In our last SharePoint workflow screencast tutorial post "Create a 5 step SharePoint Workflow with SharePoint Designer 2007" we reviewed how to create a 5 step workflow around a list called "opportunities" which contained information about sales leads. Well if you are interesting in using the same sales lead management site and list as demonstrated in the screencasts you can download here as a .STP SharePoint site template and install it on your own WSS site.
Instructions for installing the site template: after downloading the zipped .stp file to your desktop navigate to your WSS site and click on Site Actions > Site Setting > Site Templates. Use the actions menu for the Site Templates list and choose Upload from the drop down actions menu on the list. In the new page click "Browse" and go to the file location on your desktop where you decompressed the .stp file. Click on the file in the upload win and click Open. After the .stp file uploads to the list you can go back to Site Actions > Create > Sites and workspace and choose the template from the Custom tab on the site templates section of the site/workspace creation menu.
You probably want to populate the site with some data so here's how that works . First, the process is that members of the sales team enter their prospects into the "Sales Contacts" list after they're met someone new at a trade show, meeting, or where ever. The "Sales Contacts" list is based on the Contacts list that allows its contents to be imported from Outlook 2007 into SharePoint, and those contacts can be kept synchronized very easily. This cuts down on the data entry time of sales people, because after they enter the information into their Outlook contacts with their card scanner or manually, it is only a few more clicks and little or no keying to get the leads into the WSS 3.0 "Sales Contacts" custom contact list. The "Sales Contacts" list is linked to the "Opportunities" list so that when a contact truly becomes a lead after they are contacted by the sales person you can begin the workflow around the qualification, sales and ordering form process. When you enter a new opportunity the first thing you do is select which Sales Contact is associated with the Opportunity. These lists are just a very simple implementation of the process and are meant to be a teaching tool. That said, they could be significantly improved with a little work and I hope that you will download and modify the .stp file to fit your own needs because that's what its for! When you download and use the .stp file to make the site it's a good idea to populate the custom site with some data. Begin that process by adding some contacts to the Sales Contact list, then in the Opportunities list link to those contacts.
Back on track to workflow - the .stp includes two versions of the workflow created in our previous post for you to edit with SharePoint Designer 2007 as shown in our next tutorial. Going back to our last post we created a 5 step workflow around a list of sales opportunities – the workflow was based around a "status" column that had status choices (contacted, qualified, unqualified, closed, set order form, received order form) that would help a group of stakeholders in the sales process keep track of how leads were progressing through the company's sales process. The business process we we're trying to improve by implementing this workflow was the management of the sales team (a SharePoint security group) by a group of managers (a SharePoint security group).
The tutorial below shows you how to combine several steps into a single step by implementing several "else if" statements so that if the first condition you define an action for is not present, you cascade down your series of "else" or other scenarios until you arrive at the condition that is met and an action is triggered. There's obviously some logic that you have to understanding, but don't feel overwhelmed as a new user – the name of the game is experiment and keep on rethinking your workflows. You'll learn something each time you run into a problem and having a workflow close too early, and remember to start your own blog and share your experiences with others.
SharePoint workflow screencast tutorial "Open existing SharePoint workflow"
SharePoint workflow screencast tutorial "SharePoint workflow Else If branching"
