[Use Case Marathon] Week 1 - Workflow Automation ♻️

We use this feature, and boy does it save time. Before Automation Engine, we would just use the feature as found when setting up a custom work flow. Now with the Automation Engine, @ mention messages allows to give instruction and an extra layer of notifications that allows better collaboration. Big fan of this feature. 

We use this feature all the time. Makes it so easy to auto assign to the next person, you don't have to remember who that is! Auto adding approvals is great as well, just makes the next step easier. Automation Engine, i just started using that, but loving it already! I use it for approved invoices. Once the Status hits Approved, a copy of the task is automatically placed in my Approved Invoices folder!  Thank you Wrike for continuing to make Wrike the best it can be. 

I love the auto assign for the multifaceted proofing and production process of our 250 page annual product catalog. Before we had multiple people on a task and just remove themselves as they did their shares, which was not efficient OR effective.

I love this workflow automation, especially combined with the approvals-function.

But there's even space for improvement here. For example: it would be helpful to assign a task not only to a fix person, but to the one who changes the status or to the asignee of the parent task if it changes to a specific status.

We use automation in several ways - one way that stands out is requesting time off.  We created a Request form to submit time off.  The user selects the managers, and this adds an approval to the task, that is assigned to the selected manager.  The manager has 3 days to provide a decisions, and based on the decisions this resets the task status to the Type of PTO request, or cancels if not approved.

We also use automation in requests for specific types of project request, changing the status will assign the task to specific managers who will review the request and assign the work appropriately!

We are able to turn several tasks into one. For example. 

A letter needs to be created, approved by two parties, then printed and mailed. 

Easy enough right? Before we were using approvals this was 4 different tasks. 

Now it is one task with a custom workflow, with built in automated assignees and approvals. We also use automation to bug approvers with custom messages relating to the type of approval and task. 

We have found that the more you let your workflows do the work, the shorter your instructions need to be. 

I like the suggestion and all the comments. This is definitely something that we need to investigate further.

Hi folks 🤗 Huge thanks for sharing your use cases and tips here! I'd like to recommend some webinars that might be helpful for Workflow Automation:

• https://www.wrike.com/webinars/creating-and-using-custom-workflows/,
• https://www.wrike.com/webinars/refocus-on-the-work-you-love-with-automation-engine/, 
• https://www.wrike.com/webinars/automating-your-processes-in-wrike/

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

I love workflow automations! Our department has several task based and project based custom workflows. Several months ago we revisited how we track our quality checks and now use approvals that are automatically launched based on a status in a custom workflow! All of these are very helpful features!

We use workflow automation to cut down on the number of emails sent back and forth between teams with recurring tasks - "OK, ready for your part" can be covered just by switching the task status to the next step and letting the automation reassign and notify for you. 

Thank you for sharing 🤗

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Our team isn't using this yet but I love to get us to that point. I think this would speed up and simplify our processes for doing work.

Our team largely follows the one task through from beginning to end - so this is not terrible relevant to us.

However, we have a status called "PROBLEM" which sends an automated @ mention to our Project Manager to flag a possible issue.

Wrike automation in general is a welcome improvement, workflow automation specifically being great for PM awareness and reduces human error. As most of my team's work is done at task level it's easy to forget to update the status while working with custom fields mostly in the table view.

Thank you, folks! 

Kevin Thalacker, Jason Martin I'll be passing on this info to your Customer Success Managers, they'll be able to share some advise on how to set up 👍

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa I love this use case and this is the type of process I would like to get to with my Marketing team! I fear we would actually miss many deadlines with this process because the first person to execute the task may take the full task duration leaving no time for the next steps like development and reviews.

My team operates and prioritizes tasks using task due dates instead of "Tasks To-Do". My team has to operate by having tasks for milestones like copy, design, development, and reviews with specific durations around those tasks. 

Is there a roadmap to assign a status for a particular amount of days and once it's moved to the next status is adds an additional X amount of days? 

Hi Hunter Blouch, thank you for reaching out!

Although I don't believe there are plans for this currently, I think that Wrike's Automation could be helpful in this case. You could set up a rule for certain action if a task's status in a space or project doesn't change in, for example, 2 calendar days:

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

I have several processes where this would be helpful, but have been unable to figure out how to set it up. Where can I find a detailed guide?

We love the automation engine, makes cleaning up tasks a breeze. Really looking forward to additions to the engine (custom fields etc) and would love to see a roadmap of planned upgrades.

Approvals on the other hand still need a bit more internal documentation for our team to be 100% useful. 

We are trying to use the automation engine a fair bit! We're finding limitations.

• We'd like to use automations to notify a manager that a project is 30+ days from completion, which would trigger action from him but that isn't an option.
• We tried to use Automation to notify the submitter of a form that it was approved, but they technically aren't the author and don't get assigned because they aren't part of the approval process. It's placed in a folder/space they don't get access to and can't 'follow' the task unless manually added by someone else. They can see it if they search for it, but again, it's a manual solution. So our attempt to use automation to fix this failed since form submitter isn't an option. 
• 

Automation is not something we have used yet, but I am excited to dig into some of these suggestions and articles to learn what we can do!✌️

Hey everyone! 🤗

Denise Runge Here are some of the videos that might be helpful, please check them out:

• https://www.wrike.com/webinars/creating-and-using-custom-workflows/,
• https://www.wrike.com/webinars/refocus-on-the-work-you-love-with-automation-engine/, 
• https://www.wrike.com/webinars/automating-your-processes-in-wrike/

I will also pass on your interest to your account's Customer Success manager 👍

Lennyroy Robles Here's our Help Center article on Approvals in Wrike, could that be helpful? 

Kate Russell Thanks a lot for your feedback in relation to Automation Engine, I'll pass it on to the Product team 😊

Kelly-Anne Slatton Thanks for sharing your interest, I'll pass it to your Customer Success Manager 🤗

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

We use automations religiously! They cut out so much extra follow up and assignment of tasks. They also help move tasks along faster. One that the PM team loves is if a task has not updated or changed in status within a certain number of days it pings our team members. Helps with reduction in babysitting tasks! :) 

Thanks so much for sharing Brittney Bemb 😍

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

This is something our team definitely needs to dive into more. Thank you for the article.

Thanks for your interest Pamela Cox! 🤗

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

We need to be using this! We have a lot of task hand-off's in Wrike and it sounds like automation will really make the way we work in Wrike more efficient!

Thank you for reaching out Wendy Barnes, and welcome to the Community! 🙌

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

The comments are amazing! I love seeing how to get the most out of this tool. 

So great to hear that Mary Kathryn Merrill 🤗

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover