Basics about ACE WorkItem

ACE WorkItem is a function receiving commissions (messages about tasks) from an external system via an open interface and then forwarding these commissions to the agents for action.

Work items in ACE are largely handled in the same way as emails, with the following differences:

• The function requires at least one ACE WorkItem Server, configured in ACE Admin, the Email and work item accounts window. In addition to configuration of WorkItem Server, installation and restart of ACE Server is also required before it will be operational. ACE Server regards ACE WorkItem Server as a ACE Email Server and the communication with ACE WorkItem Server follows the same protocol.
• The workItemPort system parameter specifies the port number ACE WorkItem Server should poll to receive new work items from external systems. If more than one server will be used they must be installed on different computers since the same port number is used. The system parameters used for flow control (the option of limiting the number of work items in progress in ACE Server) are, however, exactly the same as for email; emailBufferMin, emailBufferMax.

Work items do not arrive via an email server. A work item is created by a so-called XML message arriving in ACE via an open interface. See section Overview of the work item flow.

You cannot send an answer back when a work item has been completed. The open interface, however, can be set up to offer a receipt for the reception of the work item.

A work item can be delivered in real time, without being blocked by large emails. A contact is considered being a work item if the work item task specific contact data key is assigned a value.

A work item does not come with a physical email. However, when created through WorkItem Interface, the work item can have an attached file, such as e.g. an audio file.

If the work items concerns Facebook contacts you need to configure some extra details as seen in Handle messages from social media.

Web work item example

The following eight steps give you an example of how a web work item is handled. The work item is generated in a bank support system and is routed to an agent at the bank. The agent is expected to react to the incoming task and then make the result visible on the bank’s web page on the Internet.

1. A car firm offers car buyers a car loan via a bank. The car salesman enters information about the car buyer on the bank’s web page.
2. The bank’s web page can use the bank’s other support systems to automatically grant the loan but in some cases the task (work item) must be delivered to an agent for manual evaluation.
3. A message, with a link to the web page, is sent from the bank’s computer system to the open interface in ACE, ACE WorkItem Interface.
4. A contact is now created in ACE. At the same time, a reply is sent to the bank’s computer system informing the system that the work item has been taken care of.
5. The contact is routed as an email contact to an agent logged in to ACE Agent (however, without a physical email).
6. A URL, a link to the web page, is sent along as the work item contact data key. When the contact arrives at ACE Agent a screen pop is seen in the web browser on the agent’s computer, using contact data.
7. On his computer screen, the agent will see what the work item is about, make a credit evaluation, grant the loan on the web page and end the contact in ACE Agent.
8. The car salesman in his turn will see on the web page that the loan has been granted, seemingly automatically, without knowing that it actually was a person who judged the car buyer as creditworthy.

Overview of the work item flow

Error situations

Information about a received work item is saved as long as the work item has not been completed, i.e. not ended through the End button in ACE Agent. At a restart of ACE Server and/or ACE WorkItem Server work items which have not been processed are recreated in order not to lose any contacts.

If the contact created in ACE WorkItem Server cannot be placed in the correct queue, e.g. because the relevant entrance to ACE Server is closed, the contact is buffered in WorkItem Server. When WorkItem Server notices that the entrance has been reopened, the contact will be routed to an agent.

There are cases when ACE WorkItem Server just sends an error message back to the sender of a work item. This means that no contact is created. This will happen when e.g. the work item sent from an external computer system.

• contains an entrance name that is not configured to be handled by the WorkItem Server,
• is missing one or more mandatory contact data keys,
• workItemContent has a contact data key with a value exceeding 1 MB,
• has a contact data key (except workItemContent) with a value exceeding 512 characters.

How you see work items in the other ACE clients

In ACE Agent, a work item is presented with the same contact data keys as an email but a work item differs from an email contact by having a separate icon, a different preview window and no reply functionality. Via the open interface contact data keys can be given the values you want to see in ACE Agent. One difference from email processing is that the Did not arrive button in ACE Agent will not be seen if the contact is a work item (the work item contact data key has a value).

In ACE Pulse and ACE Report, work items are accounted for as email contacts. The best way to have them accounted for separately is to separate work item and email contacts by using different task types.