Reaching People During a Crisis
Cisco IP phones are powerful communication tools for any organization. But what most people don’t realize is that they can maximize their investment in these pieces of technology by leveraging their Cisco phone system for emergency notifications.
An organization’s top priority should be the safety of its people, and an organization should have the tools and technology in place to fulfill its duty of care. If you’ve already made the investment in Cisco IP phones, why not get even more out of your investment with safety alerting software built to work with Cisco?
InformaCast emergency notification software comes built into Cisco IP phones and can be used to send a live audio page to up to 50 phones simultaneously. For small organizations, this is a great way to share information in the event you need to evacuate a building or tell people to shelter in place. But what if your organization has more than 50 phones? And what if you need more flexible messaging options than live audio paging?
Unlocking the Full Safety Potential
While InformaCast Basic can page up to 50 phones, purchasing a license for InformaCast Advanced can unlock even more features for emergency notification. In addition to live paging, InformaCast Advanced allows users to pre-build messages with recorded audio and text that can be sent to the display screens on Cisco IP phones. These messages can also be configured as virtual panic buttons on phones, so emergency notifications can be distributed with a single push.
InformaCast Advanced also expands how many phones an organization is able to reach. Instead of limiting the connection to 50 phones as it does with InformaCast Basic, InformaCast Advanced can reach as many endpoints as an organization needs.* This means no one gets left out when critical information needs to be shared and can be used for town hall-style announcements when thousands of phones need to be reached at once.
*Note: The number of endpoints an organization can reach is dependent on the license an organization purchases.
InformaCast gives organizations complete control over how messages are delivered. Depending on the urgency of the situation, InformaCast messages can be configured to skip phones already in use for more mundane announcements or interrupt existing calls for crisis events. This functionality gives the person in your organization the opportunity to hear the message, but it will not be heard by the person they are on the phone with.
InformaCast can also be used to monitor calls to emergency numbers. If 911 (or another emergency number) is called, InformaCast can send an alert to Cisco IP phones. This saves time and helps avoid confusion when emergency response teams arrive. The call can also be recorded if needed for future reference.
All alerts can be sectioned into specific groups so you can decide whether you need to reach everyone or only a select group of people. This can be helpful in the case of an evacuation or signaling that a response team is needed for an incident.
Customizing for Clarity
During emergency situations, clarity can be the key to making sure people stay safe. With InformaCast, it’s easy to customize messages for any situation your organization may encounter. While text and audio can be developed ahead of time, additional customization options are also available. InformaCast can customize the color of text alerts so your organization can associate different colors with different kinds of alerts, helping speed up the recognition that there may be danger present.
More Ways to Reach People
In addition to Cisco IP phones, InformaCast Advanced can also reach other IP endpoints including speakers and digital signage to expand the reach of your emergency messages from people’s desks to an entire building or campus. If you’re looking to offer complete speed and reach, InformaCast Fusion allows you to reach on-premises devices, like Cisco IP phones, IP speakers and digital signage, as well as mobile devices, all from a single interface.
Consider adding InformaCast to your organization’s Cisco phone system to build the ultimate emergency notification system.