Difference between revisions of "FAQ"

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(Messaging FAQ)
(Messaging FAQ)
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== [[Messages |Messaging]] FAQ ==
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== [[Messages |Messaging FAQ]] ==
  
 
<u>'''One of my team members is only getting part of my SMS message. I'm getting the whole thing. Is that because I have more permissions?'''</u>
 
<u>'''One of my team members is only getting part of my SMS message. I'm getting the whole thing. Is that because I have more permissions?'''</u>

Revision as of 19:16, 15 December 2016

General FAQ

Does Mission Manager need to be run on the Web? What if we don't have an internet connection?

No. Mission can be run in Mission manager without a connection to the Internet. Missions run in this offline mode can later be synced back online. Managing some of your team information, calendar, tasks, does require a connection to the Internet.

Can the Mission Manager Software be run on our agency's server?

This is possible, please contact Mission Manager sales at (619) 457-6119.

Who loads data into Mission Manager for agency personnel? Are we responsible for that? I'm concerned about manpower and how much effort it may take.

This is up to the customer. Mission Manager provides very easy tools to import existing personnel from a standard spreadsheet file. Should the customer want us to load the data, I’m sure this can be done for a small support fee.

What about security? Is my data secure?

While no one can offer a 100% security assurance, Mission Manager Inc. takes the security of your data very seriously. Here are some specifics:

The Mission Manager Web Site is protected by a SSL / HTTPS secure connection.

The physical server is hosted on site of one of the largest providers of such services. The site is protected by 24/7 physical security and network monitoring teams. Retinal and vascular scans are in place for employees to gain access to various areas with appropriate security clearance, and a fire suppression and monitoring system works to ensure minimal damage in the event of a fire.

Certain critical data is encrypted on our server and not even visible to Mission Manager Inc. employees.

The only people who have access to any team's information is your team, and the Mission Manager system/computer administrators/programmers.

We run monitoring software to watch for possible hacking attempts.

What Web Browser do you recommend?

We recommend Google Chrome or Firefox since Mission Manager is optimized to run best with these browsers. Although we do also support Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Opera, Safari and several mobile browsers. See the Compatibility Chart.

What pictures formats can be uploaded to Mission Manager?

Picture formats which can be uploaded are .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, or .png. Once uploaded, the picture may be rotated using the directional arrows below the picture.

Where can I get the answers to more questions and get support help?

Right here on the message forum. Or, email techsupport@missionmanager.com


Messaging FAQ

One of my team members is only getting part of my SMS message. I'm getting the whole thing. Is that because I have more permissions?

SMS messages by definition were meant to be short, 160 characters or less. Mobile phone companies handle messages longer than that differently. Some companies truncate your message and the chopped off portion is lost. Other companies break your message into parts and send multiple text messages. There is no setting you can change so that your team member gets the whole message. You should send shorter messages. Watch the character length field in the upper right corner of the Messages screen.

Most of my SMS message is taken up by an email address that is about 100 characters long! I can only read a few words of the original message. I used to receive the messages before. What did you change?

We did change servers recently, but you are having a problem with the way your phone company chooses to display an incoming message. They are interpreting the email header wrong and you are seeing more of the header than you should be. You'll need to contact your mobile phone provider so that they can troubleshoot the issue. [Note: customer has T-Mobile]

I do not receive my test message, when the rest of my team does. How come?

I'm not sure if you're referring to an email message or an SMS message, so let's handle both. All messages get sent out as rapidly as possible. The very fact that some team members get the message indicates that the message went out. For an email message, please check your spam folder and allow all incoming messages from the domain of missionmanager.net. For an SMS message, make sure you have a properly formatted phone email address in the format of nnnnnnnnnn@yourmobilecarrier.com where the n's are your mobile phone number with no dashes, and you are using the proper domain for your mobile phone company's email gateway.

You are sending SMS text messages as emails. That is not true SMS. Why do you do it that way?

Because it's free! We are taking advantage of the ability to send a text message through an email. A true SMS gateway would cost your team money for every text message sent to a mobile phone. It wouldn't matter if your team members have a texting plan, it's a sending fee.

Recently, whenever I send out a mass email to all of my volunteers, their email replies are coming back blank. I will open the email, and their email address will be listed, but there will be no message.

Yes, the messaging system has changed. In the very beginning (2010) Mission Manager was able to send messages from a user’s email address. When members replied, it became a normal email conversation outside of Mission Manager. Today, sending email on behalf of someone else is considered spoofing, a version of spam. Over time the big email providers have tightened up on spam, thankfully, but that caused Mission Manager to change the way it sends out messages. We couldn’t send messages on behalf of other people’s email addresses anymore. Mission Manager introduced the unpopular Relay system to send messages out to your members, which they could reply to. The unintended consequence of that is we got caught up trying to unravel bounced messages on behalf of our clients. Very time consuming.

So the most recent messaging change was to shift the sender to be ‘Notifications’ rather than your name, and include the sender’s email address (or text address) in the body of the message. That way your members can click your email address and reply straight to you like the good old days, taking the conversation outside of Mission Manager and the Notification system. Not only is it quicker, but you and your members can manage your own email bounces.

The takeaway from the above explanation is that you need to inform your members to reply to you by clicking your email address in the body of the email, and to NOT hit reply to the incoming Notification message. In the near future, if your members reply to the Notification address, their email will bounce.

Missions FAQ

What levels of access can be granted to those on scene? What is access level is given to Commanders vs Chief vs Sergeants? Can these levels be customized? Can that customization be done on the fly?

Yes to all questions. Mission Manager provides a customizable level of access for all personnel, the individual team administrator controls what access they want to give each person. This can be based on their rank or customized based on whatever the team wishes. For example, you might want to give a non-ranking person access to their information only, you might want to give a sergeant or supervisor access to only the personnel under their command but not access to missions, or you might want to give the Chief and Commanders access to all personnel and mission information. All of this functionality is supported by the system and can be changed at anytime by those with the rights to do so.

Mapping FAQ

Regarding the mapping function, what about US government owned property? We have a lot of it around here and it helps to know where those boundaries are so our guys don’t get into hot water with the federal government.

Mission Manager has built in support for over one hundred different map overlays. One of the available supported map layers is Boundaries for Federal Land which will show the location of government property on the map. Mission Manager also supports the ability to add user defined custom map layers.

Regarding the tracking of personnel in the field, some officers have radios which broadcast the GPS location of officers, can you guys access that? What about the wrist bands that others use?

Yes, but it may require some customization. There are hundreds of different GPS type hardware devices currently available and it would be difficult to support all of these different devices automatically. For this reason Mission Manager has an API that allows users to interface these different devices to the system for real time tracking of personnel in the field. Mission Manager does support APRS directly, so if your devices support this format, they should work directly with Mission Manager. Mission Manager also allows for the downloading of GPS tracks from standard GPX export files.