sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Mass notification system

Ed
you could look into providing them with Vocera it would be pricey with all the wireless access points they would need to add , but it works and is simple to use for the end user . We use a speech enabled auto attn in our emergencys that starts out by paging or calling a group of people . If the message is not answered within a programmed length of time an additional group of people are paged or called and so on until the messages are listen to and confirmed .

Mark is correct about units hanging on the wall that no one uses .

Dialogic started out not as a hardware supplier, but selling a software package for emergency notificaion.. just like you are looking for. They have updated the system a bit since them, but it is basically still the same concept. It is run off of a PC, but you don't need to use a PC or even know how to initiate a response. You can just dial into it and punch in a code and the system takes it from there... you pre-set up scenarios and levels of call out and the system automates the proces... you can either do blind call outs or have people dial in and 'check in' so the system can report who was called and if they are responding before calling the next wave..

Check out the Communicator from Dialogic...

https://www.dccusa.com/communicator.asp

After they started, they were disatisfied with the analog phone cards on the market, so they started making and marketing their own... This system is installed in hundreds of Emergency response agencies around the country and usually they can set up a live demo somewhere in your area.

Another option is an onsite paging system.. simple to operate... punch in a 'group' code and x number of pagers go off... hit another group code and another wave goes off...

JTech makes a pretty cool system and it is installed in alot of healthcare facilities. Pretty reasonable as far as cost goes. I just did a location with 60 users for under $3000 with transmitters, pagers and chargers...

Check out their stuff at...
https://www.jtech.com/products/people_alert.htm

Good luck!

Ed I talked with the CO guy it was a crossbar system that is obsolete he suggested Red Alert here is the link


https://callcenter.amtelco.com/redalert.htm

Ed, what will the system be calling? Home phones or cell phones?

If it is cell phones, why not use text messaging? Most cell phones can have text messages sent via an email address. Why not have them set up a few groups of email addresses that correspond to the groups of people they want to notify? Someone then sends one short email to the group.

Just a thought.

Larry

Larry:

I am pretty sure that it's for home phones. The Viking unit can do the trick, but it's not as graceful as we would like. PhoneTree is an application we are looking into now which seems to be a better choice.

Ed
If I am not mistaken we have a church with PhoneTree and they have been satisfied with its performance. Will check with them if you like to make sure that is the name brand of what they are using.
Bill

Ed, The church I attend uses Phonetree and the results are excellent. Messages are sent to hundreds of people in a day.

Bill

Ed,
Would they consider using a pager? It might be better because they wouldn't have to be home to receive a call. My local fire department can page everyone in an instant. I believe that pagers are manufactured that can be toned on different frequencies. In other words, if just the officers need to be paged they can do that. If the entire department needs to be paged they can do that as well. The pagers are built very well and stand up to all sorts of abuse.
Just a thought.
Ted

Ted:

No, pagers are out of the question. Not only are there very few paging companies left around this area, the monopoly that is left doesn't offer much flexibility. We had a "toned" setup with a single global number that paged all of our technician's pagers while retaining individual numbers for years. That stopped working when we replaced one pager (at their recommendation to "try" the new model) and now, three years later, they have never gotten this pilot number paging working again. Of course, we have continued to pay for it it and they refuse to budge on the fact that it doesn't work.

This customer isn't going to invest in a pager system with monthly service fees. I am not going to recommend a service that is poor at best for a code red notification system. It has to be something that confirms receipt, something that PhoneTree apparently will do. Thanks for the suggestion, but as poor as the local incumbent pager company is here, we can't afford the risk of recommending them.