Automatically apply a case activity list to applicable cases

This article is the third in a series of six that will be released over the coming weeks. The articles describe an example of how to digitize a complete business process using the configuration tools you have at your disposal in KMD WorkZone. In the first article, focus was on the setup in Interact. We then looked at getting new form submissions imported as new cases into WorkZone. In this article, we will automatically apply a specific Case Activity List to these new cases so that we can both ensure a structured handling of the cases and apply some automatic case management.

Now, the tool you need to get the case activity list connected to the newly created cases is a case monitor. A case monitor is also a service workflow – like the Interact connector we talked about in the last article. What this workflow does is look at all new cases and check if they meet some defined criteria. If so, you can do something with the case (start another workflow on the case or add a Case Activity List to the case).

There are three steps you need to go through to get this set up:

1. Create a saved search (the criteria the new cases need to meet)
2. Create a ruleset that defines exactly how the saved search will be used
3. Set up the Case monitor workflow to keep these rules running in the background all the time

Please check the documentation for some import prerequisites regarding Smartpost and Case Activities in this setup, if you want to use Smartpost in your case activity list.
So, you start by creating a search that defines the criteria. To do this you open WorkZone Client and start a new search:

If you followed along in the first article, you may remember that one of the fields we mapped in Interact was the Case group. Well, we did not actually map it, but we put a fixed value of FLAG:

This basically means that all new cases created based on submissions of this form will be created with a case category of “Flag application”. Yes, that is right – the case category is called Case group in the model and is stored in the field called FileGroup_Value in the database. Let us just put this down to some legacy issues that we shall not go further into here. Just know that because we set the field Case group to FLAG in Interact, the cases will always end up in the case category with the Code FLAG, which has the label Flag application.

In our fictional setup here, we also know that all cases that will come in this category will have to be handled according to the process, which we will look at much more closely in the next article. That is to say, all cases with the case category Flag application and the state New should have the case activity list applied to them. So, your search should look like this (here you only see a small part of the search page and how the layout of this page is, depends on your setup – you may also need to add the case category field to the search page by clicking the little cogwheel in top-right corner of the search page).

You need to first save the search and then share it. Click Save in the main ribbon and give the search a descriptive name. It is a good idea to also supply a description that says something about how this search will be used.

You then select share in the main ribbon and share it with the organization (read more about access codes).

Now that the saved search that you need is in place, you can continue with setting up the rule set. To do this, we head to Configurator and go to Process > Rule sets and here click the plus button at the top to create a new rule set. Beware that if you already have other rule sets in the system, then there will be two plus-buttons on the page – the one at the top is to create a new rule set and the one at the bottom is to create a new rule for an existing rule set (the rule set that is displayed in the dropdown at the top).

You want a nice clean new rule set, so we take the button on the top:

You are asked to supply a name and a description and here you should consider how it will be used going forward. You can have one rule set with many rules, so there is the possibility to have a single rule set that applies many different rules. This should be considered when you give a name and a description – always try and make it as easy for yourself and others to understand what something does just by looking at the name and description.

You can also specify dates for when the rules in the rule set should apply. We will leave the dates empty so the rules will apply immediately and have no end-date.
Next, you need to add rules, which arguably is the really interesting part – this is where we use the saved search to apply the case activity list of our choice. So, with our newly created rule set displayed in the drop-down at the top, hit the other plus-button down at the bottom of the page (the green one).

In this step, I have cheated a little, because actually you need to already have the Case Activity List imported into WorkZone and we have not yet touched on how this works – we will get to that in the fifth article. But to describe everything in the order it flows through the system, I decided to do it this way around. To create the rule, you first select the saved search from the dropdown, then you select a process (this is our case activity list) and then you give the rule a priority. If you have more than one rule in a rule set, this is important – here you can keep it simple and only have one rule, so you can just type in a 1 in the priority field and click Create.

You are now ready to setup the workflow itself. In WorkZone Configurator you once again go to Process > Service workflows and set up a new workflow by clicking the green plus-button in the bottom-right corner.

Similarly to how you setup the Interact connector workflow that we looked at in the previous article, this is a two step setup, where we first give the workflow a good name and a description and then set the Service workflow type to Case monitoring. Before you can enable the workflow, you first need to provide some more configuration details. For now, just hit save.

On the overview of all service workflows, you will now see the newly created service workflow down at the bottom of the list. Hover over the little grey icon to the left of the name to bring up the contextual menu. Then select the middle option in that menu to edit the service parameters.

First you need to decide on a watch interval. This is where you need to decide, how time-critical it is to get the case activity applied to the new cases. This will probably depend on how important it is that case management is started quickly and also on what automated activities are started as soon as the case activity list is applied to the case.

You could have one of the first activities automatically sending a Smartpost to the applicant as a confirmation that the application has been received and is being processed. In this case you probably would like this to go out pretty soon after the application was received. On the other hand, there could be other times, when is not so time sensitive. In order to not stress the system more than necessary, we recommend setting the interval as high as possible without negatively impacting the business. The minimum you can set it to is 30 seconds.

Then you need to designate someone as the process owner of the case activity list that is applied to the case.

And now just select your newly created rule set from the dropdown and hit save.

Now all you need to do is to go back and enable the workflow. So once again hover over the grey icon next to the workflow name and select the first of the icons that show up (actions), enable the workflow and save.

After a few minutes this will be up and running and you should see the case activity list be applied to all new cases. But be aware that this only work for new cases – so don’t sit around waiting for the list to be applied to any cases that meet the criteria in the rule set but that are already in WorkZone. That won’t happen.

Now, before all the magic and fun can really happen, we need to get our case activity list set up and into WorkZone. That is what we will be diving into in the coming two articles. See you back for those.

You can also have a look at the case monitor documentation.

Here is a reminder of the topics for the different articles:

• Mapping input from an Interact form to fields in WorkZone
• The Interact service workflow – how you connect Interact and your WorkZone backend
• Using the case monitor to automatically initiate case management (this article)
• Setting up a DCR graph as the basis for a WorkZone case activity list
• The connection between the DCR Designer and WorkZone
• A summary article where we recap how all the different elements work in unison