Tech company moves to Akron to tune method of alerting thousands of cell-phone users
By Katie Byard
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Wednesday, Jul 28, 2010
Sirens and alarms have limited range. But many people have a cell phone close by.
A local 36-year-old entrepreneur is finding a growing market nationwide for a system that uses cell phones to receive emergency alerts.
Scott Dettling's Inspiron Logistics sells its systems to local governments, hospitals, universities, military bases and others who want the ability to reach large groups of people quickly.
The company has doubled the number of customers to 600 in the past two years — despite the recession.
''Citizen and employee safety is not something that people readily cut back on,'' Dettling said.
Dettling recently moved the business — whose system sends text, as well as voice notifications — from Cuyahoga Falls to the United Building at Main and Market streets in downtown Akron. The new location has more than doubled the company's space to nearly 7,000 square feet.
Akron lured the company with a grant to pay for moving expenses and employee training. The company will today have a celebration of its move, inviting city officials and downtown business leaders to a reception.
Inspiron could receive as much as $100,000 over five years if it meets its goal of increasing its job rolls from 16 to 80, said Rita Weinberg, who works in Akron's economic development office.
Dettling said he had a personal reason for liking his company's new home. From his window, he can look out and see the Hermes Building, across Market Street. For more than 70 years it was home to Dettling Bros. Florist & Seed Co., operated by his grandfather John Dettling and John's brothers.
Dettling said his company, which will have sales of about $2.5 million this year and turned a profit for the first time last year, is on track for big growth.
The health-care industry is a natural customer. All of the area's hospitals have signed contracts with Inspiron in the last year or so, Dettling said.
Recent health scares — such as swine flu — have created a demand for sending notifications to health-care providers. Hospitals also use the system to call in extra help.
Inspiron's customers pay an annual fee to use the Web-based service to send alerts, as well as non-emergency messages. In addition to cell phones, the service sends notifications to pagers, traditional phones and computers ''to ensure individuals are informed.''
Inspiron's main computer servers are in Akron and there are backup systems in Stark County and Phoenix.
Emergency alerts include information about dangerous weather, chemical spills, mass power outages and bomb threats.
Dettling first began marketing the emergency notification system from a table in a local coffee shop. ''Free WiFi and unlimited refills,'' he said.
That was about five years ago — after he returned to the area from Washington, D.C., where he worked as a telecommunications consultant.
It was in Washington, where emergency drills are fairly frequent, that Dettling first thought about a business harnessing the popularity and power of cell phones.
Others also were turning cell phones into broadcasters. But the mass murder shootings on the Virginia Tech college campus in 2007 brought competitors ''out of the woodwork,'' he said.
Valerie De Rose, coordinator of Summit County's Emergency Management Agency, said the county used a 2008 state homeland security grant to buy Inspiron's system to send text alerts to first responders, such as the county's hazardous materials team.
Previously, the county had to use modems to dial up individual pagers.
Dettling believes Inspiron is among only a handful of companies that have proved successful at sending extremely large numbers of notifications at once.
''Emergency notification is not hard when you're trying to send alerts to 1,000 people,'' he said.
''But when you have a premier university that sends 250,000 alerts in 25 minutes, that's where the experience is an absolute necessity.''
Dettling is using his company's computer expertise to cut expenses and land customers.
''We don't travel; we do everything virtually,'' Dettling said. ''We reduced our sales overhead by 85 percent.''
Dettling said his potential clients are busy people — mayors, emergency management chiefs, university officials — and they don't want to be tied up in meetings.
Initial contact is made over the phone and potential customers sign on to a company Web site for demonstrations.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.
