Create an emergency notification and monitor its workflow

Use the Emergency notification tab in the event workspace to create a notification for a crisis event or an exercise event where the exercise method is Functional.

Before you begin

Role required: sn_bcm.planner, sn_bcm.program_manager, or sn_bcm.admin

About this task

Send an event notification from the workspace that triggers a complete workflow of activities from the Draft to Complete state in Everbridge, where all the activities can be monitored from the workspace.

When you send an emergency notification from the workspace, the action creates an incident and a notification for the incident in Everbridge to be sent to the right contacts and groups.

Procedure

1. Navigate to Business Continuity > Business Continuity Workspace.
2. Click the lists icon ().
3. Click Pending state in the Crisis Events list.
   Note:

   If the Exercise Method is Functional, then you can create an emergency notification for an exercise event.
4. Click the link to the event record in the Number column.
5. Click the Emergency Notifications related list.
6. Click New.
   New Notification form opens in a separate tab.
7. On the form, fill in the fields.

   Table 1. Create New Notification form

   Field	Description
   Short description	Title of the emergency notification
   Template	Pre-configured template that has the subject of the mail and the delivery channels for the contacts.
   Notification state	State of notification in the ServiceNow workspace.
   Communication status	State of notification in Everbridge.
   Description	Description of the notification.
   Contacts and Groups
   Contacts	Persons to whom the notification is sent. Contacts that are successfully synced with Everbridge are listed.
   Notification contact groups	Groups of contact to whom the notification is sent. Successfully synced contact groups are listed.
   Settings
   Acknowledgement required	Option if an acknowledgement is required from the contact for the notification received.
   Delivery channels	Communication channels used for sending the notification.
   Message Details
   Subject	Title of the notification.
   Message body	Introductory text message for the notification. If a template is selected, then the message details are auto-populated from the template.
   Foot note	Closing message for the notification.
   SMS text	Message sent through SMS.

   The notification that you create is in Draft stage.

8. To save the notification and send it later, click Save.
9. To delete the notification that is in Draft stage, click Delete.
10. Click Send.

    The send action creates a notification in Everbridge.

    When you create and send a notification for a crisis event in the workspace, a corresponding incident is created along with a notification in Everbridge.

11. To know if there are any errors in sending the notification, refresh the page.
    If there is an error in sending, the Notification state moves to Error.
12. To get the state from Everbridge for the notification sent to the contacts in the Communication status field, click the Get response status button.
    The Summary section displays the list of contacts and groups to whom the notification was sent and their responses. It also displays the number of contacts who could not be reached, the number of contacts who acknowledged the notification, and the number of pending acknowledgements. This information is retrieved from Everbridge and displayed on your workspace.

    Figure 1. Summary of the notification sent to contacts

    

    Sent to

    Number of contacts to whom the notification was sent.

    Unreachable

    Number of contacts to whom notification was not sent.

    Acknowledged

    Number of contacts who acknowledged the receipt of notification.

    Pending acknowledgement

    Number of contacts who did not acknowledge the receipt of notification.

    Late acknowledgement

    Number of contacts who confirmed the receipt of notification after the notification duration had elapsed.

    If there are many contacts to whom the notification could not be delivered, then create another notification for the same crisis event. This time, you can send to a team of managers, as the previous notification did not reach many contacts.

    You can close an event in the workspace when a notification is in progress. If the status of the event moves to Closed Complete or Closed Incomplete in the workspace, then the incident is Closed in Everbridge also. However, you have to manually close the notification that is In Progress state.

    Before you submit an event for approval, all the notifications that are In Progress must be closed.

    1. To delete a notification that is in Draft or Error state, click the link to the emergency notification record in the Number column.
       Note:

       You cannot delete a notification that is in Attempting to send, In Progress or Completed state.
    2. Click Delete in the more actions icon ().
       Note:

       Now that the event is closed and the corresponding incident in Everbridge is also closed, you cannot create any more notifications for this event.