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Being efficient is now more important than ever.  But you can automate your processes in Zuora and save precious time.

As companies adjust to COVID-19, teams are asked to re-evaluate operations and answer the question Is this the best way to do this?.  Cutting costs and trimming the excess is something were seeing across the board.  Only the essentials applies for our personal and business lives.

A few hundred companies today leverage Workflows in Zuora to automate processes that are particular for their company:

• Some have workflows for automated fraud responses.
• Some have workflows to cancel overdue subscriptions.
• Some have workflows that send customer order notifications.
• Some have workflows for custom payment gateway reconciliation.

No matter the use case, Workflow helps automate these processes in Zuora and take the manual burden off of your team.  That can free up your team to tackle other challenges amidst COVID-19.

Over 75 customer attendees joined experts from our customer success, global implementation, and Subscribed Institute strategy teams to demo best practices, answer questions, and facilitate peer-to-peer discussions.  Attendees got the opportunity to:

• Learn how other companies are leveraging Workflow to automate processes in Zuora
• Hear from subscription experts why this helps build customer relationships in the long run
• Connect with peer subscription companies who are facing the same challenge
• Learn how to immediately take advantage of this capability in Zuora

We started with a 30-minute general session presentation on the subject, and then broke out into smaller "rooms" for further discussion and Q&A.

Here you'll find:

• The recording of the general session
• A thorough document on Workflow Best Practices
• A guide to Workflow Use Cases
• A written FAQ doc on the topic, summarizing questions that were asked and answered during and following the session and breakouts (coming soon!)
• JSON templates and instructions for the COVID-related Workflow use cases that were discussed (included as part of the FAQ coming soon!)

Thank you to those who took part, and we hope this was a useful topic and format for you.  Please let us know any feedback.

Stay safe and well!

Q: Can I get the JSON for the sample workflow discussed?

A:  Please see the following:

• Discount Workflow Specific Steps and Instructions
• JSON Recall Workflow
• JSON Rollout Workflow

Q: I have never used zuora before - where do I find out more information about Workflow?

A: Here are some great place to start:

Knowledge Center: Getting Started with Workflow https://knowledgecenter.zuora.com/Central_Platform/Workflow/C_Get_Started_with_Workflow/A_Zuora_Workflow_Overview

Q: Are the Workflow tabs that are showing tied to user permissions or will the Workflow user see everything?

A: The Workflow tabs are not tied to user permissions yet. We are working to add that level. Currently, Workflow users will see everything.

Q: Is there a way to CC additional teams at my company (like finance or sales) with notifications from Workflow?

A: Please see this Knowledge Center article about email notifications in Workflow: https://knowledgecenter.zuora.com/Central_Platform/Workflow/Workflow_tasks/IA_Email

Q: On an ME environment, is it better/more efficient to perform a product update using Workflow from the Global entity to update the products so they can be dropped down to child entities, or running Workflow from individual entities to get the updates done?

A: This will depend on your specific set up and use case. There may be cases where it is better to perform an update using Workflow from the Global entity but there are considerations such as timing of the change and when the child entities should be inheriting the changes. Please check with your team to determine the path for your use case.

Q: What happens if we use Workflow and realize we made a mistake? How do we revert the change if something goes wrong with an update job or task?

A: Workflow is a way to execute APIs, so the same principles that apply to APIs apply to workflows. There should be proper testing in your API Sandbox environment prior to ensure everything works as desired.

Q: What are the advantages of setting a global constant?

A: Global constants in Workflow are encrypted parameters that are valid for all workflows in a Workflow instance. A good scenario for using global constants is to record credentials for systems that you need to integrate Zuora with.

Q: How long are tasks stored?

A: For the Production environment, the default setting is 45 days. You can configure this time range from 1-90 days.

Q: Can I call SFDC with Workflow?

A: Yes! Please see this Knowledge Center article for more information: https://knowledgecenter.zuora.com/Central_Platform/Workflow/Using_Workflow/Make_API_Calls_to_Salesforce_from_Workflow

Q: Can I use a microservice to call into Zuora to initiate a Workflow?

A: Yes, Workflow has a set of APIs that can be used to trigger certain Workflow actions such as Run a Workflow. You will need to use the OAuth endpoints.  Please refer to this Knowledge Center article for more information: https://knowledgecenter.zuora.com/Central_Platform/Workflow/Using_Workflow/Use_Workflow_APIs

Q: Can Zuora Data Query be accessed via Workflow?

A: Yes, there is a Zuora Data Query task that can be accessed via Workflow: https://knowledgecenter.zuora.com/Central_Platform/Workflow/Workflow_tasks/AC_data_query