To make it easy and fast for business users to create new case types that model best practices, you can now select one of several templates when creating a new case in App Studio. A generic template provides primary and alternative stages that contain consistent steps for eligibility, intake, processing, and resolution. Additional templates support common customer service processes, such as an address change or statement request.

To support streamlined updates and consistent features, the following Pega Customer Service case types now use the new templates:

• Address Change
• Close Account
• Make Payment
• Statement Copy
• Manage Customer Circumstance
• Pause Service (communications industry)
• View Benefits (healthcare industry)
• Policy Inquiry (insurance industry)

For more information about case type templates, including detailed information about the stages and steps in the generic case type template, see Case type templates.

New work pool classes have been added for creating new service cases using the case type templates.

Pega Customer Service

• Work pool class: PegaCA-Work-Service
• Database table: pegadata.CPM_Work_Service
• Out-of-the-box case types that use the new work pool: Address Change, Close Account, Make Payment, Statement Copy, Manage Customer Circumstance

Pega Customer Service for Communications

• Work pool class: PegaComm-FW-CPMCFW-Work-Service
• Database table: pegadata.pca_PegaComm_FW_CPMCFW_Work_Service
• Out-of-the-box case types that use the new work pool: Make Payment, Pause Service

Pega Customer Service for Financial Services

• Work pool class: PegaCPMFS-Work-Service
• Database table: pegadata.CPMFS_Work_Service
• Out-of-the-box case types that use the new work pool: Make Payment, Manage Customer Circumstance

Pega Customer Service for Healthcare

• Work pool class: PegaCPMHC-Work-Service
• Database table: pegadata.CPMHC_Work_Service
• Out-of-the-box case types that use the new work pool: View Benefits

Pega Customer Service for Insurance

• Work pool class: PegaCPMI-Work-Service
• Database table: pegadata.pca_PegaCPMI_Work_Service
• Out-of-the-box case types that use the new work pool: Make Payment, Policy Inquiry

You can enable and disable the following features:

• Duplicate case checking
• The option to bypass eligibility when eligibility fails
• Include the Compose and send email messages command on the Other actions menu
• Display a review page during intake
• Send a notification after intake
• Send a notification after the case is resolved
• Enable the Approval rejection stage so that a CSR can reject a case if required
• Whether the case can be resolved without human intervention (straight through processing)
• Whether the case can be transferred
• Whether to use the old Confirm harness (for backward compatibility)

For more information, see "Configure case processing options" in Configure a new case type from a template.

For case types created from a template, the Other actions menu now has the following new commands:

• Save and close
• Compose and send message
• Bypass eligibility

For more information about the Other actions menu commands for templatized case types, see Customer Service Generic Template.

A new Confirm harness now provides the user interface that CSRs see during case resolution. The new Confirm harness has the following improvements:

• Easier to modify and extend
• Simplified, configurable interface

New case types created from a template automatically use the new Confirm harness. If you are updating from an earlier version, and your existing confirm harness has customizations that you still require, a switch in the Case processing options lets you continue to use your old confirm harness.

The new interface includes a wrapper for coaching tips and dialogs, a configurable confirmation message that shows case status, and a configurable content section that shows the CSR the next steps and assignment information for the case. For more information about the Confirm harness, see "Configure Confirm harness" in Configure a new case type from a template.

All Pega Customer Service 8.5 applications include a new, simplified application stack. Legacy rules and rulesets have been removed from the new application stack.

There are new, out-of-the-box access groups for each built-on application. For more information about the access groups required to perform specific functions, see the Pega Customer Service Implementation Guide.

When you update to version 8.5, and you want to use the new 8.5 features, you must modify your application to use the new built-on application.

8.5 Pega Customer Service built-on applications

For more information, see the "Updating your built-on application" in the Update Guide for your application.

To support faster implementations and consistent error handling, you can now quickly add error handling to case types to ensure that operators process the case type correctly and completely. A configured error can display an error message on the page and send the error to the application log files. To add error handling to a case type, call the new czErrorHandler activity or czErrorHandler data transform from your case type workflow.

Parameters for error handling include an error message, error code, error type, and log message. When you configure an error as an alert, you can send the alert to Pega Diagnostic Cloud (PDC) for further action. Pega Customer Service provides extension points for error and alert customization.

For more information, see "Adding error handling to a case" in Implementing case types and attributes.

A new address properties template that collects address data for any country, and automatically displays address properties that apply to the selected country, has been added to many out-of-the-box case types. The new template provides a consistent, faster implementation experience, and you can add the new template to existing case types.

To learn which rules you should use for extensions, view the Extension Points landing page. For more information, see Overriding an extension point.

To improve the update process, a rules page displays an informational guardrail warning if you try to save changes to a rule that should not be overridden. As a best practice, you should not save changes to a rule if guardrail warnings appear. These informational guardrail warnings have no impact on the application's overall guardrail score.

In some cases, extension points are provided for features that are commonly modified. To learn about available extension points, view the Extension Points landing page. For more information, see Overriding an extension point.

The suggested actions feature has several improvements so that CSRs can more easily determine which actions are suggested by Pega Customer Service, and which actions are suggested by Pega Customer Decision Hub.

• Suggested actions that come from Pega Customer Service are now referred to as intelligent guidance, and have a unique icon and color to distinguish them from actions that originate from Pega Customer Decision Hub.
  • An intelligent guidance suggested matching case has an Arrow icon, a light blue background, and a case number.
  • An intelligent guidance queued task has an Arrow icon and a light blue background.
  • An intelligent guidance suggested task has a Light bulb icon and a dark blue background.
  • A Pega Customer Decision Hub suggested task has a Star icon and a green background.
• If a client uses only intelligent guidance suggested actions, the label above the actions is Intelligent guidance. If a client uses Pega Customer Decision Hub for suggested actions, with or without also displaying intelligent guidance suggested actions, the label above the actions is Next Best Action.
• For clarity, on the Suggested actions settings page in App Studio, the setting to display intelligent guidance suggested actions is now Enable intelligent guidance.
• Assist the CSR with selecting the most appropriate suggested action by limiting the number of intelligent guidance suggested actions suggested by the system. When the CSR completes a task, the application re-evaluates its intelligent guidance and updates the suggested actions list. (This limit applies only to intelligent guidance suggested actions, and not to Pega Customer Decision Hub suggested actions.)

For more information about Suggested actions, see Suggested actions.

• Two new Agent productivity settings let you hide the Call center volume indicator icon and the Email cases icon in the Interaction Portal header area. The header displays both of those icons by default. For more information, see "Configure agent productivity settings" in Configuring application settings.
• If you have not configured a chat server URL and verified the chat server configuration key, the Chat routing icon is not displayed in the Interaction Portal header. For more information, see "Configure chat and messaging configuration settings" in Configuring application settings.
• If you are not logged in as an operator with CTI privileges (an operator assigned to the PegaCTI:CSR access group), the Phone icon is not displayed in the Interaction Portal header.
• If you not are logged in as an operator with manager privileges, the Messaging system health icon is not displayed in the Interaction Portal header.
• If you have not enabled the Start My Day feature (in the Robotics settings), the Start My Day icon is not displayed in the Interaction Portal header.

For more information, see "Configuring interactions settings" in Interaction channels.