e2Campus has recently announced the results of a customer survey that measured the testing practices of clients' emergency notification systems (ENS). This survey by e2Campus is first to reveal many differences in how schools test their ENS.

e2Campus is an award-winning, CAP compliant, Tier-1 notification system that enables non-technical staff to administer and send custom or predefined messages instantly to the entire campus community for improved crisis communications. This ENS solution has been trusted by more than 700 schools around the country.

As part of the survey, samples were sent to many e2Campus clients on a random basis.

The survey asked about basic ENS testing practices in the clients' schools. The findings are based on the responses of first 100 schools. The study gives out a clear picture about the ENS trends in school campuses.

The most interesting finding is that regular ENS is performed by majority (82 percent) of the schools that participated in the survey.

The remaining 18 percent has the intention to take up regular ENS testing, but either lack the resource or time to translate their plans into action.

Of all the schools that perform ENS testing regularly, Forty-four percent conduct the test once per semester, with a smaller amount 14 percent testing once per month.

Sixteen percent schools however, conduct testing on the basis of needs, not on a schedule.

A full 62 percent of participating schools perform a 'full test' during the year, sending SMS and e-mails to all users, rather than a limited 'test list.' Of those schools, 8 percent perform additional testing at other times during the year, but send messages to a limited testing group instead.

The survey set out different criteria for different schools for judging whether or not a test was successful. Most of the participating schools also differed in how they responded to their testing results.

Many of the administrators stated that they do not review the results in any way, and simply leave it up to staff and students to verify that they received the message.

Several of those schools also stated that the e-mail and SMS tools 'simply work,' so there is no need to review the results.

For some universities, the receiving of the messages on the other end or a loudspeaker announcement meant the success.

Of the schools that do use delivery statistics to analyze the results, testing is usually followed by a questionnaire, or a mass email requesting that the 'failed' users modify their account settings or contact a support department for assistance. 

"Too many 'full-tests' could lead people to ignore real threats or view your test alerts as SPAM, and unsubscribe altogether. It's important to balance the benefit of your system tests versus the possible backlash. But keep in mind; it's not just about testing the ENS service. It's also about testing your own infrastructure, your emergency response plan and policy, as well as managing your staff's and students' expectations of your public safety efforts," explained Ara Bagdasarian, CEO of Omnilert.

The advantages of a foolproof ENS system are countless. There can be no better way than this to stay prepared to deal with the emergencies. However, e2campus survey has drawn our attention to one crucial point and that is: conducting a test, even on a regular basis is not sufficient. More important is to analyze the test results, so that the institutions are able to troubleshoot the situations that may reduce the effectiveness of ENS system at the time of actual emergencies.