Automations Manager

Build automations that routinely carry out complex actions when certain processes run.

Dom Yeadon avatar
Written by Dom Yeadon
Updated over a week ago

The Automations Manager (AMM) app is used by your recruitment teams to configure and manage automations that routinely carry out specified actions when certain processes run.

Whenever AMM runs the process that you have chosen, in the occurrences you have chosen, as long as your conditions are met, it will carry out the actions every time, without fail. This saves you from having to carry out these actions manually.

For example:

  1. You want: to assign the correct Team to each student arriving in the Student Database.

  2. Background: you have 4 separate teams in the UK - North Team, South Team, East Team and West Team. Each team is responsible for recruiting the students in their part of the country, so you have allocated postcodes accordingly. You are using the Postcode Area field (the 'BH' part of 'BH2 5BD').

These are the settings you would use to build this automation:

  • Process: whenever a Rapid Response web form is submitted

  • Occurrences: in both Domestic and International occurrences

  • Conditions: if the student's Postcode Area starts with "BA, BH, etc..."

  • Actions: update the student's 'Responsible Team' field on their Record Card with "South Team".

Processes

Processes available:

  • "If an API creates a record"

  • "If an API updates a record"

  • "If a web form creates a record"

  • "If a web form updates a record"

  • "If IEM creates a record"

  • "If a user updates a record"

  • "If a student record is created"

  • "If a student record is updated"

  • "If a student creates or updates a booking"

Occurrences

Occurrences in the following apps are (live and available now):

  • Applicant Open Days (AOD)

  • Applications (APS & APV)

  • Enquiries (ENQ)

  • Event Manager (EVM)

  • Mobile Event Capture (MEC)

  • Pre-Applicant Open Days (POD)

  • Prospectus Requests (PRQ)

  • Rapid Response (RAP)

  • Student Database (SDB)

  • Surveys (SRV)

Conditions

Fields that can be used to set conditions:

Applicant Open Days (AOD)

AOD - Event date

AOD - Event name

AOD - ID

AOD - Booking status

AOD - Level of Study

AOD - Year of entry

AOD - Course code

AOD - Course name

AOD - Course tag

AOD - Special Requirements

AOD - UCAS Course Code

Applications (APS & APV)

APS - Application Date

APS - Course Title

APS - Deferred

APS - Enrolled

APS - Entry Source

APS - Form

APS - Intake Month

APS - Intake Year

APS - Interview Status

APS - Last Status

APS - Residency Status

APS - Status

APS - Year of Entry

Enquiries (ENQ)

ENQ - Category

ENQ - Channel

ENQ - Enquiry Call Back

ENQ - Forwarded From

ENQ - Message Content

ENQ - Owner

ENQ - Priority

ENQ - Status

ENQ - Subject

Event Manager (EVM)

EVM - Event Date

EVM - Event Name

EVM - Event ID

EVM - Booking Status

EVM - Level of Study

EVM - Year of Entry

EVM - Course Code

EVM - Course Name

EVM - Course Tag

EVM - Special Requirements

EVM - UCAS Course Code

Mobile Event Capture (MEC)

MEC - Year of Entry

MEC - Level of Study

MEC - Course ID

MEC - Consent Pack

MEC - Current School

MEC - Enquiry Source

MEC - Subject

MEC - Created

Pre-Applicant Open Days (POD)

POD - Event date

POD - Event name

POD - ID

POD - Booking status

POD - Level of Study

POD - Year of entry

POD - Course code

POD - Course name

POD - Course tag

POD - Special Requirements

POD - UCAS Course Code

Prospectus Requests (PRQ)

PRQ - Year of Entry

PRQ - Level of Study

PRQ - Course ID

PRQ - Consent Pack

PRQ - Current School

PRQ - Enquiry Source

PRQ - Subject

PRQ - Created

PRQ - Campus

PRQ - Intake

Rapid Response (RAP)

RAP - Campus

RAP - Consent Pack

RAP - Course ID

RAP - Created

RAP - Current School

RAP - Enquiry Source

RAP - Event Date

RAP - Event Name

RAP - Form

RAP - Intake

RAP - Level of Study

RAP - Subject

RAP - Year of Entry

Student Database (SDB)

SDB - Title

SDB - First Name

SDB - Last Name

SDB - Email Address

SDB - Engagement Score

SDB - Date of Birth

SDB - Mobile Number

SDB - Telephone Number

SDB - Nationality

SDB - Occupation

SDB - Persona

SDB - Stage

SDB - Address line 1

SDB - Address line 2

SDB - Address line 3

SDB - Town

SDB - County

SDB - Postcode

SDB - Country

SDB - Gender

SDB - Postcode Area

SDB - Postcode Outcode

Surveys (SRV)

SDB - Survey

Actions

Actions currently available:

  • "Add to field content" - used to add another value into a field that can contain multiple values, such as SDB - Tag. This does not affect the existing tags, it just adds an extra tag to them. It is also used to update the Engagement Score.

  • "Create a record in" - used to create a RAP record (great for adding students to RAP Workflows)

  • "Replace field content" - used to completely replace the existing value with your new one.

  • "Send Notification (SMS)" - used to send an SMS to an officer when something happens, for example: telling an Admissions Officer when an offer has been declined.

  • "Send Notification (email)" - used to send an email to an officer when something happens, for example: telling an Enquiries Officer that a student just said that they have done something noteworthy.

Fields that actions work on:

Add to field content
SDB - Tag

Replace field content
ENQ - Category
ENQ - Owner
ENQ - Priority

SDB - Consent
SDB - Death/Fraud
SDB - Disability
SDB - Ethnicity
SDB - Faculty
SDB - Level of Study
SDB - Marketing Unit
SDB - Mobile
SDB - Nationality
SDB - Occupation
SDB - Opt_in_email
SDB - Opt_in_phone
SDB - Opt_in_postal
SDB - Opt_in_sms
SDB - Persona
SDB - Responsible team
SDB - Responsible user
SDB - Source
SDB - Stage
SDB - Telephone
SDB - Year of Entry

FAQs

Q. Is there a limit to the number of automations I can set up?

A. No.

Q. Is there a limit to the number of conditions each automation has?

A. No.

Q. What if I set an automation to update a field with a value that is different to the one that the student entered on the webform?

A. the Automation over-rules the student's data entry. The automation runs after the web form because all Student CRM processes follow the data rule 'Latest is Greatest" AKA 'Newest is Truest'.

Q. How do I pause an automation?

A. Set the status to 'inactive'.

Q. When I resume a paused automation, will it backfill all the records it missed since deactivating it?

A. No, automations work on real-time data transactions and have no memory.

Q. How do I know if my automation is running?

A. See the Step '3 - Performance' Chart. Also, look in the student's Record Card as each automation run is recorded in their Activity Log.

Q. Why didn't my Automation run?

A. There are a number of common reasons:

  1. Was the automation is set to Active?

  2. Did the conditions of the automation match any students?

  3. Has the automation already run on that student? (Some actions, such as adding a tag, will not apply multiple times to a single student)

  4. Still not working - get in touch with CS.

Q. What happens if I create several automations and accidentally create an impossible loop?

A. We haven't managed to do this yet, but please tell us if you do as we want to see it, and fix it for you.

Q. If I delete an automation and then regret it, can I get it back?

A. No.

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