Case Management in D365 for Finance and Operations Part 2: Cases in Action

Posted on: December 13, 2018 | By: Jarrod Kraemer | Microsoft Dynamics AX/365

Authored by: Kevin Gallagher

Overview

Now that we have the initial Case Management setup complete, we can open our first case! If you want a refresher on case setup, feel free to take a look at Part 1 of my blog.

Business Scenario

The case process we setup in part 1 was designed around a customer return scenario that could be applicable across many industries. In our specific scenario, a customer is unsatisfied with the material they received from us. The customer, PD Plastics has reached out to a customer service rep, David, who must now determine how to rectify the situation. PD Plastics is intent on returning the material and receiving a credit. In order to track communications, follow company policy, and meet the needs of the customer, David decides to create a case.

 

Creating a Case

Cases can be created from many screens in D365, including: Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Customers, and Vendors, among others. Cases created from one of these records will automatically be associated to that record. Cases that are not created from a specific record can be enter from Common>Cases>All Cases.

For our purposes, we will create the case from the PD Plastics sales order in question. Once the sales order is opened, we can create a case under the General Tab by clicking Cases>Create Case

Case Creation

General:

  1. Name – The Primary record linked to the case. This field could be a customer, vendor, or employee.
    1. In this case, PD Plastics is defaulted as the name as this case was created off of one of their sales orders
  2. Case Category – The only mandatory field to create a case. The setup of case categories was covered in part 1, but the purpose of a case category is to provide the case default information, drive downstream reporting, and provide consistency across cases.
    1. The case category I chose was setup under the following tree: General>RMA>Quality. Case categories can be
  3. Status – The status defaults to ‘Opened’ but can be updated to ‘In Progress’ upon creation.
  4. Description – Free form field to summarize the case for other users.
  5. Priority – The priority values can be manually created and may not be applicable to all case types. Priority may be useful for organizations that expect a high volume of cases as it provides a way to rank importance.
  6. Parent Case – If the case being created is dependent on the outcome of another case, the parent case field provides a field to link the two cases. The Parent Case field does not drive functionality but provides a reference that the case is related to another case in the system.

Other:

  1. Department – This field defines the department responsible for the case. The default department was inherited from the Case Category I selected.
    1. Customer Service will be primarily responsible for this case.
  2. Employee Responsible – This field defines a specific employee that is responsible for a given case. A default employee can be assigned for each Case Category if necessary, otherwise, this field is open to any employee with permissions to the given Case Category Type.
  3. Service Level Agreement – The Service Level Agreement (SLA) defines the default time allotted to complete a case. This field defaulted from the Case Category I chose but can be manually changed if necessary. Adherence to the SLA can be a valuable metric to track, and also provide employees a timeframe in which a case must be completed.
  4. Case Process – As described in part 1, the Case Process is truly the meat and bones of a case. It defines the steps an employee will take to complete a case, the default activities associated to the case, and the responsible parties for each step in the process. A default Case Process can be setup for each Case Category.

Case Log:

At this point, the case has been created, and we can start recording activity against it. The first thing we can do is add additional details about the case to the case log. The case log is essentially a running list of free-form notes and activities that are recorded throughout the course of a case. Activities created that are linked to a case are automatically recorded here, but any communications can be manually added to track the ongoing discussions that happen with customers, vendors, and employees over the case lifecycle. Also tracked in the case log are any changes to the case stage.

 

Sample case log with free-from notes, activity tracking, and case process changes:

Associations:

In the associations fast tab, we can add any additional documents that are linked to the case. Because this case was created from a sales order, that sales order and customer are automatically added as association. A case can be manually associated to a number of records in D365, and the full list is shown below. For example, we may want to add the original purchase order to the case if we believe that this customer return may also result in a return to vendor.

Available records to associate with a case:

Service Level Agreement:

As you can see below, the service level agreement we setup to default on the case calls for a one-week turnaround time. This means that the case has a due date or ‘completion date’, as Microsoft refers to it, of one week from today. If the case is upgraded to a higher priority we can recall the SLA and assign a shorter time frame. Each time we recall an SLA, D365 prompts the user for a reason code, and all SLA related changes are tracked in a transaction log. Similarly, if the case is taking longer than expected for reasons outside our control (pending customer response), we can stop the SLA so that the case does not appear as overdue. A reason code is also required for any stoppages and can be tracked downstream to better evaluate your customer service professionals.

SLA as shown on the header of a case:

Reason code prompt upon stopping time recording:

Activities:

Case activities can be created on the fly or can be automatically created upon advancing to specific stages of our case process. Activities are best used when the completion of a case is dependent upon multiple employees from multiple departments. For example, if we need to create a credit for the cost of the material on the original sales order, we may want to assign an activity to the AP department to create and issue that credit. Tasks and Appointment activity types can also be integrated with Outlook if there is an ongoing task to complete, or if a meeting is required to resolve a case. An example of a useful task to create off of a case would be a reminder to follow-up with a customer after a given time period. These tasks can be automatically created after a specific time frame after the case is created, and can allow for faster resolution of cases and happier customers. In my case, I have a default task setup to be due 3 days after I reach the ‘Initiate RMA Credit Discussion’ step in my case process. If configured correctly, this task will remind me to follow-up with the customer 3 days after I reach this step in the process. Since I created this task under a case, the task will automatically be tracked in the case log. For more information about activity setup, see part 1 of my blog!

Conclusion:

In this blog, we covered the basics to get your first case created! Through the case log, SLA’s, associations, activities, and case processes, your organization has what it needs to simplify the customer experience, consolidate information, and stay on top of the day to day issues that are otherwise difficult to monitor. If your organization has interest in implementing an ERP system like Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations or you require additional information please feel free to reach out to us at info@loganconsulting.com or (312) 345-8817.

All the best!
Logan Consulting
www.loganconsulting.com



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