Customer Segment: Federal Government Agency
The Challenge
Our client receives enquiries and correspondences both external and internal. Enquiries and correspondences can be logged via phone, email, or through a web form on the website. The requirement is to automate the capture of all searches and to store them in one platform, then assign them to the relevant team based on the correspondence type.
The following are the fundamental objects of this project:
- All enquiries (including external general enquiries received via email, phone, website, hardcopy from any sector or industry and internal requests for briefs or papers) are centrally and digitally managed
- Responses are aligned, consistent, and provided in a timely manner, focusing on quality and customer service
- Enquiries monitored against key performance indicators.
Prometix proposed using Office 365 as a platform which includes SharePoint & Power Platform to meet the PBO requirements.
The objective of the application:
- Accuracy: The information entered in the register should be accurate and free from errors.
- Completeness: The register should contain all relevant information related to the correspondence, including the date, reference number, sender/recipient, subject, mode of communication, status, action taken, deadline, priority, and any remarks.
- Consistency: The register should be consistent in terms of the format and structure used for recording correspondence.
- Timeliness: Correspondence should be recorded in the register in a timely manner, ideally on the same day it is received or dispatched.
- Accessibility: The register should be easily accessible to authorized personnel for reference, tracking, and follow-up purposes.
- Security: The register should be kept secure and protected from unauthorized access or tampering.
- Retention: The register should be retained for a specified period of time in accordance with organizational policies and legal requirements.
- Backups: Regular backups of the register should be made to prevent data loss in case of hardware failure or other unforeseen events.
- Training: Personnel responsible for maintaining the correspondence register should be adequately trained in the proper procedures for recording, tracking, and managing correspondence.
Our Development Approach:
The proposed solution was developed in Microsoft Power Platform. The solution has a few components –
- Data Sources: For this Correspondence Register, SharePoint was used as the data source to store the correspondence data.
- Power Apps: Canvas app was created in Power Apps to allow users to interact with the corresponding data stored in the data source.
- Power Automate: Power Automate was used to automate tasks such as sending notifications when new correspondence is added, setting reminders for follow-up actions, or archiving old correspondence.
- Power BI: Power BI was used to create dashboards and reports to provide insights into the correspondence data, such as the number of incoming and outgoing correspondence, the distribution of correspondence by sender or status, or the average response time.
- Azure: For this Correspondence Register, Azure was used to host the data source and provide scalability, reliability, and security for the app.
- Integrations: The solution was integrated with their existing Dynamics 365 to access customer and communication data.
Key Features of the Application
- Date: The date of receipt or dispatch of the correspondence.
- Reference Number: A unique number or identifier assigned to the correspondence for easy tracking and referencing.
- Sender/Recipient: The name and address of the sender or recipient of the correspondence.
- Subject: A brief summary or description of the subject matter of the correspondence.
- Mode of Communication: The method used to send or receive correspondence, such as email, fax, letter, or phone.
- Status: The current status of the correspondence, such as “pending,” “completed,” “follow-up required,” or “closed.”
- Action Taken: A summary of the action taken in response to the correspondence, such as “forwarded to the relevant department,” “replied with the requested information,” or “archived for future reference.”
- Deadline: The deadline for responding to the correspondence, if applicable.
- Priority: The level of priority assigned to the correspondence, such as “urgent,” “high,” “medium,” or “low.”
- Remarks: Any additional comments or notes related to the correspondence, such as special instructions, follow-up required, or any other relevant information.
The Solution
- Developed high-level requirements
- Converted these requirements into detailed use cases and personas
- Developed detailed technical architecture
- Developed solutions in pre-defined iterations and regular demos were organised to get feedback from business stakeholders
- Developed a detailed training guide and conducted sessions
- Established CoE (center of excellence) and trained citizen developers
- Created various environments (Dev, Test & Production)
- Various Office 365 groups as part of the various roles in the workflow. In the context of the workflow, only specific users that fall under a certain Office 365 group can access different areas of the application and utilise specific functionality of the app. The connector is used to fetch & query these specific users falling under the respective Office 365 group.
- SharePoint was used to store any attachments. Each workflow activity generates a folder in SharePoint to store relevant documents.
- Microsoft Teams connector was used for any internal approvals. In the context of the workflow, the Teams connector is used to post specific notifications to the user & respective groups to alert them regarding critical information like “When a new Request is made” or a decision is taken by an actor for e.g., Approval at a particular stage.
To achieve this, the following two Teams connectors are used:
- Post a message as the Flow bot to a channel
- Post a message as the Flow bot to a user
