Civic Alert Systems wins local business plan competition

BINGHAMTON, NY (WIVT/WBGH) — A new startup company that aims to more efficiently connect local governments with their citizens has won the Binghamton Business Plan Competition.

This year’s winner is Civic Alert Systems.

The company enables local authorities and municipalities to deliver information directly to citizens via SMS. Messages can be sent immediately to notify citizens in real time of emergencies such as weather events or burst water mains, or they can be scheduled to be sent at a later time.

Co-owner Ryan Crist says the company officially launched in January and they hope to have a PILOT program up and running by the end of the summer.

“Just being able to communicate more reliably and directly with your residents. When you think about what options are out there today: you can send things through the mail that might get thrown away, you can put things on social media that might get ignored. And a lot of those things are just not direct enough or effective enough or timely enough to reach people at the critical moment,” Crist said.

The winner of the contest will receive $5,000 plus services from other local businesses, including accounting from Davidson Fox, legal services from Coughlin and Gerhart, website design from Freshy, sign making from 3-i Graphics and Signs, branding services from Idea-Kraft and a three-month membership to the Koffman Incubator.

The runner-up, UMAHARI, received a cash prize of $2,000 and the third-place finisher, 2nd Heaven, won $500.