manual alert delivery trigger

Right now, if an alert does not match a rule that triggers an escalation chain (other than, say, NoEscalation), there is no way to request an active alert be delivered.  There is the 'Escalate', button, but in the case I am describing that will accomplish nothing.  Here are two ideas:

    * create a "manually escalate only" option in the chain definition; this would then allow Escalate to work, but elapsed time would not trigger an escalation.

    * add a new 'Alert' button.  this is a lot more complex because now you need inputs -- either a target escalation chain, manual entry, etc.  Or maybe 'Alert as Critical'

Of these, I think the first is cleaner.  Maybe someone else has other ideas for how to do it.  Bottom line is, we are moving to using ticketing systems to receive alerts, and it would be far simpler to trigger an alert to be delivered than to manually construct the ticket.

Thanks,
Mark