Business Process FlowsMicrosoft Dynamics CRM -2016

Business Process Flow - Overview▪ A business process flow lets you create more efficient and

streamlined sales, service, and other business processes. Having high performing processes in place will help you to increase your win rates, improve customer satisfaction, and grow your revenue.

▪ Business process flows are new functionality added in CRM 2013, Modified in 2015 & 2016 .

▪ They provide a guided business process which can span multiple entities.  

▪ All organizations will have specific business processes they follow, these could cover lead qualification, case logging / resolution etc.

▪ Each business process will include a number of stages and each stage will contain a number of steps. (or actions). Some steps may be mandatory before allowing the user to progress to the next stage in the process

▪ These business processes are referred to as business process flows.

Note ▪ They may be linear with all stages applying in all situations, or they may contain condition branches.

▪ For example: Very large value opportunities may

follow a different process to smaller opportunities.

The benefits of business processes include

▪ Consistency▪ Condition branching to enforce business best

practice▪ Easy customization to tailor them to specific

organizational need▪ Direction based conditions, meaning that one

business process flow can span multiple record types. For example, when a lead becomes an opportunity

Example Process – Lead To Opportunity Sales Process

▪ By way of an example, I would like to look at one of the out of the box processes in greater detail. In my experience the process to qualify a lead and develop it into an opportunity is a perfect example of how to use a business process flow. So let’s look at that!

▪ As you use this process, a few things to notice …▪ Each stage is represented by a name chevron (arrow). Such a qualify, develop etc.▪ The flag denotes the current active stage.▪ The highlighted / coloured chevron is the currently selected stage.▪ Below the coloured chevron you see the steps (field) that must be completed to complete

this stage▪ Some steps maybe mandatory, moving to the next stage will be prevented until entered▪ Fields shown on in the business process may be repeated in the main form

Notice that with the lead to opportunity business process flow, qualifying the lead will progress from the qualify stage to the develop stage. And load the opportunity just created. Again it is important you try this. This demonstrates how one business process can span multiple entities.

It is worth noticing that the “flag” moves as the process progresses. (It denotes the active stage.)

It is also possible to click on arrows (next to the next stage button) to make a previous stage the active stage.

Limitations Of Business Process Flow▪ Business process flows do not run but provide a means of added data to

various entities/fields for those entities in the business process flow▪ Business Process Flows cannot be disabled once enabled▪ 29 entities have been updated in CRM 2013 to use the new form style

which also means that they can use the new Business Process Flows and Business Rules▪ Entities with the navigation bar and left hand menu (CRM 2011 style)

cannot use business process flows.  To enable these forms you would need to merge or recreate them in CRM 2013 GUI style▪ Business process flows are not started but will begin automatically on

the creation of an entity▪ Users can switch between business processes manually (cannot happen

automatically)

▪ Business processes do not have any conditional or branching logic. They run in a linear, staged process.▪ Business processes cannot be exited or abandoned, the user can come back▪ Each entity can have no more than 10 activated business process flows▪ Each process flow has a maximum of 30 stages▪ Multi-entity process can use no more than five entities.▪ You can only run one business flow for each record▪ Current process and stage is held by lookup fields. This allows the user to return to

the process at a later time.▪ Stage gating is making field required before a user can move to the next stage▪ Business process flows can be associated with security roles, so only users with

specific security roles will see the business rules.▪ If you create an entity and the entity and your security roles have multiple

business process flows available, the user will be presentation with a choice.▪ If you switch processes, it will start at the first stage of the process.

▪ Javascript or business rules triggered by changing a field value, if they hide a field on the form, the field will also be hidden on the business process flow control.▪ Fields changed to read only by Javascript or business rules are not read

only in the business process flow control.▪ Security roles are applied to business process rules, this limits access

like forms.▪ By default system administrator and customizer have access to

business process flows.▪ When a field is updated in the business process flow it will trigger

related business rules and javascript.▪ It’s possible to have up to 100 active business processes per

entity▪ A business rule process can have 30 stages over up to 5 entities▪ All entity fields can be used within a stage, even fields not on the

entity form.