Version 26.7
Support for electronic bill notifications - Bill notifications can be automated through Workflow and emails managed in the Communications module. This replaces the OnlineBill Mailer in the Desktop Client. This Communications release supports:
A new Bill Notifications template. You can create different templates for special formatting based on Autopay status, Market, and Account Type. All templates you create for this purpose must use the new Bill Notification Termplate type provided with this release. See Considerations for Bill Notifications in Setting Up Message and Notification Templates.
Communications provides two new search options for bill notifications. You can search on Campaigns and Failed Deliveries. A Campaign is a grouping (or batch) of notification emails that supports sending emails out in bulk. Bill notifications for a Bill Period constitute a single Campaign in Communications. See Email and Notifications Search.
Complete instructions for implementing and using this functionality are provided in the Electronic Bill Notifications article in the IDI Knowledge Center.
Version 20.9
Improved efficiency on indexing body text for message and notification search - This release provides enhancements related to storing message/notification body text in the Azure search index.
Discontinue storage of notification body text - Communications no longer stores the body of notifications in the Azure search index. A one-time process will remove all existing notification bodies from the index. Also, the Body field is disabled when Notifications are selected as the Type in Communications search. An information icon informs users that body searches only apply to Messages.
Data life-cycle management - the IDI platform automatically removes message body text from the search index for aged messages related to Workflow, Customer Care, Tickets and Communications after a set number of days. When a body text search is performed against an aged message it will return no results. Instead users will get a warning indicating body text search is not available for aged messages. Note: This release includes four new Archive Messages actions in Workflow that are set up specifically for Data Lifecycle Management. They are not intended for any other purpose and do not require any configuration by IDI platform users.
Note
With these enhancements users will be unable to find notifications and aged messages when searching the body text, however, the original message and notification body text is still intact. Users can navigate to items using other search criteria to see full body text.
Version 20.6
Bounced messages support - Bounced messages are outgoing messages sent from the IDI platform that couldn’t be delivered (perhaps due to bad data in the IDI platform or misconfiguration on the recipient's email system). The Communications web application supports searching and managing bounced messages. You can investigate the offending email addresses and cleanup/delete old/uninteresting/resolved bounced email addresses. In addition, you can set up alerts to inform users of bounced messages. See Managing Bounced Messages.
Version 19.6
Support for Notifications - The Communications web module now supports two types of communications: two-way email messages (existing functionality) and one-way notifications (new with this release).
Notifications are different from email messages in that they are not intended to have a reply. A reply to a notification will not be processed and will not be visible in the IDI platform.
Notifications are not included in users’ monthly 2-way message quota, and so will not contribute to exceeding the quota which could result in a monthly charge.
Notifications traffic can be tracked using the Search functionality in Communications.
Initial Release
This is the initial release of Communications. It supports the following functionality for the Tickets web module:
Email send/receive
Email notifications on create new Ticket, Reassign a Ticket, and/or create a Ticket from unsolicited email
Create a Ticket on receiving an unsolicited email
Email Ticket
Network Monitoring (Equipment) Ticket