A discreet panic button for reception and front desk teams.
A silent trigger on every screen, answered by the colleagues nearby. No server hardware, it runs on a PC you already leave on. Works even when the internet is down. From A$299/year.
No credit card required for the trial. No additional hardware needed. No IT needed, as long as you have appropriate rights.
Whatever your industry, the front desk meets every visitor first, often alone. Duress Alert turns every screen behind it into backup.
What the reception role has in common everywhere
One person, facing the door
Whatever the industry, reception is usually a single person seated at a screen with their back to a wall and everybody else behind a door. They see the problem first and they have the fewest options.
Both hands are already busy
Mid-call, mid-booking, mid-payment, signing for a delivery. Any response that requires a free hand, a spare moment or standing up is a response that will not happen.
The job is to keep it calm
A receptionist’s instinct is to de-escalate and not make a scene, and they are right. Anything loud or visible works against them, which is why the discreet option is the one that actually gets used.
Where a front desk usually puts it
- Every reception machine, including the second position used at busy times.
- A keyboard shortcut on each of them, so it works while both hands are occupied.
- A USB button where the receptionist is often standing or has to reach across the desk.
- Every machine that could respond, which is the step people skip. A trigger with no receiver is not a system.
- The manager or supervisor’s office, so somebody senior is always in the loop.
Decide the responders as carefully as the triggers: who is expected to come, and who covers them when they are the one on the desk. That single decision does more for how well this works than anything in the software.
Three colours. Everyone understands them in one demo.
Green means ready
A small dot sits quietly in the corner of every screen. Staff know at a glance the system is live.
Red means help now
One click, hotkey or desk button, and a pop-up appears over whatever colleagues are working on, showing exactly where help is needed. No sound in the room. Nothing the visitor can see.
Orange means responding
The first colleague to respond is recorded, and the person who raised the alert sees their button turn orange. They know help is on the way before it arrives.
- Help is acknowledged. The moment a colleague responds, the person who raised the alert sees their button turn orange, they know help is coming before it arrives.
- No server hardware. Duress Alert runs on a Windows PC you already leave on, and alerts travel over your own network, so they keep working even when the internet is down.
- Easy to roll out. You install it yourself in about five minutes per computer, with the silent-install packages and a rollout guide included. Already a Duress Alert customer upgrading? We help you do it over a secure screen share.
Prefer something you can press without looking?
Add a physical button where it helps, from A$25 plus delivery. Unlike a hardwired button, Duress Alert warns you on screen the moment a button is unplugged, and confirms when it’s back, so you never discover a dead button during an emergency. And if a button ever fails, staff can still raise the alert from the screen, tray icon or hotkey.
A control you can evidence.
Under WHS law, employers must control the risk of occupational violence wherever staff face the public. Reception is the first place a regulator looks. Duress Alert’s dated raise, respond, reset history is evidence you can table, not a policy on a shelf.
“Our receptionist hit the fixed button under the desk during a confrontation, and found out later it was broken. With Duress Alert she knows: if it’s green, we can see her.”
Sally Anderton, Legal Practice, VIC
Simple annual pricing
Team Safe
Group Safe
Corporate Safe
Multi Site Safe
Prices exclude GST. Local taxes are added where they apply.
Install and options
- One-off install A$99, includes training and 12 months of support.
- Optional physical desk button, from A$25 plus delivery. It warns you on screen the moment it is unplugged, so you never find a dead button in an emergency.
Start your free 21-day trial, covering up to 25 computers. Configure it and roll it out across your site, at no cost. The trial itself is free. If you go ahead afterwards, we can set it up with you for a one-off A$99. When you move from the trial to a full licence there is no extra effort, everything you have set up simply keeps running. No payment details to start, and you can cancel anytime.
Prices in AUD. In the UK, USA, Canada or Europe? See local pricing: UK, USA, Canada, Europe.
For your IT provider
Your IT person (or ours) can push Duress Alert to every computer automatically, silent-install MSIs generated by the server with your configuration baked in, central management of every setting, and support for shared/remote desktops (RDS) and Mac. Client-to-server traffic stays on your local network (default TCP 8001); only the server talks to the cloud, over HTTPS, for licensing and reporting. Have an IT team, multiple sites, or shared/remote desktops? See our IT deployment page, silent installs, central configuration and rollout at any scale.
Common questions.
A keyboard shortcut on the machine they are already typing on. No movement toward a button, no reaching, nothing on the visitor’s side of the desk that changes.
Everyone on a covered machine sees the alert and the first to acknowledge it takes it. The point is that the people behind closed doors, who would otherwise hear nothing, now know.
It helps where the receptionist is often standing, where they may be pushed back from the keyboard, or where a shortcut feels like too much to remember. Plenty of desks use both and let people choose.
Then this is not the right tool on its own, and we will say so. It summons colleagues. If there are no colleagues on site, that is a rostering conversation, not a software one.
Yes. Work health and safety law requires employers to manage the risk of occupational violence wherever staff deal with the public. A duress alarm on every screen is a practical, demonstrable control, and Duress Alert’s dated alert log is the evidence you can table.
No. Duress Alert runs on the Windows and Mac computers you already have. An optional physical desk button can be added from A$25 where a tactile trigger helps.
Annual licensing starts from A$299 for up to 10 users, with Group, Corporate and Multi Site plans above that, plus a one-off A$99 install. Every plan includes a free 21-day trial.
The trial licence expires and alerting stops until a licence is applied. Nothing is charged automatically, and we hold no payment details from the trial.
Buy the licence in the Duress Alert cloud portal. If your server is cloud connected, which is the default, the licence updates itself at the server’s next check-in, and it checks in daily. For an offline installation, our team coordinates with you to apply the licence.
Whichever you prefer. You can run the silent installer yourself in about five minutes per computer, your own IT provider can do it, or we can do it with you as a one-off install service that includes training and 12 months of support.
Tell us about your site.
Tell us your team size and setting, and we’ll show you how Duress Alert works on your own desks and what a rollout looks like. We get back to you quickly.
Back up every front desk you run.
Questions? +61 1300 366 911 (Australia).
