Interested vendors

University of Alberta Notification System

The University of Alberta is seeking new and innovative notification components for U of A Alerts, the University's emergency notification system. Interested vendors are instructed to propose as specified.

U of A Alerts is the complete suite of notification tools used by the University of Alberta. U of A Alerts is triggered by an interface, owned and maintained by the University of Alberta, called Red Alert.

Red Alert is designed to send out notifications through system components when an emergency occurs at any of the five University of Alberta campuses. By pressing "one button", a notification is sent off to all components.

All Red Alert's notifications sent to third-party components will consist of the following
parameters:

  • A short message containing up to 219 characters
  • A detailed message of any size
  • A URL
  • A short message that will contain the name of the affected campus

To be successful, a vendor should provide a web-service API that will allow Red Alert to initiate vendor supplied services such as SMS, email, and telephones.

It is preferable the vendor API is a Restful Web Service. However, SOAP or XML is also a viable alternative. In addition, every call made to the vendor service must result in a response confirming the request was successful.

For security, it is preferable that a vendor provides an API key to their web-services. However, if an API key is unavailable, a secure login method must be provided. For security purposes, all calls must be made through HTTPS.

Components that are triggered by e-mail are also acceptable. Such components must include provisions for verifying the triggering e-mail by multiple means.

Proposal pricing must be clear.
Proposals must include summaries of one-time costs, identification of license fees and license durations as necessary.
Proposals must identify per use costs for activation.
Proposals must identify any costs for maintaining recipient lists if necessary.


U of A Alerts current components include:

  • Desktop interrupt software
  • Classroom clocks and signage
  • E-mails
  • Digital display signage
  • Mobile applications

To discuss whether your component would be suitable for the U of A, please contact:
Adam Conway | 780-498-2663 | oem.manager@ualberta.ca

All purchases for the University of Alberta are subject to the University's Supply of Goods and Services Policy, which may require a competitive bid process to be undertaken.