Service Outage Management Guide

Time to complete: 20 minutes

Difficulty: Beginner

Prerequisites: Admin access

Overview

Valethon's Service Status system helps you communicate outages, maintenance windows, and service issues to your customers. When you update a service status, affected users are automatically notified via email.

Key Concepts

Services

Services are the offerings you provide to customers:

Status Levels

Each service can have one of four statuses:

Service Assignments

Services can be:

• Global: Defined once, assigned to multiple companies
• Company-specific: Custom services for individual customers

Setup: Defining Services

Step 1: Create Global Services

• Navigate to Admin Menu → Outage Services
• Click Add Service
• Enter:
• Service Name: Human-readable name (e.g., "Email Service")
• Category: Optional grouping (e.g., "Cloud", "Network")
• Description: What this service includes
• Sort Order: Display order in lists
• Click Save

Recommended Starter Services:

• Email / Microsoft 365
• Internet Connectivity
• VoIP / Phone System
• On-Premise Servers
• Backup & Recovery
• Security Monitoring
• Customer Portal/Website
• VPN Access

Step 2: Assign Services to Companies

• Navigate to Customers → [Company] → Services
• Click Manage Services
• Check services this company uses
• Optionally set Custom Name (e.g., "Acme Email" instead of "Email Service")
• Click Save Assignments

Managing Status Updates

Changing Service Status

Method 1: From Company View

• Navigate to Customers → [Company] → Services
• Click the service name
• Select new status from dropdown
• Add notes explaining the situation
• Click Update Status

Method 2: Bulk Update (Global)

• Navigate to Admin Menu → Outage Services
• Find the service
• Click Change Status
• Select new status
• Add notes
• Check "Apply to all linked companies"
• Click Update

Status Change Fields

Example Status Updates

Scheduled Maintenance:

Status: Scheduled Service
Notes: Email system maintenance scheduled for security updates.
       Expected impact: 15-minute email delay.
       No action required from users.
Start: Saturday, Jan 15 at 2:00 AM
End: Saturday, Jan 15 at 4:00 AM

Intermittent Problems:

Status: Intermittent Problems
Notes: We're aware of slow email delivery affecting some users.
       Our team is investigating.
       Updates will be posted as available.

System Down:

Status: System is Down
Notes: Email service is currently unavailable.
       Cause: Upstream provider outage
       Estimated restoration: Within 2 hours
       We apologize for the inconvenience.

Recovery:

Status: Operating Normally
Notes: Email service has been restored.
       Root cause: Provider network maintenance
       All queued messages have been delivered.
       Thank you for your patience.

Email Notifications

Automatic Notifications

When status changes, Valethon sends emails to:

• All contacts at the affected company
• Contacts with email addresses only
• Based on notification preferences

Email Templates

Four templates, one per status level:

Customizing Templates

• Navigate to Admin Menu → Email Templates
• Find the outage template (e.g., outage_system_down)
• Click Edit
• Modify subject and body
• Use available variables:
• {{service_name}} - Name of affected service
• {{company_name}} - Customer company name
• {{status}} - Current status
• {{notes}} - Your status notes
• {{start_time}} - Scheduled start
• {{end_time}} - Scheduled end
• {{ticket_number}} - Related ticket
• Click Save

Notification Preferences

Control which statuses trigger notifications per service:

• Navigate to Admin Menu → Outage Services → [Service]
• Click Notification Settings
• Toggle notifications per status level:
• [x] Operating Normally (recovery notification)
• [x] Scheduled Service (advance warning)
• [x] Intermittent Problems (awareness)
• [x] System is Down (critical alert)
• Click Save

Tip: Some customers may not want "Operating Normally" emails. Disable per their preference.

Viewing Status History

Service History

• Navigate to Customers → [Company] → Services
• Click the service name
• View the Status History tab

Shows:

• All status changes
• Who made the change
• Notes at time of change
• Notification count

Company Dashboard

The company overview shows current status for all services at a glance:

• Green checkmarks for healthy services
• Yellow/red indicators for issues
• Click any indicator to see details

Global Dashboard

Admin Menu → Service Status Dashboard shows:

• All services with current status
• Companies affected by issues
• Quick filters by status level
• One-click bulk updates

Best Practices

Communication

Timing

Integration with Tickets

Link status updates to tickets:

• Creates audit trail
• Allows detailed tracking
• Enables post-incident review

When creating status update:

• Enter existing ticket number, or
• Click "Create Ticket" to generate new ticket

Val AI Integration

Val AI can check service status when users ask:

User: "Is email down?"

Val: "I checked the service status for your company. Email Service is currently experiencing intermittent problems. Our team is investigating slow delivery times. We'll send an update when resolved."

Enable in: Settings → Val AI → Permissions → Service Status Access

Customer Portal View

End users see service status in the Helpdesk Portal:

• Status Banner: Alert at top of page during outages
• Service Status Page: Full list of services and status
• Status History: Recent changes per service

This reduces "Is X down?" support calls.

Configuring Portal Visibility

Control what customers see:

• Navigate to Settings → Helpdesk Portal
• Under Service Status:
• [x] Show status banner during outages
• [x] Show service status page
• [ ] Show internal notes (usually disabled)
• Click Save

What's Next?

Last updated: January 2026