Creating processes is designed to be simple to do and so we will walk through the creation of one. First navigate to OpenProcess > Setup > Processes.
In there one will see a list of any processes available. Click Add to create a new one.
Let's say we want to create a new process for the Benefits department called New Claim. The following illustrates the name and description of the process in the Details tab:
It is also here where one will select the service area that it should be linked to. Which is why, during implementation, it is best to create your service areas before building processes. The Account type will right now always be the option shown above - which is basically a OneVu account holder.
By default this is what you will see the first time you go to the Steps page:
A single step that can be clicked on to update the details within it.
Adding a step is as simple as clicking the button shown in the place where the step is required. I.e. it is possible to add new steps at the start/middle and end of a process that is already in place. It is within these steps that one controls the behaviour of the process itself and where the bulk of the set up will take place if you have many processes.
When you add a step there are many elements that can be configured and the following explains each:
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Step configuration options
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What does it do?
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Name
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What the citizen will see for the name of the step in OneVu if it is a trackable process
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Description
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What the citizen will see for the description of the step in OneVu if it is a trackable process
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Allocate this step to*
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Assigns the work to a specific user, organisation, round robin within a group, or back to the person who was working on it previously.
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Choose user/organisation/group/step
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Enables one to configure which user etc. the given step in a process should be allocated to
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Target duration (in days)
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The number of days the step is expected to take
By default this setting will use every day in the week to calculate the target due date for the step. I.e. it will include Saturdays/Sundays. If this is set to ‘Working days only’ it will use Monday to Friday dates.
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Calculate target date using
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For example say the target duration was 2 days. If the step was started on a Saturday the default setting would mean it would be due to complete on Monday. But if set to ‘Working days only’ it would change the due date to be Wednesday.
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Administrators*
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This allows you to set up the supervising group that will be able to oversee this step in Oversee Tasks.
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*We’re going to look specifically at the two values marked with asterisk as they are key to the implementation of processes.
The allocation of steps
Allocate to a specific user
- It is possible to allocate a step to a user and this will basically allow the user to choose from any user that is set up in the users area
Allocate to a specific user
- It is possible to allocate a step automatically to an organisation from the organisations list
Round Robin allocation
- Using ‘Round robin allocate to users within a group’ OpenProcess will automatically assign a step to the next user in turn to receive a step.
- So if there are 5 users in a group each will be assigned a step in turn and when the 5th has received a process it will revert to assigning it to the first person within that group
Allocate to user from a previously defined step
- This mechanism will ensure that someone that worked on the first/previous step of a process is passed it back.
- So if you have a process that would always be managed by the same officer that started working on it this is the option you would choose
Using the ‘Administrators’ function to allocate tasks
During implementations of OpenProcess it was established that the preferred method of allocation was for a user within a team (supervisor) to assign work to staff thereby enabling control over what each officer had.
The way to achieve this is to:
- Create a Group with the Step Administrator permission
- Assign the user who will allocate work out to this group
- Set all processes to have their FIRST step to be assigned to the specific user set up in 2)
- Set all subsequent steps in these processes to allocate to a user from a previously defined step
- Set the Administrator option for each step in the process to be the group set up in 1)
This will mean that processes will automatically be assigned to the supervisor and they will be able to see and allocate these processes in Oversee Tasks. Step d) ensures that the work will continue to be passed to the officer that was re-allocated it.
This process can be repeated as many times as you like and therefore cater for every department. I.e. you could do the above process for Council Tax, Benefits, Housing, Environmental Health, Licensing etc. and each supervisor would only see the processes in their area.
Process Step Actions
It is possible to automatically carry out an action when a step is started or completed. These are:
- Send an email
- Send an email with a link to an online form
The first option is what will be used 99% of the time and is a way of proactively notifying the customer of progress on their request.
The latter option enables a link to a form to be sent to the customer but importantly when this form is completed the step will be completed. Where this option has been selected, the user also has to specify the form url.
But when either of these actions is selected there is the ability to send the email:
- To the customer
- To the user(s) working on their case
- To a fixed email address that will always be emailed and can be set on a step by step basis
It is possible to send all of these per step start/complete.
The actual from address, subject and email body can be customised specifically to any email being sent out as a result of an step being completed/started.