Managing User Devices

Users can receive notifications on any device configured under the user’s account. Devices include email accounts, telephones, fax machines, pagers, and SMS devices. Each device in a user’s account must be configured with the necessary contact information (such as the phone number for a telephone device) before the device can receive notifications.

Standard devices are defined by Support when AlertFind is provisioned. Typically this standard list contains one or more email addresses and telephone numbers. Standard devices cannot be deleted from a user’s account, but they can be disabled. Users with necessary permissions can create additional custom devices for individual users.

The types of standard devices that you may see in users’ Notification Devices lists include:

1. Phone Devices—Phone devices can receive voice notifications. Configure phone devices using a telephone number, such as 555-555-1111.
2. Email Devices—An email device can receive email notifications using an email address such as user1@genericorp.com. You can also send email notifications to some cell phone devices by configuring an email device that uses a cell phone email address, such as 5555551111@carrier.com.
3. SMS Devices—SMS devices can receive short text notifications sent through an SMS gateway. Configure an SMS device using a telephone number, such as 555-555-1111.
4. Mobile Email Devices—Mobile email devices can receive short email messages through an SMTP email gateway. These devices are different from regular email devices (such as BlackBerry or smart phone devices) in that they usually display a limited number of characters for each message and they cannot process graphics or attachments. In this way, messages sent to mobile email devices function similarly to those sent to SMS devices. Configure a mobile email device using a mobile email device email address, such as 5555551111@carrier.com.
5. Pager Devices—Pager devices can receive short text notifications. Configure pager devices using a telephone number, such as 555-555-1111.
6. Fax Devices—Fax devices can receive document-based notifications sent from one fax device to another. Configure a fax device using a telephone number, such as 555-555-1111.

Information about each user’s devices appears in the user’s account in the Notification Devices section of the User Overview page. On this page, new devices can be added, enabled or disabled, and device information updated.

The status of each device in the list is indicated by the following text:

• Devices listed in all black text are configured and enabled, and are ready to receive notifications.
• Devices displaying Not Configured in red text cannot receive notifications until they are configured. See Configuring a Standard Device.
• Devices listed in gray text with the label (disabled) next to the device name are configured but disabled. These devices cannot receive notifications until they are enabled. See Enabling or Disabling Devices.

Administrators and Team Leaders with the necessary permissions can:

• Configure a standard device—See Configuring a Standard Device.
• Add a new custom device—See Adding a New Custom Device.
• Edit, enable, or disable a device—See Enabling or Disabling Devices.
• Delete a custom device—See Deleting or Unconfiguring a Device.

Like other user account details, manual device changes can be overwritten by a future import process. See Editing Imported Data for additional details.

Configuring a Standard Device

When a standard device is defined by the default company settings but is not configured for a user, the name of the device appears in the Notification Devices list in red text and with a Not Configured label. For the device to receive notifications, the device must be configured.

To configure a standard device:

1. From any list of users, double-click a user name to bring up the User Overview page. See Viewing User Lists for instructions on viewing user lists.
2. Click Notification Devices from the list of User Editor options. The Notification Devices page appears.
3. Select the device to configure, then double-click it, or click the Edit/Configure button. Provide the necessary configuration information in the dialog box that appears.

Option	Description
To add an email address or WAP-enabled cell phone:	Type a valid Email Address. This field is required. To add this device but disable it, click Disable at the top of the page. The device will be added but will be unable to receive notifications until it is enabled. See Enabling or Disabling Devices. Click Save to return to the Notification Devices list.
To configure a new voice phone number:	Select US/Canada or Other. The Phone Number entry field changes depending on your choice. NOTE The correct format for an Other phone number is: [COUNTRY_CODE][CITY AREA_CODE][PHONE_NUMBER]. Numbers that include '0' between the country code and the city/area code are invalid in AlertFind. For example, the phone number 44(0) 207 333 4444 is invalid. However, a UK number such as 44 20 7333 4444 is valid. In this example, the area code for London (20) is separated by spaces from the rest of the phone number. AlertFind will eliminate spaces so that number will become 442073334444. Enter a valid telephone number. This field is required. To set advanced dialing options required to reach this phone device, check Use advanced dialing options and set any advanced options. NOTE When AlertFind calls an office phone, it can encounter an automated system that requires an extension number to be dialed. AlertFind dials the extension and waits for the user to pick up. If the time to connect is too long, then AlertFind assumes the caller did not pick up and attempts to leave a voicemail. The amount of delay depends on the PBX. To add additional delays to the post-dial string to extend the AlertFind time-out time, in the Use advanced dialing options dialog box, insert additional commas (,) in the Post-dial field. One comma indicates a pause of one second. To add this device but disable it, click Disable at the top of the page. The device is added but will be unable to receive notifications until it is enabled. See Enabling or Disabling Devices. Click Save to return to the Notification Devices list.
To configure a new alphanumeric or numeric pager number:	Select US/Canada or Other. The Pager Number entry field changes depending on your choice. Enter a valid pager number. This field is required. Enter a PIN, if this pager requires one. Select the Carrier from the drop-down list. Set the Pager Type to either Alphanumeric or Numeric. To add this device but disable it, click Disable at the top of the page. The device will be added but will be unable to receive notifications until it is enabled. See Enabling or Disabling Devices. Click Save to return to the Notification Devices list.
To configure a new SMS device:	Select US/Canada or Other. The SMS Phone Number entry field changes depending on your choice. Enter a valid SMS Phone Number. This field is required. Choose an option for Max Length Handling. Depending on the maximum message lengths imposed by the message carrier, you can choose to send all characters of a message, split messages into multiple chunks, or to truncate messages after a certain number of characters. For splitting or truncation options, you must provide the number of characters allowed before messages are chunked or truncated. Leave this field blank to use the default method for your organization. To add this device but disable it, click Disable at the top of the page. The device will be added but will be unable to receive notifications until it is enabled. See Enabling or Disabling Devices. Click Save to return to the Notification Devices list. NOTE SMS messages have a 140-byte limit and are delivered in 140-byte chunks. To send messages larger than 140 bytes, devices and carriers either truncate the message or send the message in chunks of a specified length. Chunk sizes are determined by the device, by the carrier or by user settings. This means, if chunk sizes are not specified, for a languages that use single-byte character sets (such as English, Spanish, French, and German), only the first 160 characters of the message will be delivered. For languages that use double-byte character sets (such as Hindi, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese) only the first 70 characters of the message will be delivered. AlertFind sets chunking size defaults at 160 characters. If your organization sends SMS messages using double-byte character sets, you should consider changing these defaults to 70 characters to ensure that the full messages are delivered. In the Edit Standard SMS Device dialog box, select Split message into smaller chunks of: Then enter 70 in the characters number box and click Save. The system measures a single chunk's size as the number of characters in the message header, plus the number of characters to convey the portion of the message subject or message body. For example, each chunk includes the header From {company notification system} (x of y) plus part of user-defined subject or message. If the header length is greater than the configured chunk size, the message will not be sent.
To configure a new fax number:	Select US/Canada or Other. The Fax Number entry field changes depending on your choice. Enter a valid Fax Number. This field is required. To add this device but disable it, click Disable at the top of the page. The device will be added but will be unable to receive notifications until it is enabled. See Enabling or Disabling Devices. Click Save to return to the Notification Devices list.
To configure a new mobile email device:	Enter a valid Email Address for the mobile email device. This field is required. Choose an option for Max Length Handling. To add this device but disable it, click Disable at the top of the page. The device will be added but will be unable to receive notifications until it is enabled. See Enabling or Disabling Devices. Click Save to return to the Notification Devices list.

4. When you return to the Notification Devices list, the configured device now shows up in all black text, without the Not Configured label. This device can be added to a notification profile by following the instructions under Customizing a Notification Profile.

You can keep this device configured but disable it to avoid receiving notifications on it. See Enabling or Disabling Devices.

Adding a New Custom Device

Custom devices are devices that can be added to an individual user account if you have the necessary permissions. Custom devices are different from the list of standard devices that are included for all user accounts by default. See Configuring a Standard Device for instructions on working with standard devices.

After a custom device is updated, it must added to the user’s personal escalations for it to receive notifications.

To add a new custom device:

1. From any list of users, double-click a user name to bring up the User Overview page. See Viewing User Lists for instructions on viewing user lists.
2. Click Notification Devices from the list of User Editor options. The Notification Devices page appears.
3. To add a new device, click New. A list of available devices appears.
4. Choose the device to add from the drop-down list, then follow the instructions below for each type of device:
5. Provide the necessary information for the device as mentioned in the configuration options table.

6. To add this device to this user’s personal escalations, see Customizing Notification Profiles and Rules.

Enabling or Disabling Devices

When viewing a user’s Notification Devices list, the disabled devices are listed in gray text, with the label (disabled) next to the device name. These devices are configured, but cannot receive notifications until they are enabled.

Devices listed in black text are enabled and can receive notifications. Disable these devices to prevent notifications from being sent to them.

To enable or disable a device:

1. From any list of users, double-click a user name to bring up the User Overview page. See Viewing User Lists for instructions on viewing user lists.
2. Click Notification Devices from the list of User Editor options. The Notification Devices page appears.
3. Select the device to enable or disable.
4. To enable a disabled device, click the Enable button at the top of the Notification Devices list. The enabled device is listed in black text.
5. To disable an enabled device, click the Disable button at the top of the Notification Devices list. The disabled device is listed in gray text, with the label (disabled) next to the device name.

Deleting or Unconfiguring a Device

This section describes instructions for deleting or unconfiguring a device in a user’s account. This process removes all information about the device.

To disable a device but preserve its configuration for later use, see Enabling or Disabling Devices instead.

To delete or unconfigure a device:

1. From any list of users, double-click a user name to bring up the User Overview page. See Viewing User Lists for instructions on viewing user lists.
2. Click Notification Devices from the list of User Editor options. The Notification Devices page appears.
3. Select the device that you want to delete or unconfigure.
4. Click the Delete/Reset button at the top of the Notification Devices list.

When you reset a standard device (those that your organization requires in every user account), the configuration information for the device is removed, and the device appears as Not Configured in the Notification Devices list.