A notification is a message delivered to a set of recipients in response to a particular event or trigger. Notifications are commonly used to send updates about packages. You can also set up notifications for system and administration events. TekTrack automatically sends notifications when there has been system activity; no action is required on your part to send them.
There are several different types of notifications available from TekTrack. Notifications for packages are usually triggered when a package reaches a specific stage. For example, a notification may go out when a package has been received or delivered. Notifications that go out immediately after the trigger has occurred are called standard notifications. You can also set up notifications that are triggered by a package remaining in a particular stage for a certain length of time. These are called reminder notifications.
You can setup multiple notifications for the same trigger. For example, you may want to send an e-mail notification to a recipient letting them know a package has been received and will be delivered to them shortly. For the same package, you may also want to send a text message to an operator so they know a package is waiting for delivery. These two separate notifications will be created for the same trigger but will have different target recipients and messages. Any package that is processed as received will trigger both notifications simultaneously.
Reminder notifications are typically used in combination with standard notifications to reduce the need for manual follow-up contact with a recipient. For example, you may require recipients to come to the front desk or mailroom to pick up their package. If you have a standard notification created for when a package is received, the recipient will be notified immediately. However, some recipients may forget or are unavailable to pick up their package at that time. To reduce your need to follow-up and contact the recipient directly, you can create a reminder notification for these cases and configure it to be at a later date as a reminder to the recipient. If the package is not picked up before then, the reminder notification will automatically be sent to the recipient. As an example, you can coordinate multiple reminder notifications and have 1st, 2nd, and final reminders before taking a different action with the package.
Notifications can be delivered in several different ways: by e-mail or text message through SMS, by passing information to a program on the TekTrack Server, or by uploading information to a web server. Regardless of the notification type, you create a template to define the notification and information you want to send. The notification wizard provides notification variables that are available for use during template creation to represent specific package or event information (for example, tracking ID, carrier, date, etc). When the notification is sent, TekTrack will resolve and replace the variable using the package information it represents.