Document Workflow Automation for a 6,000-Employee Consumer Company
Client
The Client is a US consumer products company of 6,000 employees.
Challenge
The Client commissioned ScienceSoft to streamline document management and business processes through introducing the approval workflow into the company’s intranet based on SharePoint Online. The workflow was required to track the number of approval rounds and send recurrent reminders to the participants if it was not completed. The Client also needed to create new approval requests based on the existing ones in a fast and easy way.
Solution
ScienceSoft’s team undertook the task of creating the approval workflow. To enable automated sending of reminders to the workflow participants, the team also created the reminder workflow.
The Client had used InfoPath forms that contained mostly Single Line Text fields. These fields were not suitable for creating the request approval forms for the new workflows, so ScienceSoft’s team needed to change field types and add new fields to the forms. To customize the forms, our SharePoint experts used JSLink.
The team used SharePoint Designer 2013 to create the approval workflow for the Tool Evaluation Reports List. This software was also used to implement workflow transitions. The approval workflow contained three stages: Initial Draft, Learning and Tool Review, Completed.
ScienceSoft’s team allowed the approval workflow to start both manually and automatically. The workflow started automatically when a list item was modified or a new item was added to the list.
To set up the approval workflow manually, the initiator had to fill in a request form and pick reviewers. Our team also enabled users to add comments when filling in the request form, approving or rejecting a document. Upon completing the request form, an automatic email notification was generated and sent to the workflow participants asking them to review a document. The notification had the initiator’s email address in cc. When the item was approved by all the participants, the workflow completed, and they received an automatic notification about it. ScienceSoft’s team also enabled the notification to show the workflow stage and the approval round.
As for the reminder workflow, ScienceSoft’s specialists designed it to send reminders to the workflow participants every 5 days in case they didn’t click Approve or Reject.
Our team also enabled users to create a duplicate of an item. It helped users to save time, as they didn’t have to enter all the fields in the request form one more time when a document had been already approved but needed some minor changes.
Results
The Client got two workflows that accelerated document-induced business operations. Knowing the number of approval rounds enabled the Client to analyze and optimize the approval process. Item duplication simplified approving minor changes in the previously approved documents. Reminders helped to increase accountability of the Client’s employees as regards document management.
Technologies and Tools
SharePoint Online, SharePoint Designer 2013, JavaScript
