Get the message through
Published: 01 October, 2008
The Flare system uses an assortment of IT media to simultaneously contact large numbers of people in such a way that messages cannot be ignored. In the event of a crisis, messages can be sent to mobiles, emails, landlines and pagers.
One of features of the technology is Flash SMS, explained PageOne’s Clair Cawley. “Flash SMS is an ideal way of putting a message into somebody’s phone in such a way that they cannot ignore it. With normal text messages you have to press ‘read’ but these messages do not go into the inbox but flash into the screen – so you don’t even have to unlock your mobile phone.”
Another feature of Flare is two-way SMS technology, which enables recipients to quickly acknowledge receipt of an emergency broadcast. “This is useful to say, ‘yes I have received the message’. It can be used as part of a response team so that responders can then transmit their ETA.”
Also part of Flare is a system that automatically notifies a mobile workforce in a user-defined sequence. “Traditionally during an emergency if a person’s phone was switched off, then those raising an alarm would use a call-tree method to find the next suitable person, and so forth,” explains Cawley. “With the Escalate system, if there is no reply to an alert then the message is automatically relayed upwards to the next person in the chain of command. Escalate will go through all the devices until it finds someone who responds with a key word.”
The third aspect of Flare is the “areyousafe?” system, which enables staff to register their status quickly and easily in the event of an emergency, by calling a dedicated telephone number. “The incident dashboard allows administrators to monitor the status of their staff as a situation progresses. Users can distinguish between staff who have checked in and those who haven’t,” says Cawley. Within the “areyousafe?” module, callers are asked by an intelligent voice-recording system to confirm their identity and location, followed by their status. Confirming status is a process that takes around 30 seconds, and callers can also report in with their WAP phones.
