Email to case when sender is CRM user and not a contact (Automatic Record Creation Rules)

(2) Share

Report

Posted on by Emerson Brito

180

I'm trying to wrap my brain around this.
Basically my challenge is how can I use Case management for internal support where hundreds of company employees are CRM users (system users).

Let's start saying that all contact information is already supported by the System User entity so there is no need to have a contact record for any of this people (would be redundant/duplicated and hard to maintain).

Here is what happen:

Create records for email from unknown senders unchecked

All emails coming into this queue (from CRM users) are completely ignored. It doesn't matter which filters I set on "Specify Record Creation and Update Rules". It appears to me that first CRM tries to match the sender's email to a contact, since it can't (because they are users) it never go through the rules, it just aborts.

Create records for email from unknown senders checked

Before creating the case CRM will create a contact record for that email address.
The only information on this contact record is the sender's email (which again, is already an user).
After this record is created CRM follows the details and filters on the rule in order to proceed with the case creation however, it is now assuming the sender is the contact it just created.

The concept is very basic:

Using the case creation capability I "should" be able create a rule where all emails from @mycompany.com should result in a case where "My Company" is the customer and the contact is blank (since the sender is actually an user and not a contact).

Am I missing something or cases where designed under the principle that for each system user I need a mirror contact record?

*This post is locked for comments

I have the same question (0)

All responses (7)

Answers (1)

cjanow3 2 on at

Like (0)

Report

RE: Email to case when sender is CRM user and not a contact (Automatic Record Creation Rules)

Information saved me in 2022 :^)

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Micchael 390 on at

Like (0)

Report

RE: Email to case when sender is CRM user and not a contact (Automatic Record Creation Rules)

Hi Emerson,

Thanks for sharing the article.

The article KB3094208 says "This is a known issue and is scheduled to be fixed in a September CRM Online update." It means fall update of 2015 should fix it. About five month before your post. Can you kindly verify it fixed?

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Verified answer

Emerson Brito 180 on at

Like (0)

Report

RE: Email to case when sender is CRM user and not a contact (Automatic Record Creation Rules)

While it is true that "Customer" field is limited to Account and Contact, record creation rules can have multiple filters with corresponding "create" actions so it would be easy to populate a custom CRM user field if the email was resolved to an user.

If you send an email to a queue without an "Automatic Record Creation Rule" you will notice that it can resolve both, contacts and CRM users.

This leaves us with KB3094208 (which I just found):

The current design of Automatic Record Creation Rules will not resolve the sender of an Email if it only exists as a User in CRM. It must also exist as a Contact or Account and can be created as a Contact automatically when received...

This makes it clear that right or wrong, this behavior is by design.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
ChrisC 630 on at

Like (1)

Report

RE: Email to case when sender is CRM user and not a contact (Automatic Record Creation Rules)

The moniker Customer CAN only refer to Account or Contact and this is the primary lookup for the Case. Therefore you have to decide if it is OK for you to have internal users also defined as Contacts - as you say they will be joined at least by email address - you can use plugins etc. to do a better join or hide internal users.

If this is not OK then you are probably into roll-your-own territory, good luck! But bear in mind this is a 'CRM' system, albeit extensible in lots of ways. :-)

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Emerson Brito 180 on at

Like (0)

Report
RE: Email to case when sender is CRM user and not a contact (Automatic Record Creation Rules)

Thanks guys. I believe the problem here is understanding the thinking behind the process, how Microsoft 's engineers envisioned it so we can understand how we are supposed to be using it.

We need to be able to determine if the very small issue preventing us for getting the whole thing working is a bug or done by design.

Ade Budiman Hamdani says:Case or Email as I know only support to Account / Contact entity

Well, emails do support CRM Users.
Based on my tests, when an email arrives:

CRM look into contacts. If one is found it becomes the "from" party.

If it cannot find the contact it look into CRM users. If one is found it becomes the "from" party.

If not contact or CRM users is found, it creates a new contact who becomes the "from" party.

As for the case entity, only the "Customer Field" is required. Contact is optional which implies you can create a case without a contact.

Having said that, the only thing getting on my way is the Automatic Record Creation Rule.

When you create a queue with an email address, all emails sent to that queue will be processed exactly as described above. The moment you add the Automatic Record Creation Rule the behavior is completely changed.

The Automatic Record Creation Rule looks for the sender on the contact entity only "and that is what complicates everything". This raises the question: is it intentional (by design) or a bug?

If the "search" was still using the same logic we would be able to use the filters and record creation options within the rule to do the rest: automatically resolve fields for contacts or always use "ABC" account and no contacts for internal requests.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
nghieppham 4,755 on at

Like (0)

Report

RE: Email to case when sender is CRM user and not a contact (Automatic Record Creation Rules)

Hi Emerson,

I faced this with issue for my project. Service module (Case) is built for customer services, hence a contact or account is required for each time case is created.

Hence, for this problem, I make a customization to extended this module, please check if you can see it as your case study.

1. Use Account to create 1 Account (As my company).

2. Customize User to map User to company, in case if you have many business unit, you can defined 1 business unit, 1 account. It will help us for tracking.

3. Create plugin or custom activity for case to check when the plugin is created.

Just for my approach, please check if you can use.

Regards,

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Community Member on at

Like (0)

Report

RE: Email to case when sender is CRM user and not a contact (Automatic Record Creation Rules)

I don't think you can achieve this, because you are going to use the validation by using the System user entity, on the other hand that Case or Email as I know only support to Account / Contact entity.

Or maybe you can use workflow for this.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No