Agency Tab

Owned by catharine.rhoades (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Dec 15, 2020
5 min read

The agency tab is where account details and settings can be found. The options and settings within the agency tab affect the account as a whole, so it is important to understand what each option does before making changes.

Note: In order to see this tab, one must be logged in with the following User Permissions: View Agency. In order to edit this tab, one must be logged in with the following User Permissions: Edit Agency.
Your agency is not yet activated. This red box will appear when your account is first set up. Once alerts/calls start coming in from the dispatch center, Active911 support will find an existing parser, or create a new parser to coincide with the formatting of the alerts. Once the parser is applied, the red box will go away.

Send Mass Email

Near the top right side of the screen, within the agency tab, there is a "Send Mass Email" button. Clicking the button will open a window that can be used to create and send an email to all of the email accounts registered with devices and users in the account.

Pie Chart

The pie chart will auto populate based on the types of calls that you receive. If you want to differentiate between calls, please check to make sure the alerts are not coming through with the same description. If you are getting all "General Alerts", please contact support for assistance.

Alert email

This is what needs to be provided to the Dispatch Center/CAD/Communications Center in order for alerts to start coming through our system. This email address can be used to send from any email system. It can also be used to set up to send via SMTP or SNPP. More details on how to do this can be found at Sending pages to Active911 using SNPP.

API Access

API access can be requested to develop new systems based on the exciting technology of our system. If granted API access, your information will be listed here. More details on how to gain access is available at Active911 Developer API.

Account details

The basic information about the account is listed here, including the address, phone number, and timezone of the department. If any of this information changes, please contact support to have it corrected.

If the account has an agency subscription, the expiration date of the agency subscription will appear in the "Type" section. The number of the subscriptions being used is also displayed. To the right of that information will be a blue "+ Subscriptions" button that can be used to add additional subscriptions to the existing set of subscriptions.

Note: The "+ Subscriptions" button is not used for renewing subscriptions. It is used to add more subscriptions to an existing agency subscription. All subscriptions added will be prorated to expire on the date displayed in the "Type" field within the "Account details" section.

Options

These are the account options that help determine how the alerts are sent and received.

Incoming alarms: alert everyone, or only pagegroups that match dispatched units?

  • Default: Everyone

  • Change this to Groups if unit information is being sent with the alerts that corresponds with the Groups that have been created on the Groups tab. If no unit information is being sent or no groups are created, this will cause the alerts to be discarded and not sent through. For more information about groups, please go here

What should we do with duplicate alerts?

  • Default: Passthru

  • If more than one copy of the alert is being sent through, with additional information or not, this setting can be changed depending on how you want to receive them. Passthru=each alert comes through as a new separate alert, Update=any new information is added to the previous alert that was sent through and will tone again, Discard=no tone or note is made to show another alert was sent through for the same alert, more info here.

What criteria determine what is a duplicate?

  • Default: Loc/Title

  • This settings determines how the system recognizes a duplicate. If one location and type of call is common, the criteria can be changed to be based only on Location or CAD #. The CAD # is a number often provided by CAD or the dispatch center as an ID #.

What should we do with run reports?

  • Default: Passthru

  • Run Reports are often reports sent at the end of an alert to show the times and details of the call. These can be selected to be treated differently than normal updates or alerts. Passthru=each alert comes through as a new separate alert, Update=any new information is added to the previous alert that was sent through and will tone again, Discard=no tone or note is made to show another alert was sent through for the same alert. This is described a bit more here: Run report options.

Override mapping with GPS coords from your dispatch center?

  • Default: No

  • For the more reliable mapping, it is recommended to have the dispatch/CAD sent coordinates with the call in decimal degree format to be used for mapping instead of relying on Google Maps to return the correct ones. If this is being done, this setting can be changed to use them instead of the address. The address will still appear, but the system will actually be using the coordinates, more info here.

Default city for mapping

  • Default: Best Guess

  • This is often used when dispatch is not sending a city/community/twp information. The default programmed into the system is often the county, which can cause issues if there are streets by the same name in cities close to each other. To ensure that alerts are mapped only within the city limits, a city name can be entered here. This can break the mapping for any alerts for areas outside the city, such as mutual aid or rural alerts outside the city entered. This is described here.

Enable news feeds and RSS?

Discard Watch Responses?

  • Default: No

  • Watch responses are generated when a member views the alert within the app, but does not hit a response button. If these are not important to see and/or there are a lot of members on the account, discarding these indications might be helpful.

Response Vocabulary

  • Default: Resp, Arriv, Cancl, Avail, Unvl

  • These are the response options that all the members will have each time an alert is sent out. These can be edited here with any 5 characters, for more information click here: Agency Response Option