Explore Job and Activity Templates

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

Describe the activity management setup.
Describe job definition templates.
Describe activity templates.
Explain visit planning based on job list.
Explain visit type and management type.

Activity Management Configuration

Activity management is configured by performing a series of sequential steps in CG Cloud. The process begins with setting up templates in the org and ends with executing the activities in the offline mobile app. Follow along as Fatima studies each of those steps.

Create Job Template: Define the type of job template—whether Survey or Question
Create Job Definition Template: Define the job using a job template
Create Activity Template: Group multiple job definition templates
Create Activity: Create activities from the activity template. The activity is specific to the product and customer set or the visit template and management type. There are two types of activities: standard activity and event-driven activity.
Generate Job List: In CG Cloud, job lists are generated only for event-driven activities using a batch process.
Execute Activity: Sales reps execute activities during store visits. Standard activities get assigned to the reps based on the visit template.

The activity management configuration process from creating a job template to executing an activity.

Job Definition Templates

Next, Fatima explores job definition templates. Two basic pre-configured job templates, Question and Survey, are available in CG Cloud as part of static resources. You can customize these templates to suit your business needs.

The other critical component for job definition templates is data type. Data types are used to specify the answer formats for questions. If the question is conditional, the next question depends on the selected answer.

Admins like Fatima can use job templates and data types to set up job definition templates. And sales managers like Gustavo can use those templates to create activities. Job definition templates specify the question that sales reps or merchandisers have to answer during store visits. The templates are derived from the previously created job template and data type.

Fatima can easily create job definition templates for both Surveys and Questions because the steps for both are similar. For information on creating a job template, see Create a Job Template. For information on creating a data type, see Create Data Type.

The New Job Definition Template window showing the options to create a job definition template.

Activity Templates

An activity template is a grouping of multiple job definition templates to suit a particular business need. Admins like Fatima create generic templates and survey matrix templates, whereas sales managers like Gustavo create more dynamic questions.

Two types of activity templates are available in CG Cloud:

Standard activity templates: They are used to create standard activities or routine activities. Jobs that are part of a standard activity appear in all visits created using a visit template assigned to the activity. Standard activities are executed in all visits.
Event-driven activity templates: They are used to create event-driven activities that are valid for a period. For example, activities related to a limited period promotion. Job lists are generated for event-driven activities and appear in visits that are created using a visit template assigned to the activity. Sales managers like Gustavo can use job lists for planning visits.

The New Activity Template window showing the options to create an activity template.

Visit Planning Based on Job List

Visits are planned to implement important activities such as promotional compliance checks. The Activity Planner plans for activities based on events, and job lists are created on the basis of those activities. While in the field, sales reps can view the relevant job lists and convert them into visits based on their availability. CG Cloud provides the following visit planning activities.

Review current customer activities in the visit calendar. Only open job lists are displayed on the sidebar of the calendar.
Group customer activities by promotional events or activities.
Use search and filter options.

The Activity Planner showing planned activities and upcoming visits

Visit Type and Management Type

Visit type and management type are two important components of activity planning.

Visit types are defined depending on the execution business processes, such as grocery, sales, or merchandising.
Management type defines the organizational responsibility, such as sales or service teams.

In the following illustration, the activities show up during a grocery or sales visit. Activities are assigned to customer managers based on the combination of the management type and the visit type. The customer managers set up activities for either a single customer or customer sets based on the user policy. During a visit, based on the user policy, relevant activities are assigned to either all sales reps, only the main sales rep, or the first sales rep.

Activities being assigned to sales reps or merchandisers depending on the visit type and management type.

Way Forward

Fatima now has a clear idea about job definition templates and activity templates. She can now easily set up a standard activity template or an event-driven activity template based on the specific business needs of Alpine Group. In the next unit, join Gustavo as he explores standard and event-driven activities and other related business processes.