Why SharePoint Designer is Optimal for Automating Complex Workflows

In recent times, enterprises are looking to implement automation solutions that are fast, effective, and easy to maneuver. Though Cloud automation offers greater productivity and cost-related benefits, the delivery of infrastructure resources remains a complex process. Moreover, embracing the Cloud automation model overwhelms workflow management and makes it even more complicated for business users to exchange data.

Therefore, when it comes to modernizing workflow management and automating repetitive processes, implementing SharePoint Designer is an effective choice for organizations. This application enables both novice and experienced developers to automate workflows across web and desktop solutions.

Introduction to SharePoint Designer

SharePoint Designer is a free-to-use application used for creating and customizing visual business workflows. Being a Microsoft-based solution, it is largely used by small, medium, and large-sized organizations to execute workflow and process automation.

The application offers business users a unique workflow authoring experience than other tools. It allows users to build a digital flow, alter its modules, design the logic around it, and deploy them as a packaged solution all from a centralized space, thereby enabling easy workflow management. With near-zero coding efforts, users can execute all of these actions in SharePoint Designer.

In addition, SharePoint Designers offers an intuitive ‘Macro Recorder’ option for analyzing and recording all the GUI actions performed by the workforce. This way, business users can replicate complex user interface actions as many times as they want and experience precise outcomes. Experts from the right MS SharePoint development company can build and launch complex flows using SharePoint Designer.

Key Functionalities of Microsoft SharePoint Designer

• Drag-and-drop Interface - SharePoint Designer’s built-in drag-and-drop interface simplifies the practice of creation, management, and modification of digital flows.
• Macro Recorder - SharePoint Designer allows users to design workflows logically using web and desktop recorder functionality. This recorder analyze and catalogs UI actions and additional input movements in real-time.
• Instinctive Error Management - It is one of the smart and highly valuable features of SharePoint Designer since it helps admins to plot errors in a flow by mailing data automatically to the registered account. Accordingly, admins can tweak or extend the workflow’s logic to overcome the error problems.
• Flow Monitoring & Analytics - Whenever a complex issue transpires, SharePoint Designer’s built-in flow monitoring functionality will troubleshoot such complications. This feature can also centralize log data from multiple applications and platforms, as well as log information from CRMs, container environments, and other services inside and outside of SharePoint. This way, business users can have a shared data repository, gain business insights, troubleshoot errors, and optimize workflows for greater performance.

Key Examples of Workflow Creation Using SharePoint Designer

Email Workflows

It is important for the teams to store and manage business files or information received via email platforms. Though, searching through the inbox and finding appropriate information consumes valuable time for the workforce. Over time, it becomes impossible for business users to keep saving crucial files related to projects in a local repository. Therefore, creating email automation workflows help businesses modernize communication, allow employees to manage inbound messages, find information rapidly, and serve clients more effectively.

Automating mailing workflow with SharePoint Designers allows organizations to send personalized emails to clients or customers effectively. In addition, SharePoint Designer offers a native template that enables the workforce to spontaneously save all their email data and file attachments into their desired intranet, folder, or document library. Whenever new information is received through the mail, the template sends a notification to the appropriate admin, requesting permission for storage.

Customer Service Workflows

Many customer-facing teams and enterprises can significantly benefit from SharePoint Designer. Customer representatives can create flows for automating and optimizing user-centric processes, thereby lessening administrative and back-office workloads. Automated customer service flows to speed up turnaround times by collecting and consolidating data across diverse systems, instantly upgrading customer records, and addressing service requests.

By delegating repetitive, time-intensive workflow, like customer service query processing to SharePoint Designer, organizations can free up their support team and allow them to focus on user engagement instead of handling queries manually. Enterprises can associate with the right SharePoint portal development company to construct flows related to customer service operations. This way, businesses may be able to launch new service models, improve customer experience, and enhance productivity.

Project Workflows

The authorization of project approaches or methods is a complex flow that can become unmanageable when the approval system is manual and time-intensive. SharePoint Designer makes it easier to build project approval workflows and offers intuitive connectors to integrate standard project management tools like Wrike, Zoho, and monday.com with the created workflows. This way, business users can automate the project approval system through various functionalities, such as notifications, approval forms, auto-modifications, recommendations, and error checks.

The connector support offered by SharePoint Designer improves delivery times by modernizing project approval management. For example, when an approval has been requested by a project associate using SharePoint workflow, the authorized manager will be alerted instantly. Accordingly, the manager can authorize the approval from any device or location.

Wrapping Up

With a range of automation possibilities, businesses can greatly benefit from the implementation of Microsoft SharePoint Designer. Many organizations have already started creating workflows for streamlining regular operations and processes. Upon implementation, businesses can overcome manual data entry processes and improve the productivity of business workflows.