Introduction
Dovetail Carrier is a flexible and customizable message handling framework for your Dovetail or Clarify CRM application.
Its general purpose message processor and customizable business rule system allow the automation of a virtually any internal CRM processes associated with communicating with external systems.
The Carrier framework is designed to support extensions to its baseline capabilities, for implementing solutions to your organization's business needs.
Extensions shipped by Dovetail have been designed to be customizable and new extensions can be added by customers as needed with no limit on the number of active extensions.
Dovetail Software provides the following extensions for Dovetail Carrier:
- Communications Extension: Email messages received are treated as Dialogues and Communications within your Clarify CRM system. This extension is an effective replacement for much of the Amdocs eResponse Manager™ product.
- Email Agent Extension: Email messages received are treated as support case correspondence within your Clarify CRM system. When possible emails are correlated with existing support cases. Logging their contents and attachments to the appropriate case or sub case. Emails about new issues will create cases. This extension is an effective replacement for Clarify EmailClerk™ and Dovetail's standalone Email Agent product.
- Parent-Child Cases Extension : can be useful when automating workflow processes involving parent-child cases.
- Task Manager Extension: Processes messages received from Dovetail Rulemanager. These are typically part of the Dovetail Task Manager process. The Task Manager extension will execute each Task within the given Task Set. This includes dynamic property evaluation and workflow.
- SDK Toolkit Extension: allows for executing methods within the Dovetail SDK Toolkits, without writing any code. When Carrier receives a message with a type of CallToolkit, the SDK Toolkit Extension will process these message types. Typically, these messages will originate from Dovetail Rulemanager (such as from a business rule action), although they can also originate from custom applications as well.
- Webhooks Extension: allows for making a web request based on an event within your Clarify/Dovetail system. A business rule can fire based on the event. Dovetail Rulemanager will evaluate the rule, and send a message to Dovetail Carrier. With the Webhooks extension, that message can tell Carrier to make an HTTP request.
Message-based architecture
Benefits of a message-based architecture include:
- Distribution/Decentralization/Scalability - applications can be distributed across multiple machines
- Changeability - applications can be modified quickly, easily and safely because of highly granular structure
- Progressive Development - enables enhancements to be produced in tight, iterative cycles that quickly deliver business value.
- Flexibility - applications can be re-factored, including architectural changes, with minimal time impact and without major disruption to the application
- Extensibility - application can be easily to meet specific business needs
- Integration - allows for a standard mechanism for integrating multiple systems within (and even outside) an organization
There are two players in a message-based system. Message Producers and Message Subscribers.
Message Producers put messages into the system.
Message Subscribers perform actions on these messages.
As an example, Dovetail Carrier can listen to an email account, and when a new email is received, it can produce a new message.
Dovetail Carrier contains message processors that subscribe to these messages and do something interesting with them, such as creating a new case or dialogue within the CRM system.