Hello Joe,
Sound notifiers will need the map open to generate an audio alert.
As far as getting the other alerts without the map open you'll need to do the following. Make sure the Intermapper service is running on the server and the devices you want to monitor are on an active map, that will allow the other notifiers to occur.
The map doesn’t have to be open, but it does need to show up in the map list.
Thanks,
Steve