Now our customers can decide whether to save their message credits and send via the free SMTP method, which is fairly reliable, or in more critical situations when a guarantee that the message was sent is required, they can use the SMS option which uses message credits.  While we tend to think that the SMS option is the way to go because of the reliability, we understand that sometimes “free and almost as good” is a better option for certain customer.  So to our customers we say, “The choice is yours.”

This option gives our system far greater flexibility than any other out there.  Universal Alert continues to rely on our ability to give customers the customized features that fit their exact needs.  “A system modified to meet your needs, not a system you need to modify your needs to fit”

In addition to the “out-of-the-box” functions already included with Universal Alert, H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 had additional custom features added to their system by Universal Alert’s talented in-house development team.  These bolt-on custom features allow H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 volunteers to enroll directly into the notification system and register for a variety of skill sets, such as Carpentry or Search & Rescue.  The administrators can use this data to create custom groups on-the-fly from the Universal Alert web interface.

Founder Bill Keegan,  a retired Port Authority Police Department Lieutenant who served as Operations Commander for the World Trade Center Rescue and Recovery Mission, stated, “We needed a mass notification system that was both reliable and customizable to our unique needs.  Universal Alert fit these needs perfectly.  The ease-of-use was also a huge selling point.  When we are responding to an event and trying to notify our volunteers, we don’t want to have to stop and pull out a manual to use our alert system.  We are very pleased with how Universal Alert performs and with the custom features built in by their development team. When an emergency occurs, it allows us to focus on the task at hand rather than worry about how we are going to communicate to all of our people.”

H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 is a non-profit, non-sectarian organization whose core is made up of the courageous workers from the 9/11 incident.  Drawing from their experiences dealing with such a cataclysmic situation, they have developed a unique overview of the coordinated and sustained effort that is needed to respond to a crisis event. The organization is comprised of veteran police officers, fire fighters, construction trade union workers, surviving families of those killed on September 11, 2001, and those others who share their belief that they can help themselves by helping others.

For more information on H.E.A.R.T. 9/11, including information on how to volunteer or donate to their cause, please visit www.heart911.org.  For more information on Universal Alert, please visit www.universalalert.com.

Phone Calls are the quickest way to reach someone, assuming they are available to answer.  However, this option is also the most intrusive, because it will likely interrupt the recipient.  Recipients can easily key their response into the phone when receiving an alert, and this info is made available in the alert report.  Using the phone option on a mass notification is typically best used for an emergency alert or a message whose response is needed quickly.

SMS Text Messages are great to ensure you reach the audience quickly, while eliminating the intrusiveness of a phone call.  Many users have their mobile device on them almost all of the time, so the ability of to reach the majority of the recipients almost instantly makes this an excellent medium to effectively reach people.  The downside to SMS text messaging is that it does not offer the recipient the option of responding directly.  Using SMS Text messaging for mass notification is best used for disseminating a message that is purely informational and does not require a response, such as general announcements.

The final option, Email, does not reach users at quickly, since many recipients don’t check their email often enough for this option to compete with the timeliness of the other two mediums mentioned.  Intrusiveness is very low with this medium, since users can get to the messages when they have the time available.  Universal Alert’s system inbeds a link in the email sent to recipients, which can be clicked to confirm receipt of the message.  So, cumulative responses can be seen with this option, as with the phone medium.  Email alerts are best used for messages that require a response, but do not need to be replied to immediately, such as notices of event dates or routine notifications.

Universal Alert offers the power and flexibility to use any one of these mediums, or any combination of the three.  Understanding the ramifications of timeliness, intrusion on the recipient and recipient response capabilities is very helpful in determining which options to select when sending a message via Universal Alert Mass Notification System.

For more information on Universal Alert, including a system demo, please visit, www.universalalert.com.

So what do most companies’ disaster plans rely on? Unfortunately, the communication in disaster plans usually depends on some sort of a chain of communication, where staff notify subordinates, either via phone, email, or in person: Higher ups notify Managers, who notify Supervisors, and so on and so forth. On paper, the plan sounds feasible; however, realistically speaking, these methods are fraught with problems.

Typically, the first method with chain-of-communication plans is to email everyone in the chain. Unfortunately, this does not let you know who got the message and the timeliness can be less than desirable in a crisis situation. Lacking the knowledge of who has been notified ensures confusion will occur. Verbal communicating through the chain, either in person or via phone, solves this issue. However, with verbal communication the message inherently gets distorted as it moves down the chain. Also, timeliness is not efficient here either, and the recollection of data regarding who has received the message becomes very cumbersome. Finally, the inherent chaotic nature of a crisis ensures that a link somewhere in this chain breaks, and as the old saying goes, “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link”.

So what’s the solution? Implement a system that can efficiently contact all the required recipients with ease, and that will let you know who has acknowledged the message. Using Universal Alert as an emergency notification system does exactly this and alleviates the communication headaches involved in a disaster plan. With one click or a single phone call, all of the necessary recipients can be contacted, quickly and uniformly. The system can be set to repeatedly attempt to contact recipients, ensuring that every attempt possible is made to reach them. Also, the diverse delivery options allow you to reach out via text message, cell phone, land line, email, mobile device or any combination of these. Finally, knowing who has been contacted and who has not is as simple as clicking on a report button.

So why don’t all companies have this in place for their disaster recovery planning? Unfortunately, the answer is usually due to cost or ignorance. Although a system like this can be had for as low as $290 per year or $29 per month, companies often decide to forgo this expense. However, Universal Alert serves not only as an emergency notification system, but also is an invaluable tool to communicate routine notices to employees. Info on company events, meetings, scheduling, praises and awards, or any other pertinent information can be communicated easily. Most companies find that having Universal Alert saves money by automating these types of routine communications. Even without the added factor of ensuring a complete disaster preparedness plan, Universal Alert makes sense.

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Is your company in the precarious situation mentioned above? In today’s world, ignoring an issue like this means putting your company at risk. Universal Alert offers an efficient way to communicate and has become an essential tool for the modern company. For more information, including demos and pricing, please go to www.universalalert.com

The backend of our successful mass-communication tool was completely redeveloped from the ground up and has a faster and more efficient method of disseminating the outbound phone calls to recipients. The existing system of expeditiously sending SMS text messages and emails remains the same.

This latest version also sports a completely redesigned interface, as seen in this screen shot.

For more info on the system, including demos and pricing, please visit www.universalalert.com

What is SMTP text messaging? Companies who send SMTP text messages do not actually send a real SMS text message. Instead they send an email with the message text to the cell provider, which the provider then forwards to the phone as a real SMS text message. SMTP text messages will fail. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is the system emails are sent over, so SMTP text messaging is just a fancy way of saying, “We email them to the cell provider and cross our fingers.”

Many people are unaware, but all major cellular carriers have this “email us and we’ll forward as a text message” service. Any one can use it. For example, if you had a phone number 973-555-1212, and your service provider was Verizon, then sending an email to 9735551212@vztext.com will prompt Verizon to forward the message to that person’s cell phone as an SMS text message. Go ahead try it… here is a list of the domains to send to for the major US carriers. Substitute in your phone number and send an email with a short message and you are going to see it hit your phone as an SMS text message. (If you don’t, then you’ve just discovered the lack of reliability of this method)

• Alltel – 10-digit phone number@message.alltel.com
• AT&T – 10-digit phone number@txt.att.net
• Sprint – 10-digit phone number@messaging.sprintpcs.com
• T-Mobile – 10-digit phone number@tmomail.net
• Verizon – 10-digit phone number@vtext.com

This method is a great solution for the company offering you free text messages. That is as long as they don’t mind failing their customers here and there. To send the messages, all they have to do is dispatch an email, which costs nothing, and the text message gets delivered. The average user doesn’t know what is going on behind the scenes, so they assume the company sent the text message directly.

So where’s the problem? This technique works most of the time, particularly when the emails are sent one at a time or in very small batches (like when the company needs to demo there text message functionality). The cell service provider forwards these emails through their SMS system as a free service and it is intended to be used by casual users, not companies selling text message services. The cell provider offers no guarantee that they will deliver the messages. When you send a large volume of these emails simultaneously, the provider will typically dump the whole batch or only deliver a few before dumping the rest. Also, when cell providers get these requests, they place them in a queue and send them out when there is enough resources available. So even the text messages that do get through do so after an unpredictable delay.

When do you need your text messages to go through the most? That’s right… in a widespread emergency. And when do you suppose the cell provider’s queue’s will be backlogged and more likely to dump out unexpected large batches of messages? You got it… in a widespread emergency. The only way to ensure that the company you choose to send text messages is going to reliable deliver them is to ensure that they send them directly via SMS.

Universal Alert guarantees that every text message triggered by our emergency notification system is sent out via SMS. We send our text messages out through the largest and most reliable SMS gateway system in the world. We pay every time a message is sent over our system.

The best part? You can send unlimited and free text messages with Universal Alert. All you have to do is enter the recipients phone address with the proper domain as an email address. Emails are unlimited with our system, so email the cell providers with your messages all you want. Most of the time they will send them through for you. We just don’t trick you and claim that these emails to a cell provider constitute real text messaging.

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Want to ensure your emergency alert system is looking at the big picture and not trying to cut costs? Visit www.universalalert.com for more information, including demos and pricing.

The new version features a brand-new interface as well as a completely redeveloped backend allowing for faster and more efficient calling.The software is being Beta-tested by a few internal and external clients who have agreed to kick the tires on the new system and give our development team whatever feedback they have.  The Beta-test is expected to last 2 months.

For more info on the current succesful version of Universal Alert, visit www.universalalert.com.