Incident Manager - Overview

Overview

The Incidents tool in gaiia is designed to help ISPs manage network-wide service interruptions—from unplanned outages to scheduled maintenance. In this article, we’ll walk through how to create incidents, link affected accounts and tickets, communicate with impacted subscribers, and organize response tasks using procedures and work orders.

Understanding the purpose of Incidents

During severe network outages and planned maintenance affecting many subscribers, Incidents allow you to coordinate internal response and notify affected customers through SMS or email. You can attach Network Sites, manage accounts, link tickets and work orders, and execute internal checklists to ensure a smooth resolution process.

Creating new incidents

On the Network Sites page, select + New incident to create a new Incident.

These fields can be edited after an incident is created. If there’s a critical outage, it’s often best to open the incident with minimal info and fill in the rest afterward.

• Network sites help target affected areas and make it easier to associate accounts and work orders.
• Severity is a cosmetic field that’s useful for internal prioritization but doesn’t impact system behavior.
• See Procedures below for guidance on how to standardize usage of the Severity field.

Scheduled maintenance and future incidents

To schedule a future incident, set the Incident start date to the intended time. The incident won’t activate until that time, but you can still add accounts, communications, and work orders ahead of time.

Pre-event communications can also be sent in advance—use customized templates for scheduled work if desired.

Tickets will not be added to the incident automatically until the incident start time has passed.

Managing an incident

Once you've opened an incident, it is separated into several sections to help you manage it end-to-end. Each section supports internal coordination and subscriber communication.

• Overview – Summary of status, linked Tickets, and Work orders.
• Procedures – Reusable response checklists.
• Tickets – Customer-submitted tickets during the incident.
• Accounts – Subscriber accounts affected by the incident.
• Communications – Customer-facing updates about the incident.
• Work orders – On-site response jobs assigned to technicians.

Using Procedures to drive workflows

Procedures are pre-built checklists to help your teams follow a standardized response. They can be tailored to specific teams (like TAC or PR) or event types (like maintenance or outages).

Creating new procedures

To create a procedure, go to Network > Settings.

Select Procedure templates tab to view existing checklists.

Then click + New procedure template.

Each procedure is built from steps and checkboxes. Steps can be marked required or optional, and checkboxes can be as simple or detailed as needed.

Understanding how Tickets are linked

Tickets related to incidents are added automatically to the Tickets tab of the Incidents tool. This is especially useful during outage events, when customers may submit a high volume of tickets asking about their service. By consolidating those tickets under a single incident, your support team can reduce noise and respond more efficiently.

A ticket will only be added to an incident if both of the following conditions are met:

1. The incident has a start time before the ticket was created, and either:
   • The incident has no close time, or
   • The ticket was created before the incident’s close time
2. The ticket is linked to an account that is listed in the Accounts section of the incident

If either of those conditions isn’t met—for example, if the account wasn’t added to the incident yet—the ticket won’t automatically be included, but can be manually associated if needed.

This automated behaviour ensures that incidents are tied to only the most relevant tickets, and that subscriber conversations are correctly grouped with broader network events.

Managing affected Accounts

The list of affected accounts determines who receives messages and which tickets are auto-linked. Update this list as early as possible after incident creation.

Accounts added to an active incident will show a red banner on their Account page indicating they’re impacted.

Adding accounts to an incident

There are multiple ways to bulk or manually add subscribers:

• CSV Import – Upload a CSV containing gaiia account IDs or UUIDs. Useful for syncing with NMS alerts.
• Draw Geofence – Use the map tool to select all accounts with addresses inside a physical boundary.
• Manual Search – Add individual accounts as needed.

Sending communications to subscribers

Communications let you send SMS and/or email updates to affected subscribers. Use this to share outage notices, restoration updates, or scheduled maintenance alerts.

If applicable, include a link to your public status page in messages.

Creating new communications

From the Communications tab, click + New communication.

Choose either:

• Blank template – Write a custom message from scratch.
• Start with a template – Use a predefined template (must be active in Settings > Communication).

Using a blank template

You’ll be guided through choosing message type (Email, SMS, or both), selecting recipients, and customizing the message body with a built-in editor.

You can select whether you’d like the message to be sent via Email, SMS or both. You will also be given the opportunity to write and edit the message from this screen.

Using a communication template

To send a communication using a template, select + New Communication, and then select Start with a template, and follow the below steps: 

You can select whether you’d like the message to be sent via Email, SMS or both. You will also be given the opportunity to write and edit the message from this screen.

Understanding how Work orders are linked

Work orders related to incidents are added automatically to incidents, and will appear in the Work orders tab in the Incidents tool.

Work orders will only be added to an incident if all of the following are true:

1. The work order has a linked Network Site.
2. The work order has a technician assigned.

Resolving an Incident

Once the incident has been resolved, you can complete the resolution within gaiia by opening up the Incident and clicking the pencil icon next to Incident Details. 

From there, scroll to the bottom and change the status of the Incident from On-going > Resolved. This will cause the Resolve Date and End Time fields to display that you can fill in.