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CONSULARISWorldReach Software Newsletter

Consularis is derived from the Latin word, Consul. It referred to the Roman governors of provinces as far back as 400 A.D.

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INSIDE CONSULARISSpotlight Series Ms. Pam Aung Thin:A Common Mandate

Enhanced Consular Client Interaction with New Version of WorldReach’s Consular Products Suite

ICAO 2010 Recap

Consularis welcomes article submissions from those in the consular world. For more information on how to submit an article or suggest a story idea, please send us an email at: [email protected]

A COMMON MANDATEThey operate across time zones and geograph-ic borders, aiding citizens in a variety of ways from financial assistance, medical attention, to evacuation and repatriation, to name just a few. In crisis incidents they field a flood of inquiries regarding loved ones and in some in-stances they have the ability to provide regis-tration and inquiry services for citizens. They are the Red Cross.

You would not be remiss to think that we were describing the activities of a Ministry of For-eign Affairs (MFA). Both organizations follow a similar mandate and often these two organiza-tions will work alongside each other to provide the best available care to a citizen in need.

Another area where the Red Cross and MFAs share a common role is in handling the ris-ing expectations from the public with regard to delivery of these services. It is with this rising expectation that social media has generated a larger profile as an additional means for these organizations to communicate bi-directionally with citizens.

Changing communication expectations from populationConsularis spoke with Ms. Aung Thin about the way the Canadian Red Cross reaches their target audience. According to Ms. Aung Thin one of their biggest challenges today is being able to keep up with expectations from the general population on how they want to reach an organization like the Canadian Red Cross. She explains that the Canadian Red Cross uses a multifaceted approach in the way they reach their target audience. Traditional communi-cation channels like offices across Canada, 1-800 numbers and their website remain very important ways to reach the audience.

Clear and well defined communication be-tween responding agencies and the govern-ment is imperative when dealing with the pub-lic. The Red Cross have signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU), which formalize the working relationship such as initial triaging of emergency calls, with all levels of govern-ments in Canada, from municipal, provincial to federal level.

SPOTLIGHT SERIES: This issue features a discussion on social media and its rising us-age in crisis situations, through an examination of recent published results from an American Red Cross survey and a discussion with Ms. Pam Aung Thin, National Director of the Canadian Red Cross.

CONSULARISWorldReach Software NewsletterWorldReach Software NewsletterWorldReach Software NewsletterWorldReach Software NewsletterWorldReach Software NewsletterWorldReach Software Newsletter W

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A COMMON MANDATE [CONTINUED]

The best an orga-nization can do is to formulate a clear policy on the use of social media

Ms. Aung Thin further says that their sister or-ganization, the American Red Cross, seen by many as one of the leaders amongst Not-for-Profit organizations (NPO) in social media con-ducted a survey of the U.S. population earlier in 2010 entitled “Social Media in Disasters and Emergencies”. The results of the survey were released in August 2010. The survey of over 1,000 participants gauged respondents’ usage of social media in their daily lives and then their usage of social media applications in emergency and disaster situations both from a standpoint of contacting the Red Cross and relaying information to loved ones.

Some of the remarkable findings from the American Red Cross survey that Ms. Aung Thin

feels need to be addressed by the Canadian Red Cross are that almost half of the partici-pating respondents used social media about every day. One in six has used social media to get information about an emergency. Half of the social media users would mention emer-gencies or events in their social media chan-nel, where Facebook was the most commonly used channel. She feels it is significant that half of the respondents would send text mes-sages to available response agencies if some-one needed help. Additionally of interest was that nearly 70% of respondents felt that re-sponse agencies should regularly monitor and respond to postings on their website and social media sites.The expectation level with regards to service delivery in an emergency is higher from those aged 18-34.

Ms. Aung Thin says that the Canadian Red Cross is at the early stage of exploring vari-ous social media for reaching their audience. They continue to search for the best way to use a variety of Social Media forms such as the

traditional Web and Email as well as Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. As an example she mentions that they have a small but steadily growing fan base of over 5000 on Facebook. She sees Social Media as an excellent way for the general public to follows specific events, as it was recently used in the Haiti earthquake for information dissemination and donations. Social Media has also been found to require dedicated resources and must be kept up to date to have a good impact.

The best an organization can do ac-cording to Ms. Aung Thin is to formulate a clear policy on the use of social media; she feels that this is needed in order to ensure that employees and volunteers have clear guidelines when they embark on their journeys online. Each individual have their responsibility to properly reflect values that are consistent with the overall mission and goals.Social Media in Disasters and Emergencies Survey (July 2010) – by Infogroup for the American Red Cross

WorldReach Software is proud to announce their official release of Version 4 (V4) of the World-Reach Consular Products Suite: AssistReach™, CrisisReach™ and PassportReach™. This marks a new era in the world of person-centric con-sular management solutions allowing Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) to get bigger value for money by improving consular operations with flexible information management reporting and enhanced privacy and security while extending consular crisis management capabilities.

Featuring a 360 degree view of the citizen data within the system which can be seen from a case, services rendered, relationships associ-

ated, or person/client view. A person, within the entire suite of products, has a single identity in the system and thus can be a registrant or in-volved in multiple cases whether it be consular assistance cases, passport cases or crises. This allows rich, virtually limitless combinations for reporting and supports citizen-centric service delivery by a Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ease-of-use is architected into the Consular Suite’s intuitive user interface design to ensure efficiency, as well as enhancing the retrieval of real-time information. Other time and cost sav-ing features include client-configurable screens and fields.

Gordon Wilson, President and CEO of World-Reach added, “We pride ourselves in listening very closely to the day-to-day requirements of our MFA clients. Software systems should allow consular officers to perform important tasks eas-ier and faster, giving them more time to focus on their real work: helping their citizens in need. For nearly 2 decades, building solutions that fit the exact needs of MFAs around the world - especially as budgets tighten - is not only our business, it’s our passion.”

The initial client to implement WorldReach’s V4 Consular Products Suite is The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.


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ENHANCED CONSULAR CLIENT INTERACTION WITH NEW VERSION OF WORLDREACH’S CONSULAR PRODUCTS SUITE

The way forward The use of new online media and communi-cations such as Facebook and Twitter within crisis situations is growing; recent events such as the Haiti earthquake and the survey results from the Red Cross support that. For Ministries of Foreign Affairs, this emerging trend will see them review social media ap-plications to see how they best support their mandate and best reach their audience. Can social media be used in a crisis as second-ary sources of information to support con-

sular crisis management? Can social media applications reduce demand (i.e. callers for those not affected or those who need no as-sistance) to allow MFAs to focus resources on affected persons who need MFA help more quickly and effectively?

If you are a Ministry of Foreign Affairs current-ly using social media applications we would welcome your comments on this subject. [email protected]

A COMMON MANDATE [CONTINUED]

ICAO 2010 RECAP

About WorldReachWorldReach Software offers solutions to extend a government’s reach of assistance across geographic borders and time zones to citizens in need. For more information on any of our solutions, please contact Mark Stoochnoff at [email protected].

Open InvitationWorldReach Software welcomes article submissions from the consular world. For more information on how to submit an article or to suggest a story idea, please send an email to [email protected].

UnsubscribeIf you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, please send an email to [email protected] with ‘Newsletter’ written in the subject line.


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The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is a UN Specialized Agency tasked with ex-ploring issues around standards for civil aviation, which includes passports and visas. The ICAO puts on an annual symposium on Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTD). This includes biometrics and security which covers everything from the physical characteristics and security measures of a travel document to the challenges with issuance of these MRTDS in a timely and secure method.

WorldReach was an exhibiting vendor at the symposium where we displayed our solutions for Secure Issuance of Travel Documents Abroad featuring: Emergency Travel Documents, Overseas Passport Issuance, Electronic Immigration Clearance and Electronic Visas, including the capa-bility for Biometric Capture.

The 6th iteration of the ICAO MRTD event had over 500 participants from over 75 different countries, and 50+ exhibitors. It took place on November 1-4, 2010 and saw a great deal of dis-cussion arise around the areas of breeder documents (a document used to establish the identity of a person e.g. birth certificate) and the consequential risks of identity fraud, visa issuance and the resulting trends of electronic Visas and Electronic Immigration Clearance. There were also many lively debates on emergency passports and their specific issuance challenges, the lack of uniformity, and the resulting challenges of acceptance by certain countries.

From a WorldReach standpoint we were excited to welcome discussion of these topics and are looking forward to serving our existing and new clients with our knowledge of navigating secure travel document delivery amongst thousands of embassies and consulates today and in the future.

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