Managing Communications

This chapter lists prerequisites and common elements, provides an overview of communications, and discusses how to:

• Assign communications to an individual.

• Assign communications to an organization.

• Extract letter data.

• Review communications with an individual.

• Review communications with an organization.

• Use the sample templates.

• View communications reports.

See Also

Understanding the 3Cs—Communications, Checklists, and Comments

Using the 3C Engine

Using Mass Change

Prerequisites

Before assigning and managing communications, you must set up communications in the system.

See Also

Setting Up Communications

Common Elements Used in This Chapter

Understanding Communication Management

Communication Management enables you to track and analyze all of your institution's contacts with students, staff, constituents, and organizations inside and outside the institution. You can track:

• All incoming and outgoing communications.

• All types of communication—letters, email, phone calls, personal contact, facsimiles, and so on.

• Communications generated by other offices that affect your office.

• All staff involved with a communication.

• You can assign communications to individuals, organizations, and groups of people. This chapter describes how to assign communications.

To assign a communication, you must select the method, category, context, direction, and letter code for that communication to identify the who, what, when, and how of each communication. This is how they correlate:

• Method = How

• Context = What

• Category = Why

• Direction = Where

• Date = When

• ID = Who

Use the communication management pages to manually assign communications to individuals or organizations. You can access the communication management pages as described here, or you can access them by clicking the Communication button on pages throughout the system.

You can assign communications to individuals and organizations manually, or you can use the 3C engine to automatically assign communications to individuals or organizations based on rules and conditions that you define.

See Defining 3C Engine Triggers.

You can indicate whether the communication is a phone conversation, a letter, or an in-person meeting with the individual. If the communication is a letter, you can manage the variable data and enclosures that should be included, and enter comments that you can choose to print or not print in the letter

In addition to creating communications for individuals, you can create communications for organizations. For example, you can send letters to schools announcing that an admissions counselor from your institution will be in their area on a certain date, or you can send bills to companies with which your institution does business.

When you are finished assigning letter communications, you can use your system to extract data about the recipients and use your word processing software to merge that data into a template. You create templates with your institution's word processing software, or you can use the sample Microsoft Word templates delivered with the system.

Use the inquiry pages to review communication information for an individual or an organization. You can enter criteria and search for a summary of communications or view details of the communication assignments. You can search for a summary of communications to determine if a specific communication was sent, if it included enclosures, and if it was a joint communication.

Note. You are able to view only those communications that are associated with the communication 3C groups to which you have security access. With 3C group inquiry access, you can view communication assignments, but you cannot change them. With 3C group update access, you can view and change the communications. Use the Operator 3C Groups Summary page to determine or change an individual's 3C group security status.

See Selecting the Type of 3C Group Access.

This procedure provides a high-level overview of the managing communications processes and the order in which they must be performed. Steps 1 through 5 are described in Setting Up Communications.

To generate and manage communications:

1. Set up codes for the standard letters that your institution wants to use.

   Each letter requires an administrative function.

2. Set up communication contexts.

   Contexts include methods, directions, and letter codes.

3. Set up communication categories.

   Categories are sets of communication contexts.

4. Set up communication 3C groups.

   3C groups are required for assigning security access for communications.

5. (Optional) Set up communication speed keys (Comm Keys).

   Comm Keys enable you to associate communication elements together and access them as a set, using the assigned shortcut code.

6. Assign communications to individuals or organizations

   You can assign communications to each of these manually or you can use the 3C engine to assign communications automatically in real time or in the background.

7. Review communications assigned to individuals or organizations.

   You can review the details of each communication. You can view a list of all communications assigned to them. You can also review the security access that users have for viewing or updating the communications.

8. Generate the communications.

9. Review the data that was extracted by the letter generation process for each of the IDs processed.

Understanding Joint Communications

PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions enables you to communicate jointly with individuals at a common address rather than producing separate communications for each individual. For example, you can invite a married couple or two roommates to an event by sending a single invitation to their joint address.

Functions on the relationships and communications pages enable you to create joint communications for two individuals when at least one of the individuals exists in your database.

These examples show the joint communication features used in the system:

Detailed information about each page where you select an option or enter data to manage joint communications is included in the appropriate places throughout the documentation. The following procedure provides a high-level overview of the process and indicates where the relevant pages are documented.

To set up joint communications functionality:

1. Design how the two names appear in the greeting and in the address portion of the letter by setting up the joint salutation on the Joint Salutation Type Table page.

   See Establishing Salutations.

2. Set the Default Salutation Type on the Installation Defaults - CC page.

   If no default salutation type is defined, the letter generation data extract process fails.

   See Reviewing or Defining Campus Community Installation Settings.

3. Create joint usages on the Name Usage page.

   Always include the default salutation type (from step 2) in usage orders for joint communications so the process does not fail due to the lack of a salutation.

   See Establishing Name Usages.

To generate a joint communication:

1. Set the letter code on the Standard Letters page to Allow Joint Communication.

   See Defining Standard Letter Codes.

2. Create the relationship on the Relationship page for the individual in your database. This includes clicking the Manage Joint Communication button to access the Joint Communication Management page, where you set the relationship to Create Joint Communication, and define the joint salutation.

   See Managing Relationships Data.

3. Identify the address to use for the joint communication and select the Joint Address check box on the Relationship Address page.

   See Managing Relationships Data.

4. Assign the communication to the individual in your database (if both individuals are in your database, assign the communication to only one).

   You can use the 3C engine to detect the related records and automatically assign the joint communication, or you can assign the communication manually on the Communication Management 1 and 2 pages where you assign communications to individuals.

   This includes selecting the Create Joint Communication check box at the bottom of the Communication Management 1 page. The check box is available for selection based on steps 1 and 2, when the ID has a relationship set to enable joint communications, and the letter code is also set to enable joint communications.

   See Using the 3C Engine.

   See Assigning Communications to Individuals.

5. Run the PeopleSoft letter generation data extract process.

   The process creates an extract file containing the data to generate the joint communication, including the specified joint salutation and joint address.

   See Extracting Letter Data.

6. Merge the extract file with the letter template to produce the joint communication and print the letter.

   You can use the sample CCLTRJNT Word template that is delivered with the system or another template created in Microsoft Word to merge the data and print the letter.

7. (Optional) Review communications and verify when they were sent, to whom they were sent, and if they were joint.

   You can review all communications in the system or review a summary of communications assigned to the primary individual or the related ID, if it exists. The joint communication is listed in the summary for both IDs even though the joint communication can be assigned to only one ID.

   See Reviewing Communications with an Individual.

Understanding Letter Generation

You can extract data from your PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions system and use it to generate letters, labels, lists, envelopes, and so on. You can extract data from one individual ID, all individual IDs, or all organization IDs in your database. You specify the type of data to extract and then run the extract process. The system places the extracted data into a comma delimited (.csv) file, which is a standard format readable by most word processing programs. Then, using your institution's word processing software, you can merge the data into any of the templates that you have for the letter codes defined on the Standard Letters page, including the sample Word templates delivered with the system, and print the outcome.

For information about using your institution's word processing software to merge data and print letters, consult the manufacturer's documentation.

Before you can extract letter data, a communication record for the desired letter must be assigned to the intended recipients. For joint communications, it is preferable that you assign the communication to only one of the individuals. If you assign it to both, the letter generation process extracts the data for both IDs, and will print two joint communications for the same two people. The record must include the appropriate administrative function, communication category, and communication context, and specify a method of Letter and the direction of Outgoing. You can assign communications to individuals or organizations manually or using the 3C engine or mass change.

When the communication records exist, follow this procedure for extracting data and generating a letter:

To generate a letter:

1. Specify the data to extract for the letter, including the ID, address usage, address name, salutation, and letter code.

2. Specify the date to print on the letter, the date to use as the letter completed date, and the communication date selection range.

3. Specify any checklist items to include in the letter.

4. Run the Letters Data Extract process to extract the specified data.

5. Use your word processing program to merge the extracted data into the letter template.

6. Save the softcopy template with merged data, or use it to print the letter.

Specifying the parameters for extracting data for the letter includes selecting the letter to use, identifying the individuals or organizations whose data you want to extract, and specifying the types of data to extract. Use the run control pages, described in the following sections, to specify extract data parameters.

After defining all of the parameters for extracting data, run the data extract process. Unless you specify a different file path, the process places the data files in the temporary directory for the server. You can specify a shared folder on your local machine or on any valid network drive path.

When the process finishes, files with the appropriate file names are placed at the specified extract file path destination. If you select the .csv output, three files are created at the destination:

• CCLTR<LETTERCODE>.CSV for letters.

• CCLBL<LETTERCODE>.CSV for labels.

• CCLTRGEN.DAT file, which is coded to work with the Word templates delivered with the system.

For example, if you use the TRN letter code and you select the .csv output, the file for letters at the destination is CCLTRTRN.CSV.

Note. If you use a letter code for which you specified a unique SQC, you must place the SQC in the same directory as the CCLTRGEN.sqr and the CCLTRUNQ.sqc. You must also modify CCLTRNAM.SQC to look for the specific SQC.

You can review extracted data online for individuals and organizations on the Communication Letter Data pages.

When you run the letter generation data extract process, the data specified under Letter Printed Data for that letter code on the Standard Letter Table page are listed on the Communication Letter Data page for individuals, or on the Organization Communication Letter Data page for organizations. You can use these pages to review and confirm the data extracted for an individual or organization. For example, using the Communication Letter Data page, you can confirm the address to which the letter for a specific individual addressed.

The letter generation data extract process automatically formats extracted addresses to meet U.S. postal regulations for domestic and international mail. The format is reflected in the address listed on the appropriate Letter Data page.

If you set a relationship to generate a copy of communications for a separate recipient on the Communication Recipient page in the Relationships component, you can view the data extracted for that separate recipient on the Communication Recipient Data page described in this section.

Overview of the Sample Templates

The letter generation data extract process creates a .dat file for merging data from your system into Microsoft Word templates. The PeopleSoft system delivers sample Word templates. You can use the sample templates as delivered, modify them (unless otherwise indicated in the warning), or create your own Word templates. This table lists the sample templates and their corresponding letter codes.

Warning! Do not modify these PeopleSoft letter codes and Word templates: from HRMS, the letter codes and templates ACQ, ANO, CAN, CBR, CTR, DEP, DIV, IR, IS1, IS2, IS3, LAT, OF1, OF2, REV, and RSC; and from PeopleSoft Enterprise Financial Aid, the letter code or template FAN. Modifications to these values could require substantial programming effort. You can, however, modify any of the other delivered letter codes and templates to meet your institution's needs.

Assigning Communications to Individuals

This section discusses how to:

• Assign a communication to an individual.

• Review or update variable data for an individual.

• Add or delete enclosures.

• Determine the communication status.

Pages Used to Assign Communications to Individuals

Assigning a Communication to an Individual

Access the Communication Management 1 page.

Note. If you transferred to this page by clicking the Communication button on another page, the administrative function of the functional area of the first page, along with the academic institution and all the variable data associated with the administrative function, transfers here. If you did not transfer here from a functional area, you must enter the function, institution, and variable data.

Communication Activity

Joint Communication

Reviewing or Updating Variable Data

Access the Variable Data page.

Different fields and data appear on this page based on the administrative function selected on the Communication Management 1 page.

See Also

Setting Up Administrative Functions

Adding or Deleting Enclosures

Access the Communication Enclosure page.

Note. When an enclosure is set as required for a letter on the Standard Letters page, information for that enclosure is visible but not available on the Communication Enclosure page. Thus, users are prevented from deleting an enclosure that your institution has decided is required.

Determining the Communication Status

Access the Communication Management 2 page.

Department

(Optional) Enter the department within your institution that is responsible for assigning this communication. Available departments are from the Department Profile page.

Checklist Association

This group box appears only when the communication is created as part of a checklist.

Communication Outcome

When you run the letter generation data extract process, the system automatically completes fields and selects check boxes in this group box to indicate the outcome of the communication. If you do not use the letter generation data extract process, you must complete these fields.

Assigning Communications to an Organization

This section lists prerequisites and discusses how to:

• Assign a communication to an organization.

• Review or update variable data for an organization.

• Add or delete enclosures.

• Enter or review the communication status.

Prerequisites

Before assigning communications to an organization, define the organization's data, including its location, department profile, and contact person.

See Also

Managing Organization Data

Pages Used to Assign a Communication to an Organization

Assigning a Communication to an Organization

Access the Organization Communication 1 page.

Note. If you transfer to this page by clicking the Communication button on another page, the administrative function associated with the functional area where you were, along with the institution and variable data associated with that functional area, transfers. If you did not transfer from a functional area, you must enter the function, institution, and variable data.

Communication Activity

Determining the Communication Status

Access the Organization Communication 2 page.

Contact Number	Enter the ID of the contact person, from the Organization Contacts page, to whom you are sending this communication.
Department Number	Enter the number of the contact department, from the Organization Departments page, to which you are sending this communication.
Location Number	Enter the number of the location, from the Organization Locations page, to which you are sending this communication.
Department	(Optional) Enter the department within your institution, from the Department Profile page, that is responsible for or assigning this communication.

Checklist Association

This group box appears only when the communication is created as part of a checklist.

Communication Outcome

When you run the letter generation data extract process, the system completes fields and selects check boxes in this group box to indicate the outcome of the communication. If you do not use the letter generation data extract process, you must complete these fields.

Extracting Letter Data

This section lists prerequisites and discusses how to:

• Specify general parameters for extracting data.

• Specify parameters for merging the data.

• Specify parameters for extracting and updating any checklist data.

• Run the letter generation data extract process.

• Review and edit extracted data.

Prerequisites

Before identifying data to extract and merge into letters or other communications output, design your Campus Community structure, including names and address usages. Before specifying checklist items data to extract, set up checklists and tracking groups.

See Also

Designing Campus Community

Setting Up Checklists

Pages Used to Extract Letter Data

Specifying General Parameters

Access the General Parameters page.

ID Selection

Letter Code Selection

Missing Critical Data

Name and Address Usage

Name and address usages apply to letters addressed to individuals. They do not apply to letters for organizations.

Joint Salutation Usage

ID Extract Name Usage

Specifying Date/Merge Parameters

Access the Date/Merge Parameters page.

Extract File Path/Options

The server temporary directory is the default location for the .cvs and .dat extract files. If you want the system to place the files elsewhere, specify the correct path here.

The path must be a valid network path, containing the path delimiter (forward slash or back slash), and be in the appropriate letter case (upper or lower) for your platform. For example, on Windows NT where the target machine is Machine01 and the target folder is LtrData, the valid path is \\Machine01\temp\LtrData\.

Update Communication Letter Printed Date With

Select the date to appear on the letter.

Update Communication Completed Date With

Select the date for the system to use as the communication completed date on the communication record (Communication Management 2 page).

Communication Date Range Selection

Enter the date range of the communication records from which to extract data. For example, you might want to extract data only from those IDs to which you assigned a specific letter between January 1 and March 1 of the current year.

Use the date range to schedule and manage letter communications. For example, you might schedule daily or weekly runs of the letter generation data extract process for prospect inquiry letters, or missing information letters for applicants.

Word Merge Parameters

If you are using the sample Word templates delivered with the system or if you are using other templates created in Microsoft Word, specify parameters here. A macro (CCLTRGEN.DOT) built into the delivered Word template process uses these parameters when performing a letter merge.

If you are not using Microsoft Word, you can skip these fields.

Note. Setting these parameters on the Letter Generation run control page affects the data included in the CCLTRGEN.DAT file, but does not invoke the Word merge process. To perform a letter merge, you must launch Word and perform the merge process.

Specifying Checklist Parameters

Access the Checklist Parameters page.

Checklist Type	Enter the type of checklist from which the process should extract data for this letter.
Tracking Group	Enter the tracking group whose checklist data the process should extract for this letter.
Checklist Code	Enter the specific checklist code whose checklist item data the process should extract for this letter.

Tracking Group Status

If you specified a tracking group, you must also select a tracking group status. You can select more than one status option.

Checklist Status

Item Status

If you specified a checklist code, you must select a checklist item status. You can select more than one status option.

Running the Data Extract Process

After you specify the extract parameters, you can run the CCLTRGEN data extract process by clicking the Run button from the General Parameters page, the Date/Merge Parameters page, or the Checklist Parameters page.

Note. Setting parameters on these run control pages affects the data included in the CCLTRGEN.DAT file; however, it does not invoke the merge process. To perform a merge, you must launch the merge process provided from within your institution's word processing software. If you want to merge the extract data into any of the sample templates (or other Word templates), you must launch Word and perform Word's Mail Merge process.

Note. The default output for CCLTRGEN is .csv. This is defined within the CCLTRGEN program. Selecting Type and Format field values on the Process Scheduler Request page does not change this output.

Reviewing Extract Data Online for Individuals

Access the Communication Letter Data page.

The Communication Letter Data page is for viewing purposes only. You cannot enter or modify data here. Information on this page is controlled from the Letter Printed Data value set on the Standard Letter Table page.

Reviewing Extract Data for an Additional Recipient

Access the Communication Recipient Data page.

The Communication Recipient Data page is for viewing purposes only. You cannot enter or modify data here. Information appears on this page only if you have set up a separate recipient on Communication Recipient page in the Relationships component for the specified letter code.

Reviewing Extract Data for an Organization

Access the Organization Communication Letter Data page.

The Organization Letter Data page is for viewing purposes only. You cannot enter or modify data here. Information on this page is controlled from the Letter Printed Data value set on the Standard Letter Table page.

Reviewing Communications with an Individual

This section provides an overview of how to:

• Review a summary of communications with an individual.

• Review extract data for a communication with an individual.

• Review details of a communication with an individual.

Pages Used to Review Communications with Individuals

Reviewing a Summary of Communications with an Individual

Access the Communication Summary page.

Note. Multiple views of this page are available by clicking the tabs in the scroll area. We document fields that are common to all views first.

Common Page Information: Selection Criteria Region

If you click the Search button without entering any values, the system searches for all checklists for the individual and displays the results at the bottom of the page. You can enter values or any combination of values to limit the search.

Letter Details Tab

Use the Letter Details tab to determine supplemental information about the communication—if there were enclosures, the enclosure letter codes and descriptions; if the communication was joint, the related ID; and the category and context for the communication.

Note. A joint communication can be assigned to only one of the two IDs. However, when a joint communication is assigned, the communication is listed in the summary for both IDs. For example, if you assign a joint communication to primary ID 12345 with the related ID 13578, and view the summary for ID 12345, the joint communication check box is selected and no related ID value appears. When you view the summary for (related) ID 13578, the joint communication check box is selected and the related ID of 12345 appears.

Reviewing Extract Data for an Individual Communication

Use the Communication Letter Data page to review the data extracted for an individual as the result of the letter generation data extract process.

See Also

Reviewing Extract Data Online for Individuals

Reviewing Details of a Communication with an Individual

You can review the details of a communication with an individual on the Communication Detail 1 and 2 pages. These pages are view-only versions of the Communication Management 1 and 2 pages, where you assign communications to the individual. You cannot enter or edit data on the detail pages.

See Also

Assigning Communications to Individuals

Reviewing 3C Group Access to Communications with Individuals

Access the Operator 3C Group Summary page.

Reviewing Communications with an Organization

This section discusses how to:

• Review a summary of communications with an organization.

• Review extract data for a communication with an organization.

• Review details of a communication with an organization.

Page Used to Review Communications with Organizations

Reviewing a Summary of Communications with an Organization

Access the Org Communication Summary page.

Note. Multiple views of this page are available by clicking the tabs in the scroll area. We document fields that are common to all views first.

Common Page Information: Selection Criteria Region

If you click the Search button without entering any values, the system searches for all checklists for the individual and displays the results at the bottom of the page. You can enter values or any combination of values to limit the search.

General Info Tab

Use the General Information tab to determine information about each primary communication—the method, letter code, direction, function, assign date/time, and date completed.

Letter Details Tab

Use the Letter Details tab to determine supplemental information about the communication—if there were enclosures and the enclosure letter codes and descriptions; and the category and context for the communication.

Organization Details Tab

Use the Organization Details tab to determine the recipient organization's department, location, and contact name.

Reviewing Extract Data for an Organization Communication

Use the Organization Communication Letter Data page to review the data extracted for an organization as the result of the letter generation data extract process.

Reviewing Details of an Organization Communication

You can review the details of a communication with an individual on the Communication Detail 1 and 2 pages. These pages are view-only versions of the Communication Management 1 and 2 pages, where you assign communications to the individual. You cannot enter or edit data on the detail pages.

See Also

Assigning Communications to an Organization

Reviewing 3C Group Access to Communications with Organizations

Access the Operator 3C Group Summary page.