InformaCast for safety & security

I have had nothing but great results with InformaCast. Since the days before they were acquired and then spun off again, the employees who are still there are core to the group and their support staff really understand the product and how it integrates into real world situation. This is one of the few products that I am comfortable writing a review for because I know that a year from now, they won't have abandoned their product values, support or any other core components of the software.

Pros

As a long time user of InformaCast products, I love how they have continued to improve on the core products without the need to spin off every improvement into a new sku ($$$$).

Cons

The product setup is much more complex than it used to be, though still much easier than any other enterprise software I have been involved with setting up. Then again, it used to be a basic paging system and now it is full-blown notification at every endpoint (not just a desk phone).

Great mass notification software with lots of customization

This product has been amazing, the support is great, integration is fantastic and the documentation is so good it is rare to see that level of details in products online - one other note on the documentation is that it is written for real world - it doesnt dive deep into the technology it gives what is needed with real examples.

Pros

The software was easy to setup and integrate with Cisco call manager. There was a ton of videos on their website to perform any task that was needed from setup to configuration. The amount of custom setups that can be done is great and when integrating with other products this one becomes even more powerful.

Cons

There were no real cons to this software - it does what is promised, it is low cost (for the most part) and scales very well.

Good enough for a block party

Good customer support. Which is finally what matters.

Pros

It never malfunctions, at least for what we use it.

Cons

Price is a bit high, although it may be a value for those who use all its features.

School System Use

Now that we understand that Informacast can do more than ring bells and make announcements, we plan to leverage the capabilities to improve student safety. A safe learning environment is priority one.

Pros

It is very easy to use and integrate with our Cisco phone system. It functions very reliably and the number of bell schedule supported as well as zones for making announcements are more than adequate for us.

Cons

We have it running on a BE6000 along with subscribers for CUC and UCM. I seems to slow things down a bit. I may move the VM to our data center. The interface is intimidating to non-technical staff.

Informacast Perfect for Small Schools

We run our bell schedules and our announcments. We are looking into the other features but this solves our needs for both.

Pros

The ease of use is the most valuable thing to me. As a district that has only 2 staff members in the IT dept, it becomes essential that the program be ease for all to use. The fact that I can also set schedules weeks in advance is a plus also.

Cons

Nothing as far as the program works. My own issue is that after I hit save on a page - I have to hit Done also. (sometimes I forget that)

Informacast works for school needs

Able to make custom schedules, and customize the bells, clocks into groups so we can separate into wings

Pros

Easy to manage schedules and easy to manage all devices connected to informacast. Ease of use to add new devices

Cons

Somtimes it takes a while for server to reboot. Also, when adding devices from an old setup, the old setup will not release the device so it can be installed on new server. Have to turn off old server.

Informacast for overhead paging

Overall the system has been a pleasure to use and has required little or no maintenance after it was configured for our needs.

Pros

The software is self contained and fast, it pulls in devices from our cisco system fast and accurately and allows for the system to operate seamlessly without any input after configuration

Cons

The interface can be a little obtuse in certain situations, we had an issue with a speaker having the wrong sync time between cisco and informacast and it did not say that anywhere we had to speak with support before we even had the thought to check it.

Easy to Setup and Use

We were looking for the ability to page across several sites. Since our Meraki routers are not compatible with multicast over WAN, the Singlewire sales team suggested to incorporate Paging Gateways, which were very simple to install.

Pros

Easy to setup and use. Great customer support. Great online documentation.

Cons

Some screens looked and felt a little dated. Logging could be more user friendly.

InformaCast does everything we want it to

Pros

The best part of InformaCast is the flexibility it allows. The number of different ways to receive input and send output from InformaCast is pretty much endless. Being in a school, the ability to see which phone has dialed 911 immediately and receive alerts throughout the district is invaluable.

Cons

The only con I have really found was that I can't run the InformaCast VM on our Hyper-V cluster and instead have to run it on our UCS that doesn't have any redundancy.

Good Customer Support

Overall Excellent service, enjoyed the easy tone of the support staff when I called with issues. The support rep stayed on the line till we were all satisfied that the problem had been resolved.

Pros

Solid software that just does what I need it to do

Cons

Could use a bit work on the GUI to make things easier to navigate to

Great products and customer service!

I have used it in two different school districts and will continue to use it when I can.

Pros

It works like it is said to and integrates with Cisco.

Cons

The gui feels old but it works. The update process is fairly in depth.

Great product great support!

Pros

The integration of an all in one notification system. The support is top notch, everyone at Singlewire is helpful.

Cons

Cannot purchase this directly from the manufacturer. Though my vendor is great, we are always at the mercy of a reseller.

Great Product For A School District

Overall a great product and definitely useful in school districts with the ever growing threat of active shooters and other emergencies.

Pros

The ability to create groups of devices. In a large school district like the one I am in we are able to create a group for each school so each school can have the ability to make an all-call page on our Cisco phones.

Cons

It seems that it sometimes has troubles integrating with Cisco CUCM software.

InformaCast Fusion: Excellent Product

Pros

Versatility and able to integrate with phones, speakers, cell phones, home phones. etc.

Cons

Lack of Wizards to step you through set up of the Notifications, Templates and Distribution Lists.

Easy to use

Pros

Integration with our Cisco CallManager was very easy to configure and implement.

Cons

So for the software has preformed as expected so no dislikes yet.