FAQ

• Is Alertly a business intelligence (BI) / analytics tool?

  Alertly is a subset of BI. Sometimes you need to analyze data and, for that application, BI tools are great. However, in a huge number of cases users open reports simply to look for outliers, to find conditions outside of what they expect, or need, to see. Alertly does replace BI for this situation. With Alertly, business users can focus on doing their work. When important things need attention, the system tells them. Otherwise, they can go about doing their jobs without wasting time reviewing reports scanning for outliers.

• How is Alertly different than other alerting and business process management services, like Google Alerts and If This Then That (IFTTT)?

  The market offers options for people who need alerts. Most of these services take some action when an event occurs. Alertly, on the other hand, can act on events but, more importantly, Alertly can also act on the results of multiple events. For example, not only can Alertly notify you if a particular salesperson makes a sale but it can also alert you when total sales for that salesperson exceeds their quota for the month.

  In addition, many services are limited in where they can source their data. Alertly, however, can use data from any source - including data from your own systems.

  Finally, most systems are limited in the actions that an alert can take. For example, some are limited to starting a process in some other, publicly accessible service. Alertly, on the other hand, can send text and email messages and, it can also be configured to fire any process accessible via a webhook.

  No other tool or service offers this level of power, flexibility, and functionality.

• How often does Alertly scan my data?

  You tell Alertly how often to scan your data. While some applications only make sense to scan once each month, others require daily or hourly scanning. Still others require a search for important conditions as soon as new data arrives - in near real time or, as Alertly calls it, in Fire on Refresh mode. Alertly can handle all these, as well as an infinite number of variations.

• Can I store HIPAA / PCI / Other regulated data?

  Alertly was designed by data security experts and is secure, and we take security very seriously. Nonetheless, given today’s internet world, we are not able to store sensitive data such as social security numbers and medical record data on Alertly. To accommodate these kinds of needs, we recommend encrypting or hashing that data before submitting it to Alertly, and then not storing the equivalencies on our end. Alert results will display the hashed values which can, then, be decoded by way of lookup on your end. If you have special needs, please contact us.

• Why is Alertly better than writing my own programs to send alerts?

  Alertly does for alerting what database engines did for data. No one writes file management calls anymore, we all use an RDBMS like Oracle, MySQL, or SQL Server. These tools are far easier and faster than writing file manipulation routines.

  Alertly does the same thing for alerting - you can implement alerting with a few simple program calls. We handle the rest: managing your alert conditions, scanning your data, and interacting with SMS and email systems. We even give your users a way to modify alerts on their own, saving you time.

• For what languages does Alertly provide software development kits (SDKs)?

  Alertly currently offers a Python SDK. Working with a language you’d like supported? Please contact us and let us know - we’re always open to suggestions!

• Is there a white label version of Alertly?

  Alertly can be white labeled for organizations wishing to embed its functionality in their own products. Contact us for pricing and details.

Do you have additional questions? Let us know, and we would be happy to respond!