Alerts Configuration Overview

You use Vision alerts to move information along. For example, a sales team can use alerts to track the progress of a potential client, to note when it is time to add new contacts or schedule a calendar date to place a follow-up telephone call.

Use alerts to remind you when:

• You must assign or approve project tasks
• You must submit timesheets, expense reports, and project budgets
• Your opportunities advance from one stage to the next.

For Timesheet and Expense Report alerts, you can create alerts only if approval is required for that action (such as Timesheet Approval or Expense Report Line Item Rejected).

Alerts and Workflows

Alerts and Workflows are similar in the way move information along. However, you can configure workflows to a greater degree to meet your company's business rules. For example, you can configure workflows to notify you when an event occurs, and also to perform a specified action such as updating information in a field.

Alert Options

Alerts Configuration allows you to determine such options as:

• When alerts are sent
• How the alerts are sent (email message or dashboard message)
• Under what conditions the alerts are sent (timesheet overdue, timesheet due in x days)
• The contents of the email message (subject and message body) when alerts are sent via email messages

The options available vary and depend upon the alert type.

Polling Interval

To activate activity alerts, you must set the alert polling interval to a level other than zero. Deltek recommends a value of 60.

This polling interval only applies if you have the Vision CRM application installed. For all other alerts, the polling interval is system-set and cannot be changed by the user.

Alerts and Emails

Before you specify that you want to send alerts via email messages, ascertain that the Vision URL is set up correctly. All alert email messages contain information that you can use to track down alert problems. This information includes the database name, database server, application server, and company code (if your firm uses the Multicompany feature).

If you are using Vision Navigator, ascertain that the Navigator URL is set up correctly on the Email tab in Configuration > General > System Settings. This will connect Vision to Navigator and provide links to Navigator in alert emails. This URL is also used for dashboard Planning alert links when the Resource Planning module is not licensed.

Types of Alerts

There are two types of alerts:

• Alerts triggered by a reaction to information defined on your process server. Most alerts are triggered by the process server. The process server:
  1. "Wakes up" based on a polling interval configuration setting.
  2. Evaluates specific job tables in the database.
  3. Reviews the alert configuration to determine whether action is needed.
  4. Creates the alert, if action is required.
• Alerts triggered by a change in information in your database. Database alerts:
  • Do not depend on schedules defined on the process server.
  • Are triggered dynamically, based on a change in data.
  • Activate a special code when changed data is saved.

    Vision compares changed data with the alert configuration criteria to determine whether or not it requires action, and creates an alert when it does.

Alerts and Process Servers

For each alert, Vision displays process server information, including status (such as Running, Waiting, Complete), the time the run started and ended, the time of the next run, and the frequency of the run. For most alerts, how often they run is connected to their functionality.

Vision retains alert history. After each run of an alert, the job is retained and the new job is re-inserted back into the queue. This allows you to view error messages or to confirm that the jobs run correctly. Vision clears the alerts' queue on an hourly basis and retains only the most recent 20 jobs (for successful runs) and 40 jobs (for errors).

System vs. Company Alerts

Accounting, CRM, and Planning alerts are set on a system-wide basis, and are only available if those modules are installed.

Time, Expense, and Purchasing alerts are set at the company level, and are only available if those modules are installed.

Alerts and Multiple Languages

When using multiple languages, a Languages lookup displays on the Alerts Rules grid. This lookup displays the languages that the system administrator enabled in Module Activation. Use this lookup to select the language for this alert. Only employees with the same selected language receive the message. However, if the field is blank, all employees receive the message, no matter what language is used.

For example, if an email alert is set up for English US and English UK, then only employees that have English US or English UK specified in the Language field in Employees receive that message. The administrator must set up a separate alert rule for Spanish employees if they require messages in Spanish.

The Language field displays <languages selected> if any languages are selected.

Alerts and Multicompany

If your firm uses the Multicompany feature, you must set up alerts for each company. Because an employee may be associated with more than one company, the alerts only consider the employees that are active in the company for which the alert is configured.

For example, employee John James may be associated and active in Company A and Company B, and associated but inactive with Company C. Company A will send an email alert if a timesheet is late by 2 days, and Company B and Company C will send an email alert when a timesheet is late by 4 days. Because John James is only active in Company A and Company B, he will receive an alert from Company A after 2 days and from Company B after 4 days. He is inactive in Company C, so even though an alert is configured, it will not be sent.

When an alert is configured to be sent to the employee's supervisor, the email message will be sent to the employee's home company supervisor. For more information, see the discussion of employees and Multicompany in the Concepts section.