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Choosing an alerting app for your emergency response team? Ask these 44 essential questions first
There are several companies that offer alerting apps, often used for company emergency response teams (CERT), but also for lone worker protection, evacuations, technical incident alerts, and emergency buttons, among other applications.
The most important function of an emergency response app is to quickly and reliably deliver the right message to the right people. More and more organisations are moving away from traditional pagers and walkie-talkies. Today, the smartphone has become the central communication tool for emergency response teams.
Modern apps to alert the emergency reponse team replace multiple standalone systems and combine various functions into a single integrated solution, from presence registration and walkie-talkie communication to crisis management, lone worker protection, and silent alarms.
This makes communication not only faster, but also more transparent, efficient, and easier to manage.
General questions regarding the emergency response app
- Is the purchase of hardware desirable or necessary? Or does everything go through the smartphone app?
- Can the emergency response app break through the silence mode in Android and iOS?
- Is it possible to enter scenarios in advance? Who belongs to which calamity? Can you scale up and/or forward alarms to a Private Alarm Receiving Centre?
- Can a distinction be made in locations, functions, privileges of persons?
- How is the data management arranged? Can data management be linked to existing systems or is it only possible to load data with files? Are users allowed to update data themselves?
Redundancy of alarm app
- Which methods are used to deliver the alarm message? Is it limited to a push notification in the emergency response app, or can it also use phone calls (mobile and landline), email, SMS, and a desktop alert?
- In addition to recorded alert messages, is text-to-speech functionality also available?
User friendliness of the emergency response app
Simplicity of use is of great importance in the event of a calamity, because no time should be lost. Users must have confidence that they are able to use the system. An emergency response app that works intuitively saves a lot of time and produces less stress than a complex system.
- Is it possible to receive a demo of the emergency response system?
- with previously defined scenario’s
- without previously defined scenario’s
- How many steps does drawing up and sending an emergency message consist of?
- Is the system simple/clear enough to send an alert with minimal training?
Time critical elements
Make sure that the supplier is able to send a large number of alarm messages regardless of the time of day.
- What is the capacity or the number of people that can be alerted simultaneously or within 30 seconds? Note, not only the maximum number of people you can enter, but also how fast the provider of the emergency notification app reaches those people. It is not uncommon to ask for proof / experience figures from the provider. And do those figures only apply to the app or also to telephony and SMS?
- Can several customers simultaneously send large alarm orders without this having a (major) influence on the speed? Can experience figures be submitted?
- Is there a real time overview of the responses of the alerted persons? Is it possible to send instructions to everyone who has responded?
- Can I easily send follow-up instructions to everyone who has responded?
Emergency response system technology
- How can an alarm be initiated? Only via the emergency response app or also via telephone lines, QR code, online, emergency buttons, fire alarm panel, etc.?
- Can the system share photos and video with others in addition to text and audio? Can employees or visitors also trigger an alarm and communicate with Emergency Response Teammembers?
- Is the alarm app available in Android, iOS and possibly Windows?
- How is the battery consumption of the Emergency Response app?
Reliability of the alarm app
- What is the guaranteed system availability (up-time) of the alarm app? Is there an SLA at all?
- Are different data centers that are geographically separated and redundant?
- What is the back-up policy?
Privacy of the emergency response app
- How does the provider of the emergency response app deal with personal data and the GDPR? Is there an ISO27001 certification? There are providers of an emergency response system with servers in the US, and put bluntly this means that your personal data ends up across the pond. Is that desirable? More information on this topical topic can be found here (in Dutch).
- Is all data stored within the EU or elsewhere?
- Is the supplier ISO 27001 certified, and are its processes regularly audited?
- We hope these questions help you identify what to look for when choosing the best emergency response app for your organisation.
- By critically evaluating functionality, reliability, and integration possibilities, you lay the foundation for an effective alerting and safety process.Developments in this field are evolving rapidly. With the growth of cloud solutions, IoT, and AI, the emergency response app is increasingly becoming part of a comprehensive safety platform, not only for alerting, but also for prevention, monitoring, and analysis. In this way, the role of the emergency response app grows alongside your organisation, evolving from a tool for incident response into an essential part of a resilient safety strategy.
