Suspend - Wait for Request Update

[Paul Smith]

We currently use SLA's based on the priority entered at the time of logging the request (Typically a Support Incident). The SLA is based on the first response (update)  by our internal analyst to our external customer.

At the start of the BP we start the Response Timer, do some other actions, then set the request to 'Suspend wait for Request update'. If we use the update button  to add an update to the timeline the Response Timer is stopped and we know that we have hit the Service level. The problem is that the  update does not proactively tell our external customer that an update has been made so 99 times out of 100 our support analysts update the request with the following  e-mail update: .  This also updates the timeline and our e-mail templates have links directly to the request for the external customer to follow for them to update.

When this e-mail update is used it does not however stop the Response Timer - so it looks like we are missing the SLA - nor does it progress the business process. This then gives us a further problem in that if the request is then Resolved, the business process  doesn't generate the auto e-mail to the external customer to say what the resolution is. Its still waiting for  to be used

Can the   update be included in the  Suspend wait for Request update please or have its own Suspend wait for... category ?

What would be even better is if you could Suspend waiting for 1 of a number of things to happen.....or is this already possible ?

 

Thanks in advance 

[Victor]

@Paul Smith indeed the email action is not considered an “update” action for the purpose of “wait for update node”. However I am thinking that you could have the BP email the update made by the analyst using the update action? This would mean the BP will progress and also the customer will be emailed the analyst update...

[Paul Smith]

@Victor that could be a bloody good idea.... could you control the e-mail based on the visibility...... so if it was set to 'Team' its internal therefore dont e-mail but if its 'Customer' its external therefore e-mail ? 

[Jeremy]

I had also asked a similar question - 

Is there a way to suspend or shift the action focus to Email?

I can see options for a lot of other things but Email seems to be missing, as part of our processes we would like our analyst to send an email manually but cannot find a way to make this happen automatically as part of the BPM.

[Victor]

16 minutes ago, Paul Smith said:

could you control the e-mail based on the visibility...... so if it was set to 'Team' its internal therefore dont e-mail but if its 'Customer' its external therefore e-mail ?

@Paul Smith I'm afraid we don't have this level of control  ... if the BP is configured to send an email with the last update on request it will do it regardless of that update visibility or any other characteristics of that update..  

[Victor]

1 minute ago, Jeremy said:

Is there a way to suspend or shift the action focus to Email?

@Jeremy not currently. Email is not an action you can focus on in current functionality. Something to be considered as an enhancement perhaps.

[Paul Smith]

29 minutes ago, Victor said:

@Paul Smith I'm afraid we don't have this level of control  ... if the BP is configured to send an email with the last update on request it will do it regardless of that update visibility or any other characteristics of that update..  

Thats a shame as we have Update set to TEAM and use it mostly for internal communications and E-mail set to CUSTOMER because that is our method of communicating with them. Our customers are External Organisations and in that respect the existing functionality is lacking slightly......ts nearly there but not quite  !

Can we look at an enhancement request on this topic do you think @Victor ?

[Victor]

@Paul Smith the enhancement request would be something for @Steven Boardman to consider...

[Martyn Houghton]

@Paul Smith

If you created multiple outcomes from the workflow activity, you could use the outcome selected to determine if the activity is an internal one or an external facing one, for which the content of the activity reason/text is then inserted an email template and sent to the customer. This would then allow the BPM process to put the request on Hold rather than using the suspend waiting on update.

Cheers

Martyn

[Paul Smith]

3 hours ago, Martyn Houghton said:

@Paul Smith

If you created multiple outcomes from the workflow activity, you could use the outcome selected to determine if the activity is an internal one or an external facing one

Hi @Martyn Houghton thank you for this... sorry for the ignorance but what do you mean by the above in the context of what I'm trying to achieve ?

Thanks in advance for the advice !

Paul

[Steven Boardman]

@Jeremy @Paul Smith I have enquired about having an option to add an Action focus for email, once this is reviewed i'll post back re any scheduling for this feature.

Steve

[Paul Smith]

Thank you @Steven Boardman it would certainly be a massive help to us

Regards

Paul

[James Ainsworth]

To conclude this post, a BPM operation Wait for Request Email  has been provided and is available for use.  This will suspend the BPM up to a point when an email has been sent from the request.  This includes the option to set the Action Focus.  Documentation can be found here

Regards,

James