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Siebel Server Components That Process Incoming Email

After a customer sends an email to your company, your email server that is connected to the Siebel Server receives the email and passes it to the Communications Inbound Receiver (CIR). The CIR resides on the Siebel Server and has a primary role in the Siebel Email Response processes.

The following Siebel Server components that are part of Siebel Communications Server manage inbound and outbound email messages: the Communications Inbound Receiver (receives email), the Communications Inbound Processor (processes and routes email), and the Communications Outbound Manager (sends responses to email).

Email processing uses workflow processes, which invoke other Siebel Server components, such as Assignment Manager. The Communications Inbound Receiver uses the Internet SMTP/POP3 Server driver to periodically connect to your email server and check for new email messages. When the Communications Inbound Receiver detects a new message, it completes following tasks:

• Downloads the message and attachments from the email server.
• Parses the elements of the email message (To:, CC:, Subject:, and body content) and places these elements in memory.
• Converts the email data into event data that is saved in the database (if less than 15 KB) or in the Siebel File System (if greater than 15 KB).
• If you use nonreal-time email processing, creates an SRM request to inform the Communications Inbound Processor that a new event is created.
• If you use nonreal-time email processing, passes the event data from memory to the Communications Inbound Processor.

  NOTE:  The Communications Inbound Processor can start multiple subprocesses so that multiple instances of a workflow can operate in parallel.

Real-Time and Nonreal-Time Processing

Depending on your business requirements, you can process email in one of the following ways:

• Real-Time Processing
• Nonreal-Time Processing

Figure 2 provides examples of three different Communications Inbound Receiver and Communications Inbound Processor configurations for your Siebel Enterprise. A letter denotes each configuration.

Figure 2. Communications Inbound Receiver and Communications Inbound Processor Configuration Examples

Real-Time Processing

Real-time email processing uses only one server component, the Communications Inbound Receiver. This type of processing is best for businesses with a low volume of email customers or businesses that primarily use phone events because these events always use real-time mode. Figure 3 describes the architecture for real-time email processing. For information about how to enable real-time email processing, see Enabling Real-Time Email Processing. For more information about processing email in real time, see Events and the Communications Inbound Receiver.

Figure 3. Real-Time Email Processing

Nonreal-Time Processing

Nonreal-time email processing has two server components, the Communications Inbound Receiver (CIR) and the Communications Inbound Processor (CIP), running as separate server components. This type of processing allows you to have multiple instances of the Communications Inbound Receiver (CIR) and the Communications Inbound Processor (CIP) on different Siebel Servers, providing a distributed architecture that is more scalable and reliable than real-time email processing. Figure 4 describes the architecture for nonreal-time email processing. For information about how to enable nonreal-time email processing, see Enabling Nonreal-Time Email Processing.

Figure 4. Nonreal-Time Email Processing

Siebel Workflow and Processing Incoming Email

The Communications Inbound Processor uses the Workflow Process Manager, part of Siebel Workflow, to process an email message in several different ways, depending on the workflow process that you select to handle that type of message. Siebel Email Response includes several preconfigured workflow processes that provide email processing features. For more information, see Siebel Email Response Workflows.

You can set up the Workflow Process Manager to perform the following tasks:

• Determine the commit time (the time by which you must reply to the message) based on the customer's service-level agreement.
• Send the message to Assignment Manager for routing or to a custom routing and queueing solution.
• Write a record to your database if the message is routed to an agent for response.
• When integrated with routing and queuing software, route incoming email to an agent based on defined parameters such as agent skills. The selected routing and queuing processes route and queue messages to the agent with the skills that are necessary to respond to the message.

How the Communications Server Returns a Reply to a Customer

The agent reviews the message using the Siebel client and composes and sends a reply using templates that users configure for your company's needs. When the agent sends the reply, the Communications Outbound Manager, a Communications Server component, sends the reply through your email server using the SMTP and POP3 communication protocols. Your email server then sends the email over the Internet to the customer's email server, and the customer's email server sends the email to the customer's mailbox. Figure 1 illustrates this process.