Automating Communications Workflow: Incoming Email Processing

Team Barcelona
Automating Communications Workflow
Guido Frank
Implementation Manager
Autotask GmbH

Agenda
 Overview
 Review of Options for Creating Tickets
 Features/Benefits of Incoming Email Processing
 Best Practices – What to Do/What Not to Do
 Setup and Testing
 Workflows

 Versions
 Questions and Answers

Overview
 What we will cover
 Best Practices for Client Communications
 How the Incoming Email Processor Works
 Features and benefits of the Incoming Email Processor

 “Gotchas”
 Best Practices for setup and implementation

Overview
 What we will not cover
 Creating/Editing/Working with Tickets and Project Tasks
 Creating/Working with Workflow Rules
 Actual setup of the feature

 Recorded Webinar will walk you through the process –
Some of these slides are blatantly plagiarized 

Client Communications - Creating Tickets
 Client Portal
 Best Option
 No worries about unknown contacts
 User enters information themselves
 Less effort for you
 Lowers risk of “lost in translation”

 Client Portal can be customized for your needs

 Email support@yourcompany.com
 Second Option
 Benefits

 Phone Calls – Manual Creation of Tickets
 Last Resort
 Phone calls interrupt existing work
 Callers expect immediate attention

 Doesn’t allow the Help Desk to properly Triage tickets

Features/Benefits of Email Processing
First Off - A Definition
Incoming Email Processing:
An Autotask feature that searches the Subject line and Body text
of incoming emails for special text. This text is used to create
tickets and add notes to tickets, tasks, and projects. You can also
add time entries to tickets and tasks.

What Does it Do? – Converts Emails into Autotask Entities
 Subject Line = Entity Title
 Email body = Description
 Depending on the info in the subject line and body, you can
create:






Service Desk Tickets
Ticket Notes
Project Notes
Task Notes
Ticket or Task Time Entries

How do we do this at Autotask?
 Email is sent to support.yourcompany@email.uk.autotask.net
 Email is then processed by Autotask to take the proper action
 The sender email address is key for ticket creation
 If there is a match in the contacts database, the ticket is created with that
individual as the ticket contact, and attached to their account
 If there is no match, Autotask looks in the web field in the accounts
database and looks for a match for the email domain. If one is found, a
new contact is created under the account, and the ticket is processed as
above.
 If no matches are found, the ticket is still created, but attached to the
“zero” account (your company)

How do we do this in Autotask?
 Notes and Time Entries are added to tickets based on the
Ticket number in the subject line
 Time entries require specific information on the first line of the
email body
 This is the only information that can be on the first line
 Status and Role can be adjusted, but typos will result in failures

Simple Scenario – Basic Ticket Creation

Simple Scenario – Basic Ticket Creation
 Provide customers with a “friendly” email address to reach
support
 Set up rules in email client to redirect email to Autotask
custom mailbox
 Configure settings for tickets created (Workflow Rules)
 Consider a “New Email Ticket” status
 Consider a “Triage” Issue type and Queue
 Consider a “Triage” Work Type

Advanced Scenario – Notes and Time Entries

Advanced Scenario – Notes and Time Entries
 In Email
 Set-up Signatures/Templates in email client to pre-fill indicators on
the first line

 #T= time #R= role #S= status
 Ensure that you don’t place additional text on the first line of the
email.

 In Autotask
 Match the appropriate Notification Template for each action
 Select at least one internal resource for failure notifications
 Consider adding a Status of “Customer Note Added” and
Workflow Rule

Best Practices/Gotchas
 To get emails into Autotask REDIRECT, do NOT Forward
 When you are setting up new accounts, make sure you have
good email addresses, and put the domain name in the account
record
 If customers use a “generic” email domain, DO NOT put that in the
account record

 Before you “turn it on” test all features by sending emails direct
to the Autotask email address created

Best Practices/Gotchas
 Make sure client communications sent from Autotask are sent from
your support email box

 Make sure your notification templates include ticket/task numbers in
the subject line
 Carefully consider your business workflows, and set your defaults and

Autotask workflows to match
 Your Service Desk workflows are key. Once they are setup, the
incoming email processing simply works at the very beginning as part

of the Autotask entity creation.

Versions
 Basic Incoming Email Processing is available at no additional cost. It
includes:
 The Add Ticket Email Service (ATES) mailbox, which is already set up
 An option to configure one additional custom mailbox for creating tickets
only

 Advanced Incoming Email Processing is available for an additional

fee. It includes:
 The Add Ticket Email Service (ATES) mailbox, which is already set up
 An option to configure six additional custom mailboxes
 Emails can be converted to Tickets, Ticket Notes, Ticket Time Entries,
Project Notes, Task Notes, and Task Time Entries

Licensing and Costs

Call or Email your Account Manager
AccountManagement@autotask.com

Automating Communications Workflow: Incoming Email Processing

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