Locked lesson.

Upgrade

About this lesson

Understand what a workflow is and how we can use workflows in SharePoint to streamline common business processes. 

Exercise files

There are no related exercise files for this lesson.

Quick reference

Workflows Explained

Workflows in SharePoint help us automate common business tasks and processes. Workflows can be created in SharePoint using a Microsoft 365 app called Power Automate. 

When to use

We use automation in SharePoint to increase our efficiency when performing repetitive tasks that contain many steps.

Instructions

Workflows help us automate common business processes. There are several different types of workflow we can create. 

For example, we might want to automate the steps for approving a document or submitting a holiday request.

Let's use the holiday request as our example. Now it might be that we have a holiday request system set up at our organization but if we were to do this manually, the steps might look like this. The employee sends an email requesting time off to their team leader. The team leader checks the calendar, looks at their available resources and the scheduled work, and then replies to the employee approving or rejecting the request.  

Another example is the approval of a document. Maybe we have created a Sales Pitch to send out to a prospective new client. The Sales Pitch needs to be read, reviewed, and approved by two manages prior to sending it to the client. 

In both of these scenarios, our visibility of the process is limited. Once we've sent the email we don't really know what stage the approval is at. 

These challenges can be overcome by utilizing workflows in SharePoint. We can use Power Automate to create basic to complex workflows to accomplish these tasks efficiently. We might want to add additional steps to the workflow so we receive an email when someone approves the document. Or maybe we want the workflow to create a task in the task list reminding us to follow up on the approval. 

Workflows streamline business processes leaving you free to concentrate on more important tasks. 

Hints & tips

  • Power Automate is a separate application to SharePoint. It's available as part of our Microsoft 365 subscription. 
Login to download
  • 00:04 SharePoint Online is a great tool to help us become more efficient when
  • 00:08 collaborating with others.
  • 00:10 And workflows is an amazing feature that's built into
  • 00:14 SharePoint that helps us automate common business tasks.
  • 00:18 And there are a few different types of workflows that you can create and utilize.
  • 00:24 If you're still a little bit confused as to what I mean by workflows,
  • 00:28 let me show you an example.
  • 00:30 Now, it might be that I want to automate the steps for approving a document.
  • 00:35 So there might be anything from a holiday request from one of my team members
  • 00:40 to a document that needs to be approved prior to sending out to the client.
  • 00:45 There is a whole process that surrounds this.
  • 00:48 Now, of course, we could do this manually.
  • 00:51 Now, let's take the example of a holiday request.
  • 00:53 This is a fairly straightforward business process.
  • 00:56 And it might be at your organization, you have a system for booking holidays, but
  • 01:01 let's just do it in its most basic form.
  • 01:03 I'm the team leader and I'm the person who approves all holiday requests for my team.
  • 01:08 So if a team member wants some time off, they might create an email and
  • 01:13 send me a message.
  • 01:14 I then read that email.
  • 01:16 I take a look at the holiday calendar.
  • 01:18 I check what work there is coming up.
  • 01:21 I check what tasks they have outstanding and
  • 01:24 if I have resources to cover that holiday.
  • 01:26 And then I either reply and
  • 01:28 let them know that the holiday request has been approved or rejected.
  • 01:33 Now, as I said, most companies that I've worked at
  • 01:36 have a holiday's system in place, but that's just one example.
  • 01:40 Another example and the example that we're actually going to use in this
  • 01:45 section is the approval of a document.
  • 01:47 So once again,
  • 01:48 maybe I've created a sales pitch which I'm going to be sending out to a client.
  • 01:54 Maybe that document needs to be read and
  • 01:57 approved by the two managers above me prior to me sending that out.
  • 02:02 So again, it might be that I've created the document in, let's say Word, for
  • 02:06 example.
  • 02:07 I attach it to an email, or maybe I upload it to a shared area.
  • 02:11 And then I sit back,
  • 02:13 and I wait for my two managers to let me know that that's been approved.
  • 02:17 And throughout that process, I don't really have too much visibility.
  • 02:20 I don't know what stage the approval is at.
  • 02:23 I don't know if one manager has approved it, and I'm waiting on the other one, or
  • 02:28 I don't know if I'm waiting for both of them to approve.
  • 02:31 So my visibility is not great.
  • 02:34 Now, we can overcome all of this and also streamline the approval
  • 02:38 workflow process by using SharePoint for our approvals.
  • 02:42 And workflows that you create within SharePoint can be very, very basic, or
  • 02:47 they can be quite complex.
  • 02:49 For example, if we take that approval process workflow, again, it might
  • 02:54 be that not only do I want some visibility as to how far along my approval is.
  • 03:00 Maybe I want to receive an email alert when someone approves the document,
  • 03:05 or maybe I want the workflow to create a task in my calendar.
  • 03:09 I can add things into my workflow to really streamline the entire process,
  • 03:13 give me greater visibility, and take away a lot of the hard work.
  • 03:17 So in the next lesson,
  • 03:19 I'm going to show you how to create a very simple approval workflow.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Gift this course