Introduction - Collaboration groups for AIO FLP
Updated
by
Daniel Sjögren
What are Collaboration groups?
Collaboration groups are designed to enable the set up of clients with an unlimited geographical hierarchy within the Quinyx All-In-One (AIO) platform.
This allows for Frontline Portal clients with organizational hierarchies deeper than 4 levels to begin using the AIO platform, just like is possible for standalone Frontline Portal clients today.
Differences between Frontline Portal (FLP) and Quinyx WFM
The key difference between FLP and WFM is that, while FLP looks at a user’s hierarchical location i.e. their position in the tree, WFM has users sitting in a flattened structure (all at unit level) and determines hierarchical position via permissions. And, as mentioned previously, the WFM organizational hierarchy is limited to 4 levels - this is not sufficient for some FLP clients.
With this functionality in place, Frontline Portal will be able to determine a user's hierarchical location based on the collaboration groups set up by the client.
By creating this Collaboration group you are effectively creating an overlay layer to the traditional WFM setup. This allows for an easy and alternative means by which a user can distribute content within the AIO product offering which breaks through some of limitations/rules of the WFM Organization hierachy.
That is, compared to the WFM Organization hierarchy, the Collaboration groups:
- Allow for the creation of multiple
root levels(rather than being restricted to 1); - Allow for the creation of infinite
hierarchy levels(rather than being restricted to 4); - Allow for mapping of employees to any
hierarchy level(rather than just units + sections); - Allow for mapping groups outside of their static organization;
As such, this allows for an alternative way to setup custom hiearchies for AIO customers in a more flexible way.
How Collaboration groups relate to the WFM Organization hierarchy
It is important to clarify that Collaboration Groups does not replace the WFM based Organization Hierarchy. The Organization Hierarchy is still the master in terms of how and where a client creates users, defines groups, roles, and establishes the permissions schema for their organization and is required for customers working within the Quinyx setup.
That said, from a Frontline Portal perspective there are multiple technical limitations of the WFM organzation hierarchy, which make it unsuitable for clients wishing to use FLP.
As an example - FLP gives users the option to distribute resources by ‘group type’ but there is no such concept in WFM etc.
The first step in configuring a client’s setup - whether they use FLP, WFM, or something in between is still to start with configuring their organization in the Quinyx Account Settings.
Once a client’s users have been created and assigned to a unit, these users/units are then ready to be associated to Collaboration Groups.
Pre-configuration
Clients using Frontline Portal in the AIO platform need their configuration set in the following places:
- WFM Organization management
- Individual users much each be assigned to a unit in the WFM organization hierarchy.
- Collaboration groups
- Hierarchical structure built, as done today in FLP standalone i.e parent/child org. groups organized into a hierarchical tree.
- WFM units and or/individual users to each collaboration group.
- A "Group type" label should be assigned to each collaboration group, as done today in the FLP standalone e.g. Group type = Store.
All-In-One (AIO) Frontline Portal clients must be set up with collaboration groups in addition to the WFM Organization hierarchy, irrespective of the depth of their hierarchical structure.
