An Introduction to Workflow Management

Challenges
The Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) characterizes the constant improvement of product, service and process quality. An important prerequisite for the CIP is the definition of business processes to make improvement and automation potential visible and to implement improvements on a process basis. Particularly in large companies, great successes can be achieved through Workflow Automations. On the other hand, undocumented, incomplete or faulty business processes make the continuous improvement process more difficult. In addition, CIP is an important component of quality management in accordance with DIN ISO 9001. This standard is based, among other things, on the principle of a process-oriented approach. For certification to this standard, companies have to demonstrate a process-based quality management system that enables them to maintain and continuously optimize a certain level of quality.

Benefit
With a Workflow Management Tool, you do not only model your company processes, but also ensure that they are executed correctly and automatically. By mapping your business processes, e.g. in BPMN 2.0, you create transparency and fulfil an important part of ISO 9001. At the same time, you can identify errors and weak points with the real-time monitoring component of the Workflow Tool and thus contribute to a continuous improvement of your process flows. In addition to increased employee and customer satisfaction, the process improvements lead to a higher productivity and cost-efficiency for your company.

Challenges
Onboarding is crucial for companies because the integration of new employees has a major impact on their further development and productivity. It determines whether they feel welcome, enjoy working with the company and integrate well into the team and company. The onboarding process starts shortly after the contract is signed. From then on, the employee's equipment must be ordered in time, the course of the first working days must be organized and potential contact persons must be identified. In addition to the HR department, the IT department and various other departments are integrated in the preparations. Keeping track of this and coordinating who needs to be active at which point is not so easy.

Benefit
A Workflow Management Software can support you in the necessary preparations and the fulfilment of the ToDo’s. Thanks to effective task management and document management as well as automated workflows, everyone involved in the process knows when and how they can contribute to a successful onboarding. To this end, the responsible team members automatically receive notifications when tasks have been assigned to them or changes have been made. Should the onboarding process ever stop, the comprehensive monitoring functions and ready-to-use dashboard make it possible to identify directly where the problem lies.

Challenges
Another typical use case for Workflow Management Software is an approval workflow. According to internal and external compliance rules, business-critical processes require approval by defined responsibilities. This applies, for example, to the approval of invoices or the publication of press releases in marketing. When coordinating such multi-level approval requests via e-mail alone, chaos is inevitable. Meeting deadlines is also a major challenge.

Benefit
With a Workflow Management Tool, you avoid e-mail and filing chaos. Instead, you define directly in the tool who can submit which approval requests, who is the right approver for which business process and how the workflow should take place. This means that you can easily comply with both internal rules and legal regulations. The uniform and transparent documentation also provides all relevant information for the audit. At the operational level, a Workflow Tool leads to more transparency: Thanks to the people-driven dashboard view, the processing status and the process progress of the individual workflows can be viewed in the Workflow Management Tool in real-time.