Example: Enabling email updates to purchase orders

A system administrator wants to enable an assessor, who works in the field and does not have access to a desktop, to update the status of a purchase order.

Before you begin

To configure email interaction, you must have an email client, SMTP mail server, a user ID, and a password for email authentication. Because you are only updating purchase orders, you must set the Email format field of the People application to simple. Existing communication templates and escalations are provided for email interaction. For example, you can use the template for the email that notifies the assessor that the purchase order is complete.

About this task

A system administrator works in the head office of a large public insurance company. Some of the company's employees travel long distances, from the company headquarters to remote sites around the country. Maria, an assessor, who travels to remote sites to assess the progress of purchase orders, does not have access to a desktop. Maria does have email access from a mobile device. Email interaction setup allows Maria to communicate back, to the system administrator, the status of the purchase order. The customer service department can then pass information about the job to the customer.

Procedure

  1. In the Systems Properties application, specify the address of the mail server as mail.smtp. host your user ID as mxe.smtp.password, and password as mxe.smtp.password for email authentication.
  2. In the E-mail Listener application, enter your E-mail Address, E-mail Password, and Mail server. The protocol is a standard pop3 account.
    1. In the Select Security Settings window, create a row and specify the SR object.
    1. In the Select Security Settings window, select the PURCHASEORDER object that is associated with the status update.
    2. Activate the email listener and MFMAILCLEAN cron task.
  3. To find existing templates, in the Communications Template application, search for MFMAIL in the Template field.
    1. The MFMAILSENDWO template is an existing template, for the first email that is sent to Maria when the purchase order is approved.
    2. In the MFMAILRESCOMPWO, MFMAILRESNOSTWO, MFMAILRESWO, MFMAILSMPREJ templates, specify the address of the email listener in the Send from field.
    3. Do not specify a recipient in the communication templates. The role is specified in the Send to field in the configuration.
  4. In the Escalations application, open the MFMAILSENDWOM escalation.
    1. For object status change configurations, you must include status as one criteria of the condition query.
      The status in the escalation, must be the same status that is specified in the first email.
    2. Specify the custom class for object status change as com.ibm.tivoli.maximo.mfmail.MfMailSTSendAction.
  5. In the Email Interaction Setup application, choose status for the configuration type and complete the fields.
    1. In the Task Completion Notification Template field of the object status change configurations window, specify MFMAILRESCOMPWO in the row where you assign the selection value.
    2. In the Status Change Response Template field of the Selection Values window, specify MFMAILRESWO in the row where you assign the selection value for accepting the status update.
    3. In the Status Change Response Template field of the Selection Values window, specify MFMAILRESNOSTWO in the row where you assign the selection value for reminding Maria to change the status of the purchase order.
    4. In the Status Change Response Template field of the Selection Valueswindow, specify MFMAILSMPREJ in the row where you assign the selection value for rejecting the status update.
    5. Validate and activate the configuration.

Results

When a purchase order is approved, Maria receives an email with a request to update the status of the purchase order. When Maria arrives at the remote site, the purchase order is already started. Maria sends a reply email that updates the status of the purchase order to, in progress. Maria then receives another email that requests the status of the purchase order to be updated. When the purchase request is complete, Maria sends back a reply email that updates the status of the purchase order to 'complete'. Maria receives a final email to confirm that the status of the purchase order is complete.