If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you are already familiar with our PowerObjects blog. A lot goes into producing the best Microsoft Dynamics CRM blog in the world, and in order to keep everything running smoothly, we use a Dynamics CRM customized workflow to manage our blog entries. After all, one of our core values is “Live the Technology”, and we take that literally!
Today we will be showing you what goes on behind the scenes here at headquarters before a blog gets published on our website. This inside look showcases an excellent use-case scenario of the endless possibilities that customizable workflows in CRM offer. So without further ado, let’s begin!
The blog process at PowerObjects has a lot of components that go into making it flow smoothly. Most of our blogs are written by our team of consultants. We have some of the best CRM consultants in the world, and with all of that wealth of knowledge and experience, it only makes sense that we harness it and share it with the world! Consultants aren’t the only ones getting in on the action, though. We have blogs written by our salespeople, marketers, and even our leadership team contributes! As you might imagine, that leaves us with a LOT of blogs to manage.
We are always striving to make sure we put out solid, accurate, and engaging content so that our readers get the best information out there. In order to do this, our Marketing team checks each post for correct grammar, spelling, and formatting. Then, our Education department reviews each post to make sure all of the technical content is correct. This is where the workflow comes in. Let’s take a look at how a blog comes to life with this process!
Our blogs are called PowerBlogs, which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows PowerObjects. Each post has a PowerBlog record in our CRM system. They look like this:
1. After a blog is written, the author uploads the document to the SharePoint location associated with the record. They then change the status of their blog from “Assigned” to “Completed”. This is where the fun begins!
2. The blog author then selects Yes for the “Submit for Review” field.
3. Once a blog is submitted for review, a member of our Marketing team receives an email that looks a little something like this:
The email notification gives the Marketing team a heads up that blog has been submitted and is waiting for review. We also utilize a customized dashboard that shows us all of the completed blogs and where each one sits in the review process.
4. Next, the document will be reviewed for all that spelling and grammar stuff by a member of our Marketing team. After that is done, the reviewer either selects Approved or Returned for Revisions in the “Grammar Review” field in the Administration section of the blog record.
If the blog happens to need revisions—say they forgot to add in a step or their screenshots were too small—then the Marketing team member reviewing the blog selects Returned for Revisions, and the blog author gets an automated email like this one:
Now the author can make the necessary changes. Once they do, they simply submit the blog for review again, using the same steps as before, and the reviewer gets another automated email as before, letting them know that the blog is ready for review again.
From there, the blog keeps moving through the process. For our example, however, we will are going to assume that the blog author nailed it. So the Marketing reviewer then checks Approved.
5. After the grammar review is completed, the next step of the workflow begins, and an email notification is sent to a member of the Education team so they can do the technical review.
6. Once all the technical components of the blog are verified, the Education team member checks Approved in the “Technical Review” field.
If the blog needs revisions made on the technical side, the Education team member checks Returned for Revisions, and the author will get an email notification in the same way they did for grammar revisions, and the process gets repeated the same way it did in the grammar stage.
7. We are going to assume that the author nailed the technical content as well, so now that both fields are approved, the status of the blog automatically changes to “Ready to Post.”
8. The final step in the process is an automated email that gets sent out to our Marketing team, notifying them that a blog is ready to go up on the website:
Now our Marketing team knows that the blog is good to go, and soon it will uploaded to our website!
We hope you enjoyed this glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes here at PowerObjects. If you haven’t yet, subscribe to the blog already! We know you want to. Get inspired to try a customized workflow for yourself. Because making work easier is always on trend.
Until next time, readers, happy CRM’ing!