Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC)

AlarmPoint v. 4 Quick Reference

Contents

All ALARMPOINT USERS

Logging into AlarmPoint

Navigation

My Details

Phone Login

Set Up Devices

Phone Devices

Text (Phone/Pager) Devices

Email Devices

Time Frame for Device

Testing/Validating Devices

Changing the Order of the Devices

Responding to an Alarmpoint Notification

To Accept or Reject a Notification

Setting a Vacation Replacement

GROUP SUPERVISORS ONLY

Groups and Teams in AlarmPoint

Viewing your Group Schedule

Creating a Workgroup On Call Schedule (no rotation)

Creating a Workgroup On Call Schedule (with rotation)

Creating a One-Time coverage

Method One

Method Two

All ALARMPOINT USERS

Logging into AlarmPoint

Navigate to the following URL and enter VUNetID and epassword.

Navigation

After successfully logging in please use the hyperlinkson the left as well as the tabs on the top right of the screen to access the pages needed.

You can also use the “Breadcrumbs” located towards the top of the page to navigate.

My Details

To view profile info, under the Profile tab,click the “My Details” link on the left. The following fields are displayed;

  • User ID (your VUNet ID)
  • First and last names.
  • Site
  • Language
  • Time zone

Phone Login

The phone login is a unique identifier used by AlarmPoint to identify the specific user calling into the system. To edit your phone login or password, from the “Profile tab,” click the “Change Phone Login” link under the “Common Tasks” menu on the right side of the page. Once you click the link, your screen should look similar to the one below. Change the password and then click “Save” button.

Set Up Devices

  1. Select the “Profile” tab on the top right and click the “My Devices” link on the left.

  1. Click the “Add New” link under “My Devices.”
  1. Select the type of device. Choices include the following; Email Device, Text Pager Device, and Voice (Phone) device.

Phone Devices

Phone Devices, Area Code and Phone number are required (do not include hyphens in Phone Number.)

Text (Phone/Pager) Devices

For Text (Phone/Pager)Devices, the pin number is required. This pin number is usually the 10 digit pager number with no hyphens. Choices for Provider include Arch/USA Mobility or Satellink. Leave “Active”and “Default Device” checkboxes marked. Click “Save” button.

Email Devices

For Email Devices, the Email Address is required. Select “VU” as the provider and click “Save” Button.

Time Frame for Device

Time Frame for Device – Every device has a timeframe defining its effective time, days, and holiday dates. Once the Device is entered, the timeframe defaults to 24 x 7.

  1. To change the timeframe of a device, click on the “My Devices” link on the right. Next, click on the timeframe of the device you wish to change. Then choose the “Add Timeframe” button at the top of the screen for that device.
  1. Change the timeframe for your device, indicating the time and days this device is to be used by Alarmpoint. Click “Save”button.
  1. After submission, the timeframe for the device shows on the button of the screen for that device.

Testing/Validating Devices

Text Pager/Email Devices
  1. Under the “Profile Tab”, click the “Validate Devices” link on the left. It will list all untested, validation pending, and already validated devices.
  1. Choose the device to test by placing a check in the checkbox to left of device and click ”Test Selected Device” button. The device should receive a test message containing a validation number.
  1. On the device page, the tested device will now be listed in the “Pending Validation” section. Fill in the field with the validation number contained in the test message.
Phone Devices
  1. Under the “Profile Tab”, click the “Validate Devices” link on the left. It will list all untested, validation pending, and already validated devices.
  1. Choose the device to test by placing a check in the checkbox to left of device and click ”Test Selected Device” button.
  1. The phone device should receive a phone call from AlarmPoint. When call is received, speak into the phone (AlarmPoint uses this feature to confirm that someone actually answered the phone.) It will then prompt you to enter your phone password (p. 5.) followed by the “#” sign. After password is entered, press 1 to validate or 9 to repeat message.

Changing the Order of the Devices

  1. Under the profile tab, after clicking the “My Devices” link, click the “Reorder” link to prioritize the devices.

Responding to an Alarmpoint Notification

  • Alarmpoint uses the following Pegasusfields to send alerts:
  • Assignment Group
  • Priority -Workgroups can choose to receive notifications for only Top and High priority Incidents or can choose to receive notifications for ALLpriorities. This is configured within the Pegasus application. To limit alerts to these incidents, submit an incident via the Helpdesk to the ITSS Group.
  • Building
  • When given a notification, you can accept or reject the notification. There is information in the notification regarding the Incident for your reference. All the actions of AlarmPoint and Pegasusare listed in the history tab of the associated incident.
  • This “answer” from you interacts with Pegasus in the following ways:
  • If the notification is accepted, Pegasus will change the Incident’s assigned Person field for the Workgroup to the person who accepted. See below for the different ways to respond to notification.
  • If rejected notification, Pegasus will reassignthe Incident to the Helpdesk. Helpdesk personnel will not receive notice that it has been reassigned to them but will be monitoring the calls within their queue. If a Workgroup specialist rejects a call it is helpful for the expedited resolution of the call to contact the Helpdesk orupdate the incident and advise who would be a better choice for the assignment Workgroup for this call.
  • If Alarmpoint receives no response from a notification, it will contact the next device for that person. If the Schedule includes another person with a delay of notification, when the time has expired and still no response from the first person the next person in the schedule will be contacted. Alarmpoint will continue to initiate contact with devices until a response is received.

To Accept or Reject a Notification

  1. When receiving a notification via a pager, you can call in to AlarmPoint at extension 2-8574 (322-8574 off campus).
  1. When calling, you will be prompted to enter your Phone ID (also known as your User ID / Employee ID). Enter your Employee ID and press the # key.
  1. You will then be prompted to enter your password followed by the # key. Note that this is your Phone password (usually defaulted to the number 1 but can be changed by you if needed).
  1. After logging in with your Employee ID and Phone password, AlarmPoint will inform you of any Incidents that need to be accepted.
  1. When receiving a notification by phone and answering the call, enter your phone password andpress the # key. Listen to the details of theIncident and then press 1 to Accept the Incident, 2 to Reject or 9 to repeat the message. Rejecting the call may result in the Help Desk calling you to help determine where the Incident should be routed.
  1. When receiving a notification by an email or IM, reply to the e-mail, with the word "RESPONSE" followed by your choice in the subject line. Your response choices are: ACCEPT, REJECT.

You can also stop AlarmPoint notification by logging into Pegasus, looking up the incident related to the notification, placing your name in the Assignee field and changing the status to Accepted. The person has effectively taken responsibility to notify the appropriate person for the Workgroup. The Incident History will document the action with “Assignment status from New to Accept.” This satisfies the Alarmpoint notification criteria and stops further notification by Alarmpoint.

Setting a Vacation Replacement

  1. All users can set their own Vacation Replacements. First click the Temporary Replacement link on the left and click the Add New link.
  1. Next, either choose a recently used replacement by using the “Recently Used”drop-down list or search for a new replacement by clicking the blue “Lookup Replacement” link.
  1. Then, select the groups you want to associate with this replacement.
  1. Finally, select the start/end times and dates when the replacement will be active and slick the Save button.


  1. To view current temporary replacements, look up the user, and click the Temporary Replacements link under Common Tasks.
  1. Clearing the Vacation Replacement - After clicking the Temporary Replacement link, simply place a checkmark in the checkbox next to the replacement you wish to remove and click the “Remove Selected” button.

GROUP SUPERVISORS ONLY

Groups and Teams in AlarmPoint

Groups are composed of teams. Teams are associated with individuals and schedules. An individual has to be on a team within a group to be associated with that group. In other words, teams are used by AlarmPoint to associate an individual with a group and a schedule. By default, every workgroup should have a team named “Roster.” This team’s purpose is to tie all of the individuals to that group and should not be used in a schedule but can be copied when creating additional teams. We’ll go into this in more detail later in this document. Let’s look at an example.

  1. First, under the Groups tab, look up a group. In this example, the group will be TEST – CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT.
  1. Next, click on the Teams in Group link under the Common Tasks list on the right. Notice the Roster team under Team in This Group.
  1. Next, click on Roster. Under Team Members, you can see three individuals.
  1. By being on this Roster team, within the “Test – Configuration Management” Group, these individuals are associated with this group. This group will now be displayed on the individuals Home/profile page.

Viewing your Group Schedule

-Under the profile tab, click on your group (listed under the “Groups I Belong To” section.

-Use the <Prev or Next> hyperlinks to view another week.

-Use the mouse pointer hovering over the schedule bars in the calendar to view the team members and the order of contact on call for that time period for that group.

- Use the View Monthly Schedule> hyperlink to view the entire month.

-By clicking on the blue Week row headings, the entire week will be displayed. By choosing a day and clicking the dot, another browser window opens to show the schedule for that day.

Creating a Workgroup On Call Schedule (no rotation)

-For this example, we’ll create an on-call schedule that includes coverage for Monday thru Friday, 8AM to 5PM.

  1. First, click on the group listed on the profile page or search and select group from Group tab using find function.
  1. Next, click the “Add Recurring” link under Common Tasks. Note: Under Group Details, if there are currently no schedules in the group, click on the Schedule Details link under the wizard to create first schedule.
  1. Next, create a meaningful name for the schedule.
  • For this example, we’ll call the schedule “Weekday On-call.” We’ll then fill out the rest of the info including the daily start time (8AM), the daily duration (in this example, 9 hours or until 5 o’clock), we’ll select Monday thru Friday. We will then enter the start date of this schedule and its rotation (how often the schedule repeats itself.) Finally, we’ll select “No end Date” and click the continue button.
  1. Next, select a team.
  • The only team currently associated with this group is the roster. Since we do not want to use the roster in the schedule, create a new team by copying the roster. To do this, select “Copy Existing Team” under “Method.” Next, select the roster team using drop-down labeled “Copy From Team.” Then, create a name for the new team. Place check in the “Reuse” checkbox if you think you might want to copy this team when creating another in the future, and click the continue button. The Team type should default to “basic.”
  1. You will then be presented with the details of the team you created/copied. You now have the opportunity to add, delete. * set delay times, and **reorder users in the team.
  • Delay times – The amount of time each member of the team has to respond to an alert before the next person on the team is notified. In this example, Colin will be paged immediately. If he does not respond within 15 minutes, Standard User will be notified. If Standard User doesn’t respond within 30 minutes, Group Supervisor will be notified.
  • Team Order – The order of users in a team determines the order in which they will be notified. You can change the order by clicking on the red “Reorder” link above the team members list.
  1. After this information is entered, click the Save Team button and the Finish button.
  1. The schedule has been created and should now be visible from the Group Details screen. If you hover over the blue bars in the schedule, the team and delay times will be displayed (Refer screen-print below.)

Creating a Workgroup On Call Schedule (with rotation)

  1. First, complete steps 1 thru 3 above.
  1. Next, select a team. Create a new team by copying the roster. To do this, select “Copy Existing Team” under “Method.”
  1. Next, select the roster team using drop-down labeled “Copy From Team.” Then, create a name for the new team. Place check in the “Reuse” checkbox to copy this team when creating another in the future, and click the continue button.
  1. Select “rotation” in the Team type drop-down.
  1. Next, select the period of time between rotations and enter in “Rotation Interval” field. For this example, the order of users in the team will rotate every week.
  1. Enter “Start Date” and “Start Time” if different from default and click the “Continue” button.
  1. Next, place the roster in the correct order using the “Reorder” link if necessary. In other words, based on the start date for the rotation, place members of the team in the correct order in terms of who needs to be notified first, second, etc….
  • Note: The order of delay times does not change when the team rotates. In other words, the second person on the list will always have a 15 minute delay regardless of who the specific user is. The names rotate, not the delay times.
  1. Click “Save Team” and then “Finish.” To verify the rotation, from the “Group Details” screen, look at the schedule for the next few weeks. Notice how, for the week of 10/18, Colin will be the first to be notified followed by Standard User with a 15 delay.
  1. If we scroll ahead to the week of 10/25, Group Supervisor will be the first to be notified followed by Colin with a 15 minute delay.


Creating a One-Time coverage

-There are two different ways of creating a one-time coverage.

Method One

  1. From the Group Details screen, click the Add One-Time link.
  1. Enter Name of coverage, start date, start time, and duration.
  1. Copy an existing team or create a new team for the one time coverage
  1. Review members of team. Remove or add if necessary. Click “Save Team” and then click “Finish.” Notice on the Group Details screen how the one-time coverage is presented as a green block on the schedule. Notice however, that the recurring coverage is still displayed and active. To replace the recurring coverage with the one-time, use the second method of entering a one-time coverage outlined in the following section.

Method Two

  1. From the Group Details screen, click on the blue block that corresponds to the time period you wish to replace with a one-time coverage.
  1. Notice how the Name, Start Date, Start Time, and Duration is auto-populated with info from the schedule.
  1. Review members of team. Remove or add if necessary. Click “Save Team” and then click “Finish.” Notice on the Group Details screen how the one-time coverage is presented as a green block on the schedule. By using this method, the recurring coverage for that specific time period is replaced by the one-time coverage.