Beginning in April, a few varieties of tomatoes were linked to an outbreak of salmonella in 16 U.S. states. About 150 people have been made sick by tainted tomatoes so far, but the source of the illness has yet to be identified. Last week, McDonald's decided to stop using tomato slices in its sandwiches and salads.

Let's say you were the final decision maker at McDonald's who decided to stop using tomatoes at the company's roughly 12,800 restaurants in the United States. Your decision would certainly make sense given the fact that (a) you wouldn't want people to be harmed by your food and (b) you don't want to be sued for serving food that makes people sick. Now, how would you get the word out to all of these restaurants' managers and staff in a timely way and ensure that they had received the order to stop serving tomatoes immediately?

One of the most efficient ways would be with a mass notification system, such as those offered by MessageOne, 3n, PURVIS Systems or Amcom, among many others. While these systems are normally associated with emergency notification, such as alerting university students to a gunman on campus, mass notification systems that can deliver very large numbers of messages in a short amount of time and can prove receipt of a message are extremely valuable in a situation like McDonald’s. Such a system could notify the managers at all 12,800 restaurants in under an hour, demonstrate if and exactly when the message had been received, and also solicit feedback from each manager in case he or she had questions.

If you didn’t have a mass notification system, you could send an e-mail, a letter, a text message, an electronic communication using another system, or place a phone call to these managers. However, given that McDonald’s serves an average of more 750,000 people per hour in the United States, would the extra time spent on the alternatives – and the potential for someone eating a tainted tomato during that period – be worth your risk?

In short, mass notification, particularly for larger organizations, should be on the short list of communication technologies to be implemented and should be part of the decision-making for a complete unified communications capability (Compare Unified Communications products).

Michael Osterman is principal analyst of Osterman Research.