Major cases

A major case contains information about a specific issue that impacts multiple customers. It is not associated with any accounts, contacts, or consumers. This customer-specific information resides in the child cases associated with the major case.

The recipients list associated with the major case identifies customers impacted by the issue. Select a list in the Affected Customers field in the Major Case Information form section of the Major Case form. After adding the list, you can automatically create child cases for all customers on the list. These cases are added to the Child Cases related list on the Major Case form.

With synchronization enabled, updates to the parent major case are automatically synchronized to the associated child cases. When the major case is closed, the associated child cases in the following states are also closed: New, Open, Awaiting Customer Info.

When the enable_case_type_for_major_case property is set to true, the system uses the sys_class_name of the candidate case to determine the case type of the resulting major case and its child cases, rather than defaulting to the base Case table.

To identify major cases in the list view, check the value in the Major case state field.

• Major cases have a state of Accepted.
• Major case candidates have a state of either Proposed or Rejected.
• Regular cases have a blank value.

Major case candidates

A customer service agent uses a major case candidate, or candidate case, to flag an issue that could be a wider issue impacting multiple customers. An agent can create a major case candidate in the following ways:

• By promoting an existing customer service case with a reported issue to a major case candidate.
• By creating a new major case candidate.

A major case candidate requires the approval of the customer service manager or major case manager before being promoted to a major case.

• If a major case candidate was promoted from an existing case, a new major case is created and the candidate case becomes a child case of that major case.
• If a new major case candidate was created directly, that same case becomes the major case.

Child cases

Child cases are associated with a major case. One child case is created for each account (B2B) or consumer (B2C) impacted by the major case issue. Child cases are created from the recipients list on the major case and can also be added manually by the major issue manager.

When child cases are created, the short description from the major case is copied to each of the child cases. Duplicate child cases are not created. If a child case already exists for an account or consumer, it is not created again.

As child cases are created, you can enter text in a pop-up window that is added to the Additional comments field on the child case form. These comments are added only to the newly created child cases. The major case and any existing associated child cases are not updated.

The primary contact for an account is the contact on the child case and is automatically added to the child case watchlist.

Synchronization between major cases and associated child cases

The system administrator can set system properties that enable or disable the synchronization between the major case and associated child cases and also define the fields to synchronize. Synchronization occurs from the major case to the child cases. If the state of a child case is Resolved, Closed, or Canceled, the synchronization does not take place.