Want OpenAir alerts via a communication channel other than email?

Email used to be the grease that turned the wheels of business communication. As distance work has increased, though, so has the volume of emails we get on a daily basis. Few people still use alerts for incoming messages, and many ignore or gloss over a high percentage of their messages.

That’s a real challenge if your NetSuite OpenAir instance sends emails for alerts and reminders. These messages are intended to streamline workflows, but instead, they are lost in a sea of other emails.

On the other hand, with many of us still – and perhaps permanently – working remotely, it makes sense that collaboration platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams have risen in importance in corporate communication. For a few businesses, even text messages are preferred to email alerts.

Several months ago, we began receiving requests for help putting OpenAir alerts back in front of users. Since we created a script that integrates OpenAir with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and text messaging services, we’ve seen an increasing number of clients request this functionality.

What the Communication Platform Integration Script Does

Messages coming into Slack catches our attention far better than email. Because many of the kinds of alerts that OpenAir sends are for items that need attention in the near term – overdue approvals and timesheets, project assignments, and so on – receiving these messages within Slack just makes sense. And while we may focus on Slack in this article for simplicity, this functionality is applicable and has been implemented for both Microsoft Teams and text messaging using services like Twillo, as well.

The script takes OpenAir’s alerts and pushes them to your messaging platform. You can configure the script to send messages directly to specific channels or users. In Slack, these direct messages appear in the Apps section of the tool’s sidebar navigation, just as they do from Google Docs, Trello, and other apps.

Use Cases for Alerts Sent to Slack, Teams, and Text

There are dozens of use cases for these alerts. Here are just a few that we’ve implemented.

Assignment notifications

Project and task assignments can produce an alert to the assignee to let them know there is work to be done. This way, the resource knows immediately what is needed and can review timing and expectations quickly.

 Budget Alerts

Knowing where a project is at in its budget cycle is important. OpenAir offers the ability to alert PMs and leaders when a project hits a budget threshold. You can configure the parameters of this script to alert resources when various budget milestones are crossed, such as 50% of the budget spent, 80%, 90%, and so on.

 Approval Workflows

Sending alerts to Slack, Teams, or text is useful for nearly any process that requires approvals. For example, alerts can be sent when timesheet approvals are late or approvals for expense reports or invoices are due.

 Timesheets

Timesheet management is a pain point that we hear from our customers frequently. The same alerts that you use in OpenAir – notifying resources that timesheets are due or overdue – can be sent directly to Slack, Teams, or as a text message. This way, team members that don’t log into OpenAir daily or miss the alerts in their email will still receive the necessary notifications.

Ongoing Use of the Communication Platform Integration Script

This script is very easy to use. It’s been developed so that an OpenAir admin can change a few parameters to add or edit messages or change which channels alerts are going to. Once in place, changes to the script itself are rare.

Conclusion

Some messages can wait until team members have time to review their email messages. However, many alerts that come from OpenAir are time-sensitive and require attention quickly. Sending those alerts to the communication platforms that are already part of your company’s flow of work – whether that is Microsoft Teams, Slack, or texts – ensures those messages aren’t lost within a flood of others.

If you’re interested in learning more about this script, or if you have other challenges with your OpenAir implementation, Top Step is here to help. We specialize in OpenAir – we even use it ourselves – and love to hear how others are using the platform to streamline the professional services organizations.