We’re experiencing a critical issue with our supplier collaboration workflow in TC 12.3 where email notifications are not being sent to external suppliers when tasks are assigned to them. The workflow executes successfully and tasks appear in the supplier portal, but suppliers never receive the email alerts notifying them of pending actions.
Internal users receive workflow notifications without any problems, so the basic email functionality is working. However, when the workflow assigns tasks to supplier contacts, the notification emails simply don’t get delivered. I’ve verified that supplier contact email addresses are correctly entered in their user profiles.
This is causing major delays in supplier engagement as suppliers don’t know they have pending tasks until they manually log into the portal. We need these notifications working to maintain our supply chain schedule. Could this be related to notification configuration for external users, email server settings for external domains, or issues with how supplier contact information is stored?
I can provide a complete solution addressing all three critical aspects of your supplier notification issue.
Notification Config: The root problem is that TC 12.3 requires explicit configuration for external supplier notifications that’s separate from internal user notifications. Access the Teamcenter Preferences Management and navigate to the Notification Rules section. Create a new notification rule specifically for supplier collaboration workflows. The rule must include these settings: Event Type = “Task Assignment”, Target Users = “External Users” or specifically your supplier organization groups, Notification Method = “Email”. Critically, you need to enable the “Allow External Recipients” flag in the notification rule properties - this flag is disabled by default for security reasons and must be explicitly enabled for supplier notifications. Additionally, review your workflow template’s notification handler configuration. The handler should use the “EPM-send-notification” action with the parameter “include_external_users=true”. Without this parameter, the notification system filters out external email addresses even if other settings are correct.
Email Settings: Your mail server configuration needs specific adjustments for external supplier emails. First, verify the SMTP relay settings in Teamcenter’s email configuration allow sending to external domains. Check the tc_profilevars.properties file and confirm that the mail.smtp.auth and mail.smtp.starttls.enable parameters are set correctly for external email delivery. Many organizations restrict automated emails to internal domains by default. Work with your email administrator to whitelist the Teamcenter notification sender address for external delivery. Add the supplier email domains to an allowed recipients list if your organization uses such restrictions. Also verify that your email server’s SPF and DKIM records include the Teamcenter server to prevent supplier spam filters from blocking the notifications. Test external email delivery using the Teamcenter notification test utility before enabling production workflows.
Contact Info: Supplier contact information must be stored in the correct user profile attributes for the notification system to find them. Verify that each supplier user account has their email address in the standard “email_address” property, not in custom attributes or notes fields. Access Organization > Users, select a supplier user, and confirm the Email Address field is populated. Additionally, check that supplier users are assigned to the correct organization and that the organization has its Email Domain property set. The notification system validates external addresses against the organization’s email domain. If a supplier’s email doesn’t match their organization’s domain, the notification may be blocked. For supplier portal users, ensure they’re assigned the “Supplier” role in addition to basic user privileges - this role includes notification permissions for external collaboration. Review the supplier user group membership and confirm they’re included in notification subscription groups for workflow tasks.
Implementation steps: First, create the external notification rule with the “Allow External Recipients” flag enabled. Second, update your workflow template’s notification handler to include external users. Third, coordinate with your email admin to configure SMTP settings and whitelist external delivery. Fourth, audit all supplier user accounts to verify email addresses are in the correct property fields. Fifth, test the complete flow by assigning a workflow task to a test supplier account and confirming email delivery. This systematic approach resolves all three focus areas and ensures reliable supplier notification delivery for your collaboration workflows.
This draft is based on general Teamcenter knowledge. It has not been verified against your specific version and environment. Practitioners: verify the steps and share your experience below.
Check your mail server configuration for external email routing. Some organizations have email security policies that block automated emails to external domains. Verify that the Teamcenter mail server account has permission to send to external addresses and that there are no spam filter rules blocking the notifications.
I’ve seen this before with supplier workflows. The issue is often that external supplier users have a different notification preference setting than internal users. Check the supplier user accounts in Organization management and verify that email notifications are enabled in their preferences. Also confirm that the workflow notification handler is configured to send to external users - sometimes there’s a flag that restricts notifications to internal domains only.
In TC 12.3, supplier collaboration notifications require specific configuration in the notification rules. Navigate to Preferences > Notification and check if there’s a rule defined for external supplier task assignments. You may need to create a separate notification rule for supplier users that explicitly includes external email addresses. Also verify that the supplier organization is correctly set up with valid email domain information. The notification system uses the organization’s email domain to validate external addresses before sending.
I checked the notification preferences and the supplier users do have email notifications enabled. The organization email domains look correct too. I’m wondering if this could be related to how the workflow assigns tasks to supplier contacts versus internal users. Is there a different notification handler for external assignments?
Yes, external task assignments can use different notification paths. Check your workflow template and look at the task assignment handler for supplier tasks. There should be a notification action configured as part of the assignment. Verify that the action includes external users in its recipient list. Also check the subscription settings - supplier users might need to be explicitly subscribed to workflow task notifications.
Another possibility is that the email addresses are stored in a custom attribute rather than the standard email property, which would cause the notification system to miss them.