Enabling External Communication

SSM users with the External Communication privilege can access the Manage External Users option in the Actions drop-down list on state and transition forms. This enables service desk technicians to easily communicate with non-SSM users.

For example, if Anonymous E-mail Submit is enabled in SBM, a non-SSM user can send an e-mail to the service desk to submit an item. A service desk technician can use the Manage External Users option to provide a name for the submitter, and then send a reply using a special external e-mail template that is designed specifically for replies to non-SSM users. After sending the non-SSM user an e-mail, the technician can transition the item to a Waiting state.

An administrator can create a Communication rule at the project level that automatically transitions the item from the Waiting state back to the service desk technician when the non-SSM user replies to the e-mail. For more detail on configuring external communication features in SBM, refer to the SBM Application Administrator Guide or help.

Before using this feature with SSM, note the following:

• The Anonymous E-mail Submit and Manage External Users options are only available if you are using SSM with SBM 11.3 or higher. These features were introduced in SBM 11.3.
• You must deploy the process apps from SBM Composer after installing SSM in order for the Manage External Users option to appear in state and transition forms.
• The External Communication privilege is selected for the Administrator role by default in each process app. To ensure that other SSM users can access the Manage External Users option, grant this privilege to additional roles as necessary.
• The Manage External Users option is enabled in the Actions drop-down list on each SSM form by default. If you want to disable this on a certain form, edit the form, clear the Manage External Users check box in the Tool Bar tab, and then re-deploy the process app.