Data Quality (1/17/2014)

Communication processes are only as good as the contact information provided to the process. A number of my friends using the product have shared with me the importance of their xMatters Groups in their communication processes. With that importance comes the need for better tools to audit the Groups. An example use case is:

I need to audit my "Command Staff" group to verify it contains the users I expect it to contain AND to make sure those users actually have mobile phone numbers defined in the system.

Three months ago in our previous release webinar (Fall 2013 Release) I mentioned that we are trying to sneak in a new feature to help you with these data quality issues. And I am excited to announce that we found some room in our Winter 2014 Release (due Feb 8th in NA1 and EU1 and AU1 shortly after) to get it done. The feature is initially only for Groups only (not Dynamic Teams) but allows you to create a CSV export containing any of the Groups you can see in our Groups tab. Put whatever filters you want in place (or no filters if you want to go big) and then access the feature under the new gear drop down. xMatters will then send a CSV download your way containing a record for each member of the selected Groups with the format: Group Name, Group Description, Coverage Name, Team Name, Escalation Time, Type (e.g. "Person", "Device", "Group", etc), Name (target name), First and Last Names (if a person), a number of other person-centric fields including custom fields/attributes, and device information if the current user is allowed to see it.

From this format you can easily catch exceptions like:

• A Group is empty.
• A person is missing from a Group
• A member of a the Group is missing a key contact device

Here is a sample file (click on it to enlarge) - note the possible data issues such as Mary Finkle missing a Work Phone and Calvin Russell missing a Mobile Phone:

Here is the UI for the feature, it is very simple and congruent with our User export on the neighboring tab:

We have a ton of other new features coming out in our Winter 2014 Release so it will be another big one. Release Overviews and Webinars will be coming soon. In the meantime know that xMatters has your data quality in mind.

xMatters Reference

Blog- Originally created by Doug Peete