FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) about Mass Notification Systems, Emergency Alerts, IPAWS.

What is Hyper-Reach?

Hyper-Reach is an emergency notification system, a way to send your voice, a text message, a TTY (teletype for the hearing impaired) message, or an alarm message to as many people as you need to reach, either from our website or with just one phone call. That’s the basic idea, but Hyper-Reach is far from basic.

While it is extremely easy to use, Hyper-Reach has massive capacity and sophisticated features that are designed to handle the most demanding tasks — features such as being able to send messages to TDD devices for people with hearing impairments, being able to call thousands of people in an emergency or pre-schedule a reminder call to go out next week; features such as being able to get positive feedback from people that you call or connect them into a conference bridge and more.

I am a citizen – how do I sign up for Hyper-Reach alerts?

If your county or municipality uses Hyper-Reach, then go to their website and look for a sign up link there, or do a web search for your county/municipality name and the words “Community Alerts Sign Up”. If you do not find anything, chances are your county/municipality does not use Hyper-Reach.

How does Hyper-Reach work?

Once you have created an account (contact us to sign up), you may create any number of calling lists. To send a message to one of your lists (referred to as a “campaign”), simply dial our phone number (visible once you have logged in) and follow the prompts. You will be asked either to record a new message or pick an existing one, choose a list, and confirm your settings. The message is then sent to everyone on that list. Once the campaign has completed, you will be sent an e-mail notice. You may view the details of the calls on the website both while they are in progress and after they have all completed.

That’s it! From 10 calls to 50,000 or more calls and text messages, that’s all it takes.

Who uses Hyper-Reach?

Hyper-Reach is currently being used by dozens of law enforcement agencies, corporations, churches, schools, and community groups.

Its powerful features, along with advanced mapping tool Accu-Reach™, make it an ideal choice for public safety organizations that need to notify the public about emergencies ranging from Hazardous Material (HazMat) spills to weather alerts to hostage situations and floods.

Its immediate mass notification and positive response features make it the choice for mobilizing American Red Cross volunteers in New York State.

Its advanced positive ID and conferencing capabilities make it the most affordable full-featured Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery notification service available today.

Ease of use, complete web control, immediate detailed reporting, and easily affordable price tag make it a must-have for dozens of churches. community groups, sports teams, and schools.

How do I enter my phone lists?

The three primary ways to enter lists are 1) simply to type them into our form, 2) cut and paste them from another application into our web for, or 3) to upload a text file with the contact data (see next question). Additional directions can be found in the List Manager once you have logged in. We can create custom import solutions for high-volume customers.

Can Hyper-Reach send E-Mail notifications?

Yes. To send a message to an email address, just put that address into any list. Hyper-Reach is very flexible in the way recognizes email addresses. When you need to send a notification, simply call Hyper-Reach and record your message. Hyper-Reach will send that message as an audio attachment to the email. If you have a transcribed message, the text will be sent as well as the audio. It’s that simple.

And right now, there is no charge for sending messages to as many email addresses as you wish, providing there is at least one person on the list with a telephone number.

Can I upload a list of names and numbers directly into Hyper-Reach?

Yes. There are some guidelines for the format of your list, but Hyper-Reach has a flexible file upload capability. A simple text file with a name, telephone number, and optional email address on each line is sufficient. Alternatively, Hyper-Reach will accept an upload of a CSV (comma separated values) file, which is the most common way to export a list from almost any database or spreadsheet.

How much does it cost?

Your cost is calculated by the length of your outgoing message, number of calls and the custom options you choose. The cost of outgoing calls is 20 cents or less per minute (depending on the pricing scheme that you choose), and there are no additional charges for out-of-area calls in the US. The system always calculates your cost prior to the call, and you must approve the pricing before the calls will be made.

How many calls can I make?

There is no built-in limit. If you have enough minutes in your account, you can make the calls. and you can always add minutes at a standard cost. If you are planning high call volumes (5000 calls or more per month), we can help you manage your calling budget. Volume discounts may apply. Contact us for details.

Can I stop a calling campaign?

You can stop a call campaign in progress or stop a scheduled campaign prior to its scheduled time for launch.

What about answering machines? Or busy signals? Or if no one answers?

Our system will leave messages on answering machines, and it will reattempt calls that reach a busy signal or ring-no-answer condition. The exact time between retries and the number of retries can be configured in your account settings.

How do I know when my campaign has completed?

Upon completion of your campaign, you will be sent an e-mail summary of call, and you may also review full details of each call on the website.

Can you design custom calling solutions?

We have extensive experience developing very large scale calling systems through our parent company, the Asher Group. For information on custom system development including applications, capabilities and case studies, visit the Asher IVR area of the Asher Group corporate site or contact us.

At Hyper-Reach, we work to provide the highest quality solutions in the industry. Learn more about our emergency mass notification systems and web-based incident management system.