What's New

Update 23B

Revision History

This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:

Overview

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Feature Summary

Knowledge Management

Authoring

Authoring with the Redwood Experience

The new authoring user experience enhances many existing features and introduces brand new capabilities including:

• Articles are auto saved to reduce the risk of losing work.
• Article review dates can be set as a reminder to review and keep content fresh.
• Articles can be scheduled to automatically publish.
• Configure simple knowledge approval processes for your articles.
• Link to other articles within your knowledge base.
• Administrators can extend regions of the authoring user interface.
• Knowledge managers can include or exclude editor tools in the rich text editor.

Streamlined Authoring: Designed for optimal productivity, new pages streamline the most common authoring tasks, such as creating, editing, and translating articles.

Visual Consistency:  The user interface has been redesigned to be consistent with all Redwood NextGen applications.  

Improved Discoverability: Information is intuitively organized so authors can more efficiently find, create and publish knowledge articles to keep up with customer demands. 

Accessibility: Authoring screens were designed to meet the applicable U.S. Section 508 standards and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 'A' and 'AA' levels.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Service

If your organization is interested in enabling the Redwood experience, submit a service request to Oracle Support or contact your Customer Success Manager.

Key Resources

• Oracle Fusion Service: Using Knowledge Management in the Redwood User Experience
• Oracle Fusion Service: Implementing Knowledge Management with the Redwood User Experience

Access Requirements

To access Redwood Authoring and related UIs, authors must have the privilege: Knowledge Authoring with Redwood User Interface

Reusable Articles

Authors can now create content once and use that content in multiple articles within their knowledge base.

• Increases consistency and collaboration on articles created by multiple authors
• Decrease maintenance efforts by reducing duplicate content
• Centralizes the source of truth so updates are only done in one place
• Reduces time spent formatting content, branding, and curating a specific “look and feel”

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• Reusable articles are not stand-alone articles and cannot be consumed independently. They inherit many of the attributes of an article in which they are contained. For example, the article security of a reusable article is inherited. Additionally, the title of a reusable article is for reference only, it will never appear in a containing article.
• Reusable articles are very similar to regular articles. The following apply to reusable articles:
  • Schedule Publication
  • Set a Review Date
  • Assign Workflow
  • Versioning
  • Mass Update
  • Translation

Key Resources

• Oracle Fusion Service: Using Knowledge Management in the Redwood User Experience

Access Requirements

No new roles or privileges are needed.

Mass Updates

Authors can apply one or more updates to a curated list of articles. Updates in this release include:

• publish/unpublish
• change owner
• change publication start date
• change article expiration date
• change article review date

• Save time by performing the same operations on large sets of articles.
• React faster to events that trigger product or business specific changes to a segment of the knowledge base.

Steps to Enable

Provide the required access before using the feature. Details are in the Access #Requirements section.

Tips And Considerations

• Mass Updates can run on demand or be scheduled to avoid peak traffic during the workday. 
• An article's history will reveal if the article was updated by a mass update

Key Resources

• Oracle Fusion Service: Using Knowledge Management in the Redwood User Experience

Access Requirements

In order to view the Mass Update button on the list page, users must have the following privilege: CSO_CREATE_KNOWLEDGE_MASS_UPDATES 

In order to view the details of another user's update and export a report, users must have the following privilege: CSO_ADMINISTER_KNOWLEDGE

Article Suggestions

Authors can review and act on content suggestions from agents and end users within the context of the authoring flow. 

•Increases efficiency by providing real-time customer feedback

•Quicker solutions to common problems result in faster response time to customers

•Facilitates movement of the in-depth knowledge of support agents out of their heads and into a knowledge base for reuse (KCS)

Steps to Enable

1. Enable Knowledge Management activity type codes in activities lookup page.

Setup And Maintenance ? Sales ? Sales Foundation ? Manage Activity Standard Lookups ? ZMM_ACTIVITY_OUTCOME ? Enable ORA_KM_APPROVED and ORA_KM_REJECTED

Tips And Considerations

There are various ways for authors to manage suggestions:

• notifications can be turned on/off at the user level. 

  • Notifications are sent to assignees by default, but the owner of the task can also subscribe. A task is assigned the same owner as the article.

  • Authors need to check "send notifications to owners", which is disabled out of the box, if they want to get notifications when a suggestion is setup.

• Authoring task tab

• Notifications can be configured to send upon:
  • Create
  • Update (includes status changes)
  • Due in N days

Key Resources

• Oracle Fusion Service: Using Knowledge Management in the Redwood User Experience
• Oracle Fusion Service: Implementing Knowledge Management with the Redwood User Experience

Access Requirements

No new Roles or Privileges are necessary.

Configure the Authoring Editor

A new setup task enables knowledge managers to include or exclude editor tools in the knowledge authoring rich text editor toolbar.

• Efficient authoring as authors no longer see editor tools they do not need.
• Consistent appearance of knowledge articles

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• Editors can be configured for each department (Service, Internal Help Desk, HR Help Desk)
• Carefully consider whether you want all of your authors to be able to modify source html using the "Source" button. This can be a powerful tool. 

Key Resources

• Oracle Fusion Service: Implementing Knowledge Management with the Redwood User Experience

Access Requirements

You will need the role: Knowledge Setup and Maintenance

Workflow

Administrators can configure simple knowledge approval processes for articles in the knowledgebase. This allows existing business processes to be modeled in a structured review process. Approvals and rejections are tracked, and tasks are created so authors and reviewers can manage their workload efficiently. 

• Improves article quality and reduces errors
• Increases consistency by enforcing structured review as part of the lifecycle of every article
• Creates an audit trail of the knowledge process that allows management to locate opportunities for improvement
• Promotes Collaboration

Steps to Enable

1. Use the following procedure to Enable Workflow Task Approval

1. Log in as an administrator.
2. Select Setup and Maintenance.
3. Click the Tasks tab, and then click Search.
4. Search for and click Manage Activity Standard Lookups.
5. Click ZMM_ACTIVITY_OUTCOME.
6. In the text box above the Lookup Code column, type ORA_KM and press the Enter key.

7. Select the Enabled check box for:

   • ORA_KM_APPROVED
   • ORA_KM_REJECTED
8. Click Save and Close.
9. Click Done.

2. Use the following procedure to Create a Workflow

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to the Manage Knowledge Workflows task:
   • Offering: Service or Help Desk
   • Functional Area: Knowledge Management
   • Task: Manage Knowledge Workflows
2. In the Workflows page, click Create.
3. Specify the following information:
   1. Workflow Name: The name of the workflow process.
   2. Publish articles automatically when complete? Disable this option if you want articles published manually when the workflow completes. This option is enabled by default, and articles are published automatically after the workflow completes.
4. Complete the following procedure to add steps to the workflow:
   1. Click +Step.

   2. In the Add Step page, specify the following details:

      • Step Name: The name of the workflow step. This name appears as a task to the users on the Knowledge Tasks page.
      • Reference Key: A text string used as an internal identifier for this step. Make a note of the reference key, which will be used to create a data security policy for this step.
      • Duration: The number of days for the user to complete this step. If used, this causes the workflow task to have a due date.

        If the due date has elapsed, the task is considered overdue. Even though the task is overdue, the user can still complete it. The task is not automatically approved.

      • Allow editing in step?: Disable this option if you don’t want any user to edit the article during this step in the workflow.
      • Only assigned users can approve?: Indicates whether a user must be assigned to approve this step.

        This option isn't enabled by default, which means any user (with privileges to view the article in authoring and approve the workflow step) can approve the step.

   3. Click Create.
5. Repeat step 4, if you want to add more steps to the workflow.
6. Click +Content Type, and select the content types to which you want to associate this workflow, and then click Add.

   Note: Only articles of this content type will go through this workflow.

7. Click Save.

Tips And Considerations

To be able to submit an article to workflow, an author will minimally need: 

1. CSO_KNOWLEDGE_AUTHORING_REDWOOD_USER_INTERFACE_PRIV (access to  Fusion Knowledge Management with the Redwood experience)

2. CSO_KNOWLEDGE_AUTHORING_PRIV (access to the authoring application)

3. A data security policy (DSP) that gives access to view and update the content type where the article resides.

Key Resources

• Oracle Fusion Service: Using Knowledge Management in the Redwood User Experience
• Oracle Fusion Service: Implementing Knowledge Management with the Redwood User Experience

• Setup Worflow

Access Requirements

To set up user privileges for workflows: 

Workflows typically involve users of two types:

• Users who perform the steps in a workflow
• Users who assign tasks to other users in addition to performing tasks

Users such as Knowledge Managers, who assign tasks to other users, require special privileges to assign tasks.

Here are some key points you should know about privileges for workflows:

• You must determine the workflow steps for which you need users with special privileges.
• You must make a note of the reference keys for the workflow steps.
• To assign the special privileges to a user, you must add a data security policy to the user's existing knowledge authoring role. Note that this is in addition to the existing knowledge authoring privileges. Just having approval privileges does not give the user access to the authoring UI or access to view the articles that need approval.

You must create a data security policy for each workflow step. For example, if your workflow has a step named "SME Review", you must perform the following steps:

1. Make a note of the reference key for the step.
2. Go to Tools, and click Security Console.
3. On the Roles page, search and select the role to which you want to assign workflow privileges.
4. From the actions menu, click Edit Role.
5. Click Data Security Policies.
6. In the Data Security Policies page, click + Create Data Security Policy.

7. Enter the following information:

   • Policy Name: Name of the data security policy. For example, SME Review Step.
   • Data Resource: Knowledge Workflow Steps
   • Data Set: Select by key
   • REFERENCE_KEY: Reference key of the workflow step that you made note of. For example: SME_REVIEW.
   • Actions: Select Approve or reject a Knowledge Workflow Step
8. Click OK.

Reminder:  The approver to whom the task gets assigned should have the Approve/Reject data security policy on the Workflow step they will need to approve.

If the user doing the SME Review should be able to assign the task to other users, complete the following configuration. Otherwise, skip this step.

1. Click Function Security Policies.
2. In the Function Security Policies page, click +Add Function Security Policy.
3. Search and select Manage Knowledge Tasks, which has CSO_MANAGE_TASKS_PRIV as its code.
4. Search and select  Knowledge User Management, which has CSO_KNOWLEDGE_USER_MANAGEMENT_PRIV as its code. This privilege allows the assigner to see the users they will choose from to assign the task. 
5. Click Add Privilege to Role.
6. Click Summary.
7. Click Save and Close.

Updated Editor for Authoring

Redwood authoring uses a modern version of the rich text editor which boasts: 

• Visual lifting of the interface
• Higher accessibility
• Modern image and table functionality
• Font color available on the toolbar
• Background color available on the toolbar
• Image: center aligning is now supported. 
• Improved table and image resize functionality using resize handles

Authors benefit from these changes in the following ways:

•    A delightful work environment that feels lighter, with better contrast and more modern.

•    The button focus indication is now more visible that previous implementations – this is especially noticeable with drop-down UI elements, like font selectors and list enumerators selection drop-downs. Also, the state indication for toggle buttons has been improved. Thanks to more contrast, the button state is now easier to notice at first glance.

•    Using resize handles and more intuitive menu bars within the field, authors can quickly manipulate images and tables in the flow of their work.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

For customers who will upgrade from the Limited Availability versions of authoring with the Redwood experience, it would make sense to test how the new editor impacts their content editing. While there are a number of new features, there are also some known changes which include, but are not limited to:

• HTML is generated in a way that is different than previous versions.

TIP: Test older content by creating/copying into editor for visual and functional tests, especially pages with more complex html: expand/collapse code, tables, images, block styles.

• There are a number of editing buttons that are no longer available but the keystrokes work. These include: select all, cut, copy, paste from word, paste as text
• Cyclic find is no longer available
• There are fewer out of the box styles and elements available in this upgrade

Search

Customer Vocabulary

Customer vocabulary allows administrators to catalog words and phrases that are unique to your business. Knowledge search uses these vocabulary terms to avoid inappropriately identifying them as misspelled or stop words.

As an administrator, you can:

• add terminology unique to your business
• add synonyms to terms to help search match your users' search terms with those used by authors in articles

By including your organization's unique terminology and synonyms in the search vocabulary, you ensure that knowledge search will return the most relevant results.

With relevant results from knowledge search, end users will be able to self-serve more easily and support agents will be able to resolve service requests more rapidly.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

• Oracle Fusion Service: Implementing Knowledge Management with the Redwood User Experience

Priority Answers

Priority answers allow an administrator to identify a particular answer that should be boosted to the top of search results when the end user searches with a term from the vocabulary. Administrators can also choose to block an article from appearing in search when the given term is used.

As an administrator, you can use priority answers to:

• Boost an article to the top of search results
• Block an article from appearing in search results
• Set an expiration date to limit the duration of the Boost or Block rule

Keep in mind that the specified article will only be boosted or blocked when a user searches for the associated vocabulary term.

Boosting an article to the top of search results for select terms can be useful for covering short term knowledge gaps while articles are being created or re-worked to handle an emerging issue. 

You may choose to block an article to avoid steering a user to unfavorable information. For example, if a user searches for "renew subscription" you may want to block an article about canceling their subscription.

Your judicious use of priority answers will ensure users find the most relevant, timely knowledge articles.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

• Oracle Fusion Service: Implementing Knowledge Management with the Redwood User Experience

Agent Experience

My Knowledge with the Redwood User Experience

This focused UI gives your users a straightforward place to go to find the knowledge they need.  Users in this UI will be able to search for, favorite, rate, and view the knowledge you are curating within Fusion Knowledge Management.  Additionally, through Visual Builder you will be able to extend this UI to meet your company's specific needs.

This intuitive UI is easily thrown on a second monitor so that your users can have it open all day, using it to answer whatever questions come up.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

• Oracle Fusion Service: Implementing Knowledge Management with the Redwood User Experience

Access Requirements

In order to access this UI users will need to have either of the following Function Security Policies: "Access Knowledge Home in Service with Redwood User Interface" for the Service version or "Access Knowledge Home in HCM with Redwood User Interface" for the HCM version.

Redwood knowledge in the context of service requests

Within your Service Center in the Redwood User Experience and Helpdesk in the Redwood User Experience, your agents will be able to utilize knowledge from the first moment they view a service request (SR).  If there is knowledge that might be helpful with an SR it is displayed within the SR itself.  Additionally, agents can use the action bar to search for knowledge that may help with the service request (SR) being viewed.  Directly from search results, or while viewing an article, they can link or share knowledge to the SR they are working on.  If an agent finds an issue with the article being viewed they can leave a suggestion for needed changes.  Finally, sometimes a service request contains knowledge that has not yet made it into your knowledge base, Action Plans enable you to copy data from those SRs directly into new knowledge articles.

Using knowledge as part of resolving service requests improves the consistency of the solutions being provided to your customers, whether they are external service customers or internal HCM customers.  The Redwood User Experience makes it easier than ever to get to what you need, when you need it, intuitively.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

• Oracle Fusion Service: Implementing Knowledge Management with the Redwood User Experience