Summary
What do automations allow me to do?
The simplest answer is: (almost) anything... 💥
Where can I automate actions?
Automations live in the Operations module, a standalone module where you can discover new automation templates, manage your existing automations, and build custom flows for your most advanced use cases.
How do we think about Automations at Planhat?
Data vs. Workflow: Automations are incredibly flexible so we distinguish between a data and workflow operation.
Templated vs. Custom: To get you up and running quickly and efficiently, we have a library of templated automations. If the templated automations don't quite work for your specific use case then you can build custom automations.
Who is this article for?
All Planhat users.
Anyone who has an interest in automating one or multiple processes.
Series
Automation Overview ⬅️ You are here
Article contents
Introduction
Automations are one of the most flexible and customisable parts of Planhat. First and foremost, they're intended to save you time. The best automations are those that create leverage for you and your organisation: they allow you not only to manage a larger and more successful portfolio but to do so with fewer hands on deck.
Here are just a few examples that come to mind:
Instead of manually tagging which of your end users are Champions or Decision makers, apply an automated rule that lets Planhat do it for you.
Rather than painstakingly assigning new accounts to your CSM's portfolios, set up an automation to take it off your plate.
There's no need to keep a close eye on all your projects, opportunities, licenses or companies when an automation can send you personalised, targeted and timely tasks and notifications whenever something needs your attention.
For this reason, they're powerful tools that let you stay focused on the actions that make you an invaluable and trusted advisor to your customers. After all, the truly value-creating activities are those you can invest in once you don't have to think about keeping your customer data clean and synced with your other systems, scheduling endless tasks and reminders, or manually handling every customer touchpoint.
What Do Automations Allow Me to Do?
The simplest answer is: (almost) anything... 💥
The most important thing to note is that, just like Integrations and Connections, Automations open up possibilities to send data to different systems and execute complex Javascript functions outside and within Planhat.
A single automation can run a series of steps as soon as it fires, without you needing to lift a finger. Let's say you're a customer success leader, and an AE just closed a deal you're set to manage. As soon as the contract is signed and sealed in your CRM, Automations could ensure that...
The new customer is created in Planhat with all key information from your CRM.
The account owner is auto-assigned based on some customer property, and they are notified.
An Onboarding Workflow auto-assigns tasks to the new owner.
An email is sent to the new customers welcoming them onboard.
A QBR task is scheduled in 90 and 180 days time.
A renewal meeting is scheduled 90 days before the subscription ends.
A notification is posted in a Slack channel informing whoever needs to know that all this is happening.
...all without a single line of code.
🏅Our Vision: for an insight into the vision we had when we first launched Automations, back in 2020, take a look at this blog post from our Co-Founder.
Where Can I Automate Actions?
Automations live in the Operations module, a standalone module where you can discover new automation templates, manage your existing automations, and build custom flows for your most advanced use cases. This is where you'll always work with "When this happens" "Then do that" flows.
However, we shouldn't forget that automations also exist in more subtle forms across Planhat, for example: as Workflows, to automate your workflows or email campaigns; Portals, to share live updates and tasks with your customers; and NPS Surveys, automating feedback retrieval. As you become familiar with Planhat, it'll become clear when you should use a targeted approach, and when the Operations module should be put to action. In the meantime, take a look at this guide if you're wondering how best to automate something.
How Do We Think about Automations at Planhat?
Broadly, in Planhat, we classify Automated flows across two dimensions. Firstly, whether they're primarily related to a Data or Workflow operation (and implicitly, whether they involve internally or externally-facing tasks); and secondly, whether they can be achieved with our automation templates, or require a more custom solution.
1. Data vs. Workflow
Because Automations are so flexible, we distinguish between automating:
A Data operation:
Saving data (e.g., saving the date a certain field was last changed).
Moving (or transforming) data (e.g., updating the company when a related object enters a filter).
Sending data (e.g., pushing data to an external system, via webhooks); or
A Workflow, which can be:
Internal
Schedule an activity (e.g., schedule a task to review the adoption dashboard when the health score drops below 5; or schedule a task to check in with an end user in onboarding who hasn't logged in in the past 7 days).
Send a notification (e.g., notify the owner when their account enters the "Churn Risk" filter).
External
Contact customers (e.g., communicating directly to the customer via an email campaign, or via a shared Slack channel).
📌 Important to note
The Operations module is just one of the ways you can automate workflows and customer communication in Planhat, and is not necessarily the best for your use case. Take a look at this quick guide to decide which approach to use.
2. Templated vs. Custom
Templated Automations: Our templates are accessed immediately when adding a new automation from the Operations module. They're designed to meet the vast majority of core use cases for Automations, which is why it's no surprise that the Data vs. Workflow structure above is exactly how templates in the Operations module are arranged. To learn more about templated automations, check out this article.
Custom Automations: While the custom automation editor is also completely no-code, they naturally involve a lot more flexibility and configurability than any templated automation.
Therefore, whenever you have a useful automation in mind, we recommend starting by browsing our template library, at the very least for additional inspiration. Only once you don't find what you're looking for should you look to build your own custom automation. Highlights that differentiate them from templated automations include:
Multi-step support: Allowing you to perform a sequence of custom operations from a single trigger condition.
Function executions: Enables you to run Javascript operations as intermediate steps.
Custom connections: Unlocks the ability to execute operations relating to your own custom integrations.
If you would like to learn more about custom automations, please check out this article.
Further Reading