Workflow Management

Workflow automation software helps design, execute, and automate simple to complex business processes based on pre-defined business rules where tasks, files, and data are routed between people and systems to accomplish the task. It helps automate time-consuming, repeatable manual work, which helps improve process efficiency and speeds up regular business tasks.

Organizations automate business processes with workflow software to improve employee productivity, improve task completion accuracy, ensure process auditability, and enable accountability.

The applicability of workflow automation software is enormous. You can automate relatively simple processes, such as expenditure approval for an employee to much more complex processes spanning across departments in your organization.

Irrespective of the industry, workflow software can be used to automate processes like these and more-

• Finance – Expense approvals, Capex requests, salary changes, accounts payable, grants management
• Purchasing – Procurement process, vendor management, invoice approvals
• Operations – Complaint management, maintenance requests
• IT – IT service requests, security access requests, new project requests, change requests, new account setup
• Legal – Contract reviews, client intake
• HR – Employee onboarding, employee offboarding, timesheets, benefits changes
• Sales – Pricing discounts, proposal approvals, quote approvals
• Facilities – Resource scheduling, facility access

The main difference between workflow management and business process management is that workflow management tools are more geared towards organizing people and documents. BPM, on the other hand, is much more focused on a business’s processes and how they can be managed or improved. Once a process is defined and deployed it is the ongoing analysis of it rather than just making sure the right person is on the right task or that a specific document has been sent.

Where business process management focuses on the entire business process, workflow software focuses on single tasks, which makes it ideal for managing documents and people.

Both solutions are designed to help you streamline your business operations and manage workflow automation.

While you are assessing vendors for the software, make sure you are keeping an eye out for the below features-

• Intuitive process builder that is easy to use to create, edit, and share workflows
• Visual form designer with rich and user-friendly design controls
• Reporting and Monitoring to ensure your project is on time
• Access control feature to ensure data accuracy and security. With role-based rights for access to users, you can assign work steps to particular users and control viewing or editing rights
• The alerts feature ensures that your team does not miss any deadline
• Easy Integration using APIs and prebuilt connectors with other systems that you might be using, such as CRM software or any other business applications, is a must
• Data security is extremely important. The software must have browser security, encryption, role-based access controls, and password-protected files.

Benefits of workflow management software are:

• Enhanced cost savings
• Improved process efficiency
• Continuous process improvement
• Process flexibility for quick changes
• Increased employee productivity
• Better collaboration
• Increased transparency and accountability
• Enhanced customer experience