Use Fill Count to specify a certain number of responses before ending an alert. This option is useful when you need confirmation that the alert has been received by a certain number of users. For example, if you need ten emergency responders to report to an event, you can request this many responses before the alert ends.

Additionally, you can enable Escalation to control the order in which groups or individuals are contacted. For example, you might want a high priority group of users to be contacted before another group of users. To control the order, you use an attribute to target groups or users.

Example: Emergency notification with fill count and escalation

You need to set up an alert template to contact the appropriate teams during a chemical spill. You select a user attribute named EC_ChemSpill. The values of EC_ChemSpill include Chemical Facility, Supervisors, and Executives.

The creation and execution of this hypothetical alert would take place in the following stages:

1. You specify the number of “I can help” responses that must be sent before the alert can end. In this example, that number is 10.
2. You enable alert escalation by choosing a user attribute with groups that are contacted one at a time until the fill count is satisfied.
3. You set the sort order from lowest to highest to ensure that if 10 Chemical Facility team members do not select the "I can help" response option within the time frame, the alert escalates to the Supervisors team.
4. You enter an interval of 6 minutes for each team to respond before the alert escalates to the next team.
5. The first group, the Chemical Facility team, gets the alert immediately.
6. Only seven members respond within the six-minute interval for that part of the alert.
7. The alert then escalates automatically to the next team: the Supervisors.
8. Three members of the Supervisors team respond within the next six-minute interval. The fill count is met so the alert ends.
9. The Executive team is not contacted because the alert ended before it escalated to them.

Prerequisites

• The alert template must have the Fill Count setting enabled. See "Manage visibility options for Target Users fields in an alert template" in the BlackBerry AtHoc Alert Templates guide.
• The user attribute that will be used to target groups and users must be created:
  • It can be any attribute type other than Memo or Geolocation.
  • (Recommended) For escalations, you should use a single- or multi-select picklist that targets the groups of users needed to meet the fill count.
• Users must have the selected user attribute as part of their profile.
• Response options must be defined in the Content section of the alert.

1. In the Target Users section, click Fill Count and Escalation.
2. On the Fill Count and Escalation window, in the Required Response(s) field, enter the number of responses needed to end the alert. This number can be changed when the alert is actually published.
3. Select a Response Option for the fill count.
4. Optionally, select the Enable Escalation option to define the order in which groups of users are contacted.
5. In the Escalate By list, select any user attribute with a type other than memo or geo location.

   The attribute should target the users you want to deliver the alert to. If the attribute is a picklist, ensure that the sort order is correct.

6. Specify the Escalate Priority method for the escalation or delivery method.

   Select Top to Bottom to start with the first value in the attribute list or Bottom to Top to start with the last value in the list. For example, in planning for a chemical spill, you could select top to bottom to ensure that HazMat personnel are sent the notification before it is escalated to higher levels of authority.

7. Optionally, to enable controlled delivery, select One User at a Time as a Delivery Method.
8. In the Interval field, specify how much time will be given to a group to respond before the next group or user is contacted. If the first group does not send enough responses to meet the fill count during the interval, alerts go out to the next group in the sort order.
9. Click Apply. Your choices are displayed at the top of the Target Users section. These choices can be edited before publishing.
10. To view the order users will be alerted in, click the number next to Total Users in the Targeting Summary section. The list of users is displayed in the order of escalation priority.
11. Publish the alert.
12. Monitor the status of the fill count with the Alert Summary Report. As the users respond, the fill count increases.