Understanding Communication

Introduction

Communication configuration within Communication Cloud Service is designed to streamline and automate the entire customer communication process for modern enterprises. It orchestrates activities across Communication Distribution configurations based on business-driven parameters. This includes communication definition, creation, and distribution of multiple types of communications, such as Email, Message (SMS), Storage, Rendition, and Electronic Signature, to your customer through a supplier service or internally. As a result, Communication ensures operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, and tailored customer engagement.

Key Functionalities and Benefits

Following are the key functionalities and benefits of Communication:
  • Centralized orchestration of all communication types (Email, Storage, SMS, ESignature, Direct Distribution) from a single domain.
  • Configurable workflows supporting both creation and distribution processes tailored to business needs.
  • Seamless supplier integration with best-in-class services like OCI (Email), Twilio (Email & SMS), Telesign (SMS), DocuSign (ESignature), and SFTP.
  • Multi-channel distribution capability from a single request, increasing productivity and reducing manual interventions.
  • Scalable and flexible configuration movement across non-production, pre-production, and production environments.
  • Segmented configuration for targeted campaigns, brands, or business units.
  • Robust tracking and auditability ensuring compliance, security, and traceability of all communications.
  • Expanded automation that reduces operational errors and accelerates time-to-market for business communications.

Configurations

You can configure Communication to execute sequential processes and services to create or distribute Email, Message, Storage, Rendition and ESignature based on the parameters provided by the consuming service or application. Communication configuration comprises of:
  1. Communication – This is associated to the Marketing Company to which it belongs.
  2. Detail – You can create one or more Detail configurations with Scenarios (Dimensions) set to different Transaction Types. Detail is associated to a Table where you can define the sequence of Process configurations to be executed based on the Transaction Type received in the request.
  3. Process – Here you can select whether it is a Create or Distribute Process Type. You can also define the Process Behavior in case any Service error occurs. You can create one or more Process configurations.
  4. Service – Based on the Process Type selected in the previous step, you can select the Service Type and associate the corresponding Communication Creation/Distribution configuration. The Communication Distribution configuration directs the request to the corresponding integration Supplier Service configuration, which calls the Supplier Service that distributes the communication to your customer.
For example, your organization needs to deliver personalized product offers to customers using Email and SMS. Using Communication Cloud Service:
  • Your organization’s marketing team configures the Email assets (Address, Subject, Body, and Attachment), SMS assets (Body, Metadata), and communication packages containing required Document, Layout, Content, Style, and Font.
  • The source system triggers a communication request for a campaign. Marketing team’s Communication configuration executes sequential processes for the campaign transaction.
  • Communication orchestrates the assembly of Email and SMS message according to the campaign rules by calling Communication Email and Communication Message configurations.
  • Communication Distribution Email and Communication Distribution Message facilitates distribution of Email and SMS to proper recipients by calling the appropriate integration Supplier Service configuration.
  • The OCI Email or Twilio Email integration configuration sends request to the OCI Email or Twilio Email supplier service. The Supplier Service sends Email to correct recipients.
  • Similarly, Telesign SMS or Twilio Messaging integration configuration sends request to the Telesign SMS or Twilio Messaging supplier service. The Supplier Service sends SMS to correct recipients.


Communication Configuration Flow

Configuration Movement

The Communication configurations follow the configuration movement process; that is, if you configure any one of them in one tenancy (non-production), you can move the configuration to different tenancies (pre-production and production) sequentially.

For more information refer, Understanding Configuration Movement topic.