An automation is a predefined sequence of actions that enables a business to automate repetitive tasks essential to its operations. It begins with an event trigger (such as a contact registration or a new order within CRM.COM) and proceeds through a series of actions (for example, sending an outbound email communication or firing a webhook). These actions are executed in the exact sequence defined, ensuring consistency and efficiency in business processes.

THE ESSENTIALS

These are some basic terms used in regards to Automations.

Event

The trigger that initiates the automation. When the defined event occurs, the automation flow begins.

Filter

Filters enable users to define conditions that refine when an event triggers the automation. For example, if the event is New Order, a filter might specify that it only applies when the order includes a particular product. Note: not all events support filtering options.

Action

The steps executed once the automation is triggered. Examples include sending a communication to a contact, provisioning an order to a POS integrator, or scheduling an activity related to the event.

Managing Automations

To view or create an Automation, navigate to Platform > Automations from the main menu on the left-hand side of the screen.

When you click Create Automation, you’ll see a set of predefined, ready-to-use automation templates that can be customised to fit your business needs. Simply select a template, review, amend its contents, then enable and save it.

Create your own Automation

If the existing automation templates don’t satisfy your requirements, then you can create your own by selecting the one below.

Provide a Name for the automation.
Enable the automation if it’s to become effective at the time of saving.
Select the Event that will trigger the automation from the list of available events.
Add one or more Filters and set the criteria that apply for the actions that follow.
Add one or more Actions in the order that they should be executed.
Complete the remaining automation configuration based on the selected action.
Save the automation.

Automations support the execution of both internal (to CRM.COM) and external adaptors. An event may trigger multiple actions fulfilled by different adaptors.

Actions

The action options available depend upon the selected event and are categorised as follows:

Activity Scheduling

Activities are small tasks to be completed as part of a more significant action. Schedule an activity to be created when an automation is triggered and assign it to a department or user responsible for completing it.

Approvals

A request for approval prevents a specific task from progressing until it has been approved by one or more authorised users. Configure an automation to request approval prior to committing important business actions.

Communications

Select whether the outbound communication will be sent to a Contact or a User.
Choose the Language and channel of communication to be used to send the message. Outbound communications can be sent to:
- Contacts - via Email, SMS or In-App Notification.
- Users - via Email or SMS.
Provide the Content of the communication to be sent. Refer to the Communications manual for more details on setting up the communication.
Select the Recipients (users) who will receive the communication. This option is available only if Communicate Users has been selected in the first step above. Options include:
- Users with specific user role - All users who have been assigned the specific User Role will get the communication.
- Specific users - Only the selected users will get the communication.
- Owner users within order fulfilled by organisation - The Owner users of the fulfilling organisation will get the communication.

The communication channels offered are subject to the relevant Integrations being configured.

Task Assignment & Provisioning

Task provisioning is the ability to distribute the responsibility and workload of carrying out a specific task among different organisations (e.g. internal teams, merchants/service providers and venues/service points) or users.

Provisioning is achieved either by a CRM.COM adaptor or by enabling external adaptors, such as MICROS Simphony. Such an automation can be configured for customer events, orders and external receipt printer provisioning.

Supported actions of the customer event provisioning adaptor are:

New Achievement Customer Event - Create a new monetary achievement customer event based on a top-up financial transaction
New Purchase Customer Event - Create a new purchase customer event based on an invoice financial transaction
Cancel Purchase Customer Event - Cancel an existing purchase customer event based on a credit note financial transaction

Supported actions of the order provisioning adaptor are:

Fulfilled by nearest location - Set the order to be fulfilled by the nearest location, based on geo-location (lat/long coordinates)
Fulfilled based on postal code coverage - Set the order to be fulfilled by an organisation based on postal code coverage

Supported actions of the External receipt printer provisioning adaptor are:

Print Order Receipt - Print an order receipt to an external printer

Webhooks

A webhook is an automated call to a server providing real-time information for a CRM.COM entity without requiring additional integration. These calls are triggered when a specific event happens.

You can monitor webhook requests via Settings > Security > Webhooks.

Settings

None.

Use Cases

Validate Organisation Registration Data

On registration of new organisations, you can extend the registration flow with additional data validations using automations.

A dedicated automation event, Validate Organisation Registration, specified at the Service Owner level, provides the ability to trigger external webhook integrations and in combination with custom fields, can enhance the registration flow to support additional business validations.

Example
When registering a new business under a service owner operating in Cyprus, it is required by the service owner that a valid CY business tax number is provided. By creating an automation to validate organisation registration data through an external webhook integration, and a custom field to support CY Tax Number on the registration form, the service owner can (in real time) allow only those businesses with a valid CY tax number to register.

Reference Material

You may also find it helpful to refer to the following manuals for further reading about Automations.

Security

How to set up Users and User Roles.

https://crmdevelopment.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CRM/pages/612991008

TABLE OF CONTENTS

- 1.1 THE ESSENTIALS
  - 1.1.1 Event
  - 1.1.2 Filter
  - 1.1.3 Action
2 Managing Automations
- 2.1 Create your own Automation
  - 2.1.1 Actions
    - 2.1.1.1 Activity Scheduling
    - 2.1.1.2 Approvals
    - 2.1.1.3 Communications
    - 2.1.1.4 Task Assignment & Provisioning
    - 2.1.1.5 Webhooks
3 Settings
4 Use Cases
- 4.1 Validate Organisation Registration Data
5 Reference Material
- 5.1 Communcations
- 5.2 Extensibility
- 5.3 Integrations
- 5.4 Security

Automations