Amid any drive to reduce expenditure, organisations should ensure that their emergency communications systems continue to be reliable and compliant.

Should organisations need to save money, the first step may be to start reassessing expenses as well as looking at where extra funds could be found.

In such situations, organisations should take care that this doesn’t result in a cutting of any corners where funds are being used to ensure safety.

At Alerter Group, we provide Emergency Communication Systems. These systems help organisations ensure the safety of people who have disabilities (such as reduced mobility or Deafness), in the event of an emergency such as a fire.

In the event of an emergency, both people with and without disabilities must be provided with the same level of opportunity for safe egress from buildings. For this reason, evacuation communication systems remain a priority.

But are there options for reducing costs in this particular area?

There are numerous products of this type on the market – meaning more choice. However, caution should be taken to ensure that products will be appropriate and reliant under your required conditions.

For example, when it comes to fire alarms for Deaf people and people who are hard of hearing, there are options starting with the most basic of SMS-based systems.

But while it may at first sound appealing to have a system that simply works with an end users’ mobile network, a closer look at this solution reveals a number of potential issues:

• What happens if the mobile network is down?

• What happens if the mobile user has switched their mobile data off?

• What about if the mobile user’s battery has run out?

(We’ve previously developed a factsheet looking at some of the areas we consider that mobile phone-based systems struggle with compliance – read it here.)

Find out more – free CPD seminar

At Alerter Group we’ve produced a CPD-accredited seminar outlining fire evacuation communication requirements.

This seminar can help you understand:

• the requirements and issues to consider when choosing emergency communication systems

• the various solutions available to provide equal access to emergency evacuation warnings to aid egress

• details of BS5839-1 section 18

Learn more about the CPD seminar here.