Emergency SMS | Púca - Powering Mobile Marketing

Case study: SMS Management System for Office of Emergency Planning

Summary

The Office of Emergency Planning (emergencyplanning.ie) within the Department of Defence wanted a robust and reliable SMS management system that would allow it to fulfil its co-ordination function as cost effectively and efficiently as possible. Púca’s Message Manager system enables the Office to communicate instantly with all its stakeholders and increase productivity by reducing the set-up time for emergency planning meetings and other key events.

Client

Based in Newbridge, Co Kildare, the Office of Emergency Planning (OEP) supports the Minister for Defence who chairs the Government Task Force on Emergency Planning. The Task Force comprises the Ministers and/or senior officials of all Government Departments and key public authorities.

Challenge

As part of its co-ordination role, the OEP convenes regular meetings of the Government Task Force on Emergency Planning. This used to be done by ringing or emailing a list of contacts but this was found to be a time-consuming system which left room for error as there was no way of automatically checking that all the invitations had been received. The OEP decided it needed a fast, reliable and secure text management system that would allow it to convene meetings at short notice and to ensure that all messages were safely delivered to their recipients. After tendering for the system, the OEP awarded the contract to Púca Mobile Group.

Solution

Púca developed a custom version of its Message Manager system, a market-leading self-service application designed to help organisations such as the OEP manage two-way SMS messaging easily and conveniently. Using the simple and intuitive web-based interface, staff can prepare, send or schedule SMS messages. As a hosted service, there is no need to install software or hardware and any technical issues that arise are dealt with directly by Púca’s technical support team. Full training in the use of the system was provided by Púca.

Features of Message Manager include:

The ability to send and schedule thousands of messages at once
Advanced list management including upload, opt-in/opt-out
Database integration
Delivery receipt information
In-depth reporting and analysis tools
Industry-leading service level agreements and technical support

Result

Speed, reliability and ease-of-use are all hallmarks of the new communications system which has made the task of organising GTF meetings much easier and more efficient. Where meetings are called at very short notice attendees can be instantly notified and the delivery confirmation feature means no one can be left off the list in error.

The customer’s view

"Under the old system, we had to get in touch with people individually, which could take time. The new system has made this process much quicker, easier and more manageable. It’s a straightforward requirement but the Púca system is really very effective at getting people together at short notice"

Jerry Kelliher, deputy head of the Office of Emergency Planning