Running ERMS Processes

This chapter provides an overview of email response management system (ERMS) processes and discusses how to:

Run and monitor processes.
Review detailed process information.

Understanding ERMS Processes

This section discusses:

ERMS processes.
Email process states and incompletely processed email.
Processing statuses for the Unstructured Email process.

ERMS Processes

ERMS relies on several PeopleSoft Application Engine processes to read email from an external mailbox, analyze and route the emails, automatically reply to structured email, and send alerts when email is not handled within the specified time period. The Understanding PeopleSoft ERMS chapter describes what these processes do. This chapter discusses how to run the processes and describes the process monitoring tools that are available for troubleshooting.

See ERMS Processes.

Email Process States and Incompletely Processed Email

As the ERMS processes handle an email, they maintain process state information. The process state indicates how far along the automated processing is.

Before an email is completely processed, its process state can be:

Email Instance Created: the initial state of an email after it is saved to the PeopleSoft CRM email tables and before any additional processing occurs.
Queued for Routing: the Mail Reader process (RB_MAIL_READ) has finished with email, and the email is queued for processing by the Unstructured Email or Structured Email process.
Mailbox Forwarding: the mailbox reset operation is performed.

After an email is completely processed, its process state can be:

Auto Responded By System: the Structured Email process sent an automatic response.
Email Routed: the Unstructured Email process has routed the email to a group worklist.

The process state is visible on the Message Details page of the email workspace only if the email is not completely processed. Users might access incompletely processed emails under two conditions:

A user accesses the email between the time the Mail Reader process saves it to the CRM email tables and the time the appropriate email handling process (the Unstructured Email process or the Structured Email process) completes its processing.
The Unstructured Email process or the Structured Email process fails.

In both situations, the email can be accessed only through the menu navigation to the Search Inbound Emails component: incompletely processed emails do not appear in worklists or the MCF Console. Agents who interact with emails only through the Worklist or the MCF Console will normally never even see incompletely processes emails.

Only the email's mailbox owner can work with incompletely processed emails. (Although the email's group worklist owner has the same privileges as the mailbox owner, incompletely processed emails do not have a group worklist owner because they have not yet been assigned to a group worklist.)

To handle an incompletely processed email, the mailbox owner:

Accesses the email in the email workspace.
Verifies the process state.
Enters sender information, if necessary.

Depending on which process failed, and when, the sender information may already be present.
Establishes a thread association.

Depending on which process failed, and when, the thread association may already be established.
Changes the process state to Email Routed.

This prevents the next instance of the Unstructured Email process from attempting to reprocess the email.
Clicks the Reassign button and send the email to the appropriate group worklist.

This saves changes to the email.

Processing Statuses for the Unstructured Email Process

Email that is placed in the unstructured email queue has an additional status tracking field (different from the overall process state) that indicates how far along the Unstructured Email process is. Each email in the unstructured email queue has one of these statuses:

0: Ready for processing.
1: Verity collection built.
2: Processing.
3: Successfully processed.

When the Mail Reader process first creates an entry in the unstructured email queue, it assigns status 0 (ready for processing). When the Unstructured Email process runs, it updates the status.

Each instance of the Unstructured Email process picks up all emails with statuses other than 3 (successfully processed). This practice ensures that a future instance of the Unstructured Email process will attempt to reprocess any emails that are not successfully routed.

The Unstructured Email process status is not visible from the email workspace. To view this data, you must query the database.

Running and Monitoring Processes

This section discusses how to:

Review process settings for mailboxes.
Start and stop ERMS processes.
Review Mail Reader processing details.

Pages Used to Run and Monitor Mail Reader Processes

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Mailbox Viewer	RB_MAILBOX_VIEW	Set Up CRM, Product Related, Multichannel Definitions, Email, Define Servers and Security, Batch User Monitor Form, Mailbox Viewer	Review, and optionally modify, the status and polling frequency of all mailboxes.
Start/Stop ERMS Batch Process	RB_ERMS_BATCH_RUN	Set Up CRM, Product Related, Multichannel Definitions, Email, Define Servers and Security, Batch User Monitor Form, Start/Stop ERMS Batch Process	Start or stop ERMS processes.
Mailreader Process Monitor	RB_MCF_BTH_MONITOR	Set Up CRM, Product Related, Multichannel Definitions, Email, Define Servers and Security, Batch User Monitor Form, Mailreader Process Monitor	Review Mail Reader processing details, and research trouble reports (for example, if agents report that no new emails are arriving).

Reviewing Process Settings for Mailboxes

Access the Mailbox Viewer page.

The Mailbox Definitions View grid lists all ERMS mailboxes. The grid columns correspond to the identically-named fields on the Mailbox Definitions page. You can edit only the fields that affect the Mail Reader process. Changes you make on this page also appear on the Mailbox Definition page.

Starting and Stopping ERMS Processes

Access the Start/Stop ERMS Batch Process page.

Start ERMS System

Click to schedule the Mail Reader process, which in turn schedules all other ERMS processes. Each ERMS process schedules its own next instance, so the ERMS processes continue to run at the intervals you've defined until you stop the ERMS system.

Stop ERMS System

Click to cancel all current and future instances of ERMS processes. It is not necessary to stop the ERMS system when you make changes to a mailbox's status or polling frequency.

Reviewing Mail Reader Processing Details

Access the Mailreader Process Monitor page.

Process Instance Selection

Use the fields in the View For Status and View Mail Reader Logs/Request Details For group boxes to specify the Mail Reader instances that you want to review.

View For Status	Select a status: All, Scheduled, Processing, Completed, Canceled, or Failed. When you refresh the page, only Mail Reader process instances with the selected status are included in the Mail Reader Process Details grid.
Last	To specify a time period for which you want to view process instances, enter the number of Days, Hours, or Minutes. The time period that you enter is measured back starting from the current date and time.
Mailbox ID	To specify a mailbox for which you want to view process instances, enter the mailbox ID.
Instance and To	To specify a range of process instance IDs to view, enter the first and last number in the range.
With Exception Emails	Select to limit the process instances to those where exception emails were processed. Exception emails are emails that were caught by your mail filter definitions and excluded from additional processing.
Refresh	Click to populate the Mail Reader Process Details grid with the process instances that meet your selection criteria.

Mail Reader Process Details

Instance	Displays the process instance ID.
Start Date/Time and End Date/Time	Displays the date and time when the process instance started and stopped.
Mail Reader Details	Click to access the Mail Reader Process Log page, which displays statistics for a Mail Reader process instance.
Process Message Logs	Click to access the Process Monitor - Message Log page, which displays detailed information about any errors that occurred during the process.
Process Request Parameters	Click to access the Process Monitor - Process Request Parameters page, which displays detailed information about any errors that occurred during the process.

Reviewing Detailed Process Information

This section discusses how to:

Review Mail Reader statistics.
Review exception email.

Pages Used to Review Detailed Process Information

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Mail Reader Process Log	RB_MAILREAD_LOG	Click the Mail Reader Details link on the Mailreader Process Monitor page.	Review statistics for a specific instance of the Mail Reader process.
Exception Email Details	RB_EMAIL_VIEWER	Click the Details link in the Exception Details Captured by this Mail Reader Instance grid on the Mail Reader Process Log page.	Review information about a specific exception email.

Reviewing Mail Reader Statistics

Access the Mail Reader Process Log page.

Mail Reader Statistics

Mailboxes	Displays the number of mailboxes that were processed by this Mail Reader instance. Mailbox statuses determine which mailboxes the Mail Reader process accesses; mailbox polling frequencies determine which mailboxes are accessed by any particular Mail Reader process instance.
Exception Emails	Displays the total number of exception emails that were processed by this Mail Reader instance. Exception emails are emails that were caught by your mail filter definitions and excluded from additional processing.
Unstructured Emails	Displays the total number of unstructured emails that were processed by this Mail Reader instance.
Structured Emails	Displays the total number of structured emails that were processed by this Mail Reader instance.

Mail Box Statistics For This Mail Reader Instance

This grid lists the mailboxes that were processed and, for each mailbox, displays the number of structured, unstructured, and exception emails that were processed.

Exception Details Captured by this Mail Reader Instance

This grid lists the exception emails that were processed by this Mail Reader instance.

Email From	Displays the sender's email address.
UID of Inbound Email (universal ID of inbound email)	Displays the unique email identifier that People Tools generates.
Mail Filter ID	Displays the ID of the mail filter that caused this email to be an exception email.
Details	Click to access the Exception Email Details page, where you can review detailed information about the email.

Reviewing Exception Email

Access the Exception Email Details page.

Several of the fields on this page are the same as the identically-named fields on the Mail Reader Process Log page.

Mail Box Details	Displays the description of the mailbox to which this email was sent.
Email Message ID	Displays the email's unique identifier.
Subject and Message Text	Displays the content of the email.

Start ERMS System	Click to schedule the Mail Reader process, which in turn schedules all other ERMS processes. Each ERMS process schedules its own next instance, so the ERMS processes continue to run at the intervals you've defined until you stop the ERMS system.
Stop ERMS System	Click to cancel all current and future instances of ERMS processes. It is not necessary to stop the ERMS system when you make changes to a mailbox's status or polling frequency.