American Red Cross and Dell create third Digital Operations Center in San Jose
American Red Cross has announced that they will be working with Dell to use social media and social data to solve wide range of humanitarian issues. ARC and Dell will open a Digital Operations Center in San Jose, California, USA that will help ARC engage with Red Cross blood donors. This will be the third DOC in San Jose, first one was opened back in Marc 2012 (in co-ordination with Dell). These DOCs provides hub of expertise in West Coast. Volunteers and ER manger partners will work together to create/provide social data.
The Red Cross supplies nearly 40 percent of the nation’s blood supply and maintaining a steady supply of donors is vital to supplying the needs of blood recipients nationwide. In addition to the new Digital Operations Center, a new Dell grant and Dell Digital Business Services will help the Red Cross optimize their social presence to attract new blood donors, encourage more blood drives and help existing blood donors to expand their relationship with the Red Cross.
“The relationship between Dell and the Red Cross has been critical in helping the Red Cross use social media to carry out its disaster response mission,” said Suzy DeFrancis, chief public affairs officer, American Red Cross. “We’re extremely grateful for the Dell grant and support from Dell Digital Business Services. We’re excited to launch our third Digital Operations Center and expand the partnership to further support innovation in the humanitarian space.”
The new Digital Operations Center provides a hub of expertise on the West Coast where volunteers can work with their emergency manager partners to provide social data for regional responses. Recent disasters have shown that having a better view of the social conversation helps the Red Cross anticipate disaster needs and connect more people with resources during an emergency. It will also help the volunteers connect with people in better and faster way and the data gathered can help a lot in times of disaster.
“Connecting people quickly to aid is critical in times of disaster,” said Raman Sapra, executive director and Global Head, Dell Digital Business Services. “We’re thrilled to expand our support of the American Red Cross and analyze social data to help their organization provide real-time disaster relief and increase life-saving blood donations.”
