Senior Crisis Consultant at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Top 20
Helps with mass notifications and pooling of contacts, but needs better scalability and support for long SMS messages
Pros and Cons
  • "It's mainly for mass notification and pooling of contacts. Pooling of customers is valuable."
  • "I know that we get frustrated at the capacity of SMS messages. It's not very long, and if you want to send a long message, they end up sending you a link to the rest of the message."

What is our primary use case?

I manage the product a little bit. I don't have a great deal to deal with it hands-on. Our company uses it on behalf of other organizations. We have an emergency call center, and companies will call in, and our call center will activate notifications on their behalf via Everbridge.

What is most valuable?

It's mainly for mass notification and pooling of contacts. Pooling of customers is valuable.

What needs improvement?

I know that we get frustrated at the capacity of SMS messages. It's not very long, and if you want to send a long message, they end up sending you a link to the rest of the message.

It's not easy to add on extra capabilities.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Everbridge IT Alerting for about three years.

Buyer's Guide
Everbridge IT Alerting
May 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I'd rate Everbridge IT Alerting a seven out of ten in terms of stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I'd rate Everbridge IT Alerting a six out of ten in terms of scalability. Some customers want extra modules from Everbridge and not just the mass comm features. We find it a little bit awkward to add on extra capabilities.

Our customers are large companies. We've got five companies and about 450 users across those five companies. In our organization, we have about 15 people who work with this solution.

How are customer service and support?

I'd rate Everbridge's support an eight out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

It's a SaaS deployment. I'd rate it a seven out of ten in terms of the ease of setup.

We have a central Everbridge contract, and we just set up a new customer within Everbridge. It probably only takes us two weeks.

What about the implementation team?

I have two people for deployment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's a seven out of ten for us in terms of pricing. We've just gone through a process of looking at other solutions.

What other advice do I have?

I'd advise doing a proof of concept and looking at what else is out there. You need to find the best fit for you. Everbridge could be that, but there are also other products.

Overall, I'd rate Everbridge IT Alerting a seven out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Lead Pipeline Designer/GIS Specialist at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
It just runs. We have not had a single outage.
Pros and Cons
  • "The system has a lot of great features and they keep adding to it."
  • "It just runs. I do not think we have had a single outage; nothing. There has not been a single issue with it in the time that we have had it running. It just works."
  • "The most important features are the scheduling capability and the integration with ServiceNow."
  • "I swapped two people's weeks, and at least from what I saw, I had to do each day individually. It would be nice if I could swap two people's weeks without having to do it each day."

How has it helped my organization?

We went from a manual email system to an organized responsive automated system. It was able to improve our efficiency and improve everyone's responsiveness, because people were not responding to emails. 

It also improved our ability to capture everything in tickets, whereas before, emails and tickets were rarely, if ever, getting created.

What is most valuable?

The most important features are the scheduling capability and the integration with ServiceNow. The ease of putting in a replacement person who will cover for you, or if you want to switch with two people, this is very easy to do. It is very easy to capture the calendaring and make sure everybody is aware of it. There is ability for it to communicate back and forth with ServiceNow and our ticketing system. This is much easier and more real-time in its capturing what is happening when a ticket opens, a ticket is accepted for work, and it is closed out.

There is also the application that you can install on your phone, which the engineers really like. If allows you the flexibility to choose: Whether you notify your home phone or your cell phone, and whether you get a text first. You get choose in what order, so the flexibility for each engineer is very good.

What needs improvement?

I swapped two people's weeks, and at least from what I saw, I had to do each day individually. It would be nice if I could swap two people's weeks without having to do it each day. There may be a way to do it, but I just didn't find it, so I did it day-by-day. This would be a neat feature to have. 

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It just runs. We have not had a single outage; nothing. There has not been a single issue with it in the time that we have had it running. It just works.

The best thing I could say about any system is that it just works. That is the highest compliment that anyone can give to a system. It is one less headache that I have because I know that it is up and running.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are not a heavy usage, enormous company, but I see no limitations to the scalability of it. You could use this if you were a small company, and you could use this if you were a 4500 person U.S. company or a 200,000 person global company.

I could see how it would scale up very easily.

How are customer service and technical support?

Tech support is excellent. They are very responsive. We are able to reach them very quickly. On a scale of one to 10, I would give them a 10. They are very quick about getting us answers when working with us.

Their account team is excellent. Their marketing team is excellent. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We had a very manual system where we alerted everyone to all system alerts.

With Everbridge, we were able to set up a schedule where only people on call get notified, so everybody was not getting emails and having to somehow wake up in the middle of the night.

We were also able to split out our system alerts so we now have five-minute system alerts that the infrastructure team likes to see. However, we do not need to open up a ticket and have an engineer react to it. We have a separate one now where after 30 minutes, it creates a ticket and alerts an engineer to investigate. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very straightforward. The configurations took us a day and a half to be completely set up. We saved the last half a day in case we ran into problems. After, a year or two of using it, never found a problem. Therefore, it was very easy to set up.

What about the implementation team?

Their support staff and the installation/professional services team were great.

When implementing, talk to your account team and work with the installation team. Make sure you have a plan as to what you are looking for and work closely with the Everbridge team. They will get you where you need to go.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Their pricing is a good value and very reasonable. They are very upfront about their pricing. There is nothing confusing about it.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We were looking for an IT alerting system. A couple of my peers gave me a couple of different suggestions. I believe I might have met them originally at the ServiceNow Knowledge Conference, and we looked at a couple of other systems along with this. We had a team of people who reviewed different options and functions that each system had. Out of that evaulation, we selected Everbridge.

We evaluated PagerDuty as a potential option. However, the system feels like it is stuck a bit in the past.

What other advice do I have?

I am pretty happy with the way it works. We are very happy with it. We have not made changes to it because it just works.

It does what it says it does. The application works. They have a long history, but the system is advanced and modern. It has a lot of great features and they keep adding to it.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Everbridge IT Alerting
May 2024
Learn what your peers think about Everbridge IT Alerting. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2024.
769,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user873429 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Systems Administrator at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Rigorously reaches out to stakeholders, saving us time when working on an issue
Pros and Cons
  • "Powerful conference bridging that rigorously reaches out to stakeholders, which saves time working an issue. The mobile app provides ease of use for our resolvers and mobile push has proven quick and reliable. It also gives us flexibility around creating sometimes complex shifts within an on-call calendar."
  • "One thing that could be improved would be to enable the mobile app to more easily display published calendars via the Member Portal. Currently, it is quite difficult."

What is our primary use case?

Alerts from our monitoring system to hit on-call and our help desk to create on-call bridges.

How has it helped my organization?

We have been somewhat able to quantify the benefits. Users like the ease of use via the mobile app. Also, the simplicity of the on-call process is encouraging stakeholders to use the product rather than to try to call someone directly.

What is most valuable?

  • System availability
  • SaaS solution, so no infrastructure
  • Mobile app

Powerful conference bridging that rigorously reaches out to stakeholders, which saves time working an issue. The mobile app provides ease of use for our resolvers and mobile push has proven quick and reliable. It also gives us flexibility around creating sometimes complex shifts within an on-call calendar.

What needs improvement?

One thing that could be improved would be to enable the mobile app to more easily display published calendars via the Member Portal. Currently, it is quite difficult.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Tech support is excellent; very responsive and they provide good follow-up.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did use another product previously and we switched because Everbridge met our requirements. In addition, our Global Security team was using the Everbridge Mass Notification product, so going with it created synergy.

We selected Everbridge through a PoC process performed early in 2017.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very fast with the controller coming online almost right away. The implementation team assisted us in onboarding our users and calendars. The complex part has been in transitioning our user community to the new system.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Get a clear idea of the number of users (those that manage calendars and/or initiate incidents) and use SSO which greatly facilitates adoption.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

What other advice do I have?

Any new system will create adoption challenges, especially if you are migrating off another platform. Emphasize the benefits of moving to it (SaaS, the mobile app, ease of use, system stability) and be sure to conduct both formal training and close follow-up with users.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Director with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Automated escalation has eliminated our error-prone manual process
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is automated escalation, as it eliminates a manual process which is prone to errors."
  • "The integration with other solutions needs improvement... Due to issues with the libraries provided by Everbridge, we have not been able to integrate IT Alerting with our incident management tool."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for technical engagement and stakeholder communication during major IT outages.

How has it helped my organization?

It has made the technical engagement process more efficient, going from approximately five minutes to generate a page down to 30 seconds.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is automated escalation, as it eliminates a manual process which is prone to errors.

What needs improvement?

The integration with other solutions needs improvement. I am not at liberty to share the name of the application/vendor we are trying to integrate with, but I can tell you that it is our incident management tool. Due to issues with the libraries provided by Everbridge, we have not been able to integrate IT Alerting with that tool.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Everbridge has been able to deliver in accordance with their SLAs.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scaling can be a tedious endeavor if users and contacts are manually created.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is excellent. They routinely answer problems on the first call.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I’m not at liberty to name it but, the previous solution required us to manually look up and engage. This was time-consuming and prone to errors. Those are the reasons we switched.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward as we had a consultant with us. The consultant was helpful. There was a lot of prep work that we could and should have completed prior to the consultant arriving onsite. Had we known to do this, it would have made the engagement more productive.

The deployment took approximately two weeks. Our goal was to configure the teams we engage most often. Those 30 teams represent 95 percent of our volume.

What about the implementation team?

A consultant was used, and the experience was very positive.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The current pricing model is adequate. We feel that the pricing model for our IT Alerting solution is competitive with similar solutions on the market.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did evaluate other options but I'm not at liberty to comment on them.

What other advice do I have?

My advice is to leverage any of the integrations you can. In addition, do the prep work, including creating contacts, users, and groups, prior to the consultative work provided by Everbridge.

We have over 500 users, a majority of whom are group managers along with some organizational and account admins. We have two FTEs supporting Everbridge and their roles range from configuration management, to vision and strategy, and vendor relations. The product is used extensively, with roughly 25,000 messages sent through the tool annually.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
it_user862560 - PeerSpot reviewer
ITSM Process Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Gives us the ability to contact the correct people via rules, based on conditions
Pros and Cons
  • "People are able to join a bridge with one press of a button. It gives us the ability to contact the correct people via rules, based on conditions."
  • "The ability for members to change their schedules, and change the person their swapping with, could use improvement. The GUI is a little tough to navigate. It's not very straightforward when someone is trying to change schedules."

What is our primary use case?

IT incident management.

How has it helped my organization?

It's now a little quicker to get folks together on a bridge. It has enabled us to have quicker times to resolution.

What is most valuable?

The ability for people to be able to join a bridge with one press of a button. It gives us the ability to contact the correct people via rules, based on conditions. 

What needs improvement?

The ability for members to change their schedules, and change the person they're swapping with, could use improvement. For two people to swap, both people have to log in, as you can only update your own schedule with a member account.

Suppose I am swapping with Bill for the day because he is sick. It makes no sense that both he and I each have to update the schedule. He has to go in and put me as a replacement for him. Then, the day he is taking for me, I have to go in and put him as my replacement.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's pretty stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable.

How is customer service and technical support?

The tech support is great. They're almost always able to solve my issues pretty quickly.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was probably somewhere in the middle, between straightforward and complex. I think the some of the harder parts were the importing of all the data.

What other advice do I have?

Definitely use the rules and conditions so you can contact the right people for different outages. The GUI is a little tough to navigate. It's not very straightforward when someone is trying to change schedules.

It's very accurate and, once you get to know it, you can make it meet your needs.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
it_user875763 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager, IT Operations at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Streamlines our incident management, helping decrease resolution timeframes
Pros and Cons
  • "Valuable features include incident management and ease of integrations."
  • "It could use more enhancement type integrations, but no improvements to functionality are needed."

What is our primary use case?

Escalation and incident management.

How has it helped my organization?

We have been able to quantify improvements in escalation and time to resolution. It has decreased timeframes and improved resolution by 35 - 40 percent.

We used to have one individual handling a call, along with other duties. So at times, they would have to step away from those other duties to handle the call or reach out to someone else. This solution has allowed them to be on the call for questions, while still being able to escalate outward.

What is most valuable?

  • Incident management
  • Ease of integrations

What needs improvement?

It could use more enhancement type integrations, but no improvements to functionality are needed.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is helpful.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not have a previous solution. We were looking at solutions to allow us to better streamline escalation and incident management between teams.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward. It is software as a service. We had a brief setup and training session.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is reasonable, based on different customer types.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

What other advice do I have?

The service and support teams are very knowledgeable and willing to work with you on improving overall functionality and enhancements.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Everbridge IT Alerting Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Everbridge IT Alerting Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.