BusinessReport.com

When Howard Dennis and his six employees began FirstCall in 1997, they had no idea they would soon become a nationally recognized business.

Today, the Baton Rouge-based emergency notification company has clients in 30 states from coast to coast, 25 employees, revenue of $3.2 million and more than 400 customers, including chemical companies in the Fortune 500.

“From Baton Rouge, we serve a national public and it draws attention to Baton Rouge businesses,” says Dennis, president of FirstCall. “We serve hundreds of customers right here.”

Dennis and his staff are always available to their clients, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. With 1,728 available phone lines, FirstCall is equipped with multiple emergency backup systems, including a natural gas generator, fiber-optic network for outbound message delivery and redundant sites in Philadelphia and Las Vegas.

When Dennis, who already owned Malcolm Travel and Cruise among his several businesses, was urged by his wife to start FirstCall, he couldn’t help but agree.

“Maybe my wife thought I was bored,” he says. “But there was a need for this market. There was only one company doing this at the time, and they weren’t doing too well.”

Dennis partnered with C.J. “Red” Delatte, who was Baton Rouge’s division manager for public safety at the time. Delatte, who had previously served as the director of emergency operations and 911 for St. James Parish, is the only certified emergency manager to work for an emergency communications network.

They hired Matthew Teague, who at the time was an LSU student, as an operator. He was promoted to vice president of technical operations three years later after being accredited in mapping systems. And Jeff Ross, who was a student at Southeastern Louisiana University, also was originally hired as an operator and was promoted to account executive and customer support database coordinator after graduation.

“Here we are, almost 10 years later,” Delatte says.

FirstCall has dealt with many emergency situations since its inception, including a massive East Coast blackout in 2003—when it was one of the only emergency notification companies in the country—and hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005—when employees were in the office for days working off one generator.

“We basically bought out a grocery store and set up bunkers,” Dennis says. “We really came together for Katrina, and my staff did a tremendous job.”

FirstCall’s emergency notification system deals with hurricane situations like Katrina and Rita by informing residents of evacuations and even providing information on available transportation. It also offers a telephone number for residents to call for daily updates on homes and schools. The company also assists chemical plants in keeping nearby neighborhoods informed of any potential hazards, and it maintains inbound call lines for many industrial areas, serving millions of people.

FirstCall also offers several unique features, including a citizen registration system that allows residents to add as many phone numbers to their contact information as they desire. Through multi-lingual translation, the company can deliver messages in more than 140 languages and even contact the hearing impaired through TTY/TDD accessibility.

“They are always open to adopting new features,” says Robbie Swofford, a senior research analyst with the Spartanburg (S.C.) Office of Emergency Management. “The TTD is very unique and you can actually pick what Caller ID number you want, so when they call South Carolina it’s not a Louisiana number and people are more likely to answer. They give you the ability to see a report of how quickly calls went out, [and] they have an unlimited number of fixed lists.”

Swofford’s office became a FirstCall client two years ago. He says his office went through a competitive process of choosing an emergency notification company, looking first at 10 vendors, then six, then two.

“We’ve been very pleased,” Swofford says.

FirstCall also offers concentric ring buffering, in which citizens closest to the emergency are notified first. Clients can select whom to notify by radius, address, intersection, latitude and longitude or even by a freehand drawing tool. Upon completing all notifications, FirstCall sends a report to its client on who answered, who didn’t, who responded (if applicable), total numbers dialed and the start and stop times.

In the wake of the April 16 Virginia Tech tragedy, in which a gunman killed 32 people before committing suicide, Dennis says FirstCall is working with more than 10 universities regarding emergency notification.

“We’re working with them to figure out what services will be best for them,” he says. “Out of all these unfortunate situations, opportunity comes for us to do our job, and we’re proud to provide a good service for our customers and that people trust FirstCall.”