Chapter 25: Managing Workflow

The workflow management allows you to automate your sales, marketing, support processes, in which the records, tasks are assigned or transferred from one user to another for action, according to a set of predefined rules. The workflow rule is triggered when record meets the specified matching criteria. The key benefits of Workflow are Improved efficiency by eliminating many unnecessary steps in records and tasks assignment, better process control by improved business process through standardizing working methods and reduced operating costs.

For example, Zoho CRM provides a sample Lead Assignment rule in Leads module (based on Workflow rules) for assigning leads generated through import or web integration to lead owners (Sales Reps) based on different criteria automatically. The matching criteria can be region, country, company, etc. Immediately after matching the criteria a new task is created and assigned to the lead owner according to company's business process. It will also notify the lead owner about the new lead assignment in an appropriate E-mail template.

Another sample workflow rule in the Zoho CRM system is Big Deal Alert. This rule is executed when the Sales Amount and probability of winning the business opportunity crosses the significant value, which can be notified to the management and other colleagues in your Sales team.

You can associate workflow rules with alerts (e-mail message), tasks, or both. To send a notification to the recipients, you must associate an alert to the rule.

You can perform the following operations in Workflow module:

• Manage rules
• Setup alerts
• Add Tasks
• Manage e-mail templates

Note: Workflow rules will be triggered only when you create a new record, update the existing record or both depending upon workflow rule settings.

Managing Workflow Rules

While setting up Workflow rules, first create a rule with suitable matching criteria. You can perform the following operations in Workflow module:

• Create/modify/delete workflow rules
• Activate/deactivate workflow rule

To add workflow rule

1. Click the Setup link.
2. In the Setup Home page, click the Workflow Settings link.
3. In the LHS tree expand the Workflow Setting link and click the Workflow Rules link.
4. In the Workflow Rules page, some of the existing rules are displayed. Click the New Rule button.
5. In the Select Record Type page, select the module from the Module drop-down list. Click the Next button.
6. In the New Rule page, under the Rule Details section, specify the following:
   • Record Type: Display the module selected in the previous page (Select Record Type)
     • Rule Name: Specify the name of the rule
     • Description: Specify additional details about rule.
     • Active: Select the Active check box to enable the rule. By default the check box is selected. If you do not want to enable the rule disable the check box.
     • Evaluation Time: Select one of the following options:
       • Evaluate this rule when new records are created: Select this option to trigger the rule when a new record is created.
       • Evaluate this rule when new records are created and existing records are edited: Select this option to trigger the rule when record is created/modified.
   • In the Rule Criteria section, specify the matching criteria. You can select multiple criteria.
7. Click Save. A new workflow rule is displayed where you can add alerts and tasks.

Setting up Workflow Alerts

Workflow alert comprises of an e-mail template, which is used to send mass e-mail notification to all the specified recipients. An E-mail message will be sent to the recipients upon triggering the workflow rule. For each workflow rule, you can associate only one alert (E-mail template).

To add workflow alert

1. Click the Setup link.
2. In the Setup Home page, click the Workflow Settings link.
3. In the LHS tree expand the Workflow Setting link and click the Workflow Alerts link.
4. In the Workflow Alerts page, some of the existing alerts are displayed. Click the New Alert button.
5. In the New Alert page, do the following:
6. In the Alert Details section, specify the name of the alert and select the E-mail template from the Name and E-mail fields respectively.
7. In the Recipient Details section, select the recipients of the alert form the Available Recipients list box. You can also notify alert to the other users by specifying E-mail IDs in Additional Recipients text box.
8. Click Save. An E-mail based alert is created, which can be associated to the workflow rules.

Managing Workflow Tasks

The task can be associated to workflow rule in case you are planning to create a task upon triggering a workflow rule. For new records tasks will be created for the users with a default values specified the workflow task.

To add workflow task

1. Click the Setup link.
2. In the Setup Home page, click the Workflow Settings link.
3. In the LHS tree expand the Workflow Setting link and click the Workflow Tasks link.
4. In the Workflow Tasks page, some of the existing tasks are displayed. Click the New Task button.
5. In the New Task page, specify the following:
   • Record Type: Select the module.
   • Subject: Specify the subject of the task.
   • Priority: Select the priority of the task.
   • Status: Select the default status of the task while creating it first time
   • Due Date: Specify the date to execute the workflow rule. The due date is a combination
   • Assigned To: Select the user to whom the task has to be assigned.
   • Description: Specify additional details of the workflow task.
6. Click Save. A new workflow task is created, which can be associated to workflow rules.

Managing E-mail templates

As part of the workflow management, notification through E-mail is one of the most important tasks. The E-mail notifications can be predefined so that upon triggering a workflow rule, predefined E-mail will be sent to all the recipients.

Warning: If you are creating E-mail template for sending Emails to leads, do not merge the contact-related fields and vice a versa. If you are trying to merge both fields, you will experience some errors during E-mail creation.

For more details about E-mail Templates refer to Chapter:26 Working with E-mail Templates