Introduction to Senso
Senso is an essential piece of software installed onto every PC and laptop within the Trust. Senso is powerful as it allows for both safeguarding monitoring as well as for remote administration of many devices at once, we use this latter part as a part of our lockdown procedure. This guide will demonstrate how this procedure is initiated and ended.
Logging into Senso
Your IT team will have set you up with a login to the Senso website, you can log-in using this link or the URL below:
When on the Senso website, you will need to log in using the "Microsoft" button, you can safely ignore the boxes on the left-hand side of the window. If prompted for details, you must use your normal school email address and password.
Fig 1. Senso log-in screen.
Initiating the Lockdown
When logging in, you will first be greeted with a page showing you currently logged-in users within your school as well as 3 tabs just above them labelled as "List View", "Policies" and "Access". We are going to be using the "Policies" tab to initiate our lockdown.
Fig 2. Senso main interface.
After clicking on the policies tab you will be brought to a list of policies that apply to all staff, start by confirming that the "Lockdown Ended" policy is disabled (shown by the red cross under the "State" column.) If enabled, please first disable this (see the rest of article.)
There may be more than one policy depending on your school, the one we are interested in is the "Initiate Lockdown" policy listed below. Once you have located it, click the "Edit" button to the right of it.
Fig 3. Policies list
When clicking edit you will be brought to a simple screen with a single checkbox for "Enabled". If you check this box and then press "Confirm" a lockdown will be initiated shortly and all staff screens will be locked and alerted to the evacuation.
Fig 4. Editing the policy
Ending the Lockdown
To end the lockdown, we first need to return back to the policy page and uncheck the box for "Enabled", press "Confirm" again and the policy will be disabled. At this point, screens should return to normal however if there are any issues present we also have a "Lockdown Ended" policy to help ensure the safe return of functionality to devices.
Exactly the same as you did with the "Initiate Lockdown" policy we are going to click "Edit" for the "Lockdown Ended" policy and then check the box to "Enabled" to ensure that it is active. If you do enable this, please ensure to disable it again after a few minutes to ensure that it is not left enabled the next time an evacuation is needed.
Fig 5. Lockdown ended policy
FAQ
Q: I cannot log into Senso
A: Please ensure you are using the "Microsoft" sign-in button and not the log-in fields on the left. Failing that please see your IT team to check your account has been created correctly.
Q: I get an error "You do not have the required access" when enabling the Lockdown
A: It may be that your account requires an upgrade to the correct permissions, please see your IT team to check your account and resolve this.
Q: I have enabled the "Initiate Lockdown" but staff it is not working
A: Please double check and ensure the "Lockdown Ended" policy is disabled as this will conflict with the "Initiate Lockdown" policy.
If you have any problems please contact the IT support team.
Email – [email protected].uk
Phone – 0121 8177000