A case is a request raised by a user. It might be a complaint, an FOI request, a fly-tipping report, a licence application, or anything else you need to track and process.
Cases are generally assigned to and reviewed by a case manager, who may carry out tasks, create tasks for other users, book appointments, escalate and assign the case to other teams, request further information, and respond to the user before finally closing the case.
A Case Type
When a case is raised, it is created as a particular case type. A case type is a convenient way to bundle together all of the configuration (rules) that govern what needs to happen to resolve the case. That includes:
- Who needs to work on it
- Any tasks that need to be carried out
- The SLAs
- The statuses and stages used to categorise it
- The emails and notifications sent out
- Any automated routines that are triggered during the case
You can also report on cases by their type to monitor how many are raised, and performance against your SLAs.
A Container for Work
While a case may be assigned to a particular team and case manager, the case itself isn't really where the work happens.
Yes, Case History Notes can be written by case managers, and added to by the person who raised the case, but the real units of work take place in the tasks, contacts and integrations that the case orchestrates. Think of a case as a container that provides context for the work that needs to be done.
Why is that important? Because it allows work to be done in parallel, which means cases can be solved more quickly.
Tasks
Tasks are the jobs that need to be done to resolve a case. They might be generated automatically when a case is raised, or created by the case manager once the case has been assessed. They can be carried out by the current case manager, or assigned to other users.
What makes tasks so powerful is the way they orchestrate the work that needs to be done.
Rather than a case being triaged by one team, then assigned to another team to investigate, then escalated to another team to resolve, then finally assigned back to the case manager to process, tasks let you carry out work in parallel. Imagine a case that needs input from three or four different teams. Rather than waiting for each team in turn, the case manager can raise separate tasks and assign them to the relevant teams. Information can be passed from the case to the task, so there's no need for the case to leave the case manager who is ultimately responsible for it.
Tasks can have their own SLAs attached to them. That means that even though the case itself might have a one week SLA, the case manager is able to set a one day SLA for an urgent task that needs to be completed.
Tasks can also have pre-requisites. There may be no point in assigning a task to one team until an initial task has been completed. Well, your case configuration lets you design exactly that scenario - you can even set up automated routines that will be triggered when a task is completed.
All of the Actions, Consolidated
It's important to have an overview of everything that's happened during the lifetime of a case. Whether that's the outcome of tasks, all of the emails sent out, or a record of who the case was assigned to and when.
You'll find all of that information recorded in the Case History Notes, the Attachments tab and the Emails tab. Users with the correct permissions can even export the case data.
The Technical Bits
Case Management leverages almost every aspect of the platform. Here's an overview of the key elements.
Forms
Cases are raised when a user submits a form that starts the Case Management process. You can use the platform's forms designer to create your own forms for raising cases, asking questions and collecting whatever information you need from the user.
You can create custom forms for each type of case you need. There's a form snippet that should be placed on the final page which hooks up your form to the Case Management workflow process. See Creating New Case Types for more information.
You can also plug in your own form to the Case Management interface. The Additional Details tab lets you add your own form to a case. It can be used to store and display additional information, and has access to all of the data that accompanies the case.
Workflow Processes
An active case is a process in the platform's workflow engine. It will have a range of tasks that can be claimed by case managers to work on, or assigned to other users to complete. The workflow process does the job of tying together all of the actions that can be performed on a case. Each task you raise during a case is also a workflow process.
Templates like Self Service and User Requests and Task Management are used to interact with cases and tasks.
History Records
A case saves data to the platform's history service. The history of a case includes all of the actions performed on it, notes, attachments, details about SLAs and escalations, and a record of who did what when. Each case writes several records, some containing personal data, others purely for reporting. You can see more detail in the Case Management History Records section.
End Points
The Case Management API provides a set of end points you can use to create, update, close and reassign cases, as well as creating tasks and working with SLAs.
