London, 28 January, 2014 – PageOne Communications, a leading critical messaging solutions provider to the public and private sectors, today announced Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service (HFRS) has selected its Smartphone Responder App to provide secure priority messaging and to enable full integration of all communications into its command and control system. Implementing the Responder App has also helped Fire Officers consolidate devices; thereby ensuring critical alerts are elevated and acknowledged to improve incident response times.

“We are making increasing use of mobile technologies to help us respond to, and deal with all types of 999 calls,” says Jerry Leonard, Group Manager at HFRS. “PageOne’s Smartphone Responder App has helped us take another huge step forward regarding how quickly we can mobilise Fire Officers to the scene of an incident.”

To continue to provide a first-class service to its communities without major cost implications, HFRS decided to explore ways of enhancing the delivery mechanism of critical messages to its Fire Officers. The Responder App for Android devices presented a unique opportunity to extend current SMS and paging broadcasts to smartphone users, whilst eliminating per message charges. Following an extensive trial period to ensure the solution would address all their communication needs, HFRS are now in the process of rolling out the service to 100 Fire Officers, who will be using the App to communicate more effectively.

“PageOne’s Responder App allows Officers to receive information straight to their smartphones and they need only carry the one device, rather than be weighed down with several pieces of technology,” added Jerry Leonard. “Longer term, we aim to integrate the technology further to allow our Officers to receive live updates on incidents as they travel and to be able to update their location and status through their Apps.”

Important operational alerts can often be missed within the everyday clutter of email, meaning staff may overlook important alerts or fail to respond promptly. With pop-up alerts, a separate Inbox and 2-way QuickReply option makes the Smartphone Responder App ideal for delivering those important real-time operational and emergency alerts that need immediate attention.

“We have worked closely with HFRS to ensure the solution truly addresses their communication needs and we are delighted they have selected PageOne’s Smartphone Responder App,” says Chris Jones, CEO at PageOne. “The technology we have developed not only extends the functionality of existing devices to deliver resilient 2-way messaging, but also offers a logical and cost-effective solution to their critical communications and resource management challenges.”

For further information on PageOne’s Smartphone Responder Application, please visit http://www.pageone.co.uk/services/smartphone-responder-app