Missing Children Society of Canada Reaches 5 Million in Seconds with Microsoft Technology
Every year in Canada, there are 41,000 children reported missing. In order to locate these missing children The Missing Children Society of Canada (MCSC) uses a mix of mobile and social technology to create its emergency response Search Program, including the Most Valuable Network™ (MVN) platform, which sends time-sensitive alerts and information to Canadians to help recover missing children across Facebook and Twitter.
Minutes matter
The first hours a child is missing are by far the most critical. That’s why the Missing Children Society of Canada (MCSC) knew they needed the social media alerts from their Most Valuable Network (MVN) application to go out faster. The program was growing fast, and their legacy system was struggling to keep up. That meant the alerts were taking up to an hour to be sent out.
On-demand scale, secure environment
In 2015, Microsoft helped MCSC rebuild and improve the MVN application. A new widget to allow users to donate their Facebook and Twitter feeds was added, as well as a back-end portal allowing MCSC to push geo-targeted messaging. The application was moved to be hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, which allowed for instantaneous scale and a secure environment to deliver these messages to the public.
Microsoft Cloud in Canada
Recently, Microsoft Canada announced that Microsoft Azure is now available from local datacentre regions located in Toronto and Quebec City, and Office 365 is now offering data residency for Canadian customers. This is further to the global initiative to donate $1 billion in Microsoft cloud services to nonprofits and university researchers over the next three years.
Bringing more children home
Now, MCSC alerts are sent and received within a few seconds, and they’ve been able to expand their reach from 1 million to over 5 million people. “We want every Canadian to have the ability to be a part of the Most Valuable Network,” MCSC’s CEO Amanda Pick said. “I’m so proud that we have such amazing partners, like Microsoft, who are helping us work towards a future where children do not go missing.”
Spread the word
Microsoft Canada and MCSC have a message for anyone who wants to help — get involved and donate your Facebook and Twitter feeds to help bring more children home to their families.
Watch for more on how this incredible technology is bringing home missing children:
