1. Managing Customers
  2. Sending Messages to Customers
  3. Setting up Welcome Messages to Customers

11 Setting up Welcome Messages to Customers

Learn how to send introductory messages to customers by email or on a Web page through Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM).

Topics in this document:

Sending a Welcome Email

The default email message is located in BRM_home/sys/cm/welcome/default.welcome. Use any text editor to modify the text. Before you can send the message you must:

To enable the welcome message:

  1. Open the Connection Manager (CM) configuration file (BRM_home/sys/cm/pin.conf).

  2. Change the value of the new_account_welcome_msg entry to 1.

  3. Save and close the file.

The new value becomes effective immediately and applies to the next account created. The CM does not need to be restarted.

See also:

Changing the Welcome Email Subject Line

The subject line for the welcome email message is by default “Welcome to the Internet." To change this, edit the PCM_OP_CUST_POL_POST_COMMIT policy opcode.

Changing the Welcome Email Sender Address

The sender address is the email address that your customer sees as the sender address.

To change the welcome message sender address:

  1. Open the CM configuration file (BRM_home/sys/cm/pin.conf).

  2. (Optional) Change the sender entry. This entry changes the part of the email address that precedes the at sign (@); for example:

    sender@example.com

    The default is postmaster.

  3. Change the domain entry. This entry changes the part of the email address that follows the at sign (@), for example:

    postmaster@your_domain.com

  4. Save and close the file.

You do not need to restart the CM to enable this entry.

Specifying the Welcome Email Location

If you move the welcome message file from the default location, you must specify the new location.

To specify a new welcome message location:

  1. Open the CM configuration file (BRM_home/sys/cm/pin.conf).

  2. Change the value of the welcome_dir entry.

  3. Save and close the file.

The new value becomes effective immediately and applies to the next account created. The CM does not need to be restarted.

Disabling the Welcome Email

If the welcome message is enabled, but the Email DM is not running, you will see an error in the CM log file. If you do not run the Email Data Manager, disable the welcome message.

To disable the welcome message, do one of the following:

  • Change the value of the new_account_welcome_msg entry in the CM configuration file (BRM_home/sys/cm/pin.conf) to 0 (default).

  • Rename the default message file.

  • Remove write permission on the default message file.

Setting Up a Welcome Web Page

The introductory Web page is an HTML file that you can display during Web-based account creation. The introductory message is not implemented by default. To display an introductory message, you must customize your automatic account creation method to call the PCM_OP_CUST_POL_GET_INTRO_MSG policy opcode.

Use any text editor to edit the introductory message. The default introductory message is located in BRM_home/sys/cm/intro/default.intro.

If you move the introductory message file from the default location, you must specify the new location.

To specify a new introductory message location:

  1. Open the CM configuration file (BRM_home/sys/cm/pin.conf).

  2. Change the value of the intro_dir entry.

  3. Save and close the file.

The new value becomes effective immediately and applies to the next account created. You do not need to restart the CM to enable this entry.

Using Variables to Include Customer Data in Welcome Emails and Web Pages

You can use variables to insert information based on the customer's input into an email or an HTML page. For example, to display the package that the customer selected, you use the ${price_plan} variable in the introductory message: 

You have selected the ${price_plan} package

If the customer selects the Basic package, the message says “You have selected the Basic package".

Table 11-1 shows the default variables.

Table 11-1 Variables in Welcome Messages

Use this variable To insert this text Example

${price_plan}

Package name

Basic

${plan_description}

Package description

Monthly broadband access

${promo_code}

Promotional code

Broadband1

You can define more variables by customizing the PCM_OP_CUST_POL_GET_INTRO_MSG policy opcode.

Using Multiple Welcome Emails and Web Pages

You can create multiple welcome messages to display to specific groups of customers. For example, you might want different messages for each language.

The message that is displayed is based on a value entered during account creation.

Note:

This value is stored in the PIN_FLD_AAC_SOURCE field in the account object.

For example, you could identify which message to send by using the IP address that the user logged in to. In that case, an introductory message file name might be:

156.151.1.11.1700.intro

In this example:

  • 156.151.1.11 is the IP address

  • 1700 is the port number

  • intro is the suffix