In order to make it easier to manage notifications, let us tell you more about what notifications for employees and notifications within organizations can be. We also convey which methods are the most convenient.
The most important working tool in any organization is an employee notification system. Notifications come in many forms.
You can receive notifications anywhere it’s convenient for you: by phone, mass communication, light indication, sound alarms, various horns, loudspeakers, etc. Notification of employees about the collection or the need for emergency evacuation is carried out by special technical means of different types, with full or partial automation. All this is part of the security system (civil defense, emergencies).
But there are also legal notifications. They are used for other tasks. For example, when it is necessary to dismiss an employee or to ensure that important information is communicated to them: about the need to leave vacation on the basis of an official call, about redundancy, about the need to pick up a work record book, to sign documents or personnel file, to give explanations for absence from the workplace, about changes in the employment contract, and so on.
Production Escalation and Notification Systems
The most interesting category of business solutions is complex software integrated with a set of special monitoring tools that can interact with the production line or other equipment, for example, with servers in a data center if you have a hosting company or other IT organization, with machine tools and robotic mechanisms, with quality control systems and other devices.
A set of signals from monitoring tools is collected in a special database. Different combinations of indicators are configured with their own types of notifications.
For example, if a sensor on a quality control line does not respond, a notification is sent to the maintenance team or similar staff units.
If the responsible staff members do not correct the signal within the specified time or do not respond to the system’s requests (notifications), the event is escalated and the data is sent to higher-level staff members, e.g. the head of the control shop.
Similar systems can be used in IT companies, as well as in various service enterprises. But here it is possible to do without hardware monitoring means. In most cases, software means of control are sufficient.
A simple example — a customer who has placed an order finds out that the goods have stopped moving along the route, the delivery service has lost or forgotten about their shipment. The customer files a complaint on the store’s website in a special form. The request automatically enters the accounting system and is put under control. Automatic notifications are sent to employees responsible for working with complaints and claims.
If the employee does not respond to the notifications, and the status of the event does not change within a specified period of time, escalation occurs, and notifications are sent to the heads of higher services.
The system will increase the escalation until the event is closed (changes the status to an acceptable level).
What Functions Notification and Escalation Systems Provide
- Promptly notify those responsible for events in the most convenient and efficient ways.
- Preventing accidents or minimizing response time to a breakdown or error that has already occurred.
- Automate monitoring of the current state of operating systems.
- Additional functions if possible (e.g. escalation systems can be configured to automatically order consumables).
What Are the Requirements for Notification and Escalation Systems
- Use of different communication channels (phone calls, alarms on production lines, SMS and email notifications, messengers, and others).
- Possibility to integrate the system with third-party services. For example, when requests to the relevant service organizations are automatically generated.
- The proper level of informative messages..
- Fine-tuning and classification of service alerts.
- Customization of the algorithm of actions in case of occurrence of specified signals or their combinations (escalation control rules).
- Automatic tracking of event status.
- System of internal monitoring and control signals (to increase the degree of reliability of collected data).
- Preparation of duty schedules for operators and their supervisors (to send notifications to the right employees, not to everyone).
- Maintaining reports and analytics, logging and journaling (so that the history of events can be retrieved if necessary).
Not all systems can offer the full range of functionality outlined above. Individual software products may only focus on certain aspects.
Working With Notifications and Alerts in Small Businesses
Smaller businesses, without production lines and without detailed documented protocols for staff interaction (with a low level of bureaucracy), use more common software products.
These employee notification programs often include:
- Mail programs and clients (information is exchanged via email).
- Messengers (their best feature is their mobility and maximum proximity to a person at any time of day or night).
- CRM-systems (software packages for managing relationships with customers).
- Client programs for Internet telephony (VoIP-clients).
- Internet portals (notifications will be displayed in your personal account or sent by selected communication channels).
- Project management systems (Projecto is one of such products, and different communication channels can be used here as well).
- Other automation tools can also be used within the company.
Working With Corporate Communication
The most informative communication is always done by voice. You can understand the companion’s emotions, promptly get answers to all questions, and more. But there are also disadvantages: some employees, especially technical specialists, may have problems with live communication, after a phone call there is no history of correspondence that can be returned to later, etc.
Normally, corporate communication is a whole hardware and software complex of internal phones, a common multichannel number, a call center, etc. But in small business all these elements are realized much easier — on the basis of Internet technologies. Telephony is provided as a service. There are two main approaches here:
- Corporate communication based on the infrastructure of a cellular operator. A team of employees and managers receives ordinary SIM-cards and inserts them into their personal phones or phones provided by the company. All other logic of interaction between employees is configured in a special interface of the virtual PBX.
- Virtual PBX based on the existing structure and devices — with the help of special Internet telephony services. The services forward phone calls within their infrastructure, so any available communication equipment capable of receiving VoIP traffic, including PC-based workstations, can be connected to them.
In the first case (cellular operators) you can expect the whole complex of communication services: a package of mobile Internet, a package of SMS-messages, prepaid limits of minutes for phone calls in different directions.
Second, on the basis of IP-telephony, you can save significantly, as there is no need to buy a set of additional equipment or pay for unnecessary ways of communication (SMS and cell phones), all incoming calls will be redirected to the Internet.
Working With Corporate Mail
Mail on your own domain is not just a service with branding of sent emails. It is also
- a proper protection of your client base (some managers will not be able to leave the company, taking with him the gained clientele);
- saving the history of correspondence
- the collection of incoming messages from the entire domain (if the recipient’s address is typed/entered incorrectly or the account has already been deleted);
- the ability to conduct mass mailings (personal mail accounts for such actions are quickly blocked, and sends immediately fall into the category of spam), etc.
Well, the best argument for employers and business owners is a beautiful address of the sender, which is easily associated with your site.Many corporate email services provide access to a host of other tools and services: cloud storage, office application packages, online calendars, online event tools (video meetings, seminars, conferences), and more.
Informing By SMS
The most reliable way to notify employees and customers is via SMS messages. They are guaranteed to be delivered to the addressee (that’s why the Ministry of Emergency Situations uses them to send notifications to the population). The main requirement is to have a mobile phone (even without Internet support).
The main problem is the high cost and complexity of integration with operator networks. For example, if you need to send one or two messages from your personal phone, it is not a problem. But if the process needs to be automated or the mailing will be mass (which equates to potential spam), then API and a number of certain restrictions from operators come into play.
The easiest way to organize mailings is through special aggregator services. They provide access to all operators at once, provide special web-interfaces for launching mass mailings and/or ready integration modules (well-documented API for their scripts).
Notifications and Mailings Via Messengers
The easiest, cheapest and most convenient way to communicate with employees. The history of The easiest, cheapest and most convenient way to communicate with employees. The history of correspondence is always at hand, almost everywhere you can make audio and video calls, send files, etc. But, as everywhere, there are nuances:
- First, special equipment with a constant internet connection is required.
- Second, there are so many messengers. Your business customers prefer some, your employees prefer others, etc. Each of them has their own apps, technical features and other nuances.
- Thirdly, there is always a possibility of losing important data. You cannot fully control the actions of your employees and access their correspondence with clients.
To solve some of these problems, special solutions are provided: corporate versions of messengers (just for centralized control of correspondence and timely forwarding of unanswered ones), as well as aggregators (for combining several communication channels into one).
Working With Notifications in Projecto
Since Projecto can handle all your planning and management of tasks and projects in the enterprise, it is very important that the software can quickly notify you of an upcoming event, remind you or communicate the necessary information to your employees.
Therefore, we have provided the following features:
- Pop-up notifications (ads and banners in the corner of the screen) that tell you about important events.
- News feed (the «News» tab collects all important information about changes in tasks, projects, and other entities in which you are involved.).
- Announcements. They can be used to inform all employees at once or employees of a specific department. You can attach surveys, files, images, etc. to announcements.
- Notifications that require a response from the user. They have the highest priority and are placed in the first section of the inbox. You will receive alerts for tasks, events, and other scheduled activities. They cannot be cancelled.
- Sending notifications outside your Projecto account.T he system is able to send out email messages and push notifications (to be shown in original apps for iOS, macOS, watchOS or Android platforms).
In Projecto settings, you can specify detailed settings for showing notifications and sending email or push messages for different types of events within tasks, projects, documents, and other entities.
