NEW FEATURE OVERVIEW SPRINGCM S APPROVAL WORKFLOW TOOL (AKA ROUTING AND APPROVAL WORKFLOW) SpringCM is deploying a new series of enhancements to the Approval workflow. Approval Workflows is a core platform feature, and is considered our basic workflow tool. It is available for all licensed customers to use at any time. This document will highlight changes current functionality vs. new functionality of Approval workflow tool, from both an Administrators perspective as well as the average end user. You will see with the new functionality we have simplified the configuration of workflows (from several screens/steps to one!). Details follow below first with a review of existing (current) functionality, followed by a detailed overview of the way the tool will work with the new functionality (as of this Friday 4/13).
CURRENT FUNCTIONALITY (REVIEW) Starting a New Workflow 1. Navigate to the Workflows tab 2. Click START in the menu bar Options are to select from Approval Workflow or Predefined Process
3. The next screen is where you would select if you were creating a Template as well as a Work Process. This screen is also where the workflow is named, where participants are selected, and where notes are added. This is also the screen where you attach the document(s) to the workflow (optional for templates). 4. Once the options above were selected and Next was clicked, a user was brought to the Step Creation page. On this page, the participants are actually given the steps of the routing, as well as the choice of an edit or approval step choice. Options on this screen also allowed for setting a duration, reminder and additional alert recipients. The last element of setup is whether the selected duration times are measured in Calendar or Business Weeks.
5. The last page is a review of what you have configured for the workflow. This is a quick check to confirm it will do what you want, before you then make the choice to Activate the workflow (if it is a template, you have an additional option to Save it). Admin functions (active workflows and template use) 1. Once a workflow is activated, Administrators have visibility in their Inbox to see any active workflows that are in flight. By clicking the Administration view, an Admin user (or the actual workflow owner) can complete the current step of the workflow.
2. Separately, Administrators could also navigate to the menu bar and select MANAGE and take actions to use existing Approval Templates, or to actually Reassign or Unassign steps to or from users. Clicking the Approval Templates button would display a table of all saved templates, and allow for actions such as editing, using or deleting the template. NEW FUNCTIONALITY (OVERVIEW) Starting a New Workflow 1. Navigate to the Workflows tab 2. Click START in the menu bar Approval Workflow (if Advanced Workflow has been activated, it will also display in the dropdown)
3. You will click on the new Workflow Setup page! This is consolidating 3 pages of previous steps to 1 simple interface. From this page, you will name the workflow, select a template (if applicable), select documents to work on, provide instructions for the workflow, and then configure the actual steps of the flow (see point #4 for details on step configuration). 4. Configure Steps of your workflow. The simplified new interface allows you to click Add Users to select multiple participants for the first step, or you can type in the first few letters of a users name or email to the box for a lookup/select from the Address Book. You can choose if they have an Approve or Edit action (as was the case before). Along with a duration (time) for the step and reminder. Click Add Step and repeat as many times as needed to map out the complete workflow.
5. When you are done with steps, simply click Start and the workflow will be activated! Admin functions (active workflows and template use) 1. As before, once a workflow is activated, Administrators have visibility in their Inbox to see any active workflows that are in flight. By clicking the Administration view, an Admin user (or the actual workflow owner) can complete the current step of the workflow. One subtle change is that the Activity column will display the step number and type of step.
3. As before, Administrators could also navigate to the menu bar and select MANAGE and take actions to use existing Approval Templates, or to actually Reassign or Unassign steps to or from users. Clicking the Approval Templates button would display a table of all saved templates, and allow for actions such as editing, using or deleting the template. 4. Once you click the Approval Templates link, the grid of templates will be displayed. And from this view, you can click TEMPLATES in the menu bar Create Template to setup your new template workflows.
Also, there are no longer Pre-Defined Work Processes - now, there are only Templates. And when they are created, there is a checkbox to allow the workflow to be modified. By default, it IS checked (so it can be modified). If you uncheck the box, the template cannot be modified - so all steps you have created (users, actions, durations, etc.) are locked.
Other Notes Administration tasks will be displayed for the workflow owner (the user initiating a workflow) as well as ANY Super Administrators in your SpringCM account If you are a workflow participant (step owner) as well as a Super Admin or the workflow initiator, you will continue to see two items in your inbox one as an Administration task, the other as the step owner task For more information or assistance with using Approval Workflow, contact SpringCM Support (support@springcm.net)