Workflow Enhancements in Dynamics CRM 4.0
Monday, December 10th, 2007 |Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 delivers a greatly improved workflow model. It caters to the needs of all users no matter if they are business users, implementers, partners or developers.
Business Users
The most important change to the workflow model in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is the new web-based user interface. Business users no longer need access to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server to create, modify, and monitor workflows. Instead, users can perform these actions on their own computers. Therefore, workflows are now much more visible and useful for Microsoft Dynamic CRM users. For example, if a user wants to create a workflow so that an email will be sent in case an opportunity is assigned to him, he can use the web interface and follow a few simple drag and drop steps to create this functionality.
Business users with adequate permission can participate in creating, running and monitoring workflows from the web based interface. This interface does not provide advance workflow capabilities like Stages, Workflow Templates and Dynamics Expressions. These advanced features can be used while creating more complex workflows like sales processes.
Partners/Implementers
Partners/Implementers can easily customize and upgrade to using the rich workflow model. The new model provides almost three times more record types and entities accessible to create a very powerful workflow in order to automate a complex business process.
Workflows can now be written that are triggered by update and delete events, in addition to the previously supported assign, create, and change status events. For example, it is possible to create a workflow that runs when the credit limit for an account is updated, or when a report is deleted. Similarly, a workflow can be triggered at multiple events. When selecting a triggering event, a user may choose more than one event. For example, a workflow can be created that runs if a contact record is created, updated, or deleted. Also, the list of triggering events can be changed after the workflow is created.
Dynamic values are another powerful feature available. For example, a workflow might include a step in which an e-mail is sent to a customer when that customer is entered into the system as a lead. The e-mail message might contain static text that is the same for every customer and dynamic values that insert the customer’s name and address based on attribute values in the lead record.
The Stages feature can facilitate implementers to encapsulate and compartmentalize business logic. Support for stages is increased by allowing Stages in any workflow, conditional statements, within stages, multiple concurrent processing on a single record, skipping of stages and exiting from the workflow.
Developers/Programmers
Developers and programmers can develop business horizontals and verticals by leveraging the Windows Workflow Foundations coupled with Visual Studio. With the adoption of the Windows Workflow Foundation, there have been some changes to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM workflow APIs. Therefore, a few of the old APIs have been deprecated. Developers have to evaluate existing code to see whether there is any effect on existing workflows.
Windows Workflow Foundation simplifies asynchronous programming for creating persistent workflow applications. The Windows Workflow Foundation runtime engine manages workflow execution and supports workflows that can remain active for extended periods of time. It preserves the state of workflow execution during computer shutdown and restart. Windows Workflow Foundation provides a rich development experience inside Visual Studio using the visual designer. This enables creating workflows graphically by dragging and dropping activities from the Toolbox onto the design surface.
