Frequently Asked Questions About Message911's Reverse 911 System

1.	Is the Internet required for Message911 operation?
2.	What if my local Internet connection goes down?
3.	Do you have alternate facilities that house your operating equipment?
4.	We've had our local phone lines cut by a backhoe before. How does Message911 handle this situation should it occur?
5.	What are the advantages of having your equipment sitting in the Phone Company Switch instead of on our premises?
6.	How does Message911 equipment compete for phone lines in an emergency?
7.	How would you know if a Message911 component or system was starting to fail?
8.	The Desktop systems use standard PC hardware and software that you can pick up at the local discount store. We know from experience these types of PC’s break down occasionally. What grade of equipment do you use and if your equipment does break down, how long does it take to fix it?
9.	Are system backups made?
10.	How is Message911 equipment protected from physical intrusion by unauthorized personnel?
11.	Does Message911 utilize Uninterruptible Power Supply (U.P.S.)? Do you have an alternate facility?
12	Is there any monthly phone line cost?
13	What is the ‘overage’ fee on calls made beyond the free calls provided each monthly?
14	Are there any other monthly/annual fees?
15.	Do you have training classes and how long are they?
16.	How much does training cost?
17.	Can messages be delivered at anytime, 24 hrs. a day?
18.	What is the maximum length of a message that I can record?
19.	Can Message911 deliver messages to a business extension and/or voicemail account?
20.	What if we need a special option that is not standard on Message911 system?
21.	Do you have a "Proof Of Concept" test period?
22.	Can we assign multiple sub-accounts with different access rights? Will each sub-account user be given a unique User ID and PIN?
23.	I must be able to notify all of my ‘First Responders” immediately and this could easily exceed 250 people in a critical emergency. How long would it take to notify them, assuming they are reached on the first call?
24.	If a notification scenario is set up to contact people with multiple cell, home & work phones, will the system stop the call process once a receipt confirmation has been received?
25	Can Message911 inter-operate with other information systems?
26.	Can Message911 inter-operate with recipients of a notification?

1. Is the Internet required for Message911 operation?
No. While the Internet is a wonderful management tool, if the Internet went down, Message911 continues to operate and you can manage your calls using any cell or landline phone.

2. What if my local Internet connection goes down?
You can use various access points to control Message911. You can go to another location where the Internet is accessible, use a land line phone, or use a wireless phone to control Message911. With a desktop system, you are limited to being directly at the Desktop PC (which could be in the middle of a hazard) or using a difficult dial in program (over local phone lines) to access the Desktop PC. Also, if the local Internet connection goes down, often the local phone lines go down making the Desktop PC totally inoperable.

3. Do you have alternate facilities that house your operating equipment?
A powerful feature of Message911 is that it is built with the most advanced dependability in mind. Our equipment and systems that comprise Message911 are located in two different major telephone switching centers, hundreds of miles apart, so even if one takes a nuclear blast the other site continues on.

4. We've had our local phone lines cut by a backhoe before. How does Message911 handle this situation should it occur?
A major advantage of using Message911 is that the critical phone lines link between the Desktop PC system premises and the phone company switch is totally eliminated. Although infrequent, these phone line breaks do occur since the bundle of phone lines are either buried or hung from poles along public access ways. This 'weak-link' of the Desktop PC systems is often overlooked but in reality is a major issue to consider when purchasing a system that can mean the difference in saving millions of dollars in property or even human lives. Since all of the Message911 equipment is housed directly in the phone company switch, availability and dependability is many times greater than a locally placed Desktop PC system.

5. What are the advantages of having your equipment sitting in the Phone Company Switch instead of on our premises?
There are several critical advantages in having our equipment placed in the Phone Company Switch:

	A.		The critical phone bundle link between an off-site premise and the Phone Company Switch is eliminated. Should this critical link for Desktops be broken for any reason including internal office wiring problems, then no notifications can be made.
	B.		Greatly improved access to the Phone Company Switch (see question #6).
	C.		Greatly improved security of equipment and data (see question #10).
	D.		Greatly improved dependability (see question #11).

6. How does Message911 equipment compete for phone lines in an emergency?
This is another large advantage with our system. Because Message911 is housed directly in the phone company switch we have a direct connection. This allows superior access to both the inbound and outbound lines from the switch. Also, because the locations of our switches are far removed from the locality of the incident, our switches will not be loaded down with local call traffic. Also, because of how our system is designed, the link from Message911 equipment directly over the phone network into the local switch is far superior to calling in from a local phone (which is what Desktop systems do).

7. How would you know if a Message911 component or system was starting to fail?
Message911 continuously monitors and tracks numerous hardware and processes, and we are notified immediately, 24 hours a day, 7 days per week if anything out of the ordinary occurs. We then immediately diagnose and resolve the issue before it can become a real problem. Unfortunately, failures with Desktop PC’s often go unnoticed until the system is needed, and it’s too late to fix.

8. The Desktop systems use standard PC hardware and software that you can pick up at the local discount store. We know from experience these types of PC’s break down occasionally. What grade of equipment do you use and if your equipment does break down, how long does it take to fix it?
We practically never have a problem because our equipment is of the highest industrial grade and built for continuous long-term service. If there is a problem with a piece of equipment, then other systems pick up the load. Unfortunately, if a desktop system goes out, you’re at the mercy of shipping the equipment for repair, leaving you with downtime that can last for several days.

9. Are system backups made?
Message911 exceeds the standard requirements for backup of data. Dual nightly backups are maintained at two different locations as well as a remote real-time backup should a problem occur between nightly backups. Most of the Desktop-PC systems only provide for single backup on a nightly type basis which means you could lose any data developed during the day should a problem occur then.

10. How is Message911 equipment protected from physical intrusion by unauthorized personnel?
The security level for accessing our equipment is similar to that of getting into a nuclear power plant. Even we, as owners of the equipment, are required to prearrange our visit, have special badges, and be under constant escort when we need to physically access our equipment. All entry is logged and recorded. This is because our equipment is sitting in the same spaces as other high security equipment used by firms such as financial institutions. Compare that to most offices where Desktop PC’s sit where different personnel, even un-cleared janitorial services, come and go.

11. Does Message911 utilize Uninterruptible Power Supply (U.P.S.)? Do you have an alternate facility?
All of our equipment is housed directly in major telephone company switching centers with the highest level of security and power/data backup. There are more Industrial U.P.S. and Diesel Generator Backup systems in these locations than you can imagine and they can run our systems for literally weeks without offsite power. Our equipment is placed right next to the same equipment that provides the backbone telephone service for the whole country.

12. Is there any monthly phone line cost?
Unlike desktop systems where you have to pay as much as $50 or more per phone line, Message911 has NO monthly phone line charges. There is an ‘overage’ fee for calls that exceed the number of free calls provided per month in your contract.

13. What is the ‘overage’ fee on calls made beyond the free calls provided each monthly?
The number of “free” calls per month is set up to cover basic calling needs and most testing. Should a large incident require more calls than provided free, then each call over the free amount is charged at a rate determined in your contract. The larger package you purchase the less expensive the calls are. Calls over the free amount in the large packages that include mapping are 20-cents per emergency call and 10-cents per non-emergency call. It should be noted that should an incident occur that causes a client to use more calls than provided as free, then the responsible party for the incident would normally cover this ‘overage’ cost.

14. Are there any other monthly/annual fees?
There are no additional costs other than the annual License/Maintenance fee. This fee varies between 25% and 40% of the original subscription cost depending on the particulars of each client. By the way,with the Message911 system you have direct access to our system that has made up to 3,000-plus calls per minute compared to the handful of calls provided with a Desktop-PC system. And there's no additional charge for phone capacity with Message911 as compared to the phone port cost easily exceeding $14,000 per year for a typical 24-line Desktop-PC system for the time of a staff person perform tape backups and maintains the system, and operates the Desktop system.

15. Do you have training classes and how long are they?
One of our most effective achievements has been to make Message911 very easy and intuitive to use. We have the ability to put a lot of whiz-bang "secondary" features in front of the user - but found that to be a counter-productive complication to the user without real value. Users love the simplicity of our system, especially in the middle of emergencies. As a result, clients can learn Message911 and literally use it with less than an hour of self-familiarization. We usually do the training (when needed) directly over the Internet to save customer travel time and expense.

16. How much does training cost?
We're not in business to make money off of training - we're in business to help you save time and save lives, making Message911 so simple to use, training is negligible. Should it be desired, there's no charge for the training unless we travel to your location. Because it's so simple we normally provide training on the spot for our clients when they call - without a lot of scheduling, etc.

17. Can messages be delivered at anytime, 24 hrs. a day?
Yes, Message911 delivers messages at anytime, 24 hrs. per day, 365 days per year.

18. What is the maximum length of a message that I can record?
As a result of a great deal of discussion with clients the default message length maximum is set to one minute. The reason they like one minute is that it forces the person recording the message to be concise and get to the point instead of rambling on. A rambled-on message is irritating to the recipients and also can exceed the recording time of some answering machines/voice mail. It's been our experience with clients that one-minute is more than adequate to get the relevant information transmitted.

19. Can Message911 deliver messages to a business extension and/or voicemail account?
Yes, Message911 has a powerful feature built in that easily delivers to business extensions or voicemail.

20. What if we need a special option that is not standard on Message911 system?
We welcome our clients' suggestions regarding Message911 and use those suggestions to not only support that specific client but also to our own advantage in that we feel it adds value to our system for future clients. You will find our relationship one of a mutual partnership and we appreciate, and actually desire the opportunity to work with our clients in meeting their emergency notification needs.

21. Do you have a "Proof Of Concept" test period?
Message911 is the only emergency notification product on the market that offers a 30-day money-back policy. We are totally confident that our system, along with our willingness to work closely with our clients, will meet or exceed our client needs. We are very customer driven and will make every reasonable effort to insure our clients are pleased with the Message911 system.

22. Can we assign multiple sub-accounts with different access rights? Will each sub-account user be given a unique User ID and PIN?
Yes, Message911 allows the client account administrator to easily set up multiple sub-accounts with different access and control levels. For example one sub-account may be set up for someone with only rights to manage group list while another might be set up with rights to initiate message distribution. We don't hype these types of secondary capabilities as we have found it best to keep Message911 as simple to use as possible in critical emergency type situations.

23. I must be able to notify all of my "First Responders” immediately and this could easily exceed 250 people in a critical emergency. How long would it take to notify them, assuming they are reached on the first call?
It could take one minute or less since our system has made up to 3,000-plus calls per minute. Assuming the total time for each call is one minute (connect, ring, greeting from an answering machine, deliver message, disconnect), doing the math you will see that our capacity is unmatched by desktop systems. With a 12-line Desktop PC, reaching 250 people could take over 20 minutes, which in emergency situations is a lifetime for that small amount of people to reach.

24. If a notification scenario is set up to contact people with multiple cell, home & work phones, will the system stop the call process once a receipt confirmation has been received?
Yes, but this process takes more time to deliver critical messages because it's a “serial” process, and you may only reach them at the last number attempted. The Emergency people we have discussed this with have chosen the "call all at once" option, which is performed in parallel, and reaches the person much faster. Desktop systems make a big deal out of the serial method because the number of phone lines they have to work with is very limited. The 'speed' of getting the critical message to the recipient normally overrides trying to save a few calls. Regardless, it's your choice whether you want the serial (slower) method or the parallel (immediate) method.

25. Can Message911 inter-operate with other information systems?
Yes. The open structure of Message911 allows for easy interaction with other systems. For example, air and CBRNE monitors around buildings like the Pentagon can feed data into a special plume analysis program that forwards the plume results to the Message911 system. Message911 immediately notifies the Message911 client account administrator of the incident and the plume is automatically overlaid onto the Message911 mapping layers so that the user can decide what areas to notify with emergency instructions.

26. Can Message911 inter-operate with recipients of a notification?
Yes, Message911 allows for easy interaction with recipients of notifications. Recipients can reply by pressing any key which then shows up in the real-time call progress reporting.


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	The information provided in this marketing material may change from time to time without notice from Message911 and is only to be used as a guide. Message911 strongly urges customers to do their own comparisons and to insure that important factors to them are included in any resultant contract or agreement.

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