Automating Notification of Support Plan Expiration

A.

The best approach for the System Administrator to automate the notification of a customer's support plan ending is to use a time-based workflow rule with an email action to notify the assigned Support Rep 30 days before the Support Plan Expiration Date.

Option A is the correct answer. Here's why:

A workflow rule is a declarative tool that allows automation of certain actions based on the occurrence of specific events or conditions in Salesforce. Workflow rules can be used to perform actions like updating fields, creating tasks, sending emails, and sending outbound messages.

In this scenario, the support team has asked for an automated email notification to be sent to the assigned Support Rep 30 days before the Support Plan Expiration Date. This requirement can be easily met using a time-based workflow rule.

To create the workflow rule, the System Administrator can follow these steps:

1. Go to Setup in Salesforce and search for Workflow Rules in the Quick Find box.
2. Click on Workflow Rules and then click on New Rule.
3. Select the object on which the rule should be based (in this case, it would be the Account object).
4. Define the rule criteria, which would be based on the Support Plan Expiration Date field.
5. Add a time-based trigger with a 30-day offset from the Support Plan Expiration Date field.
6. Add an email action to send an email to the assigned Support Rep.

By using a time-based workflow rule, the System Administrator can ensure that the notification email is sent automatically without requiring any manual intervention. This helps in reducing the workload of the Support team and ensures that the Support Rep is notified well in advance before the support plan expires.

Option B is not the best approach as it uses an immediate action to email the Support Rep with a due date of 30 days before the Support Plan Expiration Date. This approach does not take advantage of the time-based workflow rule, and the email would be sent immediately, rather than 30 days before the Support Plan Expiration Date.

Option C is not the best approach as it requires writing an Apex trigger, which is a more complex solution than using a time-based workflow rule. While it is possible to use an Apex trigger to send an email notification 30 days before the Support Plan Expiration Date, it would require more development effort and would not be as easily maintainable as a workflow rule.

Option D is incorrect as this requirement can be easily fulfilled using a time-based workflow rule.