Mass Notification System: 10 Reasons to Choose Regroup

Understanding these features can save your organization thousands in upfront costs and labor.

What is a Mass Notification System?

Every organization faces potential changes and risks to its operations, such as natural disasters, violence in the workplace, supply chain disruptions, policy changes, and more. And it is up to managers to provide timely, reliable, and relevant information to protect their people and mitigate damages.

Although we can communicate across teams in many ways, advances in technology tell us that the best way to quickly and effectively reach people, especially regarding emergency alerts, is through a mass notification system.

Mass notification systems send emergency alerts and information to large or small groups of people. It is the most effective way to reach people where they are and how they receive messages. A mass notification system can reduce the likelihood of accidents, mitigate emergencies and damages when they occur, help you increase employee productivity and maintain public safety.

The increasing demand for safety and security

Employees and citizens need and want to feel safe and secure. But, unfortunately, people worldwide feel less safe than ever before.

• Over 34% of people feel less safe than they did five years ago (Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll).
• 75% of Americans 25-34 feel concerned about their safety daily (Newsweek).
• About one in seven employees feel unsafe at work in the United States (Society for Human Resource Management).

A mass notification system helps bridge the communications gaps and makes people feel safer at work and in their communities.

For example, an internationally recognized data and intelligence provider in the United States used the Regroup Mass Notification system to communicate with hundreds of employees. It chose Regroup for day-to-day communications and emergency alerts. The company previously relied on email and manual phone calls, but notifying everyone would take up precious time if there were an emergency or update. Regroup allowed the company to connect with all employees over SMS/text, voice and email with just two taps on a device.

Ten reasons to choose Regroup over its alternatives

1. Simplicity and ease of use

The Regroup Mass Notification platform and mobile app are designed to be easy to use in every way. Automatic two-way database synchronization gets organizations setup on the system quickly. The intuitive platform makes learning and using the system, desktop and mobile app fast and easy.

Additionally, pre-programmed QuickPost Templates help you get information out fast. Using a predetermined text format like the templates for various messaging can bring clarity to your communications strategy and help overcome some of the bottlenecks created by miscommunication.

2. Supporting both emergency and day-to-day communication

Organizations of various sizes use Regroup to send routine messages such as HR policy changes and hours updates as well as emergency alerts such as an active shooter or business closures due to weather. In addition, alerts can be sent via the mobile app or desktop.

Keeping employees safe can’t be understated. Quick and reliable communication with staff during an emergency is critical to an organization’s operations and employees’ safety.

However, the flexibility of communicating critical and non-critical messages allows a company to keep employees informed, build consistent language, and increase transparency. Communications also enable team members to spend less time clarifying each other’s messages and focusing more on their work.

3. Fastest message throughput

During a crisis, time matters, so quickly getting emergency alerts out helps mitigate loss and damage to property and lives. Regroup provides a fast, robust message throughput of up to 80,000 text/SMS messages per minute, which exceeds our competitors’ messaging capabilities.

Timely communication during a crisis reduces fear and misunderstandings. Crisis communication allows an organization to expedite the response time and keep it running during an unfortunate event. In addition, when an organization delays responding or does not communicate information during a crisis, it creates uncertainty and possibly anger, which lessens the trust and value it has with people.

4. Global Messaging Capabilities

Regroup is a global communications system that automatically translates communications into over 75 languages based on their recipient’s preferred settings. This ensures everyone in the organization can understand the message and emergency alerts when they receive them.

Regroup Mass Notification’s employees have been fully-remote since its inception in 2006. The founders recognize the special requirements for maintaining a healthy environment for distributed teams, so it is no surprise that one of the most popular uses for Regroup has become communications for distributed and global workforces.

5. Versatile API Suite

Regroup’s versatile API suite and robust integration capabilities enable our partners to integrate their products with our multimodal notification platform easily. This provides seamless, two-way communication between Regroup and third-party partner systems.

Through the API integration, Regroup, and our partners can trigger each other’s systems to broadcast emergency and non-critical notifications, either manually or automatically.

Integration allows an organization to send potentially life-saving alerts across the organization’s existing infrastructure and technology, including PA systems, digital signage, fire panels and more. Regroup also integrates with most of the leading databases and information systems, including those for employee record management, HR and payroll systems, student information systems and much more.

6. Multi-location threat intelligence

Regroup partners with TX360, a leading threat intelligence provider, to offer 24/7 monitoring of relevant information regarding risks to a business or organization. Threat intelligence helps organizations stay ahead of those risks and maintain business continuity.

Many companies use threat intelligence or threat detection and mass notification systems tools to achieve better communication during a crisis such as a natural disaster. However, threat intelligence can also be used for lesser risks to lives, such as power utility status, which can help organizations prepare for a possible shutdown.
Threat intelligence software can filter intelligence for specific topics or geofencing for particular locations. This filtering brings more relevant information to recipients so teams can prepare and respond and reduce the negative impact and loss of property and lives during an emergency.

7. Customization

All organizations face the same challenge of communication. However, not all organizations serve the same people or industries. So, unlike other mass notification systems, Regroup offers customization of the system to every client. This makes it less confusing for an organization comparing mass notification systems’ features.
Regroup serves clients in healthcare, corporate, education, government, hospitality and more, so they understand each client’s unique needs and aim to meet their needs with the system’s features and benefits.

8. Unlimited training and support

Regroup provides 24/7 customer and technical support for every client, with no limit on the number of hours. We also have enough customer support agents to support all inquiries equally. So whether it is a question about onboarding the team or sending an emergency alert, Regroup’s customer service is there to help via phone or email.

9. 12-month minimum contract

Regroup’s one-year contract eases the buying decision for most organizations. Some providers require up to three years of commitment, but if your needs change, you won’t have the flexibility to address them and could be stuck with a platform that no longer suits your organization.

10. Weather service and public safety

Because a natural disaster can cause long-lasting and profound obstacles for organizations, staying informed of an impending emergency is imperative. Regroup partners with the National Weather Service and is recognized as a Weather-Ready Nation (WRN) Ambassador by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The integration with the NOAA weather and National Weather Service allows Regroup to automatically send real-time, location-based watches, warnings and alerts to team members in any location across multiple channels.

Regroup was one of the first companies to be approved by FEMA’s national system for local alerting– the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS). IPAWS provides authenticated emergency and life-saving information to the public through mobile phones using Wireless Emergency Alerts, to radio and television via the Emergency Alert System.

Regroup Pricing

Regroup’s cost trends lower than most competitors. Many providers charge high setup fees and fees for integration add-ons and messaging or template packs. When considering a mass notification system, understand ahead of time what you can expect and that there are no hidden monthly costs, up-charges or you’ve met your limit on the number of messages you are allotted.

In addition, Regroup doesn’t offer pre-made packages. Instead, they allow every client access to all the features available on the platform, but with the option to tailor the functionality to your needs. Hence, clients only pay for the features they are going to use.

Competitor Evaluation

The choices of mass notification systems can be confusing. When choosing a mass notification and alert system, consider the following questions:

1. Will this new system integrate with my existing systems and processes?
2. What is included (or not included) in the base cost of the system?
3. Does the system have redundancies and fail-safe processes?
4. Will the system simplify or complicate contact data management?
5. What is the minimum length of the contract?

After initial research, use this chart to understand how Regroup is different from other mass notification systems. Download chart here.

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Awards

Regroup is dedicated to providing a top-notch platform to enhance communication in organizations to ensure people’s safety and has been acknowledged by experts from multiple organizations. The awards and nominations listed below are a testament to the hard work put in by the Regroup team over the years. Regroup takes immense pride in these accomplishments that highlight their unwavering commitment to clients.

• 2023 SourceForge Top Performer Award
• 2022 Unified Communications TMC Labs Innovation Award
• 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Award from American Security Today
• 2022 SourceForge Top Performer Award
• 2022 Security and Sales Integration’s Security Solutions Award
• 2022 TMC’s Unified Communications Product of the Year

For more award information, visit Regroup’s Award page.

Conclusion

Basic communication needs vary dramatically from the smallest business to large enterprises and from government agencies to schools and universities. However, everyone needs the capability of sending emergency alerts quickly and reliably.

Finding a mass notification system that addresses your specific requirements and can be scaled to fit your organization’s future needs can be confusing. Regroup Mass Notification focuses on providing an industry-leading, all-in-one Mass Notification platform for emergency and day-to-day communications for organizations. Download Regroup buyer’s guide or schedule a free demo to learn more.

Ready to see more? You can schedule a no-obligation demo of Regroup’s powerful notification system here.