Help for Dispatchers

In most countries, there are companies who can offer you a this SMS gateway and with a dedicated number for you to use with Beacon. You can help us get you started with Beacon as soon as possible by helping us locate an SMS Gateway. If you are familiar with the major telecom companies in your country or if you have contacts at these companies, we recommend reaching out to them to ask about an SMS Gateway. Internet searches will also help find local companies that offer gateways for use with Beacon, and this is often how we at Trek Medics find these companies ourselves.

PROBLEM: “After I filled out the info on the Create Incident page and clicked “Create”, nothing happened.”

Chances are you don’t have any Responders registered and/or available to receive alerts. If this is the problem, a warning notification should appear on the screen. To fix the problem, go to the dashboard and click on the Manage Responders button. If no Responders appear, add some. If Responders appear but are colored red, you will have to make them available (green) or log new Responders in.

If you try to register a new responder and it says “This number is already registered”, please send us an email to [email protected] and include the phone number that is causing you problems and we will work it out.

There are several scenarios which may be preventing you from logging in

We’re seeing different maps

It’s possible your Responders are seeing  a random map in their mobile app that’s different than your catchment area.

To make sure Responders are seeing the same map as Dispatchers are, they have to be in the same data center.

The best way to ensure this is to add your Responders to the website before they register their phones through the mobile app.

If Responders register their phones through the mobile app first, they are put in a generic Data Center, called “Registration”. The map they see in their app is coming from the Registration Data Center

To resolve this:

Please send us an email to [email protected] with the Responder’s Name and Phone Number, and the Data Center you want them registered in. Or, if you have lots of Responders with the same issue, we can also give you access to the Registration Data Center where you can find your Responders and transfer them to your own Data Center.

SMS gateways are dedicated telephone numbers that allow our Beacon software to send messages to and receive messages from your first responders. This way, the first responders can send their short text message responses to a phone number that’s easily saved in their contacts, and will receive messages from this same number at each stage of the emergency incident.

What is an SMS gateway and why do we need one?

For Beacon, you will need either a dedicated shortcode or longcode. The shortcode is typically a 5 digit number, while longcodes are longer.

Many companies might want to give you a shared shortcode or longcode— this means that you share a number with their other clients. However, this typically won’t work with Beacon because sharing means that text messages will have to contain a special keyword to tell the company where text messages need to be sent. This will disrupt the normal workflow of Beacon.

Also, it’s important that the shortcode or longcode be two-way. This will allow Beacon to both send and receive text messages to and from responders.

Other relevant questions include:

1. Do you offer demo shortcodes/longcodes so we can make sure that it will work with Beacon?
2. If there is an application process, how long will it take to get a shortcode/longcode?
3. Will the shortcode/longcode work with all mobile phone carriers in this country?
4. Is there a limit on the number of text messages or characters per text message that we can send through the shortcode/longcode?
5. Can you provide info on pricing?
   • What are the setup costs?
   • What are the monthly/annual costs?
   • What are the costs per text message sent?

For Mobile App Users

Both Android and iOS devices have a number of restrictions in place to make sure that mobile app users are only sharing their location when desired. The following criteria have to be met in order for you to see the location of other responders in your mobile app:

1. The responder has to have “Supervisor View” permissions which are given when the responder is first registered by a dispatcher
2. The responder has to give their device permission to share their location with Beacon
3. The responder has to set their GPS Tracking settings to “Always” or “Only during incidents” in the mobile app (watch this video or read this page to learn more)

Once those criteria have been met, then the mobile app user must have their phone turned on and the Beacon mobile app in the foreground to share their most recent location.

There are several things that could cause Beacon to skip messages:

1. Technical Error: If you’re using Beacon by SMS, it might be because of the local infrastructure, for example:
   1. The mobile phone signal was bad
   2. Your telecom carrier refused the message (this can sometimes happen when sending messages internationally)
2. User Error: You may be having an issue on your end if:
   1. Your SMS inbox is full
   2. You don’t have credits on your phone
   3. Your phone has two SIM cards installed (it only can only have one installed, the same one that’s registered with Beacon)

It’s also possible that you may not understand the sequence of messages that Beacon sends. Depending on Beacon’s settings and how the incident goes, you may or may not receive all of the messages that you’re expecting.

Here are a couple resources to help you figure it out:

1. Download the Responder Type practice pdf to walk through each sequence and see how the messages can change
2. Visit this page to see a video and learn the difference between Broadcast Alerts and Manual Assignment

Incidents can be closed in three ways:

1. All the responders complete the incident
2. The dispatcher cancels the incident manually
3. The Confirmation Windows close*

If you’re using Beacon to run simulations, it’s very likely you’re going to move through the incident very quickly — faster than in real life. This will result in you completing the incident before the Confirmation Windows close, so the incident will stay open until the Confirmation Windows close.

*To learn more about the importance of Confirmation Windows, see: Dispatch Automation on the Settings page

If you’ve ever used Uber or Lyft, you know that these ride-sharing apps use GPS to find the driver that’s closest to you, so it makes sense that Beacon should be able to do that, too, right?

Not exactly.

There are several reasons why Beacon doesn’t use the GPS location of Responders to decide who’s closest:

1. Not all Responders have smartphones and/or Internet connectivity all the time. If Beacon only relied on GPS locations, then Responders using Beacon via SMS would never get assigned to incidents because Beacon wouldn’t know their location
2. Beacon doesn’t know where you are unless you have your phone turned on and the Beacon app open in the foreground. As soon as you turn the phone off, lock the phone screen, put the app in the background or swipe close it, Android and iOS no longer allow apps to track your location. As a result, once the Beacon mobile app is no longer open and in the foreground, Beacon only knows your last reported location, which may or may not be your current location.
3. Uber and Lyft drivers do it to get paid, while many Beacon users are volunteers. This makes a big difference: When an Uber or Lyft driver gets assigned to a call, they usually take it because that’s how they make money. If you’re using Broadcast Alerts in Beacon, it’s very likely you’re working with volunteer Responders. And as we all know is the case with volunteers, they often get alerts for emergency incidents that they don’t respond to — even if they’re the closest person to the incident. So, telling the closest Responders to an incident that they’re needed, only to learn that they’re not going to respond, is just a huge waste of time.
4. Hailing a taxi is a fairly simple transaction; when someone asks for a taxi, they only need one vehicle to come pick them up. Emergency dispatching is very different. For starters, not all emergencies are the same. If someone slips and falls, you may only need one ambulance to respond. But for a motor vehicle collision with multiple victims, you’ll likely need more resources. While it’s possible in theory to automate all of the different response combinations that exist, we’ll be very impressed to see it when it happens. Until then, we’ll rely on Dispatchers to figure out the type of resources they’ll need for each incident, and then let Responders decide if they can or can’t go.

The bottom line is: Don’t be fooled by how “easy” technological solutions look at face value. It may be easy to compare emergency response apps to pizza delivery apps, but in reality, it’s a lot more complicated than that. Anybody who wants to make that comparison has never worked in an emergency service.

Technically, Beacon allows that. Be we don’t recommend sending requests for emergency via text message (what’s commonly referred to as “text-to-911”). Typing out messages and sending them back and forth with a dispatcher is far more time consuming than speaking directly with the dispatcher, especially on non-smart phones and for communities with lower tech literacy. Also, pre-arrival instructions are difficult to both give and perform while texting— imagine trying to give CPR or administer a drug while texting with the dispatcher (vs. speakerphone, for example)!

My dashboard map is all blue

If you have just created a new account it’s possible your map may appear all blue on both the dispatch dashboard and the mobile app.

This is likely because your map’s latitude / longitude are set to 0˚, 0˚, placing you in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean off the western coast of Africa. If this is the case, the map will continue to focus at these coordinates until you change them.

To resolve this issue:

1. Open the Main Menu
2. Click on Settings
3. Click on Catchment Area Map
4. Point and click to place the Map Marker where you want your map to focus
5. Click Save