Configure automation flow groups

Flow groups enable you to coordinate multiple processes within a larger more complex automation flow. You can add related steps together in a group which will execute completely before moving to the next steps or another group in the flow.

As an IT incident management team, one group could handle receiving diagnostics, while another group could involve prioritizing and triaging the ticket between team members.

Or as an HR team onboarding new employees, one group could handle adding the employee to all the relevant IT products, while another group could handle enrolling in role-specific training courses.

You can do the following with a flow group:

• Customize by renaming each group to match your business process

• Sequence multiple groups within a flow

• Use all steps – actions, conditions and branches like in your other flows

• Configure how data flows through your flow for multiple steps at a time

Start using flow groups

To start using groups within your automation flow:

1. Go to an automation flow.

2. Add a trigger step.

3. Select Add an advanced step and select any step option to automatically add a group. The first group you add will automatically be added to your flow titled Group 1.

4. Select the group from the flow for all configuration options:

   1. To build your flow group, select + Add step from within the flow group.

   2. To rename the group, update the default Group name.

   3. To control how data flows between flow groups, configure the inputs and outputs.

Configure how data flows between flow groups

You can now control exactly how data flows throughout your flow, by configuring the inputs and outputs of each flow group.

Outputs refer to the data you make available for another group to use in your flow. There are 2 parts of an output:

• Reference: The name you want to use to refer to the output in other locations.

• Value: The data, which could be values you manually enter, or a smart value.

Inputs are the data that the group can use after receiving from other groups' outputs. There are 2 parts of in input:

• Variable: A name to refer to the input, which will become a smart value that can be used within the group.

• Value: Refer to part of whole of an output from another group.

Use flow groups to automate employee onboarding

Imagine an IT team is managing the onboarding of a new employee, with an employee ID of 12345.

When creating an automation flow to help with this process, an IT team member adds the Branch at the same time step with 3 branches and 3 corresponding flow groups.

They set the outputs for all 3 flow groups:

• Laptop request group reference is laptopProvisionRequestId and the value is {{issue.id}}

• Licensing request group reference is LicensingRequestId and the value is {{issue.id}}

• Enroll courses group reference is EnrolledCourseId and the value is {{issue.id}}

Then, the IT team wants to send an email to the employee to notify them of the progress of their requests on their first day at work.

So they create a 4th group called Employee notification, and they set the inputs to be:

• Variable is laptopRequestId and the value is {{laptopRequestProvisionedId}}

• Variable is licensingId and the value is {{licensingRequestId}}

• Variable is enrolledId and the value is {{enrolledCourseId}}

Using inputs and outputs, the notification email might look like:

Hey {{employee12345}},

We’re delighted to have you join the company. Welcome to your first day!

There are a few things in progress to help you get started with orientation. We’ll keep you updated on the status of the following:

• Your laptop {{laptopRequestId}} request has been raised should be ready for pick up in the next 5 business days. We’ll notify you when your laptop is ready.

• You’ve been granted access to all the software you need for your role, reference {{licensingId}} if needed.

• You’ve also been automatically enrolled in all mandatory training courses, you have 30 days to complete them. Use your ID:{{enrolledId}} to sign in for the first time.