How to setup Alerts in TMS?

There are 4 categories supported for Alerts in TMS:

• Overdue Alerts: Overdue alerts will be triggered when an expected event is overdue. In most cases, Overdue alerts will be closed when the overdue event is reported
• Violation Alerts: Violation alerts will be triggered when the difference between scheduled and actual date/time exceeds acceptable tolerances. In most cases, Violation alerts will be closed via user acknowledgement.
• Exception Alerts: Exception alerts will be triggered when specific exception cases occur. These alerts should prompt an employee to take corrective action. In most cases, Exception alerts will be closed via user acknowledgement.
• Notification Alerts: Notification alerts will be created when selected Transportation Manager operational activity occurs. No violation is implied. One example would be a warehouse manager who wants to know when a trailer arrives in the yard at the manager's location. This type of "alert" fits the category of a message that would correspond to an existing Event Notification message and/or A/P operational transition event.

Except for Notification alerts which are user defined, the rest of the alert categories are Pre-defined in TMS.  In this article, we the process to setup Notification Alerts will be described next. Follow the below steps:
 

1. Login to the TMUI
2. Navigate to Monitoring > Settings > Alert Types
3. Click New
4. Define an Alert Type ID and Description
5. Define the status of the Active, Enabled and Generate Event Notification checkboxes
6. Under the Details section, select a Monitoring Situation from the dropdown list. Monitoring Situation ID's are predefined. If there is a need, you can also narrow down the alert to one particular reason code instead. 
7. Submit
8. Navigate to Monitoring > Settings > Tolerance Levels
9. Click New
10. Under Alert Type, define the Alert Type ID created on Step 4
11. Define the Tolerance Level. Note that it can be defined at only 1 of the following 4 levels: Division, Carrier, Customer, or Location ID. The choice needs to be based on requirement.
12. Submit
13. Navigate to Monitoring > Settings > Alert Watch Groups
14. Click New
15. Define an Alert Watch Group ID and Description
16. Enter the required selection criteria based on the previously created Alert Type and Tolerance Levels
17. Submit

Escalation: Alerts are classified in multiple categories of severity, using a simple, intuitive classification system (that is, "green", "yellow" or "red").

For Overdue, Exception and Notification Alerts, the severity is based on the length of time that has elapsed since the alert was originally raised. These alerts escalate from green to yellow to red as time elapses, assuming the alert scenario is not resolved.

For Violation Alerts, the severity is based on the difference between the scheduled and actual dates/times. These alerts do not escalate. The severity is established at the time the alert is created and is not subsequently changed unless one or both of the dates used as the basis for the alert are subsequently modified.

Alert Watch Group Recipients can be identified in one of the following ways:

• Explicitly by email addresses
• Indirectly by Contact Type. Transportation Manager searches for the designated Contact Type in the Contacts for the Customer, Carrier, Division, and Shipping Location associated with the Alert. For each entity where the Contact Type is configured, an Alert is sent to the email address defined for the contact. If the same Contact Type is configured more than once for a specific entity, the alert is sent to each of the corresponding email addresses.

Multiple recipients can be defined for each Alert Watch Group. The same email address or Contact Type can be associated with multiple Alert Watch Groups.

For more information, please review the attached PDF document containing more information regarding the Predefined Alerts.