Templates and Cases are used within Case Management to carry out processes, but what actually happens to them?

In the world of Case Management there are two key components: the Template and the Case. They both work together to make sure that your system works as smoothly and efficiently as possible. To you, you just click a few buttons and type in a couple of words and that’s it, but what happens inside these Templates and Cases that keeps your system under control?

THE TEMPLATE

The Template leads a simple life, its only job is to create Cases and send them on their way. You might have a few Templates or a vast library but either way, they are all ready to get to work – waiting for their name to be chosen.

Imagine this, You sit down at your desk and start to create a Purchase Order, you select the Purchase Order Template and begin entering the information, all of this only takes a few clicks of your mouse. However, for the Purchase Order Template this is its moment to shine, the moment it exists for and so it prepares itself to create the best Purchase Order that it can.

The Template gathers all of the fields and text boxes you will need and organises them into nice, neat rows. It creates the task list of everything that you need to do to your Case like email invoice to customer and pass invoice to accounts just to make sure that you don’t miss anything out. It then decides which traffic light system is best to show its status to the outside world. It’s determined to create the perfect Case!

The Template patiently waits for you to fill in all of the details and even reminds you if you forget to enter something before it creates the completed Case to be Processed. The Template does all of this for you in just a few clicks. Once everything is complete, the Template sends the Case out and patiently waits until you need to make another Purchase Order or another case from your library.

THE CASE

The new Purchase Order Case has been created and has embarked on its journey to the Processed state. Before it can reach there though it must go through all of the tasks supplied by the Template.

The Purchase Order Case continues on with its journey as it completes tasks such as Finding a New Supplier, Sourcing Stock and Prepare for Delivery, all the way until it reaches its final destination, the Processed state. Some of these tasks the Case can do by itself and others it may need some help with to make sure they are done properly and marked on the list as complete, just a click of your mouse should do the trick! Along the way, new conversations or tasks might be attached to the Case to help you remember the detail of what goes on inside each Purchase Order.

The Case tries to move through its task list as quick as it can so that it can get to the Processed state in time or else it will get flagged for inspection by the Chief Template. If it takes too long to reach the Processed state then it could mean that something is wrong and will need to be checked and fixed.

Once the Case has reached the Processed state its journey is complete and it’s stored away with the other Cases waiting for the day when someone will need to access its information.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The tale of the Template and the Case is not over yet as the Chief Template still has a job to do. Its job is to check where all of the Cases have been and what they did. The Chief Template uses the information it gets from the Cases to identify new tasks that were carried out on them and uses this to update the Templates. The Templates then add the new tasks to their lists and use them to create even better Cases the next time they are chosen.

All of this was done to help you create your Purchase Order and now the Template and the Case are waiting to see what job you have for them next.