Configure Advanced Work Assignment for routing email interactions

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 4 minutes to read

    • Configure Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) to route email interactions automatically to your agents, based on their availability, capacity, and optionally, skills.

    Before you begin

    Role required: admin

    About this task

    The Service channel Email is configured during the installation of the Email Interaction for CSM application. If you want to create service channels for email, follow the procedure.

    You can use the  Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) feature to automatically assign work items to users based on their availability and capacity.

    AWA assigns work items using assignment groups, so it's important that your users and groups are set up correctly.

    • Determine the assignment group to use in the AWA service channel configuration and add users to this group.
    • Confirm that the users have at least one of the roles: sn_customerservice.consumer_agent or sn_customerservice_agent.

    Setting up a service channel involves multiple steps, which are detailed in the procedure. Once the service channel setup is complete, you can use AWA to assign newly created email interactions that either unassigned or satisfy the conditions specified in the service channel.

    Procedure

    1. Create the email service channel.
      1. Navigate to  All > Advanced Work Assignment  > Settings > Service Channels > New
      2. Fill in the fields on the Service Channel form.
        Table 1. Service channel form
        Field Description
        Name Name of the service channel that you’re configuring. For example, Custom-Email.
        Inbox order Order in which channel items appear in the user inbox. The  Inbox Order  field is an integer  field type. This field can store whole numbers.
        Application Name of the application. For the Email Interaction channel, select Email Interaction for CSM.
        Active Option for activating the service channel. When you select this option, the associated queues for the service channel can start accepting work items.
        Short description Brief description of the service channel.
        Table Table that stores the service channel records. To route email interactions, select the Interaction table.
        Assign to field Field that references the user that the item is assigned to. For the Interaction table, this field is the  Assigned to  field (assigned_to) field.
        Assignment group field Field that references the assignment group that the item is assigned to. For the Interaction table, this field is the  Assignment group  field field.
        Advanced condition Advanced conditions that apply to the channel.
        Default work item size Amount of a user's capacity that is used if this work item is assigned. The default is 1.
        Default capacity Number of items automatically assigned to agents (pending overrides). The default for this field depends on the type of work item.
        Utilization condition Condition that determines what constitutes an active item that counts toward user workload/capacity.
      3. Select Submit.
      The system adds the Email Interaction channel to the Service Channels list. For more information, see  Create or configure a service channel.
    2. Configure the layout for the email interaction inbox card.
      Note:
      The Inbox layouts are configured during the installation of the Email Interaction for CSM application.

       If you want to create Inbox layouts follow the procedure in Create or modify an inbox layout for Email service channel, available by default, or Custom-Email service channel.

    3. Create a queue for the email interaction service channel.
      1. In the Queue related list of the service channel, select  New.
      2. On the form, fill in the fields.
        Table 2. Queue form
        Field Description
        Name Name of the queue. For example, Email Queue.
        Short description Brief explanation of the queue. For example, "Assign email interactions to front-office users".

        For more information about configuring a queue, see  Create a work item queue.

      3. Select Submit.
    4. Create an assignment rule for the queue.
      1. Navigate to  All > Advanced Work Assignment  > Settings > Assignment Rules .
      2. Select New.
      3. On the form, fill in the fields.
        Table 3. New assignment rules field description
        Field Description
        Name Name of the assignment rule.
        Short description Brief description of the assignment rule. For example, Assign the email interactions based on this configuration.
        Assign by Type of assignment. Select Most Capacity, which routes a work item to the user who has the greatest availability for handling the work.
        Allow agents to reject Option to enable agents to reject work items in their inbox.

        For more information about creating an assignment rule, see  Configure agent assignment rules.

    5. Create a group for the queue.
      1. Navigate to  All > Advanced Work Assignment  > Management > Groups.
      2. Select New.
      3. On the Group form, fill in the fields.
        For more information about creating a group, see Create or change groups for Advanced Work Assignment queues.
      4. Select Submit.
      5. Select the group to display the Group form.
      6. In the Group Members related list, add users to the group.
        The users that you add to the group for the Email Interaction Assignment queue require the roles.
        • Customer agent (sn_customerservice_agent)
        • Consumer agent (sn_customerservice.consumer_agent)
        • AWA agent (awa_agent)
    6. Associate the assignment rule with the queue.
      1. Navigate to All > Advanced Work Assignment > Settings > Queues.
      2. Select the queue.
        For example, Email Queue.
      3. In the Assignment Eligibility related list on the Queue form, select New.
      4. In the Agent assignment rule field, select the assignment rule.
      5. In the Groups field, select the assignment group.
      6. Select Submit.
    7. Activate the service channel.
      1. Navigate to All > Advanced Work Assignment > Settings > Presence States.
      2. Select the Available presence state.
      3. Add the email service channel to the Selected column.
      4. Select Update.

    Result

    After the service channel is activated, you can use it to assign work items. For more information, see Service channels.