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PPO includes a notifications module, which allows the application to generate notifications to PPO users. This addresses the requirement PPO Administrators have, to communicate with their users, be it about reminding them of project deadlines or an upcoming event.
By implementing notifications on the instance, the PPO Administrator will be allowed to communicate with all the users on the instance, by displaying an in-app banner notification. These notifications are very powerful and significantly more effective than e-mail based notifications for certain types of communication.
The notifications are displayed in a black information bar with non-disruptive messages, which will appear at the top of the page, on your PPO instance.
Typical examples of what you may want to use instance specific notifications for include:
- Notifying users of new processes or major configuration changes e.g. “We have introduced a new approval process for Business Cases. Click on the link to learn more.”
- Reminding users of deadlines e.g. “Please remember that your project information must be updated by the end of this week for our quarterly review”.
- Reminding users of upcoming events e.g. “Don’t forget our Christmas party is on 3 December!” or “We will be doing PPO user training on 3 March. Click on the link to learn more.”
Below is an example of a notification:
These notifications will appear on every PPO screen. Once the user has closed the notification, by clicking on the “Close” option, the notification will not be displayed again.
Please note that there are no pre-set rules for the use of these notifications, but we would advise you to use the notifications sparingly, to avoid “spamming” users and retain its effectiveness.
Adding a notification
Under the Administration Menu select Notifications which will take you the Notifications List page, then click on the Add button. On the form that is displayed, complete the information as described below:
Title: This is used so that you can easily identify the notification in the notifications list. It is not visible to the end-user and is therefore only for internal use.
Message: Write a short message. Keep in mind that the message should not exceed 180 characters.
Characters Left: This indicates the number of characters that can still be used in the message.
Link: Supply an optional URL link on which users can click to read more about the details of the notification.
Link Text: You can specify the link text e.g. Read More or Click Here.
Effective Date and Time: This is the date and time on which users will start seeing the notification. Note that the time zone is that of the user that is setting up the notification. It will be converted and stored on the server as UTC+0/GMT+0. All users will start seeing the notification at this time, regardless of their time-zone.
Expiry Date and Time: Users will no longer see this notification after this date and time.
Recipients: Notifications can either be shown to all users or a subset of users based on the user group that they belong to. To display the notification to all users, select the "All" option. To only show the notifications to users belonging to specific user groups, select the "Specified User Groups" option.
Usergroups: If you selected "Specified User Groups" above, you will be presented with an additional field, which allows you to select the user groups. Simply click on the grey box and select the applicable user groups and then click on the Apply changes button.
Once all of the above information has been captured, click on the “Submit” button.
Access the following video which will guide you in setting up instance specific notifications.
Updating a notification
To update a notification, click on the notification from the Notifications List page and from the Notifications View page,click on the Edit button.
Update the necessary information and then click on the Submit button.
Deleting a notification
To delete a notification, click on the notification from the Notifications List page and from the Notifications View page, click on the Actions Menu then the Delete button.
The notification will no longer be accessible after it has been deleted. If a similar notification is required in future, it will have to be set up again from scratch.
Additional considerations for instance specific notifications
Q: I have added a notification and back-dated the effective date and time, but users are not seeing the notification. Why?
A: Users will start seeing the notifications from the effective date and time. Messages are however cached and it could take up to 5 minutes before users start seeing the notification.
Q: This is great functionality! Can I use it to remind users every Friday to complete their time sheets?
A: Currently, this functionality does not support recurring notifications (e.g. every Friday). Also, we recommend that you do not use this functionality too much since users will start automatically closing the notifications without reading it. Use it sparingly to avoid “spamming” users and retain its effectiveness.
Q: Can I show notifications based on an event (other than time), e.g. when a user updates a project.
A: Currently we do not support this functionality.