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Overview of Business Process Flows

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And now for our introduction to business process flows. What is a business process flow? Well, a business process flow is obviously a process that such as qualify, develop, postpone, or close, that users can follow to ensure that data is entered consistently and that users follow the same steps every time. It is the way to ensure that your entire team is following the same process. It’s important to remember that business process flows are not automated processes like a flow or a workflow, but instead a highly configurable user guide. With business process flows, you define a set of stages and steps that are then displayed in the control at the top of the form.
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As steps are completed, users move along to the next stage. Steps can be made required so that the next stage may not be started until one or all of the prior steps are completed. The apps built on the platform, such as sales, customer service, marketing, all include a number of system built business process flows out of the box. This includes a lead to opportunity sales process, phone to case process. You can configure any of these business process flows to better meet your needs, but you also create your own custom business process flows. You can do this for both system and custom entities.
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Reviewing some of these out of the box options might help you organise your thoughts on what processes you can build for your own organisation. Custom business process flows, as well as the configuration of any of the automation that comes with the system, is done with a drag and drop menu. You will decide which fields make up the steps, which steps are required, and which steps make up a stage. You will also be making decisions about conditional branching and whether or not to associate multiple entities with your business process flow. You will need to keep security roles in mind when configuring your business process, although the business process for controlling the form does not provide any direct client side programmability.
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Changes applied by business rules or form scripts are automatically applied to business process flow controls. If you hide a field in a form, that field will also be hidden in the business process flow control. If you set a value by using business rules or form scripts, that value will be set within the business process flow. The true power of the Dynamics 365 platform comes into play when the user’s guided process experience business process flow is partnered with the powerful automation that runs behind the scenes. With a business process flow, users may trigger workflows by, for example, entering or exiting the stage.
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When you or your user enters data using business process flows, the data changes are also applied to form fields, so that any automation provided by business rules or form scripts can be applied immediately. Remember, your business process flows do not run in the silo. They are connected to the rest of your platform and can interact with automation in truly powerful ways.

A business process flow is a process, such as to qualify, develop, postpone or close that users can follow to ensure that data is entered consistently and that users follow the same steps every time.

It is a way to ensure that your entire team is following the same process. It’s important to remember that business process flows are not automated processes like a flow or a workflow, but instead a highly configurable user guide.

As steps are completed, users move along to the next stage. Steps can be made required so that the next stage may not be started until one or all of the prior steps are completed.

The true power of the Dynamics 365 platform comes into play when the user’s guided process experience of business process flow is partnered with the powerful automation that runs behind the scenes.

With the business process flow, users may trigger workflows by, for example, entering or exiting a stage. When you or your user enters data using business process flows, the data changes are also applied to form fields, so that any automation provided by business rules or form scripts can be applied immediately.

Remember, your business process flows do not run in a silo, they are connected to the rest of your platform and can interact with automation in truly powerful ways.

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