App Designer + Work Items + Automation: Proven Strategies for Streamlined Operations

Purpose/Overview

Utilisphere's App Designer, Work Items, and Process Automation features are designed to work together to simplify operations, strengthen field-to-office alignment, and reduce manual effort.

When connected, these tools help you create, assign, and manage digital tasks that capture field activity, automate follow-ups, and ensure accountability — all within your existing workflows.

Things to Know:

• Requires App Designer, Process Automation, and Ticket Process Automation subscriptions.
• Each tool plays a distinct role: App Designer builds the form, Work Items track the task, and Process Automation connects the two through rules and triggers. 
• One form = one user: Each submitted form represents a single user action or event. 
• Linked items create visibility: When linked, forms, tickets, and map layers work together to provide a complete operational picture. 
• Automation rules scale your process: Trigger task creation, escalation, or completion automatically based on business conditions. 
• Design for reporting: Fields and form configurations determine what can be tracked later in Power BI. 

Key Benefits/Use Cases:

• Reduces manual work by automating repetitive processes
• Improves compliance through standardized workflows and data validation
• Enhances accountability with measurable ownership and outcomes
• Improves data consistency and compliance 
• Accelerates performance tracking through connected data and dashboards
• Inspection & Maintenance: Recurring inspections are linked as siblings, while failed inspections automatically generate child maintenance tasks. When an item is created or reaches its scheduled date and needs maintenance, automation creates a maintenance Work Item, assigns it, sets the due date, and closes the prior sibling — keeping compliance work clean, eliminating duplicates, and clearly showing ROI.
• Claims & Damages: Damage tickets link directly to claim forms, along with related tickets, notes, and attachments. When a ticket response, note, or keyword is added, automation creates a new claim record, alerts the legal team, and notifies the responsible party. The result is a strong, traceable claims process that integrates seamlessly with billing and legal workflows.
• Patrol & Surveillance: Regular patrols are logged as siblings, with new child records only created when additional work is required. When an item is created or an exception is logged, automation assigns the task by route or zone, closes the previous sibling, and sets a due date — helping keep data clean, prevent work item clutter, and support more accurate reporting.
• Unauthorized Excavation / Incident: [Incident forms link to tickets to track “dig without call” events. When a relevant keyword or new item is created, automation generates a child investigation task, ensuring rapid follow-up and improving visibility into high-risk incidents.
• Watch & Protect or Pigging: Recurring watch & protect or pigging activities are logged as siblings, with prior records automatically closed when a new one is created. When an item is created or the scheduled date arrives, automation creates a new record, assigns ownership, and applies pre- and post-checklists — making repeated processes more efficient and standardized.
• Encroachment / Crossings : Public intake forms initiate an internal review and agreement workflow. When a submission is received, automation creates review tasks, alerts cross-functional teams (Ops, Legal, Damage Prevention, ROW), and auto-assigns follow-ups. This ensures all stakeholders remain aligned and coordinated throughout the process.

How They Work Together:

App Designer

App Designer lets you create custom digital forms that capture the data your workflows depend on.

Use it to:

• Design forms that fit your operational goals
• Capture consistent data with select field types intended to standardize format
• Apply conditional logic and required fields
• Use data lists and calculated fields to further reduce input errors
• Show or hide fields dynamically based on user responses

Tip: Use the Copy Data and Keep in Sync options to mirror values between forms and link fields for data continuity.

Best Practice: Define reporting requirements before building the form to ensure all necessary data fields exist for downstream analysis.

Work Items

Work Items act as digital task trackers — helping you manage assignments, ownership, and progress.

They can be:  

• Should be created automatically through forms or process automations; manual creation is strongly discouraged to maintain data consistency and linkage integrity
• Linked directly to forms or tickets for full visibility
• Used to assign ownership and measure accountability
• Monitored through reporting for completion and performance tracking

Linking connects forms, tickets, and map layers to build logical relationships.

Best Practice: Link Work Items to the relevant forms or tickets to maintain continuity between data capture and task execution.

Process Automation

Process Automation powers the logic behind your workflow, it simplifies and scales task management. 

It's a rule-based system that performs automated actions based on data or events — reducing manual intervention and improving timeliness.
Use it to:

• Create or assign Work Items automatically
• Trigger alerts, notifications, or escalations based on rules 
• Auto-close completed forms or tickets 
• Route follow-ups or tasks to the correct team or resource based on form or ticket events

Best Practice: Start with small, focused automation rules and expand as your processes mature.

Quick Wins:

• Audit open forms and close outdated ones automatically with Process Automation
• Convert recurring follow-ups into Work Items with automation triggers
• Use automation to escalate Work Items that remain open and incomplete after a set number of days
• Auto-close older, related forms when a new one is created to prevent clutter
• Use Automation to identifyy forms open longer than expected and surface them for action and review

Related Features/Next Steps:

• Review your current forms for gaps that impact downstream reporting 
• Identify manual steps that could be automated 
• Reach out to your Customer Success Manager or Sales Executive for workflow design recommendations
• Visit these related articles for more in-depth understanding:
  • App Designer Basics
  • Managing Form Details
  • Using Links to Connect Forms, Tickets, and Map Layers
  • Process Automation

Questions?  Contact us!