Adding a Group

You can add a group to your list of groups in Web Console.

  1. Navigate to Groups in the Manage section, and click Add Group. The New Group page displays.
    The New Group page has six sections:
    • General
    • Contact Information
    • Members
    • Voice
    • Roles
    • Voice Permissions
    Tip: You can click the drop down arrow at the right hand side of each section to expand or collapse these sections.
  2. In the General section, complete the fields listed in the table below. An asterisk * indicates that a value must be entered for this field.
    Field Description
    Name * The name of the group.
    Facility * The name of the facility for the new group. If you have not defined any facility, or if you do not want to specify a facility for the new group, use the default Global value for this group.
    Group Type Select one of the following three types:
    • Ordinary — A group whose members are NOT considered members of a parent department. Examples of ordinary groups include administrative groups, groups with dynamic membership, role-based groups, and bed/room groups.
    • Department — A voice group that corresponds to a department within the organization using the Vocera system. By designating a group as a department, you provide accounting features and speech recognition enhancements that are not available to other Vocera groups.
      For example, you can differentiate users by specifying their department in voice commands.
      Note: The Department group type should not be confused with the physical Department associated with a Facility. Adding a voice department group type will not link it with the Facility for this group.

      If you select Department, the PIN for Long Distance Calls and Cost Center fields become editable.

    • Subdepartment — A subgroup of a department group. Members of a subdepartment are also considered members of a parent department. A subdepartment should be directly contained within an existing department or another subdepartment.
    Cost Center

    A Cost Center ID enables Vocera to track system usage by department and potentially allows an organization to charge its departments for relative usage.

    Use this field only if you are working with a department group.

    Remove Users on Logout

    Select this checkbox to specify that membership in the group is temporary.

    When you select this checkbox, Vocera automatically removes users from the group when they log out, but leaves the rest of the user profile in the database. Users are not added into the group automatically when they log back in.

    Important: Users are only removed from the group when they log out. Keep in mind that users may place badges in the charger or simply leave the facility without logging out when their shifts end. To accommodate this behavior, consider setting the following options to log users out automatically:
    • Enable the Auto Logout When Badge In Charger setting.

    • Check the Enable Auto-Logout Period checkbox in the Preferences section of System Configuration in Settings section of the Web Console

    If you are working in the Groups data-loading template, specify either True or False. If you do not provide a value, False is assumed.

    Prevent calls and messages to group Select this checkbox to prevent calls and messages from reaching the members of a specified group.
  3. In the Contact Information section, optionally complete the fields listed in the table below.
    Field Description
    Vocera Phone The phone number provided for the new group with Vocera Vina.
    Pager The pager number for the new group.
    Emergency Broadcast Group

    The name of the group that receives emergency broadcasts for a functional group. Click Find Group to find this group in the list of existing groups.

    Note: A silent emergency broadcast is configured at the facility level only and will apply to all emergency groups for the entire facility.
  4. In the Members section, click Add Members to add members to the new group. In the Add Members dialog box that appears, click on the names of the members that you want to add. Click Previous and Next or the arrow keys to page through the list of members as needed. Click Done when finished.
  5. In the Voice section, specify Vocera Platform properties for voice access to the new group, as defined in the tables below.

    Scheduling Options:

    Field

    Description

    Sequential

    Choose Sequential if you want one person to be the main contact. The second member in the list is called only if the first person is not available, a third member is called only if the first two are unavailable, and so forth.

    The order in which names appear in the Group Member Name list on the Members tab of the Add/Edit Group dialog box is important when you choose Sequential scheduling.

    Round Robin

    Choose Round Robin if you want calls to be distributed as evenly as possible among group members. When you choose round robin, Vocera iterates through members in the group until someone accepts the call; however, the person who most recently accepted a group call is tried last.

    Forwarding:

    Field

    Description

    No Forwarding

    If a call to the group is not answered, the caller is prompted to leave a message, and that message is delivered to all members of the group.

    Forward to Group Pager

    Sends a page to the group pager when no members of the original group can take the call.

    The group's Pager field must be specified to forward to the group pager. Otherwise, this field is not enabled.

    Forward to User, Group, or Contact

    Transfers the call to a particular badge user, group, or contact entry when no members of the original group can take the call. See Forwarding Calls to Users, Groups, or Contacts for more information.

    When you forward to a group, the forwarding settings of individual group members are ignored.

    Forward to Another Number

    Transfers the unanswered call to the number that you enter.

    This feature requires the telephony integration option.

    Forward to an Off-network Group Member

    Enables on-call group members to receive calls when they are off-network.

    Forward When

    This field appears only when you select the Forward to an Off-network Group Member field.

    Choose one of the following:

    • All — forward all incoming calls.

    • Unanswered— forward only calls that are not answered.

    Enable Group Voicemail — Permits users to leave voicemail recordings for the group. The group voicemail option is enabled by default. Users can send voicemail only to the groups in which they are members.

    Forwarding Condition:

    Field

    Description

    Forward On Broadcast to Number

    Forward every call that comes in to the group, without notifying group members.

    Forward On Conference to Number

    Forward only calls that are not answered by any member of the group.

    Fields in the column on the right:

    Field

    Maximum Length

    Description

    Member Name-Singular

    50

    Enter a name that describes a member of the group. For example, in the group called Sales, a group member would be known as a sales person. This would allow the Genie to recognize a command such as, "Call a sales person."

    Best Practice: Do not start the singular name of members with the words "a" or "an" because those words are already in the Vocera grammar.

    Member Name-Plural

    50

    Optionally enter a name that collectively describes the members of the group. For example, in the group called Sales, the collection of group members could be called sales people. This would allow the Genie to recognize a command such as, "Send a message to all sales people."

    Best Practice: Do not start the plural name of members with the word "all" - for example, all sales people - ”because that will result in redundant syntax in Genie prompts, such as, "I'm recording a message for all sales people."

    Alternate Spoken Group Name

    50

    Optionally enter a variation of the group name. For example, some people might say "the Sales team" instead of "Sales." If you enter the Sales team as an Alternate Spoken Group Name, the Genie will recognize "Call the sales team."

    PIN for Long Distance Calls

    50

    A telephony PIN authorizes members of a Vocera department to make phone calls and allows an organization to charge departments for those calls.

    A PIN template can include digits, special characters, and PIN macros.

    Use this field only if you are working with a department group.

    Cross Facility Option - Receive Offsite Calls

    n/a

    Select this checkbox to permit calls to the group to be received by members who are currently at a different facility from the caller. If your Vocera system has only one facility, this option does not apply.

    If you don't want members to receive calls to the group when they are currently at a different facility from the caller (if the group's facility is Global) or at a different facility from the group (if the group's facility is not Global), clear this checkbox.

    Cross Facility Option - Receive Offsite Broadcast

    n/a

    Select this checkbox to permit broadcasts to the group to be received by members who are currently at a different facility from the person who initiated the broadcast. If your Vocera system has only one facility, this option does not apply.

    If you don't want members to receive broadcasts to the group when they are currently at a different facility from the caller (if the group's facility is Global) or at a different facility from the group (if the group's facility is not Global), clear this checkbox.

    In the Conference Users section, you can maintain the list of users who are in the conference with the same name as the group. To add to this list, click Add Conference Users.

  6. In the Roles section, click Add Role to associate a role with this group. Roles control what capabilities of the Vocera Platform Web Console are available to this group. See Roles for more information on roles.

    In the Add Role dialog box that appears, select a role from the drop-down list and click Done. Repeat this step to add additional roles for this group.

  7. In the Voice Permissions section, specify Vocera Platform permissions for the new group, see Granting Group Voice Permissions for more information.
  8. Select one of the following to close the dialog:
    • Save — to add the new group to the system.
    • Cancel — to return to the Groups page.