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ITS Modifying Email Communication Delivery to Improve Clarity of Messaging

New color-coded banners will help users quickly identify the level of impact for unexpected technology incidents.

Feb 25, 2020

Beginning on Monday, March 2, Information Technology Services (ITS) will launch new methods of communicating with the CNM community about technology-related information and incidents. The goal will be to help faculty, staff and students more easily understand the potential impact of technology incidents while creating a separate email account to deliver more routine ITS communications, such as notices about scheduled technology outages for maintenance, implementation of new technology or email security updates.

Currently, all ITS communications related to technology incidents, scheduled technology outages and other technology-related updates come from “ITS Alerts” (itsalerts@cnm.edu) or are included in emails/newsletters from the Marketing and Communications Office.

Beginning Monday, you will continue to receive emails from ITS Alerts for unexpected technology incidents, but they will come with color-coded banners in the email that will quickly inform you of the alert level: Critical, Severe, Limited Impact, or Resolved. The alert level will also be included in the subject line of the email, but without color.

If a technology incident has a significant impact on the entire college, a large orange banner will also appear on the front page of cnm.edu (unless the website is temporarily inaccessible). 

A new email account – "ITS Notification" – will deliver notices about scheduled technology events, such as upcoming maintenance outages, or informational messages about other ITS services.

ITS Alerts

Here are the new color-coded banners that will be included in emails from ITS Alerts to help the CNM community more easily understand the impact of an unexpected technology incident:

ITS Alert: Critical level. For example, critical college-wide application or service, such as Banner, cnm.edu or Salesforce is unavailable and there’s no workaround.
ITS Alert: Critical level. For example, critical college-wide application or service, such as Banner, cnm.edu or Salesforce is unavailable and there’s no workaround.

ITS Alert: Severe level. For example, a critical or non-critical application or service is unavailable, but a workaround exists.
ITS Alert: Severe level. For example, a critical or non-critical application or service is unavailable, but a workaround exists.

ITS Alert: Limited Impact level. For example, a system or service is not functioning properly and has limited impact on the CNM community.
ITS Alert: Limited Impact level. For example, a system or service is not functioning properly and has limited impact on the CNM community.

ITS Alert: Resolved status. An issue from a previous ITS Alert has been resolved.
ITS Alert: Resolved status. An issue from a previous ITS Alert has been resolved.

ITS Notifications

Here's an example of the banner for a non-urgent email from ITS Notifications to inform the CNM community about scheduled technology outages for maintenance, email security, or informational messages about other ITS services:

Example of ITS Notification email: Informational (blue)
Example of ITS Notification email: Informational

If you have questions or feedback, please email Candi Borrecco at cborrecco@cnm.edu. ITS will also be attending meetings around the college to inform the CNM community about these communication changes.