What's the big deal with workflows?

There has been tremendous progress in the way we do things today both professionally and personally but some fundamentals don't change. In our organizations we still need Managers who allocate work based on the skills available with his or her resources, monitor progress, a process to verify the quality and the final delivery. Few centuries ago this entire process was manual, a manager dictating work from his experience and expertise, workers completing it and another experienced person reviewing it .Then gradually tools like printing, typewriters and eventually computers replaced manual interactions and increased efficiency and speed.

What is a workflow?

Simply put, a workflow is a method of defining any process. Workflows define the steps followed in a process, the actors, the inputs and output which can be repeated, documented and learned. There are many business processes like Financial Transactions, Invoicing, Supply Chain Management, Order Management or Planning which are designed with well defined set of instructions to achieve a business goal. Workflows clearly delineate each task of how a business process is conducted by defining these four components:

• The set of Tasks
• The resources that complete the task
• The documents required
• The succession of tasks

Workflow Management System

A Workflow Management System is an automated system like a software application which streamlines a business process. Workflow Management System architecture includes-

• Process Definition - The procedures and the people who participate
• Client Interfaces - The function which invokes the workflow
• Applications - Applications invoked by the Workflow like mail systems and document management systems
• External Services - The interaction with multiple independent systems provided by vendors like product ordering, warehouse management and shipping
• Administrative Interface - This involves controlling and monitoring the workflow management system and services like logging events, managing users and allowing concurrent transactions

All these entities are connected by APIs (Application Program Interfaces).

Workflow Management Technology

Collaboration - Collaborative workflow systems are used in negotiations, decision making, delegation with a good control over players and each step of the process.

• Production- Production workflows work with well defined processes where high volume transactions are involved. Processes for claim settlement and invoicing are production workflow systems where actors are less important than the process. Production workflows are a collection of smaller workflows.
• Administrative - Administrative workflows are the third type which is a hybrid of Collaboration and Production workflows.
• Horizontal and Vertical Workflows - Horizontal Workflows span across the organization involving multiple people and departments. It is also called "routing" and is the most common of all workflows.

Vertical workflows are mostly automatic processing systems like database validations and automatic invoking of fields during a form fill-up. These algorithms are secure and trustable enough to be performed by machines. Vertical Workflows are called "Robotic" Workflows.

Benefits of a typical Workflow Management System

Cost Saving- These are the benefits directly reaped with lesser staff, increased productivity, decreased management overhead and less training. Control- A Work Management System helps automate tasks, reduce dependency on people and manages the flow of the business process. Reduced Management- It takes away micro management from managers by automating scheduling, review and quality control and helping them look into employee welfare, people management and handling larger teams. Increased Productivity-Moving to a Workflow based system increases employee productivity. With automated transactions, processing and access to unlimited data small set of employees can control large complex systems. Process Improvement- Process redesign is possible through Workflow Management Systems resulting in efficient tasks not possible in a manual system. Improved Customer Service- With increased information flow and better control over processes, employees can provide splendid solutions to customers thus increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Employee Satisfaction-Accomplishment achieved by using a workflow management system motivates employees. They can work on complex systems, see results and monitor performance. Decentralization- Multiple offices, centralized and remote teams can be managed to address peak production demands, cost savings and to get the benefits of increased productivity. Security and Administration- User authentication, access to sensitive data and other administrative functions can be managed without any manual monitoring.

Workflow implementation successes

A document processing company in Chicago had a system to measure productivity of handling forms, 150 applications per month per employee. With workflow implementation the numbers went up to 1200 forms per month. An international warehousing and good movement company by applying workflows reduced manpower by 20 percent, increasing volumes by 40 percent and reduced delivery delays and missing packages to less than 2%. With increased customer satisfaction, their customer support cost and claims went down considerably. Workflows helped a company in India bring down their service time from 10 days to 3 days with a reduced manpower and increased customer satisfaction, allowing them to meet all their targets.

How to Implement Workflows

The reasons Workflows are implemented are to improve internal processes, enhance production capacity, and reduce costs and manpower and to improve quality and customer satisfaction. The best way to adopt a Workflow system is to identify mature current processes which can be automated. A complete overhauling of all your business processes to implement Workflows is not recommended but if there is any re-engineering efforts planned, implementing them through Workflow would bring great benefits. Lotus notes, is a popular Workflow System for document processing with many business process modules and can be used to enhance office productivity, collaboration, messaging and accounting functions. Action Workflow System was one of the first vendors in the market.

A Workflow Management System is designed by experienced professionals and includes these components:

• A model for flow of work using transition diagrams
• Simulation tools to study the benefits of the system
• The document structures used in the Workflow
• Define Workflows using Workflow Process Definition Language (WPDL)

Introducing Workflow Management Systems is an opportunity to improve both the underlying business process and existing organizational structure. It is beneficial for the organization, motivation for your employees and value addition to your customers.