Processing Cases

This chapter provides overviews of processing a case and solutions and discusses how to:

• Search for solutions.

• View the Case Summary page.

• Add notes and attachments.

• Add tasks to a case.

• Review case history.

• Manage related cases.

• Manage related actions.

• Identify interested parties.

• Record billing information.

• Enter attribute information.

• Select, print, and email case information.

Understanding Processing a Case

You perform some case management activities in the Case component on pages other than the Case page.

Pages that are present in both PeopleSoft Support and PeopleSoft HelpDesk are illustrated only once. Pages that show customer and contact fields are from PeopleSoft Support. Pages that show employee fields are from PeopleSoft HelpDesk cases.

Understanding Solutions

PeopleSoft ERMS, FieldService, Quality Management, and call center applications enable you to track both the final solution—the one that resolved the caller's problem—and other solutions that were considered. By tracking all solution usage, you capture valuable information about the effectiveness of your solution set.

You can search for solutions by clicking the Find Solutions button at the bottom of any page in the Case component, or you can access the Solutions page directly.

See Finding and Attempting Solutions.

Viewing the Case Summary Page

The Case Summary page allows users to see all the case information and case activity on a single page.

Modify the display template to control what information and sections you want to be visible on this page. The Case Summary page can consist of these sections:

• Problem

• Case Information

• Notes Summary

• Tasks

• Attempted Solutions

• Related Actions

• Related Cases

• Interested Parties

• Event History

• Billing Information

Note. The PeopleSoft system does not deliver all sections of the Case component as active. You must use the pages within the Display Template component to activate the pages, sections, and fields within the Case component that you want to use to implement your system.

See Configuring Display Templates for Components.

Page Used to View the Case Summary Page

Viewing the Summary Page

Access the Summary page.

Use the Summary page to view and manage case information from a single page.

Note. The number to the right of the tabs that appear at the top of the page indicates the number of items that appear on that page. For example, if the system displays the number 2 in parentheses on the Notes tab, then two notes are associated with the case.

Adding Notes and Attachments

This section provides an overview of notes and attachments and discusses how to add notes and attachments to a case.

Understanding Notes and Attachments

Recording notes and attaching files to those notes is often essential to a user's work. Notes are the primary method that is used to track case research and communications. If you exchange files with the caller, you need to associate those files with the case.

PeopleSoft CRM provides a standard interface for working with notes and attachments across all the components that require this functionality. On the Case page, you can use text trays and quick keys to auto-fill static and dynamic data to create notes about a case. The Notes page is enabled when delivered.

Note. Once a case is closed, you can only add a note on the Notes page by clicking the Add Note button. You cannot enter a note on the Case page in the Add a Note section.

Page Used to Add Notes and Attachments

Adding Notes and Attachments

Access the Notes page.

Agents can use text trays and quick keys to auto-fill static and dynamic data and create notes about a case.

Note. Static data is text that is part of text tray entry, such as “Customer resolved problem on their own.” Dynamic data includes tokens that the system dynamically resolves when the entry is used. For example, if you want to include the agent's name in a note, you could create a text tray entry such as “Contact {agent name}.” In this example, the text in brackets is the token, and the system substitutes the agent's name when the full text is applied.

See Also

Working with Notes and Attachments

Adding Tasks to a Case

The Tasks page provides call center agents with the ability to assign tasks to themselves or to other agents. Agents can add and update task information either on the Task page or on the Task section on the Case Summary page. They can also add a task or drill down to the Task Details page to create or update task details. Users can also create a task when the case is closed.

See Also

Working with Active Analytics Framework

Defining Task Group Templates

Page Used to Add Tasks to a Case

Adding Tasks to a Case

Access the Tasks page.

Type	Displays various icons to indicate the type of task that appears. For example, if the task type is To Do, the system displays a green box with a check mark.
Subject	Click this link to go to the Task Details page, where you can update task information, add notes, and reassign workers.
Add Task	Click this button to go to the Task Details page to add new tasks to the case and assign workers to the task. Users can also click this button to create a task after the case has been closed. See Working with Tasks.

Reviewing Case History

This section provides an overview of case history and discusses how to:

• View the event history of a case.

• View interactions for a case.

• View the audit trail for a case.

Understanding Case History

The Case History page has these three subtabs: :

• Event History page

  Event history provides a summary of the major events in the life cycle of a case.

• Interactions page

  Case interactions are the sum of the events that take place when a customer or worker contacts the organization.

• Audit History page

  Case auditing complements event history processing by providing an automated mechanism for keeping a detailed change history without cluttering the Event History page. Events are configurable.

Some overlap is acceptable in the data that these pages capture.

See Configuring Case History Actions.

Event History Page

This page displays information about major events in the life of the case, including a description of the event and details of any field changes that are associated with the event.

AAF policies determines the events that are logged. In addition, each item references the policy name containing the case history action that logged the item. Policies are not active until you set them up.

The Interactions Page and the Audit History pages display information that also appears in the case history table. So, whenever there is an interaction, the system displays it on the Interactions page and in the case history table. The same is true for the Audit History page. Whenever a change is picked up by the Audit history page, the system displays it in the case history table.

See Configuring Case History Actions.

Interactions Page

This page displays the events that occurred when a customer contacted the organization. An interaction is created every time a case is opened or accessed through computer telephony integration (CTI), from the 360-degree view, or in self-service.

The system also creates an interaction is also created when agents send notifications, email, and correspondence. The system logs interactions automatically; so they cannot be turned on and off. An interaction may contain multiple subinteractions.

Audit History Page

This page displays record-level changes to case data. Your organization chooses which fields in the record to audit and the types of changes to capture (adding, updating, displaying, or deleting). While the system can capture before and after values, no conditional logic exists to evaluate the before and after values of the fields. The system captures all audited actions regardless of the field value. Auditing is delivered disabled.

See Also

Setting Up Auditing for Cases and Inbound Email

Working with Active Analytics Framework

Working with Interactions

Pages Used to Review Case History

Viewing the Event History of a Case

Access the Case History - Events page.

Note. To populate the Event History grid for adhoc email notifications that are sent from the case, use AAF to create policies. When you create the policy, use the term Adhoc Email Subject.

Viewing Interactions for a Case

Access the Case History - Interactions page.

Date/Time Created	The date and time the agent created the interaction.
Type	The type of interaction, either Inbound or Outbound.
Channel	The method used to initiate the interaction.
Contact Name	The name of the person who was contacted.
Subject/Description	The subject or description of the interaction.
Created By	The name of the person who created the interaction.

Viewing the Audit Trail for a Case

Access the Case History - Audit page.

Your organization chooses which fields in the record to audit and the types of changes to capture (adding, changing, or deleting). However, no conditional logic exists to evaluate the before and after values of the field. The system captures all audited actions regardless of the field value. The fields at the top of the columns are self explanatory or similar to the ones explained on the other pages.

Managing Related Cases

This section provides an overview of related cases and discusses how to:

• Review and initiate case relationships.

• Specify relationship details when relating a case to an existing case.

• Specify relationship details when creating a new case.

  Note. With the exception of PeopleSoft HelpDesk, the Related Cases page is delivered hidden. If you want to relate cases to other cases, modify the display template to enable this page. You can also modify the display template to enable the Related Cases section on the Case Summary page.

Understanding Related Cases

Users can relate cases to each other for numerous reasons. Your organization establishes valid case relationship types on the Case Relationship Type page. Each relationship is marked as hierarchical or equivalent (non-hierarchical). Each case in a relationship has a relationship label. If the relationship is hierarchical, the parent case and the child case have separate labels. If the relationship is equivalent, only one valid label exists.

The Case Relationships page displays a list of all cases that are related to the current case. Relationships are always reciprocal. If case A is related to case B, then the Related Cases page for both cases reflects the relationship. However, child cases of a common parent do not appear on each other's Related Cases page. Use the Related Cases page of the parent case to see all case relationships at a glance.

Similarly, two cases that are equivalent to a third case do not appear on each other's Related Cases page. That is, the fact that case A is equivalent to both case B and case C does not establish a relationship between case B and case C. To see all equivalent cases in one place, you must make the equivalent cases into children of a common parent.

Your organization can use the AAF Case Relationship action to cascade case statuses. You can write a policy to use this action to cascade statuses from a parent case to all of its child cases.

For example, if your organization establishes a global relationship type for tracking problems where a single solution (such as rebooting a server) fixes a problem for multiple people, then it may make sense to automatically close all child cases when the parent case is closed. When the status cascades to children, any status-related workflow for the child case is triggered, including cascading statuses to the child case's children.

Note. The Case Relationship policy is delivered inactive in the Case Status Changed policy.

Methods for relating cases are:

• Relate the current case to another existing case.

  For example, you receive four calls reporting problems about your web server before you recognize that this is a global problem. The four cases that you've already created need to be related to each other. When you relate the cases, you can choose one as the parent case and make the other three into children or you can make all four of the original cases into children of a new parent case.

• Create a new case and relate it to the current case.

  For example, you've established a global case for your web server problem. Someone calls to report the problem. From the existing global case, you can create a new child case and copy the problem information into the new case.

Note. You can also modify the display template to enable the user to relate a case to a new or an existing case on the Case Summary page.

This diagram illustrates the methods for relating cases:

Methods for relating cases

Relating a Case to an Existing Case

To relate a case to an existing case:

1. On the Related Cases page, click the Relate an Existing Case button.

   The Search Cases page appears.

2. Use the Search Cases page to identify the case that you want to associate with the current case.

   Enter search criteria to help you find the case and click the Search button. The system returns a list of cases that match your criteria. To select a case, click that case in the results list. The Relate Existing Case - Relationship page appears.

   If your search criteria uniquely identifies a case, the system bypasses the list of search results and displays the Relate Existing Case - Relationship page.

3. Use the Relate Existing Case - Relationship page to specify the relationship details.

   Specify a relationship type and choose relationship labels for each of the cases. Valid relationship types are defined by your organization and are based on the business unit of the case.

4. Click OK.

   The system establishes the relationship and saves the case. The new case relationship appears on the Related Cases page.

Creating and Relating a New Case

To create a new case related to the current case:

1. On the Related Cases page, click the Create and Relate a New Case button.

   The Create a New Case - Relationship page appears.

2. Use the Create a New Case - Relationship page to specify the relationship details.

   Specify a relationship type and choose relationship labels for each case. Your organization defines valid relationship types based on the business unit of the case.

3. Select the information to copy from the original case to the new case.

   You can copy the customer or employee information, problem information, and resolution information.

4. Click OK.

   Customer or employee information is required for all cases. Therefore, if you choose to not copy caller information, the Create a New Case - Relations page appears so that you can identify the company-contact or the consumer-employee contact for whom you are creating and relating a case.

   Note. Contact information is optional if you are creating a case for a consumer.

   If you choose to copy the caller information, the system immediately creates the new case and returns you to the Related Cases page. The newly established case relationship appears in the Existing Related Cases grid. Select the case link in the Related Cases grid to transfer to the new case.

See Also

Setting Up Case Relationship Types and Labels

Pages Used to Manage Case Relationships

Reviewing and Initiating Case Relationships

Access the Related Cases page.

Note. If the case is secured, the message Secured appears instead of the case summary. This message comes from the message catalog, where you can easily modify the text.

The Related Cases grid lists all existing case relationships.

Creating New Case Relationships

Specifying Relationship Details When Relating a Case to an Existing Case

Access the Relate Existing Case - Relationship page.

Relationship Type

Specify a relationship type. Relationship types can be either hierarchical (parent-child) or nonhierarchical. Your organization defines values that are based on the business unit of the case.

Case (current case number) and Case (related case number)

Select relationship labels for the current case and the case that you're relating to it. If the relationship is hierarchical, one valid label exists for the parent case and one valid label exists for the child case. Match the cases to the appropriate labels to establish the desired parent-child relationship. If the relationship is not hierarchical, only one valid label exists. Select that label for both cases. If you select invalid labels (for example, labels that belong to other relationship types), the system displays an error message when you click OK.

See Also

Setting Up Case Relationship Types and Labels

Specifying Relationship Details When Creating a New Case

Access the Create a New Case - Relationship page.

Characteristics

Information

The system always copies the business unit to the new case. You choose which other information to copy to the new case.

See Also

Managing Cases

Setting Up Case Relationship Types and Labels

Managing Related Actions

This section provides an overview of related actions and discusses how to:

• Review related actions and initiate new relationships.

• Use business projects.

• Send case surveys.

• Initiate and relate scripts.

• Relate existing quality defects.

• Create new defects.

• Create and relate sales leads.

• Create and relate sales orders.

• Create and relate a return material authorization (RMA).

• Create and relate service orders.

• Relate change requests.

• Create change requests.

Understanding Related Actions

In PeopleSoft CRM, you can:

• Manually create a related action on a case.

• Configure the system so that selecting a quick code suggests an action.

• Configure the system so that PeopleSoft's AAF system suggests an action.

Related Actions for Both PeopleSoft Support and HelpDesk Cases

This table describes which related actions you can associate with both PeopleSoft Support and PeopleSoft HelpDesk cases:

You can set up additional link definitions to launch PeopleSoft Enterprise Real-Time Advisor, or a specific branch script, or a specific business project.

See Configuring Display Templates.

Related Actions for PeopleSoft HelpDesk Cases Only

This table describes related actions that you can associate with PeopleSoft HelpDesk cases:

In addition to the actions listed, you can set up the system to do any of the support actions, with the exception of customer-facing self-service transactions.

Related Actions for PeopleSoft Support Cases Only

This table describes related actions that you can associate with PeopleSoft HelpDesk cases:

In addition to the actions listed, you can set up the system to do any of the support actions, with the exception of customer-facing transactions.

Service Order and Material Return Comparison

When customers report problems with broken or defective parts or materials, you can do one of the following:

• If the customer is entitled to on-site service, create a service order so that your organization can send a field service technician to the customer's site to repair the part.

• If the customer is not entitled to on-site service, create a return material authorization (RMA) so that the customer can return the merchandise.

Pages Used to Relate a Case to Other PeopleSoft CRM Objects

Reviewing Related Actions and Initiating New Relationships

Access the Related Actions page.

Note. If the case is secured, the message Secured appears instead of the case summary. This message comes from the message catalog so that you can easily modify the text.

Related Actions Summary

This grid lists all existing relationships between the current case and other PeopleSoft CRM objects.

Using Business Projects

Access the Use Business Project page.

Select the business project that you want to use for the case. Click the Use Business Project button to launch the business project.

See Also

Setting Up Business Projects

Sending Case Surveys

Access the Send Case Survey page.

Select the business unit, dialog name, and action that you want to use to send a survey to the customer associated with the case; click OK.

Note. You can also set up this link to automatically launch a survey and bypass the Send Case Survey page. To do this, you must modify the system data and use the Search Keys group box on the Link Definition page to select the last three terms that appear under Call Center, Link Definition after you select the Add Term button. There terms are: Select a Dialog Business Unit <BUSINESS_UNIT>, Select a Dialog ID <DIALOG_ID>, and Select an External Event Trigger <EXT_EVENT_TRIGGER>.

See Also

Setting Up Links and Related Actions

Understanding Surveys

Initiating and Relating Scripts

Access the Use Branch Script page.

Note. You can relate a different branch script multiple times to a single case. You can also relate the same branch script to a single case multiple times.

See Also

Defining Scripts

Relating Existing Quality Defects

Access the Defects and Enhancements page.

On this page, you can sort and filter to narrow down your list of defects, or you can search for other defects.

See Also

Defining Call Center Business Units

Working with Active Analytics Framework

Creating New Defects

Access the Quality Management - Defect page.

For instructions about using the Quality Management - Defect page:

See Managing Defects and Fixes.

Creating and Relating Sales Leads

Access the Create Sales Lead page.

Note. Only PeopleSoft Support users can create sales leads. This functionality is not available in PeopleSoft HelpDesk applications.

See Also

Creating Sales Leads and Opportunities

Creating and Relating Sales Orders

Access the Create Order page.

Note. Only PeopleSoft Support users can create orders. This functionality is not available in PeopleSoft HelpDesk applications.

See Also

Managing Orders and Quotes

Creating and Relating RMAs

Access the Return Material Authorization page.

Note. Only PeopleSoft Support users can create RMAs. This functionality is not available in PeopleSoft HelpDesk applications.

For instructions about using the Create RMA page:

See Also

Managing Material Returns

Creating and Relating Service Orders

Access the Create Service Order page.

Note. Only PeopleSoft Support users can create service orders; this functionality is not available in PeopleSoft HelpDesk applications.

See Also

Creating and Managing Service Orders

Relating Change Requests

Access the Change Requests search page.

Note. Only PeopleSoft HelpDesk users can relate change requests; this functionality is not available in PeopleSoft Support applications.

To relate an existing change request to a case, click one of the change requests that appears in the Search Results grid. The Change Request appears in the Related Actions Summary grid on the Case - Summary page and the Case - Related Actions page.

To add a new change request, click the Add Change Request button at the bottom of the page.

Creating Change Requests

Access the Create Request page.

Note. Only PeopleSoft HelpDesk users can create change requests. This functionality is not available for PeopleSoft Support users.

For instructions about using the pages in this component:

See Using Change Management.

Identifying Interested Parties

The main people associated with a case are those who have the problem (customer contacts, consumers and their contact, employees and their alternate contacts) and the agent to whom the case is assigned.

Additionally, there may be many other people interested in the case and its progress, such as agents who are working on the case or a similar case, a customer's account manager and sales representative, and so on.

By adding people to the list of interested parties for the case, you facilitate communication with these people. When you send a notification from the case, the Send Notification page includes a check box that you can select to send the notification to the interested parties in addition to any other addressees.

Note. The PeopleSoft system delivers this page as hidden. If you want to identify interested parties on the case, you will need to modify the template to enable the page. Also, you may wish to use the display template to enable the Interested Parties section on the Case Summary page, or on the Case Information section of the main Case page.

Page Used to Identify Interested Parties

Identifying Interested Parties

Access the Interested Parties page.

Name	To be an interested party, a person must have a person record in the PeopleSoft CRM database. For the system to send notifications to the person, the person must have a user ID (for worklist notifications) or an email address (for email notifications).
Reason	The reason that the person is included as an interested party. Your organization defines values based on the business unit of the case.
Date Added	The date and time that the person was added as an interested party.

Recording Billing Information

The PeopleSoft system allows the PeopleSoft Support and vertical applications that are using PeopleSoft Support to bill for their services. Cases with an agreement will be billed through contracts. Cases with a warranty, or no agreement, are called on demand and sent to the contract interface table, and then to billing. The PeopleSoft Contracts system takes care of the billing and accounting rules.

The Billing page is delivered hidden. If you want to bill for cases, modify the template to enable the page and perform the setup for billing.

Note. This functionality is not available to PeopleSoft HelpDesk and HelpDesk for Human Resources. You can control access to the billing page using regular role based security. Only the manager role has access; agents do not have access

See Understanding PeopleSoft CRM Integration with the Transaction Billing Processor.

Page Used to Record Billing Information

Recording Billing Information

Access the Billing page.

This page serves multiple purposes. It enables a user with a manager role to view billing information, purchase order numbers, and authorize credit card information for the service that is performed at the customer site. It also enables users to view subtotals for fees by case or by time, apply adjustments to transaction fees, recalculate totals, and view the billable amount in the customer's currency.

Billing Information

The system populates this group box with information from the bill to customer on the case.

Payment Information

Billing Details

A case can be billed by case (flat fee) or time. Billing applies to either on demand cases or agreement cases. When a case is created with an agreement, and pricing is enabled from the installation options component, the case is billed based on the transaction fee defined in that agreement line.

The transaction fee can be either a flat fee or time based. When a case is created without an agreement, the on-demand case fee is applied. Based on business unit setup (whether the on-demand case is billed by time or by case), it retrieves pricing information from the pricing setup for either case-based or time-based billing.

When a case is billed by case, only a flat fee is applied. When a case is billed by time, it is billed based on the total billable hours worked on that case, multiplied by the hourly rate. Once the case is billed, you cannot enter any more billable hours.

Managers can use this section to adjust the fees by increasing or decreasing a fee by a percent or by an amount.

The system then calculates the sum of all lines, including those that have changed, and provides the recalculated amount in the Total Amount field.

Entering Attribute Information

Attributes enable you to extend the information stored for a case without modifying that case's base table. This capability is valuable when you want to capture additional information about a case that is not available.

For example, you might need to capture the color and size attributes for certain types of products but not for all products. Because these attributes are relevant only for some products, you do not want to add them as fields to the base table itself.

See Also

Configuring Attributes

Page Used to Enter Attribute Information

Entering Attribute Information

Access the Attributes page.

Select or enter the information that you want to add to the case.

Selecting, Printing, and Emailing Case Information

This section provides an overview of print case functionality and discusses how to:

• Select display options.

• Print and email case information.

Understanding the Print Case Functionality

Because certain case data can be considered proprietary information, the PeopleSoft system provides the ability to select or deselect certain fields to display or not display on the Print Case page and in the email attachment.

When the user initiates an email action, the system prepares the attachment behind the scenes and automatically sends it to the attachment server without user intervention. The system formats the attachment to display in an arrangement and style that is very similar to the Print Case output.

The system saves the attachment, which is in HTML format, with a unique filename on the attachment server associated with correspondence management. The filename that is displayed to the user on the email page is Case NNNN Details.

Pages Used to Select, Print and Email Case Information

Selecting Display Options

Access the Case - Display Options page.

Clear or select the check boxes and radio buttons associated with the information that you want to print or email. Click OK. The system returns you to the Print Case page.

You can only print or email the sections that are listed on the Case - Display Options page. While the following sections are part of the Case component, the PeopleSoft system does not include these sections on the Case - Display Options page and you, therefore, cannot print or email this information using the print case functionality that the PeopleSoft system delivers:

• Related Cases

• Interested Parties

• Attributes

• Case History

• Billing

Printing and Emailing Case Information

Access the Print Case page

To print case information, click File, Print, Print from the toolbar on your browser page.

To email case information, click the Email button at either the top or the bottom of the page. The system displays the Send Notification page. In the Message Contents group box, the case appears as a file attachment.

See Sending Manual Notifications.