Notification Services from Verizon Business Will Enable Immediate, Flexible Communications for Fairleigh Dickinson University

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. -- Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) will be able to quickly notify its 12,000-plus student body, staff and faculty of unforeseen events and disruptions such as snow days, floods and major schedule changes, using Notification Services from Verizon Business.

These new capabilities will enable the university to personalize and customize communications to more effectively manage changing conditions. Students, faculty, administrators and staff will be able to choose how they want to be reached during scheduled and unforeseen events -- including text or voice messages, e-mail, or a combination of these methods. The text-messaging options make the system ideal for students and other highly mobile groups.

Additionally, this service provides two-way interactivity between senders such as college administrators and recipients such as students and professors. FDU, New Jersey’s largest private university, is situated on two campuses in the state - The College at Florham in Madison and The Metropolitan Campus in Teaneck.

“Keeping in touch with our student body, faculty and staff during planned and unforeseen events is important to helping ensure our university continues to operate efficiently,” said CIO Neal Sturm of Fairleigh Dickinson University. "We know from experience that when something unexpected occurs, every minute matters.

“With an effective communications system in place, we can provide immediate and valuable information to our students on either campus.”

Nancy Gofus, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of Verizon Business, said, “Verizon Business is in the business of providing solutions to our customers. This is a great example of how we are using innovative technology to help universities and colleges enhance their ability to communicate quickly and effectively.”

With the ability to reach recipients through a variety of communication methods, Notification Services from Verizon Business supply an effective alternative to e-mail-only communications. E-mail can take minutes and sometimes hours to reach students who might be roaming around campus all day or commuting to school.

This offering replaces outdated cumbersome and time-consuming manual calling trees that were once the norm. It provides advanced features, including automatic conference bridging, real-time performance tracking, priority delivery and message-receipt tracking for more effective communication. Additionally, authorized users of the system can create and activate alerts via the Web-based portal or any telephone, adding a layer of convenience and flexibility.

The service uses a highly resilient, multiserver architecture with built-in redundancy, overcoming the shortcomings of traditional, premises-based notification systems with single points-of-failure. By delivering timely communications via a hosted notification and message delivery platform, enterprise customers can gain a flexible and cost-efficient method to reach virtually anyone, on most any device.

Verizon Business offers a broad range of business continuity services. Through its comprehensive consulting and planning services, customers can conduct business impact assessments, network assessments, gap analyses, strategy workshops, asset inventory development and vulnerability assessments. The portfolio also includes a virtual file-sharing service, Resilient Network Attached Storage, that centralizes file management, security and business recovery functions, and helps ensure efficient remote access to critical business files.

In addition, Verizon Business offers a wide range of communications services that can be critical components of any business continuity plan. These services include resilient voice and data networking, security services, information technology and data center solutions, network-embedded applications, managed network services and satellite services, as well as a variety of collaboration and conferencing, remote access and telecommuting services.

About Verizon Business
Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), is a leading provider of advanced communications and information technology (IT) solutions to large business and government customers worldwide. Combining unsurpassed global network reach with advanced technology and professional service capabilities, Verizon Business delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world. For more information, visit www.verizonbusiness.com.