Status Management 

Use

In cFolders, you can use the Status Management function to control and monitor workflows in the way they are often used in companies.

The following information is aimed particularly at users who set up and maintain objects for status management.

Features

When you work with objects such as folders, documents, and work areas, your company may require that these objects be processed according to specific workflows.

You are managing a project and you want every document that is created in a project folder to be processed in the following sequence:

       1.      Initial processing by the Engineering department

       2.      Proofreading by technical publications

       3.      Release for publication by the Purchasing department

There are also certain deadlines that apply to your documents. For example, you want to make sure that all documents will be processed by the end of November at the latest. You also know that the Purchasing department never needs more than two weeks to release a document.

In cFolders, you can use the Status Management function to control and monitor such a process. The status management function allows you to assign statuses to the following cFolders objects:

●      Collaborations

●      Areas

●      Folders

●      Documents

●      Data sheets

●      Materials

●      Bills of Material

●      Generic objects

Activities

To implement a status profile for the scenario described above, you would proceed as follows:

...

...

       1.      Create a status profile to define the workflow sequence.

       2.      For each processing step in the status profile, enter a status (for example, New, In Process, Being Checked, and Released).

       3.      Define your status transitions.

Status transitions specify which status changes are allowed. For example, it is permissible to change from the status New to the status In process, but you cannot change the status New to Released. For our scenario described above, you might define the following four status transitions:

                            a.      Transition Process, which allows a status change from New to In process

                            b.      Transition Check, which allows a status change from In process to Being checked

                            c.      Transition Post process, which allows a status change from Being checked to In process

                            d.      Transition Release, which allows a status change from In process to Released

       4.      Define actions for the following:

○       For a status transition, to notify users of the status changes

○       For a status, to remind the users of impending deadlines or processing times.

When you define an action, you can create the message yourself or have the system create the message automatically (if you leave the text fields Subject and Note blank). You can define the following types of actions:

                            a.      Status action

The system sends a message whenever a status transition, for which you have created a status notification, is executed. The system provides an option with which a user can choose to manually edit the notification text before it is sent.

                            b.      Deadline action

The system sends a message whenever a status, for which you have created a deadline, has not been reached by the deadline.

                            c.      Processing period action

The system sends a message whenever a status, for which you have specified a processing period, has not been reached by the end of the processing period.

To understand how the system determines the recipients of notifications, see Recipient of Notifications Triggered by Actions.

       5.      Assign transition authorizations (optional).