Unlike social media, the communications channel that OutReach provides is strictly two-way; between then organisation and the individual. The organisation has the ability to push rich content to its members, and the members have the ability to consume, react and reply to that content. But individuals do not have the ability to post content to other members. This prevents the accumulation of "noise" and allows the organisation to maintain clean, distraction-free channels of communication.

Messaging >

Organisations subscribe to OutReach, which is a cloud-based service. The organisation's administrators can then login to the OutReach portal to manage their communications channels with the members, and to generate content. OutReach can host any number of organisations simultaneously, and members can belong to multiple organisations.

To provide this service, OutReach must maintain a complete database of the organisation's members. This database can be hosted on the OutReach platform itself, or OutReach can be configured to synchronise with the organisation's in-house user directory.

To use the OutReach smartphone app, users must be a member of one or more organisations hosted by OutReach. Furthermore, they must have a unique and valid email address in the user database. OutReach will use this email address to validate the end user's identity.

Activation >

Organisations assign administrators, who can then use the OutReach portal to manage their communications channels, and to generate content. Administrators can be assigned permissions, which gives them the privileges to perform specific tasks. The permissions are:

• MEMBER ADMIN: Maintenance of the user database and the ability to create and manage channels.

• MESSAGE ADMIN: The ability to compose, edit and expire messages, and also to compose and edit surveys.

• MESSAGE_SEND ADMIN: The ability to send messages.

• SUPER ADMIN: All of the permissions described above, and also the ability to grant and revoke administration privileges to an user in the organisation.

Organisations can assign as many administrators as required, and can assign these permissions in any combination.

Administration >

Channels define the recipients of messaging. All messages must have a channel assigned, and it is the members of that channel that will receive the message. A channel has a name, and may also have an icon image, and a reply email address. When a message is sent on a specific channel, that channel's icon and name will appear as a part of the message's header. When a user replies to a message, their reply will go to the email address associated with the message's channel.

Channels >

OutReach provides a survey facility. Administrators can create surveys, which can then be delivered to the members as a messages "action." A survey consists of a set of questions or propositions, which are presented to the user in a specific sequence. Each question/proposition can be assigned a specific type of response. They are:

• The user is presented with a list of possible responses, of which only one can be selected;

• The user is presented with a list of possible responses. The user can select any combination;

• The user can provide a rating response, being a scale from 1 to 10;

• The user can enter a free text response.

The survey results are then available to the organisation's administrators.

Surveys >