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About Workflow Rules

A workflow rule is an instruction to Oracle CRM On Demand to perform one or more actions automatically each time a specified event occurs.

About Setting Up Workflow Rules Functionality

If you are a new customer, the workflow rules functionality is automatically enabled. However, if you are an existing customer, Customer Care and your company administrator must configure the Oracle CRM On Demand workflow rules functionality:

• Customer Care setup. When Customer Care sets up workflow rule functionality, the Workflow Configuration link is visible in the Business Process Management section of the Admin Homepage. Also, the Administrator user role has the Manage Data Rules - Manage Workflow Rules privilege enabled. For more information about user roles, see Adding Roles.
• Enable Workflow option. Workflow rules cannot be executed until the company administrator selects the Enable Workflow check box on the Company Profile page. For information about configuring your company profile, see Setting Up Your Company Profile and Global Defaults.
• Integration events. An integration event is a mechanism for triggering external processes that are based on changes (create, update, delete, associate, dissociate) to the records in Oracle CRM On Demand. You can specify which fields on a record that you want to track. If your company wants to use workflow rules to create integration events, contact Customer Care to request support for Integration Event Administration and to specify the total size of the integration event queues that you require. When the value changes in a tracked field, the change is recorded in the integration event. You can also specify to which integration event queues the integration events are added. For more information about managing integration events, see About Integration Events.
• Books. If your company wants to use workflow rules to update the associations between records and books, contact Customer Care to request support for Book Management. For more information about book management, see Book Management.

Trigger Events and Actions on Workflow Rules

A workflow rule is evaluated when the event specified on the rule (the trigger event) occurs. If the conditions on the rule are met (or if there are no conditions on the rule), the actions specified on the rule are performed. For example, you can create a workflow rule to specify that when an opportunity is created (the workflow rule trigger event), an email is sent to the opportunity owner's manager (the workflow rule action). You can also specify that the email is sent only if the revenue on the opportunity is in excess of a certain amount (the workflow rule condition), and you can specify the content of the email.

You can also configure workflow rules so that actions are performed when a specified period of time has passed, or when a specified date and time is reached. For more information about time-based workflow actions, see About Time-Based Workflow Rules.

Workflow rules can be triggered by one of the following:

• A record is created, updated, or deleted.
• A record is associated with another record or dissociated from another record.

  Association and dissociation workflow rule triggers are supported only for associations between accounts and contacts and between opportunities and contacts.

Workflow rules are configured for a record as a whole, and not for individual fields. There are several types of trigger events for workflow rules, but each workflow rule has only one trigger event. Depending on the trigger event you select for the rule, you can specify that Oracle CRM On Demand is to perform one or more actions automatically when the workflow rule conditions are met.

NOTE: After a rule is created, you cannot change the record type or trigger event on the rule. However, you can update the workflow condition.

The trigger event for each rule is shown on the Workflow Rules List Page and on the Workflow Rule Detail page. The following table shows the actions that are available for each trigger event.

Three additional workflow actions are available only in Oracle CRM On Demand for Partner Relationship Management:

• Partner Book Sync
• Book Partner Sync
• Owner Partner Account Sync

For more information on these actions and how you can use them, see Oracle CRM On Demand for Partner Relationship Management Configuration Guide, available from the Oracle CRM On Demand documentation library on Oracle Technology Network.

Restrictions That Apply to Workflow Rules and Rule Actions

The following restrictions apply to workflow rules and rule actions:

• Workflow rule conditions. If you define conditions on a workflow rule, the workflow rule actions are performed only if the rule conditions are met when the rule is triggered. If the conditions are not met, the actions are not performed. If you do not define any conditions on a workflow rule, the workflow rule actions are performed each time the rule is triggered.
• Multiple actions on workflow rules. You can create multiple actions for a workflow rule, up to a maximum of 25 actions for each rule. If you try to create more than 25 actions on a rule, you receive an error message. Where there are multiple actions on a workflow rule, the actions are performed in the order specified on the workflow rule, starting with the action numbered 1. Each action is completed before the next action starts. You can change the order of the actions on a rule. For more information about workflow actions, see About Workflow Actions.

  NOTE: If a workflow action terminates unexpectedly without being completed, any remaining actions on the rule are not performed.

• Record types. You can create workflow rules for a number of record types. However, each workflow rule applies to only one record type. This means that if you create a workflow rule for a specific record type and you want the same action to occur for another record type, you must create a second workflow rule (with the same trigger event, rule conditions, and action) for the second record type.
• Single-record context. A workflow rule that is triggered when a record is created, updated, or deleted, is restricted to work in the context of a single record—that is, such a workflow rule can access and update fields on only one record.

NOTE: When a workflow rule is triggered by a record association or dissociation action, the integration event created by the workflow can contain fields from both the child record and the parent record.

Workflow Rules Order

When you create a workflow rule, Oracle CRM On Demand automatically assigns it the next unused order number for rules based on the same record type and the same trigger event. The order number determines the order in which Oracle CRM On Demand invokes the rules that are based on the same record type and the same trigger event. You can later change the order of your rules. For more information about changing the order of workflow rules, see Changing the Order of Workflow Rules.

Association and Dissociation Trigger Events

Association and dissociation trigger events on workflow rules are supported only for associations between accounts and contacts, and between opportunities and contacts. The actions that are available for association and dissociation trigger events are as follows:

• Send Email
• Create Integration Event
• Wait

The following table describes the actions that can trigger an association or dissociation workflow rule. It also shows the integration events that are generated by the workflow rule in each case (if an integration event action is configured on the workflow rule).

NOTE: Depending on the data in the records, additional integration events can be generated. For example, if a new contact created on an account is the primary contact for the account, an additional (account update) integration event is generated.

Workflow Rule Action Failures

If a workflow rule action fails to complete, the following happens:

• If an Update Value action fails, the operation that triggered the rule is blocked and none of the other actions on the workflow rule are performed. An error message displays to tell the user that the operation has failed.
• If any other type of workflow rule action fails, the user gets an error message but the operation that triggered the rule is not blocked, and other actions on the rule are performed.

Record Visibility and Workflow Actions

When a user performs an action that triggers a workflow rule, some of the actions on the workflow rule can fail if the user’s action resulted in the user losing visibility to the record.

For example, you might have a workflow rule that is triggered when a modified account record is saved. If a user who owns an account record reassigns the account to another user, the workflow rule is triggered when the account record is saved. If the original owner of the record no longer has visibility to the account record through any other means, such as team or book membership, then any workflow action that requires access to the account record fails.

Latency

Workflow rules are evaluated in sequence and synchronously. Therefore, until all the rules are evaluated, the overall update operation is not completed. Workflow rules add a certain amount of latency to operations (that is, the time between the start of an operation and its completion). For example, each task created by a workflow rule can add as much as 20% latency to a record update operation. Each email created by a workflow rule adds about 5% latency.

Expressions take less time to evaluate. To minimize latency, add mutually exclusive expressions to your workflow conditions. Build your workflow rules incrementally, keeping performance in mind.

Click a topic to see step-by-step procedures to do the following:

• Creating Workflow Rules
• Creating Workflow Actions: Assign a Book
• Creating Workflow Actions: Create Integration Event
• Creating Workflow Actions: Create Task
• Creating Workflow Actions: Send Email
• Creating Workflow Actions: Update Field After Wait
• Creating Workflow Actions: Update Values
• Creating Workflow Actions: Wait
• Changing the Order of Workflow Rule Actions
• Changing the Order of Workflow Rules
• Deactivating Workflow Rules and Actions
• Deleting Workflow Rules and Actions