Email Forward Block

Use to send an incoming e-mail to an external address, such as for agent collaboration. This block combines the functionality of IRD's Forward E-mail, Redirect E-mail, and Reply E-mail from External Resource objects. The Forward Type property specifies the type of functionality by allowing you to select Forward, Reply to Customer, or Redirect.  

• The difference between Forward and Redirect is as follows: Use the Forward functionality when there is an expectation of getting a response  back.  Use the Redirect functionality when there is no expectation of getting a response back.

• Reply To Customer works with the Forward functionality. It takes the resulting external resource reply inbound e-mail as input, extracts the external resource reply text from it, creates a customer reply outbound e-mail, and submits the e-mail to Interaction Server using the specified interaction queue.

Note: An "external resource" is a name for any object outside the contact center. It may be an external agent or another contact center. Configure external e-mail addresses as E-Mail Accounts Business Attributes in the Configuration Database.

Use Case for Forward and Reply to Customer

1. An e-mail about a product defect arrives to the contact center, initiating a routing workflow.
2. Based on content analysis, the contact center determines that it must be replied to by an outsource partner responsible for supporting the defective product.
3. The routing workflow invokes the Forward functionality of this block, and the e-mail is sent to an external address. The e-mail uses text from the Standard Response Library to indicate to the outsourcer what the service-level agreement is on such customer inquiries.
4. The outsourcer partner replies to the e-mail with a response on the defective product.
5. The routing workflow then employs the Reply to Customer capability. It take the response from the outsourcer partner, reformats it appropriately, and sends it as a response to the original customer inquiry.

Use Case for Redirect

Use the redirect functionality to send an incoming e-mail to an external address without expecting a response or when there is no need for further processing.

1. An inbound e-mail interaction initiates a routing workflow.
2. Based on a content analysis of the e-mail, the e-mail is re-directed to the Brokerage business unit that is outside of the contact center.
3. The e-mail is handled directly by a broker (knowledge worker) in the Brokerage business unit. The contact center does not expect a response, or to be involved in further processing of the email.

Special Note on Cc, From, and Exclude Addresses Properties

The Literal and Variable types can have a value set to an actual e-mail address, e.g., joe@test.com, or refer to the name of a previously configured e-mail address from Configuration Server (e.g., if Tech Support is configured as a Configuration Server E-mail Accounts Business Attribute, then Tech Support can be the value for the Literal type and the Orchestration platform will use that e-mail address.

The E-mail Forward block has the following properties:

Name Property

Find this property's details under Common Properties.

Block Notes Property

Find this property's details under Common Properties.

Email Server Property

Find this property's details under Common Properties.

Exceptions Property

Find this property's details under Common Properties.

Associate New Interaction Property

This property, introduced in Composer 8.1.420.xx for the Chat Transcript, Create Email, Create SMS, Email Forward, and Email Response blocks, supports the Orchestration Server <ixn:createmessage> tag associate attribute. See Using eServices Blocks, section Associate New Interaction. This property requires Orchestration Server version 8.1.400.45+.

Do Not Thread Property

Find this property's details under Common Properties.

Forward Type Property

As described at the start of this topic, select one of the following:

• Forward—forward to an external resource with the expectation of getting a response  back
• Reply to Customer—takes the reply inbound e-mail as input, extracts the reply text from it, and creates a customer reply outbound e-mail
• Redirect—forward to an external resource with no expectation of getting a response  back

Some of the properties under the Message Settings section may not be applicable based on the Forward Type selected. Even if you are able to specify a value for all properties, values for those properties that are not applicable are ignored. The table below provides you a list of the applicable and non-applicable properties for each Forward Type:

Forward Type	CC	Exclude Email Address	Field Codes	From	Include Original Message Into Reply	Standard Response	Subject	To
Forward	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reply To Customer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Redirect	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes

Note: The not applicable properties will also not work when using an External Service block, based on the External Services Protocol.

Output Queue Property

Starting with Release 8.1.410.14, you can use a queue defined in referenced Projects. For more information, see Adding an Interaction Queue.

Related Interaction ID

Select a variable for the current interaction ID or keep the default, which is system.InteractionID. For information on the value, see the Entry block, Variables property, System Variables.

CC Property

Find this property's details under Common Properties.

Exclude Email Addresses Property

Find this property's details under Common Properties.

Tip

When the Forward Type property is set to Forward, the Exclude Email Address property is not allowed. The Add button in the dialog box is disabled.

Field Codes Property

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From Property

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Include Original Message Into Reply Property

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Standard Response Property

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Subject Property

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To Property

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Interaction ID Property

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Output Result Property

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Detach Property

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Detach Timeout Property

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Condition Property

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Logging Details Property

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Log Level Property

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Enable Status Property

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ORS Extensions Property

Starting with 8.1.4, Composer blocks used to build routing applications (with the exception of the Disconnect and EndParallel blocks) add a new ORS Extensions property.