12External Services
External Services
External Services
Services, provided by certified third parties that engage users outside of the Oracle Taleo system, can be integrated into Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) processes.
Organizations can choose to have services executed by external partners. Partners can provide services such as collecting information for tax withholding purposes, handling governmental forms including U.S. I-9 and WOTC credits, and performing background checks.
External services must be certified and deployed by Oracle Taleo before they can be included in an Onboarding (Transitions) process. Once the service is available, users with the Manage services that are provided by partners permission can enable and disable services in Onboarding (Transitions) Administration and modify them as needed.
Once a service is enabled, the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator can create tasks to interact with it. Completion values returned after the service provides its results can be displayed in forms, emails and reports. They can be exported, and/or used as conditions to drive or direct subsequent tasks. Like other tasks, external service tasks are added to form the Onboarding (Transitions) process.
Correspondence versus Invitations
When configuring an external service, the service details page may display a Correspondence section or an Invitations section. The Correspondence section is displayed if the partner needs to only communicate with the candidate/new hire and only requires a single message. The Invitations section is displayed if the partner needs to communicate with several participants and requires several messages. This is the case with all the I-9 partners who will be certified for Onboarding (Transitions).
In the case where a single message is required, the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator can create a specific message template that includes a link that the candidate/new hire clicks to go to an external service Web site to complete a task. The message is also displayed in the list of tasks on the career section Tasks tab. The message task contains the same link and the task keeps its In Progress status until the overall service results have been returned. When all the results have been received, the status changes to Complete. Note that if the external service needs to communicate with the candidate/new hire and no specific message template is provided, or the selected message template is not active, then the Onboarding (Transitions) built-in message template named General Validation Message is sent to the candidate/new hire instead. The candidate/new hire might be requested to provide the standard Oracle Taleo user name and password, which the system validates before granting access to external service Web sites.
When the Invitations section is displayed, one line is displayed for every activity the partner can trigger within the Onboarding (Transitions) system as its request proceeds. For each line, the participant who would receive the communication about that activity is displayed. It is the responsibility of the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator to configure all message templates that will be used when each of these activities happens.
For instance, the U.S. Form I-9 process for a partner might be designed to consist of four activities:
Invitation for the new hire to visit the partner Web site to fill in Part 1 of the I-9 form.
Invitation for the Hiring Manager to visit the partner Web site to fill in Part 2 of the I-9 form.
Update for the Hiring Manager if the results show a negative response.
Update for the Hiring Manager if the results show a positive response.
Each of these message templates must be created by the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator and associated with each of these events. If any line does not have a message template, the service cannot be enabled to be used in a task.
Standard and Customized Settings
External services accept standard and customized settings. The standard settings include result validity period, sender identifier, expected reply time constraint and request time-out time constraint. Oracle Taleo consultants or Onboarding (Transitions) administrators add custom settings to a service, enabling Onboarding (Transitions) administrators to use them in processes. For instance, a service might want to include a company identifier to be used in each new hire interaction. An Oracle Taleo consultant or an Onboarding (Transitions) administrator would add that setting to the service.
Viewing Partner Results
Once a candidate or employee (and possibly other participants) have completed the external service-related tasks, the results can be viewed in user-defined forms, message templates, exports and reports, and can also be used to drive conditional workflows. While setting up forms, templates, and so forth, if the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator selects the ServiceLastRequestResults category, he/she will have access to all fields related to the service providers. If the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator places fields in forms, templates, and so forth, along with displaying certain fields as a URL field type, the results can be viewed by assignees and task owners. The Onboarding (Transitions) administrator can use ServiceLastRequestResults fields in the condition editor as well. The more complete ServiceAllRequestResults tables can be used to show all conversations/interactions between the person and the service provider. See OVI Partner Fields in User-defined Forms.
Configuring External Services
The configuration of external services in Onboarding (Transitions) consists of the following steps.
Deploying the external service in the zone. This task is performed by Oracle Support. An external service must be certified and integrated by Oracle before it can be used in an Onboarding (Transitions) process. Once the service is deployed, it is displayed on the Onboarding (Transitions) Administration Services page.
Editing the properties and settings of the external service.
Configuring input fields. An input field is a specified area of the application where an administrator must enter or choose information that will be sent to request an external service.
Creating a message template (optional). Some partners require only one email to be sent out to invite the candidate/new hire to visit their Web site to complete a task. When this is the case, the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator can create a message template that includes a link or, use a built-in message template named General Validation Message which is available for that purpose.
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Selecting the message template in the Correspondence section of the partner's details page.
Granting Permissions to Configure External Services
These permissions are required to use external services.
| User Type Permissions | Description | Path |
|---|---|---|
| Manage services that are provided by partners | Displays the Services section in the Onboarding (Transitions) Administration menu where users can configure partners services. | Configuration > [SmartOrg] Administration > [Users] User Types > Recruiting > Onboarding (Transitions) |
| Allow this user type to perform integration tasks | This permission is required to see Onboarding (Transitions) specific information in Taleo Connect relating to export/import and also to perform actions such as executing an import service (for example, Start Process) and executing an export service (for example, Export of Attachments). |
Configuration > [SmartOrg] Administration > [Users] User Types > Integration > Onboarding (Transitions) |
While these permissions are required to work with external services in the configuration module, some actions can still only be performed by Oracle Support.
Editing the External Service Properties and Settings
The Manage services that are provided by partners permission is required.
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Click the name of a service.
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Click Edit next to Properties.
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Modify the properties and settings as required. For details, see External Partner Properties, Settings, and Fields.
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Click Save.
Configuring Input Fields
The Manage services that are provided by partners permission is required.
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Click the name of the service.
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Click the code of an Input field.
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Click Edit next to Properties.
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Under Default Value, select a value.
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Click Save.
Creating a Message Template
The Manage message templates for email correspondence and reminders permission is required.
Selecting Correspondence for an External Service
This procedure applies to partners who have the Correspondence section in the Service page.
The message template to be selected must be enabled to be used within a process.
The Manage services that are provided by partners permission is required.
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Click the name of an external service.
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Click Edit next to Correspondence.
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Click Select.
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Select the message template.
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Click Select.
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Click Save.
The message template added to the Correspondence section will be sent by the system. If this newly-added message template is not enabled, the generic default message template named General Validation Message will be sent to the candidate/new hire. If the General Validation Message is disabled, it will still be sent to the candidate/new hire.
Enabling the External Service
The Manage services that are provided by partners permission is required.
The external service must be inactive.
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Click the name of an external service.
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Click Edit to display the external service properties page.
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Click Activate.
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Click Save.
External Service Properties and Settings
| Location | Field | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Properties | Name | Name of the specific external service. |
| Properties | Description | Description of the specific external service. |
| Properties | Provider Name | Name of the external service. |
| Properties | Provider Description | Description of the external service. |
| Properties | Type | This relates to the screening user type permission designation of Taleo partners and is reserved for internal use. |
| Properties | Status | Once deployed to a zone by Oracle Support, this indicates whether the external service is active and available. |
| Properties | Code | Unique identifier of the external service. |
| Settings | Validity Period | The length of time that any prior results are valid, before a new request gets initiated to the service partner. In some situations, one new hire might get assigned to visit the same partner more than one time. For instance, he or she is being onboarded again for another job or his or her prior Onboarding (Transitions) process was restarted. This setting controls whether a new request will be sent to the partner or whether the previously-received results from this partner will be used because they are new enough to be still acceptably valid.
There are three possible values:
The Validity Period is calculated as starting either at the beginning of the prior transaction (when the first contact was made for the request) or at the end (when the final results were returned to Onboarding (Transitions) from the partner).
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| Settings | Candidate must answer email within (in hours) | This indicates the maximum length of time a new hire has to answer the email sent as part of the external service task. If the new hire does not respond within the allocated time, the link in the email is disabled for security reasons. If the external service does not require interaction with new hires, the setting is not displayed. |
| Settings | Company Identifier | It is issued by the partner to each customer, and must be entered here by the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator. This information gets sent to the partner in each request and in each communication that comes from this zone to the partner. It allows the partner to know which of the many Oracle-Taleo customers is asking for this information. |
| Settings | senderId | Alphanumeric value used to identify the email sender for the external service. |
| Settings | Delay to wait before timing out a request (in hours) | This setting indicates how long the Onboarding (Transitions) task will wait to receive a response from the partner. If no response is received, the overall external service task may become unable to complete successfully. |
Variables to Display External Service Results
Variables are available to display the result values received for new hires from external partners and to provide links to details on the new hire kept on the external partner site.
External service partners return various field results for each new hire while their service is running. This information can be displayed in a message template or on a form by using variables with the proper service name, accessed via the ServiceResult category of the Field Chooser. For instance, Tax Partner ABC may send back two results fields and these variables may be named ServiceLastRequestResults/UDFResult_TaxpartnerABC:TaxResult1 and ServiceLastRequestResults/UDFResult_TaxpartnerABC:TaxResult2. Placing these variables onto a form in read-only or using them in a message template will ensure that each new hire's results are shown to the assignee of these tasks.
Links are useful when information is accessible only via the partner's site. Sometimes the service providers retain additional details about each new hire and they always retain any PDFs or other files that were generated while performing their services. This information cannot be viewed within Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), however; links can be added to any form, which will bring the form assignees directly to the service provider Web site to access this information. Typically this variable is given the name 'More Details' by the service provider. For information on using links, see Links in a User-defined Forms.
The number and type of variables available is wholly dependent on which services are used in your Onboarding (Transitions) implementation.
Troubleshooting External Services
System administrators can troubleshoot issues dealing with the interaction between the external partner and the Onboarding (Transitions) process. All other external partner problems are handled by Oracle Support.
If an error is due to the Onboarding (Transitions) process as it applies to the partner, you can attempt to fix the problem. You should first go to the process and check the history section for external partner error information. There you could tell if a service has been mistakenly disabled or never enabled initially. After correcting the problem you would go to the task itself and click the Retry button to restart the process at the breaking point.
If you see an external services task in the Steps list that has an Error or Canceled status, viewing the history may indicate that an Error Occurred event has taken place. Such as, The following error occurred while requesting the service "Check Credit History" to provider ABC Check: "The previous service request is still active (90891209)". If that has led to a Canceled status, you can access the task and click Retry, however, if it leads to another error occurred event then it may mean Taleo Support will be required.
If the error is due to issues around the external service you must contact Oracle Support for assistance. Oracle Support has access to a detailed history of each step of the transactions with external services. They can diagnose any errors, contact the external service or advise you on how to correct the situation.
Disabling an External Service
When an external service that was enabled is disabled later, the following will occur:
The Onboarding (Transitions) administrator can no longer create tasks using this external service.
At runtime, if the process has not yet reached the external service task, the process will be interrupted because the task will not initiate a new request to the partner since the service is inactive.
At runtime, if the process has reached the external service task, the task will remain in Progress but as soon as candidates/new hires try to access the partner site the task will appear as Canceled and the process will not be able to reach its completion status.
External Services and Multiple Participants
Partners who provide services that require the participation of multiple participants in different roles, at the right time, can have those services integrated with Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) via Oracle Validated Integration (OVI).
Limitations
The Partner determines how many participants need to be involved and how many different phases must be completed before the overall Onboarding (Transitions) task is considered completed (has Completed status) thereby enabling the Transactions process to advance. The Oracle Taleo Certification Lab helps the Partner to become certified to support the required invitations and updates. The external service must be configured in the Onboarding (Transitions) zone to align appropriate messages with the people involved in the task. Afterward, the service can then be assigned to tasks in Onboarding (Transitions) processes.
If an external service request task is configured to send notifications regarding the candidate or employee, the email messages are sent to various participants when the task starts. If one the recipients is the candidate or employee, the person receives the message and the message is also displayed as a task on the Tasks tab in the career section. External service partners can provide updates for all participants in the task while the task activities are being carried out. When the partner determines that the task is complete and sends the results to Oracle Taleo, the task becomes complete and the Onboarding (Transitions) process continues.
If the partner needs the participation of Onboarding (Transitions) Center users in an activity at its site as part of an Onboarding (Transitions) task, the participants receive an email and a task is added to the Tasks section inviting the participants to visit the partner's Web site. The email can contain a link to the site and the recipient can be authenticated using Oracle Taleo credentials provided the process and the partner support this. Once authentication is successful, the participant can complete forms and view the partner's dashboard or other pertinent information. The task's status is In Progress as long as the OVI task (external service task) is ongoing. In other words, the overall Onboarding (Transitions) task is considered completed (has Completed status) when all elements of the OVI task are completed.
If the partner needs the participation of the candidate or employee in an activity as part of an Onboarding (Transitions) task, the person receives an email that includes a link to the Tasks tab in career sections. The tab contains a task that displays the same information found in the email. The invitation email and the Tasks tab task can contain a link to the external service Web site. The candidate or employee can be authenticated at the Web site using Taleo credentials provided the process and the partner support this. Once authentication is successful, the person can complete forms or perform other required activities. The overall Onboarding (Transitions) task is considered completed (has Completed status) when all elements of the task are completed.
When configuring a process, the Onboarding (Transitions) administrators can assign each of the notifications and invitations for an external service task to only one participant. For this reason, they should not assign this type of task to a role that has more than one participant.
Invitations from external service requests cannot be reassigned to other participants. The only way to change assignees is by canceling and restarting the Onboarding (Transitions) process.
Interim notifications can only be sent by Partners.
External Service Request Tasks and Results in the Onboarding (Transitions) Center
The Onboarding (Transitions) Center displays details of external service request tasks passed to a partner using Oracle Validated Integration (OVI).
An external service request is the whole "conversation" between the Taleo Oracle process and the external service provider, on behalf of a candidate or employee. Each time either side contacts the other during this whole task, it is part of the overall request. Even after the final results have been passed to the Taleo Oracle system from the service provider, the Onboarding (Transitions) Center user can still view the details of this request, and can choose to visit the partner to view every available detail. All of this is associated with the single request.
Provided users have the corresponding user type permissions, the Onboarding (Transitions) Center provides information about external service tasks involved in Onboarding (Transitions) processes. Such tasks are displayed along with the other tasks in the Tasks section. An External Service Request section appears on the task details page of a task associated with an external service provider. That section shows details of the data exchange between Onboarding (Transitions) and the provider, including message parameters and the current status of the task as defined by the partner (who can have any number of statuses in any sequence).
Each partner is certified based on the unique capabilities and strengths of the services it offers. Contact your Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) administrator and/or partners for more information.
Request Fields
Information on the task details page includes request fields and result fields. Details vary by request. Input information is also displayed and varies by task.
| Request Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Name of the external service provider. |
| Service | Name of the service. |
| Status | Any of the predefined statuses for OVI requests used by Oracle Taleo for its partners. These values originate from the Provider status sent to Oracle Taleo in the OVI exchange. |
| Provider Status | Value passed to Oracle Taleo from the external service involved in the OVI exchange. This value is mapped to the appropriate Oracle Taleo status. |
| Request Date | Date when the request to the service provider was initiated for this candidate/new hire for this process. Additional processes for the candidate/new hire will have different Request dates. |
| Last Activity Date | Date of the most recent communication. |
| Results Expiration Date | Date after which the results should not be relied upon according to the service provider. This date is calculated by the service provider if a validity period was configured for the service. The date is the date the results are received by Oracle Taleo plus the validity period. For example, if the results were received on September 15th and the validity period was 30 days, the Results Expiration Date would be October 15th. This date is important for any future attempts to connect to the provider on behalf of the candidate or employee to request the service. If an external service request task obtained In Progress status before the expiration date, the Oracle Taleo system would not contact the partner to resubmit the request. Instead, the existing results would used, thereby saving money for the customer. If the external service request task obtained In Progress status after the expiration date of the previous request's results, a new request would be sent. |
| Reference Number (Internal) | A unique identification number used by Oracle Taleo to identify a particular OVI request. Oracle Support typically uses this number in the OVI Console. |
| Reference Number (External) | A unique identification number used by the service providers to identify a particular OVI request. |
Parameters Used
The Parameters Used section displays parameters configured by the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator when building the process.
Results
The Results section displays all the results received by Oracle Taleo from the external service provider for the request. Result fields usually include a More Details link, which opens a new browser window. Onboarding (Transitions) Center users can then visit the external service provider's Web site to view documents and additional information (such as error messages and detailed sub-statuses) about the request.
Request Statuses
Service scheduled
Candidate didn't answer email within set time
Partner didn't respond within set time
Declined by candidate
Acknowledged by provider
Waiting for provider response
Unable to process
Completed
Canceled
In progress
OVI Partner Invitation Task
When OVI partners who have access to a special "invitation" mechanism invite Onboarding (Transitions) Center users to provide information or perform an action, a corresponding task is added to the Tasks section of the Onboarding (Transitions) Center. Similarly, if new hires receive such an invitation, a corresponding task is added to their Tasks tab in the career section.
In providing services to Oracle Taleo customers, Oracle Validated Integration (OVI) partners often need to communicate with Onboarding (Transitions) Center users. Partners do this by sending an email message to the Onboarding (Transitions) Center user via a special "invitation" mechanism. The content of the correspondence, including links it might have, are reproduced in the form of a task assigned automatically to the Onboarding (Transitions) Center user.
Two types of communication are possible through such tasks. Partners can convey information—perhaps a progress report regarding the service being performed for the new hire or perhaps the results of a service that was completed. For example, a partner might want to inform an assignee that E-Verify was completed for a new hire. The other type of communication is an invitation to perform some action. Most often the invitation includes a link that the assignee clicks to access the partner's Web site and provide information. One example is an invitation to complete section 2 of the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.
Regardless of the type of communication, the task is displayed in the assignee's Tasks section of the Onboarding (Transitions) Center and the task's status is In Progress as long as the OVI task (external service task) is ongoing. Assignees cannot change the status. If the Onboarding (Transitions) Center displays the task view page, the Properties section includes the email message along with any links the latter contained. If the section includes a link to the partner's Web site and the user clicks it, he/she will be redirected to the site automatically.
Upon completion of the OVI "conversation", the task status changes automatically to Completed and the task is no longer displayed in the Tasks section while the My Opened Tasks or All Opened Tasks filters are applied.
OVI partners can communicate with new hires in a similar manner. Provided the task is assigned the New Hire role, two things will happen. The invitation message will be sent to the new hire. Secondly, a task containing the text and links (if any) of the email will be displayed on the new hire's Tasks tab. If the task includes a link to the partner's Web site and the new hire clicks it, he/she will be logged into the site automatically.
Configuration
To view the content of the task (hence the content of the email message and links (if any), Onboarding (Transitions) Center users require at least one of the following permissions.
| Permission | Location |
|---|---|
| View related sources of tasks assigned to me, to see their forms and documents or View related sources (forms, email correspondence, and documents) related to all tasks |
Configuration > SmartOrg (Administration) > User Types > (click a user type code) > Recruiting > Onboarding (Transitions) Edit) |
If a message template will include a link to an OVI partner's Web site, it recommended that the link be configured to open in a separate window. This will enable Onboarding (Transitions) Center users to visit the Web site while keeping the Onboarding (Transitions) Center session open.
If the link is configured to open in the same window instead, Onboarding (Transitions) Center users who click the link to go to the OVI partner's Web site will be unable to return directly to the Onboarding (Transitions) Center directly afterward.
The same principles apply to correspondence targeting new hires. If "Open in New Window" is selected, this will enable new hires to visit the OVI partner's Web site while keeping their Career Section session open.
If a customer wished to disable both types of communication (email message and task) for a particular situation, the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator could create a fictitious user and assign the task to that "person". Such arrangements require careful consideration particularly if the task requires the assignee to visit the partner's Web site and perform some action there. Because the task is assigned to the fictitious assignee, no one will receive the OVI partner invitation email message and task. Consequently, the task status will remain In Progress and the process will typically be unable to advance to the next step.
Marking Candidates as Ready to be Exported
Tasks can be created and configured whereby when candidates or employees reach the task in a process, their job submission information at that time is tagged as ready to be exported to an external system.
When candidates or employees reach this task in a process, the task's status changes to Completed and the system marks the candidates or employees as ready to be exported. Afterward, external systems can send export requests to the export service to pull all or a subset of candidates or employees marked as ready to be exported. If a query is run repeatedly, only the people who were marked as ready since the query was last run will be exported. The external systems must query the same export service specified for exportable statuses in the Recruiting Center.
The information that can be exported is job submission information (candidates or employees applied for jobs or were matched to jobs) and information from entities related to job submissions (e.g. First Name, Requisition Title). Though Onboarding (Transitions) processes can be started based on general profiles, information originating from general profiles is not marked as ready for export and consequently cannot be exported using this method.
"Mark as ready to be exported" tasks can be used across any number of running Onboarding (Transitions) processes. All candidates or employees who complete the task within any process are added to the list of people ready to be exported (pulled by the external system).
One example. As a large and disparate number of candidates advance through the same Onboarding (Transitions) process, a subset of the candidates need to provide information before being ready for export to Fusion while another subset needs to provide information from a larger number or different set of data fields for another external system. To achieve this, the process could be configured to present a different form to each subset of people to gather the information. After a form was completed, the person would be ready to be exported. For this reason, a different "Mark as ready to be exported" task would be needed for each branch of the process, all referring to the same external system thereby ensuring that each person gets placed immediately onto the export list as soon as he/she is ready.
A second example. As a large and disparate number of candidates advance through one or more than one Onboarding (Transitions) process running in a zone, multiple external systems might want to pull information about candidates. An HRMS might need data about every newly hired candidate while a different ticketing system might need data about a subset of new hires who are joining a department or location. In this situation, two different "Mark as ready to be exported" tasks would be needed to add the right people to each of the two lists thereby enabling each external system to pull the information when ready.
There is no limit on the number of ready to be exported points (tasks) in a process at which information can be pulled.
The status of the process must be In Process or Completed. In the case of a process that is canceled, delayed or suspended, for example, the corresponding job submission information will be unavailable for export.
A maximum of 8,000 job submissions can be exported through the Onboarding (Transitions) export service. This is to ensure that an export does not adversely affect system performance. A query result in excess of this number will generate an error. It is recommended, therefore, that organizations export job submission information frequently.
Because the Recruiting Center can also include candidates and employees tagged as ready to be exported, there might be cases where individuals are tagged in both systems. In such cases, the candidates and employees will only be exported once.
Note that the external systems are responsible for pulling the information from the Taleo system; Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) does not export the information.
Some fields in the Taleo Recruiting data dictionary do not exist in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). If a query run by an external system uses any of those fields to exclude certain candidates or employees from the export, those fields will have no effect as filters. Consequently, the export might include candidates or employees that the filters were designed to exclude.
After a "Mark as ready to be exported" task is completed, an entry is recorded in the Onboarding (Transitions) Center, Onboarding (Transitions) process, History section. It includes the name of the candidate, the ID of the external system to which the job submission information is ready to be exported, the requisition title and the ID of the job submission.
The method for exporting job submission information described here is one method; there are others. For more information, see the Fusion-Taleo Integration Taleo Configuration Guide for the version of Taleo Enterprise you are using.
Configuration
To configure a task whose purpose is to tag a point in a process when data is ready to be pulled by an external system, the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator selects the "Mark as ready to be exported" action and specifies the agreed upon ID of the external system in the External system ID field.
When the task is added to a process later, the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator must select an assignee for the task. The administrator can assign anyone because Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) performs the action automatically and the task is displayed only a few moments in the assignee's Tasks list.
| Task Definitions | Location |
|---|---|
| Mark as ready to be exported | |
| External system ID |
Creating a Mark as ready to be exported Task
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Click Create.
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Fill in the required fields and enter values for the other fields if you wish.
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In the Actions list, select Mark as ready to be exported.
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In the External system ID field, enter the value you established beforehand for the external system that will pull the data from the Oracle Taleo system.
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Click Save.
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Click Activate.
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You can configure Notifications and Reminders if you wish.
The task can be added to processes.