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Function documentationE-Mail Escalation

 

E-mails can be escalated if they are not processed within a specific period of time, for example, e-mails that are not processed within 24 hours after the initial receipt are escalated. You can define the time periods that determine the escalation and you can be notified and view escalated e-mails as soon as the escalation occurs. From reviewing escalated e-mails, you can reroute the e-mail or decide on another action to speed up processing.

Integration

The SAP Business Workflow is used for the escalation process. In Workflow for ERMS, the escalation times you define are used as the Latest End date and time.

Prerequisites

You have defined e-mail escalations.

Features

Escalation Definition

Escalated e-mails are determined when defined initial response times are not met. The initial response time is the time between an e-mail is received in the system until the time that an agent processes the e-mail.

Initial response time is calculated by one of the following:

  • Service Level Agreements (SLA)

    You can set a deadline for escalation by using a service contract. The system uses the service contract that is assigned to the business partner and reads the duration time from the response profile associated with the service contract.

  • Rules and actions

    In the CRM WebClient user interface you create a rule using the Set Attribute Value action with the value Response Time Duration to determine at what point an e-mail is considered escalated. You can also use some fact base attributes as additional criteria, for example, if a customer is a high priority and valued customer with a specific system status, and sends an e-mail with a request, but the e-mail is not processed within a specific number of hours as determined in the rule, the e-mail is escalated.

  • E-Mail Addresses

    You can determine an escalation time based upon the receiving e-mail address.

Escalation Determination

You can choose which method is used to determine the initial response time. You can either use the:

  • Service Level Agreement

  • Combination of SLA, rules and actions, and e-mail addresses

    The system uses the definition with the shortest initial response time out of all three methods.

Escalation Process

See E-Mail Escalation Process.

Escalation Notification

You are notified of a new escalated e-mail by receiving an e-mail. Mail forms are used to create the notification text.

Escalation Monitoring

After receiving the escalation notification, you use the overview in the E-Mail Workbench to monitor the number of escalated e-mails per organizational unit and navigate directly to the individual e-mail for further action.