Benedictine University in Lisle Illinois decided to give ZipBridge a try after becoming frustrated with the call quality of the push to talk group communication tool on their cell phones. They knew they needed a way to communicate with the Command team so after hearing about ZipBridge they decided to signup for a trial account, but they had no idea they would see value from the outbound conference calling service while they were in the trial phase.

Michi Dubes the Emergency Preparedness Manager/Safety Specialist at Benedictine had setup the trial account with ZipBridge and entered all the Command team staff members so they could test out the service. During their first two test calls they were impressed with call quality and the quickness with which the service brought the members together on the phone. However what they really liked was the redundancy of the service.

“The team was impressed that ZipBridge doesn’t just stop at one call attempt to the team member”, reports Michi, “if the member happens to not answer their cell which can be an issue when working in a basement office, ZipBridge sends a text, calls a backup phone and then sends an email if that is not answered. The person has to really not be available not to be able to get on a ZipBridge conference.”

The folks at Benedictine were planning to enroll for the service at the end of their trial, but then something happened that made the decision very easy. It was about 5pm and tornadoes were reported in the area and the Chief of University Police knew a decision needed to be made quickly if evening classes should be cancelled. The Chief wanted the advice and input from the Command team so he logged into his computer and launched a ZipBridge call. Within 30 seconds 7 members of the team were all on a call ranging in functional areas from academics to student life. Based on the input of the various parties Benedictine decided on a course of action.

The post incident feedback was that a correct and timely decision was made thanks to quick input from the team. Benedictine was glad they had ZipBridge on hand and happily converted from trial to subscriber status!