An HSNW conversation with Harold Wolpert, CEO of Avalias

on compliance requirements through regularly conducting exercises

  • Accurately and quickly simulate the organization’s work environment
  • Drive existing software applications within Avalanche ST scenarios
  • Track interactions with live systems
  • Grow preparedness capability as needed
  • Validate organizational processes
  • How much training does Avalias provide in the use of its products, beyond providing clients with the simulation environment within which to test skills and responsiveness?

    Wolpert said, “The simulation environment and the scenario building tools are designed to be as easy to use as possible. We often work closely with our clients in an initial Pilot project to help them get started with designing scenarios, which helps to ensure that they get the most out of the tools in the long term.”

    Wolpert stressed the importance of a sustained learning process. “The important thing is not to lose the knowledge that has been gained from a real event,” he said. “After the dust settles, the people on the scene go on to do other things, taking their knowledge with them. Rebuilding scenarios around those real events ensures that the people who come afterward inherit those skills, if you will. And they can practice them. Those skills basically become the property of the organization.”

    Wolpert, who was making his sixth visit to the United States within a twelve-month period, was asked to comment on a pervasive sense that Australia is “out in front” in security and emergency preparedness matters.

    He said, “Where Australian companies have been able to advance in this area — and we ourselves have some distinction in the space we occupy — is in not being the kind of large, complex organizations that exist in the U.S. Some American companies have complained to us of difficulty in being able to move, to change. In contrast, Australian companies are probably a little more nimble in terms of our ability to be able to get things done.”

    The Avalias CEO also noted that Australia, being a smaller economy, and being a more isolated country than the United States, has learned emergency preparedness through practical experience. While Australians have only had one distant terrorism incident on their shores, they have had hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and floods and other natural disasters of a magnitude to test their mettle and shape their adaptive mechanisms.

    Wolpert said, “We don’t have the financial resources or the major infrastructure available in a larger country. So we have had to be innovative and resilient and to deal with these kinds of things quickly and effectively. For us, there is really no alternative.”

    That is not to say, of course, that the United States. is lagging in security responsiveness. Wolpert asserted that there are American companies and agencies “doing some incredible work.”

    For its part, Avalias, its parent company incorporated in Australia in January 2002, does little advertising. It doesn’t need to — a happy circumstance that Harold Wolpert attributes to the versatility and scalability of the company’s tools. Satisfied customers spread the word. Others see the possibilities for their own purposes.

    The principal customers for Avalias products — and its licensing and other maintenance arrangements — are federal and state government agencies. The company, however, is in conversations as well with a number of large commercial organizations and financial institutions with a commitment, broadly, to continuously improve their preparedness; more narrowly, to keeping the business going in the event of a major disruptive incident. For now, all of these are Australian.

    Our own community values us,” said Harold Wolpert. “We’ve met their needs and exceeded their expectations.”

    Avalias recently also established a U.S. subsidiary. “Through our frequent visits to the United States in the past two years we are learning that many organizations share an interest and see the value in our preparedness solutions” concluded Wolpert. We believe that Avalanche ST and our other solution CrowdFlow are very relevant preparedness toolsets for like-minded organizations and companies in the United States eager to solve these questions in a cost effective way.

    Avalias is a privately owned company based in Sydney, Australia. The Avalias company was spun off as the technology arm of the original company that founded the Avalanche ST technology, namely R3 Consulting Pty Ltd (Australia), which was established in January 2002. Avalias opened a subsidiary in the United States, Avalias USA, in Nov 2008.

    Harold Wolpert is the CEO of Avalias, a company specializing emergency readiness solutions, systems, and tools.