What does this section cover?

Navigating to Communications

Explaining Communications Fields

Creating & Saving, Validations & Restrictions

Creating a Communication

1. Search using the criteria available in the summary page
2. From the top menu click on "NEW" to open the Communications data entry page
   Every time you complete a tab click on the "NEXT" button  

3. MAIN INFORMATION

   1. Contact: Type the name of the contact or click on the Find button to search the contact via the Contact Search modal
   2. Direction: Select the direction of the communication
      1. Incoming: Logging communications for customers calling in 

      2. Outgoing: Logging a communication for agents contacting customers 

         Filtering of Media based on Direction selected

         According to the direction selected the related Media will be loaded 

         No	Media	Available in Direction
         1	Email	Outgoing
         2	SMS	Outgoing
         3	Phone	Outgoing
         4	Letter	Outgoing & Incoming
         5	Face to Face	Outgoing & Incoming
         6	Device	Outgoing & Incoming (only if an external system is specified)

   3. Media: Select the Media used for the communication
      If the media selected is "Email" or "SMS" then the From field will be automatically loaded as it is defined in Communication Definitions

   4.  Category:
      1. Click Find to search for the category based on your needs
         1. A modal window opens with a tree structure of the available categories. 
         2. Select the category you need

   5. Click on "ADD REFERRING TO ENTITIES" in order to add the entities that are related with the communication. A modal window will open where you will have the option to search and add the related entities

      The contact must be selected first in order to only load the entities related to the contact. If no contact is selected then the search will not return any results.

      
      
      

   6. To: Search for the mobile phone number or Email address of the recipient of the communication. One Email address or mobile phone number is required, which can optionally be selected from the existing contact information Emails / Phones

      • This is a free text field. You can add any mobile phone number or Email address manually; however you have the option to view the already registered Emails and Phones of the contact and choose one of them

      • If an SMS is going to be sent, then the phone number needs to always start with the country code: e.g. 0031 for The Nertherlands

      
      
      

   7. Communication Template: Choose a communication template available in the drop down list
      When a template is selected the following fields will be updated accordingly:
      1. Media
      2. Category
      3. Subject
      4. Content
         
   8. Subject: The subject of the communication. 

   9. Content: The actual content of the communication. 

      The WYSIWYG editor is available to be used only if media Email and Letter are selected.

      Communication tags can be used to generate the subject & the content based on data kept on the related contact information or the referred business entity. 
      "#" needs to precede the communication tags. As soon as you type the "#" symbol the system will automatically populate the list of the available tags that can be used. As you type your text, the list will be filtered accordingly. 
      Subject and Content are also automatically filled when the template is selected

4. UNRESTRICTED PARAMETERS - AVAILABLE FROM CRM.COM R9

   Unrestricted Parameters section will be available if the following include unrestricted tags:

   • Communication Template

   • Content

   • Subject

    

   1. The unrestricted tags used in the above sections will be listed under the table

   2. Click ADD MISSING UNRESTRICTED PARAMETERS to add any tags that were not added automatically

   3. Specify the Value for each tag 

5. ATTACHMENTS

   1. Add any files or URLs related to the entity.

      Check  General Settings to find out the restrictions (if any) related to the type and the size of the files you wish to upload. 

      1. For adding a file
         1. Click on Add > Upload File
             
         2. Drag and Drop the file in the modal 
            OR 
         3. Click in the modal
         4. Select the file to be uploaded
         5. Click on "DONE"
         6. Notes: Provide notes related to the upload
      2. For adding a URL
         1. Click on  "ADD"
             
         2. Attachment: Specify the URL
         3. Notes: Provide notes related with the URL

      If the communication Direction is Outwards and communication Media is Email, if any files exist in the Attachments section, then they will be sent as attachments once the communication is sent.

      
      
      

6. LOG INFORMATION

   The following information is automatically set by the system on saving the Communications

   1. Log information section keeps all the logging information related to the specific record

      • Basic set of information available in all entities
        • Created By User: The user that created the entity
        • Created By Unit: The unit of the user that created the entity
        • Updated By User: The user that last updated the entity
        • Updated by Unit: The unit of the user that last updated the entity
        • Date Created: The date the account was entity
        • Date Updated: The date the account was last entity
          
      
      
      

7. From the Action Menu click on "SAVE"

   Save as Draft

   Communications can also be saved as Draft, by clicking on "SAVE AS DRAFT" button.

   

   • If saved as Draft then no further processing will be done (i.e. sent to Communication Queue) till the communication life cycle state is updated to Completed. 

   • A Draft communication can be further updated.

System Processing

1. Communication is created and life cycle state set to:
   
   1. Draft: If "SAVE AS DRAFT" button is used
   2. Completed: If "SAVE" button is used
2. If required, a record is added in the Communication queue for further processing with Life Cycle State: Pending

Other processes responsible for creating Communications

Apart from the Communication module which can be used to manually create communications, the system will also create communication automatically, through a number of other processes.

• Notification Batch process
  Notification process will create a communication and a communication queue record for every notification created. The /wiki/spaces/V4Manual/pages/9831177which will process the communications in the queue is defined in the Notification Type 
• /wiki/spaces/V4Manual/pages/9833065
  OSM run will process any pending requests for messages created via OSM sending utility. On processing this requests, a communication along with a communication queue record will be created and will be processed in the queue by the external system /wiki/spaces/V4Manual/pages/9831177which is defined in the Panaccess OSM Message Run Definition  
  The same process may be executed by the Panaccess Provisioning Request Processing Run
• Conax Mail & Bark Message Runs
  Mail & Bark message run will process any pending requests for messages, created via Send Mail & Bark Messages Utility or WEB APIs. On processing this requests, a communication along with a communication queue record will be created and will be processed in the queue by the external system which is defined in the Conax Mail & Bark Message Run Definition  
  The same process may be executed by the CONAX Provisioning Request Processing Run