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Creating and using incident queues
Answer ID 1840   |   Last Review Date 07/22/2019

What are queues and how do I set one up?

Environment:

Incident Queues, Customizable Menus

Resolution:

Incident queues are basically groups of incidents from which agents can pull incidents to work on. Incoming incidents can be assigned to queues by workflow rules. Incidents can be assigned to a queue, and then, based on the staff member's profile, a staff member can pull incidents from the queues they are allowed access to. You can also configure the queue to assign incidents in a round-robin fashion to all staff members whose profile includes the queue.  Incidents however, cannot be created from the report.

Administrators can configure queues from any interface.  Staff profiles specify which queues staff members can pull incidents from.  Profiles also include the pull policy, pull quantity, and inbox limit. Only incidents that are not assigned to a specific staff member and have an unresolved status type can be pulled from a queue.

 

You can make the Queue field required by editing the incident workspace. Open the workspace for editing, click the Queue field, and set the Required property to On New And Edit.

You can define one of your queues to be the default, so that incidents created by staff members from the administration console are automatically assigned to that queue unless otherwise routed by a rule. To set the default queue, open the queue for editing and check the Default check box.

Note: Incidents submitted via the Ask a Question page or via email are not automatically assigned to the default queue. You must set up a catch-all rule to set the queue for incidents submitted via Ask a Question or email.

 

Typically, when setting up incident queues, you need to do the following:

  1. Set up the incident queue.
  2. Set up a rule to assign incoming incidents to a queue.
  3. Create a staff profile that allows access to the queue.
  4. Assign staff members to the profile.

Specific instructions for each of these actions are provided below.

 

Set up the Incident Queue

Use the steps below to set up the incident queue. When you add a queue, additional fields are enabled on the Service tab when editing a staff profile. The field added to the Service tab include the Pull Policy, Pull Limit, Inbox Limit, and Statistics.

Steps:

  • Click the Configuration button on the navigation pane.
  • Double-click Customizable Menus under Application Appearance. The Customizable Menus tree displays on the content pane.
  • Click the arrow next to the System Menus folder to expand the list.
  • Click Incident Queues to display the editor
  • To add an incident queue, click the New button on the ribbon. Or to edit an incident queue, click it in the tree.
  • Type a name for a new incident queue or edit an existing on in the Label field. 
     

Then:

  1. Click the Queue Type drop-down menu and select one of the following options" Standard, Round Robin (All), or Round Robin (Logged In). Choose the Round Robin if you want incidents from the queue to be automatically assigned to the staff members who can pull from the queue. Incidents are assigned in a round-robin fashion (rotating among all staff members who can pull from the queue. This effectively "pushes" incidents to staff members.

    Note: The round-robin feature assigns incidents to all staff members whose profiles list the queue, including staff members who are not logged in.  This can be changed in November '09 and newer releases, which include a checkbox labeled "only for logged in staff members".
     
  2. If you want this incident queue to be the default queue, select the Default checkbox.
     
  3. Click the Save and Close button on the ribbon to save the incident queue and close the editor.


Define a Rule to Assign Incidents to the Incident Queue

To have incoming incidents assigned automatically to a queue, you must add or modify an existing rule to include an action that assigns incidents to the incident queue:

  1. From the Hamburger Menu select Configuration, select Site Configuration > Rules. Click the Incident Object in the Object Selector. 
     
  2. If necessary, define a "Created" state and set as the Initial state. In the above toolbar select Edit Rules. Click on States in the left action area and select  Add New. Enter the State Name, Description and check Initial state. Click Save & Close. 
     
  3. On the far right of the newly created state select the 3 dots and select Add New Rule.  
     
  4. Click the + box to Add rule conditions as necessary to the IF part of the rule, for example, based on the incident source, product, or category.
     
  5. Click the + box to add the THEN part of the rule, in the dropdown select Set > Set Field > Incidents > Queue > Condition > Select Queue
     
  6. Add additional actions as necessary. These may include actions that change the state of the incident or stops processing the remaining rules in the list.
     
  7. Click Save & Close
     
  8. From the above toolbar select Deploy to deploy the changes
 
Configure Staff Profile to Access the Incident Queue

Modify the appropriate staff profile to allow staff to pull incidents from the incident queue you created:

  1. Click the Configuration button on the navigation pane. 
     
  2. Double-click Profiles under Staff Management and then double-click the profile you want to edit. The profile editor opens. Or, if adding a new profile, click the New button on the ribbon.
     
  3. Click the Permissions button on the ribbon. Click the Service tab. 
     
  4. Incident permissions need to be set before you can assign Incident Queues. In Incident Queues section, click the drop-down menu of queue names. Select the appropriate queue.
     
  5. Define the pull policy (manual, strict priority, or first due), the pull quantity (how many will be brought in to the staff member's inbox with each pull), and the inbox limit. The inbox limit is the maximum number of incidents with an unresolved status type that can be assigned to a staff member using that profile.

    For example, if the Inbox Limit is 30, a staff member can only have 30 incidents with an unresolved status type assigned to them. At that point, the staff member can no longer pull incidents to their Inbox.
       
  6. Click Save.
 

Assign Staff Member to Appropriate Profile

Modify the appropriate staff profile to allow staff to pull incidents from the incident queue you created:

  1. From the Configuration items, select Staff Management > Staff Accounts by Group.
     
  2. Double-click on the account name or right-click and select Open. 
     
  3. Set the Profile menu to the appropriate profile configured for the incident queue.
     
  4. Click Update.


For additional information, refer to the 'How You Route Incidents to Queues' section in the Online Help User Guide documentation. To access Oracle B2C Service manuals and documentation online, refer to the Documentation for Oracle B2C Service Products.

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