Using Email Engine to enable email driven business processes

The Email Engine provides a service that transforms email into an interface that communicates with the AR System server. The Email Engine enables users to provide instructions to the AR System server to perform queries, submissions, or modifications to entries, all by using email. The Email Engine can process notifications by using workflow actions such as filters or escalations. 

An administrator configures the Email Engine to interact with the company's mail server, enabling all the employees to perform various activities such as creating helpdesk tickets, requesting information, approving requests, and so on by using email.

Related topic

Enabling users to interact with AR System through email

The following image shows the interaction of an Email Engine with the mail servers and with the users:

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You can configure the Email Engine to interact with the mail servers by using the following supported email protocols:

Protocols

Used for

Description

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP4)

Incoming mails

When mails arrive, messages are downloaded from the mail server to your local computer and the copy of each message remains on the server. However, when Email Engine is used, these copies of messages are removed from the server.

Post Office Protocol (POP3)

Incoming mails

When mails arrive, messages are downloaded to your local computer and removed from the mail server.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

Outgoing mails

Used for outgoing mail transmissions.

Exchange Web Service (EWS)

Incoming and outgoing mails

Used for integrating Email Engine with Exchange Server 2016.

Leveraging Email Engine scenario

An employee at Apex Global sends an email to the company's IT helpdesk about access issues with an application. The employee marks the email as Urgent because the application is critical for them to carry out their work. The IT helpdesk has configured the Email Engine to process email requests. The Email Engine processes the incoming email, and a high priority incident is automatically created and assigned to a helpdesk agent for resolution.

Based on the scenario, the following image shows an overview of the email engine in a real-world scenario: 

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Leveraging Email Engine workflow


Step

Action

Reference

1

An employee sends an email to the helpdesk stating the issue.

Make sure that the Administrator has configured Email Engine to receive and process emails.

2

The email engine processes the email, creates an incident, and notifies the employee that the incident is created.

Any response from the employee to the incident creation email notification is added as a note to the incident.

Make sure that the administrator has configured Email Engine to send emails.

3

A helpdesk agent verifies the information and initiates an approval process. The approvers receive an email notification for approval, and they approve the request over email.

4

The employee gets an email notification that the approval process is complete and that the application is accessible.

Leveraging Email Engine benefits

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The Email Engine service does not require an additional license and is installed as part of AR System server installation. It provides the following capabilities:

  • Automate routine tasks -  Schedule sending emails to request and share reports with specific users at specified time intervals.
    For example, schedule an email to be sent every Monday, with the query for a weekly report of critical incidents. An incident is created based on the query in the email, and the requested reports are sent over email to you and to the users that you specify.
  • Send and receive email - Sends and receives email messages to and from the company mail server which can include the results of queries, submissions, or modifications to entries contained on your AR System server. It also interprets any instructions in the incoming emails into API calls to your BMC Helix Innovation Suite. See Setting-up-incoming-email and Setting up outgoing email.
  • Process notifications - Sends text email messages, contents of select fields or attachments when the workflow is triggered. See Sending notifications.
  • Customized email templates - Create attractive HTML pages to use as header, footer, result, and content templates. Additionally, design a data-driven workflow to dynamically assign the correct templates based on the ticket's impact, so that users can quickly tell whether a ticket's impact is urgent, high, medium, or low. See Creating and using email templates.

All Email Engine settings and logging information (including error messages, incoming emails, and outgoing emails) are stored in forms within the AR System server. The Email Engine stores only the location of the AR System server where the forms are stored.


The Email Engine provides additional options, including the ability to create a variety of templates and to include attachments with email messages. It supports Multipurpose Internet Mail Exchange (MIME) types for attachments.