Applications Administration Guide > Message Broadcasting >

Creating a Message Broadcast

When you create a message broadcast, all connected users that you specify receive the message immediately upon the date and time you have specified that the message be activated. Mobile users, such as field representatives, receive the activated messages when they synchronize.

NOTE:  To send a message broadcast, you must have responsibilities that include access to the Message Broadcasts view.

Typically, the appearance of a message broadcast is designated by a single severity level, as specified in the Severity field. Each severity level is associated with a different color. The severity level that you choose determines the color of the message broadcast and how it is delivered.

In addition to using the Severity field to determine the appearance of a message, you can also combine multiple severity levels to create a message broadcast with unique formatting. By adding special tags to the text of a message broadcast, you can change the color of different sections of the message. The following tags are used to combine severity levels in a message:

• [N] for Normal
• [H] for High
• [U] for Urgent

For example, if your message has a severity of normal, but you want specific text to be highlighted, you can tag parts of the text with the code for High or Urgent. Here is an example:

The trunk line from [H]Chicago, Illinois [N]is [U]DOWN!

The beginning of the message appears in the color for the severity of the message, Normal; the words Chicago, Illinois appears in the color for High; and the word DOWN! appears in the color for Urgent.

To create a message broadcast

1. Navigate to the Administration - Communications screen > Message Broadcasts view.
2. In the Message Broadcasts list, create a new record and complete the necessary fields.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Abstract	A brief description of the message.
   Activation Date/Time	Date and time at which you want to start broadcasting the message. If the Activation field is left blank, the message is broadcast immediately. However, broadcasts are controlled by the application message interval and login. NOTE:  The date and time are taken from the Siebel Server (not from the machine where the client browser is running). Make sure that the date and time are set correctly on the Siebel Server.
   All Users	Check this option to broadcast the message to all users.
   Briefing Bulletin	Check this option to distribute the message as a bulletin on the My Briefing page. For more information, see Siebel Briefings Administration Guide.
   Broadcast	Required to send the message broadcast to recipient's message bar. Check this option to broadcast and display the message. If not checked, the message is not broadcast in the message bar at the bottom of the screen.
   Expiration Date/Time	Date and time at which you want to stop broadcasting the message. If the Expiration field is left blank, the message does not expire and the message continues to be broadcast. NOTE:  The date and time are taken from the Siebel Server (not from the machine where the client browser is running). Make sure that the date and time are set correctly on the Siebel Server.
   Message	Required to create the message broadcast record. The text you want to send as the message broadcast. This field accepts up to 2,000 characters. To use severity levels within the message text, see About Automatically Updating Message Broadcasting Text.
   Recipient Division	The broadcast message is sent to all users associated with the divisions selected in the Divisions dialog box. This field can be used in combination with the Recipient Position field.
   Recipient Position	The broadcast message is sent to all users specified in the Recipients dialog box. This field can be used in combination with the Recipient Division field. For an employee name to show up in the Recipients dialog box, the employee must have a position defined and be marked active for that position. If multiple employees occupy the same position, the message is sent to all of them, even though you only see the active employee on the list. Employees with multiple positions see messages sent to any of their positions, regardless of what position they log in as.
   Severity	Required to create the message broadcast record. Choose the severity level to indicate the importance and appearance of the message. To force the message broadcast to appear in an alert box in the middle of the screen, in addition to its appearance on the message bar, select Urgent with Alert.

3. In the Message field, enter the message broadcast text you want to send.
4. (Optional) In the Message field, insert severity level tags as necessary to set the appearance of the message broadcast text.