Sending Manual Notifications

This chapter provides an overview of manual notifications and discusses how to:

Send manual notifications from CRM transactions.
Look up addresses and set delivery options.

Understanding Manual Notifications

This section discusses:

Notification modes.
Notification addressing and delivery.
Templates and terms.
Approval processing.
Interactions and subinteractions.
Email tracking.

Notification Modes

The term manual notification refers to notifications that you compose and send from the Send Notification page. It does not include correspondence that you send from the Correspondence Request page, nor does it include automated notifications.

Throughout this PeopleBook, the term Send Notification page refers to any of the pages accessed using the Send Notification toolbar button (in some cases it's called Notify). This icon appears in the toolbar of most CRM transactions components. The page that this button displays has different names in different contexts, but operates the same regardless of its title.

This is the Send Notification button that appears in the toolbars of various components

Ad Hoc and Email Response Modes

Manual notifications have two modes:

Ad hoc notifications.

These are notifications that the user originates on the Send Notification page; they are not continuations of any existing email thread. When you send an ad hoc notification to yourself, it is considered a reminder.
Email replies.

This mode is available only if you license PeopleSoft Multichannel Communications, which provides an email response management system (ERMS). This mode allows you to send emails from transactions and these emails can either be responses to emails (processed by ERMS) that are associated with transactions, or brand new emails with no thread association with any existing emails. In the first scenario where you are responding to an email that from a transaction that the email relates to, the Response page of the email workspace is used. In the second scenario in which you are sending an email from a transaction, the Outbound Email component is used.

ERMS doesn't use the Send Notification page for sending email response. Instead, the page is used to display emails in the read-only mode when users select Notify type entries from their worklists. For more information on the email response management system, the email workspace and the Outbound Email component, refer to the documentation on multichannel applications.

See Managing Email.

Notification Pages

To send a manual notification, the sender accesses the Send Notification page from a component that supports notifications, then composes, addresses, and sends the notification. Although the basic interface used for manual notifications is the same throughout PeopleSoft CRM, different parent objects have different Send Notification pages. The following table lists the Send Notification pages found in the system.

Page	Parent Component
RA_ADHOC_EMAIL	Campaign Details
RA_CONTENT_ADHOC	Campaign Content
RA_LIST_ADHOC	List
RA_OFFER_ADHOC	Offer
RB_EM_IB	ERMS
RBI_ADHOC_EMAIL	Task, Claim, Client At Risk, Product of Interest, and Household
RBI_EMAIL	First Notice of Loss (FNOL)
RC_ADHOC_EMAIL	Case (all versions)
RD_CALLRPT_ADHOC	CDM (customer data model) call report
RD_EMAIL_CNTCT	CDM (My Contacts)
RF_RMA_ADHOC_EMAIL	Return materials authorization (RMA)
RF_SO_ADHOC	Service Order and My Service Order
RF_SVC_ADHOC_EMAIL	Service
RG_ADHOC_EMAIL	Change request
RI_EMAIL	360-Degree View
RQ_DF_ADHOC_EMAIL	Defect
RQ_FX_ADHOC_EMAIL	Fix
RSF_LE_ADHOC_EMAIL	Lead (send selected notes feature)
RSF_LEAD_WORKLIST	Lead
RSF_OP_ADHOC_EMAIL	Opportunity (send selected notes feature)
RSF_OPP_WORKLIST	Opportunity Details

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.

Notification Addressing and Delivery

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 will 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:

Recipient Type	Email	Worklist
Workers	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.
Customers (contacts)	Available only if the person has a primary email address.	Not available.
Provider Groups (groups of workers in PeopleSoft Integrated FieldService 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 (group of workers in PeopleSoft Sales).	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 (group of contacts defined for 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).
Fully qualified email addresses.	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 sender of a notification can override this default in the Delivery Options 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 a group email address or group worklist. If the Use Members to Broadcast option is selected, the system sends additional notifications to individual group members as well.

Recipient Selection

You can always enter recipient information manually by typing the recipient's name into the Enter Recipient field. For people, enter a full (in this format: first name last name) or partial person name, full or partial email address, or person ID (not a user ID) to perform the recipient search. In addition, based on the transaction from which the recipient search, 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.

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 performs 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.
Look up group worklists for provider groups.

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.

Primary Recipients

Although notification can be addressed to multiple recipients, two aspects of notification process require the identification of a primary recipient:

Interaction creation.

See Interactions and Subinteractions.
Resolution of recipient-based terms in correspondence templates that you apply.

See Templates and Terms.

In most contexts, a notification's primary recipient is a customer (a contact or a consumer). However, from the context of a help desk case, the primary recipient is either the case contact or alternate contact.

Only recipients whose forwarding option is set to To (and not those designated for the CC or BCC option) can be primary recipients. If a notification does not have any recipients who meet the primary recipient criteria, then the system does not create an interaction, and recipient-based terms are not resolved.

The system assigns primary status to the first eligible recipient it finds. (This is the first external recipient unless the notification is being sent from a help desk case, in which case it's the contact or alternate contact.) The system evaluates recipients in the following order:

The system looks at names whose delivery options is set to To in the order in which they appear.
The system prepopulates the recipient grid with people and group from the context of the transaction based on the application logic. For example, if you initiate a manual notification for a case or service order, the recipient grid lists the contact, the assigned to agent and provider group if the information is available from the transaction.
The system looks at fully qualified email addresses (in the format [email protected]) and attempts to match the address to exactly one person.

Templates and Terms

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.

When using templates in manual notifications, template selection is restricted based on:

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 Send Notification page is accessed from various CRM transactions. From this page, you can select packages that are usable from the transaction from which you accessed the 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 applying a package in a manual notification, the system immediately resolves any terms in the template. Immediate resolution enables you to see the final text of the notification before you send it. The system uses the primary recipient to resolve recipient-based terms. All other recipients, whether specified as To, CC, or BCC recipients, get copies of that same version of the message.

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 first external customer (and therefore the primary recipient) specified for To option, and then lists Tina Miller and Stuart Fletcher, then all copies of the message will begin Dear Mr. Cooper. If Brian is not an external customer, but Tina is, then all copies of the message will begin Dear Ms Miller.

If you change the recipient list after applying a template, the system does not update the terms based on the new primary recipient unless you reapply the template.

Note. If the notification is initiated from a CDM transaction, you can choose to send a personalized notification to each selected recipient (terms in the template are resolved based on each recipient's data), or send a personalized notification to the primary external recipient and send a copy of it to other selected recipients.

Approval Processing

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:

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 Outbound Email component.
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 component.
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 for Outbound Email page, but neither the original author nor the approver can modify or send rejected notification.

See Also

Specifying User Settings

Interactions and Subinteractions

Sending a notification to a customer 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 sent becomes a subinteraction. When you view email details in the Outbound Email page, the related objects grid lists the subinteractions associated with the email.

The system creates a maximum of one interaction for a notification. The interaction is associated with the primary recipient, the same one who is used as the basis for resolving recipient-based terms. In most contexts, this is the first external recipient (which can be a customer contact or a consumer) specified for the To forwarding option. From help desk cases, this is contact or alternate contact, whichever one appears first in the To field.

When you reply to an inbound email or send a notification from a transaction, and you modify the recipient in the To forwarding option (either manually or by using the Look Up Recipient link), the system identifies the primary recipient and associates it with the interaction that is created for the notification.

If there is no primary recipient (for example, if you send a case-related notification to the agent who is assigned to the case), then the system does not create an interaction.

See Also

Working with Interactions

Notification Addressing and Delivery

Email Tracking

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 using the Outbound Email component from the menu. If the system created an interaction, you can also drill into the Outbound Email component from the interaction lists that appear in various places.

Also, when you send notifications from a case, the system creates an entry in the case history. Agents viewing the case history can drill down to the Outbound Email component 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.

See Also

Working with Interactions

Sending Manual Notifications From CRM Transactions

This section discusses how to send a manual notification in ad hoc mode.

Pages Used to Compose a Manual Notification

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Send Notification	RA_ADHOC_EMAIL RA_CONTENT_ADHOC RA_LIST_ADHOC RA_OFFER_ADHOC RB_EM_OB RBI_ADHOC_EMAIL RBI_EMAIL RC_ADHOC_EMAIL RD_CALLRPT_ADHOC RD_EMAIL_CNTCT RF_RMA_ADHOC_EMAIL RF_SO_ADHOC RF_SVC_ADHOC_EMAIL RG_ADHOC_EMAIL RI_EMAIL RQ_DF_ADHOC_EMAIL RQ_FX_ADHOC_EMAIL RSF_LE_ADHOC_EMAIL RSF_LEAD_WORKLIST RSF_OP_ADHOC_EMAIL RSF_OPP_WORKLIST	Click the Send Notification button or link in the component from which you are sending an ad hoc notification.	Send ad hoc notifications or, if you use ERMS, reply to an inbound email.

Page Name

Object Name

Navigation

Usage

Send Notification

RA_ADHOC_EMAIL

RA_CONTENT_ADHOC

RA_LIST_ADHOC

RA_OFFER_ADHOC

RB_EM_OB

RBI_ADHOC_EMAIL

RBI_EMAIL

RC_ADHOC_EMAIL

RD_CALLRPT_ADHOC

RD_EMAIL_CNTCT

RF_RMA_ADHOC_EMAIL

RF_SO_ADHOC

RF_SVC_ADHOC_EMAIL

RG_ADHOC_EMAIL

RI_EMAIL

RQ_DF_ADHOC_EMAIL

RQ_FX_ADHOC_EMAIL

RSF_LE_ADHOC_EMAIL

RSF_LEAD_WORKLIST

RSF_OP_ADHOC_EMAIL

RSF_OPP_WORKLIST

Click the Send Notification button or link in the component from which you are sending an ad hoc notification.

Send ad hoc notifications or, if you use ERMS, reply to an inbound email.

Sending a Manual Notification in Ad Hoc Mode

Access the Send Notification page.

The appearance of the page varies depending on the component from which you accessed the page. In particular, if a toolbar appears, its contents are specific to the originating component. Any other differences are cosmetic; the page elements described in this section works the same in all situations.

Recipients

To, CC (carbon copy), and BCC (blind carbon copy)

Specify the forwarding option for each recipient on the list. If there are multiple recipients, add them to the list one by one using the Enter Recipient and Select fields.

You can always address notifications to people; enter names in the format First Last, or enter person IDs (not user IDs). Similarly, you can look up recipients by entering email addresses in the format [email protected].

Enter Recipient and Select

Enter the email address, person ID or name of the recipient in the Enter Recipient field. You can enter partial information and click the select button to access the Search for Recipients page, where you can search for and select notification recipients. The system will check for duplicates and issue a warning message if there are duplicate recipients.

Select Provider Group, Select Sales Team and Select Contact Group

Click to access the lookup page for corresponding groups, where you can search for and select notification recipients. The Select Provider Group button is available for cases and service orders. The Select Sales Team button appears if the transaction from which the notification is initiated is leads or opportunities. Similarly, if the transaction from which the notification is initiated is a CDM transaction, it changes to Select Contact Group.

Delivery Information

From	Enter the email address to be used as the From address for any notifications sent by email. You can set up context-dependent default values on the Agent Setup page.
Attach URL to Email Recipients	Select Yes to include a URL to the transaction where you initiated the notification. Select No to prevent the email from including a link. Worklist notifications always provide links to the originating transaction, so this setting has no effect on worklist notifications. The URL will go to a different component if the URL Setup page is so configured.
Worklist Priority	Indicate the priority of the notification: High, Medium, or Low. If the notification is sent to a worklist, the recipient can see the priority; email notifications do not use this field.
Delivery Method	Note. This field only appears when you send a notification from a CDM object, for example, My Contacts. Indicate the notification delivery method: Send personalized email to each person. Select this option to send a personalized notification to every individual recipient. For each personalized notification, the system resolve template terms based on each recipient's data. You can view the template that is used to create the notifications in the Message field. The actual message is processed behind the scene after you have sent it. Send to first external person and CC others. Select this option to send the notification that is composed using data of the first external recipient to everyone in the recipient list. This is the standard manual notification which you can click the Apply Template button to preview the actual message before sending it.
Delivery Options	Click to access the Delivery Options page, where you can set the delivery date and time, and you can review and change the delivery channels to be used for each addressee. Note. If a recipient's data is incomplete, it's possible that there is no default delivery channel. When this occurs, the system does not send the notification to that person. To avoid this error, always verify the settings in the Delivery Options page before sending the notification.
Worklist Action	Select the action that you want the recipient to take. Select from the values that you set up in the Action Request page. If the notification is sent to a worklist, the recipient can see the request; email notifications do not use this field.

Message Contents

Email Template and Apply Template

Optionally select a correspondence template package and apply it. Because of restrictions on which templates are available for selection, the selected template package always contains exactly one internal text template. When you apply the package, terms in the template are resolved based on the first external recipient in the To field, and the content of the template is inserted into the Message field. If you do not license PeopleSoft Multichannel Communications, the system appends the new text at the end of the message. If you do license PeopleSoft Multichannel Communications, the position of the new text depends on your ERMS system settings.

See Templates and Terms.

Subject

Enter the subject of the notification. If the subject is empty when you apply a template package, the subject from the internal text template in the package is entered here.

Message

Enter the message text. As you apply template packages, the system concatenates existing text with newly applied template-based text.

If you have a custom signature (defined on the Worker - Signature page), the signature text appears in the message. You can modify or delete the signature text as you compose the message.

Attachments

This grid shows any files that you upload as attachments. When the notification is sent, the email attach to this notification.

Note. The system does not deliver attachments to worklists, only to email addresses.

File Name	Displays the attachment's file name. The name is a link; click it to view the attachment.
Upload an attachment	Click to add an attachment to this notification. You will be prompted to select a file from a local or network location. The system then uploads the attachment to the CRM attachment server.

Additional Notification Elements

Send	Click to send or schedule the notification, depending on the delivery options you selected.
Return to <the originating transaction>	Clicking the link returns you to the page from which you accessed the Send Notification page. The exact text of this link varies depending on the originating page.

See Also

Specifying User Settings

Redirecting Links

Attachments

Looking Up Recipients and Setting Delivery Options

This section discusses how to:

Search for recipients.
Look for provider groups.
Look for sales teams.
Look for contact groups.
Set delivery channels and time.

Pages Used to Look Up Recipients and Set Delivery Options

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Search for Recipients	RB_WF_RECIP_NOTFND	Click the Select button on the Send Notification page after entering recipient information. This page appears if the system returns no or multiple search results for the name or email address that users entered as search criteria. Use this page to select a specific recipient or refine search by entering a first and last name.	Search for an email address for the notification.
Select Provider Group Members	RB_WF_LOOKUP	Click the Select Provider Group button on the Send Notification page.	Search for a provider group for the notification.
Select Sales Team	RB_WF_LOOKUP	Click the Select Sales Team button on the Send Notification page.	Search for a sales team for the notification.
Select Contact Group	RB_WF_LOOKUP	Click the Select Contact Group button on the Send Notification page.	Search for a contact group for the notification.
Delivery Options	RB_WF_DEL_OPT	Click the Delivery Options link on the Send Notification page.	Schedule the notification, and review and modify the delivery channel for each recipient.

Searching for Recipients

Access the Search for Recipients page.

Select from List or Enter Search Criteria and Press Search

First Name and Last Name	Enter a full or partial first or last name. For example, enter J (either uppercase or lowercase) in the Last Name field to find all last names that begin with that letter.
Search	Click to display a list of people or groups that match the search criteria and, depending on the type of person, that belong to the appropriate setID. (Workers are not setID-driven; contacts and consumers are.)

Select Recipient

First Name, Last Name, and ID

Displays the name and ID information that meet the search criteria.

Email Address

Displays the email address to which email notifications will be sent. For people, this is the person's primary email address; groups can only have one email address. If no email address appears, then this recipient cannot receive email notifications. The recipient may be able to receive worklist notifications, but you cannot tell based on the information in the search results grid. You must go to the Delivery Options page to confirm possible routing options.

The Search for Recipient page appears, if the email address that you enter belongs to multiple recipients. Select the appropriate recipient from the page.

Select

Click to include the recipient in the To field of the notification.

Looking Up Provider Groups

Access the Select Provider Group Members page.

If you select a provider group as a recipient, the notification is sent to the provider group's email address.

To, CC (carbon copy), and BCC (blind carbon copy)	Select one of these check boxes to identify who to include in the notification's to, cc, or bcc options. The selected provider group is added to the recipient list when you click the Add Selected to Recipient List button.
Provider Group	When sending a notification from a case or service order, you can address the notification to a provider group. Enter a full or partial group name.
Search	Click to display a list of groups that match the search criteria.

Looking Up Sales Teams

Access the Select Sales Team page.

If you select a sales team in the recipient list, members of the sales team are populated to the recipient list and the notification is sent them individually.

To, CC (carbon copy), and BCC (blind carbon copy)	Select one of these check boxes to identify which sales team to include in the notification's to, cc, or bcc forwarding option. The people included in the selected sales team are added to the recipient list when you click the Add Selected to Recipient List button.
Sales Team	When sending a notification from a lead or opportunity, you can address the notification to a sales team. Enter a full or partial team name.
Search	Click to display a list of sales teams that match the search criteria.

Looking Up Contact Groups

Access the Select Contact Group page.

Select the contact groups to which the notification is sent using the To forwarding option. CC and BCC are not applicable to sending notification from CDM objects.

Setting Delivery Channels and Time

Access the Delivery Options page.

Recipient Options

Worklist

Select to send the notification to the addressee's worklist. If the addressee does not have a user ID or a group worklist, then the addressee cannot receive worklist notifications and the check box is not available. The letters N/A (not applicable) appears in its place.

Worker and provider group definitions include notification preferences that control the default setting. Other types of recipients cannot receive worklist notifications.

Email

Select to send the notification to the addressee's email address. If the addressee does not have an email address on record, then the addressee cannot receive email notifications and the check box is not available. The letters N/A (not applicable) appears in its place.

Worker and provider group definitions include notification preferences that control the default setting. Because other types of recipients can receive only email notifications, the default is for this check box to be selected unless there is no valid email address.

Delivery Time

Send Now

Select to send the notification as soon as you click the Send button on the Send Notification page.

Send Later

Select to schedule the notification for the future, then enter the scheduled Date and Time.

This functionality can be used to send yourself reminder notifications.