Although other may want more protocols like SNMP, I'm pretty content with just email alerts since I can turn those into voice calls, SMS, etc via other services. That said, even with just email alerts, the current system of one high level alert email is inadequate.
I could imagine others wanting different people alert depending on what server the alert came from. For me, again looking at just a single server, I actually want different people to be alerted based on what incident type or object was impacted. For example, maybe the network administrator should get notified of all Low Disk Space notifications, but my development group should get notifed if one of 5 different scheduled jobs fails or become long running. I think it makes sense to have a spot to configure default contacts for alerting on all objects at a server level, but the ability to drill down and setup more detailed alerts to other users is important.
I could imagine others wanting different people alert depending on what server the alert came from. For me, again looking at just a single server, I actually want different people to be alerted based on what incident type or object was impacted. For example, maybe the network administrator should get notified of all Low Disk Space notifications, but my development group should get notifed if one of 5 different scheduled jobs fails or become long running. I think it makes sense to have a spot to configure default contacts for alerting on all objects at a server level, but the ability to drill down and setup more detailed alerts to other users is important.