Forward to External Resource Template

This template demonstrates screening a customer e-mail to see if it describes a known problem so that a standard (automatic) response can be sent to the customer.  If the e-mail does not describe a known problem,  then an acknowledgement e-mail is sent to the customer and the customer's e-mail is forwarded to an external resource (such as an expert or knowledge worker) for a reply. When the reply is received from the external resource, the reply is forwarded to the customer. The template is shown below.

1. The interaction process diagram (IPD) starts with a Media Server block, which defines Customer E-mail and External Resource Reply endpoints. Defining two endpoints allows e-mails arriving from customers  and external resources to get into the appropriate interaction queues.
2. In the first column of blocks in the IPD, the InboundEmailQ queue sends e-mails to a Workflow block, which points to the CreateForwardEmail.workflow. The workflow first screens the incoming customer e-mail using a Screen Interaction block.  

• If a screening rule match is found, an e-mail response is sent to the customer. This is achieved by using an E-mail Response block with the Response Type property set to Autoresponse. The Output Queue property is set to SendEmailQ, which allows the newly created e-mail to be queued and processed by SendCreatedEmail.workflow.

Note: The SendEmailQ queue is used by all the e-mails created in this sample (even though it is not explicitly stated in order to avoid duplication). In cases where the Output Queue property is not specified, the system interaction queue is used and the e-mail is automatically sent out by Orchestration Server. Though this latter approach does not allow for any further processing before the e-mail is sent out, it is a satisfactory approach for many scenarios.

• If a screening rule match is not found, the workflow sends an acknowledgement to the customer and the customer e-mail is forwarded to the external resource.

3. An E-mail Response block is used for the acknowledgement e-mail with the Response Type property set to Acknowledgement.
4. An E-mail Forward block is used to forward the e-mail to the external resource with Forward Type set to Forward.  At this point, the external resource is expected to respond back with a reply to the forwarded e-mail.
5. The second column of blocks in the IPD is used for processing the reply from the external resource.  The External Resource Reply endpoint directs the reply from the external resource into the OutboundReplyQ queue. This queue then directs the reply into the ReplyToCustomer Workflow block, which points to the CreateReplyToCustomerEmail.workflow. This workflow uses the Email Forward block with Forward Type set to ReplyToCustomer with a Standard Response to format the customer reply. It also defines the To address (Originating Email -- From) specifying that the e-mail is to be sent to the same address from which the incoming customer e-mail originated. The reply e-mail then goes to the SendEmailQ queue.
6. The third column of blocks in the IPD is used for sending the reply e-mail to the customer.  The SendEmailQ queue is connected to the SendEmail Workflow block, which points to the SendCreatedEmail.workflow. This workflow contains a Send E-mail block used for sending the external resource reply to the customer.