AI in Customer Enablement: Hype or Game-Changer?

Customer Enablement has always walked a fine line between scalability and personalization. As companies grow, the challenge becomes: How do we give each customer the tools, knowledge, and confidence they need to succeed — without overwhelming our internal teams or drowning in content?

Enter AI.

In the past 18 months, artificial intelligence — particularly generative AI — has gone from a buzzword to a boardroom priority. But when it comes to Customer Enablement, the real question is not whether AI is impressive — it’s whether it actually improves the experience for customers and customer-facing teams alike.

So, is AI a true game-changer for enablement, or is it just more noise in an already crowded tech landscape?

Let’s unpack that.

What Does AI in Customer Enablement Actually Look Like?

At its core, AI in enablement is about helping customers get the right information, in the right moment, with minimal friction. This can show up in a variety of ways:

  • A customer asks a chatbot for some guidance on how to set up SSO and receives a personalized step-by-step walkthrough.
  • An AI system notices that users in specific industry, such as healthcare, are struggling with data export, and proactively recommends training or sends tailored help content.
  • A customer success manager (CSM) is alerted that a key stakeholder hasn’t completed onboarding and is given a suggested outreach message and enablement path.

This is not sci-fi — it’s already happening. Here are some real-world examples of what is possible.

Real-World Examples of AI-Powered Enablement

Gainsight PX + AI Playbooks

Gainsight PX is a product experience platform that helps businesses understand user behavior within their products and improve the overall customer experience. It combines product analytics with engagement tools to drive user adoption, collect feedback, and ultimately increase product usage and customer satisfaction. If a customer isn’t adopting a core feature, the system recommends enablement playbooks — actions like sending a tutorial, launching a walkthrough, or scheduling a check-in. The result is now CS teams spend less time guessing and more time guiding; proactive rather than reactive. Customers get relevant help before frustration sets in and feel that their success matter and they are not just another account in a company’s CRM.

Intercom Fin (AI Support Agent)

Intercom’s Fin uses OpenAI to power its chatbot, which can pull from help docs and support content to answer technical and contextual questions. Think of how many times you are looking to do something like “How do I configure [a feature] for my specific use case?” and just need to find the answer, not pages of content on that feature. With this approach, users can get real answers 24/7, even for nuanced issues. This allows for internal support and customer teams to spend less time on repetitive issues, and more time on meaningful, strategic enablement.

Pendo + In-App Guidance

Pendo is a product experience platform used to help businesses understand how users interact with their software products and improve the user experience. It provides tools for analyzing user behavior, guiding users with recommended targeted in-app messages based on user behavior, and collecting feedback.  For example, if a user is struggling with a particular setup step, Pendo can deploy tooltips or videos to provide enablement without human intervention. This results in customers staying in the product and finding success, rather than stopping productivity by searching through help documentation, forum posts, or having to reach out for assistance.

What Makes AI a Potential Game-Changer?

There are a variety of ways we could spin how AI is impactful and possibly change how we approach enabling our customers — everything from reimagining onboarding as a guided, personalized journey, to transforming static help centers into conversational experiences, to empowering CSMs with predictive insights that make customer success feel effortless. While every organization is different, here are (my top) three areas to consider.

Personalization at Scale

Traditional enablement often means casting a wide net: webinars, email campaigns, or one-size-fits-all guides. I constantly hear feedback on how Help documentation, as detailed as it is (for some products), is not simple enough to follow for the typical user or address the nuances and dive into the details enough for other users. AI can be used to flip the script by tailoring those experiences in real time. Using customer and contact information about what training they may have taken already or what their role is within their organization.

Think about the scenario of two customers going through the same onboarding process. However, based on product usage, one receives a basic walkthrough and suggested content to review, while the other gets more advanced configuration tips. All that content is readily available for customers today, but you can surface the right content at the right time to help guide them through the experience.

Proactive vs. Reactive Enablement

One area that I see a lot of, and have for some time, is organizations trying to be more proactive with their customers. This means understanding what roadblocks or issues they may have before they arise. Rather than waiting for a customer to ask for help, AI can flag friction points before they escalate.

A predictive model might detect that customers are skipping key setup steps. This can then trigger a guided tutorial for the customer to follow and get insight into how to avoid common pitfalls and ensure success. Simultaneously, this can be flagged to a CSM to step in and intervene if needed. At the very least, the CSM is now aware of what is happening within the customer, and can take action. Understanding how the customer is using your product(s) is critical for any CSM to be effective.

Content Discovery & Optimization

Everything that is being discussed around enablement has content at the center of the conversation. Customer has a question; we search for content to get an answer. We have a new feature; we make content for customers to consume in mass. How do we surface that content to the right customer at the right time though? I believe that AI is not just about serving up content — it can help optimize it as well. Systems can be leveraged to analyze which articles drive success and which ones fall flat. This leads to faster improvements in your knowledge base and training materials so you can focus on what works and resonates with your customers.

What Are the Challenges?

While the upside is real, AI is not a magic bullet. The human element within Customer Enablement needs to remain, but AL can be used to enhance how we approach these topics. There are, of course, risks and drawbacks that teams need to address head-on. Below is a snapshot of what I see commonly come up with organizations along with possible ways to mitigate them.

ChallengeRiskMitigation
HallucinationsAI may confidently give wrong or outdated answersUse retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) tied to current, verified docs
Loss of Human TouchOver-relying on bots can alienate customersBlend AI with strategic human interaction — hybrid enablement is key
Model DriftAI becomes less accurate over timeBuild feedback loops from CSMs, customers, and usage data to retrain models
Content ReadinessIf your docs are scattered or inconsistent, AI will reflect thatInvest in content hygiene and structure before deploying AI

Should You Invest in AI for Enablement?

Short answer: Yes. Your goal with AI should be to improve time-to-value, reduce onboarding friction, and scale support for long-tail customers.

One piece of advice I would provide is to approach with intention. Start with use cases that matter most and will continue to provide benefits in the future:

  • Are you training 100s of customers a month?
  • Is your support team bogged down with how-to questions?
  • Do customers consistently struggle with feature adoption?

Then identify where AI can augment, not replace, your enablement strategy. This is key to being successful as your focus should be on enhancing your current offerings, making them stronger and more useful. Organizations, departments, and teams should be leveraging tools that can help the here and now and focus on the constants. Try not to get caught up in the hype of trying to predict what new thing will come in the next 5 years and how to prepare for it. Focus on what will remain the same and build towards that.

Final Thoughts

So, is AI in Customer Enablement a hype train or a real transformation?

It’s both.

The hype is real — and so is the opportunity. The game-changer is not AI itself, but how you integrate it into your customer journeys, content workflows, and feedback loops.

The future of enablement is not just digital. It’s intelligent, adaptive, and proactive.

And it’s already here.

Driving Operational Excellence: Unlocking the Power of a Business Process Improvement Center of Excellence (CoE)

Organizations are constantly striving to enhance their operational efficiency, increase productivity, and foster innovation. One highly effective strategy that can significantly contribute to achieving these objectives is the establishment of a Center of Excellence (CoE) specifically dedicated to business process improvement. A CoE focused on business processes provides a structured framework for identifying, analyzing, and optimizing processes organization-wide. Here is another topic that I get asked a lot about: is creating a center of excellence important and how do I start? My answer is always yes, it is important, and it is different for each organization. Today, I wanted to take some time and discuss some key points to consider when starting off. This article delves into the multitude of benefits that stem from creating a CoE, highlights key considerations for getting started, emphasizes the importance of involving key stakeholders, and sheds light on the potential drawbacks of neglecting this transformative initiative. So, let’s embark on this informative journey together, exploring the tremendous value that a CoE can bring to your organization’s business process landscape.

The Benefits

Establishing a Center of Excellence to focus on business process improvement offers a wide range of benefits. To start, it provides a dedicated space for identifying, documenting, and ultimately improving business processes. This can naturally lead to consistency, efficiency, and standardization within business operations. Another benefit that a CoE can offer is the overall analysis and optimization of business processes. Through analysis and collaboration, processes can be streamlined, bottlenecks can be eliminated, and see an overall reduction in waste. This, in turn, brings about improved productivity, cost reduction, and faster turnaround times.

Additionally, a CoE fosters a culture of continuous improvement by promoting a structured approach to identify and address process inefficiencies, thus allowing organizations to adapt to market changes and maintain a competitive edge. Moreover, a CoE encourages cross-functional collaboration, bringing together subject matter experts (SMEs), process owners, and stakeholders from different departments, to help facilitate knowledge sharing and align on organizational goals and objectives. In the end, a CoE acts as a repository of knowledge by capturing and disseminating best practices. By standardizing processes bases on industry benchmarks and proven methodologies, it ensures consistency, quality, and compliance throughout the organization.

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Where to Start

Now that we have a solid understanding on the importance of a Center of Excellence and the benefits that it offers, where do we start? Should this be a single departmental team, or should it span different areas within the business? When creating a CoE focused on business process improvement, several key steps are crucial. First and foremost, it is essential to clearly define the objectives and scope of the CoE. Articulating its purpose and determining whether it will focus on specific processes, functional areas, or the entire organization helps steer where efforts need to be directed. If just getting started, perhaps look to processes that are familiar or simple to help establish best practices internally. Another step to consider early on is securing executive sponsorship. It is vital to obtain the necessary support, resources, authority, and visibility for the CoE to help promote adoption and change management.

Building a skilled team is another critical step, involving the identification of individuals with expertise in process improvement methodologies, data analysis, change management, and project management. I will get into this more in the next section, but this team should include representatives from key departments and stakeholders across the organization to ensure comprehensive involvement. Establishing governance is essential. Defining clear roles, responsibilities, and reporting mechanisms provides a pathway for regular updates and progress reports to senior management.

Finally, developing methodologies, frameworks, and best practices is crucial for guiding the CoE’s work, ensuring consistency and alignment. These should be thoroughly researched, defined, and documented, and then disseminated throughout the organization. Implementing knowledge management practices is also essential. Setting up systems to help capture and share knowledge through process documentation, best practices, lessons learned, and even training materials. This promotes continuous learning, fosters effective collaboration within the CoE, and promotes knowledge sharing across the entire organization.

Key Stakeholders to Consider

When establishing a Center of Excellence for business process improvement, it is crucial to involve key stakeholders from different areas of the organization. Engaging executives is vital as they provide strategic guidance, allocate resources, and advocate for process improvement initiatives. Process owners should be actively involved as well to assist in identifying pain points, implementing changes, and driving process improvements within their respective areas. Including subject matter experts (SMEs) from relevant departments, who possess specialized knowledge and experience in specific processes, is essential for shaping the CoE’s recommendations. These are the ones that can provide detailed insight into the specifics of a unique process within their department that is not well known.

Lastly, collaborating with cross-functional representatives from various departments and teams helps to fosters collaboration. These individuals help gather diverse perspectives and ensures alignment between the CoE’s initiatives and the overall organizational goals. For example, someone from the finance department would provide insights that drive financial controls and processes whereas someone from the customer service team can offer insights into customer-centric processes and suggest enhancements that can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The cross-functional representatives act as ambassadors within their respective departments, helping to disseminate the CoE’s recommendations, garner support, and drive successful implementation of process improvements. Their active involvement promotes a sense of ownership and fosters a collaborative environment where everyone works together towards shared goals, resulting in more effective and successful business process improvements.

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Potential Drawbacks (of Not Establishing a CoE)

I wanted to throw this idea out there as well because I get a lot of “we are just too big (or too small) to have a dedicated CoE”. The absence of a CoE for business processes can have several negative implications. Without a CoE, process improvement efforts may lack a centralized approach and strategic direction, leading to ad-hoc and fragmented improvements. This lack of direction and focus can hinder the organization’s ability to achieve consistent and impactful enhancements. I see this a lot when someone will say “we leave each department alone to manage their own processes”. How do you know what others are doing? What if you are trying to solve the same problem just from different perspectives?

The absence of a CoE can lead to inefficiencies and duplication, resulting in redundant processes, inconsistent practices, and wastage of resources across different departments or business units. This can impede productivity and hinder cost-effectiveness. Also, without a dedicated CoE, organizations may miss out on valuable opportunities for innovation. The CoE acts as a catalyst for leveraging emerging technologies and industry best practices, enabling organizations to stay at the forefront of their industry and drive continuous improvement. In the end, the absence of a CoE can hinder knowledge sharing within the organization. Siloed information and a lack of collaborative platforms can limit organizational learning, impede effective communication, and result in missed chances for improvement and growth. By establishing a CoE, organizations can address these challenges, promote streamlined processes, foster innovation, and enhance knowledge sharing, ultimately driving success and competitiveness.

Final Thoughts

Establishing a Center of Excellence focused on business process improvement empowers organizations to streamline operations, drive efficiency, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. By bringing together expertise, standardizing best practices, and promoting collaboration, a CoE creates a powerful engine for organizational success. Keep in mind that creating a CoE within your organization may be different than someone else’s and it all comes down to getting feedback, finding what works, and making changes to continually improve. Embracing a CoE allows organizations to optimize processes, achieve operational excellence, and stay ahead in today’s dynamic business environment.

Understanding Workflow v. Robotic Process (Automation)

Automation has become a crucial aspect of the modern business world. Among the different types of automation, two that I get the most questions about are Workflow Automation (WFA) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA). While the two share some similarities, they also have differences that set them apart. In this article, I wanted to discuss the similarities and differences between Workflow Automation and Robotic Process Automation because there are many out there that still do not fully understand on how to leverage them.

Workflow Automation

Let’s start with workflow automation (WFA). Workflow automation takes a human-centric approach to automation that focuses on optimizing the flow of work within an organization. It involves the use of software tools, like we see with Nintex or Power Automate, to automate routine tasks that involve multiple people or departments. Workflow automation is designed to improve the efficiency of business processes by reducing the time and effort required to complete them.

An example of this could be a workflow to manage the creation and approval process for a document. When a new request has been submitted, a document would be generated based off an existing template. From here the workflow would automatically route it to the appropriate people for review and approval, and then notify the submitter when the document has been approved. Leveraging a workflow for this allows for users to be notified when they have something to do within the process rather than having to do the work manually.

The workflow can also manage dynamic, instance level data, which makes it unique to this specific process. While on the surface it is simply a process to generate a document and then review and approve, there may be some nuances that need to be considered. What if there are requested changes to the generated document? What about if the user that needs to approve the document is out? These types of scenarios can be handled within a workflow and designed to manage each potential outcome.

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Robotic Process Automation

Robotic Process Automation (RPA), on the other hand, is a virtual agent that mimics human actions to automate repetitive tasks. It involves the use of software robots to perform tasks that would otherwise be done by humans, such as data entry, data extraction, and report generation. RPA is designed to improve the accuracy and speed of business processes by reducing the risk of errors and increasing the speed of execution.

When thinking about RPA, we can look to invoice processing as an example. This process involves extracting data from invoices and then entering it into accounting systems. An RPA solution can be used to automate the data entry process, thus reducing errors, and increasing efficiency. Let’s be honest, no one loves to copy and paste data for hours on end; this is a perfect use case for a bot to do for us. The solution could even include virtual agents that can communicate with suppliers to automate data validation, and integration with accounting systems. Solutions like UiPath or Nintex RPA can be used to build the RPA bots to perform the steps.

The Same, But Different

Both Workflow Automation and Robotic Process Automation aim to reduce the need for human intervention in repetitive, manual, and time-consuming tasks. However, there are some business processes that still require human interaction. Perhaps it is to review sensitive data or is part of a step where feedback is required in order to move forward. There are some things that just cannot be automated. Both technologies also aim to enhance efficiency, productivity, and accuracy in business processes.

One of the key differences between workflow automation and RPA is the level of human involvement required. Workflow automation is designed to work alongside humans, providing them with tools to streamline their work and improve their productivity. Building with workflow automation can range from simple, personal based productivity like moving email attachments into a storage location, to complex, organization wide processes like onboarding or offboarding employees.

RPA, on the other hand, is designed to replace humans in repetitive tasks, freeing them up to focus on more complex and strategic work. A solution with RPA is generally complex that workflow automation due to having to accommodate for all potential outcomes and scenarios since the bot can only perform the steps it was given when it encounters something. If the bot does not have instructions on what to do, the process fails. This is why RPA shines when it comes to moving large amounts of data that follows a strict rule set and does not deviate from it.

Final Thoughts

While workflow automation and RPA share some similarities, they are fundamentally different technologies. Workflow automation is a human-centric approach to automation that focuses on optimizing the flow of work within an organization. RPA, on the other hand, is a virtual agent that mimics human actions to automate repetitive tasks. Both technologies have their own unique benefits and can be used to improve the efficiency and productivity of business processes. By understanding the differences between Workflow Automation and Robotic Process Automation, businesses can choose the right solution for their automation needs. A human-centric approach may be preferable if the goal is to augment the work of employees, while an RPA approach may be better suited for automating repetitive tasks that do not require human intervention. It’s crucial to work with a knowledgeable automation partner who can guide the selection and implementation of the appropriate solution to achieve desired outcomes such as ease of use and speed to market.

Addressing Common Misconceptions About Process Automation

Process automation has become a buzzword in the business world, with organizations of all sizes looking to automate their processes to improve efficiency and productivity. However, there are a lot of misconceptions about process automation that can derail its adoption and implementation. I know this blog is super cliché, but it is still common in today’s market, so today I wanted to address some of those misconceptions I have heard through the years.

Automation leads to job displacement

One of the most common misconceptions that I have heard about adopting process automation is that it will lead to job displacement. While it is true that some jobs may become redundant, process automation can also create new job opportunities. As someone who has been in the automation space for almost 10 years now, I can honestly say that this something that the end-users feel when they do not understand the tools they have. Once I learned more about automation and what it is capable of, I started looking at everything very differently.

Automation can free up employees from repetitive and mundane tasks, allowing them to focus on the more strategic and creative work. This helps drive employees as they will find deeper satisfaction and value from the work. Moreover, automation can help organizations to scale their operations, which can lead to increased job opportunities. I know that I try to automate as much of my day-to-day so that I can focus on the things I want to. Having 5 kids helped push with my own personal and professional life; I automate as much as I can!

Automation is only for large organizations

Another common misconception about process automation is that it is only suitable for larger organizations. I would argue that process automation can help organizations of all sizes. For example, small businesses could automate many of their processes to reduce the amount of manual work done. Not only would this streamline their processes, but also reduce errors and improve overall satisfaction since they can focus more on what they deliver to their customers.

Automation can help organizations stay competitive especially as the market changes. In fact, according to survey results published by Zapier in 2021, 88% of Small Medium Businesses (SMB) say that automation allows for their company to compete with larger organizations. Automation solutions are becoming increasingly user-friendly and easy to use, making it easier for organizations of all skills and sizes to adopt automation to help scale their operations without increasing their workforce.

Automation is complex, difficult to manage, and expensive

One of the biggest and common pushbacks I hear about process automation is that it is complex and difficult to manage. While it is true that implementing process automation requires some technical expertise, modern automation tools are designed to be user-friendly and easy to use. Organizations can choose from a range of automation tools that offer different levels of complexity and customization. Additionally, many automation tools offer intuitive interfaces that make it easy for non-technical users to manage and monitor automated processes. The biggest hurdle to overcome is your own organization. Most organizations that I have worked with have struggled to see the value that automation brings and will throw every excuse out there to avoid moving forward with a solution.

This is simply because many organizations believe that process automation is expensive. However, there are several affordable automation solutions available in the market that cater to the needs of just about any size organization or team looking to get into automation. Moreover, the cost of automation can be offset by the savings in time and resources that automation can bring. This seems like a no-brainer, but can easily be proven by doing some initial legwork to see just how much time and resources are spent on a given process. Automation can also help organizations to reduce errors and improve compliance, which can lead to cost savings in the long run. However, just because it is automated, does not make it 100% accurate every time. There is a need to re-evaluate solutions and to ensure that you did not just create an automated way to generate bad products!

Automation is not scalable and is a quick fix

Some organizations believe that process automation is not scalable and can only be used for specific tasks. However, most modern automation tools are designed with scale in mind and I would even go as far to say they most automation products want you to use them throughout your organization. Sure, organizations can automate simple tasks such as data entry and document processing, but complex processes such as supply chain management and customer service are where most solutions shine and truly aim to help you. The great automation tools that are out there can also be integrated with other systems and applications, making it easy to scale automation across different departments and functions. If you are evaluating products and it cannot connect to a variety of systems, or at the very least have a way for you to build something to bridge that gap, it may not be worth it in the end.

This leads to another misconception about process automation and that it is a quick fix solution. While automation can certainly improve efficiency and productivity, it is not a magic bullet that can solve all of your organizational problems. Process automation requires careful planning, implementation, and management. Organizations need to identify the right processes to automate, ensure that the automation solution is scalable, and train employees to use the new system. Process automation is a long-term investment that requires ongoing maintenance and optimization. This is why I tend to start the conversation around process management and if an organization understands their processes. You would be surprised on just how much is still in “silos” within an organization.

Automation is a one-time investment

Finally, some organizations believe that process automation is a one-time investment that does not require ongoing maintenance and support. However, like any other technology, process automation requires ongoing revisions and support to ensure that it continues to deliver value. Organizations need to invest in training and support to ensure that their employees can use automation tools effectively. Additionally, organizations need to monitor and optimize their automated processes to ensure that they continue to meet their business objectives. Again, this all stems from the understanding of organizational processes and how they are managed. Just because you built a process and mapped it out, does not mean it is good for all time. No, of course not, you must go back and revise the process based on the current needs of the organization as well as the market.

Final Thoughts

Process automation can bring significant benefits to organizations, including improved efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. However, there are several misconceptions about process automation that can hinder its adoption and implementation. I discussed the more common ones that I have encountered through the years, but what about you? Have you heard similar concerns? How have you addressed them? Let me know in the comments below!

Going Into Automation? Start Here Not There

We talk a lot about automation here on this site and for good reason, it is a passion of mine! However, there are certain areas that often get overlooked on the journey towards process automation that I wanted to discuss further.

Just the Bullet Points

I could talk about automation and everything surrounding it for a long time. I enjoy helping organizations in their journey when evaluating technologies and how it fits into their organizational efforts. However, let’s boil all of this down to some fine-tuned bullet points first:

  • Define your automation goals – This will help determine what technology suits your organization the best rather than the specific use case. No one wants to add more products that are only used for one thing.
  • Understand the process – Ensure that you know the process that you are looking to automate. This helps by including a larger audience when defining the process and understanding all that are involved.
  • Build a larger team when evaluating – Just as including a larger audience when defining a process is important, having a diverse team evaluate automation technologies can help determine if a technology is a good fit and can be used in other areas within the business.

These bullet points may seem simple or obvious, but they lead to a smoother transition into automation as well as early adoption of the technology. When you add all of this together, you can then see a much faster and larger ROI from your automation efforts.

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Let’s Have a Conversation…

Most organizations believe that processes that they automate are automatically improved due to it being automated. While this can be true, often it is not. Processes need to be assessed, documented, mapped, and continually improved upon both prior to automation efforts as well as afterwards. If we think of a process that is poorly designed and is prone to errors, automating that process is only going to accelerate those errors. This generally is spawned from an overall lack of understanding of the process. So, then our first step in any automation effort should be to ensure that the process we want to automate is at the very least, documented and understood.

Understood by whom? The ones executing the process or the ones developing an automated solution? If you are thinking it needs to be both, then you are correct. It is important that everyone involved, from those performing the actions within the processes and interacting with the automated solution to those that are developing the automated solution, understand the process end to end. This is critical because as someone that interacts with the process, they need to know what to expect and what and where automation plays a part in the process. For those that are developing the automation, they need to understand what roles users play in the process and how the solution interacts with them. This leads to another point; building a team around your automation efforts.

When starting to evaluate automation, most organizations direct their IT staff to go out a look for automation vendors with little guidance on what to look for, or to look for something that addresses one need. While this is an acceptable place to start, I would argue that it is important to see what other areas within the business can benefit from an automation technology. When one team or business unit is the only one involved, their focus is on solving their needs first, and everything else afterwards. If you are looking for other places to find potential use cases, check out this article on Beyond the low hanging fruit of process automation in IT and HR .

By having more than one team evaluating a technology, you allow for other key business units to get involved and provide their feedback on what is important to them and solve more use cases. Additionally, this gives the organization more users that would be evaluating the technology and thus thinking of other use cases that can be solved. Once an automation technology has been selected, building out solutions will be easier and potentially faster. Since more have people have been exposed to the capabilities of the technology and have been thinking of how they can leverage it to solve their business problems, deployment time can be reduced.

What process should be automated or used when evaluating automation technologies? This is another question that I get a lot and see organizations struggle with. Many times I begin to ask more refining questions like I discussed above. Is the process documented and defined? Do the people that are evaluating the technology understand the process? If not, organizations will quickly fail at evaluating technologies properly or worse, make a selection that does not truly address their needs. Another great article to check out is To automate, or not to automate, that is the question, and it covers the importance of process management as it relates to process automation.

Final Thoughts

These are a few examples that I have seen over and over again when I talk with organizations as they are evaluating automation. There are a lot of misconceptions too, but perhaps that is another article for another time! In the meantime, what other areas that you have ran into and found to be impactful to your business? What do you know now that you wish you would have at the beginning of your automation journey? Let me know in the comments below!

How To: Create Threaded Task Comments With Nintex Automation Cloud

Hey everyone, back at it again with a quick “How To” guide for Nintex Automation Cloud. This time we are going to focus in on creating threaded task comments so that task approvers can see previous comments in a single view. This comes in handy for a variety of reasons and is something that many users may have leveraged in the past when using Nintex for SharePoint. So let’s dive in and see how to build this out!

The Use Case

In order to frame this better, we are going to follow the use case of a request for information. The process allows users to submit questions to be reviewed and answered. Upon review, comments can be added, questions can be redirected, or requests can be sent back to the original user to further details. All comments along the way are captured and presented back in a threaded view for subsequent tasks for review. This allows all parties involved to see what was said, by whom, and when.

Start At The Beginning

For this process, I decided to use a simple form to capture some information from our user and route for review and answers. Here we see the form with controls for the Question, who to Email Question To, a place to provide their Email address, and an additional place for any required documentation to be uploaded. While I am using these simple controls to demonstrate this use case, your process may have more complex requirements and rules built in. For example, if this were an authenticated form, there would be no need to require the users email address.

RFI Start Form

With these pieces we can now jump into the workflow side of things and see how to move this between the approvers and the user that submitted the request.

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The Workflow

Like everything else when it comes to process automation, there are a lot of different ways that we can build this out. You may have a form start event (something like I built out above), or you may be using a Component Workflow and pass the form data (from another workflow) to it. This is a great approach when you have multiple entry points or perhaps a custom built front end that you want to integrate with. I am going to take the Component Workflow start event approach so you can see that. To start, we want to select the Component workflow start event and create our variables for each of the above controls.

With the variables setup, I can now use a Nintex Automation Cloud form to collect and pass the data or another mode of data capture. As a part of the workflow, the first thing that needs to be done is to create and set a workflow variable for Responsible Email so that we can send the inquiry to them. We can also use the same variable to make any further updates as the process moves along while keeping the original data intact. From here we move into a Branch by State that allows for the process to move between various stages (or states) that we define. In our scenario we will keep it simple and create two branches; one for the Inquiry and the other for the Requester. This will represent the initial branch that they inquiry follows.

In the above scenario, we present the inquiry to the designated user by using a Task action within Nintex Automation Cloud. The task is setup with three different outcomes that will guide the process to the next step. The possible outcomes are: Need More Info, Answered, and Not Responsible Party. If the assigned user selects Need More Info, the process will move back to the Requester and prompt the request for additional information. If the assigned user selects Not Responsible Party, the user will be prompted to provide a new user in which the task can be rerouted to and thus restarting the Inquiry stage. When Answered is selected, the process ends.

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Each outcome of the task moves the process to another part but before the workflow moves we capture the comments that were provided in the task response. This is done by taking the Task comments and adding them to a workflow variable, allResponses. I am also adding some context to the string such as the respondent email address, current date and time, and some HTML tags to help ensure that each response is properly formatted on the subsequent task form. This will allow me to take each response and concatenate them together in an orderly fashion to present on a task form or in an email.

The assigned tasks for the requester follow the same approach; after the provided outcome, the workflow captures all of the responses in the workflow variable and then moves the process to the appropriate next step. For the requester, their outcomes are limited to either provide additional information and Resubmit thus sending it back to the Inquiry branch, or simply Cancel the request and ending the workflow.

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Putting It All Together

Now that we have the workflow built out, we can take a look at how it all comes together and gives us that threaded comment view on our task forms and in the final email. I went ahead and submitted a request and document to be reviewed:

Once submitted, we receive the task to perform our review. For this scenario, we will ask for additional information and send it back to the original requester. You will notice that the All Responses section is blank because no comments have been added yet, that will change!

The original requester now has a task to respond to and plans to resubmit with some comments of their own. Here we see that the All Responses section is starting to have content.

Finally, we see that more comments are being added and the task has come back to the reviewer. At this point the process can go on and on as many times as required and all comments will be added to the workflow variable and then presented back onto the form and the final email.

Final Thoughts

Having threaded comments within a task form is a great way to see everything that has been done and said before this task without having to go to a bunch of other tools and find that information. While this example is simple, the approach for this can be applied to any size workflow. There are some things that I would do better here, such as cleaning up the date and time to make it more readable, and perhaps a better forms layout to make it easier to navigate. This will become important with larger forms. Let me know if this is something that you have done in your workflows or if you plan to use it in the future and how you are going to adapt it to your use cases. Until next time!

Where To Next?

It has been a bit quiet here lately and for good reason. I took some time and disconnected a bit to see where I wanted to take this and how I wanted to use my voice in this world (or this site specifically). While I started this site to blog about automation solutions using Nintex and all that Nintex has to offer, I felt that over time there was so much more that I wanted to discuss and dive into. I may be putting more work on myself here, but let’s share in the adventure!

Some Things Never Die

If you click on articles looking for insight into Nintex solutions, do not worry, I will still do write up solutions as I come across them. These usually spawn from other users that I am working with or from a use case that I am trying to prove out. In either case, I will still write those up and post there here. Where I want to expand on is the ideas and thoughts around automation as a whole, not always specific to Nintex. I have been working in automation for close to 10 years (lord I’m the “old guy” now) and have plenty of experience on the subject. I want to share that out as many people and organizations are in the midst of automation projects. Some are just starting out, some are trying to develop more mature systems and solutions, but in either case, I want to share my thoughts on the automation space more.

It Is All Fun and Games

Other areas I want to explore more when it comes to blog posts are my passion for gaming and my adventures with having 5 kids! Having 5 kids is a constant adventure. Sometimes it is easy and everything falls into place, but most of the time it is a crazy roller coaster that is minutes from flying off the rails. While most of this does not apply to those that read my posts, and I am by no means trying to give parenting advice, I want people to understand that we are all in this world living our best life and to try to enjoy that. Maybe it is more of a reminder for me, but you get my point!

I also play a lot of games….probably more than I should at my age, but it is my escape from reality. A chance to be something or someone I am not every single day. I chance to go on outlandish adventures with my friends and family and talk and laugh about it long after the game is over. There is a lot I would love to share about when it comes to gaming and perhaps over time it will spawn something else, but just like adding in other topics around automation, gaming is something I am very passionate about and plan to share.

Another piece that I want to explore, and is loosely tied to gaming, is leadership. If you know me, you have probably mention my goals and aspirations when it comes to leadership. While I am not looking to become the President, I do want to develop and refine my leadership skills, and I do so in some not-so-traditional ways. Everything from running a gaming community to coaching and managing baseball teams, I find unique ways to explore and hone leadership skills.

Let’s Be Serious

At the end of it all, I want to write about things that I am passionate about and what I want to share with you all. I know I am not writing to millions of followers…checks follower count…yep, I have 30, but I sharing these experiences and this content out is what I enjoy doing. I do not want to force myself to only write about one thing and I have found that when it feels forced, the quality of the content drops. For those looking for Nintex solutions, do not worry, I will continue to post those. For those waiting for the next adventure, strap in, it is going to be fun!

How To: Repeating Section Data to Excel with Nintex Workflow Cloud

Trying something different this time around and making a video walkthrough, so if you do not want to read, jump to the end and check out the video. I want to make more videos of these solution walkthrough and if you find them useful or helpful, let me know!

There are certainly multiple ways to approach this (and I will cover more in the future), but this approach will detail how to get repeating section data from a Nintex Workflow Cloud form into an existing Excel file using the Insert table data action. Let’s jump in! For this, I am going to keep it simple and have a form with just two (2) controls within my repeating section; first name and last name.

The Excel file I am going to push this data into is stored in my OneDrive and is already setup with a table (Table 1) that has two columns; first name and last name. As you can imagine, we are going to take the repeating data from the form and write it to the corresponding cells in our Excel file.

The actions required to get the data into Excel are only Loop for each and Insert table data. That’s it! So let’s breakdown each action and see how we get the data in proper cell.

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First the Loop for each action. This is simple enough if you have worked with loops or data collections before, but what we are doing here is iterating through each item in our target collection, the repeating section in this scenario.

Second, the Insert table data action is where we will set where the data is going. For this action we will need to select our connection to the Excel file. For more information on how to create a connection, check out the Nintex help files. Once a connection has been made, you can select the file you want to write the data to, RepeatingSectionTemplate.xlsx is what I am using, and then select the table where the data is going. Assuming you are going to start inserting the data in the first row, we can use the loop index to help determine where the data goes each time we loop through it. If you are starting on a different row, you will need to offset the index variable by that number of rows.

Lastly, we will need to set the data points for each of the cells within the row. To do this, we select the first name and last name variables from the Current item within the Loop for each object when inserting our variables.

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With everything in place, we can now push our repeating section data that we captured in the form into the Excel file. Here is a quick look at our end result:

As always, there are many ways to accomplish this, but with Nintex, creating a viable solution is easy and fast. Next time I will cover how to accomplish this using document generation and create a new Excel file each time rather than write into an existing one. Until next time!

Use Case: Go Back or Skip Stages Using Branch By Stage in Nintex Workflow Cloud

There are plenty of reasons why we would want to skip branches or even go back to a previous one in a Branch By Stage action within Nintex Workflow Cloud. Everything from approvals that need to go directly to an executive to scenarios where more data is required in order to move forward. What ever the reason, moving to the desired stage is easy to setup and can be done a variety of ways. This use case will walkthrough how to do so leveraging task forms and simple logic gates. Let’s dive in!

Scenario

For this one, we are going to look at a multi-level risk review process. This process has 4 different levels, but there are some business rules in place that will determine where and when to move to next. Risks can be Low, Med, High, or Critical, and follow a designated review path depending which level is selected. Here is a breakdown:

  • Level 1 – Review Risks: Low
  • Level 2 – Review Risks: Low – Medium
  • Level 3 – Review Risks: Medium – High
  • Level 4 – Review Risks: High – Critical

This means, for example, that a risk review that has been submitted as “High” skips to Level 3 automatically and then moves to Level 4. You’ll notice that each risk level requires at least 2 levels of review, this is by design. Another business rule that needs to be considered is that any review level has the ability to send it back to a previous level for reevaluation. Let’s take a look at how we can accomplish something like this above scenario using Nintex Workflow Cloud.

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The Workflow

For this, I built out the full 4 level approval workflow, but I want to focus on the Low and Medium levels since we can extrapolate how to build the other branches from these. The form could be anything, but for the sake of our use case, there is a dropdown control that determines the “Risk Level” and we use that to drive where to start in our Branch by stage action.

If the form control evaluates as “Low”, it will start here, otherwise it will go to the proper branch. Starting off with the “Low” branch, we see that it is a simple task for someone to review. Here, there are only 2 outcomes that could happen; they Reject it and cancel the process, or they Approve it and moves onto the next branch, “Medium” in this case. Keep in mind that all reviews are 2 levels. Here is how we can achieve this within the workflow.

This is the most simple way to approach multi-stage approvals. Let’s add in some complexity such as what if the “Risk Level” starts at Medium or we need to provide a way for reviewers to send something back for more information. With these in mind, we can take a look at the “Medium” branch in our workflow.

Here we see the basics of the “Medium” risk level task are similar to the “Low” branch but with the additional outcome on the task for “Need More Info”. This allows for reviewers to select an outcome that does not move it forward to the next step nor cancel the process entirely.

You also might be noticing that we are using a “Branch by condition” here as well. This is because now that we are deeper into the process, we need to evaluate what the “Risk Level” is in order to decide where to do to next. In the scenario that the risk is “Low”, this review step is the second review and the process is completed, but if it is “Medium”, the process starts here and moves onto the proceeding branch (“High” in this case).

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The same logic and approach can be used when building out the “Need More Info” branch. If the “Risk Level” is “Low” then we can move back to the “Low” branch in the workflow, however, if it is “Medium”, we simply move back to the “Medium” branch effectively re-issuing the task.

Looking back at our risk levels, we see that “Medium” starts at level 2, so how can we start the workflow in the proper branch? If you look at the “Branch by stage” action and how we configured it, we specify the “Initial Stage” by using the “Risk Level” control from our form. This means that whatever the control value is will determine what branch to go down first.

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Taking it to the next level

For bonus points, I wanted to see how we could ensure that each review was 2 levels, even in the “Critical” branch. The way I approached this was to nest another task within the “Approve” branch and only go down that path if the “Risk Level” is “Critical”. Since this would be the second level review already for “High” level risks, we can simply exit the branch and move on with the rest of the workflow as needed.

Final Thoughts

There are many different ways to approach this problem within a workflow, but leveraging a State Machine, Branch by stage action in Nintex Workflow Cloud, helps make it easy to build a solution around and easy to understand. You’ll notice that each branch in the action has a “Change stage” action and this is for good reason. Each branch is really just a loop and the “Change stage” action tells the loop where to go to next when it gets to the end. Without that action, you could imagine, the branch would continue to loop!

How are you using the Branch by stage action? Are there other ways that you would have solved this business process?

There & Back Again: Google to Microsoft with Nintex Workflow Cloud

When it comes to Nintex workflow, many times the first thought is “Microsoft”. And while this is certainly still common, there has always been the ability to go a different direction when leveraging the power of the Nintex platform, especially Nintex Workflow Cloud. Within Nintex Workflow Cloud there are a multitude of connectors ranging from AccuWeather to Zendesk and an Xtensions framework that allows users to create their own workflow actions. This paves the way for processes to be built and optimized for with the current systems in mind without the need for complex workarounds or changing the process to fit the tool. For myself, a lot of times I simply frame this as the ability to change platforms or systems without having to rebuild the entire process. Let’s explore this idea more, but specifically around Google and Microsoft.

The Story Thus Far

I recently worked with an organization (Company A) that was going through some growth via acquisitions and had to consolidate systems, platforms, people, and processes. In the middle of all of this, Nintex Workflow Cloud was the way that the majority of their processes were being automated and how data was getting to the correct people and systems. Things like on-boarding new employees (which they would be using a lot of given the acquisition), contract and content management, and other various back-office processes connecting to legacy applications. These processes leveraged a variety of platforms but many times Microsoft was at the center of it. Whether it was SharePoint Online, Excel, Word, OneDrive, or even just posting content to Teams, Microsoft products were used to facilitate processes a lot. On the other hand, the acquired organization (we’ll call them Company G), used the G-Suite. This was how many things were advanced through their processes without the luxury of Nintex Workflow Cloud. The immediate response was to migrate all the new content and process from Google into Microsoft since there was already more being done with Microsoft within Company A; but was this the right approach? How much re-work was required taking this approach? These were the questions they needed to stop and evaluate before making decisions. This is where a simple approach changed all future decisions.

When Company A began to evaluate and catalog the processes that they were acquiring, they quickly realized that many of them were quite similar. Capturing data via forms and then pushing that data into the proper systems for retention. The key differences were where the data resided and the complexity of the tools that orchestrated the automation. Many times, they found that once the data moved to the new system in the process, that system would be leveraged to continue the flow of work. Things like notifications and tasks were commonplace, but each different depending on the system that it came from. This led to confusion for employees as they did not know where to go to complete their work. External participants faced similar issues; the notifications they were provided to complete essential steps in their processes were not standardized or streamlined.

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With the power of Nintex Workflow Cloud, the Company quickly saw the potential to consolidate processes all under one workflow platform but still allow for the data to flow to the proper systems. This was as simple as adding a connection within Nintex Workflow Cloud and then adding the necessary actions in the right place. An example of this was when their templates had to be used for Document Generation, depending on where the template resided, it could be pulled in and used in the workflow.

In the above screenshot, we see how easy it is to add two actions to replicate what is already being done but pointing to where the content already is. In this case, the is a need to grab logo images and the document template to be used in the document generation action. Another example of this that came up was having the notification come from different systems. In this case, there was a need to have meetings set using Google Calendar or Microsoft Exchange depending on the business needs. Using a simple branch action within Nintex Workflow Cloud, we can easily achieve something like this:

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Final Thoughts

When it comes to consolidating automation, there is a lot of consider and ultimately ensuring that the processes continue to run is paramount to all else. This means that while some parts need to be re-architected, merged into another processes, or down-right deprecated, the first concern should always be continuing execution of the processes. With Nintex Workflow Cloud, we can easily achieve this by dragging actions around to rearrange the flow of the process. We can also add in a multitude of different connectors so that the data gets to (or is pulled from) the proper system. We remove the system dependency and open a world of opportunity when it comes to process automation.