Pentad Systems’ program turns PCs into internal alert
system
By Jeanne Gustafson
Spokane software developer Pentad Systems LLC has developed a
computer network-based alarm system, called LANalarm, that it hopes will become
the standard for such systems, and that could lead to a 20 percent increase in
revenues this year for the company.
The product is a
software system that is installed on business, school, or government agency
computer systems, called local area networks, or LANs. With the software,
employees can trigger an emergency alarm with a mouse click or a couple of key
strokes, alerting all other users of the same computer network of the nature and
exact location of the emergency—silently or with a sound.
Company
President Randy Nichols declines to disclose the company’s revenues, but says
the product could take the company into the national market over the next few
years.
Nichols says Pentad Systems has added four employees over the
last year, bringing its total work force to more than 20. The recent hires
include an engineer who spends about half of his time adding software features
to LANalarm and a sales manager who currently is focusing on selling the
product.
With LANalarm, Nichols says the company now has three or four
solid products that he believes are ready for the national market.
“I see in the next three years we could end up with
regional-based sales staff. LANalarm is LANalarm whether you’re in Kentucky or
Spokane,” Nichols says.
He says Pentad Systems has grown steadily since he and partners
Jeff Bosma and Mark Barnes founded it in May 2003.>
“We’ve been on a 20 to 30 percent growth curve every year,” he
says. “It’s a good growth curve, but we’ve not wanted to explode yet. We didn’t
feel we had products ready for prime time,” he adds, referring to marketing
products nationally.
LANalarm now is about ready for such national exposure, Nichols
says. It has been tested at the local office of a Washington state agency for
eight months in a pilot project that could lead to a statewide contract, Nichols
says. In addition, the program is being used by some private schools here and
will be part of a district-wide emergency management test in the Medical Lake
School District this spring, he says. Negotiations with other public school
districts are ongoing, he says.
Nichols says the LANalarm software is an outgrowth of another
software application that Pentad Systems has been selling to medical and dental
offices for four years. That application allows a medical office to call a
medical professional using a sound produced on a computer, rather than the
old-fashioned call lights that used to be mounted over the doors in exam rooms.
Nichols says about 100 medical and dental practices are using the original
medical version of the software, called the Pentad Bell.
“We took the dental and medical model, and modified it. We made
it silent instead of audible, and we created a visual panel. When the alarm is
initiated, everyone else’s computer has a big alarm panel that flashes on their
screen,” Nichols says. He says only a software administrator can shut the alarm
off once it is triggered, preventing someone from inadvertently shutting off
their alarm without seeing it.
Nichols says Pentad Systems customizes the software and installs
it on a company’s network, with no additional hardware needed to operate it. The
main program is loaded onto one of the company’s networked computers, and
“client software” is loaded on all of the other computers on that network.
Nichols says The Oaks, a private school in Spokane Valley, uses a computer in
its front office for the main program. Each individual computer that is
connected to the system is assigned a logical name that identifies its location,
so if a person sets off the alarm from that computer, everyone else on the
system sees the alarm and where it’s coming from, Nichols says.
The system can be customized for a client, Nichols says. For
example, the state agency chose two different types of alarms to be displayed on
its user screens. One of those alarms flashes an “evacuate the building”
message, in case of an emergency such as a fire or bomb threat, and the other
flashes a “Please help me” message, in case of a medical emergency or potential
assault, Nichols says. A third type of alarm used frequently by schools is a
“lockdown” notice.
The alarm is broadcast only on the computer network, and to a
designated security person who would determine whether to call for outside
help.
He says other network-type alarm systems use instant-messaging
or e-mail technology, which don’t give the immediate notification that LANalarm
does. He says a lot of universities have begun asking students to register their
cell phone numbers for text-message alerts in case of an emergency, but it takes
time for a security officer to broadcast such a message.
LANalarm would be useful in educational settings, where there is
usually a computer in every classroom, he says.
The software is priced in two different ways, Nichols says.
Users can license it for between 50 cents and $1.50 a month for each computer on
which it will be loaded, or they can buy the software outright at a cost of
between $500 and $10,000, depending on how many computers would be on the
system, he says.
Other Pentad products Nichols says are ripe for the national
market are business software systems. One is for managing equipment maintenance,
another is for time clock and payroll use, and a third is a business training
module, he says. Pentad Systems is preparing to sign an agreement for its
equipment maintenance management software with an aluminum company in
Iceland, he says.
Pentad’s Spokane office is located at 17 W. Falcon Ave., near
Whitworth University, and the company recently added a Portland office to market
its products. The company offers Web site design and Web hosting in addition to
its software products.
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