Dynamic Agent Desktop: Desktop workflows

When following elaborate business processes, staff members must often evaluate critical information and perform a variety of actions across multiple records. To help promote efficiency and reduce the chances for human error, RightNow CX lets you create highly customized desktop workflows that guide agents through complex customer interactions and data updates.

A desktop workflow is a sequence of workspaces, scripts, decisions, and actions – even other embedded workflows – that supports a business process. Using an intuitive design interface, you define a workflow by assembling a set of elements into a logical order to form a flow diagram, then adding decision logic to advance the flow.

Desktop workflow design canvas and ribbon

The workflow design ribbon includes three standard tabs (Home, Insert, and View) as well as two contextual tabs (Element Tools and Path Tools) that become visible when an element or connector is selected.

The Home tab gives you access to options that impact the entire desktop workflow. For example, you can select workflow elements, perform basic editing functions, add notes, and validate and preview the workflow.

The Insert tab allows you to add components to your flow diagram, either one at a time or in predefined workflow templates.

The View tab provides options for changing your view of the design canvas.

When you select an element or connector on the canvas, the ribbon displays a fourth contextual tab. When an element is selected, the Element Tools tab appears. This tab is divided into two sections. On the left are contextual groups and buttons, meaning they change depending on the element selected. On the right are standard groups and buttons, meaning they display no matter what element is selected.

Creating workflows

When designing a workflow, you can drag elements from the Home or Insert tab and order them on the canvas. The flow diagram is a graphical representation of the actions and decisions your workflow will perform and the order in which it will perform them. Your flow diagram can be as simple as a single path connecting a few workspaces or it can be complex, routing your staff members through dozens of workspaces, scripts, actions, and decisions.

Each element on the canvas displays an icon and two labels that help to identify its function. The top label contains the element’s name. The bottom label identifies the element’s working record. The icon varies by element type as well as the working record’s record type.

Elements vary by shape according to their functions.

• User Interface: Rectangular elements used to denote items that display to staff members, such as workspaces, scripts, and other embedded workflows.
• Automation: Circular elements used to denote automated events that run in the background, such as setting field values and creating and saving records.
• Search: Polygonal elements that require staff members to perform a search, such as loading a record or associating a record with another record.
• Decision: Diamond-shaped and polygonal elements that denote logical evaluations that are used to branch the flow across two or more paths based on conditions that you define.

Workflow templates

The Template button group on the Insert tab of the workflow designer provides several predefined templates as a starting point for creating your workflow’s flow diagram. You can add and remove elements to further customize your workflow and then edit each element’s attributes to meet your business needs.

• New vs. Edit: This template directs staff members to one workspace if they are creating a new incident and to a different workspace if they are opening an existing incident.
• Add Task: This template displays an incident in a workspace and then automatically creates a new task for the incident.
• Copy Incident: This template displays an incident in a workspace, and then copies the incident, sets fields in the copy, and displays the copy in another workspace.
• Create Contact: This template checks whether an open incident is associated with a contact record. If no contact is associated, it automatically creates a new contact for the incident and sets contact fields before displaying the incident in a workspace.

Exporting workflows

If you have a workflow that you want to copy to another RightNow CX interface, you can export the workflow and then import it on the other interface. Exported workflows contain all included workspaces (with all elements, fields, controls, layout, and rules), decisions, actions, and other embedded workflows. Alternately, you can export the contents of your canvas as an image file for use as a visual reference.