Crow Canyon Systems,
Inc.
support@crowcanyon.com
Email
Capture
New feature added in version 5.0!
An important part of ticket creation and
resolution is communication by emails between staff and users or customers. CCS
Service Request 5.0 includes a feature to capture emails that are sent or
received and link them to tickets. This saves an enormous amount of work in
keeping track of this vital communication between staff and the user regarding the
question or issue at hand.
Overview
CCS Service Request offers several ways to
process incoming emails. Two of these – the Event Sink and the Create Ticket
from Email macro -- were in previous versions. The third one is a completely
new feature in 5.0 and greatly expands the ability to capture and manage emails
in association with the tickets.
Event
Sink – Automatic Conversion of new emails to Tickets
A “Service Area” or “Help Desk” public folder
is mail-enabled and given an email address. Emails from any source, whether
internal or from outside, arrive at this folder. An Event Sink running on the
Exchange Server converts these emails to tickets automatically. We provide the
Event Sink and installation files for this as part of our Optional Components
(see Downloads
page). The advantages of this method are that the emails are converted
automatically and do not require an Outlook client to be running or anyone to
manually select and convert the emails.
“Create
Ticket from Email” macro – Manual Conversion of new emails to Tickets
A “Create Ticket from Email” macro is
installed in Outlook. The Outlook user selects an email and presses a button on
the toolbar that runs that macro, which converts the selected email into a new
ticket. This allows selective conversion of tickets, but it does require
someone to manually select and convert the email. It also has to be installed
and configured on each Outlook client that will use this (just the staff, not
the end users).
New in
5.0: Outlook Addin monitors incoming and sent emails plus allows linking of
emails to tickets and creation of new tickets from emails.
We provide an Outlook Addin named “CCS Email
Capture”. This Addin does three things that automate the linkage between emails
and tickets:
1)
It
monitors the incoming emails and looks for Case ID in the subject. If found, it
associates the email with that ticket and puts a copy in the Emails folder
under the Service Request folder.
2)
It
monitors the sent emails and looks for Case ID in the subject. If found, it
associates the email with that ticket and puts a copy in the Emails folder
under the Service Request folder.
3)
It
places a button on the Outlook toolbar. This “CCS Email Capture” button allows
the user to select an email in any folder and then choose to either create a
new ticket or associate the email with an existing ticket. The association is
made by entering the Case ID of the ticket. (NOTE: The caption of this button
can be changed in the registry under HKLM\Software\Crow Canyon Systems\Service
Request\Client\CaptureBtnCaption)
An email is selected, then the “CCS Email
Capture” button is pressed, which brings up a box:
This box has two options.
a.
“Link
email with the ticket”. A Case ID is entered and then when “OK” is pushed, the
email is associated with that ticket and also a copy is placed in the Emails
folder under Service Request. There is no ability at this time to search for a
ticket. The Case ID has to be entered manually. We expect to automate this more
in future versions.
b.
“Convert
Email to Ticket”. This acts like the “Create Ticket from Email” macro. It makes
a new ticket out of the selected email. It also gives the option of which
Service Area to put the new ticket in.
More on
the Use of Case ID in the Subject of emails
Note:
“Case ID” is the random 9-digit number that is generated whenever a ticket is
created. It follows the ticket throughout its life. It is not the Ticket ID or
Ticket Number, which is a sequential number issued with the ticket is assigned.
The Case ID of the ticket is placed in all
outgoing emails from the ticket. This means any updates generated from the
ticket to the users will have the Case ID in the subject. When the user replies
to those emails, the Case ID will stay in the subject of the reply. Users must
not delete or change this part of the Subject line when replying. If the staff
member then replies back to the user, the Case ID will again be in the subject
The Case ID should stay in the subject during
the full course of the correspondence back and forth between staff and users.
In this way, every email, whether incoming or outgoing, is recorded and
associated with the corresponding ticket.
The CCS Email Capture addin runs in the
background in Outlook on staff members’ computers. When the staff member sends
an email with a Case ID in the subject, the email is associated with the
ticket. This occurs both when sending from the ticket and when replying to user
replies that have Case ID in the subject.
When an email comes in to the Inbox of that
staff member, the addin looks for Case ID in the Subject. Any reply from users
should have the Case ID in the Subject. If the Case ID is found, the email is
associated with the corresponding ticket.
This recording of emails happens
automatically when the CCS Email Capture addin is installed. No further action
is required. The CCS Email Capture toolbar is used when the staff member wants
to create a new ticket from an email or associate an email that does not have a
Case ID in the subject with a ticket.
Email
with Case ID in Subject:
Viewing
Linked (associated) Emails from a Ticket
Emails associated with a ticket can be viewed
in the Linked Mails tab of the Assigned Ticket. This is accessed in the ribbon
in Outlook 2007/2010 or on the ticket form in Outlook 2003 and earlier.
The list of emails associated with the ticket
is shown on this tab. These are drawn from the Emails folder under Service
Request. This provides a quick and easy way to view all correspondence related
to a ticket.
Linked
Mails tab with one associated email
The emails can be opened by clicking on them.
They also can be deleted from this window.