Overview

Activities are small tasks or actions that are either stand-alone or must be completed as part of a larger project. Activities are assigned to an 'owner', are designated a time by which they must be completed and can be part of other CRM.COM processes such as Subscriptions, Jobs, Service Requests and Leads.

Major features

• Through planned activities, resources required to complete the task can be booked
• Billing of services offered through activities can be billed as long as the activity is part of a billable job
• Automatically scheduling of activities through workflows for completing jobs subscriptions leads and service requests

Setting Up Activities

Statuses 

Used to label activities life cycle states (used to progress an activity) in a way that is meaningful to your organisation. 

Categories 

Used to provide a business classification to the activity such as, installation or maintenance. These classifications provide the user with input on how to handle the activity, and can also be used by the business to analyse the type of activities they receive.

Cancellation Reasons

Used to define the reason that an activity was cancelled and which can be used for business analysis

Types

Types are used to determine the operational characteristics of activities. The users which will be authorized to create activities of each type are designated by the 'Allowed Organisational Unit'.

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 it is expected to take before the activity is completed, measured in minutes, hours, days, weeks and months.
Allowed Attributes
Allowed Services	Services which can be used in activities of this type . Services added to an activity must be One-Time services and are used during billing to charge the customer for the duration the service was offered. For example, the service could be Product: classified as a One-Time Service Classification: Define whether it is mandatory to define the service on the activity in order to be allowed to close it, or optional. Minimum Time Spent: Define the minimum time that should be spent on each specified service, measured in hours, days, weeks or months. Upon activity completion, the system validates the time that was spent on a service against the specified minimum time. Time Spent Logging Method: It determines if the time spent on each activity service should be: Fixed: The minimum time spent is automatically set on each activity service and cannot be modified by users, or  Flexible: The time spent is set by the User. Automatically Applied: Enable if you would like the service to be automatically added to the activity as soon as it is created
Allowed Statuses	Allowed Statuses: The statuses allowed to be used by activities of this type Default Status on Start Progress: Determines the status that should be automatically selected on starting the activity progress which can only be a status of 'In Progress' life cycle state. Default Status on Complete: Determines the status that should be automatically selected on completing the activity progress which can only be a status of 'Completed' life cycle state. Default Status on Cancel: Determines the status that should be automatically selected on cancelling the activity progress which can only be a status of 'Cancelled' life cycle state.
Allowed Categories	The categories which can be used in activities of this type.
Status Transitions Defines the possible progression of status from each selected activity status. The next possible status depends on the current status of the activity , the type of the activity and on the user's or unit's authorisation.
	Status: The initial status of the entity. There can only be one initial status and it must be included if allowed statuses are defined. Status Transitions: A list of statuses which the user can change to 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 which are used to define allowed entities to be added on activities.  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 the cancellation reasons that can be selected when cancelling activities and specifies the default cancellation reason.

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Related configuration areas

The following modules are related to  and may be configured for the  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

Contact Information
The details of the customer that reported the issue.  The contacts cannot be changed once the request is saved but their details can be updated.
Activity Information
Activity Information	Type determines the attributes available for activities and their default values, as well as the automation of communications from the agent to the customer. Category is a label which describes the purpose of the activity.  For example, technical issue, or installation
Performed For	The entities which are related to the activity and can include one of the following: Subscription, Job, Service Requests, Leads
Key Dates	The significant dates of the activity which include the following: The dates and time frames that are relevant to the request: Start Date: The date on which the activity was first saved. Expected Completion Date: The difference between the start date and expected completion date. It is editable and measured in minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years. Actual Completion Date: The date on which the activity life cycle state is set to 'Completed'. Time to Completion: The time left up to the expected completion date. This information is dynamically calculated and updated based on the current date and the expected completion date. Estimated Completion Time: The difference between the start date and expected completion date. Time Overdue: The time past the expected completion date, calculated dynamically based on the expected completion date and the current date.
Services To Be Provided
The services that are provided as part of the activity and the time spent on each one, measured in minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. Only one-time services can be specified, which should be included in the list of 'allowed' services as specified in the related activity type. Services can be defined as optional or mandatory through the Activity Types. All Services have a 'billing directive', which is always set to 'To Be Billed' if the activity is performed for a job with a type defined as 'Billable'. Services might be added automatically if so configured in the associated activity type.
Action Panel
Status & Notes	Status: The status of the activity also defines its life cycle state and allows you to progress the activity. Life Cycle State: A read-only field that shows the progression of steps of an activity from the time it is created until it is completed. The state is updated by the system upon status change. 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 are 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 it 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, in which case users from the defined unit will be able to accept the activity. Refer to the Accepting Activity Action.
Activity Actions	Actions: Used when further handling is required to complete an activity without having to leave the activity page. For example, an agent can check for the coverage of a malfunctioning Roku box and plan a job for a replacement through the same page. Start Progress Cancel Activity Complete Activity View History: A link that provides additional information related to the activity. Communications: A list of all the communications with this activity defined in the 'Referring To' field. Approval Requests: A list of Approval Requests associated with the activity

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Creating and processing 

Selecting and creating an activity

Navigate to Activities and specify the criteria that match the  Activity you are interested in, or click on NEW from the Actions Menu to create a new . Proceed by providing the mandatory information as defined in the table above before you SUBMIT.

Modifying an activity

Use EDIT from the Actions Menu to enter edit mode.

While activities that are assigned to a unit and are pending acceptance by a user can be modified, the 'Assigned to User' 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.  Activities assigned to a unit can be accepted by a unit member, by using the Accept action from the Actions Menu in the Data Entry page.  For example, an activity regarding an installation is assigned to the Installers department and then accepted by a specific installer. 

Starting progress of an activity

In order to start processing an activity and deliver services the activity must be progressed through the Start Progress action available through the action panel's actions. Select one of the available statuses which represent the 'In Progress' life cycle state.
The action will change the life cycle state from 'Pending' to 'In Progress'. Once the action is executed, EDIT is required to start working on the Job.

Completing an activity

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

Canceling an activity

Cancel an activity to restrict further modifications, using Cancel Activity action available from the Action Panel. A cancellation reason must be provided for activities that are being cancelled which can be used for business analysis.

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Communicating an activity

Customers and agents remain in contact throughout the processing of the 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 manually communicated by using the Communicate Activity action available through the Actions Menu. 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 an activity for offered services

Services offered to a customer through an activity can be charged, provided the activity is created as part of a a job whose type is defined as 'Billable' and is already completed. The billable information of each activity consists of the services that were provided and the time spent on it.

The billing engine will check Price Plans for the rate of the activity services and will bill the job based on the time spent (duration) to complete the service. There are only two types of Price Pln rate models that can be used for defining prices on one-time services added on activities.

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Applying business flows on activities

Booking resources to complete an activity service

Activities consist of tasks that need to be completed by a designated user that will need to take action. Through CRM.COM Resource Scheduling the necessary resource(s) to complete the task can be booked by inputting the responsible department/Unit, the service that must be completed, and the date / time on which the task is expected to be completed.

If an activity must use a service in order to be completed, it is possible to automatically add the service on the activity by defining it as mandatory on the Activity Type

Once creating an activity and adding a service you have the option to Request Resource through the 'Services to be Provided' section of the activity as shown in the figure below

Once you click on Request Resource link the  Resource Availability modal will open allowing you to search for an available resource and place a request. Refer to Resource Scheduling for more information on how to request a resource to complete the service on your activity

Scheduling an activity through other modules

Activities can be perceived as small tasks required to complete a bigger one, which in CRM.COM can be:

• a Job, which could take the form of a small project 
• a Service Request, which could take the form of a number of tasks that must be performed to complete a customer's Request for Service
• a Lead which will be used to win potential customers.
• a Subscription which could take the form of an installation visit

There are three ways to schedule activities:

• Via the Activities page by adding the related entity in the 'Performed For' tab.
  
  
• Via the Entity's page (Job, Service Request, Lead) by using Schedule an Activity action (Not available in Subscriptions)
  
  
• Automatically by configuring Workflow Rules that trigger the scheduling of Activities when certain events occur in the system.
  
  

When the activity is scheduled through the 'Schedule an Activity' action from the respective entity's page then the following validation takes place:

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Activity Analytics

Segmenting activities

You can group activities with common business characteristics. Use the lists in system business processes for identification of customers or for simple statistical calculations. 
For more information on segmentation and how you can create activity lists refer to Segmentation.

Dashboards 

Dashboards make information regarding the key performance indicators of the progress of the activity 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 which were completed within each of the last 12 months, in a vertical stacked bar chart, grouped by activity type and month.  The results can be filtered by activity type. 

New activities per Type and Month 

The component displays the activities whose processing was planned to start on a specific date in the last 12 months, in a vertical stacked bar chart, grouped by activity type and month.  The results can be filtered by activity type. 

Overdue activities per Type

The component displays the activities whose processing completion is overdue, i.e. the requests included in the component 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 pending activities, i.e. those not a 'Completed' state, in a pie chart, grouped by activity type.  The results can be filtered by activity type. 

Activity summary

The component displays the pending activities, i.e. those not a 'Completed' state, that are assigned to the logged in user, 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