Even with the growth of Omni-Channel Support in business applications, email still holds a prominent place in end user–staff communications. NITRO Studio helps organizations get the most out of it.
Crow Canyon’s Business Applications, through the use of NITRO Studio, offer a wide range of ways for the end users and staff to communicate besides email — SMS texting, Teams messages, NITRO Bot, and Portal interfaces. However, email still holds a prominent place in many organizations, and NITRO Studio has a number of well-developed options for using email to accelerate automation and move business processes forward.
Facilitating End User-Staff Communication
One way email can be used in applications built on NITRO Studio is to facilitate and record end user-staff communication:
- End user can send in email to create a request or support ticket
- Staff can respond to user with updates or asking for more information
- End user can reply to staff with further clarification or more questions
- Email responses can update fields on the ticket, such as the work log or status
- Staff can notify user when request is fulfilled or ticket is closed
All of the above communications are recorded in the Email History of the request or ticket and are easily accessible from within the NITRO form. In addition, NITRO’s Email Manager allows staff to set up pre-configured email templates (what could be called “canned messages”) for easy and quick response to routine questions.
Email Approval Processes
An important part of many business workflows is an approval process. NITRO Studio gives users a variety of options to implement approvals in addition to using email — a SharePoint interface, a portal, the NITRO Bot in Teams, and even SMS Texting. However, email is still a common way approvals are managed.
Items of all types needs approvals — purchases, leave requests, database access, to name just a few. With NITRO Studio, the person or group designated as the approver (often the requester’s manager) receives an email with a summary of the item. The email includes links, which can be of two types — one type of link back to the item that needs approval. When the approver clicks the link, the item opens and “Approve” and “Deny/Reject” buttons are shown on the item for the approver(s) to make a choice. The other method is to put links in the email body itself for “Approval” or “Rejection” of the request. In this latter case, the manager reviews the item summary in the email and makes a decision by clicking one of the links, without opening the full item in SharePoint.
NITRO Studio’s Email Sync
NITRO Studio includes an “Email Sync” feature. With this, incoming emails to a specified address are converted to list items. If a new email is not part of chain, it can create a new request or ticket. The Email Sync has filters to block spam as well as block or allow certain domains so that only legitimate emails are processed.
If the incoming email is part of chain – that is, it has a [CaseID: xxx] structure in the Subject line, it is linked to the SharePoint item with that ID and becomes part of the email history of that item. Staff is notified (by email, text, or in Teams) when the user has responded so that they don’t have to constantly monitor the ticket to check for user communications.
Sentiment Analysis – Using AI to Detect Email “Mood”
NITRO Studio can also use “Sentiment Analysis” to detect the “mood” of the incoming email based on the content of the subject and body, and take actions accordingly, such as alert a manager if the email indicates the customer is angry or dissatisfied.
Sentiment Analysis uses Azure Cognitive Services. It helps organizations provide better support by getting ahead of issues and complaints before they escalate. If staff is informed right away that a customer or other end user is “getting cranky”, they can take immediate action.
Using Email with NITRO Workflows and Custom Actions
Both NITRO Workflows and Custom Actions have a “Send Mail” action (as well as “Send SMS Text” and “Send Teams Message” actions). A Send Mail action can be kicked off as part of any Workflow or Custom Action. Often this action is used to notify end users, staff, managers, or other parties about creation, updates, and completion of requests, tickets, or tasks.
In the Send Mail action, mail templates can be defined that can be as simple or as elaborate as required. The templates can put any values from the SharePoint items into the subject or body of the email as well as links to the item or to the list. The template can include the item’s attachments
In addition, a workflow can generate a document and then use the Send Mail action to access that document and include it in the email. For example, a workflow could generate an Invoice, Quote, or Purchase Order based on the content of the SharePoint item. The Send Mail action can then grab that newly generated document and send it as part of the email.
Emailing Reports and Printouts
Other uses of email include using NITRO’s Print Manager to generate a print out, which then can emailed via a template. This could be used to create a list of all open or overdue tickets that is then mailed to a pre-set address (such as a management team) using a defined template.
Another option is to create a NITRO Report and then use the NITRO Workflows to schedule the report to be sent by email on a regular basis.
Many Possibilities with Email
While texting and other communication options have their uses, email still dominates. This blog has described just a few of the ways NITRO Studio uses email to further business processes. There are many more ways email can be used. Let us know what you need email to do, and we will let you know how it can be done in our business applications and NITRO Studio.
Contact us for a demo or more information.
