About External Workflow Processes

e-Builder's External Workflow Participation functionality may or may not be available on your account. If it is determined there is a need for this feature during the implementation, it will be enabled.

The external workflow participation allows external users to receive process steps in the form of documents and act upon those documents via email. Their information is sent and received via email and automatically routed into the system without their having to log into e-Builder. This feature provides tremendous flexibility when working on large projects that include many participants and actors, all of whom may not be licensed e-Builder users. It allows that information to be emailed and sent back automatically without human intervention. This supports collaborating with external participants, saves valuable time and allows you to better manage large projects.

External workflow processes cannot be created for processes that include the following:

  • Cost process configuration
  • Company data field
  • Company on Project data field
  • Process Lookup data field
  • Project data field

Configuring External Workflow Processes

The external workflow feature is configured in the same way as any other workflow. When designing the workflow, within the step that will include external participants, click the External Participation check box and choose whether this person will be an actor or non-actor. Through external workflow participation, external users can optionally initiate a process if you so choose. To enable external process initiation, simply click the Allow Workflow to be Started via Email check box located on the Workflow Properties page in Edit mode. This is all it takes for the administrator to configure the workflow for external participation. For an understanding of the user's perspective, see Starting an External Workflow Process.

In short, to configure an external workflow process, ensure that the following minimum settings are configured, and then go on to creating the workflow as usual.

On the Workflow Properties page, select the Allow Workflow to be Started via Email check box

On the Edit Step Properties page, select one of the External Participation check boxes.