If there is an emergency, word needs to spread to individuals rapidly. This can help a school know to lock their doors if there is a gunman on the loose, a town to evacuate because of flooding, or a mall to escape because of a fire in the space. There are many benefits to emergency message systems and they can help to save lives and make global notifications faster and more efficient. Three of the top emergency messaging systems currently available include SwiftReach, Omnilert and EverBridge. If you are considering using one of these top services, you may have questions. Getting answers to these questions will help you determine which service is ideal for your needs. Here are some of frequently asked questions about these top three emergency message systems.
Everbridge is able to deliver your message over 100 different ways, depending on how you want the message delivered. Some of the most common ways emergency messages are delivered through this system include phone calls, text messages, through desktop alerts, SMS messages, flashing displays on public websites, internal systems and through social media.
SwiftReach uses a variety of different techniques to deliver your emergency messages to the group you are targeting. Some of these methods include phone calls, voicemail messages, text messages, email and social media alerts.
When you use Omnilert to deliver your emergency messages, they commonly deliver these messages through SMS texts, emails, phone calls and voice messages, social media and web widgets.
A template allows you to put in specific wording that you can quickly add to if an emergency arises. For example, if the threat of flooding happens often in your town, you may have a template that advises of the threat of flooding and where people can take shelter. If you ever have to issue an alert, you can then modify this template by adding or taking away safe areas to go or evacuation routes, helping you to get the word out faster. At this time, Omnilert and EverBridge both allow you to use templates.
All three of these services proclaim to have no cap to the number of users they can handle. However, SwiftReach has the best track record, reaching over 25 million users at once, with Omnilert having reached 10 million users at once. EverBridge has not released information related to how many users they have handled at once in the past.
In the event of an emergency, news stations, media outlets or people who have questions about the alert may attempt to reach the emergency messaging system for clarification or more information. Having a two way messaging system allows this to happen. SwiftReach is the only one of these three services to offer two way messaging services at this time.
In the event of an emergency, SwiftReach will send the message for you or allow you to send it on your own. Both Omnilert and EverBridge require you to hit the send button to send out the message.
There are a few other features that set these services apart. The price, contract and ability to customize your network of receivers varies from platform to platform. SwiftReach is generally the best company for government agencies that need to quickly reach millions of people. But they are pricey, so may not be best for smaller entities. Omnilert has the ability to reach millions of people at once, yet is still affordable, making it perfect for both small and large organizations. EverBridge is the smaller emergency messaging system of the three, but allows you to customize many things, making it the perfect tool for schools, hospitals or other entities that want an emergency alert system for their facility.