What Triggers your Workflows in SRC-PIM, or what causes them to actually run?
Did you know that the Workflow module is not the only mechanism that can cause your product items to move or change? In the world of PIM it is all about the flow of product information, we will give you 5 tips about how different parts of SRC-PIM will help you implement an efficient PIM process.
1. Workflow is not the only mechanism that can cause your products to move.
Workflow alone is based on two actions, manually accepting or rejecting items so they will continue to the next step of your process. In this case, the next step will always be a subset (the folders within the catalog). You can do this for one item each time, or for an entire list of items simultaneously. At the same time, these two actions can also make sure a synchronisation or export can take place automatically when this happens.
However, this module which we’ve named ‘Workflow’ is not the only method you can use to make sure your products will keep moving along the lines of your process. There’s another module that causes events to happen, apart from accepting and rejecting manually. The ‘Trigger’ module takes you a step further, using business rules to implement a detailed process.
2. Using the trigger module for advanced business rules.
Workflow alone works great if your process is straight through, many organisations however can have a lot of exceptions that need to be considered when implementing workflow. When accepting or rejecting items manually is not enough, the trigger module will definitely help you take your workflow to the next level.
Let’s say you want to automate your process more, reducing the dependency to the users that may forget to perform that manual action. Not that you don’t trust your colleagues, but you do want to avoid liability. Triggers have the capability to ‘listen’ to certain events that happen when you use SRC-PIM, and can perform actions automatically for you. Like business rules that will run on the background, always monitoring if items are created, what changes are made and what needs to happen next, the trigger module will do that for you.
3. Events that SRC-PIM monitors in the background.
When using SRC-PIM and working with items, you are probably using the following actions quite often:
- Creating a new item
- Changing an item
- Changing an attribute
When you notice that you’re doing these things repeatedly, things may start to feel like a lot of extra work that can be avoided. For example:
- When you create a new item you always fill a few default values in some attributes
- When you change an item, you always let your colleague from another department check the changes first
- When items which have specific values filled in one or more attributes, you always perform the same step(s).
By using if, then, else rules, the trigger module can be configured to implement those situations and make sure you won’t have to do any more repetitive work.
4. Collaborating with other departments
When working in an organisation, different departments with different responsibilities may exist. Every department has it’s own set of information or knowledge that needs to be shared across the organisation, in order to make it run as smooth as possible.
When using SRC-PIM across multiple users or departments, this works no different. Let’s say, you work at a marketing department and are responsible for all marketing material like, product images, website banners, branding material, etc. For your next assignment, you need to embed some product information in a product image. Because it is a new product, you don’t have that information yet, but your colleague at the retail department, does. Usually you’d pick up the phone and ask for the missing info, but as you need a complete picture of all the specifications, you don’t want any mistakes.
Wouldn’t it be easy if you could make your colleague collaborate, so that the information will always be complete before you’re starting your assignment? Let’s say, a certain department is responsible for the creation of new products from a certain brand, and has the product information details, SRC-PIM can make sure that a different and specific set of fields are always mandatory. That department will always have to fill in the obligated information, before the items can continue to the next step. You, as a marketing employee will either always have a complete set of information so you can do your work, or can click ‘reject’ to move the item a step back within the process. These, and other methods can make sure your organisation can work together more efficiently.
5. How to avoid distractive information
When working in a very specific field, you don’t want to be bothered with information that is not relevant to your work. You’ve probably noticed when browsing SRC-PIM, there can be quite a few fields, divided among numerous data models. Having the possibility of filling almost any attribute possible is one of the most powerful options in SRC-PIM, but it can be quite overwhelming. When you are responsible for a part of the workflow, and need to fill attributes from your area of expertise, you don’t need every data model or attribute. You only need the things that are most relevant to you, to do your job.
Using the Attribute contexts module, you can configure the situations that apply to your organisation, so SRC-PIM users can perform each step in the workflow most effectively as the right information will appear at the right moment.
From busyness to business!
Ultimately, the added value of a PIM process will be that you save time, so you can focus on the things that are of most importance to your business. Because we strongly believe in this, we keep working on SRC-PIM to enable you to reach your goals.
Are you interested in taking the next step within your PIM process? We’re here to help.