Case Study: Dorset Local Resilience Forum achieves rapid, coordinated multi-agency incident response with OnSolve's Send Word Now

Public and Private Agencies Join Forces to Coordinate and Improve Incident Response

Dorset Local Resilience Forum (Dorset LRF), which coordinates councils, emergency services and voluntary agencies across Dorset, faced slow, labour‑intensive multi‑agency activation for major incidents — a manual process that could take 1.5–3 hours to contact 15–20 partners, risk missed teleconferences and delay critical response. To address this, Bournemouth Borough Council procured OnSolve’s Send Word Now platform and rolled it out across the LRF as the Dorset Prepared Alerting Service (DPAS).

OnSolve’s Send Word Now provided an automated, multi‑channel call cascade with self‑managed contact lists, delivery monitoring and full audit trails, enabling rapid, consistent alerts and better teleconference attendance. Tests delivered high contact rates and the system was used successfully on 23 Nov 2016 for an unexploded ordnance incident; the project reported nearly £40,000 in direct financial benefits, an estimated saving of about £90 per activation and up to ~£3,000 annually if used 50 times, while significantly reducing the time and effort needed to launch coordinated responses.

Dorset Local Resilience Forum

Ian Brown

Force Command Centre Training Officer