Understanding Sensor Alerts and Notifications

Alerts and notifications are key functions of the ComplianceMate Temperature Monitoring System:

• Alerts allow the organization to define conditions when a monitored piece of equipment is not functioning properly.
• Alert Notifications allow the appropriate personnel to be notified when an alert is triggered so they can resolve the issue causing the alert condition.

Alert conditions and notification procedures are defined when the temperature sensor for a piece of equipment is added to the system.

There are two types of alerting for sensors:

• Temperature based on readings taken by the sensor every 10 minutes and uploaded to the server every 20 minutes
• Inactive based on the sensor not reporting data

Temperature Alerts

Temperature alert conditions identify when a piece of equipment is functioning Out of Range based on one of the following:

• The Average sensor reading for a period of time is above a maximum or below a minimum temperature (e.g., the average sensor reading during a 2 hour period is above maximum temperature).
• Any sensor reading during a 30-minute period that is above a maximum or below a minimum temperature (e.g., a sensor reading is below the minimum).
• All sensor readings during a period of time are above the maximum or below the minimum temperature (e.g., the sensor readings during a 30 minute period are above the maximum).

A period of time can be either 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, or 3 hours.

Sensors record temperature readings every 10 minutes. They are uploaded to the server every 20 minutes. When the Out of Range condition is met, an alert is triggered. 

A sensor can have more than one alert condition, for example:

• The first condition can be based on Any reading, as would be the case if a freezer door was left open.
• A second condition can be based on Average readings for 1 hour, as would be the case if the door was left open multiple times or the equipment was getting a lot of use.
• A third condition can be based on All readings for 2 hours, as would be the case if the equipment has lost power or is failing.

Inactive Alerts

Inactive alert conditions identify when a sensor has not provided readings for a period of time.

A period of time is defined as 2, 3, or 4 hours.

Readings from a sensor may have stopped for a variety of reasons:

• The sensor has stopped working (e.g., batteries have died).
• The sensor is working, but has lost communications with the gateway (e.g., the gateway lost power or something is blocking the sensor).
• The sensor and gateway are working, but the gateway has lost communications with the router (e.g., the router lost power).
• The sensor, gateway, and router are working, but the router has lost communications with the Internet.

In cases where the sensor is still working, it will continue to record readings until communication with the Internet has been re-established, and then it will transfer all the store readings.

A sensor can have multiple inactive alerts, each with a different period of time.

The Alerting and Notification Process

Alerting and notification process works as follows:

1. An Alert is triggered because an out-of-range condition arises or the sensor becomes inactive.
   • If other alerts are in progress for the sensor, this alert may disable those alerts until this alert is resolved.
   • If a new alert is triggered after this one, this alert may be disabled until that new alert is resolved.
2. Notifications are made to a pre-defined group of uses using one or more notification types. There are two notifications processes:
   • Single-tier, which means one set of notifications of each selected type will be completed as soon as the alert is triggered.
   • Multi-tier, which means a second, and possibly a third, set of notifications of each selected type will be sent out after a designated period of time (30, 60, 90, or 120 minutes), most likely using different types of alerts directed to a different group of users that the previous tier.
3. The alert is Closed (a/k/a, Handled) once the notification process is complete.
4. Alert notifications for the sensor are automatically paused for a period of time (i.e., 1, 2, or 3 hours).
   • The sensor will continue to record data, but additional alerts notifications will not be sent out during the time notifications are paused for the sensor.
   • If the pause expires and this issue has not been resolved, the alerting process will start over.
5. Corrective Action is taken to resolved the issue that triggered the alert (see Resolving a Sensor Alert for more information).
6. The alert notification pause is cleared, either automatically by the system when the pause expires or manually by a user when the issue is resolved (see Pausing and Resuming Sensor Alert Notifications for more information).

Sensor Alert Notifications

Once an alert is triggered, the system can send out notifications.

For Temperature alerts, there are four types of notifications:

• Phone
• Email
• SMS
• Tablet
• Light

For Inactive sensor alerts, there are three types of notifications:

• Email
• SMS
• Tablet

Which users receive the alert notifications depends on the their Job Role with the location where the alert was triggered:

• Users with one of the selected Job Roles will receive the notification.
  • Users whose account is set to Vacation Mode are not included.
  • Users who are Vacation Mode alternates are included.
• Users with none of the selected Job Roles will not receive the notification.

Each alert notification can have a different list of selected job roles, thereby creating a different list of users to receive the notifications. 

Notifications are carried out as follows:

• For Light, the notification causes the green alert light at the location to flash red or flash yellow, depending on how the alert is configured.

  An alert light is ordered directly from ComplianceMate and is configured and registered for a location by CM production personnel. Once you receive and install the light, it will appear as solid green unless an alert triggers it to flash red or yellow.

• For Tablets, notifications are immediately sent to all tablets registered at the location when the alert is triggered.
• For SMS, text messages are immediately sent to all users with one of the selected Job Roles, except those who opted out of Sensor Alert SMS.
• For Email, messages are immediately sent to all users with one of the selected Job Roles, except those who opted out of Sensor Alert Email.
• For Phone, a call tree is created and processed by the ComplianceMate automated call system until a "live" person has been reached and acknowledges acceptance of the notification:
  • The names on the tree are those with the selected job roles, except those who opted out of Sensor Alert Phone.
  • The order of the names on the list are in order of the job roles in the system.

The ability to opt out of sensor alerts is carried out in the User Profile. For more information, see Updating Your User Profile.

Triggered Alert Status

There are basically four status combinations for triggered alerts:

1. Active, meaning:
   1. The alert notification process is not complete:
      1. For a single-tier alert with phone notification, the system is still processing the call tree.
      2. For multi-tier, not all tiers have been processed.
   2. The alert was manually reopened by unchecking the Closed box on the alert notification record.
2. Active and needing a Corrective Action to be manually added.
3. Closed/Handled, meaning the Closed box on the alert notification record has been checked through either of the following methods:
   1. The system automatically checked the box when the notification process was completed.
   2. A user manually checked the box after having unchecked it.
4. Closed/Handled, but still needing a Corrective Action to be added to the alert record. 

How the Call Tree Works

Once an alert notification call tree has been assembled, the automated call system will proceed as follows:

1. The first user on the tree will be called.
   1. If the user answers the call and acknowledges receiving the notification, the call system closes the alert notification.
   2. If the user does not answer the phone or dismisses the call without answering, the call system leaves a message and proceeds to the next person on the call tree.
   3. If the user answers the call but hangs up without acknowledging the receipt of the alert notification, the call system proceeds to the next person on the tree.
2. If the first user did not acknowledge the receipt of the alert notification, the next person on the tree is called:
   1. The process is repeated until a "live" person is reached and acknowledges receipt of the alert notification.
   2. If the call system goes through the entire tree without successfully making "live" contact, the system will start over with the first person on the list.
   3. The call system will repeat the process for a total of three times, if needed.