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Setting up escalation rules
Answer ID 2181   |   Last Review Date 08/07/2025

How do I set up escalation rules?

Environment:

Escalation, Business Rules, All versions
Oracle B2C Service

Resolution:

Business rules to Escalate records need to be configured from Configuration > Site Configuration > Rules. See these sections in our documentation for general details:

Note that in order for the escalation to occur, apart from meeting the criteria set in the business rules, an internal utility needs to run, and this is when the record is escalated. This utility is called the dbstatus -r utility. The utility generally runs every 15 minutes. We recommend viewing the rules runtime logs, specific to that incident, to first confirm the expected rules were hit, and then expect a delay up to 15 minutes until the escalation level is set, depending on when the utility runs. See also Answer ID 348: Utilities included with Oracle B2C Service.

Best practice to set up escalations is to use two distinct rules. The first rule, also called the "chain" rule, defines the conditions of the escalation and specifies the escalation level to be set in a specific timeframe. This rule should evaluate true for only one very specific case and there should not be multiple rule paths or state which evaluate true for any escalation. The second rule indicates the actions to be taken when the escalation occurs. 

The main steps to the escalation process are:

  1. When a record is created or saved, it is compared to the rules and functions called within the rule state.
     
  2. During the comparison to the rules, the record might match the chain rule for an escalation.
     
  3. The chain rule includes an action in the THEN part of the rule "Escalate to Level ..." and defines an absolute or relative time for the record to escalate to the level indicated. At this point, the escalation is only a pending escalation.   NOTE: A new escalation level will need to be created for each new chain rule. Existing escalation levels cannot be used again.
     
  4. After the time specified in the chain rule passes, when the utility runs, the escalation level for the record is changed and the record is updated.
     
  5. This update of changing the escalation level triggers the record to again be compared to the rules and functions in that rule state.
     
  6. If your rules are set up correctly, the record will match the second of your rules and the actions associated with the escalation are executed.

For information on how to test your escalation rules, refer to Testing escalation rules. 
Escalations should be cleared before moving to a closed status. Refer to Clear rule escalations before moving to a closed state for more information.

For example, using the rules below, you can escalate an incident if it is still unresolved 4 hours after it has been created and send a notification to a supervisor or manager.

Rule: Esc 4 hours - chain

IF
Incident: Escalation Level = unspecified AND
Incident: Status = Unresolved

THEN
Escalate to Level: 4 hr (or whatever name you choose)
+ 4 hours relative to Time Created.
√ Use response interval √ Revalidate

(Check the relative check box and the Use Response Interval and Revalidate check boxes if desired.)


Rule: Esc 4 hours

IF
Incident.Escalation Level = 4 hr AND
Incident.Previous Escalation not equals 4 hr

THEN
Send Escalation Notification (select staff member or group)
Include whatever other actions you deem necessary

Note that when setting up the second rule, the IF criteria included an item for both the current escalation level and the previous escalation level. The previous escalation level is only set when the escalation value changes. This helps to restrict the escalation actions to the specific incidents that have just changed the value of the escalation level when the incident was updated by dbstatus.

When configuring your chain rule, you must determine whether you want to check the Use Response Interval, Revalidate or Recalculate check boxes.

If you check the Use Response Interval box, only time that is included in your default response requirements are used in the time element. That is, if you specify 4 hours as the time element and check the box, this means, 4 work hours as configured in your Default Response Requirements table. 

If you check the Revalidate box, at the time of the escalation, the incident is compared again to the original IF conditions and the incident is escalated only if it still meets the IF conditions of the chain rule. 

If you check the Recalculate box,  if an incident is updated before the escalation rule fires, the escalation time is recalculated based on the last time the incident was saved and updated.

For more information on these options, refer to Using Response Interval, Revalidate, and Recalculate boxes with rules.

Once all edits are done, select Compile and Activate / Save and Deploy for the newly created rules to take affect.

For more information regarding business rules, refer to the following documentation:

 

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