enhancement Configure a set of default connections for a contact

[Martyn Houghton]

Would it be possible to raise a change request to specify default connections in a contact (external), so when you log or change the primary contact on a request the system populates the connections with the contact's default connections?

We have a number of external customers where they wish any updates on the requests to be copied into the the other team members at the company when email updates are made on the request. This also applies where say a manager wants to be copied in to any emails to their staff.

At the moment we achieve some of this via VPME in Supportworks and using distribution email address rather then the contacts individual email, but the latter means matching contacts in the system mailboxes does not really work.

Cheers

Martyn

[Steven Boardman]

Hi Martyn

Thanks for the post.

We have enhancements planned for the connections feature, which includes a progressive capture form to allow an analyst to add additional connections when logging a ticket for a contact, or for the contact to add other connections to the request when raised via the portal. This obviously would involve the connections being added manually but it would allow for them to be selected and added by the raiser of the request.

Other connections can be added automatically using the 'Add Connections' option in the BPM under the RequestConnections Entity options if required based on a decision and branch on who the org or customer is (albeit perhaps not overly practical if you have multiple customers who require this, and need to add additional different contact's for each). We do also have plans for another option here to be able to add a Customers Manager as a Connection as a BPM node option (but this would only be for internal user's managers, as contact's at external organisations do not have managers in Service Manager).

In terms of notifying other default connections there are no defined plans for this as we stand. You mention that you currently use distribution email addresses where needed to notify other users at specific customers where they have requested this. One option we could look to explore would be extending the current Email Notification BPM nodes to include an option to email a contact's Alternative Email address (which is available in a Contact's - Contact Details section) where you could hold a distribution email address the other parties which need to be included in automated email communication relating to the request, would something like this help in the absence of default connections?

Regards

Steven

[Martyn Houghton]

Steve

Thanks for the detailed reply. I think for us at the moment the ability to use the alternative email address within the BPM would be useful, however we envisage most of our emails being sent out manually via the request screen, so hence wanting to take advantage of the connections entity to include the alternative email address.

The reason being for the manual email generation, is down to it not being possible to take the comment from the manual activity and placing it in the email template.

Cheers

Martyn