eArmy Family Messaging System (eAFMS) User Guide

eAFMS User Guide
eArmy Family Messaging System
(eAFMS) User Guide
Revised 07/2014
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eAFMS User Guide
Notice
This guide and all of the information contained herein are confidential and proprietary to
U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM) G9 Family and MWR
Programs. By accepting this document, the recipient agrees to use this document and
its associated materials solely as an end-user of this software application. The recipient
further agrees to hold the information in this document as personal and confidential and,
except as required by law, not to disclose this information to any other person or
organization.
© 2014 U.S. Army IMCOM G9 Family and MWR Programs. All Rights Reserved.
This document was prepared on behalf of:
Shaunya Murrill
Chief, Outreach & Strategic Integration Division
Family Programs Directorate
IMCOM G9 Family and MWR Programs
2455 Reynolds Road
Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234-1222
email: [email protected]
Army OneSource - www.myarmyonesource.com
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Using eAFMS
This manual will guide you through the process of using the eArmy Family Messaging System. It will
show you how to upload your Recipients, send a message, and manage your site such as adjusting the
IDs used by your messages, create new admins, etc.
Table of Contents
Getting into eAFMS ....................................................................................................................................... 4
Uploading Recipients to eAFMS .................................................................................................................... 5
Adding Recipients Individually .................................................................................................................. 5
Adding Recipients via a Spreadsheet Upload ........................................................................................... 8
Managing Groups .................................................................................................................................... 12
Create New Group .............................................................................................................................. 13
Edit Group ........................................................................................................................................... 15
Delete Group ....................................................................................................................................... 16
Sending a Message in eAFMS ..................................................................................................................... 17
Delivery Modes ....................................................................................................................................... 20
Phone .................................................................................................................................................. 21
Email.................................................................................................................................................... 22
Text ..................................................................................................................................................... 23
Copy Modes ............................................................................................................................................ 24
Insert Variable ......................................................................................................................................... 25
Scripts...................................................................................................................................................... 26
Reports .................................................................................................................................................... 26
Managing Your Site ..................................................................................................................................... 30
Editing Your Site Profile .......................................................................................................................... 30
Caller IDs and Email IDs........................................................................................................................... 32
Adding New Admins ................................................................................................................................ 37
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eAFMS User Guide
Getting into eAFMS
Access to eAFMS is controlled through the Army FRG System. To log into eAFMS, you will first log into
Army FRG. Go to http://www.armyfrg.org and click on the Login link at the top of the screen.
Once you are logged in, go to the Featured Links tab in the top navigation and click on the link for the
eArmy Family Messaging System.
This will open a new tab that will automatically log you into eAFMS. Please note, this single sign-on will
only work if your Army FRG account has been linked to eAFMS. If you get the following error message:
Failure logging in. Invalid login.
Then you do not have a connection between Army FRG and eAFMS. This may be because you don’t
have an account on eAFMS or because the two have not been linked.
If you are to be a new administrator for eAFMS, you will first want to contact the current admins for
eAFMS. They have the ability to get you set up. If they are unavailable, we will need confirmation from
the Commander as listed for your Army FRG site. If that information is out of date, then we will need
confirmation from IMCOM regarding the new Commander.
Further information about creating a new admin for eAFMS can be found below.
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Uploading Recipients to eAFMS
Before you can send a message, you need to have somebody to send the message to. There are two
ways to add Recipients, individually and through a spreadsheet upload.
Adding Recipients Individually
To add a single Recipient, click on the Recipients tab in the top navigation and then on New Contact.
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You will be given a form to fill in for the new Recipient.
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Institutions
Reference Code
Contact Type
First name
Last name
Language
Address
This is the name of the Unit you are adding the person to.
Leave this blank.
This should be set to "Resident" for all entries.
The Recipient’s first name.
The Recipient’s last name.
If the user wishes to receive messages in another language, set it to be one of:
English, French, German, Korean, or Spanish.
Click on the + to add the Recipient’s street address.
Contact Modes
Click on the + to add Phone, Email, Fax, or Pager information for the Recipient.
For phone numbers, click on the Receive Voice checkbox if the number can
receive voice calls. Click on the Receive Text checkbox if the number can receive
text messages.
If the phone number is for someone who is hard of hearing and uses the TTY
system, check the This is a TTY phone checkbox.
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Group Associations
Click on the + to add the Recipient to a Group.
When you are done filling in the form, click on Save at the bottom of the screen.
Adding Recipients via a Spreadsheet Upload
To upload your Recipients to the eArmy Family Messaging System, you will first need to download the
template. It can be found at the following address:
http://www.armyfrg.org/eAFMS_Template
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The Template contains the following fields:
AGENCY
CONTACTTYPE
REFERENCECODE
FIRSTNAME
LASTNAME
PRIMARYPHONE
HOMEPHONE
WORKPHONE
MOBILEPHONE
SMSPHONE
EMAILADDRESS
EMAILADDRESSALT
HOMEADDRESS
HOMECITY
HOMESTATE
HOMEZIP
LANGUAGE
GROUP
This is the name of the Unit you are adding the person to (required).
This should be set to "Resident" for all entries (required).
Leave this blank.
The Recipient’s first name (required).
The Recipient’s last name (required).
The Recipient’s primary phone number to be contacted at (required). This
number should be the same as one of the Home, Work, or Mobile numbers
(required).
The Recipient’s home phone number.
The Recipient’s work phone number.
The Recipient’s mobile phone number.
The Recipient’s text number (often the same as MOBILEPHONE).
The Recipient’s email address.
The Recipient’s alternative email address.
The Recipient’s street address.
The Recipient’s city.
The Recipient’s state.
The Recipient’s ZIP code.
If the Recipient wishes to receive messages in another language, set it to be one
of: English, French, German, Korean, or Spanish.
The group the Recipient is to be put into. You can use this to create the group if it
doesn't already exist. If the user is to be put into multiple groups, simply add
GROUP columns.
Be sure to delete all extraneous information from the template (such as the field explanations and the
saving instructions).
Your template will look something like this:
Do not alter the formatting of the template in any way. Do not add borders, colors, shading, fonts,
centering, etc.
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When you have put in all the information, save the template. Please note that the template is a .csv file.
Even though it will open in Excel, it is not an Excel file. When you save it, make sure that you save it as a
.csv file and not an .xls or .xlsx file. If you do a “Save As,” Excel should default to a .csv file when saving
the template as shown here:
Once you have saved your file, you can then upload it. From eAFMS, click on Recipients:
Then click on Import Data:
You’ll be asked for some information regarding the file you are uploading:
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1) Click on Select to locate the file you are uploading.
2) Select the site this information should be uploaded to. This will usually be your site. If you are
an admin for a higher Unit such as a Brigade and you are making an upload for a child site such
as a Battalion, choose the child Unit. This is especially important for delete-and-replace
uploads.
3) Set the Contact Type to Resident.
4) Leave the Data Provider as CLIENT.
5) If you are doing a delete-and-replace, click on Advanced options.
 Check the Resident checkbox in Remove contact types not provided in the import file.
This will delete all old entries marked as Resident. Note: Be careful when doing a
delete-and-replace that you set the site information correctly in Step 2. If you are a
Brigade admin and are doing a delete-and-replace for the Battalion but you leave the
Site set to “All,” then you will delete your entire Recipient list for all sites that you are an
admin for.
6) When ready, click Import.
You will receive an email notice when your file has been imported. You can view the results by clicking
on View import history on this page.
Managing Groups
If you need to create a new Group or edit an existing Group, you can do so through the Recipients tab.
Click on Groups:
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Create New Group
To create a new Group, click on New Group.
You’ll be given a form to fill in:
Give the Group a name and assign it to the appropriate Site. You can then start assigning people to the
Group by clicking on Assign Contacts. When finished, click Save.
When assigning contacts, you can search for people via the Site, Type, County, Language, Group,
Gender, Country, or Source.
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When you find the contacts you wish to add, select them and click on Done.
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Edit Group
To edit a Group, hover over the Group and then click on the pencil icon for the Group:
You’ll be shown the details of the Group:
Make any changes required and click on Save.
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Delete Group
To delete a Group, hover over the Group and click the trash can icon:
You will be asked to verify:
If you wish to delete the Group and all of the people that are in the Group, choose Delete Group and All
Related Contacts.
If you wish to only delete the Group but keep all of the people that are in the Group, choose Delete
Group, Keep Contacts.
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Sending a Message in eAFMS
To send a message in eAFMS, click on Message Center:
From the Message Center, indicate if you are sending an Emergency message or an Outreach message:
An Emergency message will use all contact methods available for the user while an Outreach will only
use the preferred method of contact.
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The system will then ask you information about the message:
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Message Type
Title
To
Languages
Delivery Modes
Time Zone
When
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This is set to either Emergency or Outreach based on your previous choice. You
can change it if you clicked the wrong one.
The title of the message
Who is going to receive the message? You can type in the name of the Group. The
system will match what you type to the Group names available. Select the Group
from the list that appears to add that Group to the recipient list.
If you want to send the message to everyone, type All. Note that this is in regard
to the Contacts that you can manage. For example, a Brigade-level message sent
to All will include Contacts that have been added at the Battalion and Company
sites.
You can send messages in multiple languages. The message will use the site’s
default language. You can manually add extra languages by clicking on Add
Languages.
If any of the recipients from the To section are set to use another language, a
button for that language will appear automatically. Click on it to create the
messages for that language. If you wish the system to translate your message, you
will want to create it first in the default language and then click on Translate All.
Click to edit that particular method of delivery. The system lets you know how
many people will receive the message via that method. See below for details on
each method.
The time zone for the message.
When should the message be delivered?
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When you are ready, click Next to review the details of the message:
If the message is good to go, click Send.
The system will do some sanity checks regarding the message. If more than 75% of your contacts are
selected, if the message is due to be sent at an odd hour, etc., you will be given a warning. Check the
box to indicate that you wish to send the message despite those concerns.
Delivery Modes
eAFMS provides multiple ways to send a message: Phone, Email, and Text. You do not need to use all
methods. If you only need to send an email, you can use eAFMS to only send an email.
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Phone
To send a Phone message, first set the CallerID that the message will come from. Then click on either
Add Voice or Add Text to Speech.
You can add up to 5 different Voice messages and 5 different Text to Speech messages.
When you click on a Voice message you will get the following screen:
To record the message, follow the instructions on the right.
The system will give you a scratch pad where you can write out the message you would like to send.
This way, when call the system to record it, you can read it rather than trying to compose the message
off the cuff.
This will also allow you to use the Insert Variable options. Write out your message and insert the
variables desired. As you record your message, press the * button on your telephone keypad when you
reach a variable in the text. Because the text is written out, the system will know which variable to use,
the order in which to use them, and the moment in the recording to have that variable inserted into the
message. Variables will be discussed in more detail in the Insert Variable section below.
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When you click on a Text to Speech message, you will get the following screen:
Write whatever message you wish to have the system read out when it calls the users.
Email
When sending an Email, you will see the following:
Indicate where the message is coming From and then enter the Subject and the body of the message.
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Text
When sending a Text, you will see the following:
You are limited to 160 characters for the text.
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For all methods, you have the following options:
Copy Modes
If you have created a message in one delivery method and you want to copy it to another, select the
Copy Modes… dropdown. You will be given the option to Copy To or Copy From.
If you are copying to, the system will take the message from the delivery method you are currently using
(on the left) and copy it to the method you select (on the right). If you are copying from, the system will
take the message from the delivery method you select (on the right) and copy it to the method you are
currently using (on the left).
You can always edit the message after you have copied it.
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Insert Variable
You can personalize a message by using Variables. This allows you to insert information pulled from a
person’s profile into the message. That is, instead of having your email read:
Hello, FRG Subscriber.
You can instead have it read:
Hello, John.
When creating your message, click on the Insert Variable dropdown to choose the variable to use.
The system will then insert the variable you chose at the insertion point in the message.
When the message is sent, the system will substitute the Recipient’s information for that variable at that
point.
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Scripts
If you have a message that you routinely send, you can save it as a script and then insert it into a
message.
To save a message as a script, click on Save as Script.
To insert the script, select it from the Insert Script dropdown. Please note that any text currently in the
message will be deleted and replaced by the text of the script. You can then edit the message to
customize it further.
Reports
To view the results of your message, click on Sent.
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You will see a list of all messages sent at your site along with a summary of each message. To view the
specific results of a message, hover over it and click on the magnifying glass icon.
You will be given a summary of results of the message.
You can click on the number in Selected Contacts to view the specific people the message was sent to as
well as the particular results for each Recipient.
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If you wish to review the message itself, click on the language link. It will show you what was sent for
each Delivery Mode used.
For more specific details regarding the results of the message, click on View Detailed Results. The
screen will expand to show you the results for each Delivery Mode.
To view the full report regarding your message, including the specifics on bad phone numbers,
answering machines, etc., click on Export.
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To resend the message, choose the Delivery Mode(s) to resend and click on Resend. You will be asked
to schedule the message.
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Managing Your Site
To keep your site up to date, you will need to ensure the name and address for your site is accurate, the
IDs used for email and phone messages are correct, and add and remove admins from your site as
personnel changes. All of this is done in the Admin tab.
Editing Your Site Profile
To update the information regarding your site’s name, address, default language, and time zone, click on
the pencil icon for the site:
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You’ll be shown the profile information for the site.
You can rename your site, but we do ask that you maintain the integrity of the naming convention. If
you are editing a Division- or Brigade-level site, keep the location name include. That is, it should be of
the format:
U.S. ARMY- FORT HOOD, 69TH ADA BRIGADE
U.S. ARMY- NG KENTUCKY, 138TH FIRES BRIGADE
U.S. ARMY- RESERVES, 412TH ENGINEER COMMAND
This will help us locate your site and the sites underneath you in the hierarchy. Active Units should use
the Community name, Guard Units should use “NG” plus the state, and Reserve Units should use
“RESERVES.”
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Battalion- and Company-level Units have more leeway with their names, but please make sure that the
name chosen is uniquely identifiable. That is, “Alpha Company” is not sufficient for a name since there
are many Alpha Companies in the Army. Instead, you will want to use something like:
2-142/COMPANY A
113TH STB/BRAVO COMPANY (SIGNAL)
1-142/HHC
This helps to ensure that no other Unit is using your site name. This is especially important when adding
Recipients if you are at the Brigade or higher. You will need to indicate which site the person you are
adding belongs in. If you have multiple sites named “ALPHA COMPANY,” then there is no way to tell
which is which.
You can set the Language and Time Zone of your site. If you have Recipients that do not have a
language set, they will receive the message in the language indicated here.
When you send a message, the default setting for scheduled messages will use the time zone indicated
here.
When you are finished making changes, click Save.
Caller IDs and Email IDs
When you send a message, you must include a Caller ID that will show where the phone message is
coming from and an Email ID that will show where the email message is coming from. From the Admin
tab, click on Settings.
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To set a Caller ID, click on Caller IDs.
To add a new Caller ID, click on Add New.
Fill in the form for the new ID and click Save:
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Description
Caller ID
Name of the ID as it will appear not only in the dropdown when you choose a Caller
ID but also on the phone when the message is sent.
Select the country code and then put in the rest of the phone number.
To edit an ID, hover over the entry and click the pencil icon.
You can then make changes to the entry.
To delete an entry, hover over the entry and click the trash can icon.
You’ll be asked to confirm.
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To set an Email ID, click on Email IDs.
To add a new Caller ID, click on Add New.
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Fill in the form for the new ID and click Save:
Description
Display Name
Email ID
A description of the ID.
The name of the ID as it will appear in the dropdown as well as in the From line of
the email message.
The email address that will appear in the From line of the email message.
To edit an ID, hover over the entry and click the pencil icon.
You can then make changes to the entry.
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To delete an entry, hover over the entry and click the trash can icon.
You’ll be asked to confirm.
Adding New Admins
To create a new administrator for eAFMS, you will first need to add them as a User to eAFMS. Then,
make sure they have subscribed to Army FRG and then notify Technical Support for Army FRG to link the
Army FRG and eAFMS accounts together.
From the Admin tab, click on Users.
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To add a User, click on Add User.
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Fill in the form for the new User and click Save.
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Connect Username
Site
Prefix
First name
Last name
Title
Role
Email Address
Primary/Secondary Phone
Primary Fax
Subscription Phone
Subscriptions
Use the email address for the User. The system requires a unique
Connect Username for each User and using the email address will
ensure it is unique.
Set the appropriate site for the User. Make sure to set them as high as
they should be. Administrative rights flow down the hierarchy.
Set the appropriate title prefix for the User.
The first name of the User.
The last name of the User.
Leave as Admin.
Set to Super User (Top). This will give full admin rights and allow the
admin to administer lower level sites. For a full description of all the
available roles, click on View roles.
The email address of the User.
The phone numbers for the User.
The fax number for the User, if any.
The phone number to use for phone-based subscription notices
When a message is sent out, a summary notice will be sent to the
Subscription Phone and/or Email Address listed for the User. You can
determine different settings for the phone and email summary and for
different types of messages:
None: No summary will be sent for that kind of message.
MyMessages: The User will only receive summaries for messages the
User specifically sends out. Messages sent by other Users will not
trigger a summary.
MySite: The User will receive summaries for any messages sent by the
specific Unit the User is assigned to. That is, if a User is assigned to a
Brigade-level site and a message is sent from the Battalion, the User
will not receive a summary. However, a message sent from the
Brigade-level site, even if by another Brigade-level admin, will trigger a
summary.
AllSites: The User will receive summaries for all messages sent from a
site they have admin rights over. That is, a message sent by the
Company will trigger a summary for the Brigade-level User.
Be sure to make sure the new admin is subscribed to Army FRG. Then notify Technical Support by
clicking on Contact Us so that the accounts can be linked.
Note: Users are not Recipients. IMCOM policy is that all admins should also be added as Recipients.
Should IMCOM need to broadcast a message to all admins for eAFMS, this will allow them to do so
through eAFMS.
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To edit a User, hover over the entry for the User and click on the eye icon.
You can then make any changes to the User’s information.
To delete a User, hover over the entry for the User and click on the trashcan icon.
You’ll be asked to confirm.
Please note that deleting a User from eAFMS does not remove any admin rights on Army FRG.
Note, you cannot edit your own User entry this way. To edit your own information, go to the top of the
screen, hover over your name, and click on Account.
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