Task SLAs
  • 3 Minutes to read
  • Contributors

    Task SLAs


      Article Summary

      An outline of how to make Quixy self-perform specific duties during business or universal hours

      This feature allows admins to set up the platform to perform specific tasks, such as calculating the timing for sending task escalations, reminders, auto execution, deadlines, and turnaround times, based on business hours (office working hours) or universal hours.

      You can configure this feature at either the app level (applying to all workflow steps in the app) or at the workflow step level (applying only to that specific workflow step) when creating an application in Quixy.

      You can choose to generate Task SLAs only during the business hours defined in calendars (employee working hours) or 24/7 (any time of day and any day of the week).

      App Level


      Workflow Step Level

      EXAMPLE

      Consider an organization where employees work in three different shifts (morning, evening, and night) on a typical working day. The organization's admin can create three different calendars corresponding to these shifts (9 AM to 6 PM; 2 PM to 11 PM; and 6 PM to 3 AM) and assign them to respective employees.

      If the organization admin selects Business hours as the Task SLAs at the app level or workflow step level, the Quixy platform will perform the following actions only during the employee's designated shift timings:

      • Send task escalation and reminder notifications
      • Set task deadlines
      • Auto-execute tasks
      • Calculate task turnaround times

      Setting Task Deadlines:

      In the workflow step, the deadline for a task is determined as illustrated below.

      To understand how the platform calculates the deadline time for a task when Task SLAs are defined as business hours, consider the following example:

      Assume an employee works the morning shift (9 am to 6 pm) and receives a task with a 24-hour deadline. If the employee receives the task on 29/02/24 (Thursday) at 4:30 pm, the Quixy platform will only consider the employee's working hours (9 am to 6 pm). Therefore, the deadline date would be 01/03/21 (Friday) at 4:30 pm.

      This is how the platform calculates deadlines and handles task escalations, reminders, auto-execution, and turnaround time.

      Task Escalations/Reminders

      Task escalations and reminders are notifications within the app.

      Escalations: These are email notifications sent as warnings when a task is not completed by the deadline. For example, if a task is not completed by 4:30 pm on 29/02/24, the employee will receive an escalation email.

      Reminders: These are email notifications sent to remind users about tasks that need to be completed before the deadline. For example, the employee will receive reminder emails every 8 hours until 4:30 pm on 29/02/24.

      Auto-Execute a Task

      You can set a deadline in the workflow to automatically execute a task, either terminating it or taking an action (e.g., accept or reject), if no action is taken before the deadline.

      Calculate a task’s turnaround time

      The Quixy platform only calculates the number of hours taken by the employee to complete an assigned task, considering only his working hours.

      This feature of the application will enable users to set task SLAs based on business hours or actual calendar hours (24/7). 

      Tasks SLAs include: 

      • Task escalations  
      • Task reminders  
      • Task turnaround time calculation 
      • Task auto-execute & 
      • Due date calculation 
      NOTE

      Task deadline to be calculated based on the business hours 

      Example:

      In a customer service industry, customer complaint tickets are addressed by customer service representatives. The Service Level Agreement (SLA) for ticket resolution time is based on the business hours of the customer service representatives.

      In this case:

      • Business hours are configured for customer service executives.
      • The app's Task SLAs are set to business hours.

      Tasks SLA Configuration

      Configuring Business Hours and Assigning to Users:

      1. Configure business hours from the admin menu's preferences tab under the calendars option.

      Navigation

      1. Admin menu -> Preferences -> Calendar -> Add calendar.  
      2. You can assign a calendar to an individual user by editing their user profile.

      Setting Task SLAs at the App and Workflow Level

      1. Task SLAs can be configured from the main page of app creation by selecting a specific option.
      2. Task SLAs can be configured for a workflow step by selecting a specific option.

      Benefits

      1. Task reminders, escalations, deadlines, and auto-execution can be configured at the business hours level or at the actual calendar hours (24/7) level.
      2. SLAs can be configured at the app level and also for an individual workflow step level.

      Was this article helpful?