Setting Up Automated Mail Processing

This chapter provides an overview of automated mail processing (AMP) and discusses how to set up AMP.

Click to jump to parent topicUnderstanding Automated Mail Processing

This section discusses:

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicAMP Overview

AMP performs automated actions on inbound emails based on the email categories and their associated behavioral rules that are established in the system. The framework consists of these components and concepts:

Categories

An email has to be associated with a category in order to be processed by AMP. The system uses Verity to identify categories for emails that are either:

AMP triggers email actions by matching the category and score value of an email to a list of rules that you define in the system. It uses these two pieces of information to find a behavioral rule with a matching email category and a confidence level that the email's score value meets, and invoke rule actions. PeopleSoft Customer Relationship Management delivers categories to be used for AMP. They are specified under a category set called AMP Categories, which includes Problem, Inquiry, Spam, Complaint, and Unsubscribe. To add custom categories to the AMP category set, create these categories under Set Up CRM, Common Definitions, Correspondence, Categories & Types. Subsequently, add them to the AMP CATEGORIES category set in the Category Set page under Set Up CRM, Product Related, Multichannel Definitions, Email, Define Category Set.

Actions

Through AMP, the email response management system (ERMS) can take immediate actions on the kinds of email that are relatively common and straightforward in terms of their purposes, such as making a complaint, filing a product problem, or requesting status information. The ERMS reduces agents' workload and helps them focus on resolving more complicated issues that are routed to them. You define email-specific actions that AMP can trigger using the action framework of the Active Analytics Framework. The action framework provides a flexible environment that enables you to implement custom actions by referencing your application class method in the runtime section of the action type definition. Specify an application class method in the design time section of the action type definition if you need to gather more details about the action from customers. The system triggers the design time code of an action when customers specify the action in a rule definition. Clicking the Configure link on the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page enables customers to enter additional configuration details about that action for a particular rule.

System-delivered actions include Auto response, Auto acknowledge, Auto route, Auto suggest, Create case, Spam, and Unsubscribe.

Rules, Rules Engine, and Mailbox Relationships

A rule consists of a category, a threshold value, and a list of prioritized actions. Rules are subject to evaluation that is performed by the rules engine to determine which action to trigger for each email that it processes. In a rule definition, you specify the minimum confidence (threshold) score that an email with the same rule category has to meet for this rule to be applicable to this email. You can specify one or more actions in a rule and prioritize them.

When the rules engine obtains a category and threshold score for an email, it identifies the rule of that category that is specified in the mailbox definition to which the email is sent. The rules engine tries to take the action of the highest priority, one level at a time. If it cannot take the action for some reason (for example, the returned threshold score of the email is lower than the one specified at the action level), it moves to the next priority to see if it can trigger any action. If the rules engine cannot find any rule, or there is no action that can be triggered from the applicable rule due to low threshold score, the email is then routed to the default group worklist specified in the mailbox definition.

Note. AMP closes emails after auto responses are sent. If AMP cannot apply any rules to route emails that are in open status, they are routed to the default group worklist.

See Also

Defining Webform Templates

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicUse of AMP in Unstructured and Structured Email

AMP supports the recommendation of actions to address issues that come in the form of unstructured and structured emails.

AMP is used to process unstructured email messages when automatic routing is disabled at the mailbox level, and structured email messages that are not set to use the default email category at the webform level. For each keyword match that is found, a score is given to the associated category. As a result, email is assigned to the category with the highest score, and the rules engine can then trigger the actions that are associated with that category on the email. If the score returned for the email category does not meet the confidence level of any AMP rules for that email category, or that the email category is not associated with any rules, the system routes the email to the default group worklist of the mailbox.

Please refer to the mail route process section for a diagram on how automated mail processing is used in the mail route process.

See The Mail Route Process.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicVerity Search and Email Category

The AMP rules engine uses Verity to calculate and return email score values. A score value is used to identify the category of an email and subsequently the AMP rule used to perform actions on that email. At design time, you specify keywords for each email category in the system. At runtime, Verity searches for keywords in the subject line and body of an email and keeps score. The higher the number of keywords found for a category, the higher its score value. As a result, the email is assigned to the category with the highest score value.

See Defining AMP Categories and Keywords.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicDelivered Behavioral Rules

PeopleSoft CRM delivers AMP rules for categories created in the system:

Category

Rule Name

Action

Complaint

Complaint Rule -1

First priority:

  • Auto respond to email with minimum threshold value of 90 and maximum return of 1 solution.

  • Auto route email.

Complaint

Complaint Rule -2

First priority: Auto route email.

Problem

Problem Rule 1

First priority: Auto respond to email with minimum threshold value of 90 and maximum return of 5 solutions.

Second priority:

  • Create a case.

  • Auto route email.

Problem

Problem Rule 2

First priority:

  • Auto respond to email with minimum threshold value of 90 and a maximum return of 5 solutions.

  • Auto suggest solutions (maximum of 10) with minimum threshold value of 90. Auto suggest documents (maximum of 5) with minimum threshold percentage of 90.

  • Auto route email.

Problem

Problem Rule 3

First priority: Auto respond to email with minimum threshold value of 95 and maximum return of 5 solutions.

Second priority:

  • Send auto acknowledge email.

  • Create a case.

Problem

Problem Rule 4

First priority:

  • Create a case.

  • Auto route email.

Problem

Problem - Create Case

First priority: Auto respond to email with minimum threshold value of 90 and a maximum return of 5 solutions.

Second priority: Create a case.

Third priority: Send auto acknowledge email.

Inquiry

Inquiry Rule 1

First priority:

  • Auto respond to email with minimum threshold value of 90 and maximum return of 5 solutions.

  • Auto suggest solutions (maximum of 5) with minimum threshold value of 90. Auto suggest documents (maximum of 5) with minimum threshold percentage of 90.

  • Auto route email.

Inquiry

Inquiry Rule 2

First priority:

  • Auto suggest solutions (maximum of 10) with minimum threshold value of 80. Auto suggest documents (maximum of 5) with minimum threshold percentage of 80.

  • Auto route email.

Inquiry

Case Status Inquiry

First priority: Send auto response with case status.

Second priority: Send auto acknowledge email.

Inquiry

Service Order Status Inquiry

First priority: Send auto response with service order status.

Second priority: Send auto acknowledge email.

Inquiry

Order Status Inquiry

First priority: Send auto response with sales order status.

Second priority: Send auto acknowledge email.

Spam

Route spam to worklist

First priority: Mark the email as spam and route it to the specified group worklist.

Spam

Route spam to mailbox

First priority: Route email to the specified spam mailbox.

Spam

Delete spam

First priority: Delete email.

You specify a rule for each category in a mailbox definition. The rules engine references this information when it tries to find a rule that can apply to a categorized email belonging to a particular mailbox.

Click to jump to parent topicSetting Up Automated Mail Processing

To set up automated mail processing, use the Define AMP Rule (RB_DEFINE_AMPRULE) component.

This section discusses how to:

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicPages Used to Set Up Automated Mail Processing

Page Name

Definition Name

Navigation

Usage

Register Action Type

EOCF_ACTN_TYPE_REG

Enterprise Components, Active Analytics Framework, Action Framework, Register Action Type, Register Action Type

Define actions that can be invoked by the AMP rule engine for incoming emails.

Categories & Types

RBC_CATEGORY_SETUP

Set Up CRM, Common Definitions, Correspondence, Categories & Types, Categories & Types

Define categories in the category set for AMP.

Category Set

RBN_DFN_CATGSET

Set Up CRM, Product Related, Multichannel Definitions, Email, Define Category Set

Add or remove categories in a set to be used by the AMP rule engine.

Define Automated Mail Processor Rule

RB_DEFINE_AMPRULE

Set Up CRM, Product Related, Multichannel Definitions, Email, Define Servers and Security, Define AMP Rule, Define Automated Mail Processor Rule

Define rules that associate a category with one or more actions.

Configure Auto-Response Action

RB_CFG_AUTOREPLY

Click the Configure link of the Auto Response action type on the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page.

Configure the threshold value required for solutions to be included in the auto response email and the maximum number of solutions that the email can have at one time. Specify the correspondence template package used to generate the email.

Configure Auto-Acknowledge

RB_CFG_AUTOACK

Click the Configure link of the Auto Acknowledge action type on the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page.

Specify the correspondence template package used for generating the acknowledgement email.

Configure Create Case

RB_CFG_CREATECASE

Click the Configure link of the Create Case action type on the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page.

Specify the display template ID used for creating the case.

Configure Auto-Suggest

RB_CFG_AUTOSUGGEST

Click the Configure link of the Auto Suggest action type on the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page.

Configure threshold values for solutions and documents to be suggested and the maximum number of entries that can return at any given time.

Configure SPAM

RB_CFG_SPAM

Click the Configure link of the Spam action type on the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page.

Specify the method to handle spam email.

Associate Rules and Worklist

RB_MB_WL_ASSOC

Set Up CRM, Product Related, Multichannel Definitions, Email, Define Servers and Security, Mailbox Details, Associate Rules and Worklist

Associate mailboxes with categories and rules.

Select Rule

RB_MB_RULE_SEC

Click the Modify Behavior link on the Associate Rules and Worklist page.

Specify a rule for the selected category.

Configure Actions on Mailbox

RB_MB_CFG_ACTIONS

Click the Configure link that becomes active after selecting a rule on the Select Rule page.

Configure rule actions.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicDefining Webform Templates

See Defining Webform Templates.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicIdentifying Email Workspace Fields for Mapping

See Identifying Email Workspace Fields for Mapping.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicSpecifying Webform and Email Workspace Field Mapping

See Specifying Webform and Email Workspace Field Mapping.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicDefining Actions

Access the Register Action Type page (Enterprise Components, Active Analytics Framework, Action Framework, Register Action Type, Register Action Type).

AMP leverages the action framework of the Active Analytics Framework to define actions. Use these fields on the page to define actions that are triggered by the rule engine.

Note. The system delivers actions that can be used by the rules engine to handle some of the common email scenarios. Customers can add custom actions by writing their own application class methods and reference those methods here.

Action Type Name

Enter a name that uniquely identifies the action type.

Design Time Application Class and Design Time Class Path

Select the ID and path of the application class method that enables you to enter additional configuration details about actions of this type when you associate this type of action to a rule. The method transfers you to a component, which contains a page relevant to the particular action that you must configure.

Configuration required

Select if actions of this type need further configuration. If you select this check box, the design time application class method runs.

Run Time Application Class and Run Time Class Path

Select the ID and path of the application class method that runs when the rules engine triggers an action of this type.

See PeopleSoft 9.1 PeopleBook: Active Analytics Framework

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicDefining AMP Categories and Keywords

Access the Category Set page (Set Up CRM, Product Related, Multichannel Definitions, Email, Define Category Set).

PeopleSoft CRM delivers a set of categories that can be used to classify emails for further automated mail processing. To add new categories here to be used for AMP, define them first on the Categories & Types page.

See Defining Template Categories and Types.

Template Category ID and Keywords

Select an existing template category to be an email category and list the keywords to be associated with it.

AMP assigns email categories to email messages based on the number of keywords it can find in the subject and body of the email messages. The more keywords of a category that are identified in an email, the higher the score this category gets. The email is then assigned to the category that has the highest score returned from the Verity search.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicDefining Rules

Access the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page (Set Up CRM, Product Related, Multichannel Definitions, Email, Define Servers and Security, Define AMP Rule, Define Automated Mail Processor Rule).

Behavior Name and Description

Enter the name that uniquely identifies the rule, and enter descriptive text to explain the sequence of actions for this rule. The system uses the text in the Description field to display rules (for each category) in the mailbox definition.

Category

Select a category from the drop-down list box to associate with this rule. The list box lists all the categories that are available in the system-delivered category set called AMP Categories.

Confidence Must Exceed

Enter the minimum threshold value that an email needs to obtain for the specified category before this rule can apply. If Verity returns a category for an email with a threshold that doesn't exceed the confidence level that is specified here, the system routes this email to the default group worklist of the mailbox.

Actions

Priority

Enter a number to prioritize actions. The smaller the number, the higher the priority. The rules engine triggers actions with the highest priority. If no actions from the first priority can be invoked, it attempts the actions with the next highest priority.

For example, the AMP rule is associated with three actions, auto response (in priority 1), create case, and auto route (both in priority 2). If an email matching this rule's category exceeds this rule's confidence level, the auto response action is invoked. If this action cannot complete, the create case and auto route actions are triggered. If none of them can succeed, the system sends the email to the default group worklist of the associated mailbox. You can assign the same priority to multiple actions.

Action Type

Select the type of action that the rules engine invokes. The drop-down list includes all action types that are established in the action framework.

Configure

Click to access the page to enter configuration details for the specified action type. A message appears if you click the link to configure an action type, but it doesn't require any configuration. Each delivered action type has its individual configuration page where you specify action-specific configuration information.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicConfiguring Auto Response Actions

Access the Configure Auto-Response Action page (click the Configure link of the Auto Response action type on the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page).

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicConfiguring Auto Acknowledgement Actions

Access the Configure Auto-Acknowledge page (click the Configure link of the Auto Acknowledge action type on the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page).

Select a correspondence template package used to format the acknowledgement email.

Note. If you set up the auto acknowledge action, make sure to select Determine from Rule auto acknowledgement option on the Mailbox Definition page.

See Also

Applying Customer-Based Routing Rules to a Mailbox

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicConfiguring Case Creation Actions

Access the Configure Create Case page (click the Configure link of the Create Case action type on the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page).

Select the display template used to create the case.

Note. A setup option that creates a case for every new inbound email is available at the system level. If this option is selected, it is recommended that you don't add the create case action to any AMP rules.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicConfiguring Auto Suggest Actions

Access the Configure Auto-Suggest page (click the Configure link of the Auto Suggest action type on the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page).

Auto-Suggest

Minimum Threshold Required

Specify the minimum threshold value that a solution has to meet for it to be considered and suggested for an email.

Maximum Number of Solutions

Specify the maximum number of solutions to suggest for an email.

Maximum Number of Documents

Threshold

Specify the minimum threshold value a document has to meet for it to be considered and suggested for an email.

Maximum Number of Documents

Specify the maximum number of documents to suggest for an email.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicConfiguring Spam Actions

Access the Configure SPAM page (click the Configure link of the Spam action type on the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page).

Delete SPAM from System

Select to remove spam email from the system.

Mark as Spam and Route to WL (mark as spam and route to worklist)

Select to mark email as spam and route it to the worklist specified in the Group Worklist Name field.

Route email to a Spam Mailbox

Select to route spam email to the mailbox specified in the Spam Mail Box ID field.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicAssociating Rules in Mailboxes

Access the Associate Rules and Worklist page (Set Up CRM, Product Related, Multichannel Definitions, Email, Define Servers and Security, Mailbox Details, Associate Rules and Worklist).

Behavior Summary

Category Name

Displays the list of categories defined for AMP. Select the check box of categories to associate them with the mailbox.

Selected Behavior Name

Displays the link of the selected rule for that category. Click the rule link to access the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page.

Modify Behavior

Click to access the Select Rule page that displays a list of rules defined for that category. Select a rule from the page.

Click the rule link to access the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page.

Confine Routing to selected WL (confine routing to selected worklist)

Select to route the email to a group worklist that Verity suggests, if auto route is the action that is triggered by AMP and the suggested group worklist is one of the worklists specified in the Associated Worklists group box. If the suggested group worklist is not on the list, the email is not routed to the suggested group worklist.

Clear this check box to allow the email to be routed to any worklist in the system as Verity suggests.

Associated Worklists

Use this group box to associate worklists with a mailbox and prioritize worklists for that mailbox.

See Associating AMP Rules and Worklists with a Mailbox.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicSpecifying Rules for Categories

Access the Select Rule page (click the Modify Behavior link on the Associate Rules and Worklist page).

Select one rule for each active category that is associated with a mailbox. Click the rule link to access the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page to view the rule definition and modify it as needed. After selecting a rule, the Configure link becomes active. The system takes you to the Associate Rules and Worklist page where the rule link appears. Click it to access the Define Automated Mail Processor Rule page on a new browser window.

When you select a rule on the Select Rule page, its Configure link becomes active. Click this link to access the Configure Actions on Mailbox page (RB_MB_CFG_ACTIONS) and configure the actions available in the rule.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicConfiguring Rule Actions

Access the Configure Actions on Mailbox page (click the Configure link that becomes active after selecting a rule on the Select Rule page).

This page contains the configuration parameters required for all the actions associated with the selected rule. If no actions of the rule require further configuration, they do not appear here. The fields for each type of actions are identical to those that appear on each individual action configuration page.