Editor

Inhalt/Content

Overview

To process a mail, the agent selects it from the mail list at the top right by clicking on it with the left-hand mouse button. The mail that is currently selected is highlighted in a different colour the list and its contents displayed in the lower area of the novomind iAGENT Desk. The mail selection (and display) can be reversed by pressing the “Ctrl” key and clicking simultaneously on the mail with the left-hand button.

If an agent opens a mail from the mail list by clicking on a message, the suggested response (template), possibly enriched with customer data, to the customer mail is displayed in the mail editor. The reply template can be completed with free text or pre-formulated text modules. Please see section Composing a reply for more details on composing replies.

To ensure communication quality, novomind iAGENT Desk provides the features “Quality assurance” and “Clearance”. Active quality assurance will forward samples of reply mails as copies to the supervisors. With active clearance, mails from specific categories or agents will not be sent to the customer directly. Instead, these mails first must be double-checked and approved by authorized persons prior to delivery.

Optionally, supervisors can activate a visual indicator advising the agent that the mail has been selected for quality assurance or requires clearance. This additional information will be displayed in the reply editor’s info line.

Normally, the info line only quotes the automatically detected tonality and automatically identified language in the customer’s mail.

The Editor window can be resized using the corresponding buttons located at the top right.

Header

The recipient, sender and subject line for the mail response are automatically defined by the novomind iAGENT system. If an agent needs to modify/extend any of these or add a mail attachment, the header can be displayed in full by clicking on the symbol located in the top right-hand corner of the mail Editor. In order to hide the header, another click on the inverted symbol is sufficient.

The visible/hidden setting of the column header is maintained during the current session. Beyond a session, the header behaves as follows (depending on the configuration of the supervisor parameter “Use web agent profile cookies”):

Use web agent profile cookies = Yes: The most recent setting defined in the novomind iAGENT Desk remains unchanged beyond the current session.
Exception: If the browser history is deleted after the agent has logged off (deleting the cookies is not enough), the header section is hidden during the next session irrespective of the settings of the previous session.
Use web agent profile cookies = No: The header section is generally hidden on the next login into the novomind iAGENT Desk.

Principally, the To, CC and BCC entry fields as well as the subject line can be modified by manual free text entry.
The BCC field only becomes visible after clicking the field (or when the system parameter agent.display.editor.bcc=true has been set by supervisors of your system – in this case, the BCC as well as the sender address will be displayed permanently). These fields cannot be modified when in social media mode. In fax and letter mode, the CC and BCC lines are locked for editing. SMS mode locks the BCC line.

Syntactically incorrect addresses will not be accepted. A recipient address is necessary to answer mails via the SMS and Fax reply channels and its local part (before the @) must consist solely of numbers. Accordingly, solely numbers can also be entered in the dialogues to change the To and CC recipients. Otherwise, the erroneous entry is pointed out with a corresponding message.

If an existing entry should no longer comply with the necessary format in the To or CC field as a result of the change in reply channel to Fax or SMS, an error message will also be displayed during the attempt to send the message.

Editing the To, CC and BCC addresses will open a dialog window. For each new entry separated by comma, autocompletion suggestions from the address book will be displayed. The corresponding full addresses are automatically inserted when a suggestion is selected.

A category-specific address book can optionally be integrated by the supervisors. When entering a recipient address, this category-specific address book will be searched for matching entries. The list of matches is then displayed to select from. Hovering the mouse pointer over an address in that list will display a tooltip containing recipient details if such information has been made available by the supervisors.

If the To, CC or BCC fields cannot be filled out, a mail address is defined for testing in the Supervisor. In such cases, contact your novomind iAGENT project manager.

The To field: In contrast to the CC and BCC fields, only one address can be entered here by default. If you need more than one to address, this can be achieved through a system parameter which can be set through a supervisor.
Then it will be possible to enter several recipients in the To field (also possible for external forwarding, inquiries , intermediate replies and new processes). There is still a primary recipient and further addressees of the incoming mail can be taken over as addressees for the outgoing mail. Furthermore, the main address cannot be removed, but can be changed.
In the info area in the outbox of the Supervisor you can add or remove further To and CC addresses as well.

The CC field: The CC field permits to enter one or more addresses. When entering several CCrecipients, addresses need to be separated by commas or semicolons. For each new entry separated by comma, autocompletion suggestions from the address book will be displayed. The corresponding full addresses are automatically inserted when a suggestion is selected. Alternatively, addresses can be inserted successively in the pop-up menu shown below. The pop-up is displayed upon right-clicking an already entered CC address. If the sender of the incoming mail used Cc addresses, these are automatically included into the reply’s Cc field, provided the novomind iAGENT Supervisor has been configured accordingly. CC addresses can be deleted individually via the context menu option Delete or deleted collectively with the context menu option Delete all.

The BCC field: As for the CC field, several addresses can be entered in this field. When inserting BCC addresses, a memo for the recipient can be added if required.
If the memo remains empty and if the BCC field contains an invalid email address, the entire mail is not sent. If there is a memo text and an invalid BCC address, only the memo is not sent to the BCC recipient, whereas the actual mail is sent to the To and CC recipient.
A check box can be used in the dialogue for sending BCC messages to define individually for each email whether the original customer email is to be included as an attachment to the BCC recipient. It is possible to set this check box as a default, and this is determined by a parameter in the novomind iAGENT Supervisor.
By right clicking on the registered BCC recipient, it is possible to select in the mouse menu (see following figure) whether the given recipient is to be deleted, or another recipient is to be added, or whether a memo is to be added or changed.

Reply channels and editor formats

The reply editor can be operated in five different format modes, given appropriate configuration. Available formats are email, letter, fax, social media and SMS. The channels email and fax offer three formats Text, HTML or PDF. Supervisors can configure for each tenant whether channels and formats should be selectable – and if so, which ones. Channel switching is accomplished by appropriate menu selection in the header. The selected channel limits the choice of reply addresses or shipping accounts (see Alternative reply-to Address).

Example: If a request via social media is not to be answered via the same channel, it is possible for agents to change the channel and have other agents answer the customer via email. Changing the channel invalidates the destination address, it must be corrected manually by the agent. The format specification behind the channel determines in which format the reply templates are displayed.

In case of incoming mails, the channel is determined by the incoming account. In case of email, the format is determined by the format of the incoming mail or can be set to HTML by default. In the case of fax, the format is determined by the fax gateway used. When creating a new process, the agent defines the reply channel and the outgoing account itself.

When switching from text to HTML mode, the template is not automatically displayed in HTML formatting. To display the formatting, the HTML template must be selected via the template selection.

Reply channels Letter (PDF) and Email (PDF)

The reply channels Letter (PDF) and Email (PDF) are part of the system component iMAIL4LETTER are not part of the standard product scope.

When you use the system component iMAIL4Letter and select a mail using a PDF template via the global inbox, you will find the Letter tab in the Info Area. This tab opens the PDF template and displays it as a letter (for performance reasons, the tab will not be displayed permanently). The tabs Template and Reply are redundant in that case and will hence be hidden. This is also the case if you use the search function to select a mail that has already been assigned a PDF template as a suggested response by the core engine upon receipt.

Sending a PDF template via the letter channel will deposit it in an output directory from which it will subsequently be collected for printing. In case the PDF shall not be printed centrally, it can be printed locally via the print preview. In that case the mail needs to be closed manually.

The mode Email (PDF) will send the PDF document as an attachment to a regular mail. The carrier mail will be the HTML or TXT template assigned to the current category. The carrier mail can be edited or changed in the Email (HTML) mode.

Change of template

Templates are a reply stencil for the agent (see setion Templates). Templates are automatically selected depending on category and format. Depending on system configuration, they can also be selected manually from the selection menu below the mode and format selection.

After opening the pull down menu (also via [Ctrl] + [M]), all reply templates assigned to the current category or not allocated to any category compatible with the currently selected format are displayed. The templates can be browsed by typing in the first character (quick search).

A change of template also activates all settings of the new template such as the header settings. An automatic change of template only happens after a recategorization of a mail if configured that way in the Supervisor.

Alternative reply-to address

Subject to the configuration in the Supervisor, an alternative reply-to address for a reply can be selected in the novomind iAGENT Desk. The agent can change the reply-to address (which later becomes the sender’s address) via a selection box in the editor. For space reasons, the selection box only appears after either the “BCC” line (by clicking on “CC”) or the attachment line (in case of available attachments) is visible. The selection box can also be made visible via the shortcut “Ctrl + l“.

The selection box shows the reply-to addresses for the current channel.

Additionally, the selection of reply-to addresses is constrained by the tenant assignment. Only reply-to addresses with incoming accounts that are assigned to all customers or to a customer assigned to an agent are shown. Exception: If the selected mail was delivered to the agent (by push, for example) and if the incoming account of the mail is not allocated to the customers of the agent, the non-customer reply-to address of this process is shown in the drop down list nonetheless.

If there is more than one incoming account in the selection list for which the same reply-to address is configured, the mail address of the incoming account is shown in brackets after the reply-to address.

Spell-check

To initiate a check, simply click on or press [F7]. Words which are underlined in red were identified as incorrect by the spell-checking tool. A click with the right mouse button on the word displays a list of suggested replacements. The relevant suggested correction can be selected with the mouse and is automatically replaced in the mail text. Likewise, spelling correction can be performed manually. For a final spell-check of the corrected text, the spell-checker should be run once again.

Given appropriate configuration, transposed characters can be auto-corrected during spell-check.

Given appropriate rights, words erroneously flagged as incorrect can be added to the dictionary. To do so, select the context menu option Add word. A selected word can be ignored by selecting Ignore. The given word is not transferred to the dictionary (however, if the given word arises again in the text, then it will be once again underlined in red).

The spell-check is standard for German and English tests. Other languages can be installed or configured by the administrator. The language for spell-checking is determined by automatic language identification. It can, however, also be adjusted manually in the header’s language drop-down menu.

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.

Spell-check may have been configured as mandatory. In that case, a mail must be spell-checked prior to sending it. Should a spell-check have been omitted when attempting to send, the user will be notified and the spell-check will be carried out automatically.

With language-specific routing and language identification enabled in the knowledge base, the identified language will automatically be set as the system default for spell checking and the selection of text modules and templates. You will receive mails in the language/languages set as your language(s) in your user profile. If no language preferences have been specified in your user profile, you will receive mails in any language.

In case the language in a mail has been identified incorrectly, you can subsequently change the language settings for that mail manually. To do so, select the language menu next to the spell check button. Then select the correct language. This change will also affect the language for spell checking as well as the selection of text modules and templates.

Should the selected language happen not to be listed in your user profile language preferences, the system will prompt you in a pop-up to decide whether to re-enter the mail into the routing process. Click OK to re-enter the mail into routing. Click Cancel to keep the mail. You will be able to continue editing it irrespective of the change in language settings.

File Attachments

The paper clip button permits to attach a file to a draft. If a file was attached to the draft answer, the editor displays the additional line Attachment. It lists the name of the attached file.

Templates and text modules can also contain file attachments. When an agent inserts such a text module or manually switches to such a template, the names of these are automatically displayed with attached attachments in red font. This marking is intended to prevent agents from, for example, overlooking the attachment when removing the text of a text module and unintentionally sending it or accidentally deleting the attachment even though the text of the template or text module refers to it (e.g. “see attached GTC”).
After saving or sending the respective message, the file name of the attachment is displayed in black.

Supervisors can activate/deactivate the attachment of files to replies for individual incoming accounts. If attaching files is disabled for an incoming account, the paperclip symbol will not be displayed when editing mails for this account.

In the selection dialog for file attachments, either a local file or a file centrally deposited for all agents can be selected as an attachment. The list of available files is managed by the novomind iAGENT system supervisor or administrator. It usually includes files which are regularly needed, such as product brochures, for example.

The Common File field comes with a quick search feature: The list is automatically filled with matching entries after the first and any subsequent characters are entered. The filtered selection list is displayed in the pull-down menu and updates with each further entry. Whenever a file attachment is assigned to a particular tenant, this will be indicated behind the file name in the selection list.

In general, the selection list displays all those files that have not been assigned to a particular tenant as well as those files that pertain to the ticket’s tenant. In contrast, file attachments assigned to another tenant will not be shown in the selection list. In case the ticket has no assignment to a particular tenant, the system displays to the agent all files without an assignment as well as all files assigned to the agent’s tenant.

If the required document is not listed, the agent should contact the administrator who can then add the relevant document to the attachments list.

As an alternative to using the paper clip button, Firefox users can add file attachments via ‘drag and drop’. To do so, the files to attach need to be dragged directly into the editor window.

As of iAGENT 11.35.5, it is also possible to simply paste screenshots from the clipboard into the draft answer (HTML format) using [CTRL] + [V].

If the agent clicks on an attachment with the right-hand mouse button, a pop-up menu is displayed that enables them to display or delete the selected attachment as required.

It is possible that attachments (attached files and inline attachments) are automatically transferred from the original customer email to the reply template. Transferred attachments are shown in the Attachments line and are marked with an asterisk (*) after the file name. The attachment can be accessed by right clicking on the file name. When using the Send and close command, these attachments are sent with the reply email unless they are removed. Inline attachments, which are also shown in the attachments at all times, are embedded in the reply mail upon sending. The configuration of the automatic transfer of attachments is done via the templates in the Supervisor or Composer.

Using the PCI plugin constitutes a special case: If credit card details have been detected in the file attachment to the original mail, the attachment is not automatically adopted into the template, even if the template used would technically allow for that. In case, however, the agent manually selects a reply template for which automatic adoption has been set, all attachments will be included regardless of their contents.
The plugin also offers the option of checking files when they are uploaded by the agent or when they are uploaded to the central directory of the novomind iAGENT supervisor. If credit card data is detected in the attachment, the upload process is aborted with an error message.

Archived mails can be attached to a mail currently in process. This can be achieved by dragging the ID of the corresponding ticket out of the journey tab into the response draft.

Print capability

The drawn up response can be printed out by clicking on the printer symbol. In case of an answer in TXT or HTML format the print view will not only display the response text but also the header line, the mail-ID and the names of file attachments that may exist.

The agent also has the option of viewing the PDF template in print view and executing printing from the print view to a local or network printer. This requires a printer that has been installed on the customer side and an installed PDF reader with printing functionality.

In the print view, the view can also be switched between HTML and a plain text mode (as of iAGENT 12.4). This is particularly practical for approval, as all embedded images and formatting in the display are hidden by switching to TXT, allowing you to check the plain text more quickly. This does not change anything in the draft response.

Central printing

Subject to the right configuration, the Letter (PDF) reply channel makes it possible to print replies to customers centrally. For this to happen, the agent needs to finalise processing the respective document via the Send and close button. After that, automatic processing of the document is executed.

Commenting

Given appropriate system configuration, comments to individual text passages in the reply mail can be added and edited. Commented text passages are highlighted in color. Hovering the mouse pointer over a commented text passage will display the comment, author name and creation date in a tooltip. Comments are not sent along, they are only visible to the agents in the iAGENT system and facilitate the clearance or handover of an edit from one agent to the next (for this, the draft response must be saved before forwarding).

Inserting, editing and deleting comments

The comment editor opens when a text passage without comment has been selected and the comment button is clicked. An existing comment can be edited or deleted. To do so, hover the mouse pointer over the specific text and click onto the text in the pop-up window that opens up.

Comments cannot overlap. Also, comment cannot be inserted in passages containing fields for address or salutation, nor into passages marked as mandatory fields. Commented passages must not be contiguous (e.g., they must be separated by a section without a comment such as a line-break, whitespace, etc.).

Saving comments for other agents

Comments are always saved together with the reply template commented on. This means that merely inserting a comment as such does not result in saving the comment. In order to save it permanently, the features Save as template/draft or Send after clearance need to be availed of.

Composing a reply

Automatically or manually selected templates serve the agents as stencils for their reply. A template can be complemented either with text modules or with free text. Depending on reply channel and format chosen, different layout features are available.

Inserting content into the reply editor via copy & paste only works as expected, if the copied content has been taken from the editor itself. When copying and pasting from external sources (e.g., Notepad, MS-Word, MS-Outlook) into the reply editor, it cannot be ensured that the editor content displays correctly and as expected.

Templates

A template functions as a reply stencil. Typically, it consists of a company footer/a signature, an address to the customer and a salutation by the agent. More complex reply templates, however, are possible. The template can automatically insert customer- or agent-specific data (such as name, location, etc.).

Passages in blue boxes are salutations and terms of address. They can easily be replaced by other text modules of type “address” or “salutation” (see section Text module types Address and Salutation). Given appropriate template configuration, the cursor can automatically be set to a specific position in the template, e.g., to the first line after the term of address.

Templates can be set up so that the cursor is automatically placed at any position. For this purpose, the supervisor inserts the text [TM_SELECTION] [/TM_SELECTION] at the desired position in the response template. Supervisors can adapt templates in such a way that the original mail is quoted in the reply template and marked with a blue vertical line.

Template selection is automatic but can be modified manually. Automatic template selection is based on the mail category and the chosen reply channel format (see section Change of template).

Text modules

Text modules serve as a wording aid for the agents. They are displayed based on the category and the language of the mail currently processed such that thematically appropriate wording suggestions are always available. Assigning text modules to categories and languages is done in the novomind iAGENT Supervisor.

To facilitate quick retrieval of text modules, they are grouped by topic. Clicking on a text module topic (or employing the keyboard shortcut “Alt + <first letter of the text module topic>”), displays the corresponding list of text modules (see Figure Figure 98). Hovering the mouse pointer over a text module in that list displays the text module’s content in a tooltip. If a keyboard shortcut to a text module has been defined, it will also be shown in the tooltip.

A text module can contain static text, hyperlinks or dynamic content, for instance the customer’s name. In HTML mode, hyperlinks will be displayed with link name that can subsequently be clicked on. In Plain Text mode, the link’s URL will be displayed in full. In the agent’s editor links are never clickable, neither in HTML nor in Plain Text mode. In the HTML print view, however, links are clickable.

Selecting a text module by mouse click will usually insert the module at the current cursor position. Exceptions to this rule are text modules of type “address”, “salutation” and “TOP”. If configured accordingly in the user settings (see section Individual Settings), text modules will be automatically highlighted upon insertion and can thus be quickly removed again with a single click if selected in error.

Text modules used in previous mails of the same process are grayed out in the text module selection drop-down list. Exceptions to this rule are text modules of type address and salutation.

The individual text modules can be combined in any order as required, ensuring that the agent can compile complex responses to customer mails with just a few clicks of the mouse. Small modifications to the text in the text modules can be made after the module has been added to the mail editor. For permanent modifications, please contact your supervisor.

The agent is, of course, able to enter their own texts and modify the suggested response in the mail Editor in order to provide a more specific answer to individual questions.

The text module toolbar can be positioned either above or below the field in which the response text is edited by selecting the Individual Settings sub-menu, which is found by clicking on the user image button (see section Individual Settings).

Text module types Address and Salutation

Text modules of type Address and Salutation are exceptions in several respects: Text modules of these categories are highlighted by means of a blue border and are always put in the spot defined in the template, irrespective of the current position of the cursor.

An opening or closing can be swapped for a matching text module of the same category. “Dear Sir” can easily be turned into “Dear Madam” with just one click. To use this feature, the text modules and the templates must fulfil certain conditions. If you cannot see a blue frame in the response template, please contact your supervisor.

Address and salutation text modules will not be grayed out in the selection menu even if they have been used in previous mails of the same process.

Text module type TOP

Depending on system configuration, text modules of type TOP will be listed as a separate text module group. TOP text modules are the preferred text modules for a given category. They are either set manually by the supervisors or they are automatically determined based on their usage by the agents. The position of a TOP text module in the reply mail is either defined in the template itself or depends on the current cursor position.

After insertion, TOP text modules are highlighted in red. If a TOP text module has been inserted in a mail, it will be replaced by another TOP text module that may have been selected subsequently. Consequently, only one TOP text module can be used per mail.

The following constellations are invalid with regards to the use of TOP text modules:

Overlapping with or nesting in address or salutation text modules
Mandatory fields in TOP text modules (this causes the TOP text module marking to be replaced by the mandatory field marking)
Comments within TOP text modules (this causes the TOP text module marking to be replaced by the comment marking)

Color-coding in text modules

Text modules and templates may contain color-coded highlights in order to draw the agent’s attention to selected passages. Those highlights will be removed when sending the mail and hence will not be visible to the recipient.

Creating complex response texts using text modules

If you wish to create a longer response text by combining a number of different text modules, you can do this by using the wizard tool to select text modules. This is opened by clicking on the magnifying glass symbol located in the top right-hand corner of the Response Editor. The selection wizard is displayed in a separate window and is divided into four different areas.

The top left area provides an overview of all available text modules organised according to module group in the same way as for the Response Editor. The availability of the text module varies according to the area of responsibility of the given agent. Text module groups and text modules that belong to the own categories can be selected. Text modules for other departments or special categories are not listed here.

If the agent clicks on a text module in the list at the top left-hand side, the contents of that module are displayed in the area below. To add this text module to the mail response text, the agent clicks on the Add button. Now additional text modules can be selected and added to the Selection list described above.

The text modules which are required for the final mail response are now selected using the check boxes in the selection list. the bottom most preview area displays the contents of all of the text modules that have been selected in the order in which they have been listed. This is the same as the order in which they are displayed in selection list on the right hand side (from top to bottom). If the text modules are not in the correct order, the agent can modify this by clicking on the relevant text module name and pulling to the correct position.

If the text displayed in the preview window in the preview area is correct, the agent can transfer it to the current mail response in the Response Editor by clicking on Submit. The text will be pasted into the text according to where the cursor is currently positioned. The Reset button enables the agent to reject all text modules that have been selected within the selection list. The Cancel option closes the text module selection wizard.

Text modules of type Address, Salutation or TOP cannot be inserted via the wizard.

Full-text search function and abbreviations

Supervisors can define abbreviations to access specific text modules, in order to find the right text module faster in the novomind iAGENT Desk. To enter the access abbreviation into the text module search mask, apart from the mouse click you can also use the keyboard shortcuts [CTRL] + [U] or [CTRL] + [H]. When you start typing the abbreviation, all those text modules instantly display in a selection list whose abbreviation starts with the entered characters (up to a maximum of 50 text modules will be displayed). The longer the entered abbreviation gets, the smaller the selection list becomes. Use the arrow keys or the mouse to select the desired text module and it will be inserted at the current cursor position. If you know the abbreviation, you can also enter it directly into the text and simply have the corresponding text inserted with [CTRL] + [ENTER].

The text module search also permits to carry out a full-text search. A selection list displays all those text modules that contain the desired character sequence in their name or text. The selection list will be displayed with two or more letters entered and gets more specific (i.e., shorter) the more characters you enter. Up to 50 text modules will be displayed as a result. In case an agent works on more than one tenant, only those text modules will be searched and displayed that belong to the same tenant as the mail currently being processed. Use the arrow keys or the left-hand mouse button to select the text module you want to incorporate into the response and the contents will be added according to where your cursor is currently positioned.

With both search modes it means that you are conducting the search via the text modules assigned to your categories. Text modules from other departments or other special categories are not taken into account. If text modules from other categories are to be inserted, the text module button bar can be switched to this category via the More button and a subsequent selection of another category.

Text modules can be searched for specific terms or combination of terms. The free-text search can be invoked via [CTRL] + [U]. When searching for several terms the result list displays all text modules containing the search terms. The sequence in which the search terms occur in the text module is disregarded. Text modules containing an exact one-to-one match for the search terms will be ranked first in the result list. A search for e.g. “a list of terms” will return all text modules containing the words “a”, “list”, “of” and “terms” (the search is not case-sensitive). An asterisk (*) stands for any character or no character.

For performance reasons the flexible text module search is performed for up to six query terms only. For queries containing more than six search terms, the search will only return text modules containing exact matches for the given term sequence. The search returns a maximum of 25 hits in the text module name and 25 hits in the text module body. The search is aborted after 25 hits in the text module title, so that less than 25 content hits may be displayed despite a given match.

The result list first shows the matches in text module names. Listed below are the query matches in the text module body. The two result categories are separated by the line “—- Find text in message —-”.

Modifying selected text module groups

Text module groups are displayed depending on the category and language of the mail that is currently being processed. Categories are allocated to text module groups using the novomind iAGENT Supervisor.

If you are answering a complex mail request and need to use text modules to which a different category has been allocated, you can display these by clicking on the button marked that is located to the right of the text modules currently in use. After you have clicked on the button, a list of all available categories will be displayed. Once you have selected a category from the list, the topics and text modules will be displayed for that particular category. If an agent works for several tenants, the button will only display those categories that belong to the same tenants as the mail currently being processed.

If the novomind iAGENT system has assigned multiple categories to a single mail, the names of all potential categories will be displayed underneath the Info window. If the agent positions the cursor over one of the category names, the category probability will be displayed. The corresponding text module groups for the selected category are displayed in the mail Editor when the agent clicks on the relevant category name.

Editing mails in HTML mode

Under the header, the additional options available for use in HTML mode are displayed. These include the option of formatting the text (font type, font size, bullet points, text color , background colour , adding horizontal lines , etc.), as well as the option of adding graphics ).

A description of all symbols available in the editor, together with their function, is listed in the following table.

Symbol	Funktion
	Changes the text colour. Click on the symbol to open a colour range from which the required colour can then be selected.
	Change the background colour. Click on the symbol to open a colour range from which the required colour can then be selected.
	Insert graphic
	Cut out: The marked text is cut out and then can be inserted at another point by inserting it again.
	Copy: The marked text is copied and then can be inserted at another point by inserting it again.
	Insert
	Insert as plain text
	Search
	Search and replace
	Undo
	Redo
	Insert special characters through a small dialog
	Insert a link
	Remove the selected link
	Insert a parting line at the current cursor position
	Create a table or change the current tables properties
	Properties of the row
	Properties of the column
	Insert row above selected row
	Insert row below selected row
	Delete selected row
	Insert column left of selected column
	Insert columd right of selected column
	Remoe selected column
	Separate merged cells
	Merge selected cells
	Clean up source code
	Shows the HTML source code of the current draft

In HTML mode the response editor automatically recognizes URLs and links to them (with appropriate system configuration).

When inserting pictures that are directly inserted as inline attachments in the mail, it is possible to choose between two different options:

The button in the response editor’s HTML mode permits to insert a hyperlink. The dialog for inserting a hyperlink offers control over whether the linked URL shall open in the same window, a new window, the parent window or the top frame. The default setting here is Open in new window.

Pictures – just as file attachments – from local directories (i.e. from the own hard disk) can be uploaded or called from a central directory. It is additionally possible to place pictures in the user profiles pictures that can be called via the Central file – Personal Photo.

When uploading files from local directories, the required size can be directly defined (however, this only applies to jpg and jpeg type pictures). If this is required, then after the corresponding picture has been selected, click on the Picture Size box and enter the required size (in pixel) on the right-hand side. The page ratio is retained, be it when reducing or enlarging. Upload File inserts the picture in the current cursor position.

When inserting a central file, select the required picture via the selection list. The Common File field comes with a quick search feature: The list is automatically filled with matching entries after entering the first and any subsequent characters. A preview of the given picture is displayed at the top on the right-hand side. Insert Picture inserts the picture at the current cursor position in the email.

In addition to inserting the picture in the email text, the file name is entered in the Attachment line (and also added as an attachment).

If necessary, it is also possible to insert in the response template. However, such a picture must exist as a central file or as a personal photo.

To remove an inserted picture entirely, go to the Attachment line and delete there the file attachment via the right mouse key menu. This will remove both the file attachment as well as the inline attachment. If you only delete the picture in the email text (e.g. with the [Del] key), then only the inline attachment will be removed while the file attachment is retained, i.e. the picture will continue to be forwarded.
Internet Explorer will display page elements selected in the reply editor, e.g., pictures, table cells or PDF form fields, as surrounded by a frame. This frame always floats on top of all other interface elements and may occlude these. This display behavior is an IE idiosyncrasy cannot be controlled by the novomind application.

Composing replies in PDF Format

A PDF template consists of a fixed, static text that cannot be edited by the agent as well as fields that the agent can edit and fill with free text or text modules. PDF mode offers a three-level auto-zoom. This allows to view the fixed parts of the PDF template in 100%, 150% or 200% zoom, depending on the screen settings and size of the info window.

To facilitate editing, text entered in the variable fields is always displayed in the same size. When sending or print-previewing the document, the entered text is formatted according to the PDF template settings – such as standard font, font size and line spacing. The PDF document view in the editor hence does not match the final print version. The latter can be viewed in the print preview. To facilitate editing, a miniature preview of the print preview is displayed – depending on configuration – continually when the reply editor is used in full-screen mode. Depending on system configuration, the miniature print preview can be refreshed manually via the button ‘Refresh’ on the main button bar and/or automatically. The miniature print preview refreshes automatically upon shifting to another field and/or after adding a new paragraph (and subsequently pressing ENTER>).

Format defaults are defined by the supervisors/administrators. If the default font is not installed on the agent’s PC, iAGENT Desk uses the font that is most similar to the default.

Rapid change-over between the display sizes is possible via different limitations between the Information Window and the Editor.

A PDF template may contain special fields, so-called overflow- and clone fields. In their display, these do not differ from regular form fields.

Overflow fields: They permit to compose continuous text extending over several pages. Supervisors set the maximum number of pages allowed for a reply in PDF format. If the continuous text takes up less space than the maximum stipulated, remaining pages of the PDF document are automatically trimmed.

Clone fields: They serve the purpose of “cloning” or automatically copying the content of other fields. An example application would be the display of the mail subject line that is filled on the first page of the PDF and then automatically included on every subsequent page of the PDF document.

Internet Explorer will display page elements selected in the reply editor, e.g., pictures, table cells or PDF form fields, as surrounded by a frame. This frame always floats on top of all other interface elements and may occlude these. This display behavior is an IE idiosyncrasy cannot be controlled by the novomind application.
Depending on system configuration, PDF templates and PDF attachments in the ‘Letter (PDF)’ channel will be combined into a single PDF document in order to pass them to the printer interface in a consolidated fashion. This ensures that documents submitted together will be printed in immediate succession of each other.

Composing replies in SMS mode

During the writing of a reply with the channel setting “SMS”, the remaining characters are displayed in the lower left-hand area of the Editor window. The display of the available characters and the number of SMS messages that the characters entered are allocated to is done in the bottom right-hand corner.

A warning message is issued when the maximum number of permissible characters is exceeded. A message that has too many characters cannot be sent. The attempt is acknowledge with a corresponding error message.

Mandatory fields

It is possible to define so-called mandatory fields within text modules and templates in the iAGENT Supervisor. These areas are highlighted in the iAGENT Desk and advise the user of any sections that must be filled out/replaced. Any sections that are not filled out/replaced have a red border, whereas sections that have already been edited have a green border.

In order to edit the fields, the user clicks in a mandatory field and replaces, deletes or adds the text (adding a single space is not considered editing and does not change the highlight to green). Upon leaving the field, the red border is replaced by a green one.

Any attempt to send a mail with unedited mandatory fields results in a warning message. The text of this dialog menu depends on the configuration. The dialog is closed upon clicking on Ok, and you find yourself in the mail editor again. In addition, the content of the (first) unedited mandatory field is automatically selected so that the content can be overwritten instantly.

Subject to the configuration, it is possible to send mails despite unedited mandatory fields. In this case, the dialog box has two buttons, Ok and Cancel. In this case, Ok does not take you back to the editor but sends the mail. Cancel cancels the sending process and takes you back to the editor.

Function Buttons

The button bar at the top of the mail editor window provides the agent with a number of function.

Send and Close

To send the finished message to the customer, click on Send and close. The reply mail is sent to the customer via the iAGENT server and marked as replied. If the reply channel Letter (PDF) is selected, the printing process for the document is started.

Before sending and closing a message, it is checked if all mandatory fields have been filled out by the agent. Otherwise Send and close is not permitted.

The original customer mail will be deleted from the inbox after sending. If the mails are distributed by way of automatic routing, then the replied mail is normally instantly replaced by a new mail.

If the category in which a mail is closed and sent requires a transaction code, the following dialog box will be displayed when the agent dispatches the mail. Transaction codes are selected via a filter selector, i.e., with every character entered the selection list is re-filtered anew. Whether or not a category requires a transaction code is set by the supervisor.

For mails belonging to a process with several open mails, appropriate system configuration permits to simultaneously close all other open mails of that process when closing just one of those mails (see section Closing multiple mails from the same process simultaneously).

If mails to which a specific category has been assigned should be routed to an external system (e.g. exported into a Document Management System (DMS)), the Send-and-Close dialog will contain an additional check box labelled “DMS relevant” (this name varies depending on the destination to which the mail should be routed). If the current mail should be re-routed, this check box should be selected.

In their individual settings, agents can configure whether sending a mail shall bring up a confirmation prompt (see chapter Individual Settings).

Appropriate system configuration permits to search response mails for credit card details. Any credit card number detected in the incoming mail can be replaced by XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in all views (e.g., inbox). Should the mail body contain credit card details, sending will be aborted and the agent will be notified accordingly. In addition, credit card numbers in response mails can be replaced automatically. Please contact your novomind project lead for further details.

With appropriate system configuration, the optional PCI plugin detects credit card details as well as IBAN codes in emails and email attachments. Supported attachment types comprise doc, docx, pdf, rtf, csv, json, ods, pdf, txt, xlsx, odt, zip and html.
With appropriate parameter settings, the system can be set such as to remove affected attachments when sending email. This removal will then be performed without further notification of the agent. Supervisors can exempt certain card details from the scan.

Send after clearance

The novomind iAGENT System supplies a release function by the two-man principle. Reply mails are not directly sent to the customer or recipient, respectively, but are forwarded to an authorized person for proofreading.

Reply mails are passed on to clearance either automatically or manually. Whether reply mails shall be passed on to clearance automatically – and if so, which ones – can be configured in the Supervisor.

If clearance is required for a category or a user per supervisor configuration (or if clearance was forced by an app) the message is passed to clearance by an authorized user via the Send after Clearance button (in versions older than 12.18 – in case of an obligatory clearance – the button Send and close appears here as well and the mail is implicitely passed to an authorized person).

If clearance is not required but you would like to actively pass on a mail to clearance manually, you can do this by using the menu Send and close – Send after clearance or by using the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl] + [G].

Send as intermediate reply

The editor comes with the option of sending an intermediate reply using the Send and close function. Alternatively, the shortcut [Ctrl] + [D] can be used.

The Send as intermediate reply function gives the agent the option of informing the customer about the current state of their enquiry without closing the process. An intermediate reply can be saved as a mail template or draft. Whether or not, when and with what content an intermediate reply has been sent can be viewed in the course.

Intermediate replies never have to pass a clearance. In addition, intermediate replies can also be sent to BCC recipients. For technical reasons, however, it is not possible in those cases to attach memos or the original mail.

Close

Customer mails which are not answered, forwarded or resubmitted must be closed. One example of a process which should potentially be closed are customer mails which signal that the chain of correspondence has come to an end, e.g. a customer writes in response to thank the service team for answering his/her original mail so quickly.

To close a mail, the agent should select the relevant message from the mail list. The agent now clicks on the button Close in the mail editor button bar. If a transaction code is required, this code must be entered before closure by selecting the relevant code from the selection list displayed.

When closing a ticket the agent may, depending on system configuration, be permitted to select a category in which to close the ticket. In this case, hovering the mouse pointer over the Close button will display a dropdown menu listing the categories, in which the agent may close the ticket. When the agent closes the ticket in a category, the system recategorizes and close it.

Should a transaction code be required for closing in the selected category, the corresponding dialog will open up. Now, the server removes the mail from the agent inbox and marks it as closed using an internal tag.

If a mail was closed by mistake, it can be restored via the search function.

If mails have been assigned a category that indicates that they should be routed to an external system (e.g. a Document Management System (DMS)), this dialog will contain an additional check box that could, for example, be labelled “DMS relevant”. The name varies depending on the destination to which the mail should be routed. If the current mail should be re-routed, this check box should be selected.

Closing multiple mails from the same process simultaneously

For mails belonging to a process with several open mails, appropriate system configuration permits to simultaneously close all other open mails of that process when closing just one of those mails.

The interpretation of “all other open mails” depends on the system configuration: Three options are available:

Close all other open mails of the current process that are located in the agent’s personal inbox.
Close all other open mails of the current process that belong to a category for which the agent is authorized based on their group.
Close all other open mails of the current process that belong to a tenants for which the agent is authorized based on their group.

Open mails are those that either are in the agent’s personal inbox or have status Queued, Postponed, 2nd-level forward or 2nd-level Inquiry.

The dialog for closing multiple mails of a process opens up automatically as soon as one of the mails from that process has been closed. The lower section of the dialog lists all mails that can be closed with the current mail. The mails to be closed simultaneously can be selected by checking the corresponding checkboxes on the left.

In case closing the original mail requires a transaction code, it can be selected in the upper section of the dialog. Mails selected for simultaneous closing that also require a transaction code for closing will be assigned the same transaction code as their corresponding main ticket. Therefore, the intersection of transaction codes of all mails to be completed (if the categories on the requests differ) is available for selection.

As well as the transaction code, the flag for closing (e.g., “DMS relevant”) can be controlled centrally via the corresponding checkbox.

Simultaneously closed mails will always be closed without a response. Any of the mails to be closed simultaneously that could not be closed – e.g. because it had been closed by another agent in the meantime – will be skipped and closing continues without it. Any failure to close a mail will give rise to a log entry in the corresponding log file.

Resubmissions

If the agent currently does not want or is not able to answer a mail the resubmission option can be used to delay the selected mail for a limited period of time. When a postponed mail is due, the mail is resubmitted to the agent. While postponed, a mail can be found in the global as well as in the personal Postponed folder.

To postpone a mail, the agent selects the relevant mail from the mail list. By clicking on the Postpone button, a dialog box is displayed in which the time at which the mail should be resubmitted may be entered. The date can be altered manually using the calendar, which is accessed via the calendar symbol.

However, there is a limit to the future point in time at which the mail should be resubmitted. The supervisor is able to define the maximum length of time for which a mail may be postponed. If the agent selects a time and date that exceeds this limit, an error message will be displayed informing them of the problem. The agent must then select an earlier time and date. The default value is the next full hour if that point in time lies more than 30 minutes in the future or the next full hour after that in any other case.

Resubmission Rules

General behaviour of resubmissions

The novomind iAGENT server resubmit the postponed mail privileged to the same agent’s inbox at the time specified, even when they are in pause or already reached their inbox limit.

Only if this agent is not logged on at all at that time, the mail will be distributed to another suitable agent.

Only for me

Checking the option only for me when postponing a mail enforces resubmission only to the same agent. In case this agent is not available at due date, the mail stays in the queue with a corresponding resubmissin icon, but is not considered by the automatic routing. An automatic distribution of this mail is done only after login of the initiating agent.

However, the mail can be forwarded to another agent by a supervisor via internal forwarding or may be retrieved manually by other suitable agents out of the global inbox.

Unspecific Resubmission

Depending on the given configuration of the novomind iAGENT System a so-called unspecific resubmission can be made: If a mail is postponed without specifying a resubmission time and date, the mail will immediately be returned to the workflow. This mail will then be allocated to another agent from the same group according to availability.

Changing the due date of a resubmission

To process a mail selected for resubmission before its due date, it needs to be retrieved from the resubmissions folders by clicking the Manual Retrieval button. The due date and time for resubmitting a mail in one’s personal resubmissions folder can be modified via the context menu option Modify maturity.

Depending on the configuration, the agent may be able to access resubmissions from other agents. Accessing such resubmissions can be done via the search, the history or the postponed folder below the global inbox. If the system configuration does not allow accessing other agents’ resubmissions, a mail with the status “resubmission” needs to be put back into the routing queue by a supervisor through the “Restore” command.

Limit of resubmissions per agent

Depending on system configuration a maximum number of resubmissions can be specified for agents. If such a limit has been specified, no further mails can be resubmitted once the limit has been reached. Attempting to resubmit a mail after reaching the limit will bring up a warning dialog.

Resubmissions and forwardings

Depending on the system’s configuration, agents will find proper resubmissions as well as internal forwards to other agents in their global resubmissions directory. Internal forwards to other agents will only be visible if the corresponding ticket is assigned to a category which the agent is permitted to view.

Forwarding

The Forward button enables the agent to forward a selected mail in one of three ways: Internal Forward, External Forward and External Inquiry.

Internal Forward permits to forward a mail to an agent co-worker also working with novomind iAGENT.
If the agent requires support from an external service agent or a 2nd level support staff member, they can send the mail on using the External forward or External inquiry functions. An external service agent refers to agents who have not been assigned the role of a novomind iAGENT agent.

During an external inquiry, the service agent response is sent back to the agent who initiated the external inquiry. If an external agent responds to an external forward, however, the response is sent directly on to the customer.

Internal forwarding

If the agent wants to forward a mail on to another novomind iAGENT user, the agent can select the option Internal Forward. The text that is in the editor at the time of forwarding is transferred to the recipient. In this way, a draft response can be further processed or checked by the new agent.

An agent selects the colleague to whom the mail is to be forwarded from a drop-down list in the dialog window for internal forwarding. The list indicates to all colleagues working for the given customer, or for the same customer(s), how the agent themself. For the selection of the respective agent there is a rapid search function. Touch the first letter in the input line and the view will jump to the corresponding entry in the list. When searching with a substring in the agent name, e.g. for ‘Smith’ in the agent name ‘John Smith’, all agent names containing the entered query string are listed as a substring.

To filter exclusively for agent names starting with a specific character sequence, the ‘^’ operator can be employed: the query ‘^John’ will list all agent names starting with ‘John’.

The names of colleagues currently logged-in to the novomind iAGENT system are shown in bold face (those can also be filtered with the checkbox). They can receive mails without delay. Colleagues whose names are shown in normal typeface are currently not logged-in to the novomind iAGENT system. The agent’s status is shown in brackets behind their name.

If the mail is to be forwarded to a colleague currently logged off, the agent needs to specify a point in time in the second entry field Timeframe (Until), until when mail forwarding shall be attempted. The latest time for delivery is entered. If the agent logs on during the given timeframe, they will receive the internally forwarded mail. The date can be altered manually using the calendar, which is accessed via the calendar symbol.
The default value is the next full hour if that point in time lies more than 30 minutes in the future or the next full hour after that in any other case. The only exception to this rule is constituted by tickets whose clearance is pending: For those the point in time defaults to the current time.

With appropriate system configuration, a mail will be reset into status Resubmission when its recipient logs into the system and back out without having processed the forwarded mail (Close or Forward). In this case, the mail will be resubmitted to the agent when they log in again. If the agent does not log back into the system before the due date has been reached for the mail, the mail will be reassigned in status “Queued” and shall be returned into automated routing.
If the agent recategorizes the mail or saves it as a template, maturity remains unaffected. Only once the validity period has expired without processing by an agent will the mail be transferred back into regular routing.

Agents can also forward tickets to an entire agent group (this function is currently in beta stage and has to be unlocked individually). In this case, the routing process determines to which agents from the group the ticket will be forwarded. To do so, the agent selects the option Forward to Group from the Forwarding dropdown menu. In the subsequent dialog, the agent selects an agent group from the list of groups or searches for a specific group using quick search. The agent also specifies the deadline for forwarding.

A ticket that has been forwarded to an agent group via internal forwarding receives the following update to its course: Forward (internal), Resubmission before <Date and Time>, To Group: <Group Name>.

External Forwarding

With external forwarding, the agent has the option of transferring a message to a clerk who does not work with the novomind iAGENT system for further processing or just for information.

To forward a mail externally, the relevant mail is selected. The following dialog menu appears upon clicking on the button Forward – External Forward, or depending on the system configuration, a colored border around the editor appears and a predefined forwarding-Template will be selected.

Forwarding dialog

The checkboxes and entry fields available depend on the system configuration.

In the field Email address the recipient of the mail forward can be selected from a predefined list. Given appropriate configuration, the recipient can also be entered manually. The recipient list is defined by the supervisors. Apart from regular addresses, this list can also contain mailing list addresses. If the syntax of the entered address is incorrect, then this will be indicated by highlighting the address field with a red frame (when clicking on External Forward). If the mail address of an incoming account is used for an external forward, the address field is also highlighted in red and the following warning appears.

Confirming the error message has the following effects:

OK: The mail is sent despite the use of an email address of the incoming account.
Cancel: The mail is not sent.

Mails cannot be forwarded to an email address belonging to a registered agent. If you wish to forward an email to another agent, please use the internal forward function.

In the memo field, an agent can compose a message to the external consultant. Depending on system configuration, the original customer mail may be attached to that mail (see below). The memo must not be empty otherwise the novomind iAGENT Agent will indicate an error here as well.

The supervisor can set a default memo text for all categories or define category-specific memos. Any default memo can be overwritten by the agent.

There are three options for mail handling after an external forward. These options can be controlled via the checkboxes Close Process and Keep message.

Emails can be routed to an external system such as a Document Management System (DMS), provided that novomind iMAIL has been configured accordingly in the Supervisor. The agent decides whether to re-channel an individual email when they forward it externally. If the email is to be re-routed, the DMS relevant check box must be selected. The name of this check box can be modified depending on the location to which the email should be routed.

The Supervisor defines whether a memo mail, an original customer mail and/or a reply template are to be forwarded to the external consultant. Depending on system configuration, an agent may be able to override these settings.

A transaction code may be required if the forward shall also close the process.

The message is sent using the External Forward option.

Close process by agent

If the novomind iAGENT system is to consider the mail closed after forwarding it to an external officer, the Close Process checkbox must be activated in the External Forward dialog. If the category of the mail to be closed requires a transaction code, the latter has to be entered in the dialog.

Checking on further processing of the mail within the novomind iMAIL system is thus no longer possible, and the agent is no longer responsible for the further processing of the mail. A closed mail can be reactivated by the agent at any time should further processing be required.

The external officer receives a forwarded mail with a subject line as displayed in the following figure. From is the incoming account by which the mail was originally received in the novomind iAGENT system. Alternatively and depending on the settings defined by the supervisor, the From field may contain the address of the agent who sent the mail. To is the external recipient of the email. The memo entered in the dialog during the external forwarding process appears as the actual body of the mail.

Given appropriate system configuration or manual selection, the original message of the customer and/or the template defined via novomind iAGENT is attached to the mail and can be used as a template for the reply to the customer. After opening an attachment, be it the initial customer mail or a template, a reply to the customer can be generated immediately by clicking on Reply.

Delivery errors occurring for externally forwarded mails whose process has already been closed, will be shown in the history. Such a ticket will be directly reactivated and preferably routed to the agent who last processed it.

Close process by external contact

If a process is not to be closed before the external contact has replied, neither the Close process checkbox nor the Edit process checkbox must be activated.

In such cases, the mail is automatically moved from the personal inbox of the agent to the subfolder 2nd-level-forwards by the novomind iAGENT server. The mail is removed from this folder once the external service agent has answered the mail or closed the process without responding to the mail. This means that a check can be carried out to verify whether the externally forwarded mail is still being processed. Provided that the external staff member does not reply to the mail, the agent can retrieve the forwarded message from the 2nd-level-forwards subfolder and answer it.

If an agent retrieves the message from the subfolder and replies to the customer before the external officer has replied, the customer only receives the reply of the agent even if the external agent sends a reply as well. If an agent retrieves the mail from the subfolder and closes the process without replying to the customer, a later reply of the external officer to the customer is equally not sent off. The reply of the external officer can only be viewed by the novomind iAGENT supervisor and can manually be sent to the customer if required. When forwarding a mail to an external officer, a memo is added to the body of the mail stating that the external officer’s reply is directly sent to the customer.

The language of the help text depends on the language detected for and assigned to the ticket. Should the ticket be authored in a language for which the novomind iAGENT interface is unavailable, the system will display the help text in the system’s default language.

For the user interface you can choose between Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. The memo that the agent types into the External forward dialog field appears below this statement.

After clicking on Reply in both the forward and the attachment, the address of the respective novomind iAGENT system account appears in the To field of the header, not the email address of the customer. This ensures that the reply of the external officer is sent via novomind iAGENT to the customer and thus registered in novomind iAGENT.

The email sent by the external officer is thus sent directly to the customer via the novomind iAGENT system account (without any agent or supervisor interfering with it). By sending the email via the system account, the reply can be assigned to the process and thus archived. novomind iAGENT users can thus see if and when the external officer replied to the customer. If the external officer uses the received forwarded email for the reply to the customer, only the reply of the external officer without the original text of the customer is sent. (The memo for the external officer is automatically deleted by novomind iAGENT in such cases.) If the external officer uses the original mail of the customer or the reply template from the attachment for their reply, the respective contents (original mail or content of the template) are sent with the mail.

Alternatively, the external officer can close the process in novomind iAGENT without replying to the customer by simply clicking on the link in the received mail.

External forwarding with further processing

If a mail is forwarded for the sole purpose of providing an external officer with information or if only part of the customer query is to be answered directly by the novomind iAGENT agent, the Keep message check box should be selected. In this case, only a copy of the mail is sent to the external officer, while the actual process remains open in the novomind iAGENT system. The header and the default value of the To field of the forwarded email and the attachments are equivalent to those of external forwarding with the Close process option.

External forwarding: Manually overriding the default

Depending on the configuration in the Supervisor, the agent may be able to decide on the type of information that is forwarded to the external officer and can thus override the default behavior configured for the system. If this functionality is enabled in the novomind iAGENT Supervisor, the Forward section appears in the lower part of the Forward dialog.

With the Customer email and Suggestion checkboxes, the user can determine whether the initial customer mail and/or the template (reply suggestion) are sent with the external forwarding. The selection of As attachment or As email determines whether the selected information is sent as an attachment or directly as an email.

If the As attachment option is selected, the customer email and/or reply template is sent to the external officer as an attachment. When using the option As email users can only forward one single object, i.e. either the customer email or the reply suggestion. However, the As email option can only be selected if one of the two options Close process or Keep message is activated.

This means that this option must only be used if an agent or supervisor is to close the process – and not the external officer. The memo field cannot be edited anymore if As email is selected and it is not considered during forwarding. Forwarding As email means that the selected document (customer mail or reply suggestion) is forwarded to the external officer as it is, and no additional comments can be added.

The header looks as follows if using the As email option: The From field contains the address of the incoming account and the To field contains the recipient (external officer). The text is the message from the original customer mail.

If the external officer replies to a customer mail and a reply suggestion received as an email, the To field is automatically filled with the email address of the customer.

External forwarding by re-categorising

If an agent re-categorises a mail and puts it in a category for which the Supervisor has enabled the “automatic forwarding” option, this mail is then automatically forwarded to the external officer.

If the agent is responsible for the new category the mail remains in the agent’s inbox after recategorisation. To execute the forward, the agent either has to logoff or execute an unspecific resubmission in order to feed the mail into the normal workflow. If the agent is not responsible for the new category, the mail is automatically fed into the regular workflow and the forwarding is executed.

Thirdly and lastly, the display of the agent name in the memo section for external officers is different. It says Forward Bot to designate the virtual agent.

External inquiry

An external inquiry is initiated in much the same way as an external forward. Again, the agent recipient is not a novomind iAGENT agent. The difference between the external inquiry and the external forward functions is that the external agent response is sent back to the novomind iAGENT agent. The novomind iAGENT agent then prepares the response and dispatches it to the customer.

To use this function, the agent selects the relevant mail from the mail list and clicks on Forward – External Inquiry, or depending on the system configuration, a colored border around the editor appears and a predefined inquiry template will be selected. The agent then selects a recipient from a list of available recipients or enters the relevant email address in the To field (provided that this has not been prohibited by the supervisor). The agent can add a memo in the memo field. Again, the memo field must not remain empty; otherwise, the mail cannot be sent.

The inquiry is dispatched by clicking on External inquiry (provided the receiving address has been entered syntactically correctly) and the mail is automatically moved from the agent’s inbox to the subfolder 2nd-level-inquiry by the novomind iAGENT server. The original customer mail remains in the global inbox and is marked according to the current status. Furthermore, a copy of the mail is put in the global folder 2nd-level-inquiries. The memo from the agent for the external officer can be viewed after selecting the mail via the tab Memos. At any time, the agent can retrieve the mail from the 2nd-level-inquiries folder and reply to it immediately and without waiting for a reply from the external officer. The confirmation message displayed after successful external forwarding is removed after ca. two seconds if the agent does not acknowledge it.

The From and To fields of the header of the mail sent to the external officer show the sender (depending on the configuration, either the initial novomind iAGENT incoming account or the mail address of the agent) and the recipient. The supervisor settings for external forwarding and the attachments to be sent (customer mail and/or reply suggestion) also apply to the external inquiry.

In all cases of external inquiries, the external officer can only reply to the agent by clicking on reply and using the default value of the To field. This applies to both the reply to the mail of the agent and the reply to the documents attached.

The header of the email looks as shown below after clicking on reply. For the reply of the external officer to be successfully assigned to the agent, the default To address must be used. A corresponding message appears in the agent inquiry. The text entered in the memo field by the agent is displayed below this message.

Depending on the configuration of the parameter Reset state on receipt of external answer to” in the Supervisor, there are two workflows upon receipt of the reply from the external officer:

With the setting Queued, receiving the reply to the external inquiry will
- add the external consultant’s reply to the customer mail as a new memo.
- include the external consultant’s reply and the customer mail in the regular routing process. Both mails will be bundled and delivered to the next free agent – preferentially to the agent who initially sent out the external inquiry.
With the setting Resubmit (explicit), receiving the reply to the external inquiry will
- add the external consultant’s reply as a memo to the customer mail.
- mark the customer mail as due for resubmission and deposit it, together with the external reply, in the inquiring agent’s personal inbox.

If one of the two mails – customer inquiry or consultant’s reply – is closed, both mails will be removed from the inbox and archived.

If the agent is not logged in when the external officer replies, the reply is not sent to any agent. Only the supervisor has the possibility to assign the process to another agent while the original agent is not available by means of internal forwarding.

If the answer received from the external officer contains an attachment, this will automatically be included in the mail response sent to the customer and can be viewed by the novomind iAGENT agent simply by clicking on the file name.

External inquiry: Manually overriding the default

Analogous to external forwarding, the agent, subject to the configuration in the Supervisor, may be able to decide which information is forwarded to the external officer during an external inquiry. In such cases, the respective dialog also contains the section Forward (as attachment).

External Forwarding/Inquiry with editor

As the new default for external forwards/inquiries, the generic mail is used with all its features (incl. templates, text modules, tags, etc.). Some features, however, differ in their behavior from the legacy forwarding dialog.

Move the mouse pointer to the Forward button on the mail editor’s menu bar. From the opening drop-down menu, select External forward or External inquiry and confirm your selection with a left-click. The editor clears and is framed in orange with the label External forward or External inquiry.

First, the agent enters the address of the external clerk in the To address line. If no address is entered, the system notifies the agent with a corresponding error message when attempting to close the ticket. In the editor window, the agent composes the message to the external agent.

If a standard template has been configured for external forwards/inquiries in the given category and for the given tenant, the editor window does not clear. With a template in place, the previous content of the editor window will be replaced by that of the standard template.

External forwarding

The mail editor’s menu bar contains the menu items Forward and close and Cancel.
Move the mouse pointer to the Forward and close button. Depending on configuration, the drop-down menu offers the additional options Forward for external processing or Forward and keep for processing.

Forward and close forwards the mail to an external processor and closes the process. If the system has been configured such that closing a mail will also cause all other mails in the same process to be closed, this will also apply to closing external forwards.
Forward for external processing forwards the mail to an external processor and moves it from the agent’s inbox to their subfolder 2nd-level-forward. The system removes the mail from the subfolder as soon as the external processor closes the process (with or without reply). As long as the external agent has not replied to the message, the agent can retrieve the forwarded message from the 2nd-level forwarding subfolder and reply to it.
Forward and keep for processing forwards the mail to an external processor, but retains the mail in the system for further processing. In this case, the external processor only receives a copy via which they are informed about the history of the process.
Cancel brings back the mail editor with its complete standard menu bar. This will restore all previous features and settings.

If an agent retrieves the message from the folder and replies to the customer before the external party has replied to the customer, the customer will only receive the agent’s reply, even if the external party should still reply. If an agent retrieves the message from the folder and closes the process without replying to the customer, a subsequent reply from the external party is also no longer forwarded to the customer. The external agent’s reply can then only be viewed via the novomind iAGENT Supervisor and can be manually forwarded to the customer from there if necessary.
When forwarding a message to an external agent, a note is inserted in the email for the agent that their reply will be sent directly to the customer. The agent’s note entered via the External Forward dialog appears below the note in this case.

After clicking on Reply, both in the forwarding and in the attachments, the To field of the header displays the address of the corresponding novomind iAGENT system account and not the customer’s email address. As a result, the response from the external processor is sent to the customer via the novomind iAGENT system and can be registered in novomind iAGENT.

The mail sent by the external agent goes directly to the customer via the novomind iAGENT system account (without an agent or supervisor still being able to influence it). By sending the mail via the system account, the response can be assigned to the process and thus also archived. In this way, novomind iAGENT users can see whether and when the external agent has replied to the customer.
If the external agent directly uses the received forwarding for the reply to the customer, only the reply of the external party is sent without the original text of the customer (in this case, the notice text for the external agent is automatically removed by the novomind iAGENT system). If the external processor uses the customer’s original email or the reply template from the attachment for their reply, the corresponding content (original email or content of the template) is also sent.
Alternatively, the external agent can complete the process in the novomind iAGENT system without replying to the customer. To do this, they simply click on the link in the received email.

If a delivery error occurs in externally forwarded emails whose process has been completed, this is visible in the history. Such tickets are reactivated directly and preferentially distributed to the last processor.

External inquiry

Move the mouse cursor to the Forward button in the menu bar of the mail editor. The mail editor’s menu bar contains the menu entries External inquiry and Cancel.

Cancel brings back the mail editor with its full menu bar. This restores all previous features and settings.

External inquiry forwards the mail with the agent’s inquiry to an external processor after asking for the resubmission date (optional) and if the ticket shall stay in the editor (for creating another external inquiry for the same ticket) in a dialog.

If you choose External inquiry in the drop-down menu, the editor remains active, the editor window empties and the editor gets an orange frame.

In case that two external inquiries have been created for the same ticket, the ticket will immediately be forwarded to the agent and be removed from the 2nd-Level folder. If it is necessary to wait for the reply of the second inquiry as well, the agent is able to postpone this ticket until the outstanding reply arrives through hitting the “Resubmit/Inquiry” button and then click on the button “Inquiry” in the little dialogue. Then this ticket will be pushed back into the 2nd-Level folder and will appear once again when the next response arrives.
The external processor’s response will be saved as a note on the original ticket – this way the external processor’s reply can then be referenced when replying to the original mail.

After sending the external query, the ticket is automatically moved to the “2nd-level queries” subfolder. The original message remains in the global inbox and is marked according to the current status. The note entered by the agent for the external agent can be viewed via the Notes tab after selecting the mail. The agent has the possibility to retrieve the mail from the 2nd-level-Inquiries folder at any time, in order to answer it immediately without a reply from the external agent.
The reply from the external agent goes to the reply address entered in the header (typically the agent’s address).It can then be consulted to reply to the original mail.
The external agent is informed with a hint text that their answer will be sent to the agent who sent them the query. The language of the hint text depends on the language assigned to the ticket.

Depending on the configuration of the On external reply, automatically reset status to parameter in the supervisor, two different behaviors can occur when the response from the external agent is received:

With the In Queue setting, when the external response is received,

the reply of the external agent is attached to the customer message as a new note
the external agent’s reply and the customer message are reintroduced into the normal routing process and distributed in bundles to the next free agent – but preferably to the agent who made the query.

With the Resubmission (explicit) setting, when the external response is received,

the reply of the external agent is attached to the customer message as a new note
the customer message is due as a resubmission and placed in the personal inbox of the querying agent together with the reply.

If either message – customer inquiry or response – is completed, both messages are removed from the inbox and archived.

If the agent is not logged in when the external’s reply is received – if the Resubmission (explicit) option is selected – the reply will not be delivered to any agent. During the absence of the original agent, only the supervisor has the option of sending this process to another agent in bundled form by means of internal forwarding.

If the reply of the agent called in contains a file attachment, this is automatically inserted as an attachment in the customer reply mail and can be viewed by the agent by clicking on the file name.

Header

Clicking the -button in the mail editor’s menu bar will display the header. Header behavior for external forwards/external inquiries differs from that of the standard header in some respects.

To address line. Depending on system configuration, you can either enter an arbitrary address here or select an address from a predefined list of external recipients.
The CC address line is disabled by default. If enabled by an administrator, you can either enter an arbitrary address or select an address from a predefined list of external recipients here. Actual system behavior will depend on the specific system configuration.
The CC address feature in external forwards/inquiries is still in beta state.
The reply channel available is email in either plain text or HTML format.

Recategorize

If the agent sees that a mail has been categorised incorrectly – e.g. the mail has been assigned the category “Change of address” although the mail text indicates that the customer is placing an “Order” – or if the agent wants to alter the assigned category for another reason, they have the option of re-categorizing the mail.

Once the mail has been highlighted in personal post inbox and the menu option Recategorisation selected, a new window is displayed. The agent can now select the relevant category for the mail from the list shown. This can be completed by scrolling or by entering the first letters of the category name. The selected category is assigned to the mail by clicking Ok.

Mails can be recategorized in one’s personal inbox as well as in the global inbox. The requirements for recategorizing in the global inbox are

that the agent has sufficient rights for “Manual routing” and thus can access the global inbox
that the mail to be recategorized is in “Queued” status.

With the appropriate novomind iAGENT system configuration, recategorisation from certain categories into other categories can be disabled. In this case, the Recategorise function in novomind iAGENT Desk will not be available. In addition, recategorisation into certain categories can be disabled. In this case, the categories will not be offered in the category list.

Principally, all target category settings will be applied after successful recategorization, including text modules, service level, reply template or automatic forwarding.

If the agent assigns a mail to a category for which they are not authorised, the respective mail is automatically withdrawn from them after re-categorisation. This can be avoided by checking the box Process retained by agent in the dialog window.

The mail will also be redistributed to another agent when a category has been chosen for which the agent only is passive member..

If the agent chooses to keep the ticket after recategorization, the Info Area will automatically refresh and the focus will be set onto the Email tab.

Please save new or modified notes and CRM data prior to recategorizing.

In case the agent is responsible for replying to mails from multiple tenants, the system configuration controls whether an additional tenant filter is available. If the tenant filter is available, the agent can select a another tenant than the one to whom the current mail is assigned to. If the agent selects a different tenant, the content of the category list changes. The system only displays the categories assigned to the currently selected tenant. Selecting the tenant filter to All will display all categories for all their tenant in the category selection list. If an agent is only responsible for one customer, then the category selection list will only show the categories of that given customer. Independent of customer selection, additional categories are displayed which belong to groups without customer assignment or which are not assigned to any group.

With appropriate system configuration recategorization can now also be performed between unassigned tenants, i.e., recategorization can be performed to categories that belong to tenants which the agent has not been assigned to. The confirmation window after successful re-categorisation disappears automatically after ca. two seconds.

If the tenant filter is not available, the agent can only select those categories for re-categorization that are assigned to the tenant of each mail. An accidental re-categorization to categories from a different tenant is thus avoided.

Categories for Chats and Mails

Usually, categories for Mails and Chats are defined separately. If you wish to use the same categories for chats and mails, the supervisor can configure your system correspondingly.

Assign tags (since version 12.19)

Using the dropdown on the Recategorize button, existing routing tags on the mail can be changed with Assign tags.

The Assign tags dialog lists all routing tags that are already assigned to the mail. They can be deleted by clicking the X icon. The dropdown lists all other existing routing tags. They can be assigned to the mail by clicking on them.

Below this, the checkmark can be set if the ticket should not to go into automatic routing again afterwards, but should remain with the current agent. If the tags are changed, the ticket will otherwise be taken from the agent if not all routing tags of the ticket are assigned to them and they would not receive the ticket again via priviledged routing.

Save

If an agent has to interrupt the writing of a mail in the editor or if they want to make their current work accessible to another agent or the supervisor, they have the following options for saving their work.

As draft

The agent can save a response mail as a draft. This allows them e.g. to read another customer message during processing.

Saving a customer mail copies it. The version with an already started response text is stored in the Draft folder marked with a separate symbol. The original customer mail remains in inbox, but it looses its previous response text if (after storage) you open another mail or another file.

To subsequently continue working on the reply, change over to the drafts file and select the corresponding mail. When the reply has been finished, the mail can be sent directly out from the draft file. Both the draft and the copy of the given mail in the outbox are automatically removed during transmission (also if you have completed the response mail in the inbox and have sent it from there).

However, if you logoff from your novomind iAGENT Desk before having finished the response, only the original mail will be returned to Workflow and the draft will be retained.
After renewed login, the novomind iAGENT system checks whether or not the mail has been processed in the meantime. If it has been processed, the drafts will automatically be deleted from the Drafts folder. If it has not been processed yet, the drafts remain in the Drafts folder and can be re-used for replying to the mail. To do so, the mail has to be automatically or manually routed to the agent’s personal inbox.

You can proceed with automatically stored back-up copies in the same manner as with manually stored drafts (see also Section Individual Settings), except that the call function is not available here.

As Template

Changes by agents can also be saved in the global inbox as a template. This makes it possible to save work so that it is accessible for other parties than the respective agent and to forward this work to external officers if required.

Work saved as a template becomes visible in the global inbox of the Supervisor directly after saving. The original reply suggestion created by the system is replaced by the text saved by the agent. Any attached files and PDF documents added by the agent are also considered.

If the mail is fed back to the workflow after the user logs off and if it is then accessed by another user, then the latter also sees this version of the mail which was saved by the previous user as a template.

Global saving As template is a manual process executed by the agent and does not happen automatically or periodically (as saving As draft does). If the process is closed without a reply, a later recovery of the process firstly reactivates the most recently saved intermediate version.

The info window after the successful saving of drafts and templates disappears automatically after ca. two seconds.