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Choosing an alerting app for your emergency response team? Ask these 52 questions first
Fires, evacuations and medical incidents have traditionally formed the foundation of an emergency response organisation. In practice, however, many organisations are increasingly faced with aggression, threats, inappropriate behaviour, missing persons and employees working alone. Particularly in healthcare, mental health services, education, local authorities and public services, there is a growing need for solutions that not only support the emergency response team but also enhance the safety of employees and visitors.
When selecting an Emergency Response App, it is therefore important to look beyond incident alerting alone. Consider to what extent the solution also supports lone worker protection, aggression incidents and personal safety alarms, ensuring that the right assistance can be deployed quickly.
Modern Emergency Response Apps replace multiple standalone systems by combining a wide range of functionalities into a single platform. These include attendance monitoring, push-to-talk communication, crisis management, lone worker protection and discreet panic alarms. This not only enables faster communication but also makes incident management clearer, more efficient and easier to control.
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?
Compliance, privacy and certifications for an emergency alert app
- How does the provider of the emergency response app handle personal data and the GDPR? Click on the link for more information on this topical issue relating to the Privacy Act.
- Is all data stored within the EU?
- Is the supplier ISO 27001-certified and are processes audited regularly?
Extra CERT-app functionalities
- Is the emergency response app also an attendance app? If so, does the attendance app work solely via geofencing, or also via Wi-Fi, timetables, etc.? Does the app also issue alerts in the event of understaffing?
- Apart from raising the alarm, is there also the option to communicate? For example, via a push-to-talk walkie-talkie, conference call or chat?
- What extras are on offer? These include critical event management, Protect, task cards, access to emergency procedures, on-call duties, working alone, personal alarms etc.
CERT app integrations
- Can the app be linked to your fire alarm control panel for automatic fire alerts? Does the supplier support brand-independent integrations? Is it possible to use the solution as a certified evacuation system for silent alarms?
- Does the Entra ID Emergency Response app support Single Sign-On?
- Can the app be linked to building management systems (BMS) or monitoring platforms via APIs?
Agression alerts and mobile personal alarms
- Can the Emergency Response App also be used for aggression incidents?
- Can employees raise an alarm discreetly?
- Can the correct response team be alerted immediately?
- Is the caller’s location shared automatically?
- Does localisation (determination of exact location) of a person also work indoors?
- Does the solution support automatic alarms?
- Can external emergency services or an alarm receiving centre be notified quickly?
Customer Service
- Is the helpdesk available 24/7 and able to provide immediate support?
- Will you have a dedicated point of contact, both during implementation and afterwards?
Implementation
A clear point of contact with effective project planning is key to the success of the implementation.
- Who is the point of contact for the implementation of the alert app?
- How long will the implementation take? How long will it take before the alert app is ready for use?
- Is there a project plan or timeline available for the implementation?
- What is expected of your project team during the implementation?
- Is training required?
- Is training material available? How will the training take place (on-site, online, via webcast, etc.)?
- Will there be an evaluation after handover? Is everything running as planned?
References
- Which customers use the service and are they satisfied? What is the average review score?
- Can references be contacted?
Contract
- What is the duration of the contract, the flexibility regarding cancellation, etc.?
- Are updates free?
- Is a (free) demo of the emergency response app available? Is the demo version tailored to your own organisation? Can you also test the product for a period (free of charge) before proceeding with the full purchase?
The best Emergency Response App is not the same for every organisation. A school has different requirements from a hospital, mental healthcare organisation, local authority or industrial company. That is why it is important to look beyond simply being able to alert emergency response officers.
Features such as attendance monitoring, integration with fire alarm systems, crisis communication, aggression alerting, lone worker protection and indoor location tracking are playing an increasingly important role when selecting a future-proof solution.
Using this Emergency Response App overview and the selection criteria above, you can easily compare different suppliers and assess which solution best matches your organisation’s risks, processes and safety objectives.
Would you like to find out how MultiBel performs against these selection criteria? Then contact us for a no-obligation demonstration.
