The sky turns dark and the wind picks up. As the overnight staff prepares to leave, the power cuts out. The computer system with access to the emergency notification system doesn’t respond, and reports of road-blocking floods come across mobile devices, the only remaining internet access.

These first moments of a crisis are critical. Without the proper communication tools, an unknowing staff may put themselves in danger attempting to drive to work in life-threatening conditions. It is imperative to communicate to the entire staff and receive information in return in order to make informed decisions during such incidents. When power or computer systems go down, mobile devices are often the only communication tools that are connected during disasters.

Why mobility is important

The world is growing more connected every day.  91% of Americans use cell phones and over 50% use web-enabled smart phones. With growing capabilities, people are more informed than ever through advances in technology. When emergencies occur, they expect to be notified as quickly as possible, no matter where they are. Additionally, there are many instances where mobile devices are the only remaining devices with Internet connection, which means that an effective emergency notification platform requires robust mobile communication capabilities to launch broadcasts from anywhere at any time.

Everbridge Mobile Aware 2.0

“In a world where operational effectiveness is becoming more mobile and more social, our clients must have access to Everbridge solutions no matter where they are,” said Imad Mouline, Chief Strategy Officer for Everbridge, Inc.  ”Our application is built to maximize the unique native features of each mobile platform and designed to operate with minimal bandwidth to perform under the most adverse conditions for clients. Additionally, it accomplishes this with reporting features and customization options that exceed all current market alternatives.”

With the release of Everbridge Mobile Aware 2.0, Everbridge has made significant advances in the solutions’ mobile capabilities, integrated a number of real-time reporting features and added the industry’s only client-configurable call-throttling ability.

Highlights of Everbridge Mobile Aware 2.0 include:

SmartGIS Capabilities

• Track progress with GIS specific real-time reporting
• Provide familiar geo-spatial maps for selecting target broadcast areas
• Allow the user to select contacts from zip codes/ use intelligent address search

Expanded security and usability

• Ability to initiate notifications to select individuals and/or groups from mobile devices.
• Additional mobile access controls and timeout announcement features.

Configurable call throttling

• Create custom strategies based on organization needs not infrastructure limitations.
• Maximize call throughput and delivery.
• Prevent PBX overloads and Central Office (CO) outages.

“Ventura County has more than 800,000 citizens spread across nine cities.  This makes having mobile GIS capabilities an essential factor of our emergency notification strategy,” said Patrick Maynard, program administrator, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, Office of Emergency Services, “With this new functionality, Ventura County will now have the ability to launch a location-based broadcast from anywhere at anytime – this truly enhances our ability to protect and inform our citizens when emergencies occur.”

Everbridge Mobile Aware 2.0 with SmartGIS capabilities is now available for download on the Apple iTunes Store®, Google Play™ and BlackBerry AppWorld.

“Their interactive, two way communications and focus on real time situational awareness are really way ahead of anything else in the market,” said Jim Duncan, director of emergency management for Walla Walla County, WA. “Quite honestly, the focus they have placed on their advanced mobile platform is really incredible. I have the ability to launch notifications from my phone or tablet — really amazing.”

The innovations Everbridge has made contributed to being positioned as a “leader” in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for U.S. Emergency / Mass Notification Services in 2012.

“Mobile technology has become a critical delivery method for EMNS. In fact, key recovery personnel — BCM managers, crisis and incident managers, and event commanders — are already equipped with smartphones and tablets, and will be coming to the crisis with these devices,” Roberta J. Witty wrote in the January 2012 Gartner report titled The Emergency or Mass Notification Service Market: Now and for the Next Five Years.  “As a result, being able to perform outbound messaging from the smartphone or tablet device is a basic requirement in 2011. In 2012 and beyond, EMNS on a mobile device will take EMNS well beyond messaging and into emergency management operations and situational awareness of overall recovery management.”

Our other recent innovations include the industry’s first elastic infrastructure model, which offers near infinite scale and capacity to efficiently respond to any event, whether local, regional or global. Additionally,

“We view our Magic Quadrant leader’s position as confirmation of Everbridge as a leading provider of emergency and mass notification services,” said Jaime Ellertson, Chief Executive Officer, Everbridge. “Working closely with our customers, we have developed cutting edge solutions that empower organizations to communicate with their stakeholders on any device, throughout the incident lifecycle, to protect their most important assets. Everbridge’s innovative approach led to the development of the industry’s first elastic infrastructure model, as well as providing advanced mobile connectivity to give access to our platform from anywhere.”

• Read the entire Gartner Report
• Learn more about Everbridge and our latest innovations

About the Magic Quadrant
(1)Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Within the report, Gartner identifies major market trends that are impacting the overall Emergency.

Notification market, including overall platform capacity, ease-of-use, speed, reliability of broadcast delivery and secure data center protocols. For nearly a decade, Everbridge has empowered clients around the world to respond to these trends by providing the industry’s most solid infrastructure with high availability, patented sequential dialing patterns to reach multi-modal devices, and real-time reporting and analytics to meet business needs and provide the necessary insight to make better decisions.

Everbridge invests heavily in its technology to provide the most reliable and innovative notification solutions on the market. Our easy-to-use, Web-based notification solutions are supported by an advanced elastic infrastructure that ensures a level of performance and resiliency unmatched in the industry. With a flexible data hierarchy and robust API’s that provide for simple integration with leading enterprise applications, Everbridge is the preferred choice for business continuity professionals, Certified Emergency Managers, and public safety professionals globally.

Our recent innovations include the industry’s first elastic infrastructure model, which offers near infinite scale and capacity to efficiently respond to any event, whether local, regional or global. Additionally, this winter we saw the release of Everbridge Mobile Aware™ app for iOS™, Android™ and Blackberry™ devices, an bandwidth-sipping version of our Emergency Notification solution optimized for mobile connectivity.

“We view our Magic Quadrant leader’s position as confirmation of Everbridge as a leading provider of emergency and mass notification services,” said Jaime Ellertson, Chief Executive Officer, Everbridge. “Working closely with our customers, we have developed cutting edge solutions that empower organizations to communicate with their stakeholders on any device, throughout the incident lifecycle, to protect their most important assets. Everbridge’s innovative approach led to the development of the industry’s first elastic infrastructure model, as well as providing advanced mobile connectivity to give access to our platform from anywhere.”

“Mobile technology has become a critical delivery method for EMNS. In fact, key recovery personnel — BCM managers, crisis and incident managers, and event commanders — are already equipped with smartphones and tablets, and will be coming to the crisis with these devices,” Roberta J. Witty wrote in the January 2012 Gartner report titled The Emergency or Mass Notification Service Market: Now and for the Next Five Years.  “As a result, being able to perform outbound messaging from the smartphone or tablet device is a basic requirement in 2011. In 2012 and beyond, EMNS on a mobile device will take EMNS well beyond messaging and into emergency management operations and situational awareness of overall recovery management.”

• Learn more about the report
• Learn more about Everbridge and our latest innovations

About the Magic Quadrant

(1)Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

After seeing the success of neighboring Pierce County after their adoption of Everbridge Aware, Walla Walla County knew they needed the protection and advanced features that only Everbridge offers. “I talked with the Emergency Management team in Pierce County and they had nothing but positive things to say about Everbridge’s customer service, system stability and really broad functionality” said Jim Duncan Director of Emergency Management for Walla Walla County.

County officials are excited to take advantage of the new advanced mobile connectivity included in Everbridge Mobile Aware, which provides immediate access to create, record, send and analyze notifications using Apple iOS™, Android™ and BlackBerry® devices.

“Everbridge provided a clear price and usage model incorporating all of the advanced notification features I required. Their interactive, two way communications and focus on real time situational awareness are really way ahead of anything else in the market,” continued Jim Duncan. “Quite honestly, the focus they have placed on their advanced mobile platform is really incredible. I have the ability to launch notifications from my phone or tablet – really amazing.”

Firefighters were on the scene and after hours of battling the flames, were finally able to contain the fire. The 45-acre-wide fire shut down the Diagonal Highway in several places, impeding traffic and residents ability to evacuate in certain areas.

Thanks to the fast response of first responders and near immediate alerts from the Everbridge system, no one was injured during the incident. Officials are confident the situation is under control.