Workflow Ideas

Paperless Workflow or "The Paperless Office" both sound like great ideas but surprisingly, many businesses, large and small still rely on paper-based communication to manage requests, complete forms and even communicate (interoffice mail envelopes are still in use). At last estimate, 5 million tons of office paper was still being used each year in the U.S. alone. We cover more on… View More

There are a lot of software vendors out there that can help you with workflow. However, there are some key questions you should be prepared to ask before making a shortlist of vendors. We offer five questions you might want to lead with. What are the integration options? Vendors have different… View More

When we talk to businesses about workflow automation for the first time we often hear that for a long time they A) didn't know they had a problem and B) had no idea what to do when they realized they actually had a problem. We think this is understandable given that "workflow" isn't necessarily something people spend a lot of time thinking about unless they're in a business that centers around… View More

Marty Herbert at NeoSystems recently blogged about "Common Pain Points in Government Contracting" and brought up a great point about the importance of having "the ability to identify bottlenecks" in a business process. While it's especially true in the government contracting sector, bottlenecks in any… View More

Alignment with organizational goals and policies This is probably a given, but any workflow automation project should be born out of the goals of an organization and designed to follow the instituted policies. Often workflow automation is brought in because the organizational goal is to improve efficiency or internal customer service. The project should adhere to those… View More

Sharing Knowledge Matters We were recently named to KMWorld's "100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management" which awards "solutions designed to help users and customers find what they need whenever and wherever they need it … and what they need is the ability to access, analyze and share… View More

For most organizations, decisions are rarely made in a vacuum. Organizations require some level of structure to ensure corporate policies are adhered to and critical decisions receive the proper checks and balances before action is taken. Sometimes this is due to regulatory or compliance pressure, sometimes it’s simply organizational due diligence. In many cases, decisions are synonymous with “approvals.” Someone has made a… View More

Individual process optimization projects (whether part of an existing BPM effort or performed in isolation) can provide substantial productivity gains. But which processes are ripe for automation/optimization? Here are some general guidelines to consider when you go process automation hunting: Review Examples and Brainstorm Sometimes the best way to generate ideas is to look at existing… View More

The easiest thing to do when faced with the idea of automating your department or company's processes is to simply do nothing. Doing nothing feels safe and economical especially when the alternative may require resources and change. But how safe is doing nothing? And how economical is it? Let's look at a few process automation scenarios: The Cost of Making Mistakes Regulatory pressures are not the only thing… View More

As more and more companies embrace the idea of automated business workflow, we thought we'd stop and document some of the great ways we've seen customers incorporate workflow automation throughout their organization. Looking to inspire the rest of your company to get on the automation wagon? Print it out and just casually leave it lying around the office. They'll get the hint. Automation… View More