Fulfillment Batch Processing Overview

Batch fulfillment allows a single user or a dedicated group of users to be responsible for the actual printing of letters, printing and/or picking of enclosures, and sending of the necessary items to the customers. Batch fulfillment is often preferable to one-off fulfillment (i.e. having each individual agent in the contact center being responsible for fulfilling each of the cases they create).

Planning and Preparation

Before you can begin using batch fulfillment, there is a good deal of planning and preparation that must take place. The more time you spend thinking through your entire fulfillment process, the more smoothly the process will run when it comes time to implement it. The following list shows all the things that you will want to consider when planning your fulfillment process.

Single Site

The batch fulfillment process assumes that you will be doing fulfillment from a single site. The process used to create batches collects all unsent/unpicked items into a single batch, which is then printed at the fulfillment site.

Defining Fulfillment Items

You will need to define all your Letter Type Codes, Standard Paragraphs, Standard Letters, and Enclosures. (For details, see Defining Letter Type Codes, Defining Standard Paragraphs, Defining Standard Letters, Defining Enclosures). These are standard fulfillment tasks that you must complete regardless of whether you are doing batch fulfillment or one-off fulfillment. When defining these items, keep in mind the following:

• HTML and Plain Text documents work more efficiently.

• Email letters cannot have enclosures.

• Determine which letters will require the agent to prepare the letter, and which ones can be "auto-prepared." Auto-preparation allows the agent to add the letter to the case, and have the letter prepared when the fulfillment batch is created. Auto-Prepare is a setting on each Standard Letter definition.

• It is assumed that all letters using the same letter type code (with the same letter template file) can be printed to the same printer, using the same settings for paper size, orientation, and bin. This is because all letters of a specific type are collected into a single document and printed as one. There are two other optional methods to split the print documents, based on label and enclosure J-code values. This is controlled via the fulfillment configuration settings. For details, see Configuration: Fulfillment.

Defining Suggestion Rules

You must determine when to suggest specific letters, paragraphs, and enclosures to agents.

Defining Mailing Labels

If you will be using mailing labels, you must define separate letter template files for address labels and return labels. For more information, see Label Templates.

Setting Configuration Settings

There are two separate areas within the Emplifi Agent Configuration settings (For more information, see Configuration Types) that apply to fulfillment processing:

• Settings for fulfillment: This also includes defining the printers and printer settings that will be used during fulfillment. For details, see Configuration: Fulfillment.

• Settings for emails: These are the default settings that will be used for any emails sent during batch processing. For details, see Configuration: Email.

If the person who creates the batches will be different from the person who processes and prints the batches, you will want to ensure that both users are using the same configuration settings.

Outline of Steps in the Fulfillment Process

Once you have completed all the preparation steps, you will follow a process that looks like the following. Links are provided to the topic that discusses each step.

• Agents add Letters and Enclosures to cases. For details about Enclosures, see Add Items: Enclosures.

• Use the Letter Proofing Utility to review and approve any letters that require proofing.

• Use the Enclosure Approval Utility to review and approve any enclosures that require approval.

• Use the Manage Batches Utility to create a fulfillment batch.

• Use the Process Batch Utility to print all required documents.

For information on creating and printing checks and coupons, see Processing Checks and Coupons.

The remaining topics in this section are for reference purposes during batch fulfillment processing.