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Siebel eMail Response Administration Guide > Overview of Siebel eMail Response > Siebel eMail Response Architecture Overview >

Siebel Server Components Process Incoming Email

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Figure 2 illustrates the following process. Your email server that is connected to Siebel Server receives the email and passes it to Communications Inbound Manager. Communications Inbound Manager resides on Siebel Server and has a primary role in eMail Response processes. Two Communications Server components manage inbound and outbound email messages. Communications Inbound Manager receives email and Communications Outbound Manager sends responses. Workflow Manager invokes other Siebel Server components such as Assignment Manager, Universal Queuing, Smart Answer Manager, and so on. Communications Inbound Manager uses the Internet SMTP/POP3 Server driver to periodically connect to your email server and check for new email messages. When Communications Inbound Manager detects a new message, it does the following:

Downloads the message and attachments from the email server.
Parses elements of the email message (To:, CC:, Subject:, and body content) and places them in memory.
Passes the email message from memory to the Workflow Process Manager. Communications Inbound Manager can start multiple subprocesses so that multiple instances of a workflow can operate in parallel.

Figure 2. Siebel Server Processes

Processing Incoming Email with Siebel Business Process Designer

In Siebel Business Process Designer the Workflow Process Manager can process the email message in a number of ways, depending on the workflow process you select to handle that type of message. Siebel Systems ships several preconfigured workflow processes that provide email processing features. For more information, see Understanding eMail Response Workflows. Workflow Process Manager can be set up to perform the following tasks:

Determine the commit time (the time by which you should reply to the message) based on the customer's service-level agreement.
Send the message to Smart Answer Manager for language detection and categorization.
Send the message to Assignment Manager or Universal Queuing for routing.
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.

Siebel eMail Response Processes the Agent's Reply

The agent reviews the message using the Siebel client and composes and sends a reply using templates configured for your company's needs. See Figure 2 for an illustration of this process.

Communications Server Returns the Reply to the Customer

When the agent sends the message, Communications Outbound Manager, a Communications Server component, sends the replies through your email server using SMTP/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 it to the customer's mailbox. See Figure 1 for an illustration of this process.

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