While managing a service desk, remembering recurring tasks and getting to them periodically can be a hit or a miss, as agents might either forget that they are coming up or miss executing them on time.

Introducing Scheduled workflows 

With Scheduled workflows, agents can now control WHEN a workflow can be triggered by specifying a particular time frame and period in the Workflow Automator. 

For example, you can set up a workflow to send internal reminders at 9 AM every day for every employee joining the company 2 days from now.

Let’s take a look at some of the common use cases where scheduled workflows can be used. 

Common Use-cases

→  Automate employee onboarding/offboarding tasks based on employee join/end date.

→  Update Asset State if it hasn’t been scanned in the last 30 days ago.

→  Send out email notifications before the warranty expiry date of an asset.


How to use Scheduled workflows?

A scheduled workflow has all the same features as regular event-based workflows, except that it is configured based on a scheduled event and has a mandatory scheduled condition.



1. Scheduled event 

→ Defines when a workflow has to run based on the schedule, time, and time zone specified.
→ Schedule can be set up once, daily, monthly, or on a weekly basis. 



2. Scheduled condition -  allows you to filter out the records that the workflow should be executed on. For eg, Only Tickets where the due date is exactly 2 days away. 



Scheduled Condition Execution 

                           Module 

Condition evaluation criteria

Tickets, Tasks

Evaluated on non-closed tickets created within the last 6 months with a limit of 10k matching records. 

Change

Evaluated on non-closed changes the created within last 6 months with a limit of 10k matching records. 

Problem

Evaluated on non-closed problems created within the last 6 months with a limit of 10k matching records. 

Release

Evaluated on non-closed releases created within the last 6 months with a limit of 10k matching records. 

Assets

Evaluated on all assets in inventory, excluding trash.



Note: Irrespective of a ticket's approval status, scheduled workflows will now be executed for all tickets labeled 'Approval Status: Requested.' 




 If you want the schedule workflows to exclude approval-pending tickets, use the following conditions in your workflow.




Guidelines for Scheduled Workflows (WFs) Execution

  1. Scheduled WFs will NOT run on closed tickets.
  2. Scheduled WFs will NOT run on tickets created more than 6 months before.
  3. The time zone considered for calculating the 6-month duration is the account's time zone.
    • Example: If the account is in the UK and the ticket was created on May 1 at 12:00 GMT, the last date for WF execution must be within 6 months from May 1st at 12:00 GMT.
  4. Note:
    • When a date field is used, it will remove the hours and convert to the date, which could result in the condition not getting matched in some cases.
    • As a workaround, use the date-time field and set it to the end of the day so that the time is set to the end of the day, ensuring the whole day is considered within the window.



Let’s get started by solving a couple of use cases here.

Usecase 1 - Reminder Notifications 10 days before an Asset’s Warranty Expiry



  1. Head to Admin → Automation & Productivity → Automation → Workflow Automator. 

    If your account has more than one workspace: 

    To modify global workflows, navigate to Admin > Global Settings > Automations & Productivity > Automation > Workflow Automator

    To modify workspace-level workflows, navigate to Admin > Workspace Settings > {Workspace Name} > Automations & Productivity > Automation > Workflow Automator

    Important Note:
    Workspace admins can view the list of global and local workflows applicable to their workspace. 
    The global workflows execute first, followed by the workspace-level workflows, to allow for the workspace-level workflows to take precedence over the global workflow. 
    For example, A global workflow can be configured to route tickets to the right workspace based on the subject/description. 


  1. Click on New Workflow and select Scheduled Workflow from the sidebar window. 


  1. Enter the Title and Module in which the workflow has to be executed.

  1. Drag and drop the Scheduled event to schedule when the workflow should be triggered. For this case, we can configure this workflow to run daily at a designated time.

  1. Use the condition block to filter only the assets where the warranty expiry date is exactly 10 days away. 


  1. Finally, pull the action block to send a reminder email notification to the agent group/asset manager, notifying them about the renewal of the asset warranty. 




Usecase 2:  Automate Tasks 2 days before an Employee's Join Date



  1. Head to Admin → Automation & Productivity → Automation → Workflow Automator. 

    If your account has more than one workspace: 

    To modify global workflows, navigate to Admin > Global Settings > Automations & Productivity > Automation > Workflow Automator

    To modify workspace-level workflows, navigate to Admin > Workspace Settings > {Workspace Name} > Automations & Productivity > Automation > Workflow Automator

    Important Note:
    Workspace admins can view the list of global and local workflows applicable to their workspace. 
    The global workflows execute first, followed by the workspace-level workflows, to allow for the workspace-level workflows to take precedence over the global workflow. 
    For example, A global workflow can be configured to route tickets to the right workspace based on the subject/description. 


  1. Click on the New Workflow button and select Scheduled Workflow from the sidebar window. 




  1. Enter the Title and select Tickets for the Module.

                 

  1. Drag and drop the Scheduled event to trigger the workflow at a particular time and period. This use case is best set up as a daily schedule at an appropriate time for the reminders or tasks that need to be created.


          



  1. Pull in the Condition block to filter out just the Onboarding requests by using the source field.


  1. Drag the Expression builder node to get the joining date of the employee. Click on the + icon to fetch the employee joining date placeholder from the service request form. 



Note: Use ISO format placeholder while using date-based placeholders and enclose them in ‘ ‘

  1. Build the condition block to filter out only onboarding tickets where the date of join is 2 days away.


  1. Finally, drag and drop the action block to add tasks and reminders to the ticket. 




Usecase 3 - Automate Offboarding Tasks on Employee's Date of Leaving




  1. Head to Admin → Automation & Productivity → Automation → Workflow Automator. 

    If your account has more than one workspace: 

    To modify global workflows, navigate to Admin > Global Settings > Automations & Productivity > Automation > Workflow Automator

    To modify workspace-level workflows, navigate to Admin > Workspace Settings > {Workspace Name} > Automations & Productivity > Automation > Workflow Automator

    Important Note:
    Workspace admins can view the list of global and local workflows applicable to their workspace. 
    The global workflows execute first, followed by the workspace-level workflows, to allow for the workspace-level workflows to take precedence over the global workflow. 
    For example, A global workflow can be configured to route tickets to the right workspace based on the subject/description. 


  1. Click on New workflow and select Scheduled workflow from the sidebar window. 





3. Enter the Title and select Tickets for the Module


4. Drag and drop the Scheduled event to trigger the workflow at a specified time frame, period, and time zone. 


5.  Pull in the Condition block to check if it’s an Employee offboarding request and validate if the date of leaving equals the current date.



6. Finally, to execute the offboarding tasks, pull in the action block.