Pipeline Automations

Overview

Pipeline Automations allow institutions to apply automated actions to opportunities as they enter a specific pipeline stage.

• Note: Pipeline Automations are enabled via a feature flag in Institution Administration that is accessible only to Watermark users. To begin using Pipeline Automations, please reach out to your CSM to coordinate activation.

Pipeline Automations currently include:

1. 1. • Send Email
      • Send SMS
      • Send Survey*
      • Change Stage
      • Change Assigned Person
      • Enroll in Campaign 
      • Wait for Message
      • Wait for Survey*
      • Wait for Application
      • Wait for Enrollment
      • Wait for Tag

• If there are multiple automations assigned to the same pipeline stage, they are always applied to opportunities based on the order of appearance. 
• Automations displayed after a "Wait for" automation will only execute after the "Wait For" automation criteria condition is fulfilled.

*By design, Send Survey and Wait for Survey automations only work on opportunities that have a primary (edu) email address.

Pipeline Automation Attributes

• Pipeline automations enable use cases where certain actions are taken on opportunities as soon as they enter into a specific pipeline stage.
• Pipeline automations are not numbered and can be reordered within a pipeline stage at any time via Pipeline Stage Details. 
• Pipeline automations can be added, deleted, or edited on any pipeline stage at any time via Pipeline Stage Details.
  • • Automation changes will only apply to new opportunities entering the pipeline stage.
    • Automation changes will have no impact on opportunities that had already entered into the pipeline stage before automation changes were made in Pipeline Stage Details. 
      • • If an opportunity entered into a pipeline stage before any automations existed in Pipeline Stage Details, if for some reason the opportunity re-enters the stage, all automations that exist in the pipeline stage will be applied to the opportunity.
        • If an opportunity entered into a pipeline stage where at least one automation existed and was applied to the opportunity in the past, if the opportunity re-enters this stage, new automations or automation changes will have no impact and will NOT be applied to the opportunity (even if all the current automations are completely new and different then what was applied to the opportunity via pipeline stage details in the past).
          • • If the opportunity is manually dragged out and then dragged back in to the stage, any new/updated automations will be cancelled and any new/revised automations will NOT be applied.
            • To work around this problem, if pipeline stage automations are changed after opportunities were added to the stage, and at least one automation already existed, and the intention is to apply the new/revised pipeline automations to all opportunities that are already in the pipeline stage, a workaround solution is to add the "revised" automations to a new pipeline stage (or an existing stage that the opportunities have NOT visited already), and then to manually move the opportunities into the new/existing stage. This way, all automations that exist in the pipeline stage will automatically apply to the opportunities upon entry. 
• Pipeline stages can be added or re-ordered at any time, yet cannot be deleted.
  • • As a workaround solution, pipeline stages can be edited, renamed and moved to the end of the pipeline.
    • For example, pipeline stages that are not being used can be renamed to "NOT IN USE".
• "Wait For" automations accommodate different types of use cases where subsequent actions are taken on opportunities only after a certain action (message, survey, application, or enrollment) is completed.
  • • "Wait for" automations currently include:
      1. 1. Waiting For a Message
         2. Waiting For a Survey
         3. Waiting For an Application
         4. Waiting For an Enrollment
    • "Wait For" automations are special in that they are telling the system to wait for something to happen before applying subsequent pipeline automations to the opportunity. 
      • • For example, a pipeline stage may include "Wait For Application" and "Change Stage" automations that tell the system to wait for a completed application before applying a subsequent "Change Stage" automation that will move opportunities to an "Application Received" pipeline stage.
        • In this example, opportunities will only be moved to the "Application Received" stage (i.e. "Change Stage" automation stage) after a completed application matches the "Wait for Application" criteria. If an opportunity does not have a completed application on their person record or does not have a completed application that matches the pipeline automation criteria, then the "Change Stage" automation will never apply.
• When checked, "Consider Existing Data" will tell the system to check if "Wait For" automation criteria already exists on the opportunity person record as they enter into the pipeline stage. If yes, then subsequent automations will be applied.
• When "Consider Existing Data" is unchecked, the system will only apply subsequent pipeline automations if the "Wait For" criteria is fulfilled AFTER the opportunity entered the pipeline stage.
  • • NOTE: What matters is whether or not "Consider Existing Data" was checked or unchecked at the time the opportunity entered the pipeline stage.
    • For example, if opportunities are/were already in a pipeline stage before a "Wait For" automation is set to "Consider Existing Data" (i.e. checked to be true) via Pipeline Stage Details, this will NOT apply to existing (or past) opportunities. If the intention is to apply the revised automation to existing opportunities, the "Wait For" automation with "Consider Existing Data" checked can be added to a different pipeline stage that the opportunities can be manually moved to; or opportunities can sometimes be moved into a temporary stage and then moved back, so that all automations will apply. 
      • • This is a bit tricky to explain since it depends on which pipeline stages exist and where  the opportunities may have already visited before.
          
        • As a rule, if the opportunity detail's current stage automations icon shows "Canceled" on any current pipeline stage automations, this means that any revisions/new automations made to the current stage will not be applied. To apply new automations, the solution is to add automations to a new stage or an existing stage where the opportunities have not yet passed through; then to manually move the opportunities into that stage so that "upon entry" all pipeline stage automations will apply.

Pipeline Automations Configuration

Pipeline automations are configured in SS&E Administration -> Pipelines -> Edit Pipeline -> Stage Details -> on the Automations tab.

How to add a Pipeline Automation

To add a pipeline automation:

1. From Pipelines Administration, select the pipeline where you wish to add an automation
2. Select "Edit"
3. Select the Stage Details tab
4. Scroll to a pipeline stage 
5. Select the "Automations" tab on the pipeline stage
6. Select "Add an Automation"
7. Configure the automation

The following screenshot shows the Inquiry pipeline stage Automations tab:

Select "Add an Automation" to view the following screenshot that shows all available automations:

Pipeline Automation Options

The following pipeline automations will automatically target opportunities as they enter the pipeline stage. 

• Send an Email Message
• Send a SMS Text Message 
• Send a Survey
• Change the Pipeline Stage
• Change the Assigned (Staff) Person
• Enroll in a Campaign

The following pipeline automations are used to wait for something to happen in the pipeline stage before the rest of the pipeline stage automations are executed:

• Wait for Message
• Wait for Survey
• Wait for Application
• Wait for Enrollment
• Wait for Tag

Send Email

• When triggered, an email will be sent to the opportunity or a different recipient from the person assigned to each opportunity or from the system user.
• Only one recipient is allowed.
• If logging the message, it will be added to the opportunity’s messages and activity tabs.
• If creating a note from the message, the system will prompt for the note type.

Send SMS

• When triggered, an SMS message will be sent to the opportunity or a different recipient from the person assigned to each opportunity or from the system user.
• Only one recipient is allowed.
• If logging the message, it will display on the opportunity’s messages and activity tabs.
• If creating a note from the message, the system will be prompt for the note type.

Send Survey

In the current product design, the Send Survey automation will only send a survey to opportunities that have a primary/institutional edu email address on their SS&E person record.

• The selected survey will be sent from the selected sender.

Change Stage

• When triggered, the opportunity will move into the selected stage.
• After 'Change Stage', if there are any additional automations assigned to this same stage they would not run on the opportunity.

Change the Assigned Person

• Select the person(s) that will be assigned to an opportunity.
• Up to 20 assignees can be selected.
• If multiple assignees are selected, a random person from the selections will be assigned every time the automation occurs.

Enroll in Campaign

• When triggered, the opportunity will be enrolled in the selected campaign.

Wait for Message

Wait for the opportunity to send a message to the selected recipient. 

• Select the message recipient.
• Using the "Wait for Message" automation tells the system to wait for the opportunity (person) to send a message to the selected recipient. Subsequent automations will not execute until the opportunity sends a messge to the specified recipient.
• After a message is sent from the opportunity to the specified recipient, the opportunity will pass to the next automation in the pipeline stage.

Wait for Survey

In the current product design, surveys will only send successfully to opportunities that have a primary/institutional edu email address on their person record.

In the current design, SS&E does not send surveys to pipeline opportunities that are not enrolled at the institution and do not have a primary institutional edu email, eg. only have a secondary/personal email associated to their person record in SS&E.

• Select the survey that needs to be completed by an opportunity.
• The Wait for Survey automation checks whether the opportunity has completed a specified survey. 
• Once the opportunity person has completed the survey, then they can move along the pipeline. Until they complete the specified survey, they will stay in this pipeline stage position.

Wait for Application

Note: Only "Completed" Applications will fulfill this pipeline automation.

• The application status displays on the Application tab in the top right corner of each application.
• To find a person's application status, search for the Person Id on the Person Application Imported Data View from here.

The application status is imported from the SIS on the Person Application data feed. For more information, click here and scroll to the Person Application and Person Application Status data feeds to see how, where and what the valid application statuses are.

• Select the (completed) application program/term that the automation is waiting for.
• When applicable, choose to "Consider Existing Data". Leaving this box unchecked will only consider applications that have been submitted after this automation was created.
• Select "Consider Existing Data" if you also want the system to look at applications that have already been submitted before the automation was added.

Wait for Enrollment

• Select the term/course/course section/department enrollment data the automation is waiting on.
• When applicable, choose to "Consider Existing Data".
  • • Leaving this box unchecked will only consider enrollment data that imported from the SIS system on the Transcript Course data feed after this automation was created.
    • Select "Consider Existing Data" if you also want the system to check for past enrollment data that imported from the SIS system before the automation was created.

Wait for Tag

• Select the tag that the automation is waiting on.
• Only one tag can be selected per automation.
• When applicable, choose to "Consider Existing Data". Leaving this box unchecked will only consider tags that have been applied to opportunities after this automation was created.

The Order of Pipeline Automations

• Pipeline stage automations execute in order and therefore the assigned order is very important. 
• When reordering pipeline stages, you must be very careful not to reorder pipeline stage automations accidently!
• There can be an unlimited number of the same/different automation types in each pipeline stage. The automation that is listed at the top will run first and so on. 
• Pipeline stage automations can be reordered at any time by drag and drop.

To Reorder Pipeline Stages via Drag and Drop:

1. In Pipeline Edit mode, click on the Stage Details tab.
2. Select "Reorder Stages".
   
3. Hover over the top right corner of the pipeline stage you wish to move until you see a hand icon appear. Use the "hand" icon to drag and drop the stage to another spot.
   
4. Select "Save Order" when you're done reordering the pipeline stages.
   

• •  
• If an automation fails, any subsequent automations assigned to the same stage would have to wait for the prior automation to be fixed. Automations will only run if the prior automation ran successfully.
• Automations are executed in order when an opportunity enters a pipeline stage. However, if the same opportunity enters the same pipeline stage multiple times, the pipeline stage automation will NOT run again on the same opportunity, as automations will only run once per opportunity.
• If the first automation listed on a specific pipeline stage is set to "Change Stage", any subsequent automations assigned to this same stage would not apply and will be cancelled. If automations need to run on the opportunity they should be moved to a separate/different stage. Subsequent automations will not run on an opportunity that has been "moved off" the current stage.

Pipeline Automation History 

Pipeline automation history can be viewed on the individual Opportunity Details page.

To view an opportunity's pipeline automation history:

1. Select an individual opportunity to open their Opportunity Details page.
2. On the Opportunity Details screen, select the icon next to the stage name that the opportunity is currently assigned to. 
3. A screen will open up displaying all the automations that ran on the opportunity in the current stage. 
   • In the current product design, users can only view the automation history for the current stage on each individual opportunity.
   • This is mainly used to check if/why an automation failed on a specific opportunity, and users can retry the failed automation once the underlying issue is resolved.

For example, in the following screenshot, selecting the icon displayed on the opportunity's Outreach stage will display all pipeline automations that ran on this opportunity in this outreach stage. This can be viewed on the "Outreach Automations" screenshot displayed below.

• If the same opportunity exits and reenters the same outreach stage, any automations associated with the Outreach stage will only run/appear once.

Pipeline Automation Statuses

When viewing the pipeline automations assigned to an opportunity in a specific pipeline stage, each automation will be associated with a status label that displays in the top right corner.

Pipeline Automation Statuses may include:

• Pending - the automation is waiting to run
• Failed - the automation is waiting to be fixed
  • • Any subsequent automations will not run until the prior automation is fixed.
• Cancelled - the automation will not run
  • • For example, when an opportunity moves out of a stage, pending automations will change to cancelled.
• Completed - the automation has run successfully

Pipeline Automation Errors

If a pipeline automation generates an error, the opportunity's current stage name displayed on the opportunity details page will display in a red font.

In the current Spring 2023 early release product design:

• Automation errors can only be viewed on one opportunity/one stage at a time. 
• Automation errors can only be found by clicking into each individual opportunity from a pipeline stage.

To view failed automations for an opportunity/stage, click on the stage icon from the Opportunity Details page.

1. Clicking on the stage icon will display the error message details that should explain why an automation error occurred on the opportunity.
2. The opportunity will need to be updated in order to fix the underlying issue before retrying the automation again. Updating the automation itself will not fix the error.

Pipeline Automation Error Example

In the following example, the "Send Email" automation failed on the opportunity in the Outreach stage because the "Message does not have a sender".

1. The error message implies that on the pipeline's Outreach stage, the "Send Email" pipeline automation 'message sender' configuration is set to "the person assigned to each opportunity" (vs. the system user), and the opportunity is not assigned to anyone.
   • This can be seen in the above Opportunity Details screenshot where Assignee is "Unassigned".
2. To fix this automation error, we must assign someone to the opportunity.
3. Once this opportunity has an assignee, click on "Retry Automation" to rerun the Send Email pipeline automation on the specific opportunity.