Chapter 3 Automating Business Processes with Workflow

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 2 Objectives By the end of this module, you should be able to understand the fundamentals of automating business processes using workflow rules. More specifically, you should be able to:  List the actions that can be triggered by a workflow rule.  Create a workflow rule.  Describe the difference between time-dependent and immediate workflow actions.  Describe use cases for workflow rules.  Create a workflow rule with time-dependent actions.

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 3 Workflow Rules A workflow rule:  Triggers an action when a record meets the criteria for a rule.  Can trigger actions that either occur immediately or can be time-dependent.  Should be named in such a way that it conveys the type of object on which it is based as well as its trigger criteria.  Is evaluated only for records created or edited after you create the rule.

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 4 Process to Create a Workflow Rule Introduction When creating a workflow rule, you specify the object, determine the evaluation criteria, and define the rule criteria.

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 5 Workflow Actions Tasks Assign a task to a:  User,  Role, or  Record owner. Tasks Alerts Field Updates Outbound Messages

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 6 Workflow Actions Alerts Automatically send to one or more recipients from the:  Current user’s address.  Organization-wide address. Tasks Alerts Field Updates Outbound Messages

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 7 Workflow Actions Field Updates Update a field value on a record. Tasks Alerts Field Updates Outbound Messages

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 8 Workflow Actions Outbound Messages Send specific information to a designated endpoint in the form of an APVSOAP message. Tasks Alerts Field Updates Outbound Messages

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 9 Time-Dependent Workflow  Workflow actions can be:  Immediate: actions fire as soon as a record meets the criteria.  Time-Dependent: actions fire based on elapsed time (evaluated off of any date field in Salesforce).  Time-dependent actions have a time trigger.  With time-dependent actions, the action is queued to fire as soon as the workflow criteria is met; however, the action will not occur until it meets the time trigger.

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 10 Time-Dependent Workflow Considerations Considerations for creating time-dependent workflow:  You cannot use time-dependent workflow when a rule is set for evaluation Every time a record is created or updated,  When a new workflow rule is created, it does not affect existing records.  You can monitor and remove pending actions by viewing the time-dependent workflow queue.  If a record that has an action pending against. The time-based workflow queue is modified so that the record no longer meets the criteria or the timing changes, the action will be updated in the queue.  If a record no longer meets the time-based workflow rule criteria, the action is removed from the queue.

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 11 Time-Dependent Workflow Use Cases Let’s take a look at some of the typical case scenarios where time- dependent workflow is used. Introduction Status of an offer is Sent for more than 2 days Number of interviewers associated with a position is zero Critical position remains in an Open status for more than 14 days

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 12 Time-Dependent Workflow Use Cases If the status of an offer is “Sent” for more than 2 days, assign a task to the owner of the offer reminding them to follow up. Introduction Status of an offer is Sent for more than 2 days Number of interviewers associated with a position is zero Critical position remains in an Open status for more than 14 days

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 13 Time-Dependent Workflow Use Cases If the number of interviewers associated with a position is zero for more than 30 days after the position is created, send an to the hiring manager. Introduction Status of an offer is Sent for more than 2 days Number of interviewers associated with a position is zero Critical position remains in an Open status for more than 14 days

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 14 Time-Dependent Workflow Use Cases If a critical position remains in an Open status for more than 14 days, assign a task to the owner. Introduction Status of an offer is Sent for more than 2 days Number of interviewers associated with a position is zero Critical position remains in an Open status for more than 14 days

– The Best & Most Convenient Way to Learn Salesforce.com 15 Summary In this module, you learned that:  A workflow rule triggers an action when a record meets the criteria for a rule.  While creating a workflow rule, you:  Specify the object.  Determine the evaluation criteria.  Define the rule criteria.  Workflow actions can be:  Immediate: actions fire as soon as a record meets the criteria.  Time-dependent: actions fire based on elapsed time.