Digital On-Call Scheduling Defined

Digital on-call scheduling is the process of creating defined times, schedules and rotations for shift members via a console or interface. For incident alert management, the on-call schedule is used to automatically (digitally) alert designated team members when a critical incident happens. Members of an IT on-call team respond to critical alerts during after hours, vacation times and weekend periods. Digital on-call scheduling is key to ensuring the integrity of IT functions, uptime and ops functionality 24/7.

Yoast Focus Keyword

 

Why Is Digital On-Call Scheduling Important? What're the Benefits?

digital on-call scheduling

 

Manages Alert Fatigue and Burnout

Digital on-call scheduling enables teams to better manage the burden of after-hours calls so that team members take turns being responsible for the company’s important IT functionality.

Since responsibilities are rotated and represented in the digital schedule, no one person is responsible for all IT outages, and the workload is balanced and fair so alert fatigue and burnout are minimized.

Yoast Focus Keyword

Minimizes Downtime

When network interruptions, equipment failures or equipment problems arise, the cost of the ensuing downtime can be significant.

Downtime can cost medium-sized enterprises as much as $1 million per year and $60 million for large enterprises, respectively.

By having a digital on-call scheduling system in place, IT teams can rest assured that critical alerts get immediate attention and are forwarded to the right on-call engineer to resolve the issue. 

Enables Use of a Mobile Solution

By combining the digital on-call scheduling platform with a mobile solution, such as a smartphone pager, managers can integrate on-call schedules with alerting apps on responders’ smartphones.

This integration translates engineering issues into persistent and prominent mobile alerts.

Unlike traditional pager communications, IT teams can securely attach files to pager app messages to give on-call engineers more information about a critical incident.

Learn More

What's New With OnPage Schedules?

change log

Schedule Change Log

OnPage’s fail-safe scheduling system democratizes the schedule creation process, allowing authorized users to make changes to their schedule when life happens. The Schedule Change Log introduces accountability to the process and ensures that employees take ownership of their actions.

With the Schedule Change Log option, organizations gain complete visibility into all the changes made to on-call schedules. The report provides comprehensive information on who made scheduling changes with timestamps.

Advanced On-Call Schedule Exceptions

On-call schedule exceptions come in handy when a user needs to switch on-call assignments with another user for a specific time frame or when a system administrator wants to make an exception to a recurring schedule for a date range.

Once a schedule exception has ended, on-call schedules revert back to their original configurations. Schedule exceptions are now available on OnPage’s Enterprise Gold subscription.

on call reminder

Mobile On-Call Reminders

Before an on-call shift begins, tasked persons will receive an on-call reminder notification on the OnPage app.

OnPage’s on-call reminders prevent on-call shifts from being forgotten.

Reminders can be configured exclusively on the OnPage Enterprise Gold package! Want to learn more? Contact us!

White Paper: Mastering On-Call Scheduling

On-call engineers want to resolve issues as quickly as possible and return to their regularly scheduled life (or sleep).

And yet, on-call schedules are often muddled by poor communication tools and policies that impede a quick resolution.

The Seven Steps to Mastering On-Call Scheduling guide shows how teams can improve on-call scheduling, including:

  • The importance of including alert escalations
  • The need for effective communication tools
  • The part played by post-mortem meetings and reviews

To get your free copy of our white paper, please fill out the form below.

Mastering On Call Scheduling 1

OnPage