Communication Screen

Communication Screen

The communication screen found at   Settings > Communication   is where you can setup distribution lists of individuals to receive email and/or SMS notifications when certain events happen within SOVA. There are currently 47 different distribution lists in SOVA. Having your email or phone number included on one or more of these lists can alert you of things like a Code Red (fire), or perhaps a high threat level Person of Interest (POI) is encountered at your property, or maybe a visitor is still checked in at your location beyond their badge expiration. It is common for the same individuals to be included on more than one list, depending on their need or position within your organization.

The "Comm Screen", as we call it, is shown below:


At the top is a dropdown menu where you can load the various lists that you can subscribe people to. Above you can see records, or names that are setup in the system. Below you can learn about the various lists available to you in the Communication screen and what each of the lists do. 



NOTE: In the screen image above, you will notice that the "verified" icons for email (envelope icon) or SMS (phone icon) are either green, yellow or red. Yellow indicates that SOVA has sent the recipient an email or SMS, asking then to reply to confirm their email address or mobile number. The yellow indicates that the recipient has not yet confirmed their message. You can always resend the original email or SMS by double clicking these yellow icons. Red indicates that the recipient has not been sent the confirmation email or SMS, and green indicates recipients that have confirmed their communication methods.

TIP: Setting up group email addresses on your email server like security.managers@mycompany.com makes managing personnel changes far easier, as you would only need to maintain new hires, termed employees, transfers, etc. from your email system by adjusting the names added to the group email addresses that you create. SOVA would then send email to the group email, then your email system would handle distributing the communication to all recipients included in the group email.

AED Expired Battery or Pads

If you have AED's on your property and added to SOVA, this list will notify you when your batteries or pads are expiring in the life-saving devices.

AED Monthly Inspection

Reminds you when it's time to complete your monthly required AED visual inspection

Activity Alert

Alerts you when your low threshold for activity points is broken downward for an hour of the day. For example, Setting an activity threshold of 30 activity points would send notifications if an hour elapsed during the day where there were only 29 activity points completed. Keep in mind, all activities done in SOVA have a point value - from doing tours to tasks, and these are calculated throughout the day.

Attendance Record

For clients recording all call-offs through their security department, this Comm tab is useful as it sends out notifications to department managers when a person calls in and mentions that they will be late for their shift, or won't be coming in at all due to illness, etc. There are several types of attendance records that can be added, like late arrival, call off, and no call / no show.

Critical IR

Incident reports can be set as "critical" based upon your needs. An example of an IR that is often set as critical by our clients is a Code Red - Fire. By first setting this IR type as "critical", whenever it is recorded by your security team, SOVA will automatically dispatch an email or SMS to the people on this list. You can setup IR types and whether they are critical or not by navigating to Settings > List IR Types.

Critical Task

Similar to a Critical IR, any task within SOVA can be set to critical. Examples of critical tasks might be an employee injury, a disturbance, trespassing, alarm activation, etc. You can view current tasks and whether they are critical or not by navigating to Tasks > List Tasks. Add new tasks at Tasks > New Task.

Critical Tour Button Missed

When tours are submitted by one of your officers, if a tour checkpoint marked "Critical" is missed, persons listed on this Comm tab would receive a notification. Set tour checkpoints as "Critical" by navigating to Tours > Tour List then placing your mouse over the action icon for the tour of interest and selecting "View Checkpoints". There you will see a toggle where you can set the checkpoint as "Critical".

EAR High Severity

Get notified when an Employee Accident Report (EAR) indicates that the accident has a high severity (potential for business loss and probability of recurrance)

E Notify

At the top of the Live Dispatch screen you will notice a red button with the caption "E-Notify". This is the emergency alert system built into SOVA. For clients who run dispatch, this is useful to send a blanket notifications out during a crisis or other serious emergency. Persons listed in this Comm tab would receive notifications by email, SMS and automated voice call with the message entered by the dispatch officer. When sending automated voice calls, the dispatch officer would be able to determine if a live person received the call, which calls went to voice mail, and which calls were not received. For more information, search the Knowledge Base for information on this topic.

EAR High Severity

If an employee accident report (EAR) is recorded that is calculated as high-severity based on a series of questions answered by the department manager, names subscribed to this list receive notification once the EAR is saved.

Executive Summary

A work in progress - will generate a high-level summary for consumption by the executive team

Expired Daily Task

Tasks set with daily, weekly or monthly schedules that are not completed by 2359 hours of the current day are emailed to persons listed in this Comm tab. Set task schedules at Tasks > List Tasks then click the action icon for a task that you wish to set a schedule for and choose Edit. Click the plus icon under the Schedules tab to add a schedule. Learn more about setting schedules by performing a search in the Knowledge Base.

Expired Visitor

Visitors passes should always be given an expiration date, usually around the time the visitor intends to be finished conducting business at your property. If a visitor checks in and does not check out by their expiration time, users on this Comm tab would receive a notification. Requires subscription to the Visitors module.

IR Reminder

When recording an incident and adding an "Involved Person" (IP), an officer has the option to select if the IP needs a followup. By setting a date, time, and preferred method of communication for the followup (in person, email or phone), persons on this Comm tab would receive an email 1 hour prior to the followup time with details about the incident and the persons involvement, allowing the recipient to complete the followup with information given in their email, without having to have access to or review the full incident report.

IR Status

Incident reports (IR's) go through a lifecycle from the time they are created to the time they are approved. Here are the different IR statuses:
  • Draft - An officer started the IR on their mobile device and has submitted it to the web for further processing
  • New - IR was created on the web, saved by the officer but not yet submitted for review
  • Submitted - IR is now complete from the officer's perspective and has been submitted for review by their supervisor
  • Returned- An IR that was reviewed by a supervisor has been returned to the officer requesting further edits
  • Approved - The IR is accepted by the supervisor and assigned an IR number
Persons listed in this Comm tab would receive a notification when an IR changes from one of the statuses above to another status

IOT System

A new system we are working on to manage a fleet of "Internet of Things" devices. These could be open/close door sensors, occupancy detectors, water and humidity detection, state of lighting (off/on), and more. Requires a subscription to our IOT module.

Lost Found High Value

If a high value lost and found item is inventoried, recipients in this Comm tab receive a notification. Requires a subscription to our Lost and Found module.

Lost Found Payment

For clients using SOVA to manage lost and found, after you send a ship request to your guest and they select and purchase shipping, recipients on this tab will be notified. You have the option to select the level of service for which these automatic notifications are to be sent. For example, if your hotel guest selects expedited service such as Next-Day air, you may choose to be notified immediately after shipping is paid so that you can quickly process their lost item for shipping, but for other shipments, you may decide that notifications are not necessary. Requires a subscription to our Lost and Found module.

Lost Found Payment Not Done

Triggers notifications when a ship request is sent to a guest or visitor and they have not responded after 2 days. Requires a subscription to our Lost and Found module.

Man Down/Lone Worker Protection

The "Man Down" or "Lone Worker Protection System" (LWPS) built into SOVA can add an additional measure of safety for staff working alone on the graveyard shift, or entering areas by themselves where they could run into unforeseen troubles. By utilizing the built-in sensors in today's smartphones, we are able to determine if a fall is detected in the device with a moderate level of accuracy. When a fall is detected, the user has an opportunity to cancel the detected alert, assuming the device is not damaged. If the device is operational and the countdown timer elapses, SOVA. begins sending text and email alerts to people on this distribution list. At the same time, phone calls are placed to a hierarchy of 3 different recipients to inform them of a potential emergency. Please note - this technology is still fairly new and as such, we must warn you that it is not completely reliable. We strongly encourage you to consider the LWPS as an add-on to your primary means of keeping your workers safe and secure as they travel throughout your property.

Minimum Tour Count Per Day

Setup an SOP that requires a certain count of tours of a certain type to be completed daily and get notified if these minimums are not met. For example, if you require your security team to complete a count of 6 "Perimeter Tours" daily, if your team only completes 5 of them in a given day, you receive notification.

Mobile User No Movement

If no movement is detected in a mobile device for an extended period of time, persons listed in this Comm tab get notified via email with the name of the person who is motionless, their last known location (accuracy dependent on strength of GPS signal), and their last recorded activity.

Mobile User Panic Alert

By touching the mobile device screen with two fingers simultaneously and holding for a few seconds, SOVA initiates a silent alarm that can alert authorities or persons listed in this Comm tab and attempt to locate the person on a map (accuracy dependent on strength of GPS signal), and the last known activity recorded. During panic alert activation, the mobile device also attempts to establish a phone call with pre-defined recipients so the person on the receiving end of the call can hear live what is going on at the location where the panic alert was initiated. Audio files are recorded following activation so they can be reviewed during investigations.

No Login

By setting a time range in your property settings like 2300-2315 for example, you can be alerted if a mobile officer fails to login to the mobile app during this timeframe. This is quite useful for mobile security team leaders to receive timely alerts if an overnight mobile officer fails to report to their post at the designated shift time. This notification is not meant to provide specific information about the individual who failed to report as this would require maintaining officer schedules in SOVA. Rather, it sends a general notification to a list of recipients if no logins occur within the designated time.

No SOVA Activity For 24 Hours

This tab is mostly for upper level management and our IT staff to monitor activity levels at our client locations. If no activity is recorded for a location after a full 24 hours, persons listed in this Comm tab receive a notification.

O1 to O5 (Custom)

These are used to generate notifications for specific tasks. For example, if you wish to be notified any time a 'Noise Complaint' task is recorded and do not wish to classify this task type as "Critical", setup the 'Noise Complaint' task with an O1 custom notification and add your email and/or SMS details to the O1 comm list. The "O" stands for "Other", and allows you to setup 5 different lists for custom notifications (O1 - O5).

Occ Health Manager Notify

For certain types of incidents, for example a food-borne illness or a guest injury, you may wish to have SOVA notify your Occupational Health Manager or on-site nurse when this type of incident is reported. This tab allows you to do that.

Overdue Keys

If during a key audit it is discovered that a key is overdue, your officers might create an "Overdue Key Report" under the Logs menu. Once this report is created and saved, persons on this Comm tab receive an emailed alert.

POI Close Proximity

A "Watch List" can be setup for any POI listed at Persons of Interest > List POI. This is useful in an urban setting when you want to keep tabs on POI's that are known to frequent your area. By placing a POI on your watch list and setting a watch radius for the POI, then sharing the POI through SOVA with other businesses in your area, you are instructing SOVA to notify you if any business using SOVA within the watch radius you select encounters this same POI. Here's an example. Let's say you have a John Doe that you want to keep eyes on who has repeatedly trespassed at your place of business. Let's assume you now have a formal trespass order against him, but you feel that it is just a matter of time until the person returns to your place of business to cause trouble. You add the POI to your library, add the encounter details, and share the POI with other businesses in your area. Other businesses would now be able to see information about the POI, and they too could keep eyes out for this John Doe. Next you set a watch radius to encompass a 10 mile radius around your business. If the POI is encountered at any business running SOVA within your watch radius, people on this Comm tab would receive a notification. Requires a subscription to our POI module.

POI High Threat Level

When adding a Person of Interest (POI) to the library in SOVA at Persons of Interest > Add POI, a threat level of 1-10 is assigned to the POI where 10 is high threat, 1 is low threat. Next, if an encounter with a known POI is recorded at your property and that POI is a threat level of 5 or above, persons on this Comm tab get notified. Requires a subscription to our POI module.

Package Notify - Employee

Notify employees when packages arrive. Note: this sends alerts to this list of recipients when packages are received for any employee. Requires a subscription to the package module in SOVA.

Package Notify - Guest

You can track sensitive packages that are expected to arrive at your property and intended for one of your guests, and when the package status changes from "Expected" to "Received", you can get an email about that. Requires a subscription to the package module in SOVA.

Panic MP3 Email

Used in conjunction with Mobile User Panic Alerts, these individuals receive an email with an attched MP3 of the first 30 second interaction following a panic alert activation in a mobile device.

SMS Group Notify

In the Live Dispatch screen you will see a button entitled "EE SMS" above the map. There, you can send SMS blasts out to anyone listed in this Comm tab. This mass notification tool is beneficial to quickly get your message out as many people as possible during an emergency or other crisis. Many of our clients enroll every employee at their business into this system. In this way, you can effectively send out hundreds of text messages to your staff notifying them of severe weather emergencies in your area, protest activities, active shooter, etc. Users are able to self-enroll by clicking a link in an email that you send them making it simple to enroll many people. You can generate the text and link which you would then paste into an email by clicking the "Get Link" button at the top of the Self Enroll tab.

Send DAR

Daily activity reports (DAR's) are automatically built from activities recorded during the day. In the DAR screen at Reports > Daily Activity, you will find a button in the header entitled "Send Daily Activity Report". Clicking that would load a popup with names from this Comm tab allowing you to select or de-select recipients.

Send EAR

Similar to the Send DAR and Send IR feature, this allows you to set a list of recipients to receive Employee Accident Reports (EAR). Recipients are usually your Human Resources department. Requires a subscription to our EAR module.

Send IR

This Comm tab includes a list of individuals that are setup to receive Incident Reports from SOVA. Incident reports are manually sent out by a property admin. During this process, the admin can select or deselect from this list of recipients. Usually,clients would include the names of their upper management personnel as well as their insurance adjusters on this list.

Send SR

Shift reports (SR) are effectively a 1-2 page summary of activities that have occurred during a shift. You can include attendance call offs, incident reports written, tours and tasks completed, and much more. This gives upper management an easy to read summary, as opposed to sending them full daily activity reports or tour reports, leaving them to try to find the proverbial needle in the haystack on what important transpired during a shift. Shift reports can be created by navigating to Logs then selecting "Shift Report" from the dropdown. After you have created a shift report, it can be sent from that screen to the list of users added in this Comm tab.

Submit Tour

Sends an email to recipients each time a tour is submitted by a mobile officer.

Team Notify

This is a special type of task that your officers record to inform your engineering, facilities or maintenance team of a building defect. For example, let's assume your security officer is doing rounds and encounters a light out in a stairwell. By instructing your officers to record this as a "Team Notify" type task, you can have your maintenance team notified automatically by SOVA when this activity is recorded, with details about the defect included in the email so you can then enter it into your building maintenance system for correction.

Trigger Word

Add a list of trigger words or phrases that you want to be notified of. For example, maybe you compile a list with the words or phrases like bomb, drugs, knife, blood, arrest, etc. If any of these words or phrases appear in any newly added incident report or POI listing, recipients receive a notice.

Undelivered Package

If an package is received and you want to be notified if it remains in storage for a period of time without delivery, add your contact details to this list and receive notification by email if the package is undelivered after x days or hours. You are able to set the time frame when receiving the package. Requires a subscription to the package module in SOVA.

Visitor Notify

You can set certain visitor types to trigger an email to a list of recipients by adding their names and email addresses to this tab. When the visitor arrives on property and is scanned in, SOVA automatically sends emails to this list to notify them of the visitors arrival. Requires a subscription to our visitor module. 

Visitor Overstay

If a visitor is still checked in after their pass has expired or beyond 12 hours, get notified. Requires a subscription to our visitor module.

 


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