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Understanding Solution Management Setup

Solutions are resolutions to problems. They exist independently from the cases, service orders, defects, and email responses to which they can be applied.

This topic discusses:

Solutions can be related to other solutions. You can relate solutions manually or automatically. When you relate solutions, you must qualify the relationship using a solution relationship type. Predefined types are Similar and Duplicate.

Solution relationship types, unlike case relationship types, are never hierarchical. The system uses the same relationship label for both solutions. (That is, if solution A is similar to solution B, then solution B is similar to solution A.)

Solution libraries enable you to group solutions into functional areas within a setID. For example, you can create solution libraries for each of your product lines. This level of categorization improves search effectiveness in PeopleSoft call center applications. Solution for cases enables users to choose libraries to include in the search domain.

If desired, solutions may also be associated with multiple libraries. As long as a user has access to at least one of the libraries for a particular solution, the solution will be visible to that user.

Access to solution libraries from transactions can be limited by security settings defined for each library. An administrator can restrict library access to users and cases that meet certain criteria. These criteria vary by transaction, and can include user role, agent location, employee location, and customer region.

Note: The following paragraphs describe ways in which access to solutions is not limited by the security settings defined for their corresponding library.

Branch scripts that end with a solution are exempt from any further check to see if users have access to that library. All users will be able to view these solutions.

Recommended actions that suggest solutions are also exempt from any checks for solution library access. Recommended actions can be set based on a quick code, AAF case update action, or AAF suggested action. In all these cases when a suggested action is a solution, there will be no additional security applied.

Solution security applies only to the solution search process: search results will include only solutions in the libraries to which users have access. This security does not apply to the attempted solutions grid in both the agent facing case and the self-service case. If a user has access to a case, he or she may see any solutions that were applied to the case (including those applied by any other user).

FAQ Libraries

Selecting the Enable Solution Library as FAQ or Troubleshooting Guide in Self Service check box for a particular solution library makes that library available to internal agents using Frequently Asked Questions as well as external customers using the Frequently Asked Questions self-service page. For individual solutions within that library to be accessible for self service users, the solution's External FAQ check box must be selected for the corresponding library. Similarly, individual solutions within a library are accessible to internal agents if the solution's Internal FAQ check box has been selected for the corresponding library.

Note: Self Service FAQ functionality is applicable to Customer Self Service and Employee Self Service for PeopleSoft Support, HelpDesk, HelpDesk for Human Resources, and Service Center for Higher Education customers. PeopleSoft Integrated FieldService does not utilize FAQ functionality.

Solutions can be searched independent of any component (on the Keyword Solution Search page) or in relation to CRM components in which issues or problems are tracked, for example, cases, service orders, defects, fixes, and inbound emails. From these CRM components, users can search for other relevant objects in addition to solutions that can help resolve their issues. For example, agents can perform keyword search (from cases) covering solutions, troubleshooting guides, similar cases, fixes and defects. Field technicians who perform keyword search from service orders can get search results in solutions and service orders.

To make solutions (and other CRM components) searchable, PeopleSoft CRM delivers the necessary setup and schedule definitions that are used by PeopleSoft Search to enable solution search.

Solutions History is a system-delivered action type. Solutions History logs information into the History Page of the Solution component. This is a solution-specific action and cannot be used for other applications. You can determine which policy caused the history item to be logged since the policy name appears in the history grid. The details can contain terms, which are resolved at runtime. This action is usually invoked after a solution is saved.

The system uses Active Analytics Framework (AAF) to create solution history items. Terms are managed in the AAF data library. They point to disparate pieces of data residing in places like data warehouses, external databases, or operational environments. They are metadata that provide information about the physical data and 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.

To help maintain solution content more easily and effectively, the CRM system provides the ability to assign ownership of solutions to groups, which are called content owners. Each content owner consists of members who are subject matter experts in their designated area and are responsible for creating and maintaining solution content. Group members can receive notifications (if AAF is set up to support the capability) when solutions are assigned to their group, so they can review content and make them available for use in a timely manner.

Suppose that you want to manage solutions created for employee benefits. You can achieve this goal by defining a solution content owner called, for example, Benefits Solutions. In this content owner definition, you add group members, who are responsible for creating benefit-related solutions in the knowledge base and reviewing them as needed. These solutions will have Benefits Solutions as the content owner. This setup provides flexibility in solution management in terms of resource assignment, because you can quickly update the list of people working on each content owner group as they come on board or leave for other areas.

The CRM system delivers an AAF term for solution content owner, which can be used to build policies that carry out AAF actions supported in CRM. For example, you might want to send workflow notifications to content owner group members and other interested parties when a solution is newly assigned to or has been reassigned to a content owner, so that the solution can be reviewed or put to use quickly. The system also delivers query roles for solution content owners (Solution Owner Content Email and Solution Owner Content Worklist). A query role is used (when configuring a workflow action as part of building an AAF policy) by AAF to identify the role of people who receive workflow notifications as a result of the execution of the policy.