9. RESPONDER ALARM CIRCLES

Select “ALARM CIRCLES” in the menu to create new responder alarm circles or edit or delete existing circles.

A responder alarm circle defines who (which responders) receive emergency alert when a user triggers an emergency alarm. When creating the responder alarm circle, you have to put yourself in the position of the person who is in an emergency situation and define the responders (co-workers, alarm receiving center, reception desk, HSE officers or guards) who need to be notified.

When you purchased a subscription with licenses to alert directly to an Alarm Receiving Centre you must not add responders in the alarmcircle. Please validate that the users who need to alert directly to the Alarm Receiving Centre have “PAC LICENSE” activated when you create this user in system (create users > select product)

PERSAFE offers you the possibility to use one or more unique alarm circles per employee for example when the employee works on multiple locations or user has different responders per work shift or during weekend and night operations.

We offer alarm circles using groups of employees (e.g. “group staff location A” alerts to“group HSE officers”) or alarm circles set up for individual employees. To use GROUP ALARM CIRCLES, you first need to create groups of users in the GROUPS section of the portal.

Every user needs to have minimum one active alarm circle in his account. For every new user in the subscription PERSAFE automatically creates “My first alarm circle” for that person (with no responders allocated yet).

You can edit existing alarm circles or create new alarm circles;

Select the user in the fold-out menu (by putting the cursor on the white box in the top of the screen and click on it). An overview of all users in your subscription is shown. Select the user for which you want to edit or create a new responder alarm circle.

If you want to see an overview of all available alarm circles in your subscription including group alarm circles move the cursor upwards (top position of the fold-out menu) and select “all alarm circles”.

After you selected the user, or all alarm circles the screen shows all the responder alarm circles currently available;

Every existing alarm circle is displayed with a card containing following information;

  • “NAME” for responder alarm circle that is used in the app to identify which alarm circle is active (which responders will be notified during an emergency alarm)
  • TIME INTERVAL. Define the time-interval between the notification rounds (each alarm notification is sent 3 times to the responders). Default this is 40 seconds. Per alarm-circle this setting can be changed to 60 seconds time-interval.
  • MIN. RESPONDERS. Define minimum number of required responders who accept the alarm notification. Persafe makes sure that per notification round the minimum number of responders to be notified is equal or greater than minimum number of required active responders. Persafe validates how many responders are absent and not available and increases number of responders for the (next) notification round to ensure that minimum criteria for required potential responders is fulfilled.
  • LOCATIONS CONFIGERED. This function is only available for group alarm circles. It shows if Google geofence locations are defined for this alarm circle. With a Google geofence location the system can activate/deactivate this alarm circle when user arrives or leaves this geolocation.
  • ACTOR. Persafe classifies the user that initiates an alarm as the alarm actor.
  • RESPONDERS. Persafe classifies the users that receive alarm notification to provide help as responders.
  • ROUND. Stands for the notification round when the specified responder receives the alarm notification for the first time. Expand number of responders per notification round (we sent alarm in maximum three rounds to responders). If during first or second round nobody or not enough responders accepted the alarm, we expand number of responders for the next round of notifications. Every time you add responder you need to specify in which round this responder receives alarm notification for the first time (default setting is round 1)
  • DISTANCE. You can add a distance criterion in meters only for round 1 per responder. If responders have actual location position that is further away from the person in emergency than specified, they are not notified in the first notification round (assuming that minimum required responder’s criterion is fulfilled). If you leave the “distance in meters” box empty or with 0 this criterion will not be active. If you fill in a value above 76 meters the alarm-server will validate if the responder is within (responder receives alarm notification in round 1) or outside (responder does not receive alarm notification in round 1) this distance.

To edit existing alarm circle, click on edit. To create a “NEW” responder alarm circle you can choose one of the blue colored buttons:
+ add individual alarm circle > define responders per employee
+ add group alarm circle > define responders per group of employees

  • An INDIVIDUAL alarm circle has only one “ACTOR” with responders who will be notified during an emergency alarm. You can select more than one responder per alarm circle, by putting the cursor on the white box under “RESPONDERS” and click on it. An overview of all users in your subscription is shown. Select the user you want to add to the responders of this alarm circle. Every time you want to add a responder to the alarm circle you need to click on the “ADD RESPONDER” button.
  • A GROUP alarm circle has multiple “ACTORS” with responders who will be notified during an emergency situation. You need to define or edit the “ACTORS” of the alarm circle. You can select more than one actor or groups of employees per alarm circle, by putting the cursor on the white box under “ACTORS” and click on it. An overview of all users or groups in your subscription is shown. Select the user or group you want to add to the actors of this alarm circle. Every time you want to add an actor to the alarm circle you need to click on “+ADD ACTOR” button. You need to appoint responders per actor, this can be groups or individual users. Click on the actor card in the portal to open the section where you can select responders. Put the cursor on the white box under “RESPONDERS” and click on it. An overview of all users and groups in your subscription is shown. Select the user or group you want to add as responders to this actor in this alarm circle. Every time you want to add a responder to the actor you need to click on the “+ ADD RESPONDER” button.
  • Every responder is shown with an individual card. Per responder you can define;
    • RESPONDER ROUND. In which notification round does this responder receive alarm notification for the first time. Default setting notification round = 1
    • DISTANCE IN METERS. Specify distance in meters (minimum 76 meters) if you want this criterion to apply. ONLY APPLICABLE FOR ROUND 1 of alarm notifications. If the responder is within this distance, he receives alarm notification, if he is outside, he will not receive alarm notification in ROUND 1. The meters can be specified per responder. Default setting 0 meters/disabled
    • Does this responder receive “ASSISTANCE REQUEST” notifications (other type of alert triggered by the blue slider in the app). Default setting is enabled.
  • Click “CREATE/UPDATE” to confirm and store and make this alarm circle active in the subscription.

PERSAFE offers possibility to automatically activate/de-active alarm circles when a user enters or leaves a Google geofence location. This functionality is only available for group alarm circles.

To set Google geofence locations for a user or group of users in an alarm circle as ADMIN click on ‘edit’ in the group alarm circle card. Locations you have already registered are shown and can be edited. If you want to add a new location click the “add location” blue button.

A new screen opens:

  • “NAME” gives each location a unique name
  • You can add a reference number (optional)
  • “SEARCH FOR LOCATION ADDRESS” here you can type an address in the Google database. While you type the address, Google starts searching and once the correct address is found you can select this with your cursor.
  • On the Map a google location icon is placed on the address you selected. You can now position the location icon on the building or area of your choice by clicking on the icon and move the icon. To make this more accurate you can switch the view between map and satellite.
  • You need to define the radius in meters for activate/de-activate alarm circle when arriving and leaving. The minimum radius is 76 meters to ensure function is working accurate.
  • Click “UPDATE” to store and make PLACES notification active.