What are Collaboration Workflows, and why adopt them?

Collaboration workflows provide a structured process to guide business users through content editing and review before it is activated on any channel. They ensure the consistency and quality of your product data, increase collaboration, and boost productivity. Every workflow can be tailored to meet your internal organization's specific requirements.

While workflows are a powerful tool for product data enrichment, they are not a one-size-fits-all solution for your entire catalog. Instead, workflows are most effective when applied strategically to address particular needs or empower specific teams. For instance, use workflows to:

• Support a subsidiary, legal department, or onboarding of new team members,
• Organize the launch of a new product range or market-specific campaign,
• Manage specific tasks like reviewing AI-generated content or focusing on products with the lowest consumer ratings.

Collaboration workflows are the required steps for your product data enrichment and/or review. Products move through each workflow step and are assigned to users to complete specific tasks.

How to set up Collaboration Workflows?

1. Go to Workflows, then Settings.
2. Click on Create workflow, then give a descriptive label and a code to your workflow.

Define the subset of products to include in the workflow

From the Product Selection tab, select the attributes and system fields to filter products to include in your workflow. Keep in mind it’s a ‘and’ condition.

Products move through each workflow step and are assigned to users to complete specific tasks.

Use the “Update” criteria to select products created or updated within a specific time frame. This helps streamline enrichment for new product portfolios, collections, or campaigns. 
    
As you add new filters, a counter shows how many products (Simple products and Variants) meet your criteria. Once you enable it, it will automatically add the corresponding pending product tasks to your workflow. 

If you don't define any criteria, your entire PIM catalog is included in the workflow.

Include Product Models' tasks in the Workflows

From the Product Model tab, specify whether Product Models are included in the workflow. This determines how the assigned user's Task List is displayed by product type—one list for tasks at the Common level (Product Models and Sub-Models) and another for tasks at the Variant level together with Simple Products. 

Set-up workflows steps 

It is important to outline your data enrichment process steps before you set it in Akeneo PIM. Steps can be based on user expertise, department, specific areas of responsibility, or localization.

From the Step settings tab, you can create your workflow steps.

1. Click on Create step.
2. Add a descriptive label and a code.
3. Chose the step Type: Enrichment or Review

• Enrichment Step: Allow assigned users to process product tasks by adding or editing data sequentially. Once the tasks are complete, users can mark them as done and advance them to the next step in the workflow.
• Review Step: Integrate feedback loops into workflows to ensure data accuracy and consistency. Assigned reviewers can sequentially approve or reject product tasks with comments if needed, or fix minor corrections to the product data. After the review is complete, tasks can be forwarded to the next step in the workflow. 

To define the step's details:

1. Add a short description to share instructions with the assignee,
2. Add an allotted time in days for the assignee to complete this step for each product task.

To define the assignees:

1. Choose the User group,
2. Select one or more assigned Users from the User group.

To define a scope:

1. Choose at least one Channel,
2. Choose at least one enabled Locale.

To define attributes to enrich:

1. Choose an Attribute Group.
2. Select one or more Attributes from the Attribute group.
3. If you want to assign required attributes, select All required attributes option (you can of course also assign optional attributes, selecting them in the Attributes selector)

Once you set up your first step, you can continue creating the next ones by clicking the Back to step settings button. Each new step is added automatically following the previous step, and each step depends on the completion of the previous one. 

Here is an example of a new product workflow:

To reorder the steps in your workflow, drag and drop any step to its new position. This will not affect any of the step settings, criteria or assignments. However, please note that you can only reorder steps when the workflow is disabled.

To delete a step, hover over it and click on the Delete step icon, only possible while the workflow is disabled.

To delete a workflow, either hover over and click on the Delete workflow icon or edit the workflow and click on the three dots, then select Delete workflow. Deleting a workflow will remove all steps and tasks from the assignees' dashboards.

Enable a workflow

Once you configured all necessary steps, you are ready to activate your workflow. To do so, click on the Enable Workflow button.

Once the workflow is enabled, any product that meets the selection criteria will automatically begin at the first step and assigned to the relevant assignee, visible in the user's My Workflows dashboard. Displaying the product information to the assignees may require a brief moment, especially when it comes to product variants.

Duplicate a workflow

To duplicate a workflow, hover over its name and click on the Duplicate workflow icon or click on the three dots, then select Duplicate workflow.

When you duplicate a workflow, it will replicate all settings criteria from the original workflow. To differentiate it from the original workflow, you can add a new label and unique code. The duplicated workflow will be disabled by default so that you can make changes to the product selection, step settings, or labels' translations to make it more specific. 
 

Update an enabled workflow

Once the workflow is enabled, you can modify the product selection criteria. However, the updated filters will only apply to newly created or updated products. Existing products in your catalog that meet the new criteria will not automatically enter the workflow unless they are updated or newly created. Also, the original products already included in the workflow will remain unaffected by these changes.

After enabling the workflow, you can modify the details of existing steps but cannot add, delete, or reorder them. Updates to step settings—such as labels, descriptions, allotted time, assigned channels, locales, or attribute groups—will take effect immediately for assigned users. Any newly assigned users will also see these changes right away.

How to Manage My Workflows

Keep track of my pending tasks

My Workflows board enables business users to keep track of their assigned workflow steps and pending tasks from one place, including editing, reviewing, or validating product data.

Go to the Workflows menu entry, then My Workflows.

The board provides real-time activity indicators to organize your daily PIM enrichment workload and prioritize the items to enrich or review. It includes the number of products' tasks to be completed, their level of priority, and assignment.

If the workflow includes enrichment steps and at least one review step, the assignees can view the number of tasks rejected by the reviewer. These tasks will require refinement or correction, as the Action required tag suggests.

Manage my Task list

When you click on a workflow step in the board, you will be taken to your Task List.

The available Task List display options depend on the settings configured by your PIM Owner:

• When the Product Selection includes Product Models, and the Product Model Task List display option is activated, your Task List will have two tabs: one for tasks at the Common level (meaning Product Models and Sub-Models), one for tasks at the Variant level and Simple Products.
• When the Product Selection includes Product Models, but the Product Model option is deactivated, you will have a single Task List containing Simple Products and Variants.
• When the Product Selection includes only Simple Products and the Product Model option is deactivated, you will have a single Task List containing Simple Products only.

The oldest or most urgent tasks will appear at the top of the list. The attributes filled progress bar shows how many attributes are assigned to you and if they already have data. If your administrator has set up an allotted time for the step, the due date shows the task's indicative deadline. An urgent tag appears if the task is due in 3 days or less, and a late tag will appear if it is past due.

If the workflow includes at least one review step, the Action Required tag at the top of the task list helps you identify the rejected product tasks.

You can bulk Send done tasks to the next step if they have already been completed. 

If you are assigned to a review step and have full confidence in the quality and accuracy of the previously edited contents, you can perform a bulk action to Send approved tasks at once. This option can be useful for Gen-AI content or translation: you can review a sample of the products, and then approve them in bulk once you're sure of the quality of the generated content. 

Bulk actions remove the tasks from the list, and send them to the next step or complete the workflow if they are part of the final step.

If you want to export tasks to review or complete the assigned attributes externally, you can select them and use the Quick export button (XLXS only). You will get one XLXS spreadsheet per assigned channel from the process tracker. 

Contributor: Perform a task on the product page

When you click on a task in the Task List, you access the product page through sequential editing, automatically focusing on the attributes assigned to you. You can change the filter from Display all my assigned attributes to any other filter if needed. The task details panel offers more context with the step description and attributes filled for each channel/locale pair. Once satisfied with your copy, Save the product record and view the attribute count and progress bar evolve. 

Marking the task as Done and next immediately saves it, pushes it to the next step, and moves you to the next task on your list sequentially. This process will continue until the product has gone through every step in the workflow. 

If you need to come back to your Task list, click on the Return to task list button.

Tasks can be approved or rejected if the workflow includes review steps. Rejected tasks are sent back to a previous step and marked with an Action Required tag. The attributes that need revision will be flagged with an alert icon with comments explaining the reason for rejection. This helps the contributor acknowledge the requested change and revise the edit before resubmitting it for review with the Done & Next button.

Reviewer: Approve or Reject a task on the product page

When you click on a task in the list, you access the product page through sequential editing with an automatic focus on the attributes assigned to you that require your review, correction, or validation. You can rely on the Task details panel on the left for additional guidance. This is particularly useful for reminding you of a workflow step description or instruction and checking the attributes to be verified for each Channel/Locale pair.

If you are happy with the copy, you can simply Approve it, and move to the next task. 

To make a quick fix on your own, edit the attributes and Approve it. Be sure that you have the correct user group's permissions to do so.

If you are not satisfied with the copy, you can send the product task back using the Reject button. Add a comment to explain your reasons and guide the contributor in correcting the product data. You can make as many back-and-forths as needed until you are 100% satisfied with the product data. Please note that when you reject a task, you must select which previous step to send it back to.

During contributor and reviewer exchanges, only the most recent comment is visible. Additionally, product data is continuously saved and updated in the product record. To view previous versions of an attribute's values, check the History tab.

Discover the workflows widget in the dashboard

The widget displays essential details regarding your assigned workflow steps and associated pending tasks, categorized by their priority level.

Under the Tasks to enrich section, you can view the quantity of pending tasks, categorized as Late, Urgent, On track, or No due date. You can promptly handle your tasks by clicking on Go to workflows.

In the To get started section, we recommend up to two workflow steps that may require your immediate attention. By clicking on one of the boxes, which serves as a shortcut, you can efficiently manage your task list for the selected workflow.

Receive a weekly email notification recap 

Every Monday, all assignees receive an email summarizing their assigned workflows and pending tasks for active workflows. This weekly recap include the total number of tasks to complete or review with their level of priority. It is a helpful way to start the week and be on top of all pending tasks.

How to monitor all workflows Dashboard?

The Workflows Dashboard empowers efficient oversight and management of ongoing enrichment processes. It enables any PIM owner, team leader, or manager to effortlessly monitor company or team workflows from one centralized location with just a glance. 

Go to the Workflows menu entry, then Dashboard.

The dashboard provides comprehensive insights on all active workflows, including details such as which workflows business users are engaged in, the number of pending product tasks, late or urgent alerts, and the individual assignees. These real-time activity indicators help quickly identify any risk of slowdown or bottleneck in the product data enrichment process.

Clicking on any of the workflows gives access to additional details that can help identify or anticipate an excessive workload, optimize the organization of your product enrichment tasks, or facilitate collaboration and communication among product data teams.

In short, you can make informed decisions to accelerate your time to market and continuously improve the efficiency of your Collaboration Workflow.

For further refinement, you have the option to filter by any assigned user, allowing you to focus on their specific scope and emphasize their corresponding assigned steps.