ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories has awarded a worldwide licensing agreement to NeoSafety, a workplace risk solutions company, to market the RAMPART™ method and software and co-develop a suite of complementary products.
RAMPART™, for Risk Assessment Method — Property Analysis and Ranking Tool, is a screening-level software program developed by Sandia researchers to determine the risk to a building by natural hazards, crime and terrorism. A group of recognized industry advisors found the RAMPART™ method to be a highly effective tool to determine facility risk.
Sandia initially designed the software to help the General Services Administration (GSA) assess the risk of threatening events to the nearly 8,000 federal buildings it manages nationwide.
NeoSafety has been working with Sandia on the project since July.
“NeoSafety performed a company viability study under a Testing and Evaluation Agreement with Sandia to determine market acceptance,” says NeoSafety President Brian Healey. “The RAMPART™ software is our centerpiece solution to a host of integrated applications. Our solution set will provide an intuitive and simplified way to address facility risk vulnerability. We plan to market the RAMPART™ suite of products to government, municipalities, schools/universities and commercial/industry facilities.”
The RAMPART™ software consists of a user interface, a threatening-events database and an expert system of rules that embody an agency’s knowledge about buildings and tenants and Sandia’s knowledge of risk analysis. Using the software, it takes less than two hours to complete a building risk analysis. All users have to do is point and click their way through an assessment, answering basic questions about the building regarding location, construction and security monitoring. The software determines the level of risk.
The software development is part of Sandia’s Architectural Surety® program, which uses technology to make homes, shopping malls, offices, public buildings and infrastructures safer in a natural disaster or terrorist attack.
Regina Hunter, Sandia’s technical lead for the project, says she is pleased at the prospect of working with NeoSafety to further develop the software.
“This agreement will get the software into more hands, giving government agencies, private industry, and other large institutions or companies a way to determine weaknesses of their facilities, make the corrections and, as a result, better protect their facilities,” Hunter says.
More information about the RAMPART™ method can be found at http://www.sandia.gov/media/NewsRel/NR2001/rampart.htm.
Founded in 1997, NeoSafety assists government agencies, insurance companies, property owners and industry to identify and manage workplace risks. Software applications include business continuity planning, compliance and safety training, communication management and property risk assessment More information about NeoSafety can be found at www.neosafety.com.
Sandia Technical Contacts:
Regina Hunter, rlhunte@sandia.gov, (505) 844-5837
Darryl Drayer, dddraye@sandia.gov, (505) 844-8479