Understanding Correspondence and Notifications

This chapter discusses:

• Correspondence and notifications.

• Correspondence and the email response management system (ERMS).

• Automated communications.

• CRM email delivery mechanism.

Correspondence and Notifications

Correspondence and notification capabilities enable you to send communication from within the PeopleSoft system and keep a record of those communications.

This section discusses:

• Internal and external communications

• Correspondence templates

• Correspondence creation

Internal and External Communications

PeopleSoft Customer Relationship Management (PeopleSoft CRM) applications provide tools for sending communications to two types of recipients:

• External recipients

  These recipients are customers or someone who represents customers. In most PeopleSoft CRM applications, the data for external recipients is managed in the Person component (RD_PERSON). However, in PeopleSoft HelpDesk and PeopleSoft HelpDesk for Human Resources, customers are internal people whose data is managed in the Worker component (RD_WORKER) (worker information is also viewable in the Person component if you have the right permission). From a correspondence management perspective, these workers are considered external.

• Internal recipients

  These recipients are PeopleSoft CRM users. They have both user IDs and worker records.

Note. In this chapter, the term customers includes both external customers and internal workers (for helpdesk cases).

Characteristics of External Correspondence

When you send correspondence to an external recipient, the system creates an interaction. You can access correspondence information wherever interactions appear, including the 360-degree views, the Interaction List page, and transaction-specific interaction lists that are incorporated into the main PeopleSoft CRM transactional components.

You can send external correspondence by email or print it for physical delivery (for example, by fax or by mail).

Characteristics of Internal Correspondence

You can send internal correspondence (also called notifications) by email, or you can send it to a worklist. A worklist functions like an email inbox whose contents are stored in the PeopleSoft database. Worklist entries always include a link to the component from which the communication is sent. In email correspondence, the link is optional. Every user ID (user profile) is automatically associated with a personal worklist (if the user profile is linked to a person ID, the worklist is named after the person). Users can also be members of group worklists that you define.

Internal correspondence can be addressed either to individual users or one of these two group types:

• Provider groups

  Provider groups are used in the call-center applications (PeopleSoft Support, HelpDesk, and HelpDesk for Human Resources) and in PeopleSoft Integrated FieldService. Provider groups can have both email addresses and group worklists.

• Sales teams

  Used in PeopleSoft Sales, sales teams can have group email addresses and group worklists to which notifications can be sent.

See Also

Working with Interactions

Setting Up and Using Worklists

Setting Up Sales Teams

Correspondence Templates

The use of predefined correspondence templates facilitates the creation of standardized communication. You can create fully formatted templates in rich text format (RTF), or you can create simple text templates either by using txt files or by storing the text in the PeopleSoft database.

Correspondence templates are made up of static content and terms. Terms, which are managed in the Active Analytics Framework (AAF) data library, are pointers to disparate pieces of data residing in places like data warehouses, external databases, or operational environments. They can be resolved into actual data to be used in PeopleSoft CRM. When users send template-based letters or email, the system merges both static text and resolved data into the template to produce the final correspondence.

You make templates available to users by bundling them in template packages. Packages can contain one or more template definitions, which in turn reference template files. Template files are marked for use with print correspondence, email correspondence, or both. Typically, the print and email versions are different presentations of the same content, although you can vary the content as necessary. Template packages can be grouped into categories and types, which can refine the template search that's available when replying to email within the email workspace.

Template packages can also contain static attachments files that do not include terms.

See Also

Setting Up Correspondence Templates

Understanding AAF

Correspondence Creation

PeopleSoft CRM provides two main interfaces for sending communications: the Send Notification page and the Correspondence Request page.

The Correspondence Request page is used exclusively for template-based external correspondence that is printed or sent by email. The recipient list is based on the context from which the page is invoked. For example, when you invoke the page from a support case, the case contact is the only available recipient. The term correspondence management typically refers to this interface and the processes that support it.

The Send Notification page is used for template-based or as-needed correspondence, and it is used for both internal and external correspondence. Notifications can be sent to email addresses or, for internal recipients, to worklists. The term manual notification refers to this interface.

These interfaces are more fully documented in other chapters of this PeopleBook. This table summarizes their principal differences:

See Also

Sending Manual Notifications

Sending Correspondence

Correspondence and ERMS

The ERMS, an integral part of PeopleSoft MultiChannel Framework, manages emails that customers send to you. The ERMS uses correspondence management to facilitate email replies and to enable automatic recognition of inbound email that customers send in response to PeopleSoft CRM outbound email.

This section discusses:

• Email replies

• Automated email threading

Email Replies

Replies to inbound email can be automated or manual. Both types of replies are based on the same correspondence templates that the Correspondence Request and Send Notification pages use.

Email responses automatically use the same character set as the original inbound email even if the user's ID is associated with a different character set.

While automated email response (for example, auto acknowledgement and auto response) is typically part of the system setup, ERMS provides these interfaces for manual replies:

• Response page of the email workspace.

  Use this interface to reply to an incoming email that you review on the Email page of the same component. On the Response page where the incoming email message is captured for reference, you can search for an appropriate correspondence template to apply to the response.

  If you work on a related transaction of an email and later click the Send Notification button from the transaction, the Response page is used for replying to any existing email that is linked to that transaction.

• Outbound Email page.

  Use this interface to reply to an email from the context of a transaction. If you work on a related transaction of an email and later click the Email button from the transaction's toolbar, this page is used to send an email (to start a new thread, not as a response) when the ERMS is licensed.

  In addition to email response, you use the Outbound Email page to review submitted email and to approve email if approval is required.

  Note. The Outbound Email page is nearly identical to the Response page, but the different contexts necessitate certain differences between the interfaces. For example, the Outbound Email page displays transaction summary as reference, while the Response page displays the email message. Also, when you search for templates on the Outbound Email page, you can select the language of the templates that appear as search results. From the Response page, this is unnecessary.

• Send Notification page.

  Use this interface to reply to an email from the context of a transaction. If you work on a related transaction of an email and later on click the Notification button from a transaction, this interface is used to send an email (start a new thread, not as a response) when the ERMS is not licensed.

Automated Email Threading

If you license PeopleSoft MultiChannel Framework, the system inserts a unique identifier known as a context tag into the body of every outbound email. If the customer replies to the outbound email, the context tag enables the ERMS to associate the new email with the existing thread and to use the thread association to route the email to the appropriate worklist. The email workspace presents the thread association of each email in a tree structure. It allows any email, with or without children, to be moved freely from one tree to another or to be the parent of a new tree.

See Also

Email Handling

Managing Email

Reviewing Thread Information

Automated Communications

In addition to the manual correspondence methods that are described in this chapter, PeopleSoft CRM applications provide various mechanisms for sending automated communications.

This section discusses:

• Automated correspondence within the correspondence management framework.

• Automated correspondence through web service request.

• Workflow.

• Automated acknowledgements and automated responses.

• ERMS email alerts.

Note. Except for automated correspondence, these automated communications are not considered part of correspondence management.

Automated communications is accomplished either within the correspondence management framework by business project or AAF action, or by a web service request initiated by a business process or AAF. Depending on the correspondence functionality required, implementers can keep correspondence generation and handling contained within the system or associate it with actions from other licensed Oracle and PeopleSoft applications or third-party systems.

Automated Correspondence Within the Correspondence Management Framework

PeopleSoft Order Capture uses the correspondence management framework to send automated order and quote confirmations. As a task of an order capture business project, an email correspondence (based on a preselected correspondence template) is sent after an order is submitted.

For more information about implementing correspondence management in PeopleSoft CRM, sign in to Customer Connection for a copy of the red paper, “Enabling Correspondence Management,” under Implement, Optimize, and Upgrade, Implementation Guide, Implementation Documentation and Software, Red Paper Library. Make sure that you are signed in, because the Red Papers section is available to registered users only.

See Also

Automated Correspondence Requests

http://www.peoplesoft.com/corp/en/iou/red_papers/index.jsp

Automated Correspondence Through Web Service Request

PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM provides a web service interface through which business processes as well as external systems can invoke Correspondence Management services.

Specific functions available through web service request are:

• Generation and printing of a letters based on existing templates.

• Generation and sending of email based on existing templates, including configurable delay in sending.

• Resolution of terms in text.

Note. Currently, the correspondence management web service does not support the inclusion of static attachments in email at runtime. However, the web service does support the processing of a correspondence request that references a template containing a static attachment.

In addition, web services can access existing correspondence management functions only; no new functionality is introduced through web service access.

PeopleSoft also delivers business processes that can invoke the correspondence management web service, making it possible to automate correspondence associated with certain order and account actions for the telecommunications and financial services industries.

Delivered business processes that can invoke the correspondence management web service are:

• Service management transactions, such as resuming and canceling service to a customer.

• Order capture and order management, such as order submission for a telecommunications service.

• Account management events, such as financial account creation.

• Referral of a financial account.

Appendix A provides details for determining an automation strategy and how to implement automated correspondence by web service request.

See Also

Delivered Web Services and Service Operations

Workflow

Workflow notifications are triggered by events that you define. For example, you can use workflow to notify workers or interested parties about transactions such as cases, service orders, leads, campaigns, or tasks when certain transaction-related events take place, such as change of status or reassignment.

Based on how workflow notifications are triggered, the configuration is done in one of two ways:

• Workflow configuration pages.

  Use this interface when you invoke workflow actions from the AAF. These pages are embedded in the component that is used to build policies. When you trigger a notification and workflow action for a policy, the framework displays two pages for you to configure workflow. The most common method of triggering workflow actions is through the AAF.

• Workflow Action component.

  Workflow actions are triggered without the AAF in business project workflow and in return material authorization (RMA) workflow.

Note. While these two interfaces do not have the same look and feel, they share the same functionality and can invoke both processes and notifications as configured. Page elements that are required to set up workflow actions are relevant in both places.

You can send workflow notifications to internal or external recipients. Workflow notifications that are sent to external recipients are always sent by email. Workflow notifications sent to internal recipients can be sent to a worklist or to an email address.

PeopleSoft CRM uses templates to produce workflow notification contents. The availability of these templates depends upon how workflow notifications are invoked:

• Correspondence management templates.

  These templates are used for workflow notifications that are managed by AAF. Correspondence templates contain static text and dynamic terms that can be resolved into physical data.

  See Setting Up Correspondence Templates.

• Workflow email templates (native).

  These templates are used for workflow notifications that are invoked by business projects and by RMA processing. You set up workflow email templates, which contain resolvable terms and static text, by using the Email Template page.

  See Defining Workflow Email Templates.

Automated Acknowledgements and Automated Responses

If you use the ERMS and your customers can send communications to your organization through web self-service and email, you can set up the system to automatically send a standard acknowledgement message, confirming receipt of communication that is received through either channel.

If the communication is a structured email (an email that is submitted through a web form), the system may be able to automatically reply with information that the customer requests rather than replying with an acknowledgement receipt only.

Note. Automated acknowledgements and automated email responses are sent only to customers, and they are always sent through email.

The text of the acknowledgement or response comes from different sources, depending on the type of communication that is received:

• Submissions on the Contact Us self-service page.

  The acknowledgement text comes from the CONTACT CONFIRMATION workflow email template.

• Email acknowledgements and responses.

  The ERMS classifies email as structured or unstructured. Unstructured email is acknowledged by using a correspondence template that you select for the mailbox. As for structured email, responses are sent by using a correspondence template that is specified by the application class that handles the email. If the application class doesn't specify a template, a default correspondence template that is associated with the web form is used.

See Also

Working with Customer Self-Service Transactions

Understanding ERMS Setup

Understanding Structured Email

ERMS Email Alerts

If you license ERMS, you can set up mailbox-level and worklist-level notifications. Set two deadlines at each level, one for a warning notification and one for a final notification. If an email is not closed before those times, the ERMS sends alerts to the mailbox owner or the worklist owner.

Note. Email alerts are sent only to internal recipients, and they are always sent to a worklist.

See Also

Process Instantiation

CRM Email Delivery Mechanism

The CRM Email Delivery Service is responsible for both delivering email and resending email for certain types of failures. This service automatically resubmits emails in case of errors such as SMTP mail server down.

The system resends emails based on the maximum number of retries as well as the frequency specified on the Correspondence Management Installation Setup page. The CRM Email Delivery Service has it’s own daemon process that is responsible for monitoring emails which need to be resent.

If the service is unable to send an email within a fixed number of tries, the system sends a notification of the error to a group worklist called Undelivered Emails.

In case of errors such as Invalid email address, the service immediately sends a notification to the Undelivered Emails group worklist. Regardless of the type of error, the calling transaction does not stop. Users that access the undelivered email from the worklist can view details about the number of tries as well as the error messages received for each of the tries.

Users have the option to resend email by correcting the details such as email address. The details that can be edited vary depending upon the type of error. If a user successfully resends an email from the Worklist page, the system automatically changes the status to Closed – Email Resent and deletes the notification from the worklist.

Any email that cannot be successfully resent from the worklist stays in the same status. User can either try resending the email or set the status to Closed – Unable to send email. Setting the status to Closed triggers the automatic deletion of the notification from the worklist. The system audits any changes that a user enters to resend the email.