New web application is focused on office tenant safety training

Real Estate Weekly, Feb 8, 2006

There are an estimated 11,000 class A, high-rise office towers throughout the metropolitan United States. While each of these buildings offers state-of-the-art operating systems and the latest amenities for tenant comfort, most lack an adequate life-safety training program.

Although municipal building-and-safety codes universally mandate annual tenant and occupant training, this training usually takes the form of live sessions, videos, fire drills and printed manuals. All of these lack standardization, cannot be easily updated and are often too inconsistent.

In an effort to address this critical void, Building Safety Solutions, Inc. created BSSonline, the first web-based, building-specific application that provides building occupants with knowledge that could save their lives. Using advanced 3D graphics and voiceover narration, BSSonline provides comprehensive information on how to respond to various emergency scenarios, with screens that detail floor plans, exit routes and evacuation procedures.

The fully digitized program prepares tenants for a variety of emergency situations, ranging from terrorist attacks to hurricanes and tornados. BSSonline's state-of-the-art technology is unique to every building, scalable, easy to use and accessible to landlords and tenants 24 hours a day. The desktop program ensures consistent emergency preparedness training.

In a safety-conscious world, BSSonline's debut is particularly timely and relevant. Live, in-person training lacks standardization, is time consuming and inefficient and lacks measurement mechanisms to gauge effectiveness. BSSonline represents the first significant advancement in emergency life-safety training, creating a new paradigm for the digital age.

To date, 85-plus major buildings, including landmark properties such as San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid, Rockefeller Center in New York City and the John Hancock Center in Chicago, have purchased award-winning BSSonline. Buildings magazine named it one of the "100 Top New Products" of 2004.