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The key principle of the system is to act as a ‘dead man’s handle’ for your workers. In other words, the system expects your workers to interact with it within the period you define, and if they don’t an alert is triggered.
Send the Alert offers a number of methods of allowing your users to interact with the system. This includes text message, phone calls, the web portal and the ‘My Sessions’ web app.
Users represent the ‘Who’ in the system.
To add a user to the system, go to ‘Users’ and ‘Add User’.
The system requires as an absolute minimum, a user’s first and last name. Every other field is optional, but it will affect how the system will communicate with your users. An email address must be entered if you want your users to send alert emails, and a phone number must be entered for your user to receive phone calls and text messages.
You must also set a PIN for your user, which allows them to log into the ‘My Sessions’ app, or call into the system to check in. A random PIN is generated automatically by the system but can be changed to something more memorable if you prefer.
Finally, in line with modern data protection principles, you must confirm you have your user’s permission to enter their information to the system.
When you add a new user with an email address and phone number, the system will send a verification email and/or text message to the details entered. Users must respond to these as applicable within 60 minutes to confirm their details are correct. If they don’t respond within 60 minutes, it is possible to request another verification code. (See Managing Your Users)
Note: You don’t necessarily have to enter a person’s real name. Some of our clients have set users up with false details such as ‘Control Room’. As long as it’s meaningful to you, it doesn’t matter what you put.
To manage your users, from the dashboard, click on ‘Users’, then ‘Manage Users’ to see all the users on your account. Next to each user’s name, you will also see their email address and contact phone numbers if they have been entered. Where a phone number or email address has been entered, either a green tick or red cross will appear next phone number or email address, which denotes whether or not it has been validated.
The ‘Details’ button brings up a page where any validation codes for any unverified email and phone numbers can be requested. You will also see a list of all previous lone worker session for that user, includes dates, times, location, number of check-ins and number of alarms. It is then possible to view the details of each individual session.
The ‘Edit’ button allows you to change the details of your users. It should be noted that if the email address or phone number is changed, a new verification request will be made to the new email address or number, and the new details cannot be used until verification has been completed.
You can also change your user's PIN, so they can use the ‘My Session’ app or phone into the system.
If you wish to delete a user from the system, you can press the ‘Remove’ button from the user list. It is important to note that when you delete a user, you also delete all historic session data related to that user. Once deleted, it cannot be restored.
When a new email address or phone number is entered into the system, it must be validated to ensure the system never send messages to the wrong people. For email, there is a simple validation link that can be pressed which normally triggers validation. For text messages, a code is sent and simply replying to the text message with just the validation code will confirm the phone number. If for some reason you are unable to use these, you can instead go to Users and Enter Validation Code, and enter the code sent.
Locations represent the ‘Where’ in the system.
From the Dashboard, click ‘Locations’. This will bring up the location list.
At the bottom of the list, click the ‘Add New Location’ button, which will bring up a new form below that. As an absolute minimum, the system requires a site name. This can be anything you like, as long as it’s meaningful to you.
The ‘Site Reference Number’ is used to identify the site to the phone system (as it is possible to start a lone worker session by phoning the system and entering a location number into your phone keypad). We recommend you set a 2 or 3 digit number for this.
The ‘Site Mobile Number’ allows you to enter a site-specific phone number which session notifications can be sent to rather then users own phone. This will only accept a mobile phone number, however, if you wish to use a landline, please contact the help desk to arrange.
All other fields are optional and are your reference only.
From the Dashboard, click ‘Locations’ to bring up the list of all locations.
The list shows each location on your account, the site reference number (if set), the address and key contact (if set). You can edit the details of the site by using the edit button, and remove the site by clicking ‘Archive’.
When clicking ‘Archive’, this removes the site as a possible location for new sessions. It is not possible to fully delete a location. Previously archives locations can be restored by clicking ‘Show Archived Locations’, and clicking ‘Restore’.
Alert flows define what happens when your lone workers fail to check in.
From the dashboard, click on ‘Alert Flows’ to view all the alert flows set up on your account. Within each work flow, you will have a number of steps which dictates what the system will do and the order it will do it in.
There must always be at least 1 alert flow set up on your account, and on a brand new account there will be a flow called ‘Default’. You can then add your own flow by clicking ‘Create New Flow’, and entering a name for the new flow.
Within each flow, you can control the steps. To add a new step, click ‘Add Step’. In the new window, you can select the user you wish to alert, and at least one method (i.e. send an email, a text message or by phone call). By default, users will be contacted at any time of day, but by unticking ‘Alert me at all times’, will bring up options where you can select the days of the week, and the times you wish that user to be alerted. You can add as many alert steps as you need.
You can delete a step simply by clicking ‘Delete Step’ and confirming you want to delete the step. You can also delete entire alert flows, but in doing so will also delete all the steps therein.
From the Dashboard, click “Start New Session”.
On the new page, select the user who will be lone working from the drop down list, and select the location of where the worker will be from the drop down list.
The default setting is to start all session straight away, however by unticking ‘Start Session Now’, will bring up an option to choose the date and time of when the session is to start. This must be set to a time and date in the future. There is also an option to require the user to check-in before the session start time, which means that if the user hasn’t checked in at the start time, it will go into immediate alarm and trigger the relevant alert flow. A session with a future time is termed a scheduled session.
The ‘Set Check-in time’ sets how often the user must interact and check-in to the system. If you have a check-in time of 60 minutes, they must contact the system within 60 minutes, and in doing so they reset the timer.
Automatic reminder options sets whether or not the system is to pro-actively contact the lone worker to remind them to check in. The two options are by text message and by phone call. When text message reminders are set, the user will get a text message reminding them to check in, with an option to do so by reply with the code included in the message. Text messages come from, and can be sent back to: 07537 438546.
Phone call reminder will call the users mobile phone and invite them to check in, which is done by listening to a code read out by the system, and entering it back into the phones keypad. All phone calls come from 0117 3250185.
The notes section is provided for your reference only. You may for example, wish to put special notes about what the worker is doing on-site. It’s up to you.
Next, select the Alert Flow the system should use from the drop down list, if this session goes into alarm. And finally, an option to notify the user by text message that a new lone worker session has been started.
Once all the essential field are completed, namely the user, location, alert flow, click ‘Start New Session’, which will begin (or schedule) the session and return you to the Dashboard.
Using the ‘Quick-start Session’ button allows you to quickly start a new session using account default settings. In the new window, simply choose the user, location and alert flow. Clicking ‘start session’, will begin the session immediately.
Account default settings can be modified by going to ‘Account’ and under the ‘My Account’ section, clicking ‘Settings’. From here you can choose the default options.
Your users can start their own lone worker session by calling up Send the Alert on 0117 3251085. The system will start the call by saying “Welcome to Send the Alert”.
The system will detect the number your user is calling from, if it is unable to do so, it will say “Please enter your phone number, followed by the #”. Users should enter their phone number into the keypad of the phone they are using.
If the number is recognised, then the system will ask the user to “Enter their PIN”. Users should enter their PIN into the phone keypad. Provided the PIN is correct, the system will say whether or not the user has an active lone worker session. If the PIN is entered incorrectly, the system will reject the login and hang-up.
Once authenticated, the system will give you the option to start a new lone worker session. (Option 1). It will then ask you to “enter for the location ID of where you are working followed by the #”. (This is the Location reference number.) Upon entry, the system will attempt start a new session using account default settings, and confirm the session has been started. If a session cannot be started, the user will be notified and the system will hang up.
Send the alert allows lone workers multiple methods to check in to their lone working session.
The dashboard displays all the lone worker sessions which are active at that time. By clicking the ‘Check-in’ button and confirming ok, completes the check-in. This method is referred as a manual check-in.
Users can check in by calling 0117 3251085. The system identifies the phone number of the incoming call and determines if it belongs to a user, if it does, it will invite the person to enter their PIN (set up when we added this user). If the number cannot be detected, or the user is using another phone, then it will invite them to enter their phone number into the phones keypad, followed by their PIN.
Once a user’s phone number and PIN has been validated, the system will confirm whether or not a lone worker session is active. If an session is active, the user is given the option to either check-in (option 1), or to end the lone worker session (option 2).
On choosing option 1, the system will read out 4 digit code, which must be entered back into the phone keypad to check in. Once this is done, the system will confirm the user has checked-in and hang up.
On choosing option 2, the system will ask the user to confirm they want to end their lone worker session, and upon doing so, will end the session.
If the option to automatically remind the user to check-in by phone is enabled, then the system will call the user to invite them to check in. To check-in, the system will read out a 4 digit code, and the user must enter that code back into the phone keypad. On doing so, the system will confirm the check-in was successful and hang up.
Check in by text message is only possible when the system sends a reminder to the user to check in. The text message will include a code consisting of a letter and 4 numbers, for example, X1234. To check-in, the user simply needs to reply to the text message with the code.