Hey there,

I’m Katy Money, the Director of Business Development and Partnerships at Ushahidi. A few months ago, I wrote a blog post called “…so how would we work with Ushahidi.” It received some positive feedback, so I’ve decided to write another post along the same vein, but focused on our new platform, TenFour.

You might have seen some of our blog posts about the launch of TenFour, or some big software updates that we recently pushed, but I thought I could help provide some real world context in which TenFour might be useful for your team or organization.

When I talk with people about TenFour, I typically ask “… do you ever ask these types of questions?

  • Is our field team safe from the outbreak of violence?
  • Did all of our volunteers get this urgent update?
  • Are all students aware of the violent suspect on campus?
  • Do all the parents know school is cancelled due to this crisis?
  • Do our beneficiaries know that the workshop was just canceled?
  • Did our field surveyors make it home alright?
  • Is anyone trapped because of hurricane, fire, earthquake, etc?
  • Does anyone need help now?

You can use TenFour to help ask these questions across [insert group of people here that you need to check-in with] your field team, stakeholders, volunteers, beneficiaries, students, faculty, and staff, or an entire organization.

And a lot of organizations, security directors, or project leads who need to ask these questions have a process in place. Some people that I talk with explain that they use WhatsApps groups, send group SMS messages, revert to email chains, or use a competing software platform.

We get it. Everyone has their system, and changing platforms and procedures can be a pain.

But here is why TenFour is really worth it.

  • TenFour is multi-channel– (what does that mean?) It means, you can send your messages, updates, or questions via TenFour across SMS, email, the app built for iOS or Android devices, Slack (and hopefully WhatsApp sometime soon!) This way, you’re going to reach who you need to reach faster and more effectively depending upon their technology or communication preference. And all of these messages go out at once. No need to author them multiple times.
  • It’s also super easy to use. This one is pretty straight forward. Our team designed TenFour to be the simplest emergency check-in tool out there. Yes, there are competitors, but we think that when you urgently need to communicate something out, you should be using a really intuitive platform that makes sense and works every time. We’ve done our research, evaluated the competitors, and we know we beat them on this point.
  • It’s cost effective. You can use Tenfour’s in-app check-ins (iOS or Android) completely free. But if you need the other modes, check out the Pro plan or reach out and we can chat about pricing that would also include SMS, email, and Slack.

Here are a few other things you should know…

  • You can use the TenFour in-app check-ins, email, and Slack anywhere in the world immediately. But at the moment we’ve only spun up the SMS functionality for Kenya, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Germany, and the US.
  • We can definitely add additional countries, and will do so as needed. So if you’re keen to potentially use or test out TenFour in another location, please reach out.
  • Also, we have the ability to white-labeling (or brand) TenFour for your org. We’d have to scope it out together, but let’s chat.

I’ll leave you with this. The idea for TenFour came from a real life experience. I wasn’t at Ushahidi at the time, but in 2013 there was a terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi. We’re a primarily remote organization, but our only office is in Nairobi. My colleagues back in 2013 had a communication protocol in place, but it broke down due to fragmentation, confusion, and panic. It wasn’t until a number of days later that everyone on the team knew that everyone was safe. Had someone truly been in need of help, they could not have reacted in time. This was a horrific and sickening moment in Nairobi, and my colleagues at Ushahidi didn’t want other organizations in the future to experience the same helplessness in the event of an emergency.

That’s why they built TenFour.

That’s also why I love working at Ushahidi.

My colleagues use technology to solve big problems that can impact lives globally.


Cheers,

Katy