Workflow Builder

The Workflow builder allows you to set up workflows for reviewing change requests of brands, catalogs, documents, products, and SKUs. These customizable workflows send alerts and enable an approval process. From the Workflows dashboard, you view any and all active workflows created by your team. Only PIM Admins have access to Workflow Builder.

In this article, you'll learn about Workflows.

Note: MDM is available for purchase. Request a quick demo of MDM here.

Contents

Create Workflow

Pause Workflow

Edit Workflow

Delete Workflow

Change Proposed

Create Workflow

Workflows let you know when someone makes a change in your PIM. You are able to configure what types of changes should trigger a workflow approval, and who the approver should be.

Specific steps to create a new workflow:

1. Navigate to Workflows under Configuration in the left hand navigation bar
2. Click Create Workflow on the top right
3. Give the workflow a name that represents what the workflow is for (e.g. “Product workflow for North America”)
4. Specify which resource type it applies to. Options are Products, SKUs, Documents, Brands, and Catalog. 
5. Optionally, specify which types of changes should trigger the workflow. If no selections are made, the workflow will trigger on any change to the resource. The options vary based on the resource type, but the full list is:
   1. Data field, for changes to Name, Description, Brand, Associated Document, Catalog, Categories, Relationships
   2. Attributes, for changes to specific attributes. For simpler maintenance across different workflows, this is managed by specifying one or more attribute groups. Using custom secondary attribute groups you can define a specific attribute group just for the purpose of controlling this workflow.

      Note: The trigger is changes to specific attribute values, but the workflow is configured with attribute
      groups. Best practice is to create a new custom secondary attribute group that contains all the attributes
      you want to trigger on. This extra initial setup makes it possible to reuse this attribute group across
      different workflows and adding new attribute triggers across workflows just by adding new attributes to
      this group.

       

   3. Action, with the option being “Delete” to require an approval on Delete of a resource. Note: we don’t support workflows for Create actions as that is best handled by Statuses.
6. Optionally, specify a list of conditions that determine which resources this workflow will apply to. If no selections are made, the workflow will apply to all resources of the given resource type. The condition options vary based on the resource type, but the full list is:
   1. Editor - what type of user or system made the change
      1. For Roles: PIM Admin, PIM Editor
      2. For User Types: External APIs, Internal, Knowledge Engine 
   2. Attribute Value - workflow should apply only to resources matching a specific attribute data condition (e.g. Region = North America)
   3. Brand - workflow should apply only to resources for this Brand
   4. Catalog - workflow should apply only to resources that are in this Catalog
   5. Status - workflow should apply only to resources in this Status
7. Click Save - Note: that you will need to finish the workflow in the Edit view before you can activate it. Clicking Save will take you to to the Edit view.
8. Click the Edit/pencil icon for Assign Approver(s)
9. Specify who the approver should be: Roles or Users
   1. For Roles: PIM Admins, PIM Editors
   2. For Users: Individual Person (start typing their user name and the system will automatically search)
10. Click Save
11. Validate your configuration on the card-view
12. If you want to activate the workflow, click Start Workflow and confirm this in the popup window to start running all automations and notifications related to this workflow

Note: Workflows that are active are indicated with a green label in the workflow grid. On the other hand, workflows that have been created but not started are indicated with a gray label in the workflow grid.

Best Practices:

1. You can leave the Data Elements that trigger a workflow blank, which means any change will trigger the workflow. If you have integrations from external systems that deliver some data elements that are approved in the source system, or if you have certain fields that for other reasons do not require approval, then you can define the list of all data elements that DO require an approval workflow.

2. You can leave the Data Conditions that define which resources the workflow applies to blank, which means all resources of the given type may trigger the workflow (based on what is changed and how the Data Elements are configured). If you need different setups in terms of data elements or approvers for different Regions, Business Units, or Product Lines, you can configure the specific data condition filters on the workflow to dynamically tailor which resources the workflow applies to.

Pause Workflow

Workflows that have been started may be paused. Paused workflows are indicated with a yellow label in the workflow grid.

To pause a workflow:

1. Navigate to Workflows under Configuration in the left hand navigation bar
2. Select a workflow 
3. Click Pause Workflow
4. Click Pause Workflow in the confirmation popup to pause all automations and notifications related to this workflow 

Edit Workflow

To edit a workflow:

1. Navigate to Workflows under Configuration in the left hand navigation bar
2. Click Edit on the right of the workflow 
3. Update the workflow
4. Click Save

Delete Workflow

To delete a workflow:

1. Navigate to Workflows under Configuration in the left hand navigation bar
2. Select a workflow 
3. Click the three dot icon on the top
4. Click Delete
5. Click Delete in the confirmation popup to be permanently delete the workflow

Change Proposed

When a user makes a change on a resource that has a workflow applied, and to a data element that is configured in the workflow, the change does not take effect on the record immediately, rather it becomes a change request that is pending approval. It will be reflected in blue and a lock icon appears until it’s approved. A blue banner at the top displays that the record contains unpublished changes awaiting approval.

Note: Users can expand and collapse the changes proposed by clicking Hide Changes or Show Changes.

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