Topic

Do you have the option to publish your Everbridge communications as an “Everbridge Desktop Alert” but don’t know what it is, or how to use it? This article will help you get familiar with using the feature.

Description

The Everbridge Desktop Alerts publishing option is a SnapComms integration with Everbridge Suite used primarily to communicate emergencies (weather-related, building evacuation, active shooter, and so on). For more general information on SnapComms, visit https://www.snapcomms.com/.

Check out this short YouTube video for a quick introduction to the feature and how it works.

Training Resources

With your Everbridge solution, you have access to all the training resources offered by Everbridge University (EBU). Once you’ve logged in to EBU, you can find the following training resources to help you get to know Everbridge Desktop Alerts:

1. Everbridge Desktop Alerts – 20 minutes
   • Using Desktop Alerts to broaden the reach of your notifications is an effective way to ensure that recipients see urgent messages quickly. In this course, you will learn how to:
     • Successfully enable Desktop Alerts.
     • Maintain the Desktop Alerting application for Windows and Mac devices.
     • Perform and integrate Desktop Alert functions into your messaging workflows.
2. If you have a license for the standalone SnapComms tool, there are additional courses available on EBU to help you use SnapComms to its fullest. Once logged in to EBU, use the following link to search for all available SnapComms courses:
   • https://university.everbridge.com/#/search?term=snapcomms

Prerequisites and Considerations

While the training above effectively demonstrates how to install, configure, and use the Everbridge Desktop Alerts feature, there are additional details to consider for a smoother overall experience.

Enabling Everbridge Desktop Alerts

You need to submit a request to enable this feature before using it. The 20-minute training above includes a form under the Related Training/Resources tab that must be completed and submitted so that your Everbridge instance is enabled and linked with SnapComms.

Follow the instructions on the form to complete and submit the request.

Installing the SnapComms Client Apps

The training includes how to download and deploy the various client apps (Windows, Mac, and mobile), but there are also other options, such as using custom scripts or your corporate application deployment tool.

For more information on your client installation options, check out the Basic Installation section here.

Types of Everbridge Notification Messages

When creating message templates in Everbridge, only the Standard type of message is supported by the Everbridge Desktop Alerts publishing option. The other two message types, (Polling and Conference Bridge) are not yet supported.

Configuring SnapComms Templates

The training assumes that you have the stand-alone SnapComms license that grants access to many out-of-box templates, and additional features and functionality to make your own templates.

If you do not have licenses for the stand-alone SnapComms tool, the Everbridge Desktop Alerts version of SnapComms is limited to only the following four emergency templates:

1. Active Shooter
2. Building Evacuation
3. Terrorist Threat
4. Weather Warning

Everbridge Contacts vs. SnapComms Users

It is very important to understand that Everbridge contacts are different from SnapComms users. In other words, the users who will need to receive the published communication must be created and exist separately in the SnapComms Content Manager.

When an Everbridge message is published, it’s sent to the specified contacts. However, when using the Everbridge Desktop Alerts publishing option, it is sent to a different set of users. These users must exist in SnapComms, and must be specified as recipients of the templates hosted in SnapComms. These can be the same person or device receiving the messages, but their account profiles are created and exist separately within Everbridge and SnapComms.

If you want SnapComms users to be the same as the Everbridge contacts, there is a potential option to build a custom sync integration, but it depends on how users are being created. Please reach out to your Everbridge Account Manager for more information.

For more information on how users are created and managed in SnapComms, check out the Understanding Users and Groups section here.

Targeting Recipients for the Emergency Communications

Now that it's been established that Everbridge contacts and SnapComms users are a separate set of users who receive the communications, you must specify the recipients of the SnapComms alert. This is done by defining the targets for each template.

For more on working with and specifying the targets for the message, refer to the Target Your Audience section here.

Find the Emergency Templates in SnapComms

To locate the emergency templates within SnapComms:

1. In the SnapComms Content Manager, navigate to the four emergency templates under the Content > Folders menu. As part of the request to configure the feature, a folder will be added that references your Everbridge instance.
   
2. In this folder, you will find the four Organization templates that are available when using the Everbridge Desktop Alerts publishing option.
   
3. To select the targets to receive the message, click on one of the templates to open in the template designer, and then click Modify Organization Template in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
   
4. Click the Edit link of the Targets section on the side panel. This will allow you to set who should receive the emergency message when publishing from Everbridge. Keep in mind that these users are separate from your Everbridge Contacts. For more on specifying the targets for the message, refer to the Target Your Audience section here.