Answers

Templates

This functionality has not yet been adapted for the new user interface for the Supervisor. Instead, the dialogues of the old user interface are included.

Templates in iAGENT Desk are used as answering suggestions for the agents – to be completed with a free text part or through predefined text modules – as well as for automatic answers, where they contain the whole answer. To ensure that users are able to access the “Edit templates” option in the configuration menu, they have to be member of a user group that is associated to the privilege Template Editor – Display first (see section on Group rights). In this configuration dialogue, the templates may be created, edited, removed or associated to several categories as default templates.

List (from 12.29)

A list allows you to display all templates and template parts (includes) defined in the system. Together with it, their type, the internal name (cannot be changed) and the category assignments are displayed.

As of iAGENT version 12.29, templates basically consist of a template data record, which contains, for example, the category assignment and header information (e.g. sender and reply address), as well as at least one content data record, which is then defined for each language. For example, there will only be one Change of address template, which is then assigned once to the Change of address category as the standard response template. The different language versions are then stored in the content of this template and do not need to be assigned individually.

Filtering can be activated above the list.

Multiple selection of entries is possible via checkboxes (tick boxes) at the beginning of the line. The Delete button above the list will then take all selected entries into account.

The New button takes you to the editing interface of the templates

Editing interface (from 12.29)

General tab

Display name: The display name of the template. This can also be changed after it has been assigned to categories etc.

Internal name: The internal name is permanently saved when the template is created and is used to reference templates to each other (e.g. includes). It may not and cannot be changed.

Template type: There are currently two template types:
– Template: This is the template that represents the entire draft response
– Include: Is only a part of a template that many templates can use (e.g. signature with management etc., which should be the same in all templates and can be changed centrally).

Template use: Determines whether the template is only used for automatic replies (Auto) or goes to an agent in the reply editor for editing the reply to the contact (Agent). The selection of placeholder types depends on this. There are placeholders that are immediately replaced in the template when the mail is received and those that are only replaced when the agent loads the reply template into their editor. (because, for example, the agent signature is only fixed when the agent who is processing the response is known. It would make no sense before then).

Description: A free description that can provide supervisors with information on the use of this template. The description is NOT displayed to the agent when selecting the template in the response editor.

Content tab

The content is divided into different language versions. At the start of the template creation, the language selection is preset to “All”. This means that there is only one language version that is used for all mails regardless of the language. If you also want to create an English language version, this can be created using the plus icon next to the language selection.

Language: All language versions of this template are offered for selection here. If a language-specific template version is required, this can be created using the plus icon. The content for the new language is copied from the last opened content version and can then be quickly adapted to the new language.

Header: The address data such as sender address, outgoing account etc. are entered in the header. The header data from the universal language version “All” is also used by all other language versions by default – but it can be overwritten there. The header information used by a language version from “All” is displayed in grey, the overwritten information in black. However, the black colouring is only applied after the new language version has been saved for the first time.

Subject: The subject can be defined for each language version.

Attachment: Lists the attachments that are automatically attached to the reply template in this language version.

Original attachments: If this box is ticked, all attachments from the incoming mail are also attached to the reply.

PDF template: If a PDF document is to be sent as a reply instead of an email, the PDF template must be selected here. The remaining content area is then only used as content for the carrier mail.

Display:

HTML editor: Represents an editing interface for the formatted reply template without source code, in which placeholders and certain text areas with special meaning are also highlighted in a different colour.
Source: As known from iAGENT versions < 12.29, the pure HTML source code of the template is displayed here.
The template can be edited in both view versions.
If the template contains content that the HTML editor cannot yet display, the system automatically switches to the “Source” view.

Content area

The HTML editor content area offers many formatting options for defining the response template. These include setting the font type, colour and size, as well as bullet points and tables.

Placeholders, which are automatically read from the mail text and saved in variables when the mail is received, can be inserted via the menu.

Certain text areas can be marked, such as the salutation and farewell area. A list of all placeholders and content areas can be found in the following chapter.

Assignments tab

All uses of this template can be viewed and maintained here. In addition, template assignments can also be viewed / changed on the category editing screen.

First select an assignment type and then select the categories to which this template is to be linked with the specified assignment type.
The new assignments are only saved when the template is saved.

Please note that a category can only have one “reply suggestion” – this is automatically assigned by the system when mail is received in this category.

If the agent is to have the option of selecting several other templates for mails in this category in the reply editor, the templates must be assigned as “additional reply suggestion”.

Special notice:

• In previous versions, if a template was not assigned to a category, this template was offered for manual selection in the Desk Editor for mails of all categories!
• Now only explicitly assigned templates are offered for selection.

Templates (up to 12.28)

Dialogue overview

There are two tabs with tree structures on the left side of the dialogue:

• File:
  A tree structure of all different template types
• Category:
  A tree structure of all categories and their associated default templates for each relevant template type

On selecting a sub node in the tree, the right side of the dialogue shows the content of the selected templates including its header definition (e.g. TO, CC, Subject). An exception is the PDF Template type. PDF templates cannot be edited inside the novomind iAGENT Supervisor but have to be created and edited through third party software. If a specific PDF viewer is installed on the client computer, a preview of the PDF document can be displayed through a corresponding button.

Template structure

A template consists of a header and a body. The header is always defined at the beginning of a template, and may include the answering email address, the recipient, the subject and others. The body contains the content of the mail. Placeholder variables can be used in both the header and body section (see section Placeholders), which are automatically replaced with specific text when the final mail is generated or sent. Furthermore, special tags can be used to incorporate other text files known as Includes (see Chapter Include templates)

A header can contain the following elements, which are only editable through the novomind iAGENT Composer application (an external tool) or on file system level through a text editor. Only the subject may be edited through the supervisor directly:

• From:
  The sender address for the template.
• To:
  The recipient address for the template.
• Reply to:
  The reply-to-address for the template, i.e. the address to which the mail recipient’s reply will be sent.
• CC:
  One or more address(es) to which a copy of the mail should be delivered when the template is sent.
• BCC:
  Functions in the same way as the CC field, except that the mail recipient will not be able to see the addresses to which a copy of the mail has been sent.
• Outgoing BCC:
  Only relevant for suggested responses, new processes and automatic replies (see sections Suggested response, New processes template and Automatic replies). With suggested responses, automatic replies and new processes, the OUTGOING_BCC address appears in the BCC address field and can be changed either by selecting another template (as long as the new template contains a different BCC address) or manually by the agent.
• Outgoing ALT:
  Only relevant for suggested responses and automatic replies (see sections Suggested response and Automatic replies). When the mail response is sent to the customer, the address in the TO-field is substituted so that the mail is not sent to the sender address contained in the original mail but to the mail address specified in the Outgoing ALT field. A use case for Outgoing ALT are mails created through contact forms, where the customer email address is contained in the text of the mail and not as the sender.
  When selecting a template, the New process will adopt the TO address specified under OUTGOING_ALT – provided no recipient address has been set manually yet. The OUTGOING_ALT header will remain inconsequential if the agent has already specified a recipient address manually.
• Outgoing_Account:
  The field changes the incoming account if f.e. a mail has been received through the wrong incoming account. The reply-to address is changed as well. The configuration of the field is accomplished in the Composer application.
• Outgoing_Address:
  The field sets a sender address in reply mails when the sender address does not correspond to the standard reply-to address on the incoming account. Suitable values can be alias addresses used on this incoming account (see section Incoming accounts), e.g. if the mail has been received via a collective incoming account.
  
  As of iAGENT version 12.12: If no OUTGOING_ACCOUNT is specified, the system automatically searches for the appropriate inbound account.
  If there are several incoming accounts with the desired sender address, an error message is issued and the dispatch is prevented because it is not clear which account is to be used for sending.

• Subject:
  Mail subject, may contain placeholder variables or “replace” commands.

Depending on the type of template used, some fields will not be available or should not be used, while the content of other fields may be pre-defined. The following section contains more information about the different types of templates available, and shows you how to incorporate “Include” files and placeholder variables.

Template types

The section covers the different types of templates, as well as explaining how Include and Header include files are used. Template types can usually be identified according to their headers, with a few exceptions (mail confirmations, status update mails and campaign texts). However, the main way of identifying a template is by checking where and how it is used. For this reason, a header alone may not provide enough information to differentiate between different types of templates.

Autoresponse

Automatic replies enable inbound mails to be answered and finally processed directly, thereby preventing these mails from entering the novomind iAGENT Routing process.

The following header fields are filled with pre-defined content that may not be modified:

• From: <No reply >
• To: <Outgoing account>

The following header fields can be modified and contain no pre-defined content, with the exception of the subject field:

• Subject:
  Re: <Subject>
• Reply to:
  This field is used to enter the address that should be used as the sender address. If this field is not completed, the incoming account reply address will be added instead (if available – see section Incoming accounts). If this address has not been defined, the default reply-to address will be used (see section Adresses).
• Outgoing BCC:
  This field is used to specify the recipient address that should be entered in the agent’s mail reply. These addresses are not visible to the mail recipient.

Campaign

Campaign templates are used for temporary actions (see section Campaigns). Their structure is identical to that of intermediate replies and confirmation mails. The contents of the header fields can be found in the following section (Confirmation).

Confirmation

This type of template is used to generate confirmation mails. These are dispatched to the sender address as soon as a mail is received, to simply inform the sender that their message has been received.

The following header fields are filled with pre-defined content that may not be modified:

• From: <No reply>
• To: <From>

The following header fields can be modified and don’t contain any pre-defined content, with the exception of the subject field:

• Subject:
  Re: <Subject>
• CC:
  This field is used to define addresses to which a copy of the mail confirmation should be delivered. These addresses are visible to the recipient of the mail response.
• BCC:
  This field is used to define addresses to which a copy of the mail confirmation should be delivered. Unlike the addresses in the CC field, these addresses are not visible to the recipient of the mail response.

Header

All headers that may be used in templates (they are assigned to a template by means of a drop-down menu) are listed below the node Header. The subject line of a header can be edited here.

The individual headers are associated to a certain template type implicitly. For example, the file confirmation_header.txt can be used in all confirmation templates. Alternatively, the header can be defined from scratch for each template. Creating and deleting a new header is exclusively carried out into the novomind Composer and cannot be fulfilled within the novomind iAGENT Supervisor.

Include

Include files content can be migrated into templates to make it easier and faster to maintain and insert text blocks that are used repeatedly.
Examples of repeated texts include mail signatures or the HTML structure of a complex suggestion template in HTML format.

Includes are simple text files. Their contend will be migrated into a template using a specific tag. These tags are added to template texts using the following format:

<INCLUDE NAME=“/include/Template name.txt”>

Headers can also be included using special Include-tags that are located in a different position in the template. These includes must be added at the beginning of the template and contain the entire template header, followed by 2 line feeds (results in one empty line below the header include, which is not visible in the final template in the editor any more).

Intermediate Reply

Based on their structure, intermediate replies cannot be distinguished from confirmations mails. In contrast to confirmation mails, however, intermediate replies are sent to the customer after a preset time period (see section Categories). The contents of the header fields can be found in section Confirmation template.

Other

Other displays a summary of all template files that cannot be assigned to any other template type.

Serial Reply

By means of serial replies, inbound mails and open processes of a given category can be replied with a standardized mail, automatically.

In contrast to automatic replies, incoming mails will enter the novomind iAGENT routing. There, however, they will not be forwarded to currently logged-in agents, but will be answered immediately with a standardized mail.
Analogously, also mails that have been recategorized to the corresponding category will be replied automatically.

The following header fields will be filled with fixed defaults:

• From: <SERIALREPLY_ADRESS>
• To: <OUTGOING>

The following header fields can be modified and do not contain default content except for the “Subject” field:

• Subject:
  Re: <Subject>
• Reply to:
  In this field, an address can be entered which is to be used as the reply-to address. If this field is not filled, the reply-to address of the inbound mail account (if present) will be used (see Chapter “INCOMING ACCOUNTS”). If there is no address set for the inbound account either, the general reply-to address (see Chapter “ADDRESS SETTINGS”) will be used.
• Outgoing BCC:
  In this field email addresses can be entered that are to receive copies of an automatic reply. These addresses will not be visible to the mail recipient.

If a PDF template with the same name exists in addition to the serial reply template, the completed PDF template is also attached to the response.

Suggestion

This template is used to give the agents a response proposition or frame that may be expanded by free text or predefined text modules.
Suggested responses are created in the novomind iAGENT Core Engine after receiving and categorizing the inbound mail.

The following header fields of suggestion templates are statically filled with the following values:

• From: <From>
  The original “From” of the inbound mail
• To: <Incoming address >
  The email address of the inbound email account
• Reply to: <Outgoing account>
  The default “reply to address” of the inbound email account.

The following header fields can be modified and contain no pre-defined content, with the exception of the Subject line:

• Subject:
  Re: <Subject>
• Outgoing BCC:
  This field is used to define mail addresses that should receive a copy of the mail response when it is dispatched. The recipient of the mail reply cannot see these addresses.
• Outgoing ALT:
  This field is used to specify the recipient address for the case when it shall not be the original sender address (e.g. contact forms).

PDF

PDF templates are templates for PDF documents that are sent as mail attachments or letters. The templates are created and edited outside of novomind iAGENT Desk (see novomind iAGENT system manual). From the PDF templates completed in the novomind iAGENT Desk reply editor, the novomind iAGENT System generates PDF files for sending or printing. The documents generated from the templates have PDF version 1.6 (Acrobat 7.x).

PDF templates consist of a fixed text and freely editable fields. For technical reasons the text added by an agent while filling the fields in a PDF template in the reply editor will not be displayed in its final formatting (regarding font, font size, line spacing etc.). To access the final formatting, such as the actual filling of text fields or the placement of line breaks, the agent can access the print preview. To simplify the workflow, an additional permanent miniature display of the print preview is available. The display of the miniature display can be toggled and its behavior controlled by the system administrators (see the System Manual).

The following set of behaviors is available:

• “auto”
  The miniature print preview is automatically updated when the number of paragraphs in a PDF field changes (upon pressing <ENTER>).
• “focus”
  The miniature print preview is automatically updated when moving to the another form field.
• “manual”
  The miniature print preview is only updated manually.
• “disabled”
  The miniature print preview is not displayed at all.

In PDF templates, radio buttons and checkboxes are now available. The current template’s preferences will be adhered to in that. Selection of buttons can be set as mandatory.

PDF tempates and PDF attachments can be combined in a single PDF document in order to transfer them to the printer interface in a consolidated way. This behavior can be controlled by the system administrators (see System Manual).

If a PDF template has the same name as a serial response template, the completed PDF template will be attached to the serial response.

New processes templates

The default template for a new process has the name “new.txt” and/or “new.html” (if a HTML template version is available).

It is possible to create a template for new processes of each category. Such templates are assigned a name corresponding to the category with the prefix “new”. For example, if the category “Application” is to get a new template for new processes, then this template must have the name new_Application.txt (new_Application.html).

Tenant-specific templates for new processes

Tenant-specific templates for new processes may also be defined via Tenants –> Configuration –> Personal settings. If the agent selects a new category when creating a new process for which no category template but a tenant template exists, the system uses the tenant template. If a category template exists, the agent can select the tenant template via the template selection in the reply editor of the novomind iAGENT Desk. Whether the tenant’s template is assigned to one or more categories is irrelevant here. If neither a category template nor a tenant template exists, the system uses the default template (new.txt/ new.hmtl) for new processes. If the agent does not select any category, the system uses the tenant template only if the agent is solely assigned to this one tenant. Otherwise, the system uses the default template for new processes. These templates are not available in the template selection box of the iAGENT Desk and the template category assignment as these templates are only used for new processes.

Placeholders

A number of placeholders can be used to build templates. Some of the content of these placeholders are extracted from the customer’s mail and some is generated by the knowledge base.

 When making changes to the variable values, e.g. by modifying the values in the CRM tab, the value of variables already inserted into text modules will not be updated automatically. Updates will only be applied when changing the template (or reassigning the active template).

Placeholder overview

Please ensure to change your response templates (not within the header) in case you used the <TO> tag to <ORIGINAL_TO>.

The following placeholders are extracted from the inbound mails and can be used in all of the templates:

• <From>
  Customer mail sender including the sender name and address, as relevant, e.g. “John Anon” <j.anon@company.com >.
• <From name>
  Sender name (if available), e.g. John Anon.
• <From address>
  Sender address, e.g. jno@company.com
• <Outgoing account>
  Complete address of the novomind iAGENT Desk outgoing mail account.
• <Outgoing account address>
  Address of the novomind iAGENT Desk outgoing mail account.
• <INCOMING_ADDRESS>
  Address of the novomind iAGENT Desk inbound mail account.
• <POLLING_ADDRESS>” contains the mail address of the inbound mail account, through which the mail came in. Will not be changed even if the template has been changed through the agent manually.
• <Error address>
  Mail address, e.g. of an administrator, which deals with any problems that arise (for example if the novomind iAGENT Desk system is unable to process a particular mail).
• <No reply>
  The “do not reply to” address defined in the novomind iAGENT Desk system.
• <Outgoing account>
  Complete address of the novomind iAGENT Desk outgoing mail account.
• <To name>
  The name contained in the mail address to which the customer mail was sent.
• <TO_ADDRESS>
  The address contained in the mail address to which the customer mail was sent.
• <ORIGINAL_TO> contains the original TO address that the customer used. It stays the same even if the template has been changed manually!
• <Reply to>
  Contains the complete reply-to address from the customer mail.
• <Original subject>
  Original subject from the customer mail (shortened to 200 characters if necessary).
• <Subject>
  Original subject plus an internal ID (Ticket number) (shortened to 200 characters if necessary).
• <SUBJECT_REPLACE:*WITH:*>
  Parts of the original subject line can be replaced with alternative text or empty input. Instead of the first character “*”, the string or regular expression is entered here.
• <SUBJECT_REPLACE:*WITHVAR*>
  Parts of the original subject line can be replaced by alternative text or empty input with the help of this function. Instead of the first character “*”, the string or regular expression is entered here. Furthermore, the string that is to be replaced can be replaced by entering a variable. For this purpose enter, instead of the second character “*”, first the regular expression, followed by the name of the persistent variables.
  In this context, angled brackets cannot be set within the tag. Consequently, these have to be replaced by the following: &lt; for < / &gt; for >
• <BODY>
  The text content of the customer mail.
• <TEXT>
  Transfers the content from the text part of the incoming mail, unless there is no next, for example in pure HTML mails.
• <BODY_AS_TEXT>
  Transfers the content of the HTML part of the incoming mail for HTML templates (without formatting) and the text content of the incoming mail for text templates.
• <FILEID>
  Internal novomind iAGENT message ID (Ticket number.), e.g. 52257.
• <TICKET>
  Coded internal novomind iAGENT message, e.g. “52257|IQ|392641027”.
• <PROCESSID>
  Internal novomind iAGENT process number (the process number is the ticket number allocated to the first mail in a mail process), e.g. 52257.
• <PROCESS>
  Coded internal novomind iAGENT process number, e.g. “52257|IQ|392641027”.

The following placeholders are always available and are not linked to the inbound mails and the results of the analysis carried out in the knowledge base:

• <URL:url>
  Transforms the given web address into a clickable link that is displayed in the mail response, e.g. <URL:http://www.novomind.com>.
• <DATE>
  Date that the customer mail entered the system.
• <DATE:format>
  Defines the format (e.g. dd.MM.yyyy) for the date that the customer mail entered the system. Example: The format definition “dd.MM.yyyy” shows the date of a mail received on 16.07.08 as “16.07.2008”: “dd” = day (two digits); “MM” = month (two digits); “yyyy” = year (four digits).
• <TEMPLATE>
  Template file name.
• <CLAIMID>
  If the ticket is associated to a claim, the claim ID can be inserted into the response templates through this placeholder. Stays empty if no claim is associated.

The following placeholders are in encapsulated in square brackets meaning that the evaluation of the content is happening in the agent editor whereas the evaluation of placeholders in angle brackets will be done as soon as the mail is received!

• [AGENTNAME]
  Name of the agent that answered the mail.
• [AUTHORIZER_NAME]
  Name of the agent who authorized the mail.
• [VAR:CLAIMID]
  ID of the associated claim. Stays empty if no claim is associated.
• [SIGNATURE]
  The agent’s signature (see Chapter “ADDING A NEW AGENT”).
• [LOCATION]
  Location of the agent who can be configured in the user administration is entered here.
• [LOCATION_DESC]
  The description of the agent location, which can be configured in the user administration, is inserted
• [AUTHORIZER_SIGNATURE]
  Signature of the agent who authorized the mail.
• [ATTACH-FILE:PATH]
  Adds an attachment to the mail. This file is accessed using the path defined here. If the attachment is not located in the central novomind iAGENT attachment folder, it has to be referenced with its absolute path, e.g.: C: \Programs \novomind\iMail\File attachments\agb.pdf. For attachment files located in the central attachment folder only the file name needs to be specified (see below).
  Use as inline attachment: Inline attachments are not attached to the mail as an attachment, they are displayed directly in the mail body: For this purpose, insert the tag “<img title=”THE_TITLE” src=”cid:AN_ID”>” at the point in the HTML code where the attachment is to be displayed. Attach the tag “[ATTACH-FILE: “PATH_TO_ATTACHMENT_DIRECTORY /picture.jpg” cid=”ANOTHER_ID”]” to the end of a template in order to declare it as an attachment.
  Using a “-“ in the path only uses attachments from the original mail that were not removed. For further information on invalid attachments and attachments exceeding the globally fixed size limit, please see the System Manual. If [ATTACH-FILE:“*“] is used, all original client attachments as well as HTML inline attachments are transferred to the reply template and can be clicked on in the attachment list. On sending and closing, these attachments are sent back to the client. Inline attachments are embedded in the reply mail. When using the tag, make sure that the files have a very unique name. Otherwise, the file name may already have been used in the original customer mail and the inline attachment may not be displayed correctly.

If the template is one of the following template types, ALWAYS specify the full path: Confirmation, automatic intermediate reply, serial reply, automatic reply.

Inline attachments in HTML templates

If an image is to be displayed directly in the text, two things are required (only possible in HTML templates):

1. Attach the image file as an attachment to the mail.
   This can be done using the following tag in the template:
   [ATTACH-FILE: “PATH_TO_ATTACHMENTS_VERZEICHNIS/Image.jpg” cid=”ONE_ID”]
   Example: [ATTACH-FILE: “Logo.jpg” cid=”001″]
2. Mark place in text where image should be displayed:
   <img src=”cid:ONE_ID”>
   Example: <img src=”cid:001″>

By using [ATTACH-FILE:”-“], only attachments from the original mail that have not been removed are used. Invalid attachments and attachments that exceed a globally specified size are removed. For more information see the system manual.
If [ATTACH-FILE: “*”] is used, all attachments of the original customer mail, as well as HTML inline attachments are taken over into the reply template and are visible in the attachment list. They can be opened with one click.
These attachments are then sent back to the customer when sending and closing. Inline attachments are embedded in the reply mail. When using them, it is important to ensure that the file names are as individual as possible. Otherwise, the file name may already be used in the original customer mail. The inline attachment can then not be displayed correctly.

The content of the following placeholders is defined by the knowledge base and is only available for suggested responses and automatic replies:

• <REF_ID>
  Contains the value of the Ref-ID, e.g. the customer number that has been identified in the customer mail.
• <CATEGORY>
  Contains the name of the category that has been assigned to the customer mail.
• <VAR:variable name>
  Content of a persistent variable from the knowledge base.

If a reply account or a reply address is defined according to OUTGOING_ACCOUNT or OUTGOING_ADDRESS in the selected reply template using a variable <VAR:variable>, the replacement of the variable also occurs in a template change.

To display special characters in text templates, the template tag <#unicode> can be used. When doing this, “unicode” must be replaced by the coding of the special character. The unicode coding can be written in hexadecimal or decimal format. The “copyright” character, for instance, can be represented as follows: in hexadecimal format: <#00A9> or in decimal format: <#169>.

Define Template itself as Unicode:

When a complete template shal be saved in unicode format, the filename has to be expanded by the language shortage or a minus sign in edgy brackets.

Example without language:
new_Template[-].txt

Example with language:
new_Template[DE].txt

The file format will be converted to unicode automatically as soon as you confirm the renaming of the template. Please don’t forget to save and apply each change on the templates afterward.

Dynamic placeholders

Suggested responses that are generated by the novomind template technology when a mail is categorized, reduce agents’ workload by providing them with a basic structure that varied according to the category at hand and can be used to answer inbound mails.

To create dynamic, category-specific content within a suggestion template, the following steps are necessary:

1. Create or open an existing suggestion template and adapt the dynamic content by replacing it with the dynamic placeholder tag: [TM_CAT:dynText1]
2. Create a text module with the same name and associated each of them to a text module group which is associated to the category that shall use this template.
   Hint: To be able to see which text module is associated to which category, use an individual shortage for each text module!

Example:

Dear <VAR:customer name>,

[TM_CAT:dynText1]

With best regards,
Customer service agent [agentname]

In this example, the placeholder will be substituted with the contend of the text module with the name “dynText1” – which is associated to the current category of the mail. If no text module could be found for the current category, nothing will be inserted into the response template.

Contents that should appear in templates for all categories will be left unchanged.

 If you want to use these text module contents in templates for confirmations or automatic intermediate replies, just put the tag into pointy brackets as shown in the following example:

<TM_CAT:Name>

Special behaviours through TM_TYPE Tags

In templates (as well as in text modules (TM_TYPE_9 tags only)) tags in
[TM_TYPE_<number>][/ TM_TYPE_<number>]
format can be used to different ends. These will now be introduced:

For the combined use of TM_TYPE tags, the following guidelines apply:

• TM_TYPE tags 1 (term of address), 3 (salutation) and 4 (TOP text module) may each be used only once within a template.
• TM_TYPE tags may not be nested. Exception: TM_TYPE_9 tags may be enclosed in a TM_TYPE_1 or TM_TYPE_3 tags

Salutation and Farewell

In most templates, the term of address as well as the salutation are enclosed in “TM_TYPE” tags:

[TM_TYPE_1]Dear <VAR:name_address_template>[/TM_TYPE_1] <VAR:name>,

thank you for you inquiry!

[TM_TYPE_3]Sincerely [/TM_TYPE_3] [AGENTNAME]

In this example, the TM_TYPE_1 tags mark the term of address and the TM_TYPE_3 tags mark the salutation.

In the mail editor, the term of address and the salutation will be framed with a blue dashed line and thus visually frame the content. The text between the term of address and salutation tags can readily be replaced by special flagged text modules. Text modules of the type “term of address” replace the text between TM_TYPE_1 tags. Text modules of the type “salutation” replace the text between TM_TYPE_3 tags.
This feature enables convenient switching between, for instance, different terms of address like “Dear Mr.”, “Dear Mrs.” or “Hello” (s. also section Template category assignment).

Mandatory fields

It is possible to define highlighted mandatory fields in templates (and text modules). Such mandatory fields advise the agent of the necessity to edit/fill them while working on a mail. The mandatory fields defined via TM_TYPE_9 tags are additionally highlighted in color in the editing window of the novomind iAGENT Desk. Mandatory fields that require editing are marked with a red dotted line, completed ones with a green one.

As previously mentioned, this tags can be used in both templates and text modules. The number of tags per paragraph or line is not limited. The use of tags in contrast to patterns does not require any parameters in the Routing.conf file.

The syntax for the definition of a mandatory field via the tag is as follows:
[TM_TYPE_9]Value[/TM_TYPE_9]

In order to insert the mandatory field for a salutation as shown in the figure above, the following syntax is required:
[TM_TYPE_9]Enter salutation[/TM_TYPE_9]

It is not possible to send out a mail with unfilled mandatory fields. An attention box will be raised on any try.

Colored Highlighting

Additional TM_TYPE tags are available for color-coded highlights on text passages in text modules or templates used by an agent. These highlights help the agent by indicating which text passages require further content adjustment prior to sending the reply. The highlights will be removed when sending the mail and thus will not be visible to the recipient.

For this purpose, TM_TYPE tags 70 through 90 can be configured freely. They can be used in text modules as well as in templates.
Nesting TM_TYPE tags is not supported.

Example:
[TM_TYPE_70]This is the colored text[/TM_TYPE_70]

For further details on the configuration, please contact your novomind project manager.

Top Text Modules

TOP text modules exist for the current ticket category. The TOP texts can be positioned by using the special markings within the suggestion template. The marking within the templates is carried out using a TM-Type-4 tag:
[TM_TYPE_4]Here is a TOP text module[/TM_TYPE_4]

Exactly one TM-Type-4 tag may be used per suggestion template. When displaying the suggestion template in the Web-Agent-Editor, only the text between the markings will be displayed and highlighted by a light-red background color. The markings ensure that when a different TOP text module is selected it is always inserted or respectively replaced at exactly the correct position.

If the text between the markings shall be replaced by a TOP text module already during the initial display of the suggestion template in the editor automatically, this can be achieved using the [TM_TOP] tag:
[TM_TYPE_4][TM_TOP][/TM_TYPE_4]

The [TM_TOP] tag is automatically replaced by each respective TOP text module of the current ticket category. This replacement takes place when the suggestion template is displayed in the editor or during manual or automatic exchange of the suggestion template.

If no TOP text modules exist for the current ticket category, the markings are removed and replaced by empty text. If in this case the markings shall not be removed, this can be carried out by the entry of a default text which then replaces the tag if the TOP text is missing:

[TM_TYPE_4][TM_TOP:Please use a suitable TOP text here][/TM_TYPE_4]

In the case where only the marking should remain when there is no TOP text module, but however no default text should be displayed, this can be achieved by using a space as the default text:
[TM_TYPE_4][TM_TOP: ][/TM_TYPE_4]

The following configurations are not permitted:

• overlapping / nesting with address, salutation phrase
• more than one TOP text module in the response text
• comments within the TOP text modules (this causes the TOP text module highlighting to be lost and replaced by the comment highlighting

File tab

The File tab in the “Edit Template” menu enables you to view, create, delete, modify and rename templates. In order for the File tab to be visible, the privilege Template Editor – display files must be enabled for the system-group of the user. Furthermore, for a user to be able to edit templates, the privilege Template Editor – edit templates also has to be associated to one of the user’s system-groups.

PDF templates can be uploaded and downloaded and viewed in this tab. Deleting PDF templates is generally not possible for supervisors; however, the assignment of templates to categories can be revoked. Suggestion and confirmation templates can also be edited, renamed and deleted (for everything except Headers and Other).

Templates can also be assigned as e.g. forwarding or inquiry templates on the category edit screen. These usages are not monitored. Therefore, before renaming, it must be checked whether the template to be renamed is entered on a category on the Routing tab as the default template for external forwarding or inquiry.

Entries displayed below Header and Other cannot be edited. Only the subject of header templates can be edited through the novomind iAGENT Supervisor application. For editing the headers, an export of the knowledge base and the novomind Composer is necessary.

All templates visible to a specific user are listed according to template type. In addition, all available “include” texts and headers are displayed. The “Other” file contains templates that could not be unequivocally assigned to one of the existing template groups. The nodes in the tree may be expanded or collapsed by clicking the icon in front or double-clicking the text. In order to view the contents of a particular template, simply click on the template name. This will open the relevant template in the Template Editor (see section Template editor).

Using the menu option New in the static menu bar, a new template template (intermediate reply or campaign, confirmation, answer template, automatic reply) or “include” text can be created or accordingly a PDF template can be uploaded. PDF templates are displayed if you mark them and click on the Display template button. However, they can only be changed outside novomind iAGENT.

Create new templates

If, for example, you want to create a new intermediate reply template, select the main Intermediate Reply folder and then click on the menu option New.

HTML Template versions

HTML templates can be automatically generated from TXT templates. To do so, select the appropriate TXT template in the tab File and click on New on the main button bar. This will generate a new HTML template by the same name. The auto-generated code for the HTML templates, however, only serves as a starting suggestion and should not be employed without scrutiny and editing based on applicable HTML standards (see section Template editor for further details).

If the txt version of the template contained includes, they will be converted to their corresponding HTML versions and automatically included also.

To delete a selected template or include, click on the button Delete located in the static menu bar above the tree. However, a template can only be deleted if it is not currently used by any category. In the same way, it is not possible to delete any includes that are currently referenced in one or more templates.

PDF templates can never be deleted via the novomind iAGENT Supervisor. To delete PDF templates, download the knowledge base and delete the corresponding PDF template from the folder TEMPLATES. Then, upload the knowledge base and its templates again.

Once a template or include has been selected, it can be re-named by double clicking on the paper icon. If it is possible to allocate a new name to the selected template, an input field will then be displayed. Includes embedded in templates or templates used by one or several categories, cannot be renamed.

When several changes have been carried out, two buttons appear below the tree:

• Apply Changes
• Discard Changes

By clicking on the Apply changes button, all changes made by user will be accepted by the novomind iAGENT system. To discard changes and display or load the configuration currently used by the novomind iAGENT system, you must click on the button marked Reject changes. You can also load the current configuration by clicking the static menu bar option Update.

Category tab

The Category tab enables you to view and modify the default templates for each category. In addition, new templates can be created and existing templates can be modified. Please keep in mind that changing a specific template in this view may change the template for all other categories that use the same template, too!

The main folders of the tree show all categories visible to the current user. By clicking on the “+” symbol or double clicking on the category name, you can display all the templates belonging to the category at hand. Several entries are provided per category for each template type (with the exception of serial replies and campaign-related templates).

These may be as follows:

• One default template
  This template is always available. The content of this template can only be modified using the “File” tab.
• One text template
• One HTML template
  This template only becomes visible if a text template has been previously created. It serves as a master when the HTML template is created. The HTML template, however, is rudimentary and should not be used as it is. An adaption is definitely required.
• One PDF-Template

It may be the case that several entries are missing in the tree. That’s because then the template manager function has been overwritten in the knowledge base through the novomind Composer. So if you can’t find the needed entries, download the current knowledgebase and import it into your local copy of the novomind Composer!

The icon located to the left of the template type name provides information about the current status of that template. The following status types are displayed using a number of different icons:

• Red X:
  The template is unavailable. By clicking on the menu option “New” in the central menu bar, you can create any templates that are not currently available or select an existing template through the Template dropdown list on the right side, which has to be applied through the button Apply beside of it!
• White paper icon:
  The template is available, but is not activated – thus not used by the category. The template can be deleted or renamed.
• Orange paper icon:
  The template is available and is used by the category.

After you have clicked on an available template, its contents will be displayed in the Template Editor to the right of the tree. If no default template has been selected, the content can be modified in the Template Editor (see following chapter for more details). The type and name of the allocated template are displayed in the header of the Template Editor.

If it is possible to activate or deactivate the selected template, a button will be displayed under the list when you click on the template. When you click on the button, the template in question will be activated or deactivated accordingly.
The HTML template is always activated for suggested response, mail confirmation and automatic reply templates, provided it is available. If, for example, both a text and an HTML template are available for the suggested response for a particular category, the HTML template will be activated once the text template has been activated.

Any changes made will not automatically be adopted by the novomind iAGENT system. For modifications to become active, you must first click on the button Apply changes.

Template Editor

The Template Editor can be used to view or modify the contents of templates. The header sections in the top of the dialogue lists the type and file name of the template that is currently displayed.

Below, the used header is shown with an opportunity to change it through a drop down functionality. Only headers matching the template type may be chosen. The elements of the selected header are displayed in corresponding text fields, which are deactivated – all but the subject.

Depending on the header configuration in the Composer application, additional entry fields may be available:

• Reply to (an alternate reply-to address for the customer’s reply)
• Outgoing ALT (alternate reply-to address for the reply mail if it is not supposed to be sent from the “From” address, e.g., for contact form mails).

The check box Replace includes above the big text field is available to enable users to replace any include tags contained in the text with the contents of the relevant text files. However, this box will be unchecked if the template header or contents have already been modified.

If HTML templates are used then it must be ensured that the given Includes are present in the HTML format. The text content of the selected templates is displayed in the big text field. Click on this area to display a cursor within the text field that enables the user to edit the content.

The following points must be considered when configuring a HTML template:

• No enclosing <html> tags.
• The HTML document head (<head></head>) is not part of the mail template.
  Consequently, style information cannot be defined globally in the head tag. The same holds for doctype information.
• Do not define HTML <body></body> tags. The only relevant part is the part within the HTML body (the precise spelling of the tags referred to here – the aforementioned does not hold for the <BODY> tag with the same name but spelt with capital letters, which will be replaced by the content of the original customer mail).
• Insert line breaks in div tags (<div></div>). You may also use <p></p> tags instead! Also represent blank lines with div tags and a non-breaking spaces (&nbsp;).
  Example:
  <div>line 1</div>
  <div>line 2</div>
  <div>&nexmp;</div>
  <div>line 4</div>
• Do not place editable text outside of div elements.
• Style information is not to be written into the div tag but to be specified in an extra span tag.
  Example:
  <div><span style=“font-family:arial;“>Text</span></div>
• Do not use HTML comments.
• Do not use the pre tag <pre></pre>.

In PDF “Rich text” form fields, <p> always needs to be used instead of <div> tags!

To display the agent photo in a html response, the template tag “<AGENTIMAGE>” can be used. The photo can be inserted into the html template with [ATTACH-FILE:"[AGENTIMAGE]" cid="000001"] and referenced from any position using <img src="cid:000001">.

If the header or template contents have already been modified previously, these modifications can be accepted by clicking on the menu option Save changes.

First of all, the changes are saved locally for the current user. In order for them to be accepted in the novomind iAGENT system, you must click on the Apply changes button which appears below the tree after any changes.

 If a template used for several categories is changed and saved in the editor, the changes affect all categories to which the template is linked.

If a PDF template is marked, the previously described drop-down menu instead of the content editor is displayed.

Template category assignment

This functionality has not yet been adapted for the new Supervisor interface. Instead, the old user interface is included.

In the Template Category Assignment menu all templates edited in the novomind iAGENT Supervisor can be assigned to the relevant categories. Per default, a template is shown for all categories.

If a template is selected, the category list is refreshed so that the assigned categories are highlighted with a tick. By placing more ticks and saving with the button “Save changes”, the template can be assigned to more categories.

Templates with a category assignment are only visible for the assigned categories. This applies in the dialog for creating new processes and in the mail editor when changing templates manually.

The use of PDF templates is not a standard feature of novomind iAGENT and needs to be activated before it can be used. Please consult your novomind project manager for further information.

 It is not possible to define the default template of a specific category through this dialogue. Please use the Administration –> Templates menu item instead.

Text modules

Text modules allow the agent to respond to typical queries quickly and with little effort. The ready-made texts are grouped and assigned to individual categories.

Text module notifications for agents
A Save with Notification option at the Save button of the Textmodule editing interface has been introduced to notify agents about changes to this Textmodule or about new Textmodules.
If this option is selected, the information will appear in the “Home” area of the agent, which can be reached by clicking on the house symbol next to the main channel tabs.

List view

General information about the list

The columns that shall be displayed may be selected through a dropdown on the top right corner above the list. The configured columns will be saved on the user as well as the width of the columns (that the user might have changed).

General information about text modules

Typically, text modules with similar thematic contents are combined into text module groups. In the list view, you therefore first see the text module groups that have been created in your system. The symbol for a text module group looks like this: . You can recognize a text module by this symbol: .

Text module groups allow a hierarchical order on two levels. As you can see in the following example, this provides greater transparency and more precise sorting of the individual text modules.

A group at the lowest level of the hierarchy can be moved to another super-ordinate group. Select the desired group for this and click on the Move button. A dialog box opens with a selection of text module groups into which the selected group can be moved. Select the appropriate group and confirm with OK.

When moving a group, a multiple selection of target groups is possible. The selected group is then inserted in all selected groups. You thus have the possibility of multiplying a sub-ordinate group. If you select the original group as well as the target groups, the selected group remains in the original group and is copied into the target groups.

Open the tree structure by clicking on the arrow symbol located in front of the desired group name. If you have reached a level where text modules are located, you will see additional information in the list view, such as the frequency of >use of the respective text module. If you click on one of the columns, a quick view of the text module contents opens.

The columns that shall be displayed in the list may be selected through the columns-selection-dropdown on the right-hand side. Beside of that, the once set column widths will be stored on the user record – so that it will automatically be restored on the next visit!

Text module group assignment

To assign text modules to a text module group, select the respective text modules and the text module group and click on Assign. The list of unassigned text modules is located below the list of assigned text modules. Both lists can be expanded and contracted by clicking on the arrow symbol.

Text modules and text module groups

To edit the details of an existing text module group, click on its name. To create a new text module group, select the text module group to which the new group is to be assigned.

The hierarchy of the text module groups is limited to two sub-levels. If you want to create a group at the highest level, select Text module groups. Click on the dropdown button next to New and select Group in group. The new group is now at the last position in the hierarchy of the selected upper group. Click on the group name and you reach the detailed view of the text module group with the corresponding tabs.

General tab

In addition to the name of the text module group, you can see whether the text module group is to be visible (e.g. if changes are currently being made to the group, it is advisable that the group is not visible) and what type the text module group is.

You use the type of a text module to determine where the module can be inserted in the response template. The address is at the beginning of the response, the salutation at the end. A module of type Body can be inserted anywhere in the text; in this case, the text module is inserted at the current cursor position in the editor.
To designate the position of a text module in the response template, use TM_TYPE tags. Depending on the type and position of the text module, different tags are used. Use TM_TYPE_1 for the address and TM_TYPE_3 for the salutation (please see section Templates for further information about TM_TYPE tags).

If you have made changes to the data, in order to save, click on Save.

Hierarchy tab

The text module hierarchy determines the sequence in which the text modules are listed. This is also the order in which the agent sees the text modules in novomind iAGENT desk.

Click on one of the text modules to see its contents.

Use the arrow symbols to move individual text modules up/down in the list. Use the search field if you are looking for a specific text module.

Apply your changes through a click on the Save button.

Text modules tab

By default, the list shows you the text modules that are assigned to the text module group in the specified sequence. You can use the filter to display all text modules or the unassigned text modules.

Remove the check mark in the checkbox of an associated text module to delete its assignment or select the checkbox of an unassigned text module to add it to the group.

Then click on the Save button. Your changes will be applied.

Categories tab

By default, the list shows you the categories to which the text module group is assigned. You can use the filter to display all categories or the categories that are not assigned.

Remove the check mark in the checkbox of a category to delete the assignment or select the checkbox of an unassigned category to create an assignment.

Then click on the Save button. Your changes will be applied.

Create and edit text modules

To edit the details of an existing text module, click on its name. To create a new text module, select the text module group in which you want to create the text module. Then click on dropdown button next to New and select Text module in group.

Before you create a new text module, a multiple selection of target groups is possible. The new text module is then assigned to all selected groups when it is created.

In both cases, the detailed view of the text module appears with the corresponding tabs:

Text module tab

This is where the text of the text module is found. Define the name of the text module and then write the required content. You can use simple editing functions such as bold, italics, underlining and linking. For inclusion of dynamic content, you can also use tags according to TM_TYPE_9 (for mandatory fields).

Settings tab

Select the language in which the text module is written. The language setting affects the availability of the text module. An agent can only select a text module with language setting EN if English is selected as language in the ticket editor. If you keep the default setting All at this point, the text module is available regardless of the language setting of the editor.

Also enter an abbreviation with which the text module can be quickly found in the ticket editor of the agent.

Also determine whether the text module is a TOP text module and whether the text module is currently visible – if you are updating a text module, it makes sense to remove this check mark so that the module is not used again by agents until the content is up-to-date.

If the text module is created, you see the date on which it was created and the name of the author next to Created. Similarly, besides Modified the date of the last update can be found.

Finally, you can use the Description text field to store more detailed information about the text module and its use.

TOP-Textmodules

This functionality has not yet been adapted for the new Supervisor interface. Instead, the old user interface is included.

Particularly important or frequently used text modules can be defined as TOP text modules. These will then be displayed preferentially, i.e., at the top of the text module selection menu in the novomind iAGENT Desk.

In order to activate/deactivate the use of the TOP text modules globally there is the parameter Show TOP Text modules in Web-Agent Settings in the Administration –> System settings menu. If the parameter is set to no, the text module group TOP text modules is no longer displayed in the iAGENT Desk, and after updating the view in the iAGENT Supervisor, the configuration menu TOP text modules is also hidden.

The agent can be shown a list of the most frequently used text modules – the so-called TOP texts – either by automatic calculation or manual allocation of text modules. The menu TOP text modules is provided to enable the configuration in the iAGENT Supervisor. Within the menu it can be defined per category whether the text modules are to be automatically calculated or manually allocated.

To automatically define the TOP text modules, the use of such in mails and chats processing is considered. A time period per category can be determined for automatic calculation (default setting “last 3 months”). To carry out manual allocation, the automatically calculated result will be taken over as a recommendation. Moreover, the general display of the TOP text modules per category can be excluded (setting Show TOP text modules – these are displayed by default).

To carry out the manual allocation, the desired text modules can be selected from the known text module list by drag and drop.

To exclude text modules from the automatic determination of the TOP text modules, the column TOP is provided in the supervisor menu Edit text modules. This controls if a text module is included or not. Initially text modules that are allocated only to groups such as Address and Salutation are not included. If a new text module is created and allocated to a group such as Address or Salutation, this is also not included. If required, a manual adjustment by selecting the respective checkbox is necessary.

TOP text modules are the first text module group listed in the agent’s text module bar, provided TOP text modules have been defined for the current ticket category.

See section Templates for details on how to set the position of a TOP text module in a template.

Transaction codes

Transaction codes are used to store information in the system about how a ticket was terminated. This information can be evaluated statistically for reports and analyses.

List view

You can sort the list of contract codes using the individual column headers. Click on a column header and the list is sorted according to this criterion in alphabetical order. Click on it again and the list is sorted in reverse alphabetical order.

To filter certain entries from the list, use the button . You can search for specific entries in the search fields above the columns. Searching starts with the first letter entered and presents a list of all results that match the input. Each additional letter refines the search result.

To remove a transaction code from the list, select it by clicking the corresponding checkbox. This activates the Delete button. Click on it and the transaction code will be removed.
If deleted transaction codes exist, the New button gets a dropdown functionality. Click on the arrow to obtain the option Restore.

Clicking on Restore opens a dialog menu with all deleted transaction codes. Select the transaction code(s) that you want to restore – use the search field to access the desired transaction code faster for longer lists. Once you have selected a deleted transaction code, the Restore button is active. Click on it and the code can be found again the list view of the transaction codes.

Click on an entry from the list to edit its configuration.

General tab

In the General tab, you can edit the name, display name and description of the transaction code. The displayed ID of the transaction code is assigned by the system.

To change display name or description, click on the globe button . In the following dialog, versions can be entered for all languages that are available for the iAGENT user interface (as of version 12.18). An agent will then see a transaction code in the language they are logged in with (if there is no version for this language, the default language for the user interface set in the system settings will be displayed).
To change an existing version, click the pencil icon on the right and then confirm with the blue check mark. To enter a version in a new language, click on Add. Select the language from the dropdown on the right and enter the version (if you add a version for a language that already exists, the previous version will be overwritten). To delete a language version, select it and click Delete. Confirm the Edit Locale dialog with OK.

You accept your changes by clicking on the button Save. To delete the transaction code, click on the Delete button and confirm the subsequent security query.

Categories tab

The category list contains all categories available on your system. The filter possibilities make it easier for you to search for specific categories:

Filter:

Assigned entries

• All: All existing categories are displayed in the category list.
• Assigned entries: The category list contains the categories to which the transaction codes are assigned.
• Unassigned entries: All categories to which the transaction codes are not assigned appear in the category list.

Tenant

• Unassigned: The result list contains categories that are not assigned to a tenant.
• Name of the tenant: The list consists of the categories assigned to the selected tenant(s) (multiple selection is possible).

If there is a larger number of categories, you can search for a specific category using this input field. Searching starts with the first letter entered and presents a list of all categories that match the input. Each additional letter refines the search result.
The search is always applied to the filtered list.

To assign the current transaction code to a category, proceed as follows:

• Search for the desired category / categories using the filter and search options described above.
• Select the category(s) by clicking on the corresponding checkbox. The line of the category is highlighted in colour:
• Click the Save button.

If you want to remove the assignment of a termination code to a category/categories, the procedure is very similar:

• Search for the assigned category(s) from the (filtered) list.
• Remove the selection of the category by clicking on the corresponding checkbox(s).
• Click on the Save button.

Address book

Use the Edit address book configuration menu option to configure mail addresses for external agents – i.e. agents who are not members of the iAGENT users team but who may be brought in to deal with complex cases as required (2nd level support). This address book was developed to make the selection of frequently-used mail addresses easier for novomind iAGENT users (via a drop-down menu).

The configuration menu Edit address book enables the use of a number of filters to restrict the addresses displayed, a helpful feature especially when working with large address books. Furthermore, the number of addresses displayed per page can be configured via a Routing.conf parameter (see System).

After calling up the address book, the following filters are found at the top:

• Filter:
  Filtered according to addresses assigned to at least one category or no category and according to address type (to, cc, bcc, group, external)
• Tenant:
  Filtered according to addresses that are assigned to categories of the respective tenant (provided tenants are configured on your system).
• Categories:
  Filtered according to addresses that are assigned to the corresponding categories. Categories marked in red have not yet received a user group assignment (e.g. via Administration –> Master Data — > Groups).
• Search:
  Search within the address book. Use of wildcard “*” is not necessary
  Example:
  The search phrase vom finds all addresses in which the domain is “@novomind.com”

After selecting or entering a search criterion, the search will be started immediately. Afterwards, the list may be re-sorted through a click on the header. A following click on the currently sorted header switches the sorting direction of this column.

Through the preceding checkboxes, multiple entries may be selected to be processed altogether. Buttons appear disabled when their functionality is not implemented / does not make sense for multiple selected entries. The checkbox in the header selects all displayed entries at once.

A click on one specific entry opens its edit dialogue.

Adressbook Edit Dialogue

General Tab

An addressbook entry consists of the following information:

• Name:
  Name of the contact
• First name:
  First name of the contact
• Description:
  Description of the reference to the contact, maybe their company or occupation
• Group addres:
  On setting this checkbox and saving afterwards, the contact will be converted to a group – the domain of the email address will be changed to “@imail.group” and the tab “Group addresses” will be activated to associate specific contacts to this group.
• Email:
  Email address of this contact
• Address-type:
  Defines, in which address fields this contact will be offered for selection:
  • External (External inquiries / forwards)
  • CC
  • BCC
  • To

All changes have to be saved trough clicking on the Save button at the top of the dialogue. If you try to leave the site without saving, a warning appears.

Categories Tab

Address book entries appear only on tickets of one of their associated categories. The list entries may be pre-filtered through the filter drop-down list:

• All:
  All categories, independent from the current assignment to this address book entry
• Unassigned entries:
  Only the categories that are currently not assigned to the address book entry are shown
• Assigned entries:
  Only the categories that are currently assigned to the address book entry are shown

Beside of that, a free text search is offered. The search is a blurred search, means that the search finds all categories that contain the entered search phrase somewhere in the name.

After changing the association through the checkboxes, the changes have to be saved through the Save button at the top of the dialogue.

Group addresses Tab

As soon as the checkbox Group address has been set and saved, this tab will be activated. On this tab, addresses can be associated to the address group.

The view may be pre-filtered through the filter drop-down list:

• Filter:
  • • All:
      All address book entries, independent from the current assignment to this address group
    • Unassigned entries:
      Only the address book entries that are currently not assigned to the address group are shown
    • Assigned entries:
      Only the address book entries that are currently assigned to the address group are shown
  • Type:
    Filter by address type (To, Cc, Bcc, Group, External)
  • Tenant:
    Finds addresses that are associated to categories of a specific tenant.
  • Categories:
    Finds addresses that are associated to a selected category.die der jeweiligen Kategorie zugeordnet sind.
    Red highlighted addresses are not associated to any categories at all.
  • Search:
    The free text search is a blurred search, means that the search finds all address book entries that contain the entered search phrase somewhere in the name / first name / mail address. The found phrase will be highlighted in the corresponding entry.

After selecting or entering a search criterion, the search will be started immediately. Afterwards, the list may be re-sorted through a click on the header. A following click on the currently sorted header switches the sorting direction of this column.

Through the preceding checkboxes, multiple entries may be selected to be processed altogether. Buttons appear disabled, when their functionality is not implemented / does not make sense for multiple selected entries. The checkbox in the header selects all displayed entries at once.

After changing the association through the checkboxes, the changes have to be saved through the Save button at the top of the dialogue.

Attachments

Central attachments are being offered to the agents on writing their replies. There are central attachments and attachments for each tenant individually.

The attachments may be found by the following criteria (a click on the filter button on the right-hand side opens the filter fields):

• Name (Filename)
• Size
• Last modified
• Type (File extension)
• Tenant (drop-down)

After selecting or entering a search criterion, the search will be started immediately. Afterwards, the list may be re-sorted through a click on the header. A following click on the currently sorted header switches the sorting direction of this column.

Through the preceding checkboxes, multiple entries may be selected to be processed altogether. Buttons appear disabled, when their functionality is not implemented / does not make sense for multiple selected entries. The checkbox in the header selects all displayed entries at once.

Download

When an entry is selected, the download button will be activated. On clicking it, a download dialogue appears through that the file can be saved locally or being opened with the associated external application.

Upload

New files can be uploaded through the button upload. On the dialog appearing, a tenant may be selected or left on the default entry Tenant: Unassigned to publish it to all tenants. The tenant association cannot be changed after uploading an attachment.

Hidden attachments

When the filename starts with a dot, the file will be hidden in the attachment selection of the iAGENT Desk editor. This shall be used for logos and images of the signature f.e. that are only used by templates.

Dictionaries

Dictionaries allow to append the default language specific dictionaries by custom words (e.g. Product names) to enhance their advantages.

Tenant specific dictionaries may be activated – please contact your novomind project leader. When tenant specific dictionaries are used, these will be used on tickets that are clearly associated to these tenants. In case of mails the category of the mail is associated to a group that belongs to a specific tenant.

Tenant specific dictionaries are not used additionaly to other created custom dictionaries in the system, but only to the global dictionary that has been deployed within the installation of iAGENT.

Active tab

The list represents all single custom words that once have been added to the dictionary manually. Active means that the word is considered by the spell checker. To append the dictionary, use the button Add words.

In the opening dialogue, single words or a list of words – even whole sentences of mails may be copied into. All the relevant words will be added automatically if they don’t exist yet.

Clearance tab

On the clearance tab, all words that have been added by agents will be shown to be confirmed if they need to. The clearance is only required when the user setting Spellcheck: Add words: Clearance required is set or the default setting is used, which also has the setting Clearance required.

See Users or Spellcheck.

Campaigns

A campaign permits to re-use customer mails for further mailing initiatives that have already been repliedto or closed. Category-based follow-up mails can thus be sent out automatically and/or in regular intervals. Campaigns can, for example, be used to measure customer satisfaction or send advertising materials and newsletters.

List

The list can be filtered through the following criteria – as long as the filters are activated (see filter button on the right hand side above the list):

• Active:
  • All
  • Yes: Only active campaigns will be shown
  • No: Only inactive campaigns will be shown
• Status (traffic lights):
  • Red = Campaign is set to inactive
  • Yellow = Warning: Campaign is set to active, but the end date has been reached in the past.
  • Campaign is active, as the checkbox is active and the end date has not been reached yet
• Name:
  Self defined name of the campaign
• Type:
  • Automatic = The system finds the matching mails corresponding to the category and time thresholds on the campaign
  • Manual = The mails that shall be considered in this campaign, have to be manually collected and associated to this campaign through a mail set.
• Start date:
  Date, from which the answered mails shall be considered for this campaign.
  Contacts of tickets that have been answered after this start date, will receive a campaign mail, as long as they don’t have been answered after the end date
• End date:
  The end date of the campaign. After the end date, no mails will be sent out to contacts any more. The status traffic light in the list will turn yellow in this case.
• Status:
  Number of mails, concerning this campaign. A click on the column shows all mails that have been involved. The numbers are:
  • Ready for delivery:
    Count of mails that have been found matching this campaign and are ready to be sent to the contact – but are not sent yet.
  • Delivery failure:
    Count of mails that could not be sent to the contact (maybe the inbox is full)
  • Sent:
    Count of mails that have been sent successfully in this campaign
  • Skipped:
    Mails that have not been sent. The receiver is contained in the campaign blacklist (Robinson file) (novomind iAGENT installation directory file “campaign_blacklist.txt”)

After selecting or entering a search criterion, the search will be started immediately.

Campaigns selected through the preceding checkbox may be activated / deactivated through the button More actions.

If there are specific mail addresses that should on no account receive campaign-related messages, these can be listed individually in the novomind iAGENT installation directory file “campaign_blacklist.txt” (no distinction is made between capital and small letters in the mail addresses).
The blacklist must not contain any blank lines.

Any customers included in this “Robinson List” will receive no messages during the ongoing campaign. Emails that are removed from the blacklist are no longer excluded during the next campaign dispatch cycle.

As a general rule, each incoming customer mail (i.e. each mail ID) will only be taken into account once in the course of a single campaign. However, if additional campaigns are created, the same mail can be used again to generate further campaign mails to be sent to that particular customer.

Create and maintain a campaign

General tab

A campaign configuration contains the following values:

• Name:
  Freely-definable campaign name
• Description:
  Short description of the campaign
• Start date:
  Date/time when the campaign should be started. Customer mails will be taken into account from this point onwards.
• End date:
  Date/time when the campaign should come to an end. Once this time or date is reached, the campaign will immediately be stopped.
• Max. mails of campaign:
  Input field for defining the maximum number of mails that can be sent during this campaign.
• Max. mails per customer / per day(s):
  Defines the time that must elapse before a customer receives a further campaign mail and the maximum total number of campaign mails that can be sent to this customer during the defined period of time.
• Skip customers with open tickets:
  Defines whether customers for whom a process is still open should be included in the campaign.

Categories tab

The category list of the Campaign Editor is used to select categories which should be utilized in the course of the campaign.

The list entries may be pre-filtered through the filter drop-down list:

• All:
  All categories, independent from the current assignment to this campaign
• Unassigned entries:
  Only the categories that are currently not assigned to the campaign are shown
• Assigned entries:
  Only the categories that are currently assigned to the campaign are shown

Beside of that, a free text search is offered. The search is a blurred search, means that the search finds all categories that contain the entered search phrase somewhere in the name.

As soon as a category is selected though the preceding checkbox, a small configuration dialog will be displayed, which enables the following settings to be defined for the selected category:

• Tickets with status:
  Should mails from this category that have already been answered or closed be taken into account?
• Choose:
  This field is used to reduce the number of mails available for selection, for example by ensuring that only every xth mail of the total number of mails currently available is accessed for the purposes of sending campaign mails.
• Days since transaction (minimum):
  How many days should/must have elapsed before a customer mail for the current campaign can be generated and sent to the customer?
• Days since transaction (maximum):
  How many days should/must have elapsed before a customer mail can be collected from the current campaign and sent to the customer?
• Template:
  The name of the templates for the campaign category used to generate the contents of the follow-up mail.

After changing the settings of several category associations, all changes have to be saved through the save button on the top of the dialogue! If you want to change settings for a specific category, the checkbox has to be removed once and reset, so that the dialogue appears once again.