Understanding Manual Notifications
This section discusses:
Notification modes.
Notification addressing and delivery.
Templates and terms.
Approval processing.
Interactions and subinteractions.
Email tracking.
The term manual notification refers to notifications that you compose and send from the Outbound Notification page. It does not include correspondence that you send from the Correspondence Request page, nor does it include automated notifications.
Throughout this documentation, the term Outbound Notification page refers to any of the pages accessed using the Notification toolbar button (in some cases it's called Notify). This icon appears in the toolbar of most CRM transactions components.
|
Field or Control |
Definition |
|---|---|
 |
Click the Notification button that appears in the toolbars of various components to access the Outbound Notification page and send email and worklist notifications. |
Manual Notification Modes
Manual notifications have two modes:
Outbound notifications.
These are new worklist or email notifications that the user composes and sends using the Outbound Notification page; they are not continuations of any existing email thread. When you send an outbound notification to yourself, it is considered a reminder.
Email replies.
This mode is available only if you license PeopleSoft Multichannel Communications, which includes an email response management system (ERMS). This mode enables you to send outbound emails from transactions as well as from inbound emails.
At the system installation level, an option is available that enables administrators to decide which component to launch when users send a response to existing email messages. If the Use Email Workspace while responding to an existing notification option is selected, the Response page of the email workspace appears; otherwise, the system launches the Outbound Notification page when you reply to an existing email.
Components that Support Outbound Notifications
To send a manual notification, the sender accesses the Outbound Notification page from a component that supports notifications, then composes, addresses, and sends the notification. You can send notifications from these CRM components:
Marketing program (campaign, event and roll up)
Case (all versions)
Call report
Task
My Contacts
Service order and My service order
Service (Integrated FieldService)
Return materials authorization (RMA)
Change management
360-Degree View (all versions)
Defect
Fix
Lead
Opportunity
Note: PeopleSoft CRM manual notifications are different from PeopleTools manual notifications. To prevent the simultaneous use of two different notification mechanisms, the delivered CRM roles do not give users access to PeopleTools notification functionality. Also, PeopleTools notifications are explicitly disabled in the components that support PeopleSoft CRM manual notifications. This ensures that the PeopleTools Notify button will not appear in these components, even if you choose to give users access to PeopleTools notifications.
This section discusses how manual notifications are addressed and delivered.
Delivery Channels
Manual notifications can be sent to email addresses or worklists. Email is sent through your organization's email system. You may not necessarily receive failed email error messages if your SMTP server is down or if there is a delivery failure on the recipient's side.
Available delivery channels vary according to the recipient type. Email notifications are available to both external and internal recipients; whereas worklist notifications are applicable only to internal recipients. An external recipient is an individual who is not part of an organization running a CRM application but has business with the organization. Examples of external recipients are business contacts, consumer, and POIs (person of interest). An internal recipient is an individual who works for an organization (an active worker) and has the personal information stored in the CRM system. A worker is an example of internal recipient. This table shows the delivery channels and the different recipient types to which these channels apply.
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Recipient Type |
Email Notification |
Worklist Notification |
|---|---|---|
|
Customer contact or consumer |
Available only if the person has a primary email address. |
Not available. |
|
Worker |
Available only if the person has a primary email address. |
Available if the worker has a user ID. For a person's worklist notifications to be delivered correctly, the person ID must be associated with only one user ID, and the user must have security access to the Worklist page. |
|
Provider Group (a group of workers that is used in the field service or any of the call center applications) |
Available only if the provider group definition specifies a group email address. |
Available only if the provider group definition specifies a group worklist. |
|
Sale Teams (a group of workers that is used in the sales application) |
Available only if the Sales Team member definition specifies an individual email address. The concept of group email address doesn't apply. |
Not available (because sales teams are not associated with group worklists). |
|
Contact Group (a group of contacts that is defined for a PeopleSoft application user and used for CDM objects) |
Available only if the contact group definition specifies an individual email address. The concept of group email address doesn't apply. |
Not available (because contact groups are not associated with group worklists). |
|
A fully qualified email address (for example, person@company.com) |
Always available. |
Not available. |
Workers and provider groups, who can receive notifications by email or worklist, can set a preferred notification method: email, worklist, or both. The preference controls the default delivery channel for notifications addressed to that worker or provider group. The delivery channel can be adjusted for recipients on the Outbound Notification page.
See Maintaining Worker Information, Provider Groups Page.
The ability to address a notification to a group is context-dependent:
Provider groups can receive notifications only from cases and service orders.
Sales teams can receive notifications from only leads and opportunities.
Contact group members can receive notifications from only call reports or the contact list.
Note: Notifications that are addressed to groups are delivered to each of the group members, except for provider groups that have disabled the Use Members to Broadcast option. For provider groups with this option disabled, the system sends the notification to the group email address or group worklist.
Recipient Selection
You can always enter recipient information manually by clicking the Add Recipients toolbar button to search for notification recipients. For people, enter a full or partial first name, last name, or email address or a complete person ID to perform the recipient search. In addition, based on the transaction from which the notification originates, you can send notifications to groups that are available in the CRM system. This includes sales teams for leads and opportunities, provider groups for cases and service orders, and contact groups for call reports and contact lists.
Note: If you enter an email address in a recipient search and the address is linked to a person in the system, that person is returned as a result of the search along with the email address. If the email address is not associated with any person or group, it still shows up in the search result and can be selected as a notification recipient.
You can enter data in multiple search fields when you look up recipients. In this scenario, the system takes in all the information and returns recipients that fit all the search criteria. For instance, if you enter search criteria for a provider group and a person's last name, the system returns, if available, all people in the database with last names that match the search criteria and belong to provider groups matching the search criteria as well.
The search validates that the person exists and has a valid email address to which the notification is delivered (otherwise it becomes a worklist notification).
When you search for a person or group (provider group, sales team, or contact group) by entering a name in the corresponding field, the search will perform these steps:
Determine which delivery channels are available for each person and group.
The default preference can be set up in the Worker and Provider Group components.
Set default delivery channels for workers and provider groups.
Look up email addresses for people, provider groups, sales teams or contact groups based on which one of them is being searched.
When you send an email notification, the system populates the From address with the sender's email address that is specified in the Correspondence Management Installation Setup page, if a reply-to address is not already specified for the logon user on the Agent Setup page.
Manual notifications, like correspondence requests, support the use of correspondence templates to generate the text of your communication. However, there are differences in how manual notifications and correspondence requests handle template-based correspondence. This section describes how templates and terms work in the context of a manual notification.
Template Selection
Templates are not required in manual notifications; you can enter free-form text instead of (or in addition to) template-based content.
The system populates the Template field with applicable packages based on these criteria:
The channel, which is always assumed to be email (never print).
The package's usages and the context from which the notification is being sent.
The templates in the package.
Package selection is limited to packages that contain a single internal text template and no other templates or static attachments. The presence of print-only templates in the package do not affect its availability; only templates that apply to the email channel are evaluated.
Users can add attachments to notifications, but not by applying a template package.
The user's language.
The Outbound Notification page is accessed from various CRM transactions. From this page, you can select packages that are usable for the transaction from which you accessed the page. In addition to the packages that are available from the Template field, you can search for additional templates using the Advanced Search link.
See Template Search Page.
Template Application
After you select a template package, you must click a button to apply it. This enables you to avoid applying a template that you accidentally select.
If the Subject field is empty when you apply a template, the template's subject text is applied. There is always default subject text for email replies, so template subjects are not used for email replies unless the agent manually deletes the existing subject before applying the template.
You apply template packages one at a time; each time you apply a package, the text is added to the existing body text. The position of the newly added text can vary:
If you do not license PeopleSoft Multichannel Communications, the system adds the new template text at the end of the message.
If you license PeopleSoft Multichannel Communications, the location of the newly added template text depends on how you configure the System Installations page for ERMS:
If the system setting is for the email history to be at the end of the email, new template text is applied at the top of the message.
If the system setting is for the email history to be at the beginning of the email, new template text is applied at the end of the message.
Note: PDF settings for templates do not apply when using templates in manual notifications. The system always adds template text directly to the email body.
Term Resolution
When you click to apply the selected template package to manual notification, the system resolves AAF terms in the template and displays the final message in the text area on the Outbound Notification page. Immediate resolution enables you to see the final text of the notification before you send it.
When the selected template contains recipient-specific terms and the notification is addressed to more than one TO recipient, the system needs to know which recipient to use to resolve these terms. In this case, a page appears and lists all the TO recipients currently selected for this notification. You can choose a recipient from the list and all the recipient-specific terms are resolved for this recipient as the message is displayed and delivered. You can also ask the system to personalize the notification for all the TO recipients. If this option is specified and the template applied, the system resolves recipient-specific terms only at the time of delivery. In the Message field, the original text of the selected template is displayed, showing unresolved terms. CC and BCC recipients (if any) get notification with unresolved terms.
For example, if a template that is applied to a lead-related notification begins with Dear {{Salutation Code}} {{Last Name}}, and if Brian Cooper is the selected TO recipient, then all copies of the message will begin with Dear Mr. Cooper. If Tina Miller and Stuart Fletcher are also TO recipients of this notification and you select the option to personalize the message for all recipients, then the copy of the message will begin with Dear Mr. Cooper. for Brian Cooper, Dear Ms. Miller for Tina Miller, and Dear Mr. Fletcher for Stuart Fletcher. These recipient-specific terms appear as unresolved for all CC and BCC recipients.
Note that because terms are resolved individually at the time of delivery, when there are multiple TO recipients and you select to personalize the notification for each recipient when applying the template, any manual changes that you make (such as adding new text) to the template text will be lost. However, if you select one TO recipient to resolve terms, any manual changes to the template after applying the template will be retained.
In order for the system to be able to identify recipient-specific terms in correspondence templates, specify these terms on the Recipient Specific Terms page.
If you designate an approver for a specific user, the system does not give that user the option to send manual notifications. Instead, the user submits the notification for approval, which starts the following sequence of events:
Important! The approval processing doesn't apply to notifications that are sent as reminders (by clicking the Set Reminder toolbar button in the Case component).
The system sends a notification to the approver's Action Request worklist, notifying the approver that the original notification needs to be reviewed.
The approver drills into the worklist entry to navigate to the notification needing review.
The approver optionally modifies the notification.
The approver can modify the email subject and message text, but not the addressee list or delivery options. The approver is the only one with the ability to edit the email; other users who navigate to the pending notification using the menu see a non-editable version of the notification.
The approver either approves or rejects the notification.
The Approve and Send and Disapprove buttons appear only when an approver reviews a notification that has been submitted for approval.
If the approver approves the notification, the system sends the notification according to the specified delivery options.
If the approver rejects the notification, it is canceled and the original creator receives a notification to this effect.
Users can still access the notification using the Search Outbound Emails page, but neither the original author nor the approver can modify or send rejected notification.
Sending an outbound notification (email or worklist) to recipients is considered an interaction. The notification text becomes the detail data for the interaction that the system creates, and the transaction from which the notification was originated becomes a subinteraction. When you find and view the notification detail on the Notification page (RB_EM_OB_VIEW) (for example, from the Search Outbound Emails component), the Related Transactions section lists the subinteractions associated with the email. The same interaction is also viewable on the History page of the corresponding transaction.
For each outbound notification that is sent, the system creates an interaction of type Outbound Email for each of the TO recipients that can be accessed, for example, from the 360-Degree View. If the TO recipient is:
An internal recipient (for example, worker and provider group), the role type of Worker (role type ID = 4) is used to create in the interaction.
A POI (person of interest) who is not a worker, the role type of Person of Interest (role type ID = 88) is used.
An external recipient (for example, business contact and consumer), the role type of Contact (role type ID = 8) or Individual Consumer (role type ID = 9) is used to create in the interaction.
A group, the system creates an interaction for each of the members.
If the group does not have any member, the interaction is created for the anonymous user that is defined on the Anonymous Object page of the Installation Options component. Either way, the system creates one or more interactions, regardless of the setting of the Broadcast to Members option. Notice that for cases that are associated with provider groups without members, the provider group's name is actually shown, indicating that an interaction is created for the provider group.
Associated with multiple roles, the system uses the role with maximum access to create the interaction. For example, if a recipient has the POI and worker roles, the worker role is used for the interaction.
Entered using an email address that is not stored in the CRM system, the system creates the interaction for the anonymous user that is specified on the Anonymous Object page under
Note: The Notification page and the Outbound Email page are the same page with different page names.
The system uses the Notification page to display the full text of a notification after it is sent (in read-only mode). In addition to accessing manual notifications that are sent to you from the worklist, you can view them from the Search Outbound Emails component from the menu. If the system created an interaction, you can also drill into the notification detail from the interaction lists that appear in various places.
Also, when you send notifications from a transaction, the system creates an entry in the transaction history. Agents viewing the transaction history can drill down to the Notification page to view the notification content. The case history row is set to be visible to internal users only. Case notifications are the only type of notifications that are saved to a component-specific history table.