Emergency Alerts

[telecom10]

End user uses all web clients. Needs a solution to send alerts to all web clients in the case of an emergency. Is there a way besides auto answering every call to send a message to multiple web clients at the same time, so people hear it in their headsets?

 

[fxbastler]

Who should initiate the alarm call and how?
What should be announced?
What should happen to users who are in the status away / DND / Custom 2?
What should happen to users who are currently on a call?
Where is the 3CX being operated / located?

 

[telecom10]

Good questions fxbastler. Thank you for asking.

Management or admin would initiate the call.
Announcement would depend upon the emergency
Ideally override (but I don't think that can be done) DND status. But if in DND, headset will probably on be on their head anyway
Interrupt the call or give notice somehow
3CX hosted in private data center

For users on call, I wonder if a "emergency ring group" could be set up, and allow users to receive multiple calls, so that if this ring group was triggered, they would see it come up on their PC as a new call coming in. Thoughts on this?

 

[fxbastler]

This is problematic overall. People don't just need to be called; they also need to hear the announcement. That's another issue, especially if only the app is used and not IP phones.

For this kind of thing, we use smaller intercom systems or centrally distributed systems (PA) that play an announcement via paging or paging multicast groups - regardless of whether someone is currently on a call or not.

One could consider setting up a separate ring group specifically for this purpose. Even if a user is in Away, Do Not Disturb, or Custom 2 status, you can activate the "Accept calls from Ring Groups" option for that user, and then the call will ring for them. If necessary, you could also activate the "Accept multiple calls" option. However, if the user doesn't answer, no announcement will be played. If the user is on a call, they will only hear the call. Furthermore, the entire process is limited by the number of the 3CX SC.

This task might be better accomplished with a CFD app, but never truly and completely. Several of the aspects mentioned above argue against it.

 

[VoIPTools]

This is a fairly complicated technical scenario and it gets more and more complicated depending on whether there are multiple locations that are geographically separated all sharing one phone system. For example, a school district with multiple grade, junior high, and high schools. You do not want to send notifications to the high school when someone at the grade school dials an emergency number. Further, while a phone call is nice, and overhead paging is good, in noisy manufacturing environments maybe you need multiple channels -- phone call, email, SMS, and desktop popup. The hope being that one of the four channels will be received.

I could also see the need/benefit of having an emergency number you define that only generates notifications internally, but does not send notices to the emergency responders (PSAP), while other emergency numbers send notifications to both internal and external emergency responders.

Then there is the whole question about how to implement panic buttons and repeating alarms. If I see a tornado from my window is about to hit the building, I do not want to dial an extension, what for the ring group to be ready, say the warning, all while the tornado gets closer and closer. No, I want to hit a button and run for the shelter and let the system "say" the warning.

How about logging the events that capture when the emergency took place, who was notified and how, and maybe have a place to add notes about the incident so if you get sued later, you have careful notes about who did what and when.

Finally, what if you have mobile people who move from place to place with their laptops and they dial an emergency number from their web client? Where do we send the emergency responders, to their official desk location, or do we figure out where they are within our campus of buildings and make sure we send responders to the correct place.

I realize I've taken the original question and expanded on the topic well beyond their specific question, but handling emergency notifications correctly is a topic that requires careful consideration. Maybe, if you have one building, and you do not care where the person was that dialed the emergency number, then perhaps it is as simple as calling a multi-cast paging ring group with the paging dial code. But I think a more robust solution is probably warranted.

I encourage you to take a look at our 3CX Emergency Notifier tool. We have a new version about to be released with lots of new enhancements and a significantly improved UI which makes a great tool even better.