CHARLOTTE, NC, April 17, 2020 – In early March, as the Coronavirus pandemic continued its aggressive spread throughout the United States, agencies in Georgia realized a pressing need to communicate effectively with its citizens. After relying initially on social media and websites alone, they understood that critical, reliable information was simply not reaching the number of people they had hoped.  The Georgia Poison Center took lead on finding a solution that met their unique engagement requirements, which led them to PunchAlert.  

Organizations like Georgia Poison Center have discovered that the best way to engage their community stakeholders is through SMS. Text messaging has been around for almost two decades, and yet it remains the most ubiquitous way to reach people in a channel where they will actually pay attention. As social media and apps have flourished, there is simply too much information that gets distributed, therefore creating the problem of deciphering signal from noise. During the Covid-19 outbreak, the Georgia Poison Center is leveraging the interactive SMS capabilities of PunchAlert to allow citizens to sign up for any lists that they need and receive all their announcements entirely over SMS. Then, for those interested in further engagement or context, the Georgia Poison Center is directing citizens to download the PunchAlert app and also view additional intelligence on their various websites, some of which have been created and hosted by PunchAlert.  

“Working with Punch is almost like I have another IT Team in the office suite. We call, and they answer. We question, and they respond. We want something done, and in the blink of an eye they’re developing it. They understand how we need to use it in our environment and they work to customize it for us,” Georgia Poison’s Director, Dr. Gaylord P. Lopez PharmD, DABAT, said.

PunchAlert was able to develop a fully customized solution to meet the needs of the Georgia Poison Center that can quickly and easily be duplicated for other health care centers across the country.  This partnership has already been expanded to the Georgia Department of Public Health, similarly looking to leverage PunchAlert to provide the latest alerts, information and recommendations from local governmental officials.

Dr. Lopez is excited for the future of the program, and looks forward to sharing their results, “We could not be happier. PunchAlert made sure the SMS technology worked to its fullest capability and specifically for our purposes. They have been fantastic and when we show it off to other poison centers the work is already done, Punch already has it built.”

Dr. Lopez continued that “in a world that is bombarded with social media intrusions, some of them we don’t know if we can trust, when you don’t go the traditional routes and you go with other systems there is more validity that comes out of using this type of media.”

PunchAlert, the leading platform in safety communication solutions gives organizations the ability to launch SMS and mobile safety application services quickly and easily. Reach out and contact the PunchAlert team to see how you can streamline your communication and engage efficiently with your community. For more details visit www.punchalert.com.

About Punch Technologies, Inc.

Punch Technologies is a Charlotte, North Carolina-based software company, and creator of the PunchAlert safety communications platform. PunchAlert gets you help and information faster by relying on the people, organizations, and official responders in your area. It is the only all-in-one mobile safety, emergency management and mass notification platform. Now with 911+, Punch enables the next generation of connectivity to 100 percent of the 911 call centers in the US and Canada via the PunchAlert app or 3rd party API’s (911+ Connect) for other service providers or product developers.

For more information visit www.punchalert.com

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