What is an email agent?
The email agent, like other RA agents, has an email job type also which will scan a given email inbox for unread emails searching specific key fields (From/To/CC/Subject) for an exact match. The typical use for this is when Production Control has to wait for an email from a specific user, confirming that they are ready to launch their cycle. For instance, the HR department reviews the Payroll status inside PeopleSoft, when they’re happy that everything is ready to roll, they send an email to Production Control, and P.C. manually releases the Payroll cycle.
The agent can be used to automate this process by having an event periodically kick off an email job to scan the inbox for unread emails with the proper From/To/CC/Subject information. If that confirmation email is there, then the event can be satisfied and the rest of the cycle can continue to run.
It’s a work in progress, and would be better still if it could monitor the inbox like a file event does, but it doesn’t work that way yet. Stay tuned....Also, although the developers have said that you can use regular expressions in the criteria fields, my customers haven’t confirmed this. Normal wild cards (‘*’) do not work, as it interprets them as literals. My customer had to just put in exactly what the subject line should be – it is also case-sensitive. If you can get past the minor inconveniences, it is an awesome tool that most people I’ve talked to get very excited about.
License Cost? Free
GSO Cost? Yes, estimated for 3 days to Install and Configure. Ask your Customer Relations Manager.
Compatibility? V9/V10