Create an Ad Hoc Alert

Premium feature

As an administrator or with the appropriate organization role, you can create Ad Hoc Alerts from scratch, or use a draft or template to generate the Ad Hoc Alert. Then, you can choose to send the Ad Hoc Alert right away, or save it as a draft or template. After sending the Ad Hoc Alert, you can track its delivery and response statistics.

To create an Ad Hoc Alert

1. Open Ad Hoc Alerts.

2. Click Create Notification.

3. On the Select New Notification or a Template page, do one of the following actions:

   • Click New Notification.

   • On a template, click Open.

4. On the Define Delivery Options page, do these actions.

   • For Delivery Method, select one or more methods that you want to send the Ad Hoc Alert. See Delivery Methods.

   • For Delivery Order, select Blast to send the Ad Hoc Alert right away, or Escalation to delay the Ad Hoc Alert. See Delivery Order.

5. Click Next.

6. On the Enter Message page, do these actions.

   Set up on the Enter Messages page

   Option	Action
   Sender	Select who you want to appear as the sender. Myself WebEOC Nexus Select Organization. When you select this option, the Select Organization page opens, Select an organization. On the upper right, click Select.
   Message Type	Select the purpose of the Ad Hoc Alert. See Message Types.
   Subject	Enter the subject of the Ad Hoc Alert. The subject appears in emails, Inbox messages, and faxes. See Delivery Method.
   Messages	Enter a message depending on your selected delivery methods. Text and Pager Notifications: Enter the message in the Short Message field. Emails, Faxes, and Inbox Messages: Use the rich text editor to enter the message in the Long Message field. Click Paste Short Message to copy the text you entered in Short Message. To insert graphics or tables, click the more icon , and select the corresponding option. To provide room in an email for a response, click the more icon and select Response placeholder. Voice Messages: Do either of the following actions. Enter the message in the Voice Message field. WebEOC Nexus automatically converts it to a voice. See Voice Message Text-to-Voice Guidelines. You can click Paste Short Message to copy the text entered in Short Message. Record a message. Select Record Audio Message and record a message. See Record Audio Messages.
   Additional voice message options	For voice messages, specify the following. For Times to Repeat Call, select the number of times the call should repeat if there is no answer. For Time Between Calls, select the number of minutes to wait before repeating delivery attempts.
   Allow Responses	Click the toggle switch to allow or disallow responses from which the recipient can choose. If you allow responses, enter the possible responses. To enter responses For Response 1, enter the first response. If the response is for attendance in a conference call, enter the Conference Bridge Number and Meeting ID; otherwise, go to step 3. Click + Add Response, and then repeat steps 1 to 3 to enter additional responses, as needed. To delete a response, click at the end of the response line. To determine how long recipients have to respond In the Allowed Time for Response list, select the number of hours that the recipient has to respond to the message.

7. Click Next.

8. On the Select Recipients page, do these actions.

   Set up on the Select Recipients page

   Option	Action
   Internal Recipients	Select the WebEOC Nexus users who will receive the Ad Hoc Alert. To select recipients Click inside the Internal Recipients field, or click . The Add Recipients page opens. Do any of the following actions. On the Recipients tab, select the recipients. Use Advanced Search to quickly locate the individuals. On the Positions, Groups, Notification Groups, and Organization tabs, select recipients according to their position, group, or organization. On the upper right, click Save.
   External Recipients	Upload a spreadsheet that lists the recipients who are not WebEOC Nexus users. To complete the spreadsheet Click Download nowto download the comma-separated values (CSV) template needed to enter the external recipients' contact information, On an empty row, complete the spreadsheet according to the column headings. Delete the example rows and save the completed template. Click Upload CSV to upload the completed template and follow the prompts. For information about completing the .csv template see: External Recipients Use the External Recipient Template
   CC	If you want to copy others, complete the CC field. To send a copy of the Ad Hoc Alert For CC Email Address, enter email addresses for people you want to copy on the email Ad Hoc Alert. Separate multiple email addresses with a semicolon.
   Total Recipients	View selected recipients. The total number of recipients you selected on the page appears in the Total Recipients field. To view the complete list of the recipients you selected on the page Click # Recipients. The Selected Recipients (#) window opens with a list of recipients. After you have viewed the list, click Cancel to close the window and proceed.

9. Click Review and Send. The Save as template? window opens.

   If you started the Ad Hoc Alert from a draft or template, the window name and options may appear slightly different. However, the options will be similar to the following.

10. Do one of these actions.

    • To send the Ad Hoc Alert without saving it as a template, click Do Not Save and Send.

    • To create a template, click Save and Send, enter this information, and then click Save.

      Set up to create a template

      Option	Action
      Title	Enter a name for the template.
      Icon	Click a symbol to appear on the template card.
      Color	Click a color to appear on the template card.
      Pin this template to the Emergency Notification panel.	Click the toggle switch if you want to pin the template to the Select Notification Template panel, which allows you to use the Show Pinned Only toggle to quickly filter templates on the Templates tab.

11. On the Review and Send page, review your Ad Hoc Alert and, as appropriate, make any updates.

12. To specify when you want to send the Ad Hoc Alert, in the Send Date and Time area, click one of these options.

    • Immediately to send the Ad Hoc Alert right away.

    • Schedule to send the Ad Hoc Alert at a specified date and time.

      • Enter or select a Send Date and Send Time.

13. Select the Reviewed and ready to send checkbox. When you select this checkbox, Send Notification and Test Notification become active and all other fields on the preview page become inactive.

14. Click one of these options.

    • Send Notification to send the Ad Hoc Alert immediately, or according to the schedule you specified.

    • Back to Edit to edit the Ad Hoc Alert.

    • Test Notification to display the Sent Test Notification window where you can enter one email address to test the Ad Hoc Alert before you send it.