Working with Work Items

When work needs to be done (for example, in response to a customer request), you initiate work for that request by creating a work item.

A work item consists of several different fields that provide information about the work being processed. The specific fields that appear on the work item depend on how your XTRAC administrator has configured XTRAC.

A work item is based on the Item Type field that identifies the type of transaction represented by the work item. The Subtype field associated with the item type further defines the type of work item transaction.

Additional information obtained from work item fields can include the following:

Status of the work item
Priority of the work item in a queue
Account type, account number, and amount of the transaction
Name, address, organization, and ID of the customer requesting the work
Reason for the requested work (cause and/or subcause)
How a work request was received, such as by phone or email (communication type)
Name, address, phone number, organization, and account number of additional parties associated with the transaction, such as a bank or the executor of an estate
Instructions for the next operator and pointers to attached notes, documents, and so forth

In addition, a work item can contain business-specific fields, which are custom fields defined by the XTRAC administrator for a particular type of work item. For example, a work item for opening a new account might contain a custom field for the type of investment the customer wants to make. Your XTRAC administrator can define custom fields to meet the needs of your organization.

When you create a new work item, you typically fill out many of the work item fields. Fields may be completed manually by you or other operators. Values for some fields may be retrieved automatically through integration with another system, such as a customer database.

Images Associated with Work Items

If you receive a call from a customer with a problem, you can create a work item without an associated image. When work is received in paper form, however, it can be scanned and stored as image data that XTRAC associates with a work item. The image is then available to operators (with the correct privileges and software configurations) who process the work item on the work item Attachments page.

For example, an application for a new account arrives from a customer. An operator scans the application. The image of the document is associated with a work item. XTRAC routes the work item along with a reference to the scanned image to the next operator. Using the reference to the scanned image, an operator can open and view the contents of the image while processing the request.

To open and view images attached to a work item, use the XTRAC Viewer.

Retrieving Work Items

Queues hold work items waiting to be processed. XTRAC can feed work items to you automatically (work feed mode), or you can select work items from a queue (work list mode). The modes in which you can work are specified by your XTRAC administrator. For more information, see:

Routing Work Items

When you save a new work item, XTRAC uses the information in the work item and the workflow rules to route the work to the next queue in the workflow. For example, a transfer rule might route work items depending on their status.

Typically, XTRAC routes work items automatically according to workflow rules defined by the XTRAC administrator. Operators with appropriate privileges also can manually route work items to other queues or to a specific operator's personal queue.

Workflow Example

A financial investment firm processing new customer accounts might set up its workflow as follows:

In the New Accounts queue, an operator creates a new work item, filling in the name and address of the customer, type of investment, amount of money to invest, and a new customer account number. The operator saves the work item with a status of IGO (in good order). This triggers a transfer rule that automatically routes it to the Purchasing queue.
In the Purchasing queue, another operator completes the investment transaction and enters a purchase confirmation number in the work item. The Purchasing operator saves the work item with a status of QA (Quality Assurance). This triggers a transfer rule to automatically route the work item to the QA queue.
In the QA queue, an operator verifies the account number and purchase transaction.
If everything is in order, the QA operator saves the work item with a status of IGO.
If everything is not in good order, the QA operator saves the work item with a status of NIGO (not in good order). This triggers a transfer rule that sends the work item to the Repair queue. A Repair operator corrects any errors and sends the work item back to the QA queue.

After a work item has been processed, it is assigned a resolved status. Work items with a resolved status no longer appear in any work lists, but can be found using Search.

The following is a diagram of this example workflow.

Processing Work Items

You can open a work item to perform one or more of the following tasks:

Add new information or update previously entered information
Add a note containing additional information about the work being processed
Merge work item data from one work item into another work item
Print the work item
Put the work item on hold (suspend it)
Link the work item to another work item
Split the work item so that two or more operators can process a customer request at the same time
Transfer the work item to another queue
Search for duplicate work items and link them as applicable
Add information about other involved parties
Attach backup documents such as an Excel spreadsheet or a Word document

Only one operator at a time can open a work item in edit mode. When you open a work item in edit mode, XTRAC locks the work item. Other operators may view the locked work item, but cannot modify it until the work item has been saved and closed.

Note: When a work item is locked, the Edit button and Pencil icon are enabled. You can click the Edit button or the Pencil icon to check whether the work item is still locked or if the lock has been released. If the work item is locked, you cannot edit it. If the lock has been released, you can edit it.

Searching for Work Items

XTRAC provides search capabilities for retrieving any work item and any attached document or document stored within the document repository. For example, if you receive an inquiry from a customer about the status of an application, you can search for the work item and display its current status.

You can use the following information to perform a basic search for a work item:

Work item number
Originator party, including customer ID, first and last name, and account number
Date range when work was initiated
Item type and subtype

You also can perform an advanced search by searching for a combination of predefined and custom fields, or by selecting predefined business searches created by the XTRAC administrator.

For more information, see Searching for Work Items.

Obtaining the History of a Work Item

XTRAC work history maintains a record of each action performed on a work item, whether manually by an operator or automatically by rules defined by the XTRAC administrator. XTRAC records each action as a separate event in the history of the work item.

For more information, see Viewing Work Item History.

Getting Information about Operators

XTRAC provides information about XTRAC operators, including the operator’s ID, full name, email address, telephone number, and company. XTRAC extracts this information from the operator’s profile.

For more information, see Viewing Operator Information.

Saving and Customizing XTRAC Information

XTRAC saves information about how you use XTRAC Workbench. XTRAC saves this information in the XTRAC database. This means that you can log in from different workstations without losing any of your settings.

For more information, see Operator Information and User Settings.

Retrieving Archived Work Items

Older work items that have been resolved are archived separately from current work items. You cannot use the Search function to access archived work items. Instead, XTRAC provides an application called the XTRAC Archive Viewer to view archived work items.

For more information, see the XTRAC Archive Viewer User’s Guide.

Work Item Required Fields Validation

Required fields are marked with a red asterisk ( * ). If you try to save without filling in the required fields, an error message is displayed in the notification bar.

A dialog is displays when you click the Check Required Fields icon ( ) on the work item toolbar. The Check Require Fields command makes sure that all of the required fields in the current work item have been filled in. The dialog displays the name of the field that needs a value, or displays the message "All required fields value."

When you click the Check Required Fields icon ( ) on the work item toolbar, the Work Item Required dialog displays. The Check Require Fields command makes sure that all of the required fields in the current work item have been filled in. The dialog displays the name of the field that needs a value, or displays the message "All required fields value."

To close the dialog, click OK.