Onset Technology released OnPage this week, a subscription-based mobile app for iOS and BlackBerry that acts as a pager-like priority messaging service. Onset is no newcomer to the mobile messaging space: The company was founded in 1997.
OnPage aims to attract doctors who still use pagers as a priority messaging system by eliminating the need to carry two devices, while still providing a higher urgency than email, SMS and phone calls. The OnPage service alerts recipients until the message is acknowledged and read, includes a log and audit trail, as well as group messaging. OnPage subscription pricing starts at $8.99 per month, per user.
In a press release, Adam C. Marks, Director of Business & Technical Operations at RSC New England, wrote that “the healthcare industry is still reliant on what most professionals view today as an outdated technology—the pager. Up until this point, our physicians have used a traditional pager to help them keep priority messages distinct from other, less urgent communications. Unfortunately, with a one-way communication system, reliability and responsiveness have always been a concern. OnPage has mitigated those issues for our organization by enabling our physicians to use their smartphones to send and receive priority messages instantly."
Currently, Cisco partner Extension offers a similar service, called HealthAlert for Nurses, which is available on the Android platform as well as for iPhones. In January, the app was submitted for FDA clearance.
Early this year, Vocera acquired smartphone paging service Wallace Wireless, which offers WICPager, a service similar to OnPage. WICPager is available for Apple iPhones and BlackBerry devices. Wallace Wireless has strong partnerships with AT&T and BlackBerry-maker RIM.
Check out the full press release below.
WALTHAM, Mass. -- Onset Technology today officially launched OnPage, a first of its kind smartphone pager and Priority Messaging Application for mobile devices from Apple and RIM. With pagers still in use by physicians, first responders and other business professionals, and with over 450 million smart phones on the market, OnPage eliminates the archaic need to carry two devices for these individuals that require the ability to prioritize messaging beyond email, SMS and phone calls. In addition, the new service enhances traditional paging with a more intuitive user interface that mimics the collaborative and confirmatory functionality of email, with group messaging, text response and message delivery and read notification. A reliable, hosted service with global coverage on cellular and Wi-Fi networks, users can easily download OnPage directly to their device and start using it immediately without servers or infrastructure maintenance.
For healthcare professionals in particular, OnPage signifies a new wave of trusted and proven priority messaging tools that provide the unprecedented ability to send and receive critical messages privately, securely and reliably.
“The healthcare industry is still reliant on what most professionals view today as an outdated technology—the pager. Up until this point, our physicians have used a traditional pager to help them keep priority messages distinct from other, less urgent communications. Unfortunately, with a one-way communication system, reliability and responsiveness have always been a concern,” said Adam C. Marks, Director of Business & Technical Operations at RSC New England, a Massachusetts-based fertility center. “OnPage has mitigated those issues for our organization by enabling our physicians to use their smartphones to send and receive priority messages instantly. The application provides physicians and the organization with an audit trail that the page was sent, delivered and read, eliminating the need for pagers and follow-up phone calls, and shortening delivery and response time during emergencies.”
Key Benefits of OnPage, the world’s only full subscription smartphone priority messaging and pager application, include:
A single device for all communication—a smartphone application with two-way pager functionality
Ability to receive and send priority messages anywhere in the world through reliable global coverage
Ensures high-priority messages rise above the clutter of email and text
Service alerts recipient until acknowledged
Enables users to directly respond to messages
Message log and audit trail—no lost messages
Hosted service that requires no IT involvement—convenient, immediate activation
A novel means for efficient group messaging
“Whether you are an ‘on-call’ healthcare professional or a busy parent in need of a direct line to your children, paging and priority messaging continues to serve a critical communications need. However—by forcing individuals to carry an additional and bulky device with limited functionality—there are inherent limitations in this aging technology,” says Judit Sharon, CEO of Onset Technology. “OnPage is designed specifically to solve these critical priority messaging issues by transforming a user’s smartphone into a single device for all communications needs. Overwhelmingly, the feedback we’ve received from thousands of beta users validates the need for this service, and with the general availability of the applications and service for iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry users, we are truly excited to bring paging into the 21st Century.”
For current users, key enhancements to the service include:
100% Mobile registration—Register directly from the mobile device
Automatic version updates—OnPage version messaging updates are now easier to get. Apple AppStore and BlackBerry’s App World automatically prompt users
Supports rich content message and reply
Keeps direct contact information confidential
New “Tell a Friend Feature” —Share pager contact information more easily
Off line mode (for iPhone and iPad)
More options in alert tones (for iPhone and iPad)
Enhanced user interface for responses (for BlackBerry). Now reply with text, use radio buttons to select custom created replies, or combine both
Streamlined Registration (for BlackBerry). Only one registration page
Alt-tab for switching between programs (for BlackBerry)
Updated default curser placement on message screen (for BlackBerry) eliminating the potential hazard of deleted messages
OnPage is a subscription-based service that eliminates the need to pay monthly fees to pager service providers. Currently, there are two pricing plans available for OnPage users:
OnPage Personal: Reliable and affordable priority messaging for individuals and small business owners. Subscription pricing begins as low as $13.99 per month with unlimited messaging.
OnPage Business: An enterprise-level offering for business with multiple pager accounts that provides access to OnPage’s sales and engineering staff to implement the solution as a new, stand-alone paging system or integrate it into existing paging consoles. The offering also provides optional access to OnPage’s Console Manager to enable users to log-in online to add new users, manage the contact list, run reports and track messages all from the convenience of an online admin panel. Subscription pricing starts as low $8.99 per month, per user, depending on the number of accounts and service-level.
The OnPage smartphone application for iPhone, iPad and iPhone Touch is now available at Apple’s AppStore. OnPage for BlackBerry can be downloaded at BlackBerry’s AppWorld.
About Onset Technology
Onset Technology provides Mobile Messaging Management solutions that ensure communication continuity in emergency situations when everything else fails. Additional Onset solutions include Priority Mobile Messaging and Smartphone Paging, increasing the efficiency and value of corporate mobile communication resources. Onset’s solutions are used by leading organizations in the financial, legal, and healthcare sectors as well as by major federal and local government agencies.
Founded in 1997, Onset Technology is backed by venture capital firms in the U.S and in Israel. The company is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts with an R&D center in Israel.
