If you're using a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system like Tritech's VisionAir or Sungard's OSSI, PageGate can easily and seamlessly integrate with your CAD system by using our GetAscii module. The GetAscii module for PageGate allows the software to monitor a directory or series of directories either on the local hard drive or across the network for text file output. Most CAD systems can be configured to output a file to a directory when an alert needs to be sent out. These alerts are then read in by PageGate and sent to whoever was specified to receive the alert by the CAD system. Alternatively, if your CAD system can't output a file, the GetAscii module also provides a Command Line Executable that nearly any program can use to pass command line variables for sending alerts.

If you're using an Alarm Panel, like a nurse call station, you can use our GetTAP or GetSerial modules to read in the input from the Alarm Panel and turn that in to a message. Different alarm panels use different methods for delivering alerts but almost all of them have the ability to transmit information over a serial line. If you can connect the alarm panel to the PC running PageGate with a serial cable, all that remains is finding out if your alarm panel requires the TAP protocol or if the alarm panel does a raw serial data dump over the serial line. That will let you know if you need GetTAP or GetSerial.

If you're using a Zetron or a Glenayre paging terminal and want to move away from sending pages to pagers but have to use the Zetron or Glenayre paging terminal, PageGate has a solution for you. PageGate's GetTAP module can read in the TAP input from your paging terminal, then reformat it as an SMS or an Email instead of a page to a pager. It's that simple!

While this next one may not be directly related to sending alerts to your emergency responders or personnel, it's worth mentioning that PageGate can also be integrated with server and network monitoring utilities such as SolarWinds' Orion, Paessler's PRTG or Servers Alive. This allows you to configure your server or network monitoring utility to notify PageGate when an issue occurs and your techs need to be alerted to the problem. This can save you a lot of time and headache because the sooner your Technicians know about a problem, the sooner it can be resolved.

The great thing is that we've only scratched the tip of what PageGate can do in your environment. You can integrate the program with a web server to host a paging website, install our GUI Client on your dispatchers' workstations or even integrate PageGate with your mail server so our software can receive email in and send it back out as an SMS or Page. Chances are, if you're in the EMS or Public Safety world, there are a great number of ways that our software can make your life a lot easier.

About the Author -
Sharon Housley is the VP of Marketing for NotePage, Inc. a software company for communication software solutions. http://www.notepage.net