Glossary

Application Server

: The server on which the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system and related tools are installed. Also known as the AtHoc application server. Formerly known as IWS Server or IWS.

AtHoc Account

: An automated personnel accountability feature that gives organizations real-time visibility into the status of their people and teams during a critical event.

AtHoc Connect

: A secure cross-organization information sharing feature. AtHoc® Connect brings together organizations from government, industry, commercial, and healthcare sectors to improve communication during an emergency. You can send and receive alerts with other

BlackBerry AtHoc

customers that are Connect organizations in

BlackBerry AtHoc

. A Connect organization is a

BlackBerry AtHoc

customer that has signed up for AtHoc Connect to participate in cross-organization communication.

Accountability event

: (Also known as an event.) A configurable automated workflow that uses pre-defined templates and includes alerts and reminders sent to affected users. Responses are tracked automatically and additional alerts are sent to users who have not responded.

Accountability officer

: An operator who can provide status on behalf of other users during an accountability event.

Accountability template

: Predefined alerts and reminders that are provided out-of-the-box as part of AtHoc Account. Administrators can also create custom accountability templates.

Activity log

: An advanced feature in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system that captures details of events in the AtHoc system such as alerts and accountability events. Operators who are Activity Log Managers or Activity Log Viewers can view and create activity log entries. Entries in the activity log can be forwarded as alerts.

Alert

: A secure two-way communication mass notification. AtHoc alerts enable operators to quickly and securely notify personnel, partner organizations, and the public of a critical event using multiple delivery devices.

Alert content

: The content section of an alert is used to define the key parts of an alert in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

system, including: title, body, type, response options, website links, locations, and attachments.

Alert folder

: An alert folder, also known as an alert category, typically corresponds to the type of alerts or source of alerts that are published. For example, folder types can include Weather Alerts, IT Alerts, Commander/CEO Alerts, and Daily News Alerts. Every alert must be associated with an alert folder. Grouping alerts by folder has many benefits, including the ability to use templates to establish a common appearance for all alerts within a folder, facilitate end user subscriptions by folder, and restrict operator publishing privileges to specific folders.

Alert Manager

: A role for operators who need to create and manage users and alerts but do not need to have access to all settings. Alert Managers have the maximum publishing privileges.

Alert placeholder

: Alert placeholders provide a way to customize text such as date or time, a building number, or group name in an alert template. When an operator publishes the alert template, the placeholder value is inserted automatically.

Alert rule

: Alert rules are used to determine which alert template to use when an alert arrives in the Inbox. Operators can create alert rules to associate a condition and an action with an incoming alert. Each rule has one or more conditions specifying an alert attribute value, an operation, and the value of the attribute.

Alert Usage Summary report

: A report type that includes data about how many alerts and message were sent out over a specified amount of time. The Alert Usage Summary report includes data from the organization you are logged in to. If you are logged in to an Enterprise or Super Enterprise organization, alert and message data for sub enterprises and suborganizations is also displayed.

BBM Enterprise alerts

: A plug-in that enables sending AtHoc alerts through BBM Enterprise. BBM Enterprise provides secure text, voice, video, and group chat on any device including smartphones and desktops.

Bilingual alert

: An alert sent in two languages. End users can choose their preferred language in which to receive

BlackBerry AtHoc

alerts.

Check-In / Check-Out

: A feature of the

BlackBerry AtHoc

mobile app that lets end users send their current location with a timestamp to the AtHoc server.

Collect

: A secure mobile app feature for location tracking and field reporting. Users can securely send geo-tagged media from their mobile devices.

Collaborate

: Collaborate provides a real-time chat-based collaboration session that can be associated with plans and incidents as part of Situation Response. Collaborate facilitates cross-organization collaboration through the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system and the

BlackBerry AtHoc

mobile app.

Collaboration

: A chat session within Collaborate, which is a feature of Situation Response.

Connect

: A secure geo-based cross-organization information sharing feature. AtHoc Connect brings together organizations from government, industry, commercial, and healthcare sectors to improve communication during an emergency. You can send and receive alerts with other

BlackBerry AtHoc

customers that are Connect organizations in

BlackBerry AtHoc

. A Connect organization is a

BlackBerry AtHoc

customer that has signed up for AtHoc Connect to participate in cross-organization communication.

Connected organization

: An organization in AtHoc Connect that can publish alerts to and receive alerts from another connected organization.

Delivery locale

: A locale is a specific dialect of a language spoken in a region such as Canadian French, Mexican Spanish, and American English. Localization is the process of customizing an application for a given language and region. Within the

BlackBerry AtHoc

system, delivery locales define the way

BlackBerry AtHoc

alerts appear to alert recipients.

Delivery template

: Templates used by delivery devices that define the look and default content that is included in an alert.

BlackBerry AtHoc

provides system default delivery templates for delivery devices such as email and desktop pop-ups. Administrators can create custom delivery templates.

Dependent user

: A dependent user is a user account for a family member or other person who should receive alerts when another user does. Users with dependents are referred to as sponsors. A dependent is a sub account of a sponsor user. The sponsor user has full control to create, edit, and delete their dependents from Self Service.

Desktop app

: The

BlackBerry AtHoc

desktop app is a small desktop application that continuously runs on an end user's computer. When a new alert targeted at user desktops is published in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

system, a notification screen pops up on their desktop, accompanied by an audio notification. The end user can then close the pop-up or click a link to obtain additional information about the alert. For emergency alerts, the pop-up screen may contain response options that must be selected from to acknowledge receipt of the alert.

Device

: Applications or hardware used to deliver alerts and events to end users. Personal devices include email, phones, the mobile app, and the desktop app. Mass devices include digital signs, fire panels, public address systems, giant voice systems, and social media platforms.

Device delivery preference

: A configurable setting that determines the order of devices that a user targeted in an alert receives the alert on.

Distribution list

: A targetable grouping of users. Distribution lists can be static or dynamic. In a static distribution list, a operator selects specific users to include in the list. In a dynamic distribution list, the membership in the list is determined by meeting specified attributes such as organization subscription or user role.

Draft alert

: Alerts are sometimes created in advance or created by operators who do not have the necessary permissions to publish them.

BlackBerry AtHoc

allows the alert creator to set the alert to Draft mode, which retains the details of the alert. The draft alert is saved in the Sent Alerts screen as a draft.

Emergency (mobile app)

: An advanced feature of the

BlackBerry AtHoc

mobile app that sends a duress message and device location to an end user's organization.

Enterprise organization

: An enterprise is a set of

BlackBerry AtHoc

organizations in one system that are managed by a single parent organization called the enterprise organization. Enterprise organizations are generally for large, complex implementations with multiple locations that need to segment end users.

Escalation

: A setting in an alert used to control the order in which groups or individuals are contacted. For example, when there is a need for a high priority group of users to be contacted before another group of users. To control the order, an attribute is used to target groups or users.

Event

: (Also known as an Accountability Event.)  An alert or series of alerts, responses, reminders, and reports that are part of AtHoc Account.

External event

:

BlackBerry AtHoc

monitors external feeds and creates events that appear in the Inbox and on the live map. Operators can select the locations and external events they want to monitor. When an event occurs that impacts a selected location, it appears in the Inbox in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system and on the live map.

BlackBerry AtHoc

supports many external event categories including Earthquake, Fire, Hurricane, and Flood.

External layer

: Customizable external map layers that can display data from external sources on the

BlackBerry AtHoc

live map.

Feature enablement

: The process of enabling or disabling features in

BlackBerry AtHoc

. Feature enablement is performed by System Administrators. Feature enablement is inheritable from the system level and from super enterprise and enterprise organizations down their organizational hierarchies.

Field Report (mobile app)

: An advanced feature of the

BlackBerry AtHoc

mobile app that sends information and application level location information to the central operations center of an organization from an end user. The organization can configure a report type so that when a user activates any report type, the content gets forwarded to the targeted users. That way, organizations can build work flows around the reports. The report list is configured in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system.

Fill count

: An option in an alert that is used to specify a certain number of responses that must be received before the alert can end.

Geofence alert

: Geofence targeting enables operators to target users who are part of a defined geo perimeter on the map. When geofence targeting is enabled,

BlackBerry AtHoc

looks for updates made to users' locations that match the geo perimeter selected in the alert.

Inbox (management system)

: The Inbox in Self Service displays the alert and events that have been sent to an end user.

Inbox (Self Service)

: The Inbox in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system displays information about live and expired alerts from mobile users, Connect organizations, other agencies, and the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS.) Alerts from mobile users and outside organizations are called incoming alerts. The Inbox provides organizations with a means of managing incoming alerts and monitoring what is happening in their system.

Incident

: Part of Situation Response. During a crisis an incident can be quickly created based on a previously configured and reviewed plan.

Incident manager

: Part of Situation Response. The user interface in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system where incidents can be created and managed.

Inheritance

: Common content and configuration settings that are created in a super enterprise or enterprise organization that are then available in the sub enterprises and suborganizations. Content and settings that are inheritable include: user attributes, organization codes, alert folders, alert templates, alert placeholders, security policies, device settings, audio files, delivery templates, feature enablement, organization subscriptions and user move settings.

Integrated Weather Alert

: Critical warnings and forecasts from the National Weather Service (NWS) sent from the

BlackBerry AtHoc

system to keep customers informed about potential weather incidents such as tornadoes, floods, and dust storms.

Live map

:

BlackBerry AtHoc

provides two types of maps; the publisher map and the live map. The live map displays live alerts and events, incoming alerts, users, external feeds, and external layers. Operators can select an imported shape or draw a shape on the live map and send a quick alert to users in the shape.

Management system

: The web-based interface and its required components used for configuring and managing alerts, users, devices, and settings for

BlackBerry AtHoc

alerting. Formerly known as IWSAlerts or the IWS management system.

Map layers

: Areas that control what is displayed on the live map. The Basemap Layers provide a way to select the visual style of the live map. The

BlackBerry AtHoc

Layers display information about live accountability events, live sent alerts, and live incoming alerts (including check-ins, check-outs, field reports and emergencies from the mobile app.) The External Layers display information about events derived from feeds. Imported Shape Layers (also known as predefined zones) display information about users on the live map within the specified area. Distribution List layers displays users from specific distribution lists.

Mass device

: Mass devices broadcast alerts rather than sending them to specific people or organizations. Mass devices include social media platforms, RSS feeds, pagers, sirens, fire panels, and giant voice systems.

Message termination

: (Also known as call termination.) The

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system performs message termination on hosted telephone devices for users who have multiple targeted phones. This prevents users from receiving an alert on more than one phone device once they have responded to the alert from one targeted phone device.

Mobile app

: The

BlackBerry AtHoc

mobile app leverages the latest mobile technologies for rapid mass notification and personnel accountability. The

BlackBerry AtHoc

mobile app activates mass alerts and personnel tracking. The

BlackBerry AtHoc

mobile app is available on Android and iOS smart phones and tablets. The

BlackBerry AtHoc

mobile app can be downloaded from the Apple App and Google Play stores.

Operator

: Users who can access the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system.

Operator permission

: Operator permissions are granted by the roles the operator is assigned to in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system. The roles an operator is assigned to determine the features they can access.

Organization code

: A short name for an organization within the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system. The organization code is used to register for Self Service and for the mobile app. The organization code must also be used in the URLs used to access Self Service and Single Sign-On (SSO.)

Organization Locale

: A locale is a specific dialect of a language spoken in a region such as Canadian French, Mexican Spanish, and American English. Localization is the process of customizing an application for a given language and region. Within the

BlackBerry AtHoc

system, organization locales define the way the user interface appears to operators.

Organization manager

: The area within the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system settings where organizations are created and managed.

Organization subscription

: A feature that enables users in an enterprise organization to receive alerts and accountability events from other suborganizations within their enterprise organization. This feature enables users to subscribe on a temporary basis to up to 10 suborganizations. The subscribed user can then receive any alerts or events that are targeted to them in their home organization as well as in their subscribed organizations.

Permissions

: Permissions are granted in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system by assigning a role to an operator. The assigned roles grant access to

BlackBerry AtHoc

features and capabilities.

Personnel report

: Personnel reports are used to determine specific information that could be important to know about groups of people during an emergency. The exact list of reports varies depending on the organization. Examples of personnel reports include Duty Status, Building Number, Transport Needs, Commanders, Police and Fire Teams, and Work Availability.

Plan

: A key component of Situation Response. Use plans within Situation Response before a crisis to prepare for a quick response when an incident occurs. Plans can be reviewed an approved before a crisis so that when a crisis occurs, the plan can be used to create an incident.

Plan Approver

: A role in Situation Response. When a Plan Manager creates a plan, they assign plan reviewers and a plan approver. Plan reviewers review each step in a plan. After any change requests are resolved by the plan manager and all plan reviewers review the plan, the plan approver can approve the plan, making it available for use in creating incidents.

Plan Manager

: A role in Situation Response. The Plan Manager can create, edit, delete, duplicate, enable, disable, or approve a plan within Situation Response. The Plan Manager assigns plan reviewers and plan approvers. Plan Managers can also create incidents and collaborations.

Publisher map

:

BlackBerry AtHoc

provides two types of maps; the publisher map and the live map. The publisher map is the map that appears when creating alerts or events to target users based on geographical location.

Report (management system)

: The

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system provides three types of basic reports: Personnel, Alerts Usage, and User Summary reports. Personnel reports are used to determine specific information that could be important to know about groups of people during an emergency. Alerts Usage reports provide a history of alert data by organization. User Summary reports provide the number of enabled users for each organization.

Report (mobile app)

: (Also known as a Field Report.) An advanced feature of the

BlackBerry AtHoc

mobile app that sends information and application level location information to the central operations center of an organization from an end user. The organization can configure a report type so that when a user activates any report type, the content gets forwarded to the targeted users. That way, organizations can build work flows around the reports. The report list is configured in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system.

Response option

: A section in an alert where a targeted user can quickly select their response to the alert. Response options can be pre-configured in an alert template, or created and edited at the time of alert publishing by an operator.

Role

: Administrators in

BlackBerry AtHoc

assign roles to operators. The roles assigned to an operator determine the permissions the operator has to access

BlackBerry AtHoc

features and capabilities.

Security policy settings

: Security policy settings enable administrators to manage password update rules, enable automatic revocation of operator permissions, enable smart card authentication, and configure Captcha Settings.

Self Service

: Self Service is a web application that allows end users to receive and respond to critical alerts and accountability events targeted to them. Using Self Service, users can view and manage their profile, update their password, manage their dependents, move to another organization, and subscribe to other organizations.

Scheduled location access

: The scheduled location access feature enables operators to actively track a group of users for a selected interval. Scheduled location access enables operators to more accurately track where mobile personnel are without relying on end users performing manual check-ins from the mobile app. When location access is enabled, the last known location for all users in the selected distribution lists are updated at the configured interval. Operators can then target alerts and events by geolocation based on users' locations.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

: When SSO is enabled for an organization, if the organization's users are already authenticated and signed in using the organization's identity provider (IDP), they do not need to sign in again to access the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system or Self Service.

Situation Response

: Plan, respond, and collaborate for incident lifecycle management. Prepare for events by predefining step-by-step incident plans with assignees and review cycles. When an incident occurs, operators can execute an existing plan or create a new one and collaborate in real time using the web or the

BlackBerry AtHoc

mobile app.

Smart card authentication

: When smart card authentication is enabled in addition to regular username/password authentication, users can log in to

BlackBerry AtHoc

by inserting their smart card into a card reader and then entering a PIN, or by selecting a valid certificate on the mobile app.

SMS Opt-In

: SMS Opt-In enables operators to allow community members, visitors, event participants, or other users outside of their organization to subscribe to receive alerts by SMS. These outside users can subscribe to receive alerts by sending a text event code via SMS.

Sponser

: Users with dependents are referred to as sponsors. Sponsors and administrators can add a dependent account for anyone who should receive alerts but does not have an account in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

system. The sponsor user has full control to create, edit, and delete their dependents from Self Service. Operators can add dependent accounts for users with family members or others that should receive alerts when they do.

Suborganization

: A suborganization is an organization within an enterprise or super enterprise. An enterprise or super enterprise configuration is a set of

BlackBerry AtHoc

organizations that are managed by a single parent organization called the enterprise or super enterprise organization. The enterprise organization centralizes the user, content, and policy management of its suborganizations.

Super enterprise organization

: A super enterprise organization centralizes the user, content, and policy management of its sub enterprise organizations and their suborganizations.

Targeted user

: End users that are intended recipients of an alert.

Tracking (mobile app)

: An advanced feature of the

BlackBerry AtHoc

mobile app. The tracking feature periodically sends an end user's location to their organization for the duration specified by the end user.

User attribute

: User attributes provide powerful ways to organize, filter, and manage users. For example, an operator can create user attributes to describe characteristics of end users, and then use the attributes to target users for alerts through dynamic distributions lists.

User move

: A feature in

BlackBerry AtHoc

that enables administrators to move users between the suborganizations of an enterprise organization.

User Summary report

: A report in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system that displays a summary of the number of enabled users in each organization.

User Sync Client

: The

BlackBerry AtHoc

User Sync Client is a command line tool that enables administrators to synchronize user information from an LDAP data source or CSV file to the

BlackBerry AtHoc

system.

NDS

: Notification Delivery Service. The delivery service that processes and delivers alert messages from the hosted services (plug-ins) and mobile alerting.

NDS application server

: A server that hosts the delivery plug-ins, such as TAS, OPM, and SMS.

NDS console

: The user interface for configuring and managing the NDS plug-ins, accounts, and settings.

NDS database server

: A server on which the NDS databases are located.

NDS farm

: The set of application servers managed by NDS.

Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)

: An XML-based data format for exchanging public warnings and emergencies between alerting technologies.

COG

: A Collaborative Operating Group as defined by FEMA. A COG can have members from multiple organizations that act as a mutual aid organization. Examples of organizations include local, territorial, tribal, state, or federal governmental organizations of the United States. COG ID: The six-digit identifier for a COG provided by FEMA.

EAS

: Emergency Alerting Service as defined by FEMA.

FEMA

: Federal Emergency Management Administration. FEMA created the IPAWS system to communicate and mobilize organizations during emergencies.

IPAWS

: The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System developed by FEMA. This sytem provides a process for emergency communities to communicate with each other through alerts. Federal, State, territorial, tribal, and local alerting authorities can use IPAWS and integrate local systems that use Common Alerting Protocol standards with the IPAWS infrastructure.

NWEM

: Non-Weather Emergency Messages as defined by FEMA.

Peer COG

: Any COG from which you receive alerts, or to which you send alerts.

Public Alert Device

: One of the devices IPAWS uses to send alerts to the general public.

BlackBerry AtHoc

supports several public alert devices, including NWEM, EAS, WEA, and WEA 3.0.

Sender COG

: The COG sending an alert to other organizations. Typically your own COG.

Target COG

: The COG to which you are sending a message. Typically, another COG with whom you need to communicate about situations that affect both organizations.

UAP

: Unified Alerting Protocol. Protocol to exchange data between the

BlackBerry AtHoc

server and the NDS application server.

WEA

: Wireless Emergency Alerts as defined by FEMA. Formerly known as Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS).