Communication TemplatesYou create notifications on the Escalations tab of the Service Level Agreements (SP) application using communication templates. Communication templates provide you with a mechanism for communicating outbound information in a uniform manner. These communications are sent out in the form of e-mails through the system' e-mail service.
A notification includes a template ID, the role or recipient name, the subject of the notification, and the message. If you have information that is sent out repeatedly, you can create a communication template for it and attach it as a notification on an escalation.
You can create two types of notifications:
a free-form notification that uses only a few features of a communication template
a template-based notification that can leverage all the features of a communication template, including attached documents
If you create a free-form notification, the system generates a template ID for it, but doesn't save the notification for reuse in the Communication Templates application. If you choose to use an existing template, the remaining fields are defaulted from the communication template you chose and are read only. You cannot change the attributes associated with a communication template from the Escalations tab of this application.
Both free-form notifications and template-based notifications are associated with the object to which they apply. This allows the system to resolve dynamic content placed in the template in the form of substitution variables for the object specified in the escalation. If you create a template-based notification in the escalation, you might see substitution variables in the Subject and Message fields. For example, if the Subject line reads
Expiration Notice: Contract :contractnum
then :contractnum is replaced by the actual contract number obtained from the contract object associated with the template and notification.
In the Service Level Agreements (SP) application, when you want to create a notification for an escalation point, you can click Select Value on the Template field to use an existing template. For more information about communication templates, see the online help for the Communication Templates application.