Mass notifications are key to strategic resilience
In a crisis, every moment counts. That’s why emergency communications must be quickly disseminated to effected parties, be they employees, residents, customers, partners, regulators, or other stakeholders, throughout the lifecycle of a crisis.
However, keeping all parties informed during an emergency, a central tenet of strategic resilience, is challenging – doubly so when users are in different locations, on different networks, and using different devices.
Rather than transmitting seamless communications, organizations often encounter a cluster of issues regarding their emergency notification for crisis management.
The most common include:
- Gathering, validating, and sharing accurate information
- Communicating with staff
- Keeping an overview of the situation
- Getting staff to follow planned procedures
- Communicating with customers and other stakeholders
Despite facing these challenges, most organizations don’t have a dedicated mass notification tool for their emergency communications that would send out reliable, multimodal messages in mere seconds. In fact, over three and five (64%) rely on text messages/SMS to communicate with the wider organization in a crisis, according to data from the BCI.
Perhaps, unsurprisingly, these organizations cite high levels of dissatisfaction with response levels during a crisis. Their top five reasons for not achieving expected response levels during a crisis, according to the BCI Emergency & Crisis Communications Report 2025, include:
- Lack of response from staff/recipient
- Lack of accurate staff contact information
- Staff device(s) were switched off/unavailable
- Lack of understanding from recipients
- Unavailability of mobile network
These are the precise areas where a mass notification system can help the most. How exactly? This guide will define what mass notification systems are, before examining their benefits and features offered to help enterprises and agencies maintain a proactive resilience posture.
What is a mass notification system?
Definitions and a short history
A mass notification system is a method of communication that allows system administrators to simultaneously send notifications to individuals or groups using lists, locations, and/or other defined factors of an emergency. This type of tool simultaneously broadcasts real-time alerts and information to large numbers of individuals; and its primary function is to send notifications through multiple channels to alert people to the risk of danger within seconds.
To do so, the alert system will have a database of names, phone numbers, email addresses, and delivery methods.
It’s also a tested technology to ensure a proactive approach to resilience. Just ask the American colonists who benefited from Paul Revere’s historic ride, alerting them that the British were advancing.
Air raid sirens, which went mainstream during the Second World War, are also examples of mass notification systems.
In the last ten years or so, the technology has really taken off. The advent of advanced, multi-modal tools has given messengers the power of better data management, audience targeting, and even selective communication channel options.
Indeed, advanced emergency notification software now boasts of strong communications infrastructure with enough bandwidth to deliver thousands of messages in a matter of seconds.
People and organizations can be contacted through prerecorded phone calls, text messages, emails, desktop notifications, social media, and more. And an SMS alerting system can be connected to broadcast to additional channels, including public address systems, digital signage, video systems, access controls, sirens, and IoT-enabled devices.
Key uses of mass notification systems
But for what purpose(s) would an organization use a dedicated mass notification system? Well, there are myriad applications of mass notification technology.
Some of the most common include:
Emergency response and public safety
Perhaps, the most recognizable use of mass notification systems is to alert residents and large populations about the risk of danger, using two-way communication and multilingual support.
Enterprise internal communication
Enterprises often use mass notification systems for non-emergency purposes, such as regulatory compliance. For instance, an emergency mass notification system can be used as part of a required disaster recovery plan as well as to send trackable and auditable messages when proof may be required about the content of a message and its receipt.
A system of mass notification for corporate communications can also be employed for more regular, even celebratory, events in the workplace.
Healthcare
In healthcare, a mass notification system can also have numerous purposes. An ideal solution for alerting staff, patients, and visitors to an emergency, a healthcare mass notification system can also streamline internal communications, enhance patient care, and support healthcare marketing efforts.
However, an advanced healthcare mass notification system must be compliant with applicable laws, overcome the problem of alert fatigue, and be capable of sending targeted messages to specific recipients without impacting privacy regulations.
Education
By law, higher-education institutions in the U.S. are required to inform staff, students, and faculty of crime on campus. And so, the purpose of a mass notification solution for colleges, universities, and (even) K-12 schools is to simultaneously alert 9-1-1, administration leadership and the school community about an incident that requires an emergency response, evacuation, or lockdown.
To do so, these institutions use mass notification systems to reach out to faculty, staff, and students about safety and security communications in the event of an emergency. The entire community can be notified instantly when severe weather, campus crime, or an adverse event happens via multiple communication channels. And students can also receive informational notifications on class schedules, updated sports events, or safety protocols.
Manufacturing
In manufacturing, mass notification systems help boost operations and safety, by enabling leaders to quickly distribute information to all workers (on-site or remote), maintain safe and efficient conditions, and keep workers up-to-date via an employee safety solution. To this end, notifications can be sent simultaneously via text, desktop alerts, sirens, or more in a few clicks.
As a result, the system saves time and money. Administrators can also leverage automated polling functionality by sending out a quota poll through text, email, or voice call. Recipients can then fill shifts to keep the supply chain moving. As a result, administrators can fill a staffing shortage in minutes or facilitate a shift change.
A two-way anonymous tip feature can also bolster employee safety, empowering workers to report any concerning situations or suspicious behavior to managers by connecting employees directly with safety leaders.
Benefits of mass notification systems
From quickly alerting and mobilizing high numbers of people to enabling communication in and between teams to risk monitoring and emergency planning, mass notification systems have any number of benefits.
Some of the key benefits of mass notification systems include:
Improved speed and efficiency
Real-time alerts can go out across multiple channels, including SMS, email, voice, app, and more to reach their intended audience, whether entire populations, geographies, or just specific lists. Such an approach guarantees a faster response time during emergencies, especially when organizations use training mode for drills and table-top exercises to familiarize their users with the functionality.
Enhanced situational awareness
Mass notification systems can be a great font for receiving critical information during a crisis, e.g., locations, facilities, and functional needs. Advanced solutions provide a channel for anonymous tips, too, whether from employees or the wider population, which can also help enhance an organization’s situational awareness. In addition, two-way chat and geo-targeted polling contribute to forming a common operating picture before, during, and after an incident.
Scalability and increased reach
Mass notification technology notifies large audiences simultaneously, amplifying an emergency message. More advanced solutions also support global communication for increased reach with localization support as well as enable text from 9-1-1 for non-verbal communications to improve accessibility. SMS opt-in for visitors and community members also increases the addressable population.
Redundancy
Mass notification solutions improve reliability and engagement, by ensuring emergency message delivery through various modalities. FedRamp, Safety Act, and FirstNET-certified, more advanced platforms offer service availability levels that are well over 99.9%.
Compliance
Many regulations, whether OSHA or HIPAA in the U.S. or GDPR in the EU, include strict privacy obligations that mass notification technology can help organizations meet. This functionality reduces organizational liability, while ensuring compliance.
Operational continuity
Maintaining communication during critical moments isn’t just a nice to have. In certain sectors, it’s a necessity to maintain operational continuity, which only mass notification systems can help ensure, to minimize downtime and help stakeholders avoid confusion.
Improved stakeholder trust
No organization wants to face a crisis. But communicating openly, consistently, and reliably during a critical event helps build confidence among employees, customers, and the public, which often turns into a competitive advantage down the line.
Key features to look for in a mass notification system
Mass notification systems provide a suite of functionality that enables effective communication, with the constant exchange of information and requests for feedback, and empowers teams to collaborate easily and in real time. But when on the market for a mass notification solution, what features should you look for, specifically?
It’s best to find a solution built on an intuitive, high-availability platform that’s easy to use, deploy, and track and also enables reliable, multimodal messages in mere seconds.
Beyond these criteria, further capabilities to consider in a mass notification system include:
- Effective communication in three clicks. From everyday use to catastrophic events, the best mass notification system for your needs should quickly and easily send messages in more than 100 languages.
- Cloud-based notifications. The solution itself should be able to quickly and reliably send emergency and non-emergency mass notifications via text, voice, email, desktop, mobile apps, social media RSS, digital signage, and more. The solution should also enable operational messaging for non-emergency events. And administrators should be able to target messages by specific groups or geographical areas, as well.
- Device agnostic. A mass notification solution should get the right message to the right people to keep the entire organization engaged. And to do so, recipients should be able to receive communications, no matter the device they’re using.
- Integration. To extend reach, the mass notification solution should integrate with an organization’s existing communication systems.
- Geo-redundant. Mass notification technology has to be reliable. The solution should therefore be backed by geo-redundant data centers, sending out billions of notifications annually with reliable delivery rates.
- Automatic polls. Administrators should be able to use the mass notification system to solicit responses in real-time through SMS/text, email, and voice calls with polling as well as ping recipients for any information, like scheduling overtime or wellness checks. Responses should then be organized into actionable reports.
- Robust reporting. To further ensure a robust audit trail, the system should provide detailed, real-time reports, including alert content, responses, notification speed, and success/failure by delivery method, thereby offering insight into the effectiveness of communications.
- Access based on role. Administrators should also be able to customize the interface to only see tools and options relevant to their role or needs. And new users should be up and running in fewer than two hours.
In Conclusion
Organizations face increasing disruption, but their valiant attempts to maintain a proactive approach to resilience are complicated (and frustrated) by a fragmented approach to emergency communications.
But as this guide has sought to explain, organizations can overcome their emergency communications challenges with a mass notification system. This underutilized resilience tool can help enterprises and agencies alike quickly and reliably send emergency mass communication across multiple modes of communication in mere seconds.
Beyond being extraordinary enablers of strategic resilience, mass notification systems are also critical investments, helping organizations disseminate critical messages, build a common operating picture, and gauge the reception of statements through polled sentiment analysis.
But not all solutions are created equal. Leading mass notification systems such as those offered by Motorola Solutions provide performance you can rely on, while enabling you to communicate effectively and get the right message to the right people.
Don’t take our word for it, though. See Noggin in action in a product demonstration.
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