Milestone XProtect users, rejoice! The Boring Lab will soon release a new feature for The Boring Toolbox that will allow you to receive and take action on VMS health monitoring notifications directly in Slack. This is excellent news for anyone who manages their company’s Milestone VMS and is looking for a way to improve their workflow and streamline their communications.
With this new feature, you can receive real-time updates on issues with your XProtect installation, without having to constantly check your email inbox. Keep reading for more information about how this new feature will work and how to set it up.
We created a slack bot hosted in the cloud. The on-prem Boring server connects securely to the slack bot from the client’s own network and does not need any open ports from the outside.
From a network perspective, it is seamless.
With our Slack integration, you are able to receive live health monitoring notifications about your VMS, such as camera down and restoration events, as well as receive scheduled reports directly in your designated slack channel.
You will also be able to interact with your Milestone server by using slash “/” commands.
But wait, there’s more…
You can manage all of your sites directly from slack by connecting multiple sites (ie. Milestone Management servers) to the same bot.
Managing Milestone VMS via mobile is not possible today, meaning you need to be in front of a computer to get anything productive done. With the Slack integration, you can cloud-enable your Milestone management, allowing you to be effective and responsive from your mobile device.
When you can receive important information about your VMS and interact with Milestone directly from Slack, you don’t need to be tethered to your computer to know that your surveillance system is working correctly.
The best part is, there is no need to download yet another app, as you likely already have the Slack app installed and in use!
Most people who use Slack spend most of their day in the Slack interface collaborating with their colleagues, vendors, and customers. So, naturally, it makes sense that you’d want to manage Milestone from the same place!
Boring for Slack allows you to create a seamless workflow! Once you receive a scheduled report or important information about your VMS, you can begin the remediation process in the same channel by collaborating with colleagues who are responsible for next steps.
Now you can easily use your other Slack integrations alongside your BoringBot alerts and reports. One of our favorite examples is using Zendesk to create a new ticket directly from your Boring alert and report messages. It’s as easy as right-clicking and selecting.
Live Monitoring Notifications will alert you to health monitoring activity such as connectivity issues and errors that may jeopardize your video recording. Here are some examples of what various notifications look like and what they indicate:
➜ One new camera stopped providing a video stream to XProtect but there was already another camera not providing video, making a total of 2 cameras with video streaming errors.
➜ One camera has been restored meaning it is back providing a video stream to Milestone XProtect as expected. The other camera still remains inactive.
➜ Your scheduled report has arrived.
Receiving Milestone XProtect health monitoring notifications directly in Slack will allow you to take action more quickly when issues arise within your VMS. With notifications sent through slack rather than email, team members will be able to collaborate more easily and efficiently. This will make it easier for everyone on your team to stay informed of any technical issues that may jeopardize security video footage.
Your go-to XProtect eXPerts. We learn the technical stuff that will save you time and make it less boring.
Your go-to XProtect eXPerts. We learn the technical stuff that will save you time and make it less boring.
Getting Started with The Boring Toolbox #3: Learn about the various health monitoring insights and features you will find on…
Getting Started #2: Learn how to configure your parent and managed sites as well as connect Boring to Milestone XProtect…
Getting Started #1: This tutorial will teach you how to install The Boring Toolbox on your server and client.
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