Task SLAs

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

This feature allows admins to configure the platform to conduct particular tasks, such as calculating the time to send task escalations, reminders, auto execution, and deadline and turnaround times during business hours (office working hours) or universal hours.

You can configure this feature at the app level (i.e., the configuration will be applicable to all the workflow steps in the app) or at the workflow step level (i.e., the configuration will be applicable only to that particular workflow step) when creating an application in Quixy.

You can choose the Task SLAs to be generated only during business hours that you have specifically defined in the calendars (i.e., employee working hours) or 24/7 (i.e., any time in a day and any day of the week).

App Level

Workflow Step Level

Below is an example to understand how this feature works:

There is an organization whose employees work in 3 different shifts (morning, evening, and night) on a working day. The organization admin can create 3 different calendars with 3 different timelines (9 AM to 6 PM; 2 PM to 11 PM; and 6 PM to 3 AM) and allocate those calendars to their respective employees.  

Suppose if the organization admin chooses the Task SLAs as Business hours at app level or workflow step level, as shown in the images above. In that case, the Quixy platform will perform the following actions only in the employee’s dedicated shift timings:    

1. Send the notifications of task escalations/reminders 
2. Set the task deadlines 
3. Auto execute a task 
4. Calculate a task’s turnaround time  

Set the Task Deadlines

The deadline for a task is defined in the workflow step, as shown below.

Let us take an example to understand how the platform would calculate the deadline time for a task when Task SLAs is defined as business hours:

Suppose an employee works in the morning shift (i.e., 9 am to 6 pm), and this employee gets a task that has a deadline time of 24 hours. Now, if the employee gets the task on 20/07/21 (Tuesday) at 4:30 pm, to calculate the deadline date and time, the Quixy platform would consider only the working hours of the employee (i.e., 9am to 6pm) and would give the deadline date as 23/07/21 (Wednesday)- 4:30 pm

This is how the platform would calculate the deadline times and send the task escalations and reminders, auto execute a task, calculate turn-around-time, etc.

Let us take the above example as a basis to define the rest of the activities

Task Escalations/Reminders

These are app notifications that are confined to an app. 

Escalations: The email notifications that are sent to a user as a warning/escalation when an assigned task is not completed within the deadline time.

Example: The employee will receive an escalation email on 23/07/21 after 4:30 pm if he fails to complete the task before the deadline time.

Reminders: The email notifications that are sent to a user to remind them about an assigned task that needs to be completed before the deadline time.

Example: The employee will receive the reminder emails till 23/07/21 after 4:30 pm according to the defined interval (i.e., every 8 hours).

Auto-Execute a task

You can define a deadline time in the workflow to automatically execute a task to either terminate or take an action (i.e., accept or reject) if no action is taken before the deadline time.

Calculate a task’s turnaround time

The Quixy platform will only calculate 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   

Use case  

“Task deadline to be calculated based on the business hours”   

Example:  

Say, in a customer service industry, there are customer complaint tickets which are to be addressed by the customer service representatives and the SLA for tickets resolution time is to be based on the business hours of the CS representatives. 

In this case, 

• Business hours are to be configured for customer service executives  
• The app Task SLAs can be set to business hours  

Tasks SLA Configuration: 

Business hours configuration and assigning to users: 

1. Business hours can be configured from admin menu preferences tab calendars option  

Navigation: 

Admin menu > preferences > Calendar > Add calendar  

1. Calendar can be assigned to an individual user by editing user profile  

App and workflow level tasks SLAs setting: 

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

Benefits: 

• Task reminders, escalations, deadline, auto execute can be configured at business hours level or at actual calendar hours (24/7) level  
• SLAs can be configured at app level and also for an individual workflow step level