ApproveThis manages your Plek Integration approvals.

When Your Intranet and Approval Process Finally Stop Ghosting Each Other

Let's be real – most company intranets are where good ideas go to die in a PDF graveyard. Plek's the exception, keeping teams actually talking. But here's the kicker: even the best collaboration tools hit a wall when someone needs to sign off on literally anything. That's where ApproveThis comes in – not with another clunky system, but by turning those "hey, can you approve this?" Slack pings into actual process.

We're talking about connecting Plek's social intranet with approval workflows that don't make people want to quit their jobs. No more digging through chat history to find who approved the budget. No more "I thought Janet was handling it" disasters. Just clear, tracked decisions that live where your team already works.

Why This Combo Doesn't Suck

Plek's great at getting people talking. ApproveThis is great at getting people to decide. Together, they fix the two biggest time-wasters in approvals:

• Approval limbo: That thing where requests get "lost" between email, chat, and whatever system you're actually using
• Context black holes: When approvers have zero idea why they're being asked to sign off on something

Here's the magic: ApproveThis handles the decision-making rigor, Plek handles the visibility. No more approvals happening in some siloed system that half the team can't access. No more "Wait, what's this request about?" delays.

Real Teams Using This Without Eye-Rolling

For HR Teams Who Hate Paperwork More Than You Do

Imagine onboarding a new hire without 17 approval emails. With Plek+ApproveThis:

1. HR posts a new hire announcement in Plek
2. Auto-triggers equipment approval in ApproveThis
3. IT approves laptop specs directly from email
4. Approved request auto-creates the user in Plek

Key thing here? The finance approver doesn't need Plek access to approve the budget part. They just get an email, click approve, and it's done. No licenses wasted on people who just need to say yes/no.

For Marketing Teams That Ship Fast Without Regrets

Your social post approval process shouldn't take longer than creating the damn post. Here's how it flows:

1. Marketer drops a draft in Plek with /approve command
2. Triggers legal/compliance review in ApproveThis
3. Auto-publishes to channels once approved
4. Denied? Comment thread stays in Plek for context

Bonus: Use calculated fields to auto-approve posts under $5k budget, but escalate anything higher. Saves 20+ hours/month for teams launching daily campaigns.

For IT Teams Tired of Being the Bad Guys

New software request comes through Plek? Instead of playing middleman:

1. Employee posts request in Plek's IT channel
2. Auto-creates approval workflow with security checks
3. Infopage auto-generated in Plek post-approval
4. Denied requests log reasons in Plek for transparency

Vacation delegation means if the CISO is out, requests auto-route to their deputy. No bottlenecks.

Setting This Up Without Needing an IT Degree

If you can make a sandwich, you can connect these tools. Here's the basic flow using Zapier:

1. Pick your trigger: Plek chat command, new post, etc.
2. Map key data: Pull request details into ApproveThis fields
3. Set approval rules: Thresholds, groups, escalation paths
4. Close the loop: Push approved decisions back to Plek

Pro tip: Start with one workflow – like content approvals. Get that running smooth before scaling to 50 departments.

Why This Isn't Just Another Integration

Most app integrations just shuffle data. This combo actually changes how teams work:

• Approvals become part of the conversation, not some separate hassle
• External partners can approve without getting Plek access
• Audit trails live in both systems – no more "check the other tool"

Example: A manufacturing client cut their equipment approval time from 14 days to 2 hours. How? By routing Plek requests through ApproveThis with conditional thresholds. Under $10k? Auto-approved with notification. Over? Escalate with context from Plek posts.

Cool Features You'll Actually Use

Beyond the basics, here's where this gets spicy:

Email approvals for external partners: Your vendor doesn't need a Plek login to approve the contract terms. They just reply to an email.

Real-time calculations: Auto-flag requests that exceed budget based on live data from Plek forms.

Approval groups that don't suck: Require 3/5 approvals from marketing? Legal + finance consensus? Set it once and forget it.

Who Should Steal This Setup

If your company has:

• More than 50 employees
• At least 3 departments that hate each other's processes
• One "overworked person" who manually routes approvals

...this isn't just nice-to-have. It's damage control.

How Not to Screw This Up

Common mistakes we've seen (and how to avoid them):

Don't: Try to automate every approval at once. Start with high-volume, low-risk processes.

Do: Use Plek's posts to document why something was approved/denied. Future-proof your audit trails.

Don't: Let departments create 500 approval templates. Enforce some standardization.

Do: Train approvers on email approvals – it's 90% of the time savings.

Bottom Line

Approvals shouldn't require a PhD in process mapping. By connecting ApproveThis and Plek, you're basically giving your teams guardrails, not handcuffs. Things get done faster, with less bickering, and actual visibility.

Ready to stop being the approval bottleneck? Get started with ApproveThis or schedule a demo to see how it plays with your Plek setup.

P.S. If you're still manually approving things in 2024, we need to talk. Like, urgently.