Reviewing Essex RAYNET’s call-out information

As part of a review of the recent opportunity to put the whole membership On Standby we would like to check that the information we have built into our call-out system is correct and meets your needs.  Here is a summary of how the system.

The SMS Responder system is designed to deliver a short message over a range of communication media.  It follows a cascade approach, moving on from one ‘Band’ to the next when no delivery message has been received for that band.

Each Band can be populated with as many media addresses as we wish to add.  The media address types are: Smartphone App (Android and iOS), email address, SMS to mobile number, SMS to fixed line.

The cascade works as follows:

·         Band 1 – message will always be sent to these address(es) first.

·         Band 2 – Addresses in Band 2 are used only if there are no delivery reports received from Band 1 addresses

·         Band 3 – Addresses in Band 3 are only used if no delivery reports are received from previous bands

To note that only SMS and App messages will generate delivery reports.  Therefore, there needs to be a mobile number or App address in Band 1 to prevent Band 2 from being used.

In terms of cost, the sending of messages to the App and email addresses are free.

The optimal design would be having the App and an email address in Band 1.  Then mobile number in Band 2, and maybe a second email address and a fixed line telephone number in Band 3.

However, what we want to do is to construct the cascade to meet the individual’s needs.  So if you really want to have everything go off at the same time, put all the addresses into Band 1 (but we might review your sanity!).

Each member will receive an email detailing their current settings, please respond in a timely manner.

Example Cascade Plans