How to Create/Edit a Pipeline

Overview

The following article explains how to setup and manage pipelines within SS&E.

• To view pipeline definitions and planning considerations, click here.
• To view pipeline UI changes and security setup, click here. 

Prerequisites

• Only users with "Can Manage Pipelines" enabled in Role Administration will have access to create and manage/edit pipelines in Pipelines administration.
• After a pipeline has been activated, the following items CANNOT be changed:
  1. The Virtualized (Departmental) App
  2. The Entry Person Type
  3. Pipeline Stages cannot be deleted

Pipelines Overview

Steps to edit/create a new Pipeline

1. To create a new pipeline, click the “+New” action on the Pipeline Administration Page.
   • • • When a new pipeline is created, the pipeline status is "Inactive".
2. To edit an existing Pipeline, select the pipeline from Pipeline Administration.
3. When creating a new pipeline, from the Pipeline Details Tab, for each individual pipeline, enter and then save the following information: the Pipeline Name, the associated (virtualized) Departmental App, the associated (entry) Person Type, which roles can view information about the pipeline, and which roles can manage opportunities within the pipeline.
   1. 1. Each pipeline must be associated with a (Virtualized) Departmental App. By design, each pipeline will only appear in the associated app and this setting cannot be changed once the pipeline is activated.
         • For more information about Departmental Apps, click here.
      2. Each pipeline must be associated with a specific person type set via the “Entry Person Type” setting and this setting cannot be changed once the pipeline is activated. The Person Type setting controls which tabs and actions appear on the Opportunity Detail Page and which person type records can be added as opportunities in a specific pipeline. For additional information about the Entry Person Type setting, click here. 
         • For more information about Person Types, click here.
         • For more information about Person Types Administration, click here.
      3. When adding pipeline roles, all roles that are included in the “Roles that can manage opportunities” setting must also be included in the “Roles that can view” setting.
      4. The Pipeline Name and Roles that can View the Pipeline/Manage Opportunties can be changed after the pipeline is activated.
      5. For additional information about pipeline and opportunity role permission settings, click here.
4. Define and create the Pipeline Stages.
   1. 1. To add a new pipeline stage, click the "+" icon and enter the new stage details.
      2. To edit an existing stage, click on the pencil icon on the far right to edit the stage. 
      3. Pipeline Stages can be reordered, added or reclassified at any time from the Stage Details tab in Pipelines Administration.
         • When creating a new pipeline, the Stage Details tab will only appear after the pipeline is initially saved.
         • Each pipeline stage must be assigned a stage type. The available stage types are None, End in failure, End in success. Stage Types can be reclassified as long as one pipeline stage is an end stage.
         • To change the order of the pipeline stages, click on "Edit Stage Order" to enable drag and drop reordering. Once the order is set in place, click on "Save Stage Order" to save the changes.
         • For additional information about Pipeline Stages, click here.

5. Optionally automate loading opportunities into the pipeline from a filter.

   • • • Pipelines can be configured to automatically load opportunities from an existing filter by associating a specific person type filter within a pipeline.
       • To automatically create opportunities from a filter within a specific pipeline, from Pipeline Administration, on the Opportunity Details tab:
         1. Select a Filter
         2. Select an Opportunity Source
         3. Add a Manual or Automated Schedule - This determines the frequency of when opportunities are created and automatically added to the pipeline from the specified filter.
       • By design, automatically added opportunities will be associated with the opportunity source selected in Pipelines Administration and created in the "first" stage of the pipeline as defined in the Stage Details tab.
       • A Manual schedule will automatically create opportunities only once when the pipeline is first activated. If an Automated schedule is selected, then opportunities will be periodically added to the pipeline based on the specified schedule.
       • For additional information about loading opportunties from a pipeline filter, click here.
       • For additional information about Opportunity Sources, click here.

6. Optionally manually load opportunities into the pipeline.

   • • • In addition to adding automated opportunities from filters into pipelines, users can also manually create opportunities in a specific pipeline using any of the following three ways:
         1. By selecting "Pipeline" from the bulk action menu on an existing Person Type filter. This will create new opportunities for all people that are included in the filter results and are not already associated with an opportunity in the specfic pipeline.
         2. By copying opportunities from one pipeline to another from the Pipeline Details Page List View via Pipeline Actions. Selecting "Copy Opportunity" will create a new opportunity in the target pipeline associated with the same opportunity source as the source pipeline opportunity record.
         3. By selecting "Add to Pipeline" from an individual person record action menu.
       • After selecting any of the above manual options, the system will prompt for the required pipeline name where the system will create the new opportunity(s).
       • If a stage is selected while creating new manual opportunities then the opportunity will be created directly in the specified pipeline stage. If a stage is not selected, then the opportunity will be created in the very first stage of the pipeline as defined in the pipeline's Stage Details Administration.
       • If the Opportunity Source and the Assigned To values are left blank in methods 1 & 3, then nothing will be assigned to the new opportunity.
7. Activate the pipeline.
   1. 1. Before activating, eg. starting a pipeline, all of the Pipeline Details tab information and at least one Pipeline Stage is required.
      2. To activate a new pipeline, select "Activate" either from Pipeline Administration or the Pipeline Details page.
         • To access the Pipeline Details page from Pipeline Administration, select "Open Pipeline" from the menu bar.
         • To access Pipeline Administration from the Pipeline Details Page, select "Edit Pipeline" from the menu bar.
         • Once activated, the pipeline will display an "Active" status.   
      3. Upon pipeline activation:
         1. Opportunities will be automatically loaded from a specified filter with a Manual Schedule.
         2. Users allowed access will be able to add additional opportunities into the pipeline.
         3. Users allowed access will be able to start taking action on opportunities and move opportunities through the pipeline stages either by drag and drop from the Pipeline Details Page Card View or by applying the "Change Stage" pipeline action to the schedule. For more information about using an active pipeline, click here.
         4. Pipelines with an Automated Schedule will not load opportunities upon creation, and will only load opportunities according to the configured schedule. Depending on the pipeline's automated schedule, pipeline opportunities will be initially loaded when the filter runs for the first time.

Additional Information

Permission for viewing the pipeline and managing opportunities

From Pipelines Administration, pipeline permissions are granted by adding user roles to the following two settings on the Pipeline Details tab:

1. "Roles that can view" determines which user roles are allowed to view information about the specific pipeline.
2. "Roles that can manage opportunities" determines which user roles are allowed to add opportunities, move opportunities to a different stage, and edit other opportunity-pipeline specific information within the pipeline.

Entry Person Type

• When adding a person record to a pipeline either manually from the UI or through an automated/manual pipeline filter, the person record must be associated with a person type that matches the pipeline's "Entry Person Type".
• Note: If the person type changes after a person record was added to a pipeline, their opportunity will remain in the pipeline, eg. the person record opportunity will not be removed from the pipeline.

Pipeline Stages

• Pipeline stages represent milestones or significant activities that occur within a pipeline.
• On the Pipelines Details Page, a stage set to stage type "End in success" will be marked in green and a stage set to stage type "End in failure" will be marked in red.
  • • An “End in success” stage(s) is meant to represent a final pipeline stage where the opportunity has successfully achieved the pipeline objective and reached the pipeline goal.
    • An “End in failure” stage(s) is meant to represent a final pipeline stage where the opportunity failed to achieve the pipeline goal.
• Within each pipeline, there must be at least one end stage. This can be either an "End in success" stage type or an "End in failure" stage type. There can also be multiple end stages of all types if that makes sense. Depending on the pipeline objective, pipelines will usually include one end in success stage and one end in failure stage.
• The order of the pipeline stages has no meaning other than how the pipeline stages display on the UI and where opportunities are placed when loaded into the first stage of a pipeline. Opportunities do NOT have to move between all pipeline stages or move between pipeline stages in a certain order.
• Pipeline stages cannot be deleted after a pipeline has been activated, however all stage details can be edited at any time.

Loading Opportunties from a Pipeline Filter

After selecting a filter and optionally adding a schedule on the Opportunity Details Page, there are three ways to "load" opportunities from a pipeline filter:

1. Via a Manual Schedule
   • Use this option to automatically create opportunities once from the specified filter.
   • This option does not require a schedule.
   • With a manual schedule, when the pipeline is first activated, all people in the filter results will have opportunities created for them in the pipeline. Yet afterwards, no additional opportunities will be added automatically into the pipeline.
2. Via an Automated Schedule
   • Use this option to periodically auto-create opportunities from a filter.
   • To set the automated schedule frequency, set a schedule that defines when the filter will run and when new opportunties will be automatically added for all people included in the filter results that do not yet have opportunities in the pipeline.
3. Via a one time manual upload by clicking on the "Refresh" icon
   • Pipelines that are associated with a filter can also add opportunities by a manual one-time refresh, regardless of the filter's automated schedule.
   • To manually add pipeline opportunties from an assigned filter after the pipeline is activated, select a filter on the Opportunity Details tab in Pipeline Administration, and then click the “Refresh” icon located on the Pipeline Details Info Tab under the Opportunity Entry section, next to the Last Refresh Datetime.
   • After clicking on Refresh, the filter will run immediately and the system will create opportunities for all new people that are included in the filter results and are not yet included in the pipeline.

Opportunity Sources

Opportunity sources associate opportunities with where/how they originated and were sourced from.

A few examples of Opportunity Sources may include:

1. A local high school recruiting event "PCHS 11/30 Event"
2. A specific marketing campaign "10/21/22 Marketing Campaign"
3. A math department college fair booth "CCCC FA22 Math Booth"
4. A list from subcontractor ABC "ABC FA23 Leads"

• Opportunity sources are defined in Opportunity Sources Administration.
  • • Opportunity source categories are user-defined and should be added for reporting purposes.
• The opportunity source selected in Pipelines Administration on the individual pipeline Opportunity Details Page will be assigned to all opportunities that are automatically created by the pipeline filter.
  • • If the Opportunity Source selected on the Opportunity Details Admin page changes while the pipeline is active, this will only apply to new opportunities automatically created from the pipeline filter. This will not change the opportunity source associated with opportunities created in the past.
• The Opportunity Source can always be manually changed on any individual opportunity from the Opportunity Details page.
• By design, manually loaded opportunities may not always be associated with an opportunity source, since Opportunity Source is not a required field when loading opportunities from a person type bulk action filter or an individual person record. If an opportunity source was not added at the time of the opportunity creation, it can always be added later on.
• From the Pipeline Details Page in the UI, the Analytics widgets conversion rates can be viewed by an individual opportunity source to help understand and compare the quality of each source type.

Archiving a Pipeline

When a pipeline is no longer used, it should be set to an “Archived” status.

• To archive a pipeline, select the pipeline from Pipelines Administration and then select the "Archive" action from the top menu bar. This will move the pipeline into an “Archived” status.
• Archived pipelines will be frozen so that new opportunities cannot be added, and existing opportunities cannot be moved or updated.
• Pipelines cannot be un-archived. Therefore if needed again, they would have to be recreated.