Know Your Travelers Are Safe

Kerry Geffert
Product Evangelist, Terra Dotta

London, Manchester, Paris, Nice, Brussels, Barcelona. Destinations that are popular with US education abroad students. And sadly, destinations of tragic events. But then, there are also Port au Prince, Kathmandu, Fukushima and Eyjafjallaj; while not popular destinations for students, these locations have impacted education abroad just the same. One thing all these destinations have in common is that, at some time in the past 10 years, events in these locations caused advisors and administrators to ask two questions: 1) Do I have travelers nearby, or who might be impacted?, and 2) Are my travelers safe?

For each of the events linked to those locations, those two questions generated volumes of emails, telephone calls, faxes, memos, website and social media postings, and more until all travelers were accounted for, once it was determined who should be accounted for. Countless hours were spent by US and onsite staff reaching out to students and travelers, gathering information, and then disseminating any follow-up communication. While absolutely necessary, there has to be a more efficient way.

There is! Terra Dotta’s new AlertTraveler. The list of Terra Dotta clients adding this new solution to their current licenses keeps growing as more and more institutions recognize the value of combining the technology of the new AlertTraveler system with the power of the data contained in their TD software. On September 1, AlertTraveler went live following a beta testing period during the summer. Already, institutions have purchased subscriptions to help keep over 40,000 travelers safe for 12 months. What about your travelers? How will you know if they are safe?

Keeping Travelers Safe

But let’s be clear; knowing your travelers are safe and keeping your travelers safe are two different topics within travel risk management. Fortunately, AlertTraveler provides the tools for both. Through our partnership with iJet International, AlertTraveler delivers the most up-to-date, in-depth and trusted traveler information available. How does the tool know which information to provide your traveler? AlertTraveler automatically defaults to your traveler’s current location so they have a constant, ready resource and reference. In addition, travelers have access to their site destination’s information prior to going abroad. That information comes from the itinerary information already stored in your TD software No need to reenter data from one system to another; the itinerary dates are already there!

If your traveler is headed somewhere not contained in the itinerary, AlertTraveler provides the flexibility to look up information for countries and cities around the world. Country intelligence and emergency contact information is then cached on the traveler’s mobile phone for offline access.

The second manner in which AlertTraveler keeps your travelers safe is through the integrated real-time alert system. Using the same itinerary or subscription information, your travelers will receive automatic alerts to events or activities that may require their attention. Even if a traveler is in a location different from the itinerary or subscriptions, real-time GPS tracking will provide your travelers the same automatic alerts. These alerts are coded by level of severity and provide helpful background information and advice to aid your travelers in responding appropriately. A robust preference tool enables administrators to select the severity levels of alerts that are delivered, including the option to override a traveler’s email preferences for alerts of a certain severity level.

Knowing Travelers are Safe

Despite all efforts to keep our travelers safe, there may arise occasions when it is important to know that they are safe. The final piece of AlertTraveler – the check-in feature – acts as that level of risk management that we hope need not be used. However, should it become necessary, AlertTraveler enables administrators to quickly request status updates from travelers and disseminate important information. Through your administrator view, you can immediately see how many of your travelers have been impacted by an alert; affected travelers are identified based on the same criteria as alerts: an itinerary contained in Terra Dotta software or GPS location (if enabled). No more wondering where your travelers might be should an emergency occur during a break period. No more casting a wide net to avoid missing travelers while potentially confusing unaffected travelers. No more hoping the correct information is conveyed to others; all recipients receive the same message and details from you.

Like the alerts, check-ins can use a three-prong approach: SMS texts, push notifications and email. Because international SMS texting incurs additional costs, clients have the flexibility of purchasing blocks of message units above and beyond those received with their annual subscription. This permits administrators to control the instances, typically the most extreme severity situations, when texts are deployed. Otherwise, requests are sent using push notifications on the app (travelers must be connected to the internet by wifi or cellular data), or by email.

The built-in redundancies for communicating with your travelers reduce the likelihood that they become unreachable. Of course, systems like AlertTraveler function at their best when all parties cooperate and participate. Integration with your current TD software provides continuity and familiarity for your administrative staff; users find it quite intuitive. Buy-in from travelers is fundamental to any emergency response plan, so Terra Dotta has worked with our clients to develop a system that is robust and dependable while being sensitive to maintaining the confidentiality of personal data. Therefore, software administrators are able to set permission levels for who is notified of impacted travelers and their responses.

Once you have issued a check-in request, AlertTraveler lets you keep track of who has responded as being safe, who needs help, and who has not yet responded through a convenient report. From there you can issue reminders and/or send a follow-up email. Easily export this report for quick sharing with other members of your crisis management team as appropriate.

AlertTraveler – Peace of Mind

In sum, here are just a few of the reasons our clients are selecting AlertTraveler as a central element of their crisis response plans:

As a plug in for Terra Dotta software, you can be up and running quickly. No learning a new system.
No need to reenter itinerary data; itineraries are pulled in from your current TD software.
Know ahead of time the AlertTraveler status of your travelers and communicate with travelers who have not yet registered the AlertTraveler app.
Be comforted in knowing your travelers are receiving the most up-to-date traveler information from iJet International.
Reduce the time it takes to identify and communicate with your affected travelers.
Communicate instantly with your travelers via SMS text, push notifications and/or email.
Convenient reporting keeps you and your crisis management team informed as to the status of each of your impacted travelers.

We all purchase various forms of insurance to safeguard the people and things we hold dear. At the same time we hope that we never need to use that insurance. Treat your institution’s travelers the same way. AlertTraveler provides the peace of mind gained through tools to keep your travelers safe, along with the latest in technology should you need to verify their safety. With AlertTraveler you can know your travelers are safe.

If you would like to see a demonstration of this powerful system, email services@terradotta.com.