RISMEDIA, June 10, 2008-Risk Mitigation Systems, a technology and services company that helps businesses, universities and other organizations optimally plan for and respond to emergencies, announced that ERA Buckhead Realty will be utilizing Virtual Guardian EscortTM, built on the FIRSTResponder platform, to help protect their employees.
The company says that violence towards real estate agents has become a growing concern in the industry. According to federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, five real estate workers died as a result of “assaults or violent acts” in 2005. In addition, about 25% of respondents to a National Association of Realtors survey said that they had been involved in unsafe “incidents or harassing situations” while on the job.
“The safety of real estate agents continues to be a serious matter. Agents are often meeting with strangers at vacant properties as a normal part of their daily job,” says Mike Pinkus, CEO and founder, Risk Mitigation Systems. “Virtual Guardian EscortTM was created specifically to monitor the location and safety of a company’s employees and provides agents with the peace of mind that is necessary for them to do their jobs effectively.”
ERA Buckhead agents will register with the Virtual Guardian EscortTM system, a solution built upon the FIRSTResponder platform, via phone when they leave to meet a client. After a predetermined amount of time, the system will periodically call the agent to check on their status until the agent turns the notification off. If no answer is received, the system launches an alarm, putting security into action to find the agent and ensure their whereabouts and safety. All response, callback information and incident response is recorded. FIRSTResponder is an incident response technology platform that bridges the gap between an emergency action plan and the tactical responses needed to effectively respond to an event.
“ERA is nationally recognized as the technology brand within the Realogy family,” explains Will Colley, president of ERA Buckhead Realty. “We are often asked by our parent company, Realogy, to pilot new programs and technologies before it is rolled out to the entire franchise. Agent security continues to be of utmost importance to us and we welcome the opportunity to pilot Virtual Guardian EscortTM. We believe this will improve our agent’s morale as well as our own agent recruiting.”
ERA Buckhead Realty, formerly Buckhead Real Estate Group, has been in the Atlanta real estate market for 11 years. With four offices and more than 300 employees across the Metro Atlanta area, ERA Buckhead Realty is the number one ERA Franchise in Georgia, and was named one of the top 500 brokers in the United States by RISMedia.
For more information, visit www.riskmitigationsystems.com
