Approval processes are essential for many organisations to maintain compliance with internal policies and regulations.
In commercial scenarios, proposals and marketing emails may be subject to an approval check before they are distributed. Internal legal requirements could also mandate checks before contracts and agreements are issued to verify their validity.
But what happens when the appropriate approving personnel are absent?
The Challenge of Out-of-Office Statuses and Approval Requests
Approval processes can become blockers if an approver is absent or unavailable due to holidays or sickness.
When the key people are away, a backlog can quickly pile up as smooth-running machinery grinds to a halt.
That’s why ServerSys has developed a solution that easily adapts to absences by automatically re-routing approval requests to ensure uninterrupted operation.
Managing Approval Workflows with Dynamics 365
Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform offer a range of tools to support comprehensive approval management. This includes Power Automate to distribute requests, saving time by reducing manual operations and ensuring operational continuity.
Imagine a scenario where an approver is scheduled to be on holiday. With our solution, they can quickly set an out-of-office rule to delegate approval requests to a designated person while they are away.
Similarly, suppose an approver is absent due to illness. In that case, an administrator could apply a rule that redirects their inbound approval requests to another person.
In both scenarios, the delegated approver will receive notifications when this schedule is applied.
This process can also be set to pick up any pending tasks sat with the absent approver by reassigning these to the delegated user.
Each reassigned approval request is automatically recorded on the corresponding record to maintain a transparent timeline of activity.
Distributing Approval Requests
Approvals don’t have to wait until someone looks at their emails. Using Power Automate, we’ve integrated approval notifications within Microsoft Teams that alert approvers to respond.
By taking advantage of Power Automate’s capabilities and integrating Microsoft Teams, approval requests are dispatched swiftly to avoid delays.
Next Steps…
Adapting to out-of-office scenarios is an essential capability for agile organisations. This flexibility and resilience for approval management can be delivered through Dynamics 365.
Our ready-made solution adds rigour to approval processes by effectively handling situations where approvers are unavailable. Please get in touch if you want to learn more and explore how this solution could work for your organisation.
