Whenever new technologies are implemented in a corporate context, one is met with two groups of users who voice their requirements loudest. Those who want the new technology to preserve all the functions they liked in the old one and those who want the new technology to fix everything that they didn’t like about the old one. This Session will address a requirement from the latter group. Namely the requirement to programmatically create actvitites – from a predifined activity template – on a given schedule in Connections. After a short introduction to activities and activity templates, we will discuss the requirement to start processes on a schedule and how using activity templates could enhance the level of engagement and the quality of documentation. This session is meant as a conversation starter about how Connections can be used to actually run and document business processes on a schedule. Let’s get rid of checklists!

1. AUTO-CREATE ACTIVITIES
Tobias Schlömer
LET’S GET RID OF CHECKLISTS

2. Agenda
1. Company & Status
2. Checklists & Benefits
3. Preservation & Optimization
4. Activities & Templates
5. Requirements & Ideas
6. Script & Variables
7. Outlook

3. Local Level
1. Company & Status
Landesbank Vorarlberg
Zentralbank
20+ independent local banks,
90+ offices, 1.200+ employees
National Level
Regional Level
Ownership
IT Services

4. 1. Company & Status
Testing connections
since late 2013
Local installation
since early 2014
Select projects
since mid 2014
Regular use cases
since early 2015
Decision to replace old
Information Management
System with C5.x and XCC

5. 2. Checklists & Benefits
‣ People can relate to checklists
= mental model
‣ You will find lots of them
= use cases
‣ It’s easier to „sell“ improvements
= behavioral change
‣ Checklists and errors in processes are easy to count
= measure success

6. ✓ Don’t forget stuff
✓ Provide structure
✓ Keep track of progress
✓ Get others informed
✓ Help collaborate
✓ Provide proof
2. Checklists & Benefits
You can also carry them around, file them, …

7. 3. Preservation & Optimization
๏ Some users want a digital checklist to handle
just like a piece of paper
‣ We have to find out why
‣ Maybe we can’t do anything about it
๏ Others want to retain the main functions
that a physical checklist serves while changing
what you can do with it
‣ search, share, link, update, attach, automate, …
‣ That’s what Connections is good for!
We can use activities!

8. You can also carry them around, file them, …You can also carry them around, file them, …
✓ Don’t forget stuff
✓ Provide structure
✓ Keep track of progress
✓ Get others informed
✓ Help collaborate
✓ Provide proof
4. Activities & Templates
▶︎ task list
▶︎ sections, tasks, entries
▶︎ completion is tracked
▶︎ notifications
▶︎ comments, attachments, links
▶︎ archive of completed activities

9. 5. Requirements & Ideas
What else should we do?
• create from other applications
• sync with other applications
• create them periodically from templates!!!

10. 5. Requirements & Ideas
activity
templates
scheduled
creation
manage for
community
owners

11. 5. Requirements & Ideas
Examples
• monthly risk assessment
• annual accounting
• reminder for wiki / content reviews!
• …

12. 5. Requirements & Ideas
community
activity
on a
set date
a new
is
created
for community
members

13. 6. Script & Variables
‣ Javascript called by XCC
‣ Goes through my activity templates looking for tags
„comm:communityID„
= target Community
„ne:dd.mm.yyyy“
= next date
„rc:1w“
= schedule
‣ Compares to log file
‣ Creates activity & sets variables … or not

14. 7. Outlook
✓ Proof of concept is done
✓ Early tests successful
๏ Scaling needs to be tested
๏ Script and Log will be improved
๏ Rollout in early 2016
๏ … „A Process managers dream“

15. That’s it!
If you are interested you can
contact me and connect
via LinkedIn or Xing

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