Pattern 4 - Action jobs via email commands

Style: Close a job from an email directive. Helpdesk staff can issue email commands to HelpMaster to update and process jobs

Filter style: From Address, Subject and Message keyword scanning

Template use: An action template with the job status set to “Close” is used to close a job

Visual Pattern:

Description:

Give your remote staff the ability to action jobs via email commands. Perfect for updating a job from a smart-phone, iPad, tablet, or other email enabled device.

The “From Address” filter is a powerful concept. You can use this filter to specifically look for email that has come from a certain address, or domain. In this pattern, only helpdesk staff emaill address are being considered. The idea here is to look for staff emails relating to a job, and then look for a special “command”, or “code” in the body of the email. You can build rules around these codes to update the job as necessary.

In this pattern, if the code “##CloseJob” is found in an email from a staff member, the "Close Job" action template will be used to close the job.

Extending the pattern:

This pattern can be extended quite a lot to great effect. Use different “codes” to trigger different actions. Instead of just closing jobs, put them on hold, reassign them, or update them. For example, use codes like

“##Reassign Skillgroup ABC” = Use an Action template modifier to re-assign the job

“##OnHold” = Use an Action template, or modifier to set the job status to "On hold" or similar.

“##LogNewJob” = Create a new job from an existing one. Use a Job Template instead of an Action Template. Use the Email Parsing rules to configure the job details section. Very powerful!

“##SendKB” = Send a knowledge base article

Extending this type of pattern is simply a matter of inventing a new code that each of your helpdesk staff are aware of, and then building the Email Manager filtering and processing rules to implement them.

See Also

Pattern 5