mass notification for employeies

[ki4mus]

Hell, I am helping a new county paid agency get started up. Its the first time I've helped with anything of the like, and am really just doing alot of leg-work for the Emergancy Services Cordinator...

What i am looking for is a cheap or free way to send out mass pages or texts to cell phones the is seperate from the CAD system. If possible i would like it to have at lest some of the following caricteristics

the ability to be sent from diferant computers (EOC, station, dispatch, cordiators home, ect...) but have the same number on caller ID

ability to store diferant "list" (Paid staff, Vollenters, officers, all page, ect)

no limit on number sent (though it would rarely be to many)



in help, ideas, ect???? please

 

[Cawolf86]

There are services available as seen in this list.

http://mashable.com/2008/04/19/send-text-messages/

Though if it is for a small group this is what I did at an old job. I set up an email account for the task - does not matter which. I was doing it to send notifications to employees who wanted it so I had them send a text to the email account to "opt in". Text to email comes in different from each provider. For example ATT phones will show 123456789@mms.att.net

You can build your lists off that and use contact groups then send out mass emails to those addresses which come in as texts. Simple and easy and works from any device.

 

[wadford]

The husband is a paid FF, and he gets texts through Twitter ( don't ask) whenever his department has a call. I'm not sure how they do it as I do not tweet. Just a thought.

 

[rwik123]

The husband is a paid FF, and he gets texts through Twitter ( don't ask) whenever his department has a call. I'm not sure how they do it as I do not tweet. Just a thought.

thats insane. What if twitter goes down/internet goes down/cellphone dies/power goes out/dont have a phone or computer near you

 

[saskvolunteer]

Check out eNotify. Our dispatch agency uses it extensively for everything from IFT info to driving directions to Paging out MFR's. It has the ability to send both text messages and voice files (phone calls) from the same number. And it's also usable on more than one computer. Google it though. I'm not fully aware of all the features it is capable of.


Sent from my pencil and paper.

 

[mike1390]

Your spelling is killing me.

 

[Nerd13]

I think it's fairly common to just use email to send texts to phones. It's cheap or free, simple and you can make contact lists for each group you wish to be able to send messages to. This is really only reliable enough for informational texts such as open shifts or events. It can take a little bit of time for the emails to work through the system so it's not really appropriate for actual dispatching.

 

[mpena]

Your spelling is killing me.

:rofl: