What is Email Gateway and how do I enable it?
Environment:
Email management
Oracle B2C Service
Resolution:
Effectively managing incoming email is a major factor in providing quality customer service. Oracle B2C Service's email response management function, Email Gateway, provides you with the ability to convert incoming email into incidents within Oracle B2C Service. This eliminates the need for your agents to check multiple sources and locations for assistance requests from your customers.
Within Oracle B2C Service, the techmail utility runs at given intervals to access your email accounts specified in the Mailboxes table and pulls the email messages into Oracle B2C Service as new incidents. Agents can then respond to these incidents from the administration side of the application. Customers can also update their incidents via email. Additionally, you can create incident rules to further reduce support interaction and response time to your customers.
The EGW_ENABLED configuration setting specifies whether Email Gateway is enabled to allow incoming emails to be sent to a mailbox and processed as incidents.
Path to setting(s): Select Configuration from the navigation area > Site Configuration > Configuration Settings > and search by Key.
Additional Steps
Mailboxes table: In addition to enabling the configuration setting, you must also set up at least one mailbox in the Mailbox table. For more information on setting up mailboxes, refer to Answer ID 331: Setting up mailboxes in Oracle B2C Service.
If your site uses a firewall: Email Gateway must be able to access your mailbox through port 110 of your firewall. If you cannot open this port or your firewall, you can redirect email into a mailbox hosted at Oracle B2C Service.
When Email Gateway is enabled and a mailbox is correctly configured, any existing email messages in your mailbox inbox will be pulled into Oracle B2C Service and handled according to workflow rules you configure.
If your existing mailbox account has an alias name, you must enter the real account information into the mailboxes table.
Forwarding vs. Redirecting Emails: Do NOT forward messages from an email client into a mailbox for Oracle B2C Service. Forwarding messages replaces the contact information in the FROM area, and you will lose valuable tracking information if the original email address is not present. Instead, your IT group can redirect messages to an Oracle B2C Service hosted mailbox. For more information on redirecting email, refer to Answer ID 1272: Using a Company Domain as the Sent Email Address.
Additional Features to Evaluate: Once you have enabled the EGW_ENABLED setting and configured at least one mailbox for each interface, you can then evaluate several related features, including:
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Determine which email messages in the Messages table should be enabled and in what format. For more information, refer to Answer 5380: Customizing notifications and email messages sent by Oracle B2C Service. |
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Create rules for routing incidents submitted via email. For more information on business rules, refer Answer ID 2205: Best practices for setting up incident rules. |
For additional information, refer to the 'Email Management Overview' 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.
