Business Process Flows (BPFs)

A business process flow lets you create more efficient and streamlined sales, service, and other business processes. Having high performing processes in place will help you to increase your win rates, improve customer satisfaction, and grow your revenue.

Users are guided through various stages of the sales or customer service processes. At each stage, you complete specific steps and then move to the next stage. You can customize the process flow by adding or removing steps, changing the order of the stages, or adding new entities to the process flow.

The process flow will tell you where you are in the process, where you came from, and what to do next. You are able to continuously monitor your own progress.

BPFs can be used on the following entities:
Account
Appointment
Campaign
Campaign Activity
Campaign Response
Competitor
Contact
Email
Fax
Case
Invoice
Lead
Letter
Marketing List
Opportunity
Phone Call
Product
Price List Item
Quote
Recurring Appointment
Sales Literature
Order
User
Task

Team

In case of Custom entities, the Business Process Flows (Fields Will Be Created) option must be selected.

Key benefits of BPFs include the following

• BPFs allow organizations to define the specific steps that need to be taken for something to happen.
• BPFs allow organizations to track where in the process the record is.
• BPFs allow for “stage-gating,” which requires data to be entered before proceeding to the next step.
• BPFs are visually represented on the record.
• BPFs can be controlled through portable business logic (PBLs) and workflow. An example of this is when a field is hidden via a PBL or a value is populated via a workflow, the BPF incorporates this change as well.
• BPFs allow for multiple entities in the BPF (up to five).
• There can be 10 active BPFs per entity.
• Users with appropriate security permissions can edit the BPF in real time to incorporate new rules.
• Users can switch BPFs midstream to new BPFs if the situation changes. A common example of this is when an inbound call creates a case with a Case to RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) process, but it turns out the user just has a question; in this case, the user might change the BPF to Case to KB (Knowledge Base).

Limitations:

• An entity once selected during design of the BPF cannot be referenced again (except to close the record), and no more than five entities can be referenced.
• If a user’s security permission does not allow using a BPF, the BPF will be visible but disabled.
• A maximum of 10 BPFs per entity can be active. (You can have more, but only 10 can be active.)
• There is a maximum of 30 states per BPF.

System business process flows

Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes the following business process flows. 

• Lead to Opportunity Sales Process
• Opportunity Sales Process
• Phone to Case Process

“Ready-to-Use” BPFs

Microsoft has included a package of 12 other BPFs in the system, but they need to be deployed. To deploy them, navigate to Settings, Data Management and select Add Ready-to-Use Business.

To make new BPF one must has the Manager, Vice President, CEO-Business Manager, System Administrator, or System Customizer security role or equivalent permissions.