Real time communication is key

Drum Roll

by Patti Ghezzi

May 1, 2008

W hen wildfires swept through parts of southern California last fall, emergency workers used a Web-based program to talk to each other in real time. The tool helped them make the decision to evacuate half a million people. The technology that made such lifesaving communication possible came from an Augusta-based company led by a nuclear engineer turned entrepreneur. Nadia Butler has spent 30 years pushing technology into uncharted territory. As CEO of Emergency Services Integrators (ESi), a crisis information management technology company, she is exploring ways technology can provide a "common operating picture" to help manage large-scale events, such as the Final Four basketball tournament, and coordinate efforts among local, state and national agencies during
emergencies, such as hurricanes, forest fires and terrorist attacks.

"It's incredibly gratifying to know that our product is making a difference," says Butler, recently honored as a Woman of the Year finalist by Women in Technology. ESi's flagship product, WebEOC, was the first to license users on a per-server basis, allowing access to an unlimited number of people. "When you have an emergency, you don't know how many users you'll need," Butler says. "You don't want to spend time negotiating with a vendor during an emergency."

The company has more than 450 clients, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Delta Air Lines and Lockheed Martin. Many city and county governments around the country depend
on the technology, including DeKalb and Gwinnett counties. Clients use the software for logistics ranging from benign – such as coordinating road closings and rerouting vehicles – to letting agencies such as the
American Red Cross and animal control know which areas in California were being evacuated due to raging fires, enabling them to speed their resources to the right place.

"What they need in a time of crisis is real-time information that is accurate," Butler says.

Butler's acumen in technology emerged early. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, she and her family moved to New Providence, N. J., when she was three (and she became a U.S. citizen in 1963). While she was growing up, she and her father, a researcher for Bell Laboratories, discussed the latest techno-gadgets at the dinner table. They predicted users would someday be able to write information on CDs, years before such technology became widely available, she recalls.

Butler graduated at the top of her class in 1976 and earned a degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Maryland. Her first job was with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and at 23 served as the U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna, which at the time was the world's pre-eminent group in nuclear power.

She moved swiftly into management, where she was often the lone woman in the boardroom. She held positions at a variety of companies, including working in business development for the French nuclear technology firm NUMATIC, where she crossed paths with the Savannah River Site in 1994. Eventually she was named vice president of operations for Thermo Technology Ventures, where she managed the formation of new business ventures based on emerging U.S. Department of Energy technologies. Her role was to determine whether governmentdeveloped innovations had commercial potential.

"The belief is that when technology is sponsored by federal funds, it should be brought to the marketplace," Butler says. "Technology that is supported by tax dollars needs to be taken to the marketplace." She notes that Tang, the ubiquitous orange drink consumed by the Brady Bunch generation, was originally developed by the government for astronauts, as were treadmills and other gym equipment now used by the masses.

At the Savannah River Site, a nuclear materials processing center near Augusta, Emergency Services Manager Jim Fulton pitched Butler an idea. He wanted to use technology to integrate telephone and computerbased 911 dispatch services on a single server. His vision was to make a customized communication system that would be affordable even for small communities. Butler's interest was piqued. "It was a ready market," she says. "Everyone pays into the 911 system."

Butler helped Fulton and two other co-founders with their business plan, and ESi was launched in 1996. Butler "watched from the sidelines" for a few years as the Universal Dispatcher hit the market. In 2005, the company hired Butler, and two years later she was named CEO. Curt MacDonald, one of the company's founding partners, says hiring Butler, whom the founders had known for years, was a "great, great find. She's a great leader, and she inspires others around her." As their company expanded to include more regional offices around the country, MacDonald wanted a CEO who could maintain the cohesive culture ofthe company. "She knew our company, because she has followed us since our inception."

Universal Dispatcher remains in use in some communities. ESi still provides support, although it no longer sells the product. Its main product is WebEOC, which Butler says is the first Web-enabled crisis information management system. The system allows clients to use the technology, from responding to health care emergencies to managing daily operations and customer relations, without having to be on-site. The company provides around-the-clock support and consulting services for businesses looking to embrace WebEOC.

The software users include hundreds of counties, NASA facilities, the Department of Homeland Security, AT&T and the government of Australia. British authorities used it to manage the London subway bombing in 2005, and China is looking at its possible use for the 2008 summer Olympics.