What are Lens Notifications?
Lens notifications are a key communication feature in Virtual Facility. Users can customize the frequency and recipients of lens notifications.
See Configurations and Example of Use Cases for Notifications below.
Configurations
Create a Notification
Create a notification for a specific lens by surfacing the Edit Lens pop-up and clicking “Add Notification”.
Overnight Notifications
If the notification needs to run overnight/after hours - select Limit to Schedule > select the days > enter a start time, for example, 7:00 PM, and enter an end time of 11:59 PM, then select the green + icon and add another start time of 12:00 AM and set an end time, for example 6:00 AM.
Delayed Notifications
At the end of the set minutes, if the alarm is still in the lens, a notification will be sent to the recipients.
Return to Normal Notifications
Return to Normal notifications will be sent for all alarms in the lens if the "Send Return to Normal (RTN) Notification" checkbox is checked.
Email, Push, or Text Notifications
To receive an email notification or to add other users to receive an email notification check the "Notify via Email Notification". Users with permission are also able to add additional email recipients.
Similarly, check the boxes next to Push and/or Text to receive notifications via your mobile device. Users with permission are also able to add additional mobile notification recipients.
Note - you must select at least one (1) mechanism of notification before saving the notification.
Documentation
Any information added to the "Additional Message" field will be added to the new alarm notification email. This information is not included in the return to normal notifications. Additionally, this field is not included in push and text notifications.
Edit or Delete Notification
Edit a notification by clicking on the specific notification you would like to edit, which will bring up the “Edit Notification” pop-up. You will be able to rename, modify, or delete the notification.
Forward Notifications
Navigate to your user profile to turn on notification forwarding. You will be able to define a recipient from the Virtual Facility user group and a due date until when your notifications will be forwarded.
Unsubscribe from Notifications
To unsubscribe from a lens notification, locate the email notification and click on the “Unsubscribe from these notifications” button at the bottom of the email. This will surface a pre-composed email request to be unsubscribed from the lens, which you can send to the notification creator.
Managing Notifications
Example Use Cases for Notifications
Escalation
For organizations governed by internal or external regulations on issue reporting, lens notifications provide a structured way to escalate awareness. By utilizing the "Delay" notification setting, alerts can be sent at regular intervals as long as the alarm remains active or the asset stays in a failure state.
Targeted Awareness of Alarms or Asset States
Lens notifications enable precise awareness of specific issues. For instance, you can notify a technician only when a specific air handling unit (AHU) fails. Additionally, notifications can be configured to trigger only when no one is actively monitoring incoming alarms, ensuring important issues are not overlooked.
Space Stakeholder Notifications
Researchers can be quickly alerted via lens notifications when issues arise in their labs, allowing them to respond promptly and safeguard their work.
After hours Notifications
Your organization may not have a person monitoring alarms 24/7. Virtual Facility can send out notifications overnight/after hours to on-call technicians if there is critical alarm that needs to be investigated. Check out Overnight Notifications above for details on how to configure.