Comprehensive software
development and
integration
The Customer
HipLink Software (formerly Semotus Solutions) is a profitable, woman-owned business that was founded in 1993 and has its corporate headquarters in the heart of Silicon Valley, California. Over the last 15 years, HipLink Software has introduced numerous technological innovations and has been the premier provider of software for wireless text and voice communication to global organizations of all sizes. Since its first project implementation in 1995 with Nextel, HipLink Software has successfully deployed across multiple verticals, benefiting millions and meeting their needs for IT alerting, alarm management, emergency response, mass notification and business continuity. Their customers include names like Wells Fargo, Unisys, Kaiser Permanente, Honeywell, Hewlett Packard, St. John Medical Center, O’Hare International Airport, General Motors Corporation, Toronto Police Department and many more.
THE PROBLEM AND THE FOLIO3 SOLUTION
The client was interested in expanding their emergency messaging services for their geographically dispersed users by extending its own domain to integrate IPAWS (Integrated Public Alert & Warning System). IPAWS is a popular alerting system designed to disseminate emergency alerts to the masses, providing an amalgamated API for disseminating messages to alert authorities like WEA (Wireless Emergency Alerts, also known as CMAS), NWEM (Non-Weather Emergency Messaging), EAS (Emergency Alert System) and Public Feeds. The client required a simple and easy-to-use user interface in the existing HipLink Web Administration Console with an intuitive User Interface because the existing IPAWS implementations being offered by competitors had far too many complexities for the average users.
As a trusted development partner for HipLink, Folio3 evaluated the project and the client’s UI design requirements. Following initial discussions regarding the client’s design requirements and the feedback on suggested ideas, the team started working aggressively on scheduling a comprehensive software development and integration with IPAWS.
The team at Folio3 mandated the development of a an array of functional abilities to HipLink including the ability to create multiple IPAWS profiles, mark a profile as Active Profile, create Target COG (Collaborating Operating Group) Profiles, dispatch messages to IPAWS using a unified send panel, select/deselect multiple channels (alerting authorities) from send panel, alongside the ability to send panel to adjust itself to the requirements of each and every of the selected channels, select geographical area (from GIS map) for IPAWS messages, view delivery reports of the sent messages, abort an active IPAWS message and view all messages targeted for the current IPAWS COG Profile. The team also proposed and implemented a number of integrity assurances including strict validations at the User Interface, ensuring message delivery to IPAWS, conformance to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) standards and maximum coverage of details and message arguments.
In order to develop a robust solution for the client, Folio3’s expert development team extracted every minute detail required by remaining in constant contact with the FEMA personnels to fine-tune the requirements further in accordance with the necessary standardizations, proposing and re-recommending a wide range of interface changes where needed.
The deployed IPAWS solution provided by Folio3 proved to be very effective and efficient, acknowledged highly by HipLink and its users as very intuitive and easy to understand, as it allows the user maximum control of the system with instant delivery reports generation and delivery status alerts while meeting all the necessary security standardizations. The IPAWS integration is a marketable feature which went on to become a valuable asset for HipLink, leading to notable increases in sales and revenue.
TECHNOLOGY USED
Since IPAWS uses CAP (Common Alerting Protocol) as a protocol, the expert Folio3 team, when extending the HipLink solution created a home-grown CAP library which consumed the IPAWS API and translated it to be processed by HipLink. Alongside the CAP protocol, several adjustments were made to the ArcGIS Maps implementation by translating the coordinates to WGS-84 on the fly, as IPAWS only accepts WGS-84 coordinates system while numerous validations were made, both at the User Interface and the API end, which offered a seamless and intuitive interface to the user. At the backend, HipLink has been programed to dispatch messages and receive/persist delivery reports even if the user had left the screen or logged-out from the system.
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408 365 4638
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941 E. Charleston Road, Suite 101, Palo Alto, CA, 94303
