identifying and

removing false alerts that could flood information systems, and for public warning systems.

To summarize, the concept of notification has been explored for a long time. It is widely

recognized that notification is one critical component in emergency response. To assure

emergency notification to be effective, critical issues about how to make notification clear

and actionable and how to get confirmation from several information sources must be dealt

with. There is also a need of standardization for notification and for incident notifications, for

example, IEEE Standard for Common Incident Management Message Sets and Alerting

Protocol (CAP).

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4.3 Critical Analysis of Review & Derivation of Facts

The 1st Literature Review in this chapter specially focuses on, various methods that the

residents most routinely utilize to obtain information; and appropriate improvement strategies

to enhance information dissemination. The review encompassed: available methods to

distribute emergency information’s. From the review we can also observe that in today’s

world automation of communication methods has proven extremely valuable to private

industry professionals. An average manual call tree delivering 1,000 messages takes four

hours and is only 35 percent effective, while an automated notification system takes only 15

minutes (on average) to actually reach 95 percent of recipients. The review is actually about

an emergency notification system named ‘Blacksburg Alert’. Blacksburg Alert is a homeland

security solution that serves a dual purpose as a day-to-day public notification system and a

unique emergency communication tool. This alert system has an tool called ‘First CallTM’. This

alert system played a major role in the time of Hurricane Katrina event, FirstCall™ delivered

over 900,000 emergency notifications to residents and businesses that were in the path of this

storm. So, we can surely say that in today’s world of extreme uncertainty these emergency

notification systems play a major role in our lives. This review also focuses on a variety of

new technologies that has been developed in recent years. More accurate alerts with increased

information validity greatly enhance public safety. Emerging technologies, such as location-

based mobile, Internet protocol (I P) and Global Information System (GIS) applications

provide more detailed up-to-the-second weather information and precise targeting of severe

weather events. These new technologies will enable the evolution of traditional alert systems.

New developments in early warning systems allow emergency managers to better meet the

public needs – and ultimately, to better protect residents at school, home and on the go.

The 2nd Article Review is about gathering and review pertinent information regarding the

questions posed for this applied research project. Four questions are to be addressed. First,

what are similar facilities using to alert the employees of an

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emergency? Second, are the current emergency notification systems suitable for the

community hazards on the NASA White Sands Test Facility? Third, what is the NASA Fire

and Emergency Services using to measure the effectiveness of the emergency notification

systems? Finally, what are the current training methods used to train personnel to the

emergency notification systems at the White Sands Test Facility?

The 3rd and final Article Review is about a decision analysis framework for Emergency

Notification where the main focus was on identifying eight major tasks of emergency

response including monitoring, reporting, identification, notification, organization, operation,

assessment, and investigation. The framework has been proposed for decision support

systems, for information exchange between key decision makers, for identifying and

removing false alerts that could flood information systems, and for public warning systems.

The facts derived out from the critical analysis of the reviews:

1. Emergency Alert or Notification system are becoming an integral part of human life

day by day.

2. More accurate alerts with increased information validity greatly enhance public safety.

3. Before implementing an emergency notification system one must need to do a proper

research on the suitability of the system for the community hazards.

4. The users and the community needs to be given a proper training of the uses and the

features of the emergency notification/alert systems.

5. There is a need of identifying and removing false alerts that could flood information

systems, and for public warning systems.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

5.1 Brief about the Methodology of the Project 5.2 Period of Study 5.3 Types of Data 5.4 Selection, Design, Area & Size of the Sample 5.5 Methods of Data Collection 5.6 Techniques used in Data Analysis

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5.1 Brief about the Methodology of the Project

One of the major issues of interest in this project is to study the willingness of people about

the acceptance of Personal Emergency Notification Service. My research plan (including data

collection phases, research questions, research methods, and expected outcomes) is outlined

in the table below.

RESEARCH STEP RESEARCH METHOD

OUTCOME

Phase 1: Identify

Adaptability factors. Individual interviews.

A research model guiding the rest of

the study.

Phase 2: Examine

Relationships between adaptability factors and people’s intention or behavior.

Online and paper based surveys.

A set of relationships

Between adaptability

factors and the

Acceptance intention/action.

Phase 3: Explore

ways to influence

people’s intention

or action.

A field experiment.

A set of strategies

to motivate and

persuade the

acceptance of

emergency alert

technology.

Mixed Method Approach

As shown in the research plan, I adopt a mixed-methods methodology to tackle the problem

of interest. Increasingly, social science research is employing both quantitative and

qualitative methods in the quest for research designs best suited for assessing complex issues.

A mixed methods approach is preferred in this study because:

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1. I believe that the generalizability of quantitative techniques and the depth of

qualitative methods can inform each other, resulting in a more balanced,

comprehensive view of complex issues.

2. The user acceptance of Personal Emergency Notification Service technology requires

both examining relationships between quantitative factors and understanding rich

social context in which the technology system is situated.

The sequence, priority, and integration of the qualitative phase and the quantitative phase are

illustrated in Figure below. The design is adapted from the Sequential Exploratory Design

proposed by Creswell (2003), except that Creswell’s original model places priority on the

initial qualitative data collection. The sequential explanatory design is characterized by the

collection and analysis of qualitative data followed by the collection and analysis of

quantitative data. In this study, the priority is given to the quantitative part and the main

purpose of the qualitative part is to assist in forming hypotheses and in triangulating the

survey and experiment results. The analyses from the three phases are integrated in the stage

of result interpretation and discussion.

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5.2 Period of Study

The total time period of the project was from 1st April to 31st May (2 Months). I divided

these 2 months into two parts in order to do my project work in both Urban and Rural areas.

1st April to 30st April (1 Month): Urban Area (Kolkata).

1st may to 31st May (1 Month): Rural Area (Kolkata).

5.3 Types of Data Collected The data which is collected for the purpose of this project work can be divided into two

bases.

1. Primary Data

It is the method of data collection in which the marketers collect the data very first time or we

can say that the collected data is fresh or first-hand data.

By interviewing the customers.

Questionnaires filled up directly by the customer.

By e-mailing the online questionnaire to the customers.

2. Secondary Data

The secondary data was collected through the references from Library, references available in

the internet and data’s provided by the company. Basically, these data’s are the references for

marketing strategies of the company and other creative marketing strategies.

5.4 Selection, Design, Area & Size of the Sample

I used “Snowball Sampling” technique to identify people who were willing to adapt the PEN

System. Snowball sampling refers to the procedure of identifying

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participants through referrals made among people who share or know of others who possess

some characteristics that are of research interest. The selection of potential interviewees is

based on the principle of purposeful sampling as described by Paton (1987). Using the

“maximum variation” strategy, purposeful sampling is to get “information-rich cases” that cut

across participant variations so that a great deal of information can be obtained from a limited

number of participants. Therefore, I expected my sample to include both male and female

who have adopted PEN Services and those who have not. In the end, One Hundred and

Seventy people completed the interviews.

A good variety of demographic distribution of the 85 interviewees is shown in Table below.

GENDER AGE Area of Residing PEN Service Subscription

MALE FEMALE Less than

25 yrs

Above than 25

yrs

Urban Area

Rural Area

Yes No

66 104 103 67 113 57 9 161

5.5 Methods of Data Collection PHASE 1(PRIMARY DATA)

Qualitative Interviewing Qualitative interviewing is a widely used data collection technique in social science research.

The basic rationale of qualitative interviewing is to understand the reality from the subjects’

perspective so that underlying meanings of people’s experiences may be exposed.

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Rationale

Applied to this project, conducting in depth interviews at the initial stage of the study has the

following benefits.

First, qualitative interviews provide a holistic understanding of Personal Emergency

Notification Technologies as they are perceived or used by interview participants. Since

emergency response is a complicated social phenomenon involving many factors, a holistic

picture needs to be drawn before one proceeds to examining selected, pre-defined theoretical

constructs. For instance, I want to have a reasonable grasp of what role PEN Service may

play in people’s everyday life and what situational elements may have impacted their

motivation for acceptance.

Second, the codes and coding scheme developed from qualitative interviews inform the

design of the questionnaire for the subsequent quantitative data collection. Although I have

conducted a fairly comprehensive review of motivational factors involved in ICT-supported

community emergency response, it is still risky to derive hypotheses and build the survey

instrument solely based on previous research. Failure to adequately specify key factors may

result in unfocused measurement and meaningless results.

Finally, qualitative data collected from in-depth interviews can be used to cross-validate,

explain, and enrich data obtained through quantitative methods. As Denzin (1978) has

pointed out, the “between-method triangulation” is able to cancel out the bias inherent in one

particular method and give us “a convergence upon the truth”.

Interview Instruments The interviews were all semi-structured, consisting of mainly open-ended questions. The

interview questions centered on people perceptions of and attitudes toward personal safety,

the people’s emergency preparedness, and Personal Emergency Notification System.

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Some key interview questions include:

1. Do you believe that you are well prepared for all types of emergencies that may occur

in your daily life?

2. Based on what you know and what you’ve learned about Personal Emergency

Notification Service, what do you think about this service?

3. Have you signed up for PEN Services?

If yes:

A. Why did you sign up?

B. What are your experiences so far?

If No:

A. Why haven’t you signed up?

B. Have you heard anything about other people’s experiences?

For a complete list of sample interview questions, please refer to the Appendix A. One thing

to be noted here is that the instrument was more as a guideline for a conversation than a rigid

questioning protocol. In fact, the interview protocol was being constantly refined as the

interviews accumulated. This type of open-ended inquiry allowed me to elicit responses in a

non-leading, natural manner. The main points covered in each interview were the same, but

the wording and the order of questions were spontaneous to accommodate the flow of the

conversation. Short probes were also be used for the purpose of clarifying questioning or

soliciting further elaboration. The length of interviews ranged from 10 minutes to 20 minutes,

with an average of 12 minutes.

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PHASE 2(PRIMARY DATA) Quantitative Survey The purpose of this phase of the study is to find out the answer of first project objective: what

is the degree of willingness of people of Kolkata about the adaptation of Personal Emergency

Notification Service and how different factors are related to the intention of adapting this

technology.

Rationale After I identified and validated the different factors from the qualitative interviews, I used

quantitative questionnaire items to represent and measure these factors. I gave priority to the

quantitative part of the study in my mixed-methods design because:

1. I expect the findings to be generalizable to the Kolkata’s population with other places

where similar Personal Emergency Notification systems are implemented.

2. I simplify the reality to a set of categorized factors in order to objectively observe and

control certain aspects of the reality.

I decided to use the Web to distribute the survey and to collect the responses. The benefits of

Web surveys include low cost of distribution and administration, easy access to large

populations, flexibility and interactivity of instrument design, among others. But Web survey

directly violates the principle of probability sampling by excluding those who have no access

to the Web. However, thanks to the size of the population I was studying, the coverage error

was not likely to be an issue because I had already gather their e-mail id’s through phone call

and almost all people of Kolkata nowadays are active Web users. I do not expect the mode of

instrument would significantly limit my access to elements of interest in the target

population.

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Survey Sampling The number of web responses was not up to the initial expectation. After the first invitation,

only 30 responses were collected, of which 12 were usable. In order to increase the number of

respondents (especially urban respondents) and to check Non-Response bias, a word version

of the questionnaire was distributed to them through email. I sent emails to 100 people in

urban and rural areas. 86 completed questionnaires were collected, resulting in a total of 71

usable.

Survey Instrument The survey instrument starts with a brief introduction to PEN System. The questionnaire

consists of 26 (for PEN System users) or 29 (for non-users) items, which may be grouped

into three categories:

1. Demographic questions asking for respondents' gender, Residence etc.

2. Questions relating to adoption and use of Personal Emergency Notification System.

3. Questions about the perception of risk and emergency preparedness in general.

A copy of the final version of the questionnaire is included in Appendix B.

PHASE 3(PRIMARY DATA) Field Experiment The purpose of this phase of the study is to find an answer for the third & fourth objective

of the project: What promotional & marketing strategies may be applied to motivate people

for the acceptance of Personal Emergency Notification Service? In

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this field experiment I was also responsible to sale the Personal Emergency Notification

Card’s provided to me by the company. This phase of the project was done simultaneously

with the first phase of the project. i.e. Qualitative interviewing.

Experiment Instrument In this phase I have chosen the same sample I took for Qualitative Interview & Quantitative

Survey. I gave a complete demonstration of the product to each and every individual of the

sample. The instrument I had chosen for giving the demonstration is the website, registration

portal and the PEN card’s provided by the company itself. After giving a proper

demonstration I took the feedback of the customer about the technology, services of the

product. In this field experiment I had also investigated the influence of subjective norm in

motivating Personal Emergency Notification Services subscription. There are several reasons

that a field experiment is appropriate for the study.

1. A field experiment overcomes many of the limitations of purely observational studies

by introducing interventions to the field so that research findings can be readily

applicable to real-life practices.

2. For this research project, a field experiment completes the triangulation together with

the interviews and the survey, by providing a different perspective with a different

method.

The overall design of the field experiment is to compare the influence of the descriptive norm

and the influence of injunctive norm in terms of their motivational effects on the subscription

to PEN Services. It is expected that the descriptive norm is more effective than the injunctive

norm in motivating students to accept the alert service.

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Secondary Data Collection All other data’s needed for the project was collected from web search through internet and

few of the reports and company proposals for Personal Emergency Notification Service,

pricing details, product details were collected from the company itself. The topic related to

marketing and promotional tactics, I referred to the books, journals and other magazines

available in the library and market. So, in here we can categorize the data collection source in

to two parts,

A. Internet search.

B. Company provided Documents.

C. Books, Journals, Magazines.

5.6 Techniques used in Data Analysis

In this project the techniques used by me to analyze the data gathered from Qualitative

interview & Quantitative survey:

1. Descriptive Statistic for Qualitative & Quantitative survey response to find out the degree of willingness of the people of Kolkata to adapt Personal Emergency Notification Service.

2. T-test for identifying the effectiveness of the product in customer’s point of view of the whole population in Kolkata.

3. Hypothesis testing for identifying the effectiveness of the product in customer’s point of view of the whole population in Kolkata.

4. Chi-Square Test to find out the dependency status of Qualitative and Quantitative Survey.

5. Co-efficient of Regression to find out the degree of association between Qualitative and Quantitative Survey.

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CLASSIFICATION & ANALYSIS

6.1 Classification of Data 6.2 Analysis of Data 6.3 Findings 6.4 Remarks

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6.1 Classification of Data

For qualitative interviews, it was relatively easy to control sample characteristics by

recruiting subjects selectively. However, due to the self-selection nature of the survey, the

survey sample was skewed. In particular, females made up 61.18% of the sample, and males

38.82%. In terms of age, the sample had solid representation from each group with slightly

larger proportions of younger’s than elders, and the proportion of greater than 25 years

(39.41%) was also lesser to the proportion of the age group of less than 25 years (60.59%).

The proportion of respondents residing in urban areas is 66.47% while people living in rural

areas are 33.53%. The proportion of PEN subscriber and non-subscriber is 5.29% & 94.71%

respectively.

An overview of all the data’s is shown in Figure below

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The sample was also skewed in terms of Personal Emergency Notification Service

subscription status. A larger number of non-subscribers provide more representative data

about what do associate with the lack of willingness and what could be done to encourage

acceptance. A straightforward explanation to the skew is that the subscribers were that person

who tends to care more about security and therefore were more likely to be interested in

participating in the project survey.

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6.2 Analysis of Data A crosstab comparison was conducted to assess the difference by gender in PEN service

acceptance. A Chi-square test yielded a Chi-square value of 7.572 (df = 1) and a significance

level of p = .006 (< .01) (Shown in table 6.2.1). This indicates that the difference between

the proportions of male students and female sample is statistically significant with regard to

PEN service subscription. The larger proportion of female respondents in the sample and the

significantly higher number of females in the PEN service user group might be explained by

the general agreement in previous studies on gender difference of risk perception: women

consistently showed more concern toward crimes and risks than men. However, since

demographic variables such as gender are not readily open to change, researchers generally

focus more attention on social and cognitive factors in behavioral research.

TABLE 6.2.1: Adaptation by Gender Cross Tabulation

FEMALE COUNT

ADOPTERS NON-ADOPTERS TOTAL

6 98 104

% within Gender 5.77% 94.23% 100%

% within Adoption 10.7% 88.29% 87.3%

MALE

COUNT 3 63 66

% within Gender 4.55% 95.45% 100%

% within Adoption 7.56% 82.44% 36.2%

Pearson Chi-square = 7.572, df = 1, p = .006

NOTE

For the simplification of the calculations in the next part of analysis I had to segment the

questions and their responses of my questionnaire into three factors;

a. Perceived Utility: In this segment the questions are based on the product utility.

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b. Controllability Expectancy: This refers to which a user expects to control the

behavior of a technology system. In this case it is the ability to control calls.

c. Subjective Norms: In Subjective norm in this study refers to people’s perceived

expectation from people important to him or her with regard to accepting.

1. Descriptive Statistic for Quantitative and Qualitative survey Response After calculating the data’s from Qualitative (paper-base) & Quantitative (online) interview

method, my mail objective is to find the degree of willingness of adaption of Personal

Emergency Notification Service among the people of Kolkata. i.e. we will find whether the

product is effective from the people point of view or not. i.e. if the survey result shows that it

seems to be effective of Users and interesting for Non-users, than we can say the people of

Kolkata (Rural & Urban) are willing to adapt the Personal Emergency Notification Service.

From the following table we can find out the answer.

Table: Descriptive Statistic for Quantitative and Qualitative survey Response

FACTOR ONLINE/PAPER-BASED N MEAN of Positive

Response

MEAN of Negative Response

Std.div of Positive

Response

Std.div of Negative Response

USER

PERCIVED UTILITY ONLINE 8 5.18 2.82 2.29 2.13

PAPER-BASE 8 4.80 3.20 0.91 1.15

CONTROLLABILITY ONLINE 9 4.52 4.48 2.70 2.39

PAPER-BASE 8 3.00 5.00 0.00 0.00

SUBJECTIVE NORM ONLINE 9 3.50 5.50 0.95 0.96

PAPER-BASE 9 4.50 4.50 1.36 1.36

NON-USER

PERCIVED UTILITY ONLINE 62 41.72 20.28 18.79 26.61

PAPER-BASE 142 54.25 87.75 24.74 53.24

CONTROLLABILITY ONLINE 62 37.75 24.25 8.95 10.92

PAPER-BASE 102 50.00 52.00 0.00 0.00

SUBJECTIVE NORM ONLINE 62 30.50 31.50 7.69 7.80

PAPER-BASE 70 96.00 132.80 37.20 69.58

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From this table we can clearly see that the responses are both positive and negative in regards

to the willingness of the people for the adaption of Personal Emergency Notification Service.

But there is a problem in this method, though we can find the mean value and std.div of the

sample with the help of three factors but mean value and std.div of the whole population is

completely unknown to me.

So, now with the help of t-test and Hypothesis test I will check the effectiveness of the

product on the whole population of Kolkata. i.e. whether the response is positive or not on a

whole on the basis of Qualitative & Quantitative survey.

1. t-test & hypothesis test for identifying the effectiveness of the product in customer’s point of view

METHOD FACTORS

QUANTITATIVE SURVEY (online)

PERCIVED UTILITY CONTROLLABILITY SUBJECTIVE NORM

23.45 21.14 17

QUALITATIVE SURVEY (paper-based)

29.53 26.50 50.25

Let,

X1 and x2 be the survey results obtained respectively by online and paper-based

survey. We assume that x1 and x2 are independently normally distributed with population

mean µ1 and µ2.

Now, I will test that the effectiveness of the product on the basis of online survey.

h0: µ1=0 i.e. online survey says the product is effective from the people point of view in

Kolkata.

h1: µ1≠0 i.e. online survey says product is not effective from the people point of view in

Kolkata.

Let,

x1 & x2 be respectively the sample means of online and paper-based survey.

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X1= = 20.53 X2= = 35.43

Now, summation x21i = (23.45)2+(21.14)2+(17.00)2 = 1285.59

Summation x22i = (29.53)2+(26.50)2+(50.25)2 = 4099.04

Now,

s1 and s2 respectively be the std.div of the sample obtained by online a paper-based

survey.

s12= 1 Ʃi (x1i - X1)2 = 1285.59 – (2*20.53) = 622.27

(n1-1) 2

So, s1= 24.95

Now,

s22 = 1 Ʃi (x2i – X2)2 = 4099.04 – (2*35.43) = 2014.09

(n1-1) 2

So, s2= 44.88

Now, the statistic for t-test with df = 2 is,

t0= ( x1 - µ1)

s1/√n

= (20.53 - 0)*√3

24.95

t0 = 1.42

Now the tabulated value of t with df = 2 @ 5% level of significance is, t0.05,2 = 2.920

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Therefore,

Tabulated value of t @ 5% level of sig. > Observed value of t (t0)

So, we reject the null hypothesis (h0).

In other words the product is not significantly effective from the point of view of the people

of Kolkata on the basis of online survey (Quantitative).

Now, I will test that the effectiveness of the product on the basis of paper-based survey.

h0: µ2=0 i.e. online survey says the product is effective from the people point of view in

Kolkata.

h1: µ2≠0 i.e. online survey says product is not effective from the people point of view in

Kolkata.

Now, the statistic for t-test with df = 2 is,

t0= ( x2 - µ2) = (20.53 - 0)*√3 s2/√n 44.88

t0 = 1.37 Now,

The tabulated value of t with df = 2 @ 5% level of significance is, t0.05,2 = 2.920

Therefore,

Tabulated value of t @ 5% level of sig. > Observed value of t (t0)

So, we reject the null hypothesis (h0).

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In other words the product is not significantly effective from the point of view of the people

of Kolkata on the basis of Paper-based survey(Qualitative).

From the above t-test I had concluded that the product is not significantly effective from the

point of view of the population of Kolkata in a whole.

1. Chi-Square test

Now, I will test whether my Qualitative & Quantitative survey methods are valid or not by

Chi-Square testing method.

For testing the validity of the survey I will first test weather there exist any association

between Qualitative and Quantitative Interview Questionnaires.

METHOD FACTORS

TOTAL

QUANTITATIVE SURVEY (online)

PERCIVED UTILITY

CONTROLLABILITY SUBJECTIVE

NORM

23.45 21.14 17 61.59

QUALITATIVE SURVEY (paper-

based) 29.53 26.50 50.25 106.28

TOTAL 53.01 47.64 67.25 167.90

In order to test the hypothesis that the Qualitative & Quantitative survey are associated.

We shall apply the statistic chi-square = n (ƩƩfij2/ fi0* f0j) -1 which follows a chi-square

distribution with df = (k-1) (l-1). Here hypothesis are,

h0: The online & paper based surveys are independent of each other

h1: The two attributes are not independent.

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Computation The observed value of chi-square is,

167.9*[(23.452/53.01*61.59)+(21.142/47.64*61.59)+(172/67.25*61.59)+

(29.532/53.01*106.28)+(26.502/106.28*47.64)+(50.252/67.25*106.28)]

=171.30

Here df = (3-1)(2-1) = 2

Now, the tabulated value of chi-square @ 5% level of sig. with df = 2 is 5.99

Therefore,

Observed value > tabulated value

Therefore h0 is rejected. In other words there is association between Qualitative and

Quantitative survey.

So, I had found that there is association between Qualitative (paper-based) and Quantitative

(online) survey.

1. Co-efficient of Regression

Now, I will find the degree of association between them. The table is as follows,

QUALITATIVE/PAPER-BASED (xi) QUANTITATIVE/ONLINE (yi)

29.53 23.45

26.50 21.14

50.25 17.00

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Computation Ʃ xi = 106.28 and Ʃ yi = 61.59

Ʃ xi2 = 4099.33 and Ʃ yi

2 = 1285.80

Ʃ xi yi = 2106.94

Therefore the co-efficient of regression is,

rxy = (61.59 * 106.28) – 3 * 2106.94/{√ (3 * 1285.80) – 61.592} * {√ (3* 4099.33) –

106.282}

so,

rxy = 0.88

Therefore the qualitative (paper-based) and Quantitative (Online) are highly correlated.

6.3 Findings

The survey results show that the people of Kolkata don’t find Personal Emergency

Notification Service of Knowlarity Communication Pvt.Ltd as a very interesting and effective

product though the methods of the survey are perfectly right. In verification of the

compatibility of the methods with the project are also shown in the analysis part.

The conclusion which I drawn from the analysis of the data’s are listed below:

6. Descriptive Statistics table for Qualitative (paper-based) & Quantitative (online)

survey shows that the degree of willingness of the people of Kolkata for the

adaptation of Personal Emergency Notification Service is not satisfactory. Here I

found the positive and negative responses and calculated the mean and std.div for

both the cases.

7. With the help of t-test I verified the conclusion drawn from the responses of

descriptive statistic table is right and this point of time I firm the conclusion

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that the product, Personal Emergency Notification Service is ineffective from the

people of Kolkata’s point of view. But the results derived out from the t-test put me in

doubt that the methods I used might be wrong.

8. In order to clarify the doubts, I took the Chi-Square test where the test shows whether

there is any association between Qualitative (paper-based) and Quantitative (online)

survey methods. The results derived out from test shows there is dependency between

the survey methods I used in this project. So, the chance of getting any wrong results

reduced because from the both survey we obtained similar results which chi-square

had verified.

9. Than in order to find out the degree of association between Qualitative (paper-based)

and Quantitative (online) Survey I did the regression analysis by the data obtained

from the survey. The co-efficient of regression shows that the two methods are highly

co-related proving that the survey procedure is almost errorless.

6.4 Remarks

The possible reasons of less willingness of the people of Kolkata for the adaptation of

Personal Emergency Notification Service might be,

1. Insufficient promotional campaigns.

2. Less public awareness about personal emergency notification services.

3. People of Kolkata found it a bit expensive because they had to pay Rs.500 at a time.

4. Before launching the product proper market research was not done.

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PROMOTIONAL & MARKETING STRATEGY

7.1 Promotional Strategies 7.2 Identification of Target Market 7.3 Marketing Strategies

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After analyzing all data I came to a conclusion that the lack of willingness is due to the lack

of promotion and adaption of proper marketing strategy for this product. So, I had adapted &

applied few strategies during my project, which also satisfy my 3rd & 4th objectives. These

strategies really helped me to build public awareness about Personal Emergency Notification

Service and with these strategies I was able to market 9 out of 10 Personal Emergency

Notification Card’s provided to me by Knowlarity Communication Pvt.Ltd.

Here in this Chapter I am going to discuss about the promotional and marketing strategies I

had adapted and applied in my project.

7.1 Promotional Strategies

As we all know that promotion is a very important part for any product which is newly

launched or will be launched in the market. In this part I will discuss about various

promotional strategies used in the project to build public awareness about Personal

Emergency Notification Service. Also I will discuss about various promotional strategies

Knowlarity Communication Pvt.Ltd can adapt in near future.

Promotional Strategies used in the Project

A. Brochure

Brochure is something which helps people understands about a product and its features in a

very short period of time. It is a tool where the most important features, pricing and brief

about the product are given. Knowlarity Communication Pvt.Ltd helped me by providing a

good number of brochures to help me with my project. At the time of interaction with the

customer I asked them if they know anything about Personal Emergency Service or not. If

they say no than I hand over the brochure to them and tell them to give it a look. If the

customer say yes, than I ask them about what they know and listen carefully and after they

finish I hand over the brochure to them saying there is something more about the service so

will you please give it a

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look. This helps me to build awareness about the product.

A. Banner

Banners are one another way the promotion can be made about the product. Knowlarity also

provided me with one of the product banner which I put outside of a well renowned mobile

shop in Kolkata which is a very busy shop also. This is a good way to promote the product

because people after looking at the banner ask the shop owner about it where I came into the

scene and tell them about the product in detail and after them I hand over the brochures to

them so that they can understand the product better.

B. Live Demonstrations

Another way of doing promotion I used in this project is to do live demonstration of the

product in front of the customers. By a live demonstration a person can easily understand the

product and know its working and functionalities better.

Suggested Promotional Strategies for Personal Emergency Notification Service

A. Print Media

Company should use to promote Personal Emergency Notification Service through

newspaper. The reason behind using newspaper is most of the people in Kolkata is habituated

reading newspaper daily. So, if the company gives the product advertisements in the

newspaper (Bengali) it will easily reach to the hands of the most people. In this way the

coverage area will be greater and it is also cost efficient.

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A. Broadcast Media

Another good way to promote Personal Emergency Notification Service in Kolkata is, by

doing advertisements in radio. The reason behind this is, 86% of the total population of

Kolkata listens to radio while they are in their way to office, in buses or while simply

roaming around. So, radio is an excellent medium by which company can build the public

awareness about Personal Emergency Notification Service.

B. Point of Purchase Promotion

Another way to promote the product is Point of purchase. If the product can be placed near

the cash counters of shops like Archie’s or in any mobile stores where people visits often than

it could become a good promotional strategy for Personal Emergency Notification Service.

C. Mobile Phone Advertising

These days a mobile phone ad plays a major role in product promotions. Knowlarity also can

adapt this promotional method and send bulk sms to the people. Because this product is also

related with mobile phones it could be a good way to promote it.

Deciding on Promotional Mix

Knowlarity needs to distribute the total promotional budget over the three promotional tools,

1. Advertising

2. Sales Promotion

3. Sales Force (Personal Selling)

As I had already discussed about different advertising media so now I will only discuss about

other points in the promotional mix.

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Sales Promotion

A sales promotion tool offers distinctive benefits.

a. Gaining attention.

b. Usually provide information that lead customers to product purchase.

c. Help in greater customer response.

Personal Selling

Personal selling has some advantages over advertising like,

a. It provides interactive relationship between the seller and customer.

b. Provide greater need in customer to attend to seller’s offerings.

So, these are few promotional strategies Knowlarity can adapt for PEN service.

7.2 Identification of Target Market

In this section I will be discussing about identifying a market segment for this product and

the identification of target market for product Personal Emergency Notification Service.

Market Segmentation

From the field experiment and data’s extracted from the response to the questionnaire I came

to a conclusion that people of Kolkata has a Clustered Preference.

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In this kind of preference the few people of same group poses same preference where few

people of other group poses different preference.

After evaluating different segment I considered Selective Specialization as Target Market

for product Personal Emergency Notification Service.

The target market can be,

1. Female Call Center Employees.

2. Parents of the Students residing out of town.

3. Schools etc.

P= Product

M= Market

Reason behind selecting this target market is, here company selects a certain number of segments, each of which are attractive and in line with the companies resources and objectives.

Other benefits of this segmentation:

a. May or may not be synergy among segments, but each segment has profit potential.

b. Multi-segment coverage helps to spread risk even if one segment becomes

unattractive, company can continue to earn in other segments.

In this project I basically targeted Female office going people, Students studying at

residential colleges, Women working in nightshifts at call centers.

7.3 Marketing Strategies

“Marketing is the analysis, planning, implementation, and control of carefully formulated

programs designed to bring about voluntary exchanges of values with target markets for the

purpose of achieving organizational objectives. It relies heavily

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on designing the organization’s offering in terms of the target markets’ needs and desires, and

on using effective pricing, communication, and distribution to inform, motivate, and service

the markets.” (Philip Kotler)

Key Points

A. Selection of Target Markets rather than a quixotic attempt to win every market and be

all things to all men.

B. Purpose of marketing is to achieve Organizational Objectives. For commercial sector

it is profit. For non-commercial sector, the objective is different and must be specified

clearly.

C. Marketing utilizes and blends a set of tools called the marketing mix – product design,

pricing, distribution and communication. Too often marketing is equated either with

just advertising or with just personal selling.

Marketing vs. Selling There will always, one can assume, be need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to

make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so

well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a

customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed then is to make the product or

service available.

Marketing vs. Selling

FOCUS MEANS ENDS

Selling Products

Aggressive Selling and Sales Promotion with emphasis on price

variations to close the sale.

Maximize profits

through sales

volume

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Marketing Customer Needs

Integrated Marketing Plan encompassing product, price,

promotion and distribution,

backed up by adequate

environmental scanning,

consumer research, and

opportunity analysis with

emphasis on service

Maximize profits

through increased

customer

satisfaction and

hence raise

market share.

Suggested Marketing Strategies for Personal Emergency Notification Service In this project I performed surveys to identify the degree of willingness of adaptation of

Personal Emergency Notification Service among the people of Kolkata. After identifying it I

tried to identify proper market segmentation for this product. Then I tried to identify a

marketing strategy for the product which will be discussed in this part.

The Marketing strategy which I identified for Personal Emergency Notification Service of

Knowlarity Communication Pvt. Ltd is ‘PUSH MARKETING STRATEGY’.

Push Strategy In this strategy company’s marketing activities directed primarily at channel intermediaries

(Sales Force+Trade Promotion). The goal here is to induce channel intermediaries to order or

carry product and promote it to end users.

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Reason behind choosing this Strategy

1. Push strategy is suitable when, Brand loyalty is low. (Knowlarity communication &

Personal Emergency Notification Service both are very new to the market so Brand

Loyalty is obviously low.)

2. Brand choice is made in the store.

3. Product benefits are well understood.

Deciding on Marketing Mix

The set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that the firm blends to produce the response it

wants in the target market. All elements of the mix are linked and must support each other.

How a customer sees it 4 P’s to 4 C’s

From the point of view of the customer, the elements of the marketing mix represent benefits

of the product offering. For each element of the marketing mix the customer sees:

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1. PRICE for the marketer is COST for the customer.

2. PROMOTION for the marketer is COMMUNICATION for the customer.

3. PLACE for the marketer is CONVENIENCE for the customer.

4. PRODUCT for the marketer is SOLUTION for the customer.

Price/Cost The pricing policy of the product is good because it only cost rs.500 a year. So, for one day it

is only rs. 1.38 Which is pretty much affordable to any person with a minimum income and

with this mere amount of money he will get a safety assurance in critical emergency situation.

Promotion/Communication The promotional strategies were discussed in the above section already.

Place/Convenience The product should be available to the customers where they can reach easily like, Mobile

Recharge shops.

Another good way to market this product is to place it as a gift item in the Archie’s stores.

Because now a day’s people look for gifts which can be used in daily life and worth using it.

The product Personal Emergency Notification Service fulfils this requirement.

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Product/Solution In today’s world people face lots of problem in their daily life and some problems are so

critical that become hard to handle single handedly. In these kinds of emergency situations

they find an easy solution to their problems. Here our product Personal Emergency

Notification Service fits excellently. Selling Strategies used for Personal Emergency Notification Service in the Project In this project due to lack of sufficient time to segment the market accurately and then

implementing a proper marketing strategy is not possible so, I identified few selling quick

selling strategies so that I get a rough idea about the market penetration and customer needs

of the product. Here in this part I will discuss about the selling strategies I adapted for the

product Personal Emergency Notification Service.

1. Targeting Female Call Center Employees In the very first stage I tried targeting the female call center employees because, most of them

work in night shifts and an issue with personal safety while going to office or home late at

night because of the increasing crime rate in Kolkata. This leads them to show interest in our

product and few of them subscribed for it.

2. Parents of the Students living out of their hometown In Kolkata most of the students had a tendency to go out of their home town for higher study.

Their parents sometimes become a little worried for them specially parents of girls. So, I

targeted these people but it took me a bit of extra time because in this case I have to make

phone calls to several people and ask them if their child is studying outside of the hometown

or not then I had to visit them if they fell interested. The conversion rate in this strategy is

very low. Only one parent subscribed for the product.

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1. Schools I had also targeted this segment of the market because in schools kids are naughty and ends

up with fighting with one another or become wounded while playing. Sometimes it becomes

a major emergency for the teachers. In that case this product becomes a handy tool to contact

the people for help in no time. But the approval process is very lengthy and only two month

of internship is not sufficient for any sales conversion.

So, these were few sales strategies which I adapted and Knowlarity can also adapt in future

for better results.

So, in this chapter I had discussed some possible Promotional & Marketing strategies which

can be adapted for Personal Emergency Notification Service for better results in Kolkata.

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CONCLUSION

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After gathering results from all my surveys done in Kolkata and analyzed the gathered data of

the survey and data’s from literature reviews for Personal Emergency Notification Service, I

came to a conclusion that in countries like United States of America, United Kingdom and

other developed western countries people are well aware of these kind of products and people

are actually well concerned about their safety where is the people of developing countries like

India and basically I will be talking about Kolkata are least aware of these kind of products

and still depends on their mobile phones, police and medical helplines, friends and people

around them to help them at the time of any emergency. This un-awareness and lack of faith

on the product is may be because of less amount of strategic product promotion before

launching the product like Personal Emergency Notification Service, where it is most

important aspect for any product to do proper promotion before it is launched in the market

where it is only one of its kind or rather say unique in the market. I also came to other

conclusion that lack of proper market research before the launching this product is also the

reason that people of Kolkata are not very much interested about Personal Emergency

Notification Service.

Though there is a hope of success because cloud telephony system is a very new technology

and the new generation of Kolkata are very much open minded about welcoming and

adapting new technologies. The only effort which Knowlarity need to give is on product

promotions so that people become more aware of products like Personal Emergency

Notification Services and its salient features and feel the need for personal safety when they

are on their own in an emergency situation. And then Personal Emergency Notification

Service might become the most successful product in the market of Kolkata for Knowlarity

Communication Pvt.Ltd.

Finally I want to finish by concluding that Knowlarity has come a long way since recession and still growing further. It has bought revolution by introducing cloud telephony system to India and hopefully people of India will definitely understood the power of cloud telephony system and make Personal Emergency Notification Service a success in a very near future.

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I also want to say that this project helped me to learn and experience the corporate life style.

During the project, I met different corporate people who gave me valuable tips and advice

which I should follow during my training and in the future also. So this has been a good

learning experience for me.

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RECOMMENDATION

117

From the findings of the data analysis and the overall project now it is clear that the major

reason for low willingness of the people of Kolkata in the adaption of Personal Emergency

Notification Service is lack of sufficient promotion and proper market research from

Knowlarity Communication Pvt.Ltd. During my project I came across few issues for which I

think people showed lesser interest upon PEN services. In this recommendation column I will

be recommending Knowlarity Communication Pvt.Ltd few developments needed to be done

in the product and also recommend few promotional and marketing tactics which they can

use in their future.

Recommendations regarding Product features

1. Knowlarity should provide ID tags holding an unique identification number to their

customer’s where the company’s toll free contact number is also written so that in a

case of critical emergency when customer is in no situation to make a phone call,

anyone who is near to that customer at that time can call to that number and tell the

unique identification number to the company and with the help of that number

company can find the customer details and make call to the contact persons available

in the customer’s database in order to notify them about the emergency situation.

2. Product should be more user friendly in terms of making calls because in many

emergency cases people wants to make call to only one person but they also wants to

put at least 10 contact numbers in their PEN database. But the system does not allow

doing this. So, I recommend the system to be more user friendly and have more

option to do customization.

3. Because the product is an emergency notification service and can be installed in

mobile phones so, the product should work in very remote areas where there is no

network available for the service providers like Airtel, Aircel or Vodafone.

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Recommendations regarding Product Promotion

1. Knowlarity should start doing mass promotional campaigns in Kolkata for the product

Personal Emergency Notification Service to build up public awareness about

emergency notification services.

2. Promotions should be made in regional language of Kolkata i.e. Bengali. So, that

people could easily understand about the product and its features and uses.

Recommendations regarding Marketing Strategy

1. Knowlarity should do a proper market research in Kolkata and identify the ideal target

market for its product Personal Emergency Notification service.

2. I personally recommend on targeting the female call center employees and parents

whose child is studying outside their hometown and living alone.

Recommendation regarding Pricing Strategy

1. In my opinion Knowlarity needs to re-think upon their pricing policy. Because, most

people in Kolkata do not want to pay Rs.500 for one year subscription, rather they

find it more comfortable to pay a lesser amount and take the service for 1 month and

if they find it good than they can go for monthly recharge scheme like any other

mobile service provider like Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance.

Recommendations regarding Technical Issues

1. Customer using Reliance sometimes faces problems while calling to the toll free

trigger number which Knowlarity communication provides after the installation of

their services. Company should solve this type of issues as soon as possible otherwise

that can create trouble for the sales person while marketing the product.

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2. The trigger number Knowlarity provides is toll free, but in some cases call did not get

connected due to insufficient (Zero) balance on the mobile phone. Knowlarity should

check on this issue as soon as possible.

3. Call got dropped in remote areas which, in an emergency situation might become very

costly for the user. Company should look into this matter as early as possible.

So, these are few recommendations which might help Knowlarity as well as Personal Emergency Notification Service to become a success in Kolkata’s market where the opportunities for technological advancement is very high.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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1. Kotler, Philip. (2009) Marketing Management Millennium Edition. (15-154).

2. Bagozzi, R. P. (2007). The legacy of the technology acceptance model and a proposal for a paradigm shift. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 8(4), 243-254.

3. Canton, L. G. (2007). Emergency management: Concepts and strategies for effective programs. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

4. Cox, J. (2006). Communicating even when the network's down. Retrieved from http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/111606-dtn.html

5. NC4. (2007). Retrieved may 16, 2011, from The National for Crisis and Continuity Coordination: http://www.nc4.us/nc4/OurSvcsESA.php

6. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/06/26/AR2006062601304.html

7. Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Broadcast_System

8. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ExtremeProgramming

9. http://www.fema.gov/emergency/ipaws/

10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowlarity_Communications

11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_communications

13. http://www.knowlarity.com/index.php

14. http://www.knowlarity.com/products/superfax.html

15. http://www.knowlarity.com/products/ercc.html

16. http://www.knowlarity.com/products/supercaller.html

17. http://www.knowlarity.com/products/superdialler.html

18. http://www.knowlarity.com/solutions/enterprise.html#customeivr

19. http://www.knowlarity.com/products/ivrstudio2.html

20. http://www.knowlarity.com/solutions/government.html#nrega

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21. http://www.knowlarity.com/solutions/enterprise.html#supersales

22. http://www.knowlarity.com/solutions/enterprise.html#supersales

23. http://blog.knowlarity.com/

24. http://www.knowlarity.com/company/aboutus.html

25. http://www.knowlarity.com/company/support.html

26. http://www.knowlarity.com/company/privacy.html

27. http://www.knowlarity.com/company/terms.html

28. http://www.knowlarity.com/company/story.html

29. http://ebookbrowse.com/emergency-notification-system-pdf-d95176300

30. http://www.marshall.edu/emergency/mualert/downloads/faq.pdf

31. http://www.ndsu.edu/police_safety/police/safetysecurity.pdf

32. http://enterprise.alcatellucent.com/private/images/public/si/pdf_emergencyNotification.pdf

33. http://www.everybodysafe.com/

34. http://www.everybodysafe.com/howitworks.aspx

35. http://www.everybodysafe.com/emergencycontact.aspx

36. http://www.everybodysafe.com/imok.aspx

37. http://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=715079

38. http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/pdf/efop/efo36955.pdf

39. http://novatofire.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=550

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APPENDICES

Appendix A. Sample Qualitative Survey Questionnaire

Appendix B. Sample Quantitative Survey Questionnaire

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Appendix A.

Qualitative Interview Questionnaire

Paper-Based Survey

Thank you for participating in this interview. The purpose of this interview is to learn

about what you think about Personal Emergencies and the Emergency Readiness and

Response Plans. I have a set of questions that I’d like to ask you and I’ll do my best to

wrap up the interview in 10-20 minutes.

1. What kind of incidents you would consider as an emergency? Can you give me some

examples of emergencies?

2. Please tell me about any emergencies that you have experienced in your daily life.

[Probe] How did you react to this emergency? [If the interviewee indicates that s/he

has not experienced any emergencies]: Have you heard anything from other people

who experienced any emergencies?

3. Would you say that you are well-prepared for any kind of emergencies and disasters?

Why?

4. If you see a person carrying a gun in your neighborhood, what would you do? And

what do you think others should do?

[Probe] What is the best way to notify your neighbors about such emergencies?

5. Please tell me what you know about Personal Emergency Notification System.

If the interview does know about Personal Emergency Notification System, after he/she

has talked about what she/he knows, say: “Thank you. Here is a brochure with more

information about this service.

6. Based on what you know and what you’ve learned from the brochure, what do you

think about this service?

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If the interviewee has never heard of Personal Emergency Notification System before,

give a proper demo of the product and the brochure with more information about this

service.

7. Based on what you just learned about Personal Emergency Notification System,

would you sign up for it?

[Probe 1] If answer is “Yes” – So, what makes you want to sign up?

(Probe about perception of risk, perception of benefit of action, perception of effort

and cost, peer influence, and technical factors.)

[Probe 2] If answer is “No” – Why you don’t want to sign up?



If the interviewee knew about Personal Emergency Notification Service prior to this

interview but did not sign up

8. Can you tell me why you haven’t signed up for the service?



If the interviewee indicated that s/he has already signed up

9. Why did you sign up? (Probe about perception of risk, perception of benefit of action,

perception of effort and cost, peer influence, and technical factors.)

10. What are your experiences so far? (Probe mainly about technical factors.)

11. What else can be done to improve the Personal Emergency Notification System in the

time of emergency situations?

Name: _____________________

E-mail Id: __________________

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Appendix B.

Quantitative Interview Questionnaire

Online Survey

This survey attempts to understand people perception and attitude toward emergency

preparedness, as well as to collect feedback about the use of Personal Emergency

Notification Service. This is a very brief survey and it should take you about 10-20

minutes to complete. There are no known risks associated with this study. Your

participation is voluntary but highly encouraged. We do NOT collect any identifiable

information about you. You are free to skip questions or quit the survey at any time.

You must check appropriate boxes below in order to proceed to the questionnaire.

I am at below 25 years of age.

I am at above 25 years of age.

I freely and voluntarily choose to participate in this study.

This research is being conducted by Subhasish Bhattacharjee, Student of Asia-Pacific

Institute of Management, 1st year. If you have any questions about the research study itself,

please contact: Subhasish Bhattacharjee (email) [email protected] or(email)

[email protected] (telephone) +917503551882.

Next >>

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Please Tick the appropriate option

1. Gender

Female

Male

2. Residency status

Urban Area

Rural Area

3. Have you signed up for Personal Emergency Notification Service?

Yes, I have signed up.

No, I have not tried to sign up.

4. Overall, how likely are you going to sign up for Personal Emergency

Notification Service in the near future?

1-Very un-likely 2 3 4-Netural 5 6 7-Very likely

5. What would motivate you to sign up for PEN services right away? (Check all that

apply)

If someone can convince me it's important.

If something big occurs in my daily life.

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If I can manage the contact details as per my requirements.

If the alert phone calls are free.

Other (please specify): ________________________________

6. And which would be the most important motivational factor?

If someone can convince me it's important.

If something big occurs in my daily life.

If I can manage the contact details as per my requirements.

If the alert phone calls are free.

Other (please specify): ________________________________

Please rate your level of agreement with the following statements:

7. If I sign up for Personal Emergency Notification Service, I will feel that I am

doing something good for myself.

1-Strongly 2 3 4- Neutral 5 6 7-Strongly

Disagree Agree

8. If I sign up for Personal Emergency Notification Service, I will feel safer.


Disagree Agree

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9. If I sign up for Personal Emergency Notification Service, I will be better

prepared for emergencies.


Disagree Agree

10. By signing up for PEN service, I feel that I am doing something good for myself.


Disagree Agree

11. By signing up for Personal Emergency Notification Service, I feel safer.


Disagree Agree

12. By signing up for Personal Emergency Notification Service, I feel that I am

better prepared for emergencies.


Disagree Agree

13. I am fluent with using my mobile devices.


Disagree Agree

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14. It is/seems easy to sign up for Personal Emergency Notification Service.


Disagree Agree

15. I want to have control over managing the contact details as per my requirements.


Disagree Agree

16. I believe I will receive timely information from Personal Emergency Notification

Service.


Disagree Agree

17. I think the information that I receive from Personal Emergency Notification

Service will be relevant to my personal safety.


Disagree Agree

18. With PEN services, I can send emergency information anywhere anytime.


Disagree Agree

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19. I could send some non-emergency messages through Personal Emergency

Notification Service.


Disagree Agree

20. It is likely that I will experience some emergency in my daily life.


Disagree Agree

21. If there were a major emergency, it could have severe impact on me.


Disagree Agree

22. I can take care of myself in the time of an emergency.


Disagree Agree

23. My parents think I should use Personal Emergency Notification Service.


Disagree Agree

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24. My friends think I should use Personal Emergency Notification Service.


Disagree Agree

25. Other people who are important to me think that I should use Personal

Emergency Notification Service.


Disagree Agree

26. Overall I think that using Personal Emergency Notification Service is (or will

be):

1-Worthless 2 3 4- Neutral 5 6 7-Benificial


be):

1-Difficult 2 3 4- Neutral 5 6 7-Easy


be):

1-Right thing 2 3 4- Neutral 5 6 7-Wrong thing

To do to do

29. Any Additional Comments?

!!Thank you very much for completing the questionnaire!!