Ad Hoc Notifications

Normally, notifications in eICS are only sent in relation to incidents. For example, notifications are sent when an incident is started, escalated, or ended, as well as when positions are assigned, and tasks are updated.

With the Ad Hoc Notifications premium feature, you can send notifications any time you like. Whether the notification is related to an incident or not, you can send notifications to one person or a group of thousands of people by selecting contact groups from your facility.

Contact groups are set up in the ICS Chart by Facility Administrators. In addition to the candidates listed for a specific role, you can create other groups of contacts according to your notification needs. Contact groups can include internal and external contacts that are identified in your eICS facility. For more information about managing groups, please go to the procedure Manage Labor Pool and Other Groups.

With the correct permissions, you can choose to send voice, text, or email notifications, with or without custom response options. Response options open the door for bi-directional communication. You can include a response as simple as “received” or as complex as a series of options or directives.

On the Ad hoc Notifications page, you see the New Notification button and three tabs: Sent, Drafts, and Templates. The button allows you to create new notifications from scratch or from a template. Meanwhile, the tabs list the corresponding messages in chronological order.

To create a notification

  1. On the main menu, click Ad hoc Notifications. The page opens.

  2. On the upper left, click New Notification. The Create a New Notification page opens.

  3. Take one of these actions.

    1. Click New Notification.

    2. Click the name of a template.

  4. Enter this information.

    New Notification fields and descriptions

    Field

    Description

    Valid Values

    Sender

    From whom the message will appear to originate.

    Facilities to which you have access.

    Subject

    The name or title of your notification.

    200 alphanumeric characters with special characters.

    Recipients

    To whom the message will be sent.

    Groups of contacts as specified in the ICS Chart. For more information, go to the procedure: Manage Labor Pool and Other Groups.

    Delivery Methods

    Communication channels through which you wish to send the notification.

    • Email

    • Text

    • Voice

    Text/Voice Message

    Content of the notification to be sent as text or voice message.

    2500 alphanumeric characters with special characters.

    Voice Repeat Options: Number of times to repeat call

    Whether the call should be repeated or not; and if so, how many times to repeat the call.

    • Do not repeat

    • 1

    • 2

    • 3

    Voice Repeat Options: Time between each call

    How many minutes to wait between calls.

    • 1 minute

    • 2 minutes

    • 3 minutes

    • 5 minutes

    • 10 minutes

    • 15 minutes

    • 30 minutes

    Email Body

    Content of the notification to be sent as an email.

    Unlimited

    Responses

    Whether you want to receive responses or not. If so, you will need to enter the response options.

    • Don’t allow responses

    • Allow responses

    Send date & time

    Whether you want to send the notification now or at a later date and time.

    • Send immediately

    • Delay sending

    Delivery order

    Whether you wan to send the notification to all communication channels at the same time or one at a time.

    • Send to all delivery methods at the same time

    • Send to one delivery method at a time, with specified delay between attempts

  5. Click Review and Send. The notification preview page opens.

  6. Click Send.