This chapter covers the following topics:
This topic group contains a list of the core products with which Oracle Email Center integrates and a brief description or each core product.
Email Center is dependent on following core components:
Oracle Foundation, 12.
Oracle Text 8.1.7.2 or later.
Oracle Marketing Encyclopedia System.
Oracle Knowledge Management (previously known as Solution Management System or SMS).
Email Center does not provide the ability to create or update customer data and profiles other than email contact points. For this purpose Oracle recommends that an Oracle business application such as Teleservice or Telesales be installed on site as well.
Oracle Email Center can be used with any corporate mail server as long as the mail server is IMAP4 compliant.
Since Oracle Email Center only defines an email account, an administrator must create the physical email account on the mail server. Once the email accounts are defined on the mail server, the administrator can use the account management pages in Oracle Email Center to define the email accounts.
SMTP is a transport service capable of relaying mail across environments and typically operates over TCP, port 25. SMTP does not provide any special features outside mail transport. Sendmail is an SMTP implementation that runs in the background, listening for incoming mail.
The Email Center Outbox Processor utilizes the SMTP server to send all outbound emails.
Email Center uses the Oracle Text application as part of it's Intent analysis process. Oracle Text extracts a set of keywords from an incoming message and provides them to the Email Center Intent engine to identify the email intent. Once the intent for the email is identified, Oracle Text searches through the knowledge base repositories to determine appropriate response documents.
Oracle Text, previously known as interMedia Text, is a component of the Oracle Database. It provides a generic search, retrieval, and viewing capabilities for text. When used with Email Center, Oracle Text performs text searches and keyword analysis in languages supported by CRM applications. The quality of this process for a specific language is a function of not only how well the system has been "trained" and "tuned" over time by the administrator, but also the database character set and tools (such as stoplists provided by Oracle Text) used to optimize the search and retrieval of keywords.
A character set is specified when creating a database, and your choice of character set determines what languages can be processed by Email Center and Oracle Text. Over the years, character sets have evolved to support more than a single language. These new character sets support a group of related languages, based on the encoding scheme (i.e. the same script). For example, the ISO 8859 Part 1 character set series was created to support 24 different European languages. More recently the use of an unrestricted or universal character set, such as Unicode encompasses most major scripts of the modern world. Several character sets may meet your current language requirements, but you should consider future language requirements as well. Often, unrestricted multilingual support is needed, and a universal character set such as UTF8 is recommended as the database character set.
Oracle Text provides a set of default stoplists and if a default stoplist exists for a language, it will be used to identify the words that the system ignores during the text processing. For example, the Default English stoplist contains stop words such as 'a', 'it', 'can', 'some', 'on', 'have', 'the', 'they', etc. If an incoming email contains the text "Can I have some information on the Oracle Database?", when it is processed by Oracle Text the following keywords will be extracted; 'information', 'Oracle', 'Database', and words such as 'Can' and 'some' will be excluded.
An administrator can create stoplists for additional languages and also extend the default stoplists. Please refer to the most current Oracle Text documentation for the list of default stoplists available, how to extend stoplists and other tools for improving precision of the linguistic analysis for a given language.
Known Limitations
Only bundled with Oracle 8 and higher versions. Not available on earlier versions.
Default Stoplists are only provided for some languages.
Platform Dependencies
Ported to most major platforms.
Oracle Customer Interaction History is an Oracle foundation component. Hence it is available to and used by all applications in the Oracle E-Business suite. The Customer Interaction History component records interactions between a customer and an agent across applications and media channels. This enables the administrator to generate and run activity reports across all media channels.
An Interaction History record is created for every incoming and outgoing email. Every Interaction must be associated with a customer. Oracle Email Center tries to find a customer by matching the email address. If however a customer cannot be identified based on the email address, Email Center then assigns a default customer ID to the email. This default customer ID is defined while setting the site profile options.
Oracle Email Center uses the following two repositories:
Oracle Knowledge Management, formerly named the Solution Management System (SMS)
Marketing Encyclopedia Systems (MES)
The SMS repository is a key component of the iSupport application. It stores solution sets for the most commonly reported problems. The interface to create these solution sets and maintain them is provided in the Oracle iSupport application and not in Oracle Email Center.
Oracle Email Center (Email Center) uses the Marketing Encyclopedia System (MES) as its document repository. MES provides the administrator with the capability to organize documents into various categories (or folders). The administrator can select the repositories he/she would like Email Center to search for documents/solutions based on the intent of the email by selecting the appropriate knowledge base in the site profile option settings. The Email Center agent is also allowed to browse through the MES categories only. But an agent can manually search for documents or solution sets stored in either the MES or SMS repository while composing an email.
Concurrent Manager is a component of Oracle Application Object Library. It is responsible for scheduling and running various concurrent programs submitted by the user. It uses Distributed Concurrent Processing and can simultaneously run concurrent requests on several different server machines or CPUs. Oracle Email Center makes use of this facility to schedule and run various email processing modules.
The concurrent program will run until the specified number of messages get processed, then will wait for the specified time interval and then restarts to elapsed. The Email Center out-of-the-box concurrent process is set to (5 x 100 x 12). This means that 5 processes, processing 100 messages each and having a wait period of 12 minutes will process 500 messages (if available) before the next batch of concurrent processes (workers) starts.
Email Center does not recommend any specific number of concurrent processes that can be run at the same time because this is strictly hardware dependent and the answer would be "As many as your hardware can handle..."
Email Center uses the Oracle Applications Standard Manager to submit the following batch jobs for processing emails:
Rebuild Help Search Index - Used for rebuilding index for MES document repository.
Email Center Download Processor Notifications - Starts Email Center DP notification workflow.
Process Email Center Purge Requests - Purges emails from the system.
Start Email Processing - Starts the email processing controller that spawns separate worker processes.
Email Processing Worker - This is the child process spawned by the above controller.
Stop Email Processing - Stops all email processing workers.
Start Email Center Migration - The controller program that spawn separate migration worker processes.
Email Center Migration Worker - Worker threads for migration, spawned by the controller program.
Stop Email Center Migration - This stops all migration workers.
Email Center uses Oracle Resource Manager to create resource groups of agents. These agent groupings can be based on many things, including specific areas of knowledge, or language skills.
Refer to My Oracle Support for approximate sizes and system requirements for Oracle Applications (Oracle Email Center is included in the estimate). Information is available for:
Approximate sizes of Oracle Application installs
What are the sizing requirements for this Oracle Applications release
What are the system requirements for this Oracle Applications release
System requirements for Apps
What are the requirements for Applications installation
Oracle Application Object Library
Application Install
PROD install
TEST install
VIS install
Disk usage of an install of Oracle Application
Oracle Email Center provides agents with the ability to create business objects such as a service request and at the same time provides message composing/viewing capabilities to the business users such that every email interaction is recorded and archived.
Agents can create these service requests from within the Message Component, while viewing and responding to an incoming email or composing a new outbound email. The number for the created service request is then included in the tag appended to the subject of the outbound email. If the customer replies back, then the service request number is extracted from the tag and the service request status is automatically updated using a previously defined value.
By default this feature is turned OFF. If the customer intends to use this functionality, set the IEM: Integration: TeleService Enabled system profile to "YES". Refer to the Setting Profile Options section for the steps to set system profile options. After this system profile is set to "YES", a "Service Request" container is displayed in the Message Component. This container provides the agent with the ability to create a service request, update it manually, and add notes to it.
Administrators can define auto-processing rules to automatically create service requests. Oracle Email Center has two basic actions that auto-processing rules can take in creating a service request--an action that does not use email parser definitions or an action that does. The email parser uses parser definitions to identify and extract data from structured email. The data maps to fields in a service request. The application then can build a service request if an auto-processing rule is set up to create a service request automatically.
For the action that does not use email parser definitions:
Administrators can define an auto-processing rule to automatically create service requests. Administrators can select the service request type with which the service request will be created and also select which template will be used for email notifications sent from Email Center.
A service request is automatically created for an incoming email if it satisfies the assigned auto-processing rule conditions. When a service request is automatically created, the content of the email body is included in service request notes, and only limited customer data is passed to the service request. Oracle Email Center also provides an option to send a notification when the service request is created or updated.
Service requests can be automatically created for emails from employees and contingent workers. If the auto create service request process fails, then the email can be routed to an agent, a service request can be created for the default customer, or the email can be redirected to an specified email address. The option to redirect to a specified email address is available only for employee emails.
For the action that uses email parser definitions:
Administrators define an auto-processing rule to automatically create service requests. Administrators make named email parser definitions and select one to use with a given auto-processing rule. Administrators can select the service request type with which the service request will be created and also select which template will be used for email notifications sent from Email Center.
A service request is automatically created for an incoming email if it satisfies the assigned auto-processing rule conditions. When a service request is automatically created, the content of the email body is included in service request notes, and the assignment manager uses additional information from the email parser to better assign the service request to the right resource. Oracle Email Center also provides an option to send a notification when the service request is created or updated.
Service requests can be automatically created for emails from employees and contingent workers. If the auto create service request process fails, then the email can be routed to an agent, a service request can be created for the default customer, or the email can be redirected to an specified email address. The option to redirect to a specified email address is available only for employee emails.
When a service request is created from a message component the service request number is included in the tag that is appended to the corresponding outbound email. When the customer replies back, the service request number is then extracted from the tag and can be used to update the service request automatically.
Oracle Email Center provides a auto-processing rule called Auto Update Service Request. When defining this rule, administrators must select a specific service request status code. Administrators also select which template to use for email notifications sent from Email Center. When Email Center automatically updates the service request, the status of the service request will change to the status chosen by the administrator for the Auto Update Service Request rule.
You can also create custom status codes (for example, to explicitly notify an agent when a customer replied to the service request email).
The Oracle TeleSales and Oracle TeleService applications are integrated with Email Center to provide their agents with the Email Center Message Component for viewing archived emails and composing new emails. The advantage of using the Email Center Message Component is that the business application can pass data pertaining to the email header fields, customer, or contact against whom the interaction should be recorded; as well as locate the appropriate document to be used as the template for composing the email and for all merge fields used within the document. Using the data values passed, the compose email page is automatically populated so that the sales agent only needs to view the formatted email, add a comment if desired, and click "Send." The Message Component will then record the interaction and archive a copy of the outbound email as well.
Oracle Teleservice provides access to the Message Component from the Contact Center form and from Service request Form. You can launch the Email Center Message Component by either:
Double-clicking the email address displayed in the field.
Clicking the email icon next to the email address field or clicking the Compose email icon displayed in the tool bar.
The following Service profiles pertain to the Email Center Integration.
Service: Enable Outbound Email in Service Request (Yes enables the integration).
Service: Default Email Category (The template category displayed in Compose email screen when launched from Service Request form).
Service: Default Email Template (Email body automatically populated with the contents of this template – can use merge fields)
Service: Enable defaulting CC field in the email header while sending an email in Service Request form. (Automatically populates the CC field with the contact points for other contacts on service request.)
Service: Subject Prefix for Outbound Email in Service Request. (Prefixes the subject for emails).
Refer to the corresponding E-Business Suite application's Implementation Guide for details pertaining to their system profile settings and other configuration requirements.
Environment Setup
Since the Email Center Message Component functionality relies on the Email Center infrastructure, your environment must be set up to support Oracle Email Center. This process includes setting up Email Center and creating email accounts.
For a business application user to be able to use the Oracle Email Center Message Component, the user must be assigned the specific responsibility and be assigned to at least one email account. Perform the following steps to enable business application users to use the Email Center Message Component:
Steps
Create a different email account if desired. Refer to Section 5.8 for creating an email account.
Assign the "Email Center Message Component" responsibility to the predefined business application user. Refer to Section 5.9.2 for assigning responsibilities to users.
Assign the business application user with the corresponding email account. Refer to Section 5.9.5 for assigning email accounts to agents.
You can perform the following tasks to troubleshoot your integration:
Unable to Launch Message Component from Oracle Business Suite Application
Indication: The agent is unable to launch the Email Center Message Component from the business application.
Solution: Check the following:
This step should have already been performed in the business application calling the Message Component. Perform the following steps as a validation check to ensure that the single sign-on function for launching the Message Component (IEM_MC_LAUNCHER) is included in the menu structure.
The steps listed below apply to all Forms based applications only. The prompt for this function in the menu structure is kept blank to disable the user from selecting it directly.
Login
Forms Login URL
Responsibility
System Administration
Prerequisites
None
Steps
Under the Functions tab, double-click Application.
Double-click Menu.
Under the View option in the menu bar, select Query by Example and click Enter.
The window is now in the query mode.
Enter the name of the menu from which the Message Component is launched.
Under the View option in menu bar, select Query by Example and click Run.
The details pertaining to that menu are now displayed.
Verify that IEM_MC_LAUNCHER exists in the list of functions with a blank Prompt field.
Error Occurs When Opening a Message in the Message Component
Indication: Upon invoking the Message Component from Forms, a browser window opens with an error rather than the Message Component.
Solution: Make sure your user has the Email Center Message Component Responsibility.
You install Oracle Email Center by performing the Oracle Applications Rapid Install process.
The Rapid Install is intended for customers who are installing Oracle Applications for the first time or upgrading to Release 12 from to earlier releases.
The Rapid Install is provided on CD-ROMs and is available from Oracle Store at http://oraclestore.com. For information about installing Oracle Applications using Rapid Install, see Installing Oracle Applications. For information about upgrading Oracle Applications using Rapid Install, see Upgrading Oracle Applications.
Oracle Applications uses two different technology stacks:
Oracle Application Object Library (AOL)
Java Technology Foundation (JTF)
AOL applications are Oracle Forms developed using Oracle Developer and are usually referred to as Forms-based applications. JTF applications are Java Server Pages (JSPs) developed using Oracle JDeveloper and are usually referred to as HTML-based applications. Each type of application accesses the same database and can share information with the other.
The product interfaces are accessed by providing the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the environment in an Oracle Applications 12-compliant Web browser and navigating to the hyperlink for the login page for the specific technology stack. You can also provide the URL for the specific login page. This URL is referred to as your login URL.
Oracle Applications URL
Use this URL to navigate to the Personal Home Page URL or the CRM Home page URL.
http://<host>:<port>/
To navigate to the Personal Home Page URL, choose Apps Logon Links > Personal Home Page.
To navigate to the CRM Home Page URL, choose Apps Logon Links > CRM Home Page.
CRM Home Page URL
This URL is sometimes referred to as the Apache or JTF login URL. Use this URL to open the login page for HTML-based applications.
http://<host>:<port>/OA_HTML/jtflogin.jsp
Personal Home Page URL
This URL is sometimes referred to as the Self-Service Web Applications or SSWA login URL. Use this URL to open the login window for Oracle Applications via the Personal Home Page. You can access Forms-based or HTML-based applications from the Personal Home Page.
http://<host>:<port>/OA_HTML/US/ICXINDEX.htm
Forms URL
Use this URL to open the login page for Forms-based applications. This login URL is typically used by system administrators, not end users.
http://<host>:<port>/dev60cgi/f60cgi
An application user is an authorized user of Oracle Applications and is uniquely identified by a username. After the user account has been defined, the application user can sign on to Oracle Applications at the CRM Home Page, Personal Home Page, or Forms login.
Note: Oracle Applications is installed with a system defined username and password.
Username: sysadmin
Password: sysadmin
An application user enters a username along with a password to sign on to Oracle Applications. The password assigned by the system administrator is temporary. When signing on for the first time, the application user will be prompted to change the password. Access to specific functionality and data will be determined by the responsibilities assigned to your user account.
The following is a list of documentation containing information that will assist you when implementing Oracle Email Center:
Oracle Marketing Implementation Guide
Oracle Marketing User Guide
Oracle TeleSales Implementation Guide
Oracle TeleSales User Guide
Oracle Universal Work Queue Implementation Guide
Oracle Universal Work Queue User Guide
Oracle Collections Implementation Guide
Oracle Collections User Guide
Oracle Customer Interaction History Implementation Guide