Alerts

An alert is a system event that occurs when the event meets predefined criteria. They signal a checkpoint, warning, or reminder to keep an activity on schedule. Service Manager calculates alert times by subtracting (or adding) a known interval from a specified time.

Alert calculations depend on the work schedule, time zones, or other defined input. A schedule might cover seven days a week and 24 hours a day. When Service Manager processes alerts, it excludes scheduled holidays and break times in its calculations. Service Manager can make the necessary adjustments to deliver alerts at the correct time, regardless of time zone differences. For example:

• The work shift starts at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 5:00 p.m.
• The lunch break starts at 12:00 p.m. and ends at 1:00 p.m.

If you schedule an alert to occur four and a half hours after the start of the shift, then the alert occurs at 1:30 p.m. because the system excludes the lunch break interval when calculating the alert. If a holiday occurs, Service Manager postpones the alert until the next regularly scheduled day. For example:

• Independence Day holiday starts at 07/04/2004–2005 00:00:00 and ends at 07/05/2004–2005 00:00:00.
• If you schedule an alert at 5 p.m. July 3 to occur six hours later, the alert occurs at 3:00 p.m. on July 5. The alert ignores all nonscheduled hours outside of work shift, the July 4 holiday, and scheduled break times.

You can also set an alert as a TO-DO alert, which enables this alert to appear on your home page.

Associated tables

Service Manager uses information from various tables to process alerts. The tables vary, depending on whether Service Manager processes the alert from the AlertDef or category table:

• AlertDef can use assignment, contacts, device, location, and myGroups
• category uses assignment (for Incident Management alerts)

Create an alert definition record

To create an alert definition record, follow these steps:

1. Change Management: Click Change Management > Configuration > Alerts.

   Incident Management: Click Incident Management > Configuration > Alerts Definitions.

   Problem Management: Click Problem Management > Administration > Alert Definitions.

   Request Fulfillment: Click Request Fulfillment > Configuration > Alert Definitions.

   The Alert Definition form opens.

2. Type the alert name in the Alert Name field.
3. Type the alert description in the Description field.

4. Complete the remaining fields in the record form. If necessary, press Ctrl+H in the Windows client or F1 in the Web client for each field.

   • The Scheduling tab describes the calculations that trigger when the alert occurs.
   • The Update Info tab describes Format Control considerations and notification messages to be sent.

   • The Work Schedule tab specifies the work schedule that the alert belongs to.

     • Holiday Group specifies the holiday group used when calculating an interval. The holiday group defined here overrides the value of holiday group in the work schedule.

   • The Time Zone tab enables you to choose one of the following:

     • Define a specific time zone by choosing from the drop-down list
     • Define a RAD expression to set the time zone alert
     • Obtain the time zone from a table lookup

   • The To-Do Alert tab enables you to set this alert as a To-Do alert.

5. Click Add.

Create a To-Do alert definition record

Applies to User roles: System Administrator, Change Manager, Problem Manager, Incident Manager, Request Manager

To create a To-Do alert definition record, follow these steps:

1. Change Management: Click Change Management > Configuration > Alerts.

   Incident Management: Click Incident Management > Configuration > Alerts Definitions.

   Problem Management: Click Problem Management > Administration > Alert Definitions.

   Request Fulfillment: Click Request Fulfillment > Configuration > Alert Definitions.

   The Alert Definition form opens.

2. Type the alert name in the Alert Name field.
3. Type the alert description in the Description field.

4. Complete the remaining fields in the record form. If necessary, press Ctrl+H in the Windows client or F1 in the Web client for each field.

   • The Scheduling tab describes the calculations that trigger when the alert occurs.
   • The Update Info tab describes Format Control considerations and notification messages to be sent.

   • The Work Schedule tab specifies the work schedule that the alert belongs to.

     • Holiday Group specifies the holiday group used when calculating an interval. The holiday group defined here overrides the value of holiday group in the work schedule.

   • The Time Zone tab enables you to choose one of the following:

     • Define a specific time zone by choosing from the drop-down list
     • Define a RAD expression to set the time zone alert
     • Obtain the time zone from a table lookup

   • The To-Do Alert tab enables you to choose one of the following:

     • Define this alert as a To-Do alert

     • Assign an alert group

       Note We provide four out-of-box alert groups and you can add new alert groups in the To-Do Alert Type global list. These groups are used to show the types of alerts when you look at your To-Do Alerts window.

       Note For the SLT Alert group, the response target is supported in the out-of-box system, whereas the service target is not supported.

     • Specify the alert message template for this alert group

       The message content is displayed in the To-Do Alerts window. You can use fixed or dynamic expressions as the message template. For example, the 1 in action in $L.file expression means that the information of the ticket description is displayed.

5. Click Add.

Enable a To-Do alert for an operator

Applies to User roles: System Administrator, Change Manager, Problem Manager, Incident Manager, Request Manager

To enable To-Do alert for an operator, follow these steps:

1. Click System Administartion > Ongoing maintenance > Operators.
2. Open an operator record.
3. From the To-Do Alert tab, select the check box to enable To-Do alert for this operator.

4. Complete the remaining fields in the record form. If necessary, press Ctrl+H to view help for each field.

   • The Display records from previous days field specifies the days for the records to be displayed since the alert occurs.

   • The Maximum number of records in the list field specifies the maximum number of the records to be displayed on the To-Do alert window.

   • The Display records assigned to field specifies the assigned group for the records displayed on the To-Do alert page. There are two available fields: Me and My Group.

   • The Display records reported by the selected companies field specifies the company for the records to be reported. You can select and add the available company names from the company list on the left panel.

     • If no company is specified on the right panel, Service Manager applies all the companies available by default.
     • This field is only available when the multi-company mode has been enabled. To enable the multi-company mode, click System Administration > Base System Configuration > Miscellaneous > System Information Record.

   • The Display records from the selected folders field specifies the folder for the records to be reported. You can select and add the available folder names from the folder list on the left panel.

     • If no folder is specfied on the right panel, Service Manager applies all the folders available by default.
     • This field is only available when the folder entitlement has been enabled. To enable the folder entitlement, click System Administration > Base System Configuration > Miscellaneous > System Information Record.
5. Click Save.

View the To-Do alerts

If the administrator has set To-Do alerts for you, the To-Do Alerts floating window appears on the top immediately after you log in. To view all the To-Do alerts in a Service Manager session, click the alerts icon to open the To-Do Alerts window.

Field	Description
Alert category	Displays the alert group for the current To-Do alert. The To-Do Alerts window displays four alert groups. Alert group Description Approval Lists the tickets that are pending on the approval of the current operator for more than 1 day. Reminder Lists the high priority (1 or 2) In Progress tickets which are not updated for 6 hours. Follow Up Lists the tickets which are pending for customer actions for more than 1 day. SLT Lists the tickets whose SLT will breach within 30 minutes.
Record ID	Click the record ID to open this record in the main window. You can check the record details and perform required actions without closing the To-Do Alerts window. Note When you click the record ID link in a non-Approval alert, the alert that you selected and all other non-Approval alerts linked to the same record are automatically acknowledged and removed from the alert window.
Acknowledge	Click this button to acknowledge this alert, which removes this alert from the alert window. If there are more alerts than the maximum number set by the administrator, a new alert in the system will be added to the bottom of the list. Note Once the alert is acknowledged, the Ack flag is marked as true in the corresponding record of TodoAlertList table.
Display	Shows the number of the alerts displayed in the list.
Total	Shows the number of total alerts in the system.
Close	Click this button to close the To-Do Alerts floating window.

Related topics

Clocks

Notifications

Time zones