Workflow management rules are the core of your workflow. With the right tools, you can reduce tasks, anticipate bottlenecks, and automate regular activities. But even the best-laid plans can get tripped up by unexpected events or mistakes made by employees. A workflow management system can warn you of potential problems before they turn into major issues and can help you avoid permanent damage by resolving these issues quickly.
There are a variety of workflows, based on how complex your workflow. Sequential workflows consist of a series of steps that must be completed in a sequential order. One step cannot begin until the prior step is completed. State-machine workflows require input from several team members, and frequently repeat until the task is completed. Rules-driven workflows are sequential, but business process optimization pros include additional rules, typically created as conditional “if this is the case, then that” statements. Parallel workflows are designed for completion of a number of tasks simultaneously.
With Zoho’s workflow program, you can design and set up rules to monitor and determine the outcome of any record based upon specified conditions. You can send automated emails to the submitter or approver of the record when the rule triggers. A workflow rule can be used to change field values automatically.
If you are creating workflow rules for records to be followed, make sure that your approval and assignment processes are properly set up to avoid conflicting assignments. You might need to assign different approvers for incident records depending on the severity of the incident (e.g. high vs. low severity incidents). It is possible to determine whether there are any conflicts between rules by looking at the log of workflow rules. This log is available when you have Manage Workflow Rules or the larger system logs enabled.