Configuring Outbound Notifications

When a customer enrolls in account notifications through Digital Self Service - Transactions they are setting a preference within the Oracle Utilities customer system to opt-in to the respective type of transactional notification on the respective channel. In the Customer Care and Billing outbound notification integration, outage notifications are based on a trigger directly from the Oracle Network Management System.

Note: Outbound notifications that are based on a trigger and are related to authentication are sent by Oracle Identity and Access Management and thus are not part of the notification configuration covered below.

Note: This documentation provides steps to complete these configuration tasks using Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. However, many of these tasks can be completed with other applicable products such as Oracle Utilities Customer to Meter or Oracle Utilities Customer Cloud Service. Refer to your applicable product documentation for steps to complete the configuration using your Oracle Utilities product. Additionally, this documentation assumes that you know how to create the various objects listed below as well as modify or create master configurations. For additional details on these tasks, refer to the applicable Oracle Utilities Documentation.

Requirements

The utility must configure and integrate an external system with their customer integrated system to deliver outbound notifications for the defined account notifications. Oracle recommends integrating with Oracle Responsys and Oracle Integration Cloud, which are licensed separately from Oracle Utilities Digital Self Service - Transactions Cloud Service, to support outbound notification delivery.

All utilities, regardless of their chosen external system, must first complete Customer System Configuration. Utilities using a third-party external system must follow the steps provided in Outgoing Messages. Utilities integrating with Oracle Responsys and Oracle Integration Cloud must complete the configurations described in Oracle Responsys Configuration and Oracle Integration Cloud Configuration.

Customer Integrated System: Integration is required with an Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, Oracle Utilities Customer to Meter, or Oracle Utilities Customer Cloud Service system. For version requirements when integrating with third-party external systems, refer to the Oracle Utilities Opower Digital Self Service - Transactions Cloud Service Product Overview. The minimum version requirements when integrating with Oracle Responsys and Oracle Integration Cloud are listed below:

Oracle Utilities Customer Cloud Service 22A
Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing 2.9
Oracle Utilities Customer to Meter 2.9

Customer System Configuration

Configuring a Message Sender

The message sender configuration connects your customer integration system to the Notification Hub in Oracle Integration Cloud or your third-party external outbound delivery system. The steps below describe the process for integration with Notification Hub in Oracle Integration Cloud. For steps to configure a message sender for your third-party external outbound delivery system, refer to the applicable Oracle Utilities Documentation for your customer integration system.

To add a message sender

Log in to Customer Care and Billing as a user with permissions to add message senders.
From the Admin menu, select Message Sender, and select Add.
On the Main tab, complete the following configurations to set up the message sender
- Message Sender: NOTIFS
- Description: CCB Notifications Sender
- Invocation Type: Real-time
- Message Class: RTJSONSNDR
- Active: Selected
- MSG Encoding: UTF-8 message encoding
On the Context tab, complete the following configurations to set up the message sender:
- Add a context type: HTTP Login Password where the Context Value is the password to Oracle Integration Cloud or your third-party external system.
- Add a context type: HTTP Login User where the Context Value is the username used to log in to Oracle Integration Cloud or your third-party external system.
- Add a context type: HTTP Method where the Context Value is POST.
- Add a context type: HTTP Timeout where the Context Value is 60.
- Add a context type: HTTP URL 1 where the Context Value is the URL to your Oracle Integration Cloud instance or your third-party external system.
Save all configuration changes.

Configuring an External System

The external system configuration connects your customer integration system to the Notification Hub in Oracle Integration Cloud or your third-party external outbound delivery system. The steps below describe the process for integration with Notification Hub in Oracle Integration Cloud. For steps to configure your third-party external outbound delivery system, refer to the applicable Oracle Utilities Documentation for your customer integration system.

To add an external system

Log in to Customer Care and Billing as a user with permissions to add External Systems.
From the Admin menu, select External System, and select Add. From the available list, select the Notification Hub.
Complete the following configurations to set up the external system
- External System: NOTIF_HUB
- Description: Notification Hub
- Outbound Message Type: C1-TMPLNTFRQ
- Processing Method: Real-time
- Message Sender: NOTIFS per your message sender configuration above.
- Date/Time Format: XSD
Save all configuration changes.

Understanding Template-Based Data Algorithms

Template Data algorithms are included with your Oracle Utilities customer integrated system. These algorithms gather recipient data required to populate common notifications related to their account. After the data is parsed from your Oracle Utilities customer integrated system, the data is passed either to your third-party external system, or through your Oracle integration and merged with the respective Responsys campaign that will be sent to the recipient.

The following algorithms are referenced when configuring Individual Push Notification and Subscription Notification Types:

Bill Information Template Data (C1BILLINFTMP): Includes parameters specific to a customer’s billing information such as bill due date, balance, and so on. This algorithm supports the default messages for:
- Bill Due Notification: Sent to customers a designated number of days before the last bill's due date.
- Late Payment Notification: Sent to customers if no payments are received after the last bill's due date has passed.
- Bill Ready Notification: Sent to customers when their bill is ready.
Budget Notification Template Data (C1BUDNFTMPD): Includes parameters to build outbound notifications that notify customers of changes to their account’s budget details. Refer to the Detailed Description for the Budget Notification Template Data (C1BUDNFTMPD) algorithm in your customer integrated system for further information on what details are extracted by this algorithm.
Collection Notification Template Data (C1COLLNFTMP): Includes parameters specific to a customer who is in the collections process such as arrears amount, arrears date, and so on. This algorithm supports the default messages for:
- Collections Entered Notification: Intended to be sent to customers as the first step in a collections process.
Guest Notification Template Data (C1GUESTNTFTD): Includes parameters to inform a guest or account holder about an invitation. This algorithm supports the default messages for:
- Guest Invited: Sent to a recipient who is being invited to an account.
- Guest Accepted: Sent to the account holder who invited a guest to their account when the guest has accepted.
Outage Notification Template Data (C1OUTNTFTD): Includes parameters to build outbound notifications to confirm information provided to the utility through a web form such as reporting an outage.
- Report Issue Confirmation: Sent to a recipient who reported a service issue online.
Payment Information Template Data (C1PAYINFTMPD): Includes parameters to build outbound notifications that notify customers of payments made to their account. Refer to the Detailed Description for the Payment Information Notification Template Data algorithm in your customer integrated system for further information on what details are extracted by this algorithm.

Algorithms can be cloned and modified if your organization wishes to enhance the base scripts with additional parameters or create new algorithms. For example, new algorithms can be created to send these other common notifications related to a customer’s account.

Prepaid Billing New Charge Notification: Applies to customers on prepaid service and is sent out each time a new bill segment is calculated.
Prepaid Billing Payment Request Notification: Applies to customers on prepaid service and is sent out when the customer's prepaid balance drops below a calculated minimum threshold.

Configuring Notifications

This solution utilizes template-based notification types only, and the following Notification Type Business Objects are included in the base product:

Message-Based Notification Type (legacy)
Template-Based Individual Push Notification Type
Template-Based Parent Push Notification Type
Template-Based Subscription Notification Type

About Push Notification Types

Parent Push Notification Types are logical groupings of notifications. All individual push notifications require a Parent Notification type.

When customer is enrolled in a parent notification, they receive all related notifications. Similarly, if a customer is unenrolled from a parent notification, they do not receive the related notifications.

Utilities can configure whether a Parent Notification allows opt-out by the customer. The steps below outline creating a parent notification that prohibits opt-out for self-service account updates. This is intended to group all notifications your customers receive regarding their Digital Self Service - Transactions online account.

Creating a Self-Service Updates Notification Type

To create a Parent Push Notification Type

Log in to Customer Care and Billing as a user with permissions to add Notification Types.
From the Admin menu, select Notification Type, and select Add. From the available list, select the Template-Based Parent Push Notification Type. The configuration options are displayed.
Complete the following configurations to set up the notification type:
- Notification Type: Self-Service Updates
- Description: Applies to communications you may send to customers about their account.
- Allow Opt Out: No
- Allowed Recipient: Any Person on Account with Allow Preference
- Person Contact Types: Email
- Delivery Types: Email
Save all configuration changes.

To create an Individual Push Notification Type:

Log in to Customer Care and Billing as a user with permission to add Notification Types.
From the Admin menu, select Notification Type, and select Add. From the available list, select the Template-Based Individual Push Notification Type. The configuration options are displayed.
Complete the following configurations to set up the notification type:
- Notification Type: Guest Accepted
- Description: Sent when a guest accepts an invitation to an account.
- Parent Notification Type: Self-Service Updates
- Template Data Algorithms:
  - Sequence: 10
  - Algorithm: C1GUESTNTFTD
- Delivery Types:
  - Delivery Type: Email
  - Language: English
  - Template Name: Guest Accepted – Email. This template name must match the template name for the respective campaign configured in your Responsys instance, or the resource used in your third-party external system.
Save all configuration changes.

Repeat the steps to create additional Individual Push Notification Types that should be part of your Self-Service Updates Parent Notification Type on the respective channels.

To create a Subscription Notification Type:

Log in to Customer Care and Billing as a user with permission to add Notification Types.
From the Admin menu, select Notification Type, and select Add. From the available list, select the Template-Based Subscription Notification Type. The configuration options are displayed.
Complete the following configurations to set up the notification type:
- Notification Type: Guest Invited
- Description: Invites a guest to link account online.
- Allowed Recipient: Any Person on Account with Allow Preference
- Template Data Algorithms:
  - Sequence: 10
  - Algorithm: C1GUESTNTFTD
- Person Contact Types: Email
- Delivery Types:
  - Delivery Type: Email
  - Language: English
  - Template Name: Guest Invited – Email. This template name must match the template name for the respective campaign configured in your Responsys instance, or the resource used in your third-party external system.
- Add an additional Delivery Type: SMS
  - Language: English
  - Template Name: Guest Invited - SMS. This template name must match the template name for the respective campaign configured in your Responsys instance, or the resource used in your third-party external system.
Save all configuration changes.

Repeat the steps to create additional Subscription Notification Types such as Bill Due and Late Payment on the respective channels.

Creating Notification Types for Collections

To create a Parent Push Notification Type for Collections

From the Admin menu, select Notification Type, and select Add. From the available list, select the Template-Based Parent Push Notification Type. The configuration options are displayed.
Complete the following configurations to set up the notification type:
- Notification Type: Collection Notices
- Description: Send collection notices through digital channels.
- Allow Opt Out: No
- Allowed Recipient: Any Person on Account with Allow Preference
- Person Contact Types: Email, SMS
- Delivery Types: Email, SMS
Save all configuration changes.

To create an Individual Push Notification Type for Collections

Log in to Customer Care and Billing as a user with permission to add Notification Types.
From the Admin menu, select Notification Type, and select Add. From the available list, select the Template-Based Individual Push Notification Type. The configuration options are displayed.
Complete the following configurations to set up the notification type:
- Notification Type: Send First Collection Notice
- Description: Sent as the first step of a collections process.
- Parent Notification Type: Collection Notices
- Template Data Algorithms:
  - Sequence: 10
  - Algorithm: C1COLLNFTMP
- Delivery Types:
  - Delivery Type: Email
  - Language: English
  - Template Name: Collections Entered - Email. This template name must match the template name for the respective campaign configured in your Responsys instance, or the resource used in your third-party external system.
- Add an additional Delivery Type: SMS
  - Language: English
  - Template Name: Collections Entered - SMS. This template name must match the template name for the respective campaign configured in your Responsys instance, or the resource used in your third-party external system.
Save all configuration changes.

Repeat the steps to create additional Individual Push Notification Types that should be part of your Collection Notices Parent Notification Type on the respective channels, if needed.

To apply customer contacts

If required, you can apply a customer contact to create records of when customers receive notifications. These records can be used by Customer Service Representatives to review the notifications a customer has received.

Log in to Customer Care and Billing.
From Menu, select Self-Service, select Self-Service Task Type, and select Search.
Click the Edit option for the Late Payment Notification Task.
From the Contact Class drop-down list, select an applicable contact class. New customer contact classes can be created from the Admin menu.
From the Contact Type drop-down list, select an applicable contact type. New Customer contact types can be created from the Admin menu.
Click Save to save your changes to the notification task.

Notification Preferences Configuration

Ensure notification preferences have been configured in accordance with Configuring Notifications. If utilizing the guest feature available with Digital Self Service - Transactions, create a script to suppress the Guest Invite subscription notification type you created above.

From the Admin menu, select System, select Script, and select Add to create a new script. You can also select Search to review the available scripts.

Self Service Master Configuration

Guest Notifications

The following Invite Guest master configurations must be in place for the feature to work end-to-end. Refer to Configuring Manage Web Account Requirements for more information on defining invite guest user tasks, roles, and alerts.

Invite Guest User Service Task Type
New Customer Identifiers
Line of Business Verification Fields
Link Self Service User

To configure guest user invitation notification types

Log into Customer Care and Billing
From the Admin menu, select General, and select Master Configuration. From the Master Configuration zone, select the Edit option for the CC&B Self-Service Integration master configuration. The master configuration is displayed.
From the Guest User Invitation Notification Types zone, select the Notification Types configured for the following guest events:
- Confirm Acceptance
- Invite User
Save all configuration changes.

Collection Process Template Configuration

The following configurations must be in place to send email or SMS notifications as part of a collections process.

To configure the collection process template

Log into Customer Care and Billing
From the Admin menu, select General, and select Collection Process Template then select Search.
Search for your existing collection process templates. Or select Add in the previous step to build a new template.
Add a new event in sequence: CN-1ST-EMAIL
Define the Event Sequence: 10
Define the Days After Process Creation: 0
Save all configuration changes.

Oracle Responsys Configuration

If you deliver outbound communications through the recommended Oracle integrations, you must configure Oracle Responsys to support outbound delivery. Refer to the Oracle Responsys documentation for more information. If you deliver outbound communications with another third-party delivery system, refer to the third-party vendor documentation.

Oracle Integration Cloud Configuration

If you deliver outbound communications through the recommended Oracle integrations, you must configure the Oracle Integration Cloud integration. Refer to Notifications Hub Configuration Guide for more information on this integration and end-to-end testing. If you deliver outbound communications with another third-party delivery system, refer to the third-party vendor documentation.