Workflow vs Automation vs Process

Get to know the automation options

What the difference between Workflow vs Automation vs Process - are they the same thing?

HelpMaster has many powerful features that can be used to streamline and automate support processes, sales/crm, facilities maintenance, HR and other practices. Out of the box, HelpMaster supports the following features / concepts.

• Workflow
• Priority Manager Automation Profiles
• Triggered Events - based on recurring dates
• Triggered Events - based on data matching criteria
• Email automation - automatically converting email into tickets, or updating existing tickets

All of these things can affect a HelpMaster job/ticket, and they can all be running and active at the same time, so how do these things work, and how are they different. Which ones should I be using?

The simple answer, is that you should be using all of these features! Each one offers a unique approach to automation and targets a different role within the life-cycle of a job/ticket.

Email Automation

Let’s start with the easy and obvious one. Email Automation. When and why should I use it?

The simple answer is….use the Email Manager all the time! Turn it on, configure it and let it do its thing.

If you have email coming into your helpdesk / support desk, then it makes sense to automatically process them and convert them into support tickets.

At a minimum, configure 2 profiles….

• One profile to convert new email into a new support ticket
• Another profile to update existing tickets when replies/and or additional information is sent to the helpdesk

In time, create more profiles that can handle specific types of email (Network alerts from monitoring tools, sales enquiries, HR requests and updates etc.)

Priority Manager

Think of Priority Manager profiles as “If this, then that” style processing for helpdesk tickets. This is perfect for things like…

• Reassigning tickets based on some criteria
• Updating status
• Sending reminders
• Automatically closing
• …or doing something with the ticket..

Every helpdesk / service desk has operational rules, or buinsess requirement that govern how the support is managed. Think of the Priority Manager as the automatic agent that is constantly scanning your databse and looking to implement your business rules.

Triggered Events

Similar to the Priority Manager in that it uses “If this…then that” style processeing, however the Triggered Events feature can operate on more than just jobs, or tickets. It can be used for other entities such as Clients, Assets, Knowledge Base Articles, as well as Jobs.

This is perfect for keeping an eye on things like…

• An asset is approaching warranty expiry
• A knoweldge article has received a negative user feedback rating
• A client, or company has run out of support credits, or subscription
• A SSL certificate requires renewal
• A support job/ticket has reached a critical point in its lifecycle

Triggered events can also work with dates. So for example:

• Every Monday, log a new support ticket using a Job Template
• Every 6 months, update something
• Every 3rd Thursday of every 2 months, run a billing query

HelpMaster can store a lot of data about things. Use the Triggered Events to query that data and act on it.

Job Workflow

Job Workflow is the process that is built-in to each Job Template. When a job is logged using that Job Template, the workflow (or process that is used to complete that job type) is transferred into the job itself, and then support agents can work that process in order to complete the ticket.

So…

• for a support job, build a workflow that may model an ITIL-based incident process.
• for a sales job, build a workflow that outlines the steps for prospecting, validating/qualifying, quoting/proposal, negotiating, closing, followup/onboarding etc.
• for a maintenance job, build a workflow that may include re-ordering parts, replace and fit, testing, invoicing
• for a Human Resources job, build a workflow that includes all the steps for on-boarding/off-boarding employees

etc.

The ideas of worklow is to model the types of activities and business decision points that occur in that process, and allow your staff/agents to simply “follow the process” as they complete the job/ticket.

Workflow is a powerful feature of HelpMaster, and it keeps improving with new releases.

What will you build with workflow?