Overview

Activities are small tasks or actions that are either stand-alone or must be completed as part of a larger project.  They can be a part of other CRM.COM processes such as subscriptions, jobs, service requests and leads.

Activities are assigned to an 'owner', a specific user who is responsible for completing them and are designated a time by which they must be completed.

Activities functionality

• Resources required to complete a task can be booked through planned activities
• Services offered through activities which are part of a billable job can be billed 
• Activities for completing jobs, subscriptions, leads and service requests can be scheduled automatically through workflows

Setting Up Activities

Statuses - Label the life cycle states of activities in a way that is meaningful to an organization.  Statuses are modified in order to progress an activity. 

Categories - Provide a business classification such as 'Installation' or 'Maintenance'. These classifications provide the user with input on how to handle the activity and can be used by the business to analyze activity requests.

Cancellation Reasons - Used for business analysis.

Types

Types are used to determine the operational characteristics of activities.  The 'Allowed Organisational Unit' designates users authorized to create activities of each type.

Type fields

The table describes the sections of Activity Type Data Entry page and explains how the fields in the page are used.

 Mandatory   Configurable

Main Information
Estimated Completion Time: How long an activity is expected to take before it is completed (measured in minutes, hours, days, weeks and months).
Allowed Attributes
Services	One-time services (such as the installation of a modem) are added to an activity and are billed based on their duration (the time the installation took). Product: Classified as a one-time service. Classification: Define whether it is 'mandatory' or 'optional' to define the service on the activity in order to be allowed to close it. Minimum Time Spent: Define for each service (in hours, days, weeks or months). When the activity is completed, the system validates the time spent on the services against the specified minimum. Time Spent Logging Method: Whether the time spent on each activity service should be: Fixed: Automatically set on each activity service and not modified by the user, or  Flexible: Set by the user. Automatically Applied: Enable to automatically add the service to the activity as soon as it is created.
Statuses	Allowed Statuses (for activities of each type) Default Status on Create (such as 'Open' or 'Pending'; activity must be in a 'Pending' life cycle state) Default Status on Start Progress (such as 'Approved' or 'In Progress'; activity must be in an 'In Progress' life cycle state) Default Status on Complete (activity must be in a 'Completed' life cycle state) Default Status on Cancel (activity must be in a 'Cancelled' life cycle state)
Categories	The categories that can be used in activities of this type.
Status Transitions Defines the possible progression of each activity status. The next possible status depends on the current status of the activity, the type of the activity and the authorization of the user or unit.
Status: A single initial status which must be included in allowed statuses Status Transitions: A list of statuses to which the user can transition from the current status and the units or users allowed to make the transition.

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Business definitions

Activity definitions are business rules that define allowed activity types and cancellation reasons.  There can only be one active definition at a time.

Business definition fields

The table describes the sections of Activity Definitions Data Entry page and explains how the fields in the page are used.

 Mandatory   Configurable

Allowed Types
Defines the activity types that can be selected by users when creating a new activity.
Allowed Cancellation Reasons
Defines reasons that can be selected when canceling activities and specifies a default.

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Related configuration areas

The following optional modules are related to activities and can be configured for the activities module to operate at its full capacity.

Using Activities

Activity fields

The table describes the sections of Activities Data Entry page and explains how the fields in the page are used.

 Mandatory   Configurable

Main Information
The details of the customer that reported the issue.  Contacts cannot be changed once the request is saved but their details can be updated.
Activity Information	Type: Determines the attributes available for activities (and their default values) and the automation of agent-customer communications. Performed For: The unique ID of the entity (subscription, job, service request or lead) for which the activity takes place. Category: A label that describes the purpose of the activity (e.g., 'Technical Issue' or 'Installation').
Key Dates	The dates and time frames that are relevant to the request: Start Date: Date/time on which the activity was first saved. Estimated Completion Time: The difference between the start date and expected completion date. How long until the activity is completed. Time to Completion: Time left up to the expected completion date, calculated dynamically and updated based on the current and expected completion date. Expected Completion Date:  Date/time calculated as the difference between the start and expected completion date (editable). Time Overdue: The time past the expected completion date, calculated dynamically based on the expected completion and current date. Actual Completion Date: Date/time on which the life cycle state of the activity is set to 'Completed'.
Services To Be Provided
Product: One-time services provided as part of the activity (should be included in the list of 'allowed' services of the activity type). Time spent on each service (measured in minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years). Services can be defined as 'Optional' or 'Mandatory' through activity types. All services have a 'billing directive'.   The directive for activities performed for a job type defined as 'Billable' is always set to 'To Be Billed'. Services can be added automatically, subject to the configuration of the activity type.
Action Panel
Status & Notes	Status: Determines the life cycle state of the activity and allows the user to progress the activity. Life Cycle State: A read-only field that reflects the progression of steps of an activity from the time it is created until it is completed. The state is updated by the system when the status changes. The available values are: Pending In Progress Completed Cancelled Shared Notes: Use this section to record information regarding the activity. Every time the notes are updated the time and the name of the agent is registered. Owned by Group:  Refers to the group that is responsible for executing the activity. The group defaults to that of the currently signed in user or is automatically set based on the geographical area of the contact. Refer to Groups for more information.
Assignments	The unit and/or user responsible for dealing with the activity. The user field may be left empty and users from the defined unit will be able to accept the activity. Refer to the Accepting an activity action.
Activity Actions	Actions: Used when further handling is required to complete an activity without having to leave the activity page. E.g., an agent can check for the coverage of a malfunctioning Roku box and plan a job for its replacement through the same page. Start Progress Cancel Activity Complete Activity Communicate Activity Set Privacy Level View History: A link that provides additional information related to the activity. Communications: A list of the communications with the specific activity defined in the 'Referring To' field. Approval Requests: A list of requests associated with the activity.

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Creating and processing 

Selecting and creating an activity

Specify the criteria that match the activity you are interested in or click NEW from the Actions menu to create a new activity.  Provide the information defined as mandatory before you SUBMIT.

Modifying an activity

Use EDIT from the Actions menu to enter edit mode.

Activities that are already assigned to a unit and are pending user acceptance can be modified (edited). The 'Assigned to User' field can only be set through the Accept action. Refer to 'Accepting an activity'.

Accepting an activity

New activities are assigned to a unit or a user.  A unit member can accept activities assigned to a unit by using Accept from the Actions menu on the Data Entry page.  For example, an installation activity is assigned to the installer's department and then accepted by a specific installer. 

Starting the progress of an activity

Use Start Progress available from the Action panel to start processing an activity and enable the delivery of associated services.

Select any of the available statuses which represent an 'In Progress' life cycle state, updating the life cycle state of the activity from 'Pending' to 'In Progress'. 

Use EDIT to start working on the activity.

Completing an activity

Change the life cycle state of an activity to 'Completed' by using Complete Activity from the Actions panel, indicating that the activity is finished.

Canceling an activity

Use Cancel Activity available from the Actions panel to disable further modifications.  A cancellation reason must be supplied for business analysis purposes.

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Communicating an activity

Customers and agents remain in contact throughout the processing of an activity. Pre-configured communication templates can be used to trigger messages when the life cycle state of an activity is modified.
An activity can also be communicated by using Communicate Activity available through the Action panel. You can use tags related to activities (text that is automatically replaced by values specific to selected records) when creating communications. Tags are available for selection by typing '#'. Refer to the Communications manual for a complete list of job tags.

Billing activity services 

Services provided through an activity that is part of a billable (type) job can be charged. The list of services provided and the time spent on each is required information.

The billing engine refers to the Price Plan for the rate of each service and bills the job based on how long it took to complete.  The two types of price plan rate models used for one-time services are:

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Applying business flows on activities

Booking resources to complete an activity service

Activities consist of tasks that must be completed by a designated user.

The resources necessary to complete a task can be booked through CRM.COM Resource Scheduling.  Supply the service to be provided, the responsible department/unit and the date/time on which the task should be completed.

Services that are necessary to complete an activity can be defined as mandatory on the activity type and added automatically.

Resources can be requested when adding a service for an activity through the 'Services to be Provided' section, as shown in the figure below:

Clicking the Request Resource link opens the Resource Availability modal, allowing you to search available resources and place a request. Refer to Resource Scheduling for more information.

Scheduling an activity through other modules

In addition to stand-alone tasks or actions, activities can be a part of larger projects and CRM.COM processes, such as:

• Small project on jobs
• A number of tasks that must be performed to complete a customer's request for service.
• Actions required to follow leads on potential customers.
• An installation visit for a subscription.

Activities can be scheduled: 

• Through the activities page by adding the related entity in the 'Performed For' tab.
• Through the entity (Jobs, Service Requests, Leads) page by using the Schedule an Activity action (not available for Subscriptions).
• Automatically, by configuring Workflow Rules that trigger the scheduling of activities when certain events occur in the system.
  
  

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Activity Analytics

Segmenting activities

Activities with common business characteristics can be grouped together. Use the resulting lists in system business processes for the identification of customers or for simple statistical calculations. 

For more information on segmentation and creating lists refer to Segmentation.

Dashboards 

Dashboards make information regarding the key performance indicators of the progress of activities available from a single integrated view.  Dashboards are made up of components such as charts and summary tables. Refer to Dashboards for information on their use and set-up. 

Activity dashboard components

Completed activities per type and month

The component displays the activities that were completed in the last 12 months, in a vertical stacked bar chart and grouped by activity type and month.  The results can be filtered by activity type. 

New activities per type and month 

The component displays activities that were started in the last 12 months, in a vertical stacked bar chart and grouped by activity type and month.  The results can be filtered by activity type. 

Overdue activities per type

The component displays activities whose processing completion is overdue (activities that are not a 'Completed' state and are past their expected completion date).  The results are displayed in a stacked bar chart, grouped by activity type and predefined period buckets (the difference between the current and expected completion date), and can be filtered by activity type.  

Pending activities per type

The component displays activities that are not in a 'Completed' state, in a pie chart, grouped by activity type.  The results can be filtered by activity type. 

Activity summary

The component displays activities assigned to the logged in user that are not in a 'Completed' state, in a summary table.  The results are sorted on expected completion date, starting from the date closest to the current date, and can be filtered by activity type. 

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Business Examples

Chargeable activities