Additional assignees and approval processes

Additional assignees

Additional assignees are assignees who have a specific purpose, which is defined in your business process. Usually, an additional assignee has to carry out a certain task within the process or he has to be informed about the progress of the case. For example, additional assignees can be used in approval processes to assign the case to an approver if a contact refund exceeds a certain amount. Additional assignees have a function which indicates their role/task in the process.

The additional assignees of a case are displayed in the additional assignees section. If there is at least one additional assignee, the assignee (if present) is displayed in this section as well. The assignee’s icon has a little soccer ball and a red label assigned after his name. The additional assignees are sorted by their function and displayed below the heading corresponding to their function. If there is an approval process for this case, there can be various other symbols added to their icons.

Figure 80: Additional assignees

Adding an additional assignee

You can manually add an additional assignee if you have the required permissions. Depending on the individual configuration of your CM system, additional assignees can also be added automatically during the business process.

To add an additional assignee, click the Add link in the upper right corner of the Additional assignees section and proceed as follows:

1. Select the user. You can either open the drop-down list or use the Autocomplete Search to limit the suggestions.
2. Select the function. Only the functions which are available for the user are displayed.

   You can also choose the function first to see only the users who have the selected function.

3. Add a note (optional).
4. Click Add assignee.

Figure 81: Adding an additional assignee

The assignee can also be added as an additional assignee provided he has the required function.

Adding and editing the note of an additional assignee

You can add a note to the additional assignee by clicking the little arrow next to the assignee's name and clicking Add note in the context menu. If a note has already been added, the context menu entry is called Edit note and you can edit the existing note.

Assigning a case to an additional assignee

You can assign the case to the additional assignee by clicking the little arrow next to the assignee's name and clicking Assign in the context menu. The case is now assigned to the additional assignee, i.e., the additional assignee is now both the assignee of the case and the additional assignee with the given function. His icon is displayed with the little soccer ball.

Removing an additional assignee

To remove an additional assignee, click the little arrow next to the assignee's name and select Remove from the context menu. Click Yes to confirm the removal of the additional assignee. You cannot undo the removal once you confirmed it.

Removing an additional assignee might interrupt the business process, e.g., if the case is waiting for an approval and you remove the approver. Please only remove an additional assignee if you are sure that it is not needed anymore.

Approval processes

Some business processes include approval processes where an authorized person, i.e., the approver, takes a decision regarding the further processing of a case. For example, compensations to contacts above a certain amount might need the approver's authorization.

The approver needs to be added as an additional assignee. This can either happen automatically, e.g., the assignee clicks the workflow activity Request approval and the system automatically adds the approver as an additional assignee, or manually, e.g., the assignee adds an additional assignee with the function Approver. The approver takes a decision, i.e., he either approves the request or declines it, and the assignee continues working on the case according to this decision.

The approver can take the decision either directly in the Web Client by clicking on the corresponding workflow activity or via email. It depends on the individual configuration of your CM system which options are available.

Depending on the status of the approval process, the approver's icon can have one of the following symbols:

	Decision is still pending
	Approved
	Declined