Basic Group Information

The Info page of the Add/Edit Group dialog box (or the corresponding fields in the data-loading template) lets you specify the group name, its telephone number, alternate names for the group and its members, and scheduling information.

Table 1. Basic group information fields

Field

Maximum Length

Description

Group Name

50

The name must start with a letter or digit. It must contain only letters, digits, spaces, apostrophes ('), underscores (_), or dashes (-). No other characters are allowed.

By default, the speech recognition system uses the Group Name to recognize groups. If users refer to a group by something other than the Group Name, provide an Alternate Spoken Group Name.

Site

50

Use the Site field to specify the group's home site. In the Add/Edit Group dialog box, click the Select button to open the Select Site dialog box, and then choose a name from the list and click Finish.

If your organization has multiple sites connected to the same Vocera Voice Server, choose the home site that represents the member's physical location. If the group's membership spans multiple sites, choose Global.

If your organization does not have multiple sites, accept the default Global setting.

Vocera Extension

75

Optionally enter a telephone extension number for the group in the Vocera Extension field.

Important: This number is a virtual extension, not an actual desk extension.

If the telephony integration option is installed, outside callers who dial the Vocera hunt number can connect to the group by entering the group extension at the Genie prompt, instead of saying the group name.

Pager

75

Optionally provide a pager number for the group in the Pager field.

You can configure Vocera to forward a group’s calls to this specified pager.

If you enter a value for this field, any user can issue the "Send a page" voice command to send a numeric page to this group.

Permission Only (not callable)

n/a

Optionally disable calling and broadcasting to this group by checking this box. Generally, you should disable calling and broadcasting only for administrative groups, that is, groups used to grant or revoke Vocera permissions. All other groups should have calling enabled.

Note: You cannot use this field to disable an emergency broadcast to a designated emergency broadcast group. Even if the group is configured to not be callable, members will receive the incoming emergency broadcast call.

If you check this box, DO NOT enter a value in the Vocera Extension field for the group. Otherwise, users will still be able to call the group by dialing its extension.

Note: Checking the Permission Only box does not prevent permission-only groups from appearing in Vocera smartphone clients even though the groups are not callable. If users have access to the User Console, they can also add a permission-only group to their Buddies list.

Emergency Broadcast Group

n/a

(Optional) Use the Emergency Broadcast Group field to specify the name of the group that receives emergency broadcasts for a functional group.
Note: A silent emergency broadcast is configured at the site level only and will apply to all emergency groups for the entire site.

For more information, see Emergency Broadcast Groups.

Member Name-Singular

50

In the Member Name-Singular field, 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

In the Member Name-Plural field, 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

In the Alternate Spoken Group Name field, 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."

Scheduling Options

n/a

Specify either of the following:

  • 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.

  • 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.

If you provide a value other than Sequential or Round Robin in the data-loading template, an error will occur when you try to import the file.

Receive Offsite Calls

n/a

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

If you don't want members to receive calls to the group when they are currently at a different site from the caller (if the site of the group is Global) or at a different site from the group (if the site of the group is not Global), uncheck this setting.

Receive Offsite Broadcast

n/a

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

If you don't want members to receive broadcasts to the group when they are currently at a different site from the caller (if the site of the group is Global) or at a different site from the group (if the site of the group is not Global), uncheck this setting.