An alert is a notification that a Storage Unit, Room, or a Kontakt.io Temp Monitor device needs attention. Alerts are how Temperature Monitoring turns a detected problem into an action someone is responsible for and documenting the resolution taken.
Active alerts appear in the Temperature Monitoring Alerts menu. When an alert is triggered, notifications are sent as an email, SMS, or to a third-party system. The alert stays open until a person resolves it.
Alert types
Temperature Monitoring generates an alert for any of these conditions.
| Alert type | Triggers when |
|---|---|
| Threshold alert for Storage Unit | A Storage Unit reading goes outside its threshold range. |
| Threshold alert for Room | A Room reading goes outside its threshold range. |
| Hardware error alert | A Monitor reports a hardware problem, such as a disconnected probe. |
| Monitor offline alert | A Monitor stops reporting to Temperature Monitoring. |
| Data out of sync alert | A Monitor has not synced its recorded data within 7, 14, or 21 days. |
An unanswered alert can also be escalated, which generates an escalation alert for a designated Group. See About escalation alerts.
Two things to track on every alert
An alert carries two independent statuses — one is the user action and the second is system generated.
| Status | Values | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Alert status | New, Acknowledged, Resolved | Where the alert is in the user response: nobody has touched it, someone is handling it, or it is closed. |
| Condition status | Condition active, Back to normal | Whether the underlying problem is still happening or has cleared. |
Note: If alert escalation is enabled for your organization's Kio account, an unaddressed alert can also show Escalated.
An alert can be Acknowledged while the condition is still Condition active—someone is working on it but the temperature is still out of range. An alert can also be Back to normal but still New, meaning the temperature recovered on its own and no one has resolved the alert yet. Both still require a person to resolve them.
The alert response
Every alert follows the same path:
- The alert is triggered and appears in the Alerts list. Notifications are sent to the people the Alert Rule names.
- A responder acknowledges the alert, confirming they are handling it. Acknowledging can stop reminders and escalation, depending on the rule.
- The responder takes corrective action according to your facility's procedures. See Responding to alerts for what to do by alert type.
- The responder resolves the alert, recording the corrective action taken.
If the same condition occurs again after an alert is resolved, a new alert is generated. Resolved alerts cannot be reopened.
Escalation
If an alert is not acknowledged or resolved within a set time, an Alert Rule can escalate it, notifying an additional group of people. Escalation is configured as part of the Alert Rule. See About escalation alerts.
Alerts do not resolve themselves
When the condition that triggered an alert clears, its condition status changes to Back to normal, but the alert stays open. That applies to every alert type: a temperature or humidity reading returns within its threshold, a hardware error is corrected, or an offline Monitor starts reporting again. A person must still resolve the alert. This is by design—resolving an alert records the corrective action that was taken, which auditors and accreditation bodies require.
Why an excursion may not trigger an alert right away
An excursion can trigger an alert, but only when the affected Storage Unit or Room is covered by an active Alert Rule and the threshold alert delay has passed.
- An excursion happens when a Storage Unit or Room reading falls outside its assigned Threshold Setting. Temperature Monitoring detects and records excursions as soon as they occur.
- An alert is triggered when an active Alert Rule monitors that Storage Unit or Room and the threshold alert delay (company-wide or per-department) has been reached.
Because of this, a Storage Unit or Room can show an excursion in the Monitoring view before an alert appears in the Alerts list. If no alert appears after the threshold alert delay has passed, check that the Storage Unit or Room is included in an active Alert Rule for the matching alert type. See Troubleshooting: Alert not triggering.