Most organisations use many methods of communication from telephone lines to emails. Perhaps the largest growth area in communication mechanism is by mobile telephone.
Pagers have traditionally been used in working environments where personnel need to be contacted discreetly; they have been particularly popular in industries such as hospitals, schools, police, local authorities, judiciary etc.
Even with the sophistication and range of hand-held devices, pagers remain a popular choice as they are small and versatile. Whichever method is selected being able to make contact quickly and reliably is a key requirement.
However, in many organisations where pagers and mobiles are used, the tendency is to have hardware from a variety of suppliers. Gaps in area coverage, special offers and a competitive market place have increased his multi vendor trait. Most hardware suppliers provide an automated communication mechanism only to their specific device, whereas an alert may need to be sent to several different devices.
In response to this problem RMS has produced RMS Mobile Alerter. The solution enables communication with a range of pager providers including BT, Vodapage and Orange; and the SMS interface provides the mechanism for contacting mobile phone service providers including BT, Vodaphone and Orange. A simple file based interface allows the RMS Mobile Alerter to work with nearly all computer systems. If the system raises an alert which can trigger a command, this can be used to contact the service bureau. The system can be periodically queried for new situations, and used to initiate messages.
RMS Mobile Alerter can be purchased as a stand-alone system. It is easily integrated with other systems requiring immediate communication via message pager or mobile phone. Examples being network monitoring, sales lead tracking or customer service systems.
RMS Mobile Alerter also fully integrates into RMS Service Desk providing a communications option in the end-to-end Service Management solution.
RMS Mobile Alerter allows alerts and messages to be sent to users regardless of the vendor/service provider; messages can be predefined ensuring a speedy and efficient service.
Users can choose how to receive their alerts. For example they can have alerts delivered directly through the RMS application when at their desk or through email or pager when working remotely.
The solution itself monitors a directory for new files. When new files are found they are batched into pager type and contact is made with the appropriate service bureau. Messages for that bureau are transmitted and the Mobile Alerter then checks for messages for other service providers. In built intelligence in this method of searching for individual services restricts multiple alerts from different providers generating multiple messages. This will provide savings on line costs. The system can also be configured to prevent line hogging.
If the service bureau is busy, then the Mobile Alerter will retry procedures and keeps a status log of transmissions. Failed transmissions, perhaps due to invalid numbers, can be tracked and resubmitted. A GUI configuration screen gives sites the choice over how frequently to check for messages and control over the batching mechanism. The system can be tuned to suit the requirements of specific environments for example approaching deadlines can be pre-determined and contacted when required.
