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Can I notify a staff member when an answer is proposed from an incident?

Environment:

Answers, Business Rules, Message Templates, Browser UI Enhanced Business Rules
Oracle B2C Service, All versions

Resolution:

You can set up answer rules to automatically modify and assign answers that have been proposed from incidents. By default, when an incident is proposed as an answer, the answer that is created has a Proposed status and is unassigned to a staff member. You can configure a rule to either assign the proposed answer to a specific staff member so that they receive the Answer Assigned notification or you can configure a rule to send the Answer Escalated notification to specific staff members.

To use either of these options, the proper notification must be enabled for the interface. To determine if the answer notification is enabled, use the steps below:

1. From the Configuration menu, select Site Configuration > Message Templates
2. In the left frame, double-click on the interface name
   1. On the ribbon there is an Administrator Notification button
3. Expand Answer templates
4. Verify that the Answer Assigned (or Answer "Owner") notification is enabled
5. Verify that the Answer Escalation notification is also enabled
6. Save and Close

Option 1: Assigning the Proposed Answer to a Specific Staff Member 

When a rule assigns the answer to a specific staff member, the staff member will receive the Answer Assigned notification at the Configuration > Communication Center > Notifications.

The assigned to staff member only receives the notification when another staff member proposes the incident as an answer. If the staff member proposes the answer, and the answer gets assigned to them, the system does not send the notification.

To set up an answer rule so that the assigned staff member gets notified, use the steps below. These steps also include instruction for creating an initial and existing rule state for your answer rules, which follow best practice recommendations.

For .NET console.

1. From Site Configuration > select Rules > Then highlight Answer and Edit in the ribbon at the top. 
2. In the left frame, right click on States and select New State.
3. Enter the name for your initial state, i.e. Internal or Created, check the Initial state checkbox and click Save. You can enter a note if you wish.
4. Add a second state for your existing answers, i.e. named Existing, for example. Leave the Initial state box blank.
5. Right-click on your initial state and select Add Rule.
6. Enter a rule name.
7. Configure the IF conditions to be:
   IF
   Answers.Status equals Proposed and
   Answers.Assigned equals Unspecified.
8. In the THEN section, click Add Action and select Set Field > Assigned and highlight the appropriate staff member.
9. You can also add another action to transition the answer to another state and stop. This will move the answer to your other rule state so that this rule does not act upon existing answers.
10. Click Save.
11. Click Activate and verify that you would like to activate your answer rule base.
12. If you have answers in your database that do not yet have a state, you can associate the answers to the rule state to be used for existing answers.

To test your rules, have a staff member propose an incident as an answer. The person to whom the answer gets assigned can refresh their Communication Center, and they should see the Answer Assigned notification.

Option 2: Sending the Answer Escalation Notification 

Another option you can use to notify staff members of proposed answers is to use a different action in the THEN section of the answer rule.

Click Add Action > Email > Send Escalation Notification. You can then highlight the staff members to whom the escalation notification should be sent. Those staff members will receive the Answer Escalation notification in their Communication Center.