PIER Systems
Encyclopedia
PIER Systems, Inc. is a company that develops and supports an on-demand
, web-based, communications software called The PIER System. Their product is designed for information management
, crisis communications
, business continuity
, disaster recovery
, public relations
, mass notification
, news monitoring, press release distribution and the management of documents, contacts, inquiries, and media. Their headquarters is located in Bellingham, WA, with additional offices in the Western
and Eastern
regions of the United States
. PIER is an acronym for Public Information Emergency Response.
PIER Systems, inc. services major oil and energy companies such as BP International
, Tesoro Corporation
, Shell
, Marathon Oil Corporation, Enbridge, Valero Energy Corporation and Ameren
; U.S. government organizations such as the U.S. Coast Guard, USDA, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, American Red Cross
, METRO of Harris County (TX)
and the Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency; educational institutes such as University of Houston
, University of North Carolina
, Spelman College
, Agnes Scott College
, and Western Washington University
; and commercial companies such as Albertsons
, Allstate Insurance Company
, Boeing
, and Darigold.
On June 10th, 1999, the Olympic pipeline burst and poured vast amounts of gasoline into Whatcom Creek in Bellingham, WA. The gas created a massive fire that caused major forest damage and killed 3 people. Back then, Gerald Baron was a communications contractor for Equilon Enterprises (a joint venture between Texaco and Shell), which was the managing partner for the Olympic pipeline. He was responsible for communicating with the public and the press to assure them that the crisis was contained. This demanding task inspired him to create The PIER System—a single system that could streamline the communication problems that organizations face during major disasters by providing the tools they need to distribute information. Baron said “We just saw that there were better ways of solving the communication problem that would really facilitate what needed to be done." - Gerald Baron, 1999
In 2003 PIER Systems, Inc. corporation name was changed to AudienceCentral, Inc. The name was changed back to PIER Systems, Inc. in 2007.
Application service provider
An application service provider is a business that provides computer-based services to customers over a network. Software offered using an ASP model is also sometimes called On-demand software or software as a service ....
, web-based, communications software called The PIER System. Their product is designed for information management
Information management
Information management is the collection and management of information from one or more sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences. This sometimes involves those who have a stake in, or a right to that information...
, crisis communications
Crisis communications
Crisis communication is sometimes considered a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation...
, business continuity
Business continuity
Business continuity is the activity performed by an organization to ensure that critical business functions will be available to customers, suppliers, regulators, and other entities that must have access to those functions. These activities include many daily chores such as project management,...
, disaster recovery
Disaster recovery
Disaster recovery is the process, policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to an organization after a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster recovery is a subset of business continuity...
, public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
, mass notification
Notification system
A modern notification system is a combination of software and hardware that provides a means of delivering a message to a set of recipients. For example, notification systems can send an e-mail when a new topic has been added to Wikipedia. The complexity of the notification system is often...
, news monitoring, press release distribution and the management of documents, contacts, inquiries, and media. Their headquarters is located in Bellingham, WA, with additional offices in the Western
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
and Eastern
Eastern United States
The Eastern United States, the American East, or simply the East is traditionally defined as the states east of the Mississippi River. The first two tiers of states west of the Mississippi have traditionally been considered part of the West, but can be included in the East today; usually in...
regions of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. PIER is an acronym for Public Information Emergency Response.
PIER Systems, inc. services major oil and energy companies such as BP International
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
, Tesoro Corporation
Tesoro
Tesoro Corporation is a Fortune 100 and a Fortune Global 500 company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, with 2008 annual revenues of $28.3 billion, and approximately 5,600 employees....
, Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
, Marathon Oil Corporation, Enbridge, Valero Energy Corporation and Ameren
Ameren
Ameren Corporation was created December 31, 1997 by the merger of Missouri's Union Electric Company and the neighboring Central Illinois Public Service Company . It is now a holding company for several power companies and energy companies. The company is based in St...
; U.S. government organizations such as the U.S. Coast Guard, USDA, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, American Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
, METRO of Harris County (TX)
Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas
The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County is a major public transportation agency based in Houston . It operates bus, light rail, future commuter rail, and paratransit service in the city as well as most of Harris County...
and the Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency; educational institutes such as University of Houston
University of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...
, University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...
, Spelman College
Spelman College
Spelman College is a four-year liberal arts women's college located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The college is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman was the first historically black female...
, Agnes Scott College
Agnes Scott College
Agnes Scott College is a private undergraduate college in the United States. Agnes Scott's campus lies in downtown Decatur, Georgia, nestled inside the perimeter of the bustling metro-Atlanta area....
, and Western Washington University
Western Washington University
Western Washington University is one of six state-funded, four-year universities of higher education in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located in Bellingham and offers bachelor's and master's degrees.-History:...
; and commercial companies such as Albertsons
Albertsons
Albertsons is a supermarket chain that operates 463 grocery stores in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Louisiana, Nevada, Southern California, Florida and certain parts of Utah. Supermarket News ranked parent company SuperValu number five in the 2007 "Top 75 North American Food...
, Allstate Insurance Company
Allstate
The Allstate Corporation is the second-largest personal lines insurer in the United States and the largest that is publicly held. The company also has personal lines insurance operations in Canada. Allstate was founded in 1931 as part of Sears, Roebuck and Co., and was spun off in 1993...
, Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
, and Darigold.
History
PIER Systems, Inc. was formed in August, 2000 by Gerald Baron.On June 10th, 1999, the Olympic pipeline burst and poured vast amounts of gasoline into Whatcom Creek in Bellingham, WA. The gas created a massive fire that caused major forest damage and killed 3 people. Back then, Gerald Baron was a communications contractor for Equilon Enterprises (a joint venture between Texaco and Shell), which was the managing partner for the Olympic pipeline. He was responsible for communicating with the public and the press to assure them that the crisis was contained. This demanding task inspired him to create The PIER System—a single system that could streamline the communication problems that organizations face during major disasters by providing the tools they need to distribute information. Baron said “We just saw that there were better ways of solving the communication problem that would really facilitate what needed to be done." - Gerald Baron, 1999
In 2003 PIER Systems, Inc. corporation name was changed to AudienceCentral, Inc. The name was changed back to PIER Systems, Inc. in 2007.
Clients
- On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane KatrinaHurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
devastated New OrleansNew Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, LouisianaLouisianaLouisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. During this time, the United States Coast Guard 8th District, used The PIER System as their means of contact with press and the media. Although they were operating in a facility with no electricity, coast guard officers were able to upload pictures and news updates via cell phone modem to the USCG PIER System website—which then allowed the information to be distributed to media outlets across the country. The USCG 8th District website received more than 2 million visits from people searching for updates and information about affected victims of the tragedy. The USCG’s public affairs team also used PIER to manage, track, and respond to hundreds of inquiries and requests. - On June 28, 2008 during the 2008 California wildfires2008 California wildfires2008 California wildfires may refer to:*Summer 2008 California wildfires*November 2008 California wildfires**Montecito Tea Fire**Sayre Fire**Freeway Complex Fire**Yorba Linda Firestorms...
the United States Forest ServiceUnited States Forest ServiceThe United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass...
and California Department of Forestry and Fire ProtectionCalifornia Department of Forestry and Fire ProtectionThe California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is the State of California's agency responsible for fire protection in State Responsibility Areas of California as well as the administration of the state's private and public forests. It is often referred to as The California Department of...
(Calfire) responded to 1,400 simultaneous wildfires in the Northern California region. At that time their local system was down and they were in need of a mass communication and notification tool. They contacted PIER Systems to create a control center website to be used for communications between the 22 different regional response teams. Within an evening, PIER Systems had created a website and had communications running. The organizations used The PIER System continually for internal and external communication throughout the duration of the fires. - In September 2008 in response to Hurricane IkeHurricane IkeHurricane Ike was the second-costliest hurricane ever to make landfall in the United States, the costliest hurricane ever to impact Cuba and the second most active hurricane to reach the Canadian mainland in the Great Lakes Region after Hurricane Hazel in 1954...
, 12 major organizations including Harris Country Metro, Port of Houston, Marathon Oil, Motiva Port Arthur Refinery, BP, the USCG, and campuses of the University of Houston (TX), used The PIER System as their way of communicating with employees, families, students, press, the media. - On April 24, 2010, the company registered the domain name deepwaterhorizonresponse.com for use by BPBPBP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
and the United States Coast Guard in the Deepwater Horizon oil spillDeepwater Horizon oil spillThe Deepwater Horizon oil spill is an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which flowed unabated for three months in 2010, and continues to leak fresh oil. It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry...
.