CiviCase is the Case Management component of CiviCRM. It provides a way to track and manage a sequence of interactions between people in your organisation and contacts. In addition to tracking and managing your organisation's interactions with clients or constituents, CiviCase can also manage internal organisational interactions.

CiviCase was originally developed for use in human services case management settings. However it has subsequently been adopted by a wide variety of organizations including:

• Managing legislator-constituent interactions
• Helping clients with emotional health or substance abuse problems
• Tracking application process for educational programs

CiviCase tracks interactions in two ways: as cases and as activities.

Activities are single interactions. For example, if a constituent calls to request information and the staff person directs them to a website, it would be recorded as an activity, with a brief description of how the staff person followed-up.

Cases are used to track more complex interactions or communication processes. Multiple activities can be grouped together into one case, and these activities can be optionally structured in a timeline. A case can be used to track a specific workflow that must be followed, for example: a client fills out an intake form, then has an initial meeting with a staff person, and finally receives a certificate from the organisation for meeting certain goals.

Check out the Case Management section in "Understanding CiviCRM" for more details. You can test-drive CiviCase using the online demo (navigate to Others > Cases after logging in).