General settings

General settings

Here central settings can be made for the operation of the Communication Center:

• Timeout confirmation: after the message about the error at the plant was transmitted successfully to the user, the user has to confirm the message. If the user does not confirm the message, the Communication Center assumes that the transmission of the message to the specified device was not successful and switches to the next configured device of the user in order to transmit the message using this device (default for the timeout is 120 seconds). If all devices without a successful confirmation of the user were tried out, the user is set to the status "no answer" and cannot receive messages for a specific period. (this period is configured via the setting "Reset when no answer from user"). For further information on this setting, see chapter Functionality of the Communication Center.

• Timeout acknowledgement: after the message was confirmed, there is another timeout for the acknowledgement of the transmitted alarm. If also this timeout lapses without the acknowledgement of the user (but the alarm was confirmed), the Communication Center has to assume that the specific user was lost and switches to the next user (default for this timeout is 120 seconds). The user that "was lost" since there was no acknowledgement, cannot receive messages from the Communication Center for a longer period (this period is set via the setting Reset after ... if the user was lost). For further information on this setting, see also Functionality of the Communication Center.

• Reset after <360 seconds = default> if no answer from the user: if the timeout for the acknowledgement of a message lapses, the user the message was intended to is set inactive (Status "no answer from the user") and cannot receive any messages from the Communication Center for a specific period. How long the user does not receive any messages can be specified using this setting. As an example the following description:

Two users are defined in a call list and the same users are also contained in the fallback list. If an alarm occurs, the Communication Center tries to inform the first in the list. The user receives the message about the error but does not confirm it (the message is not confirmed on any of the devices). Thus, the Communication Center switches to the second user in the list and sets the first user inactive (this means the user cannot receive any messages for 360 seconds). The second user also receives the message but does not confirm it either. The Communication Center switches to the next user, this time to the first user in the fallback list (again the first user like in the call list). If the time period for the inactivity of the first user would be too high, the Communication Center could not consider this user and switches to the next user again. For more information on this setting, see chapter Functionality of the Communication Center.

• Reset after <2700 seconds = default> if the user has been lost: For this setting the same description is valid as for the option "Reset if no answer from the user". The difference of this setting is that a specific user is set to inactive (Status "User was lost") when the timeout for the acknowledgement lapses without a reaction from the user (the user has received a message and confirmed it but does not acknowledge it. Thus, the Communication Center assumes that the user is not available for the further process anymore and sets him inactive for the period that is set here). For more information on this setting, see chapter Functionality of the Communication Center.

• Reset after <30 seconds = default> waiting time for the medium: if the device that the Communication Center uses to try to inform the user about current state, cannot be used momentary (the telephone is, for example, busy, the user answers the call but the connection is suddenly lost) the Communication Center tries to transmit the message via this device after the time set here. In case of a telephone the system tries at intervals of 30 seconds three times to transmit the message. For further information on this setting see chapter Functionality of the Communication Center.

• Reset after <300 seconds = default > if the medium is not available: In case of a device that does not work (for example, no dial tone on the telephone, problems with the ISDN line) the system assumes that the device is inactive and it can first be used after the time set here. For more information on this setting, see chapter Functionality of the Communication Center.

Blocking message

The blocking time of messages is used so that the alarms possibly occurring within a defined period are processed by the Communication Center and not each alarm is processed right after it occurred. In addition to this time there is a maximum number of alarms that can occur and are processed immediately also when the time specified is not elapsed. This setting of the delay time and maximum number of alarms can be specified for each medium separately. For the default values of single media see the figure above.

Max. Entries: 4

Max. Delay (sec): 10

For the blocking time of messages when transmitted to a device via SMS this setting means: if four or more alarms occur, these are processed by the Communication Center immediately and integrated in the communication process. If only one alarm occurs the delay time runs and the alarm is first processed by the Communication Center after the time has elapsed (unless three other alarms occur within 10 seconds).

User in shift

Here you can make settings regarding the configuration of shifts. You can set the following options:

• Remove overparam. older than 365 [days] (Don`t remove any if 0): The user can specially change the configured schedules (for example, change a person for a specific period, divide time interval). For further information for this configuration see chapter Overview panel of the Communication Center. The made historic of the special configurationsare stored as long as specified here and are then deleted automatically.

Further settings

The buttons can be used to open further configuration panels which can, however, also be opened via the main panel of the Communication Center. The functions and possible settings of these panels were already described on the preceding pages.

You can find the description of the alarm groups on the page Define alarm groups. For information on the device types, see chapter Define device types. The configuration of special days allows the user to set special days that play a specific role for the operating time (see also Define operating time and priorities). Cyclic datasets inform the user about current values of DPEs and states at the plant also when no alarm is pending (the user can, for example, get the information about the value of a specific DPE every 10 minutes).