5.5 Using Workflows

Workflows have many business applications, and Julio plans to use them to help streamline his team’s business practices. A workflow process is an online version of a business process, so instead of slow, time-consuming manual processes, workflows enable team members to focus on their work, and let Teaming 2.0 take care of the rest.

5.5.1 Life Cycle Workflow

Julio has created a workflow for the life cycle of an article.

  1. After Julio and Anne compose the article in the Wiki folder, they start the workflow by clicking Workflow > Start Workflow.

    The workflow sends a notification to the editor, stating that an article needs to be edited; the workflow then moves the article into Ida’s Editing Queue folder.

  2. Ida has now finished editing the article. She transitions the article back to the authors so they can implement her edits. To do this, she clicks OK.

    The workflow sends a notification to the authors, and then moves the article back into the Article Composition wiki folder.

  3. After incorporating Ida’s edits into the article, the authors transition the article to their manager, Karl Jones, for approval.

    The workflow sends a notification to Karl informing him that the article is now in his Article Approval folder, and is ready for his approval.

  4. Karl then transitions the article to the managing editor of the in-house magazine to be published.

    The workflow sends a notification to the managing editor, Kaci Quartz, and moves the article into her Editing Queue folder.

The implementation of this workflow saves team members time, and ensures that no steps are accidentally omitted.

5.5.2 Active/Resolved Workflow

The article life cycle is not the only place Julio has implemented workflows for his team. For example, the Article Discussions folder is helping the team answer questions quickly and efficiently, but to make the folder even more useful, Julio has implemented a workflow that enables team members to change the status of discussions from Active, when the discussion is still in an active state, to Resolved, when the issues in the discussion have been resolved. By implementing this workflow, team members are aware of which issues have been resolved, and which issues need further discussion.

5.5.3 Using Workflows to Solve Corporate Needs

Workflows can be created not just to solve team needs, but to solve global corporate needs. Green Energy Power Company uses workflows in their corporate Teaming installation to help minimize work and maximize results.

For example, Julio thinks that it might be beneficial if he and Anne could attend a conference on paperless initiatives, so they can get a better idea of how other companies are accomplishing their paperless initiative tasks. Attending this conference would require approval from their manager, the department manager, and the company travel office. Julio’s manager has already created a custom workflow in the team workspace to address these kinds of requests.

  1. Julio navigates to the folder where the workflow is set up.

  2. Julio clicks Add, and selects the appropriate request type from the drop-down list.

  3. Julio specifies the appropriate information in the provided fields, then clicks OK.

    The workflow is now started.