NC4: E Team - R9.8 Using E Team - Introduction to E Team

The E Team application was designed to enable your organization to manager real-life events as well as run practice and training exercises without interfering with you day-to-day normal system operation. The Training and Operations systems are completely independent of each other and require separate login. Documents created in one system WILL NOT be available from within the other. The choice between the Training and Operations system is made by selecting the appropriate button from the E Team Welcome Screen prior to login.

E Team contains many configurable components, allowing your system to be set up to best meet the needs of your organization. Your E Team System Administrator generally completes configuration during the installation and setup process, however, these settings can be changed at any time. Some of these configurable components include:

• Access Levels – E Team users are each assigned a level of access. This access relates directly to the ability to perform certain functions within the E Team application. For example, you may be able to read reports of a certain type, but you may not have the authorization to update them. Throughout this section of the E Team knowledge base you may see references to navigation items, buttons or fields within forms that you do not see on your screen which means that you have not been given access rights to this data.
• Menus and Views – E Team is delivered with a standard Full Menu that contains all report types and views. In addition, E Team’s Position-Based Menus gives E Team System Administrators the ability to create any number of customized menus that can be assigned to any position within any organization created within your application. Both the Full Menu and the Position-Based menus can be configured to hide reports and views not generally used by your organization or by the position. Which menu you see will be based on the organization/position selections made on your Personal Profile.
• Personal Profile and Checklists – Whether or not your Personal Profile document and Position Checklists pop-up at login are dependent on settings made by your E Team System Administrator. If you do not see these documents at login, you can access them from the Toolbar after login.
• Targeted Alerts – E Team uses Targeted Alerts to let users know when they have been assigned responsibility for a report or when another user wants to notify them that a report contains information they should be aware of, or requires their attention. The Alert indicator is located on the right of the Toolbar at the top of the E Team main window. Targeted Alerts are viewed in the Targeted Alert frame.
  When the Default Event References option is enabled on your system, the Targeted Alerts frame is replaced with a Default Event Reference frame that contains a listing of Planned Activities and Links related to the default event. Your targeted alerts will continue to be generated, however you will not have access to them until Default Event References is disabled.
• Alert Bulletins – E Team provides for the automatic distribution of Alert Bulletins. During the normal course of operation, bulletin windows may pop-up on your screen. These windows will not interfere with normal system operation. You can read and then close the bulletins at any time. Bulletins can always be accessed again using the Alert views.
• Data Sharing – E Team enables you to share documents with users on other E Team systems. It is the responsibility of your E Team System Administrator to configure your system to enable E Team-to-E Team Data Sharing.
• Data Replication Service (DRS) – E Team DRS allows report data to be replicated between primary and backup instances of E Team. DRS is transparent to the database types, meaning the data can be replicated among the same or different database types that are supported by the E Team application.
• Keyword Lists and Status Definitions – Some E Team report fields require that you select data from a predefined list of options or color-coded statuses (e.g., Incident Type or Status). The options available in these lists are defined by your E Team System Administrator.
• E Team Analysis and Reporting Engine (ARE) – ARE is an optional feature. If this feature is enabled on your system and you have been given the proper access, you will see the "ARE" link on the Toolbar at the top of the E Team main window. ARE provides high-level snapshots of the key indicators necessary to manage an incident through a variety of interactive report views of the detailed E Team data captured during an event. This decision support tool provides output summary reports that can give insight into areas that need attention, helping managers make informed decisions on a daily basis and in times of crisis.
• Global Incident Monitor (EIM) – EIM is an optional feature. If this feature is enabled on your system you will see the "EIM" link on the Toolbar at the top of the E Team main window. Selecting EIM launches a special version of NC4’s Situational Awareness Incident Monitoring Map, which displays icons for all active global incidents being tracked by the NC4 International Monitoring Centers.
• Form Builder – Form Builder is an optional feature. If this feature is enabled on your system and you have been given the proper access you will be able to launch a browser-based forms designer for creating and publishing forms to your E Team application as well as for customizing controls on a form and adding them as additional tabs to existing E Team forms. Once these forms and tabs are published to E Team, they will be available for your E Team users who have been given custom forms access or in the case of tabs, applicable E Team form level access.
• Common Report Features/Functions - Team reports contain many common report elements. Once you are familiar with each, you will be able to move throughout E Team with ease. Common report elements include:
  • Required Fields
  • Date/Time Fields
  • Picklists [dropdowns]
  • Selection windows
  • Attachment Fields
  • Access Control Fields
  • Geo Location and Mapping Fields
  • Notification Fields
  • Responsibility/Assignment Fields
  • Report Relationships
• Document Library – The Document Library provides the means by which to add documents to your E Team system that can be shared among all users. Users with the proper rights can add documents to the library, which in turn can be viewed by others and/or attached to any number of documents created within E Team using the standard Attachment section of reports. 
• Data Dictionary & Administration - Data Dictionary and Administration items are available only to administrative E Team users and are modifiable based on one’s level of access. The Data Dictionary is used to store the information contained in all of the picklists used to populate fields on the forms throughout the application. Most of the picklists available on the forms contain values that can be customized to meet the needs of your organization. In addition to configurable picklists, the Data Dictionary also includes user definable color codes, access control groups, and information on setting up Position-Based menus. Administration is used to set up Users, Groups and Roles, as well as to configure various aspects of the system.
• Custom Forms - E Team's Form Builder includes a browser-based forms designer for creating and publishing forms to your E Team application as well as for customizing controls on a form and adding them as additional tabs to existing E Team forms. E Team users with the proper access will have the ability to select the Form Builder option listed under Administration on their E Team menu. Selecting this option launches a new window containing the E Team Form Builder Manager. Users can work in both Form Builder and E Team in a single session without having to close either window.