Exercise 4.5: Subscribing users to system announcements

In this exercise you will learn how to subscribe a user to system announcements.

Overview

System announcements are created by IBM® Support to broadcast messages about SmartCloud for Social Business, for example notifications of upcoming maintenance. By default, system announcements are displayed on the dashboard.

In addition, they can be sent to users via e-mail. Administrators can subscribe individual users to system announcements, which means that the announcements will be forwarded to the e-mail account for that user in addition to being displayed after the user logs in.

Objectives

After completing this exercise, you should be able to:

Glossary

Term Definition
System announcement Announcement created by Support to broadcast messages about SmartCloud for Social Business, for example notifications of upcoming maintenance.
Parent topic: Lesson 4: Customizing SmartCloud for Social Business for your organization
Previous topic: Exercise 4.4: Creating organization announcements

Procedure

Step
Action
1
Log in and navigate to the Administration panel. For detailed steps, see the procedure document: Accessing the Administration Panel.
2
From the navigation pane, click User Accounts.
Click User Accounts
3
Click the arrow next to the user that you want to subscribe to system announcements. Click Subscribe to Announcements.
Click the arrow next to the user's name, and then select Subscribe to Announcements.
 Result: You should receive a message that the user was subscribed to system announcements successfully.
Jarod Chetelat subscribed to System Announcements successfully.
4
If you later want to unsubscribe the user from system announcements, click the arrow next to the user's name, and select Unsubscribe from Announcements.
Click the arrow next to the user's name, and then select Subscribe to Announcements.
 Result: You should receive a message that the user was unsubscribed from system announcements successfully.
Jarod Chetelat unsubscribed to System Announcements successfully.

Test Yourself

Question Answer
What is the difference between an Organization Announcement and a System Announcement? An Organization Announcement is a broadcast message created and distributed by a SmartCloud for Social Business administrator to users containing information you want to make them aware of. Announcements are displayed on My Dashboard for all the users in your organization. A System Announcement is created by Support to broadcast messages about SmartCloud for Social Business, for example notifications of upcoming maintenance.

The main difference is that an Organization Announcement is created and distributed by a company's administrator, while a system announcement is created and distributed by Support.

Resources