Statewide Notification Deployment

Multijurisdictional Notification Deployments are the Future of Public Safety

Cities, counties and states need a better way to share information and cover more residents at less cost.

When jurisdictions share a single notification system, they can more effectively respond to incidents and generate significant cost savings without losing individual autonomy. Local authorities can still manage their own notifications, but gain access to a larger source of intelligence, and can coordinate more closely with adjacent jurisdictions.

Statewide Notification Deployments Reward Public Safety

• Enhanced Situational Intelligence
• Improved Mutual Aid
• Increased Opt-ins
• Cover all Residents in All Jurisdictions
• Protect the Most Vulnerable
• Reduce Notification Errors

Customer Story: AlertFlorida’s Statewide Notification System

In 2016, Everbridge was selected as the service provider for the development and implementation of AlertFlorida, a landmark initiative that provides statewide emergency alert and notification services to Florida residents, businesses and visitors.

Each participating jurisdiction is able to customize the categories of alerts available in their community through a local opt-in portal. The system also will provide automated notifications of flash floods, tornados, and other watches and warnings issued by the National Weather Service.

AlertFlorida has set the standard for emergency notification:

• Prior to AlertFlorida, many cities could not independently afford to purchase their own notification system, leaving many residents with no way to be reached in an emergency. By adopting a state-wide model, the overall cost of purchasing and maintaining an emergency notification system decreased substantially.
• The Florida Department of Health maintains their access and functional needs (AFN) information in their database, including critical resource needs. This provides critical information to local emergency managers and first responders in pre-planning efforts such as wellness checks and emergency response coordination. Because the AFN data is managed at the State level, the statewide deployment allows Counties to access the data.

In preparation for Hurricane Irma, Florida promoted the keyword #FLPREPARES, asking residents and visitors to text the keyword to 888-777 to receive critical updates and information from government officials. During the course of Hurricane Irma, 20 million messages were sent, and over 600,000 individuals opted-into the system–expanding their reach from 280,000 contacts to roughly 900,000 contacts. The uniformity of the state-wide system created a standardized message that was easily adopted and deployed across all public safety entities in the state. And in turn, public messaging was clear, concise and consistent throughout the event.

Everbridge Powers Statewide Notification Deployments

Large deployments require a resilient platform. The Everbridge Critical Event Management platform has the scalability and reliability to power large-scale deployments. You can be confident that your messages will be sent, whether to 100 or 100,000 people.