Escalation workflow via portal triggers

An escalation workflow is essential in scenarios where user-submitted issues, requests, or tickets need to be elevated to higher support tiers or management, based on criteria such as priority, status, or inactivity. You can build this efficiently using Power Pages, Dataverse, and Power Automate.

---

Key Use Cases

• Customer support ticket escalation
• Incident reporting escalation (e.g., safety, IT issues)
• SLA-based escalation (e.g., no action after 24 hours)
• Approval escalation in business workflows

---

Step-by-Step Implementation

---

Step 1: Setup Portal Form

In Power Pages:

• Create a form tied to a Dataverse table (e.g., Cases, Requests, Tickets).
• Include fields like:
  • Title
  • Priority
  • Description
  • Status
  • Submitted by
  • Submission Time

---

Step 2: Create Power Automate Flow

There are two approaches based on when escalation should occur.

---

Immediate Escalation on Form Submission

Trigger: When a row is added (Dataverse connector)
Conditions: Check if:

• Priority = “High”
• Type = “Complaint”
• Any custom field indicates escalation

Actions:

1. Create a Task or Activity for the escalated team.
2. Send email to escalation contacts.
3. Update the status field in Dataverse (e.g., set to “Escalated”).

---

Scheduled Escalation (e.g., no action in 24 hrs)

Use scheduled flow:

Trigger: Recurrence (e.g., every 6 hours)

Actions:

1. List rows from the table where:
   • Status = “Pending”
   • SubmissionTime <= now() – 1 day
2. For each row:
   • Send an escalation email
   • Create a notification activity
   • Update status to “Escalated”

---

Step 3: Notifying the Right People

Use dynamic actions in Power Automate to:

• Notify different users based on escalation level
• Send adaptive cards to Microsoft Teams
• Add records to a shared escalation tracker

---

Step 4: Portal Visibility (Optional)

• Show the escalation status in the portal with conditional formatting
• Use a status timeline or flag

---

Advanced Ideas

• Assign escalation levels (Level 1, 2, 3) with rules
• Auto-tag management or specific teams
• Integrate with Microsoft Teams to send alert cards
• Use Power Virtual Agents to escalate conversations

---

Security Considerations

• Limit who can escalate via role-based security
• Secure email addresses and escalation settings in environment variables
• Use Application Users with minimum privileges in Power Automate