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Incident Statuses

When working with incidents, Oracle B2C Service has four system-defined incident statuses: Unresolved, Updated, Waiting, and Solved. In addition, each status is a specific status type: Unresolved, Waiting, or Solved.

It is not possible to delete any of the system-defined statuses.  It is also not possible to change the status type associated with the four system-defined statuses.  That is, you cannot change the Updated status to be a Waiting status type.

Adding custom incident statuses: Within your site, you can create custom statuses for additional classification options. However, each of the custom statuses that you define must be set to one of the three status types.

To add a custom incident status:

• Select Configuration > Application Appearance > Customizable Menus > Incident Statuses  

When adding custom statuses, you can only specify the status type when you first create the custom status.  Once the custom status is saved, you can no longer change the status type.

If you determine that a custom status should have a different status type, you can create a new custom status associated with the correct status type and then search for and reassign the incidents to your new status.  Then, you can delete the old custom status. 

Note:  If you delete a custom incident status any incidents associated with that status will revert back to the default status of the same status type.  For example, if you delete a custom status that is a waiting status type, all incidents associated with that status will revert to Waiting status.  It is recommended to confirm there are no incidents associated with the status you want to delete before you delete it.

The default incident statuses are described below:

	Unresolved: This is the default status for new incidents submitted through the application, for example incidents submitted from the Ask a Question page or via email. This indicates that the incident has been created. The status type is Unresolved.
	Updated: This is the default status for existing incidents that have been updated by the customer, either to add more content to the initial incident that is still unresolved or when the customer updates an incident based on a request from a staff member. Incidents updated by other staff members do not automatically change to an Updated status. The status type is Unresolved.
	Waiting: This status indicates that a staff member has responded to the incident and believes the answer will resolve the issue. If the end-user does not update the incident within 48 hours (by default), the incident status automatically changes to Solved. The status type is Waiting.
	Solved: This status indicates that the issue has been resolved and no further action is necessary. The incident remains in the system for historical purposes. Incidents can be set to Solved manually or the system will change the status of Waiting incidents to Solved based on the values of the CI_HOURS and CI_WAITING_CALC_DAYS configuration settings. The status type is Solved.

Customizing default statuses: Within Oracle B2C Service, you have the ability to edit the names of the default statuses. However, notice that the status types are grayed out. As a result, regardless of how you rename a default status, it will always function based on the status type assigned.

For this reason, do not rename default statuses to coincide with a different status type. Instead, create a new custom status and set the appropriate status type when you create the custom status.

Unresolved status types: Typically, when working with incidents from your administration pages, there is at least one view that lists the incidents with an Unresolved status type. This type of view would include incidents that have an Unresolved status or an Updated status as well as incidents assigned to custom statuses with an unresolved status type. This allows staff members to easily view open incidents that need to be worked.

Status types are most useful for allowing you to group incidents with different, but similar, statuses together. Reports often use filters based on the status type so that all incidents with an unresolved status type are included in a report.

Similarly, a report might include all incidents set to a solved status type within a specific time frame, such as the last week or month. Statuses allow for greater classification within your application, while status types allow the system to act on incidents in a consistent manner.

A typical incident may change statuses as follows based on end-user and staff activity:

• The end-user submits an incident from the Ask a Question form. The status is set to Unresolved. 
   
• A staff member replies to incident and sets status to Waiting. 
   
• The end-user replies to the incident to provide some additional information. Status is automatically set to Updated. 
   
• The staff member replies again to address additional information and sets status to Waiting.  
   
• The end-user is satisfied with response. At this point, the end-user can set the status to Solved from the Account - Questions page. Otherwise, after the time specified in the CI_HOURS configuration setting has passed, the incident automatically changes from Waiting to Solved.

Within your business processes, you must determine when incidents should be set to which statuses (including custom statuses) and then train your agents when to use which status values when they send responses.

For additional information, refer to the 'Add or Edit Incident Statuses' 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.
 

Answer Statuses

With Oracle B2C Service, there are four default answer statuses (Public, Private, Proposed, and Review) and two status types (Public and Private). By default, the Private, Proposed, and Review statuses are a private status type, which means they are not visible on the end-user pages. Only answers that are set to a status that has a public status type are eligible to be viewed from the end-user pages.

Note: Just because an answer is assigned to a public status type does not mean it is viewable on the end-user pages. Answers used with privileged access are set to a public status type, but the access level may be set to a privileged level that not all users can access. Similarly, an answer may be assigned to a product and/or category that is not visible to the end-user pages and the answer would not display on the end-user pages.

You cannot delete any of the four default answer statuses. You can change the status type of the Review status so that it is a public status type.  You cannot modify the status type of the Proposed, Private, or Public statuses.

Adding custom answer statuses:  Within the application, you can create additional custom answer statuses that you need. Each custom status must be set to be either a public or private status type.

Custom statuses allow you to classify answers into more specific statuses, while the status type specifies whether the answer is eligible to be viewed from the end-user pages.

To add a custom answer status:

• Select Configuration > Application Appearance > Customizable Menus > Answer Statuses

When working with answers, the system-defined answer statuses are:

	Private: This is the default status for new answers manually created from the administrative pages. In addition, new answers default to the Everyone access level. The status type is private. Answers assigned to private cannot be viewed from the end-user pages, regardless of the access level and product and category visibility for the answer.
	Proposed: Answers that are newly proposed from an incident (by clicking the Proposed button when editing or viewing an incident) have a Proposed status by default. This is a private status type.
	Public: This is the default status that allows answers to be viewable to all end-users or to privileged access users. The status type is public.
	Review: If the AR_DATE_ENABLE or AR_AUTO_ENABLE are set to yes, answers may automatically be updated and have their status changed to review. The AR_DATE_ENABLE setting allows you to set a specific review date for the answer, at which time the status changes to Review from whatever status it is set to. With AR_AUTO_ENABLE set to yes , the application automatically sets the answer's status to Review if the score of the answer is decreased over time (due to lack of use) to be zero. By default, the Review status is a private status type.

Within your business processes, you must determine whether additional custom answer statuses are warranted and when answers should be assigned to which status.

Customizing default statuses: Within Oracle B2C Service, you have the ability to edit the names of the default statuses. However, notice that the status types are grayed out. As a result, regardless of how you rename a default status, it will always function based on the status type assigned.

For this reason, do not rename default statuses to coincide with a different status type. Instead, create a new custom status and set the appropriate status type when you create the custom status.

For additional information, refer to the 'Add or Edit Answer Statuses' 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.