Purpose

This page shows how to set up threading in ERMS..

Overview

ERMS Threading allows to link inbound E-Mails refering to a service ticket/service request to related business objects. For example it is possible to configure the system so that

• When processing a service ticket/service request, an IC Agent writes an E-mail to a customer. To track the linkage to the business transaction a  tracking text is inserted to the outbound mail.
• if the customer replies to that mail, this tracking text is used within ERMS workflow runtime execution 
  • to automatically link the reply of an customer to the object mentioned in the tracking text
  • to route the E-Mail to the service ticket responsible
• For unrelated E-Mail which do not contain a tracking ID a new service ticket should get created.

Configuration Steps and Customizing

Following steps show how to set up threading functionality for business transactions like service requests, service tickets, problems or other types.

Outbound E-Mail Customizing

1. Create a mail form for context ERMS which contains the tracking attribute using the IC_MANAGER business role. The attribute depends on the transaction type to which the tracking text should refer to:
   
   The attributes for context ERMS are defined in
       SAP Customizing Implementation Guide
           Customer Relationship Management
               Marketing Planning and Campaign Management
                    Personalized Mail
                          Maintain Attribute Contexts for Mail Forms
   Structure CRMS_ERMS_SCENARIO_FIELDS constains the ERMS tracking text.

2. Depending on the business transaction category of the business transaction you want to refer to have to use a different ERMS Tracking text:

   Global Data Context	Checks related to Business transaction Category	Attribute	Generated Tracking Text
   CURRENTPROBLEM	BUS2000224	PROBLEM_TRACKING_TEXT	{ProblemNo:[xxxx]}
   CURRENTSERVICEREQUEST_MAIL or CURRENTSERVICEREQUEST	BUS2000223	SERVICE_REQ_TRACKING_TEXT	{SrvReqNo:[xxxx]}
   CURRENTONEORDER	No	SERVICE_ORDER_TRACKING_TEXT	{ticketno:[xxxx]} special case Interaction Record: {IrecNo:[xxxx]} - threading with this tracking text can only be done for informative purposes only!

   The value of the tracking text on the IC WebClient UI when sending an E-Mail is determined by help of class CL _CRM_ERMS_TRKGTEXT_SM_DS .

3. Assign the tracking mail form to your E-Mail Profile of your Business Role:
   

4. In order that the system references to newly created service requests, activate "EARLY NO. ASSIGNMENT" for the transaction type in transaction type customizing.

5. If you want to enable agents to search for E-Mail in the agent inbox and you are at least on SAP enhancement package 3 (SP03) for SAP CRM 7.0, you can take advantage of the new new inbox item type Inbox Item: "Outbound Correspondence ". This functionality is introduced by business function CRM_IC_INBOX_2, carefully read what else is changed before activating.

Customizing for Inbound E-Mail Processing 

1. Create rules for processing inbound E-Mails in the Rule Modeler
1. You can identify or assign a rule policy in the service manager profile
   SAP Customizing Implementation Guide
         Customer Relationship Management
             E-Mail Response Management System
                   Service Manager
                         Define Service Manager Profiles
   by help of the property "Policy" of service  RE_RULE_EXEC.
2. Define rules in the rule policy assigned to your ERMS service manager profile according to your business needs using your IC manager role (Process Modeling -> Rule Policies). There are various options how to set up E-Mail Threading.
• You only want to link the inbound E-Mail with a tracking text to the referenced business transaction and always route the E-Mail to the same organizational unit
• Add the fact gathering method which corresponds to the referenced E-Mail to the service manager profile, e.g. FC_SVCTKT for service tickets, FG_SVCREQ for service requests:
  
  For different business transaction categories, different fact gathering services are available:
  • • FG_SVCTKT: Service Ticket/Service Order (BUS2000116)
    • FG_PROBLEM:  Problems (BUS2000224)

    • FG_SVCREQ: Service Request (BUS2000223)

    • FG_CASE: Cases 

• In the rule modeler, define a rule which routes the E-Mail to the organizational unit processing the inbound E-Mails.
  
  
• You want to use different actions if the inbound E-Mail refers to a business transaction or not. Of course there are many options on how to do this.
  To do so, set up rules which check system can identify a business transaction (like a service request) which is referenced in the E-Mail or not. For example define two rules,
• One rule takes care for routing the E-Mail to the service request responsible. For that exeptional cases that there is a service request but no service request responsible identified, define an organisation which should take care in those exceptional cases:
       If              Service Request Number Is Not Equal To "" Then           
               Route to Service request responsible 
               ( Route To (On Exception) = CRM-IC-UNI-A - Central Europe )
• Second rule takes care for that cases when no service request is found, e.g. in that cases you can create a new service request and route it to the organizational unit which should process new E-Mail
       If              Service Request Number Equals "" Then           
            Create Service Request  ( Description = ""New Service Request"" ) and            
            Route EMail  ( Organizational Object = CRM-IC-UNI-A 1st Level ) 
3. Of course you can create other rules like your business needs it, e.g. create condtions if the E-Mail content contains a tracking text, if the service request responsible is not equal "" and so one. 
4. By using nested rules, you can achieve that the linking is prevented under certain conditions

2. Define which transaction type should be used for a new service request (service ID AH_CREATE_SR) or  service ticket (service ID AH_CREATE_SO)  in your service manager profile by help of option "Indirectly Called Services and Properties". This is then used in Rule NewServiceTicket if the mail contains no tracking text.

   
   
   

3. If you want to create a service request for new inbound E-Mails and/or refer to the service request number in an Auto Acknowledgement E-Mail consider SAP Notes
   1. 1596134 ERMS: Create Service Request within Auto Acknowledgement
   2. 2249788 Service Request Number is not filled in Mailform
      
      
4. It is recommended that agents search for the business transactions in the agent inbox and interact with the service requests.
5. A new SAP Note 2344218 introduces an improvement for service requests. It introduces a new attribute to the fact gathering service ‘FG_SVCREQ'  which updates an existing service request and sets a new status as specified in the attribute as soon as the fact gathering service is executed, e.g. either when assigned to the service manager profile or when reading an attribute like service request number or service request employee. It is important to ensure that this user status  
• is assigned to the status profile of the used service request
• is mapped to an agent inbox status in the agent inbox customizing.

For that exceptional cases, that the service request is currently locked when the inbound E-Mail arrives and the service is executed, you can set up rules which deal with this specific cases. For that new attributes are provided by the SAP Note. As soon as the uploading of images is possible, I will update the Wiki with screenshots showing an example on how to set up these rules.

Testing E-Mail Threading in CRM Interaction Center

1. IC Agents confirms an account and creates a service ticket
2. Maintains the interaction record.
3. Writes an mail to the customer refering to the service ticket by help of the tracking text:
   If you have translated the tracking text template and the system does not select the version in the confirmed account's language, implement SAP Note 2261402.
   
4. End the customer interaction
   Customer replies to the E-Mail. The new inbound mail is automatically linked to the Service Ticket:
   
5. If the E-Mail has been routed to the Service Ticket Responsible, the agent will find the E-Mail when searching for "Assigned To" "Me".
   
   Please note that the field employee responsible has not been filled by this routing step. Instead, the agent has been added to the "Agents" which can process the E-Mail. That means the agent is part of the (table SWWUSERWI).  If the E-Mail has only been forwarded to the responsible employee then
• No other agents will find the E-Mail when using "Assigned To" = "Me" search criteria
• Other agents assigned to the same organizational unit will be able to find the E-Mail when searching for E-Mails "Assigned To" = "My Groups" or org.unit.

Analysing Inbound Flow

1. Check in transaction CRMC_ERMS_SM_SRV which class is assigned to the services used for ERMS Threading and set a session breakpoint in method Execute:
2. Check in transaction SWI1 for work item created to represent the related inbound E-Mail and note down the ID of work item with task TS00207915
3. Open transaction CRM_ERMS_LOGGING and insert the service manager profile assigned to the mail address and the work item ID:
   
   Keep in mind that if do not set flag "Do not Execute Actions",  the actions determined by the ERMS rule evaluation will be executed again.
4. The breakpoint will stop:
   

New features

• Set up a rule with an action to update the status of a service request for a new e-mail based on tracking information: SAP Note 2344218

Related Content

Related Documents

SAP Online Help -> SAP CRM -> Interaction Center  ->  E-Mail Response Management System  ->  E-Mail Threading

• Latest Version - use version selector to switch to your version.

SAP Online Help -> SAP CRM -> Interaction Center  ->  E-Mail Response Management System  ->  Setting Up ERMS:

• Latest Version - use version selector to switch to your version.

Related SAP Notes/KBAs

• SAP Note 2461739: CRM interaction center help desk: linking of mails to service requests via ERMS tracking ID
• SAP KBA1846041: How to analyze why an ERMS inbound E-Mail is not found in the agent inbox
• SAP Note 2261402: Incorrect language of tracking text
• SAP Note 2249788: Service Request Number is not filled in Mailform
• SAP KBA 1861250: ERMS inbound E-mail containing a tracking text does not get linked to the service ticket/service request mentioned in the tracking text
• SAP Note 83020 : What is consulting, what is support