Success stories overview

The Civil Defence service of the Province of Venice manages problems and weather-related emergencies affecting the area of the Province, coordinating more than 2200 people. The Civil Defence service was seeking a fast, real-time way of contacting and updating all of its volunteers across the province, with bulletins issued by the Regional Authority or by the Prefecture reporting emergencies, natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, etc.) and stating what measures, if any, need to be taken.

By using Skebby SMS from E-mail, a service for sending and receiving SMS via gateway directly from an existing e-mail server, the Civil Defence receives an SMS from the Region or Prefecture, and the text (which can exceed the standard 160 characters) is automatically forwarded by mail server and also as a text message to all the volunteers simultaneously. If the message should arrive by fax, the mail server automatically forwards an SMS to all volunteers advising them to check their e-mail, where they will find the PDF file of the fax message.

The use of SMS from E-mail did not involve any development costs, and the service can be used immediately from any e-mail server. During emergencies or alarms, texts can be sent simultaneously either from a fixed workstation or while on the move, and can exceed the standard SMS length of 160 characters.