admin, Autor w serwisie Dew-X

Automatic form switching

When we send a task to ourselves, we no longer have to go to it from the dashboard.

The form will be displayed automatically

It may seem that this situation is quite rare – why send yourself tasks?

However, there are several reasons, such as:

we replace someone,
we want our tasks to be clearly separated in the process history,
we test a new or modified process definition.

This will save us a few clicks!

Workflow

BPM

Document Workflow

Process Management

Business Processes

Process Optimization

BPMS

DMS

Document Archive

Document Management

Digital Transformation

Low-code

No-code

hello@dew-x.com

BlueDew Sp. z o.o.

80-755 Gdańsk

ul. Szafarnia 11/F8

Sąd Rejonowy Gdańsk - Północ w Gdańsku,

VII Wydział Gospodarczy

KRS: 0000546208

NIP: 5833176671

With the increase in the number of functionalities available to administrators from the instance level, it was advisable to concentrate them under one button. This makes the navigation bar more transparent and clearly separates user-available and administrative functions.

From now on, administrators can return or delete an instance, change a user, and add other CCs from here.

Searching by users

The advanced search engine allowed searching for process instances using many parameters, such as:

Type – you can choose All, only Ongoing or only Completed Instances
Start Dates – select the range
End dates – select the range
Identifier – if you are looking for a specific instance and you know its number, enter it in this field (you can read more about the identifier here: click)
Phrase – enter any phrase, the system will search the database for it.

However, there was a need to searching also by user.

Why?

There are many reasons, e.g. absence (illness, vacation, change of job, etc.). Searching for tasks that are held by a given user will allow you to delegate them to another person.

Sometimes this type of search may have audit value – we will find out what matters a given user was dealing with, e.g. in a given time period.

Therefore, we have introduced two additional search parameters:

Currently at User – search for instances of processes that are currently at the given person
User – search for instances in which the indicated person participated in the flow or which were added CC

More about searching here

How to limit the visibility of Users within a specific Organization?

When we want to utilize the Dew-X system, for example, to handle error reports, even if the individuals we invited to use it are external to the Organization, they can see the complete list of its members internally when sending a task. This behavior of the system is correct, although not always desired.

In such a situation, one possible solution could be the following procedure:

Create a new Organization, e.g., MyCompany – Support
Create a new process, e.g., “Error Reporting.” You can use a ready-made template and customize it according to your needs, or if you have prepared it previously in another organization, you can import it from a file.
Invite users to this organization, both from outside your company who will be able to report errors and from within who will handle them.
Assign/change the status of each user, including yourself, to “Outside the organization.”
Add a technical user, e.g., tickets@yourdomain.com (the email address to which notifications about new reports will be sent). If you don’t have this type of email address, create one with your provider. Of course, instead of a technical address, you can designate one or several individuals (email addresses) for this purpose. Only this user (or users) should have the “Inside the organization” status.
External individuals (your clients) reporting errors will only see the selected user(s). If you have created an additional email address, remember to handle it, as email notifications will be sent there, and also log in to Dew-X using that specific account.

From this point on, your clients will be able to report errors, seeing only the users you have chosen.

Deleting tasks

Can all users delete tasks (process instances)?

No.

Only administrators (Admin role) and the Owner of a given Organization have such permission.

You can read more about roles and permissions here

And about viewing and changing permissions here

However, there is one situation in which a “regular” user can delete a process instance – he has this right if he created it himself.

He can use this permission before he sends the task to the next person(s) and when the task comes back to him for the first step. This is a necessary functionality, because the idea is not to clutter the system with instances of processes that will not be processed anyway when making a mistake noticed at the start of the process or indicated by subsequent participants.

Searcher – a new role in Dew-X

Several clients reported to us the need to enable selected users to search among all process instances, not just those in which the searcher participated.

Of course, there has always been such a possibility. However, it was associated with the need to give these people administrative powers. This, in turn, meant that together with the search, such people gained the ability to change the permissions of other users, change task performers, edit process definitions, and finally delete instances, and even entire processes.

We decided to remedy this by introducing a new role: searcher (Search)

From now on, in the user panel, the Owner or Admin can assign the role of “Search” to any person, giving them the described permissions.

Who should be given this role? For example:

secretarial staff
assistants
accountant

You can read more about roles and permissions here: click

Retrie

When we complete our assigned tasks sometimes does not depend on us alone, e.g. we are waiting for some external data or suitable weather, or the issue is postponed by external institutions, etc.

Sometimes the execution of a given step is not important and we can afford to postpone it many times.

There are also times when it’s difficult to predict how much time in a particular case should be assumed for its completion.

If when creating or editing a process definition we take these or other cases into account, we can use the “Retry” functionality.

You can find it below the “Deadline (hours)” function.

Number of retries

The default value is “0”. This means that a task that is not completed before the deadline according to the definition, will go back to the previous one or end at the given activity.

Value of “1” is one additional chance; “2” is two, that is, including the base time, three cycles, etc.

Note: when sending a task the user can change the execution time set in the definition once. This change will only affect the first cycle. If retries have been set, they will last as long as it was assumed for this activity in the process definition.

Each time a user fails to complete a task that has the retry option enabled (value greater than 0) they will receive an email notification informing them that they have just been given an additional chance to complete it.

Escalations

If there is a reason to inform other people in the organization about the non-completion of a task, use the “Escalate to” option.

In this item, for each activity (except the first one), you can specify the user or users who will receive an e-mail notification each time, informing who, in which activity, in which process and in which organization did not complete the task on time.

Timecops (that’s what we call them) can only be people belonging to the organization, both with “inside” and “outside” status.

Note: in special situations the timecop may not have the permissions to access the contents of a task, such as when they have not participated in the task or have not been CC’ed and they do not have administrative rights.

If a retry is provided for the activity, the timecop will receive a notification each time the deadline of a given cycle expires.

Parallel activities

What to do when many different activities should be performed at the same time by several different departments/people?

For example, payment and accounting at an external accounting office should be done in parallel.

There are at least two ways to achieve this goal.

1. Each task can be delegated to multiple users instead of one. In this case, it is always decided whether the actions of one (any of them) or everyone are required. The form on such a step could include fields for multiple “departments”, such as a checkbox: Has a payment been made? (Yes/No) and fields for the accounting office. Everyone would fill in their own.

These fields would have to be optional (not required) for the process to go forward.

2. One or more of these users can always or sometimes (there will not always be such a need – there are prepaid invoices) be added CC (https://dew-x.com/en/cc-carbon-copy/) on a particular step – such information can be displayed in the body of the form in the form of instructions. The effect will be that, for example, the person responsible for payments will receive a notification that a DW has been added and will have access to this instance. They will not have any task to perform, but will be able to use all the collected data, so, for example, perform a transfer. The process at that time will already be in the accounting office, which will take care of the posting. For the sake of order, you can add another “Confirmation of payment” after the “Posting” step, on which the person responsible for payments, already after the fact, can check the checkbox: Was the payment made? (Yes/No) and completes the entire process instance.

Mobile application

Nowadays, it is hard to imagine that you can do without mobile devices, especially a phone.

In the older workflow systems, mobile applications were not used. At first they were not there yet, and then it seemed that this area was reserved for desktop work.

Now, of course, it’s different.

From the very beginning we were guided by the idea of “mobile first”.

We decided on Progressive Web App (PWA).

How do I install Dew-X on my phone or other device?

Open https://workflow.dew-x.com/ in your phone or tablet browser
Log in to your account or if you don’t have one yet, register
Find the installer icon – down arrow at the bottom of the screen (last menu item)

The Dew-X icon will appear on your screen and from now on you will be able to launch the Dew-X mobile app in this way.

If your device supports biometric authentication, you can enable it for this application as well.