The Business Challenge
A multinational manufacturing company with 5,000+ employees was struggling with their existing approval process for capital expenditure requests (CapEx). Their standard Salesforce approval workflow couldn't handle their complex routing requirements, which included dynamic approver selection based on cost centers, spending thresholds, and regional hierarchies. The existing system required manual intervention for 40% of requests, leading to delays averaging 12 business days for approval completion.
Key pain points included:
- Inability to automatically route approvals based on multiple business rules and hierarchies
- No mechanism to handle delegate approvers during leave periods
- Lack of parallel approval paths for requests requiring multiple department reviews
- Manual reconciliation needed between SAP financial data and Salesforce records
- No audit trail for approval path modifications and override decisions
The Solution
We developed a custom approval framework using Salesforce Apex that integrated sophisticated business logic with a flexible approval engine. The solution leveraged several key technologies:
- Custom Apex Classes: Created ApprovalEngine and ApprovalRouting classes to handle complex routing logic and maintain approval hierarchies
- Lightning Components: Built dynamic approval screens with real-time validation and visibility rules
- Custom Objects: Implemented ApprovalRule__c and ApprovalMatrix__c objects to store configurable routing rules
- Integration Services: Developed REST APIs to synchronize approval data with SAP using Mulesoft
- Queueable Apex: Implemented asynchronous processing for large approval batches
The architecture implemented a "delegate-first" pattern, automatically checking for delegate assignments before routing to primary approvers. We also incorporated parallel processing capabilities, allowing simultaneous approvals from different departments when required.
Project Highlights
The implementation delivered significant measurable improvements across multiple dimensions:
- Efficiency Gains:
- Reduced approval cycle time from 12 days to 3 days
- Decreased manual intervention requirements by 95%
- Automated routing for 99.5% of all approval requests
- Process Improvements:
- Real-time visibility into approval status and bottlenecks
- Comprehensive audit trail for compliance requirements
- Seamless handling of complex approval matrices across 12 regions
- Technical Achievements:
- Successfully processed 10,000+ approval requests in first quarter
- Maintained 99.9% system availability
- Reduced approval-related Salesforce CPU time by 60%
The solution's configurable framework allows for easy modification of approval rules without code changes, ensuring long-term scalability as business requirements evolve. The project has become a model for other regions within the organization, demonstrating the power of custom Apex development in solving complex business challenges.