Guard panic alert
A guard holds one button for panic, medical, fire, intruder or other help. Every guard of the site and reception are alerted at once. Another guard presses I am responding, so the sender knows help is coming.
PLANSFrom Growth
The problem it solves
- A guard alone at the back gate at night has only a phone call to raise help, and the first number may not answer.
- Several guards rush to the same place, or nobody goes, because nobody knows who is responding.
- After the event there is no record of who called, when, from which gate and who came.
- A call for help that nobody answers is not noticed by anyone.
How it works
- The guard opens Alerts & panic, or presses Panic / call for help at the top of any page of the guard screen.
- If there is a second, the guard types a note on where and what is happening.
- The guard holds the button for the kind of help for 2 seconds: Panic, Assist, Medical, Fire, Intruder or Other.
- Every guard of the entity's gates and reception get the alert at once. It carries the gate, the note, a photo and the phone's position where given.
- One guard presses I am responding. The sender is told who is coming, and the alert shows it.
- When it is over, someone presses Resolved and writes what was done. If nobody responds within 2 minutes, reception is alerted again and gets a to-do.
Everything it does
Raising an alert
- Kinds: Panic, Need Help (Assist on the button), Medical, Fire, Intruder and Other
- Hold for 2 seconds so a stray tap does not raise the alarm
- Each alert records the guard, the time, the gate, the note, a photo and the position (a Where link to the map)
- Sent to every guard of the entity's gates and to reception, not to the sender. Or only to people the guard picks, to ask someone to come to the gate
- Each alert gets a number from the entity's sequence, such as ALR/2026/00012
Answering an alert
- Statuses: Open, Responding and Resolved
- I am responding: one responder per alert; others see who it is
- Resolved with a note of what was done, and who resolved it and when
- Nobody responding within 2 minutes: reception is alerted again with a to-do, and the alert is marked escalated (checked every minute)
Knowing whom to call
- The Guards list on the same page: guards and reception, their gates, on duty first
- On duty means seen on the guard screen or app in the last 15 minutes
- Tap Call on a guard, or on the sender of an alert, to open the phone's dialler
In the back office
- Visitors > Gate > Safety > Alerts lists every alert, with I Am Responding and Resolved
- Write Up Incident turns an alert into an incident, linked both ways (Scale, with the incident register)
- Alerts are never deleted; archived ones are only hidden
Who uses it
GuardRaises an alert, answers other guards' alerts, and resolves them.
ReceptionGets every alert, is alerted again when nobody responds, and follows up in the back office.
Security managerReads the alert history and writes serious ones up as incidents.
Where you use it
- Web: the guard page at /guard, Alerts & panic, and the Panic / call for help link on every page
- Web: Visitors > Gate > Safety > Alerts in the back office
- The SmartMy VMS Guard app: Alerts & panic, with an SOS button always on the screen. Built and in testing, not in the app stores yet
- Not a hardware panic button: alerts are raised from the screen or the app
- Not for the whole site: for an evacuation use the emergency broadcast (Scale)
What you control
Settings
- Guards in Charge on each gate: who receives the alerts
- Reception: users with the VMS manager access of the entity
- The 2-minute wait before reception is alerted again is fixed
Notifications
- Security Alert (Panic): to the guards and reception, sent at once by app push, SMS and in-app
- Security Alert Answered: to the guard who raised it, when someone presses I am responding, by app push, SMS and in-app
- SMS comes with Growth; each person can switch off a channel for themselves; in-app notices always arrive
Questions
Who receives a guard's alert?
Every guard in charge of the entity's gates and reception, except the guard who raised it. A guard can also send it only to chosen people, for example to call one colleague to the gate.What if nobody answers?
After 2 minutes with nobody responding, reception is alerted again and gets a to-do, and the alert is marked as escalated.Can a guard raise an alert by mistake?
The button must be held for 2 seconds, which stops alerts from a stray tap. A mistaken alert is closed with Resolved and a note.Does it work when the Guard app is closed?
The alert reaches guards by SMS and, once the Guard app is published, by push. Until then, keep the guard page or app open on the gate phone, where alerts show at once.Can an alert become an incident report?
Yes, in Scale. Write Up Incident makes an incident from the alert and links the two, and the printed incident report names the alert.Related features
GATE, KIOSK AND GUARD TOOLSGuard screen and Guard appOne screen shows the guard who is expected, who is waiting and who is inside. One box takes a pass code, a QR, a mobile number or a name. It runs in a browser on any computer, tablet or phone, and as the Guard app.SECURITY OPERATIONSIncident register and reportsGuards and the office record anything unsafe or wrong with its type, severity, place, people, vehicle and photos or videos. Each incident has an owner, a follow-up date and a police reference, and ends with a printable report.SECURITY OPERATIONSEmergency broadcast and muster listSend one emergency message to staff, guards, hosts and the visitors inside, on every channel at once. It shows on the apps, the gate screen and the kiosk until the all clear. Print a muster list of everyone inside for the roll call.SECURITY OPERATIONSGuard patrol rounds with QR and NFC checkpointsGuards walk set routes and scan a QR label or NFC tag at each checkpoint, with the phone's position, even without signal. Rounds are planned by schedule and duty rota, and missed, late or half-done rounds reach reception at once.ACROSS SMARTMY VMSNotificationsSmartMy VMS tells the right person the moment something happens: a visitor waiting, a guest arrived, a gate pass approved, a round missed, an emergency. Each event has its own recipients and channels: app notification, in-app, email, SMS and WhatsApp.
See it on your own gate.
Tell us how many gates you have, who comes through them and how visitors are approved today. We will show you SmartMy VMS set up that way.