Salesforce.com
Leader in Software-as-a-Service selects 3n to provide first-class notification capability.
Salesforce.com is the worldwide leader in Software-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service. The company has revolutionized the way that its 43,600 customers around the globe manage and share business information over the Internet.
Challenge
As salesforce.com expanded its workforce into numerous countries and home offices, the need for a reliable system for communicating internally with employees at a moment’s notice in an emergency became evident. With a large, diverse group of employees using different contact devices and a crisis management team that had been depending on email blasts and a manual phone tree for emergency communication and to assemble the team, salesforce.com required an emergency notification system that was efficient, dependable, and nimble.
Solution
Salesforce.com selected the 3n InstaCom™ mass notification system for its emergency communication platform. Key decision-makers chose the 3n system because of its robust feature set and the delivery of 3n InstaCom via 3n’s unique ACT-SaaSSM service, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model with multiple data centers in an active-active configuration. Salesforce.com was very interested in a SaaS solution because its own service is based on the same innovative model. 3n is the only mass notification provider to offer this level of security, performance, and availability.
With the implementation of the 3n system, one person is now able to handle the emergency communication needs of the entire enterprise.
“We’ve gotten a great response from our employees and crisis management team,” said Catherine Nichols, manager, enterprise risk, at salesforce.com. “3n InstaCom is bringing our crisis management to a higher level.”
Salesforce.com set up numerous groups within the 3n system to mimic the company’s organizational structure, enabling the team to handle emergencies by department, office location, geographic territory, or across the entire enterprise. This flexibility has given salesforce.com the ability to respond to events of any size with precise, targeted messaging that limits the potential for miscommunication.
Results
- Quicker crisis management team response to emergencies. Prior to using 3n InstaCom, assembling the crisis management team took 20 minutes. 3n InstaCom cuts that time to five minutes. With faster, more informative notifications and instructions, 3n InstaCom has also helped crisis team members work together to solve crises instead of working independently in “silos.”
- Faster messaging in a crisis. Prior to using 3n InstaCom, salesforce.com addressed emergency situations by sending an email to the affected employees and hoping they got the message. With 3n InstaCom, they are able to send messages to multiple pathways and confirm receipt. Also, as the team did not have a method for designating preferred contact methods for each employee, it was difficult to reach people on the first contact attempt when contacting large numbers of employees. 3n InstaCom accelerates the process of reaching people successfully with built-in intelligent notification rules.
- Better visibility into and ability to respond to employee safety concerns. With real-time reporting of communication responses, salesforce.com can verify the safety of employees in a quick and efficient manner. If employees cannot be reached, crisis management team members can easily escalate a notification to their managers.
3n InstaCom in Action
Wildfires
Salesforce.com has offices in Southern California and numerous remote employees in the region. When the 2007 wildfires swept through the area and required the emergency evacuation of over 1 million residents, salesforce.com wanted to ensure employees had evacuated safely and offer assistance if needed. The fastest way for salesforce.com to reach these employees was via the 3n InstaCom system, which cycled through every device for which the company had employee contact information, looking for operable communication paths. Thanks to its use of the 3n system, salesforce.com was able to reach all remote Southern California-based employees to confirm their safety.
Steam pipe explosion
Salesforce.com’s New York office was affected when a steam pipe exploded next to its office building. With the 3n InstaCom system, the company was able to verify that employees were safe and un-injured and provided office closure information to employees.
“With the 3n system, we were able to contact people outside the office who didn’t have access to their email accounts or didn’t know to check their email for updates. The system worked flawlessly – we were able to reach all employees in the New York area and confirm their safety. We also used the system to notify employees when the office would be re-opening.”
- Catherine Nichols, manager, enterprise risk, salesforce.com