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SAP Cloud for Customer – Workflow Rules

C4C Workflow Rules


Workflow Rules are being constantly evolved for inclusion of various actions/notifications/field updates across Business Objects, Recipient Group, Employee etc. which enhances the flexibility and adaptability of Cloud for Customer solution according to the client requirements.

So let’s have a look on the current available notification/update scenarios in the C4C system.

Creation of Workflow Rule starts from the Step1 as shown in the below screenshot, where the relevant Business Object and the Timing of the workflow rule is selected.
The rule to be applicable is based on the Timing,

  • On Create Only [Rule to apply only at the time of creation of the business object instance], no other attributes for On Create Only selection
  • On Every Save [Rule to apply at every Save of business object instance], no other attributes for On Every Save selection
  • Scheduled [Rule to apply as scheduled for the business object instance], see for detailed description below.

WR7.png

Timing: Scheduled

To further more refining of the workflow based on some of the events like Business Object Change or on Custom Date fields triggering like On, After, Before.

The related attributes for Scheduled Timing are,

  • Event
  • Relative Time [like After, Before, On]
  • Time Offset [To set the duration]

As for example the below shown rule will apply on every Business Object change.

WR8.png

And, the below shown rule will apply Before 5 days based on the custom date field (here Contract Expiration Date) of the Business Object instance.

WR9.png

Below are some of the Rule Types and its attributes which can be set in Step3 for a workflow on any Business Object.

  1. Action [To perform the related actions on the Business Object instance]
  2. E-Mail   [To trigger an email notification based on the defined condition in previous steps with email body as defined in the HTML template file]
  3. Field Update [To update any standard or custom fields based on the required conditions]
  4. Messaging  [To send SMS messages]
  5. Notification  [To create a C4C notification based on the conditions defined and to the recipient group or employee]

Below is the screenshot of the above mentioned Rule Type for the creating a workflow rule.

WR1.png

Below are the screenshots of the selected Rule Type and its required attribute to configure a workflow.

Rule Type: Action

To trigger the required action for the Business Object selected in the previous step 1 of worflow creation.

WR2.png

        

Rule Type: E-mail

To trigger the email for the Business Object and condition selected in the step 1 of worflow creation.
The related attributes for Email triggering are,

  1. Send Email Indicator
  2. Sender
  3. Subject
  4. Template file for the email body with placeholders for dynamic variables [#VAR#]
  5. HashTag Placeholder definitions
  6. Recipient Group as email reciever
  7. Individual Emlpoyee as email reciever

WR3.png

Rule Type: Field Update

To update any standard or custom field for the Business Object and condition selected in the step 1 of worflow creation.
The related field for change and the value has to be specified as shown below in the screenshot.

WR4.png

      

Rule Type: Messaging

To trigger the messaging activity for the Business Object selected in the previous step 1 of worflow creation, which requires the Mashup Service ID configured for the Messaging Activity Type.

Steps for creation of Messaging Activity are,

  1. Enable Messaging in Scoping
  2. Create Web Service
  3. Setup Communication Arrangement
  4. Request Short Codes and Outbound Endpoint
  5. Create Mashup Web Service for Outbound Messages

WR5.png

Rule Type: Notification

To create a C4C notification for the Business Object and condition selected in the step 1 of worflow creation.
The related attributes for creation of Notification are,

  1. Time stamp for notification creation.
  2. Expiry of the notification
  3. Cancellation of Task if conditions are not met.
  4. Sender
  5. Subject of the notifications with ampersand placeholder for dynamic variables.
  6. Ampersand placeholder for variable definition.
  7. Recipient Group for receiving notification.
  8. Individual Employee for receiving notification.

WR6.png

Now based on the business requirements the above scenarios can be used accordingly.

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      46 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thank you.

      Do please update this with the "scheduled" workflow scenario as this was a major enhancement to support point and click batch processes without writing sdk code.

      CC Gabriele Bodda

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks for reminding. šŸ™‚

      The same have been updated here.

      Best Regards,

      Mimo

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Very helpful, Thanks.

      Mimokant Tantubai is there a way to executee a operation creation o performe a transaction action. In Example, it´s posible to create an opportunity once the lead is become aproved or in a particupar status?? What shoudl be the way to do this requirement?

      Thanks in advanced,

      Niko

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Niko,

      Currently, the workflow rules doesn't support calling the actions of a Business Object based on conditions.

      However to create an opportunity after the lead has been approved or on a particular status, SDK development is required to achieve this. Please find the screenshot below which shows the action to be called to create an Opportunity.

      Best Regards,

      MimoOppo.JPG

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thank you for these details.

      Do you know.... if

      Rule Type = Action

      Select Action = "Customised"

      Where can I view that customised object/development please?

      ie where would I develop a customised Action.

      Regards Wendy

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Wendy,

      As of now, for triggering a custom action SDK development is required (declaring and defining an action in the extension business object), since it is not supported in the Workflow Rules.

      Best Regards,

      Mimo

      Author's profile photo Carlos Hidalgo
      Carlos Hidalgo

      Hi Tantubai.

      Thanks a lot for you info.


      Do you know how can i assign a custom Action to the workflow drop down list box ?, i already have my actions defined in sdk for the service ticket but i am not able to see it inside the workflow actions.


      Thanks a lot for your help!.

      Author's profile photo Ashwin Guduru Veera
      Ashwin Guduru Veera

      Hi Carlos/Tantubai,

      As per the 1602 documentation from SAP, the Workflow engine can be now used to configure custom actions and define when to trigger these actions avoiding SDK code.

      Are either of you on this tenant version? Have you tried it already?

      Regards,

      Ashwin

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Ashwin, where can i find the Workflow engine

      Author's profile photo Michele Costa
      Michele Costa

      Hi Tantubai, in "rule type: field update", you said that we can "update any standard or custom field for the Business Object and condition selected in the step 1 of workflow creation." but I can see only few fields available.

      How can I add fields?

      Thanks,

      Michele

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Michele,

      Not all fields of all business objects are exposed to be updated via workflow.  If there are specific fields you would need in order to complete your business process, please post the list on ideas.sap.com, so that the colleagues responsible for that object can consider the enhancement for a future release.

      Thanks,

      Gab

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks for your useful information. But I have a question when I click the drop down list to choose an event , I can't find any other options./wp-content/uploads/2016/04/2016_04_13_14_19_20_928606.png

      So do you know how to add more options in the Event tab?

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Helen,

      The section you mentioned above gets listed only when you select the Timing as Scheduled, so to add other options in the list the Business Object selected have to be enhanced with a custom field with data type as Date, as Scheduled will only work with the Date fields.

      Capture.PNG
      Please find the screenshots above in the main blog.

      Best Regards,

      Mimo

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Is it possible to configure workflow rules for a Custom BO? I cannot see my custom bo in the business object drop down list. Is there any configuration I need to do to see my custom bo in the workflow rule creation screen?

      Thank you,

      Regards,

      CV

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Helen,

      The events you see depend on the object you've picked.  It seems like that specific object does not expose any milestone for scheduling rules.  What object is it? 

      You can explain your scenario and propose to the DEV team to expose the fields you need via SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer: Home.  In the meantime, you can add custom date time fields, as mentioned by Mimo.

      Kind regards,

      Gab

      Author's profile photo Deniss Loginovs
      Deniss Loginovs

      Hello,

      I hope it is the right place for my question. I would like to know, where I can track WF sent e-mail to "Assigned To or Service Tech" assigned to the ticket. I was not able to find it in C4C.

      For example, when Service Tech is assigned to a Ticket , the WF send's e-mail to that technician. I do receive an e-mail to my inbox.

      Is it possible to see in C4C, that Service Tech received an e-mail? In Service Tech profile, there are no such info, as it is also not attached to the ticket.

      I know if I send e-mail with WF rule to Contact(Customer) of the ticket, I'm able to see all WF sent e-mails under Contact->Activities->E-mail.

      Thank you in advance.

      Deniss.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Deniss,

      You can view all the mail triggered by the Workflows directly in the the Activities WC, E-Mails WCView.
      Have a nice day ahead!

      Best Regards,

      Mimo

      Capture.PNG

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Deniss,

      In general, the feature to save email sent via workflow as Email Activities was introduced mainly to keep track of all customer communications.  Internal communications usually do not require the same level of scrutiny.

      However, I believe that activities will be created regardless of the recipient, if the workflow rule is configured to create them.  For customers, you can easily find them under Customer/Contact -> Activities -> Emails.  For other parties, you should still be able to find the email under the workcenter Activities -> Emails, as mentioned by Mimo above.

      Kind regards,

      Gab

      Author's profile photo Deniss Loginovs
      Deniss Loginovs

      Hi Mimo and Gabriele,

      Thank you for your comments. That works fine for me.

      Best regards,

      Deniss.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi,

      Thank you for great article Tantubai Mimokant. Can I use worflow to create action cycles?

      I want to ue workflow to kick start an action 5 min after saving Task. After 5 min the action is called and as a result Task processor is changed. Whould the result of this action be intepreted as saving Task? If yes, than the same workfloe could start another iteration of the same action after 5 min.

      If no, why wouldn't workflow start again?

      Best regards,

      Nadezhda Rukavishnikova

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Nadezhdha,

      I do understand that the requirement is to change the Processor of the Task, but could you please define the trigger of the WF rule specifically?

      If timing is a necessity then, you would have to consider 'Business Object Change' rather than saving of Task.

      Best Regards,

      Mimo

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Tantubai Mimokant,

      The Processor should be reassigned if custom indicators are (ZDaizy == 1) & (ZTaken == 0). And such action should be repeating every 5 min. The reassigment stops if one of the users stops claims the task (clicking a button) which sets  ZTaken = 1.

      I tried to use "5 min after Business Object Change"  as scheduled timing for a workflow. But it is executing the action only once. Workflow does not start again even through some field was altered in BO on the first workflow run.

      Does the timing "Business Object Change" only account for a change of some specific field of Task BO?

      Best regards,

      Nadezhda Rukavishnikova

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi.

      Is it possible to restrict a workflow rule notification based  on the country? For example, I have a list of employees for a particular notification relating to the business object 'ticket' which is triggered based on the status of the ticket and its associated workflow. However, I want the recipients to see notifications about tickets relating only to the country their are associated with. I'm thinking that I could also build the country into the workflow rule however the notification is applicable to several countries and I do not want to have a rule for each country. Please advise

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Nathalie,

      I am not sure I understood your scenario.

      If you'd like people in different countries to only receive notifications for tickets relevant to them (e.g. tickets coming from their country), you have to include the country in the workflow conditions and define a rule per country.

      If instead all recipients should receive the same set of notifications, but you want the content to be different (e.g. in the language of the recipient), you can achieve that with one rule and multiple email templates.

      Hope this helps,

      Gab

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      HI.

      The scenario is the first one. However we were advised by our SAP consultant that having a lot of workflow rules can impact the system performance. Hence the query on whether there is another way to do it other than having a rule for each country.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Nathalie,

      Good thinking.  How many additional rules are we talking about?  If you need to add hundreds of rules, there will certainly be an impact.  But a few more rules should not make a difference.

      In any case you should first make the change in a Test environment where you can monitor the variation in response time.

      Kind regards,

      Gab

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      It will be at least 60 rules so likelihood of impact is there. We always make such change in a test environment.

      Is this a functionality that could be introduced in the future?

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      I doubt so.  It's not a very common scenario, and it would require quite some complexity to identify the right subset of recipients for each notification. 

      Author's profile photo Prasanth Sarma Aryasomayajula
      Prasanth Sarma Aryasomayajula

      Can you please clarify as in what is expected to be entered in the field Changed by

      If we add changed by as a condition in a workflow rule, we get a free text box to enter the field value instead of the value select. , what value has to be entered here , we tried Business user , Technical ID , employee Name etc. and nothing worked.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Prasanth,

      I'd have to double check, but I would suppose you should use whatever matches the content of the field, in this case the employee name. 

      You can open an incident and Support should be able to clarify.

      Thanks,

      Gab

      Author's profile photo Prasanth Sarma Aryasomayajula
      Prasanth Sarma Aryasomayajula

      Its is reported in 3100954808 along with use case.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi,

      Is it possible to use the placeholder #SURVEYXX# (where XX is the Survey ID) with workflow rule type "Messaging"?

      We use this with "e-mail" rule type. It enables to generate a link to an external survey that the customer can answer online (satisfaction survey following termination of a service ticket).Thanks,

      Elodie

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Elodie,

      No, that's currently not supported.  It's a good idea, perhaps including also an integration to a URL shortener in order to manage the length of the SMS. 

      Please add it to Idea Place, so that we can track whether other customers would also be interested in the same feature.

      Thanks,

      Gab

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      https://ideas.sap.com/D36089

      Thank you Gabriele,

      I have posted the idea D36089.

      Kind regards,

      Elodie

      Author's profile photo Diego Saracino
      Diego Saracino

      Hello, it seems that is not possible to update a field with a workflow coping the value from another field, isn't it?

      In our case is an extension field and we wuold like to update from country. Also we tried in adaptation mode creating a calculated rule but Country is not available.

      Any Ideas?

      Thank You

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Diego,

      Currently using the SDK is the only way to meet that requirement.  We will keep into consideration as a possible future improvement to the calculated Field Update feature.

      Thanks,

      Gab

      Author's profile photo Diego Saracino
      Diego Saracino

      Thanks Gabriele for this confirmation!

      Regards

      Diego

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Good afternoon.

      Assign a working rule for an industry type field that when selecting for example "mining" in the field interest "motors" is placed .. but I do not see that it works to me, I have to assign it somewhere else? help me please!!

      Attached step by step.

      regards.




      Author's profile photo Francisco Jaime Fesser Velasco
      Francisco Jaime Fesser Velasco

      Hola, estas usando la misma condicion, que los campos a actualizar, nunca te funcionara asi, debes crear otra condicion y cuando se cumpla tus campos se actualizaran, saludos,

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi.

       

      Using the rule type "Notification" it's possible customize a group and not a specific person to the sender field, p.e, using the organizationa unit to select your chief as the notification sender?

       

      Best regards.

      Author's profile photo Avital Shoval
      Avital Shoval

      Hi,

       

      few questions:

      1. automatic insert of a record through workflow exist in your road-map? create task through workflow for example, but any other record as needed...
      2. can i trigger a workflow to run based on interface insert\update and not only manual save\creation of a record? like executing a set of automatic field update actions according to record creation through interface
      3. i would like to add a rule so that if a lead was not updated\ touched more then 2 days since it has created, i would change owner (escalate it to manager). would that e possible with schedule workflow?

       

      Author's profile photo MURUGESAN DEVARAJAN
      MURUGESAN DEVARAJAN

      Hi Experts,

      As per our business requirement for Lead we set it up the email workflow like if the lead is not changed (idle) for two months then the email workflow should trigger to the employee responsible further action , it is working fine.

      After this email workflow If the employee is not worked on the lead then system should send reminder again weekly once until the employee worked on the particular lead.

      Could you please some one suggest on how to achieve this?

      Thanks in advance.

      Regards,

      Murugesan Devarajan.

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

      Author's profile photo Mohit Sachdeva
      Mohit Sachdeva

      Hi All,

      Please help me with the below scenarios:

      1.We have a requirement when an opportunity is created for a Prospect , value of a custom drop down field in the prospect should change to certain value.

      2. Second requirement is if the opportunity created in prospect is set to 'Won', the Prospect role should change to 'Customer' role for that prospect.

       

      Can this be achieved with the help of workflow rules. If yes, then how?

      Regards,

      Mohit

       

       

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Experts

      In our scenario , the AgentsĀ  creates ticket manually for Employee in C4C

      Further like to addĀ that Ā ,Ā theĀ  AgentĀ  should get notification ,when the Employee updates the ticket in Portal ,even though Ā  the ticket was created manually.

      Request you give your views..

      Author's profile photo Vignesh Karuppasamy
      Vignesh Karuppasamy

      Dear Experts,

      Currently the Employee-1 is receiving email notifications based on the Workflow created in C4C system. Say for example if Employee-2 is maintained as delegate for Employee-1.

      So, based on the Workflow can we expect the Employee-2 also will get the emails from C4C?

      Please advice

      Best Regards,

      Vignesh Karuppasamy

      Author's profile photo Pankaj Sharma
      Pankaj Sharma

      Hello,

      We would like to create a nw rule to put end to an employee validity period if he's inactive for a certain period of time. For example 90 days. Also block this user automatically.

       

      Is there any way to do so?

       

      Thanks for your help.

       

      Pankaj