REQUEST AND ISSUES

Many organizations use paper forms or email to process requests, complaints or issues from employees, customers and prospects. The problem with this approach is that it is often not clear what the status of the request is and who is supposed to respond. The request managementmodule enables you to define a specific request workflow for each request type. Tasks are automatically assigned to people and managers can track the status of a request to ensure that service level agreements are observed.

Internet: Customers, employees and partners can submit requests and track the progress online. You can integrate the module with your own intranet so that users do not have to login separately and are presented with a familiar look-and-feel.

Categories: You can organizate requests into categories. For every category you can define separate web forms, data fields and workflows. By using sub categories you can quickly make modifications to existing processes.

Fields: You can create an unlimited amount of customer data fields for each category of request. For example, in case of a maintenance request you can define a field for the problem code and in case of a vacation request you can define fields for the date and number of days.

Screens: For every category of request you can design a custom web form. You can specify which fields should be displayed and the location on the form. You can also specify who may edit certain information, depending on the state of the workflow.

Workflows: Every category of request you can be linked to a custom workflow. This workflow defines how the request is processed. It automatically creates tasks for persons in certain roles.

Documents: Documents can be uploaded and attached to the request. For example, when handling a customer complaint you can attach a scanned letter, photo or email concerning the issue.

Roles: Workflow tasks for a request can be assigned to user groups such as facility manager or sales manager. When people are assigned to a user group they will automatically receive tasks belonging to that group. This way you do not have to change the workflow definition when people change functions or if they are no longer active in the organization.

Task list: Tasks are assigned automatically and are displayed in the user's personal task list. Managers can review all open tasks or overdue tasks. You can define how many persons that have a certain role should perform the task.

Workorders: New requests can be linked to existing requests on the same issue and you can create work orders to handle the request. After the work orders have been completed all related requests can be closed.

Overview: Submitters can review all their outstanding request from a central location. Bij clicking on the request the current status in the workflow is displayed in a diagram. Managers can review the status of all requests in the organization to ensure compliance to service level agreements.

Email notifications: Requestors or other persons involved in processing the requests can be notificied automatically by email. These emails can be personalized and can be sent as plain text or HTML.

Time measurement: You can specify the maximum responsetime and runtime of a request. Subsequently you can analyze the actual responsetime and runtime to determine what percentage of the requests have been handled within the defined period.

Process diagram: At any stage the recipient or submitter of the request can view the status in a graphical process diagram. The current status of the workflow is shown in black and the previous and next phases are displayed in gray.

Escalation: Time-based triggers can be assigned to stages in the workflow. For example, if a certain stage in the process is not reached at a certain time the workflow engine can send a reminder or generate escalation tasks.

Parallel paths: The workflow engine support parallel paths, for example when a request is received one path starts a procedure for getting more information from the requestor while another path starts the internal evaluation. The various paths can be synchronized at a milestone stage, which checks the status of all paths that are started up.

Decision rules: Workflows can have multiple decision points that can have simple or complex decision rules. For example, a decision rule can specify that if the total invoice amount is more than a certain amount and the person is not a manager it needs to go through additional approvals.

The module can be configured for each user group by setting access rights to fields and functions. You can also define your own processes for modifying or creating data by defining custom workflows. Specific functions for your organization can be implemented on request.