Workflows for technical documents / Submittals (ISO19650 PUBLISH)

Introduction

A workflow (or a submittal) is the publishing of a technical document such as a plan or a data sheet for review or approval. Technically, a workflow is a sequence of actions automatically managed by Cooperlink. When users are asked to respond to a request, they receive a task with a form to fill out.

Configurations and templates

Cooperlink has a powerful workflow engine that is fully customizable per project by means of workflow templates.

Each partner is assigned a role in the workflow. At each step, a task is assigned to a role with a maximum amount of time (due date) to complete. The steps of the approval circuit can be carried out in series, in parallel, or a combination at the choice of the project team. Deadlines are defined in calendar days or working days.

The workflows are available as pre-configured templates that can be reused within different projects. The workflows templates can also be duplicated.

Data structure and immutability

Every workflow has its own data structure and values, independent of the source document to which it is linked. This makes it possible to guarantee the immutability of the process, from the start of the workflow to the end, including the responses of the various contributors.

The data structure of a workflow is established in a design template. For every workflow template,

• Cooperlink allows you to create a data structure specific to each workflow template.
• It is also possible to create different response forms by type of respondent (role).

Start workflows (basket)

To publish one or more documents for review or approval, Cooperlink offers a basket workflow. This tool allows you to check the workflow data and contributors before starting it. When it comes to several documents, the basket workflow allows batch editing of metadata.

Adjustable response time when starting the workflow

When response time is configurable in your workflow, you can adjust the time numerically (delay) or by means of a date picker.

Auto-closable workflow tasks

During workflow configuration, you can adjust the behavior of tasks submitted to workflow contributors. The auto-closable task option allows you to automatically close the workflow task of one or more partner(s) on the deadline date. When you enable this function, the partner is informed that the task will be closed automatically. We recommend that the activation of this function is subject to an agreement between the parties.

Answer workflow (tasks with embedded form)

Respondents to workflows are notified of the actions to be taken via tasks. Respondents are invited to complete the response form. The latter contains mandatory fields and optional fields defined in the workflow model. Thus, different respondents may receive different forms depending on the need.

Digital markups and attachments

Respondents can also add digital annotations and attachments to their response [1]. A filtering and localization tool makes it easy to find the digital annotations of respondents [2].

Supervision

The workflows module allows the user to supervise the project workflows.

Workflows in Cooperlink are displayed to the user in a similar way to an e-mail. A set of tags provide the main information about classification and status [1]. The module summarizes the subject, the sender, the recipient and the attachment(s) [2]. Next, all detailed information, responses and comments are displayed. The drawer on the right provides a summary version of the responses and workflow activity [3].

Discussion thread

A precision, an observation, an additional comment? When collaborating on an approval flow, it may be necessary to communicate with your partners. All you have to do is add a comment to the workflow discussion thread. Use the @ key to mention your partners. They then receive an individual notification.

When a contributor opens his task related to that workflow, he also sees the discussion thread.