WORKFLOW PROCESS MANAGEMENT

WHAT IS WORKFLOW?

Workflow represents a sequence of particular, repeatable activities or tasks that can produce a specific business outcome (product or service). A workflow include combination of several different people, machines or systems. We can distinct 2 types of workflows that are used to meet specific, customer requirements:

Parallel workflow – occurs when multiple tasks are performed at the same time;
Sequential workflow – occurs after completion of a previous step.

It is strongly important to make a difference between workflow and project management. In workflow management, the focus is on the smaller set of tasks that can be translated in the workflow system that produces a single income. Project management, at the same time, contains larger number of workflows, activities and tasks and focus is on completing the whole project.

However, we can make another difference between workflows, based on their automation capability:

Manual workflow: every manually occurred task, for example, writing and signing documents
Semi – automated workflow – only parts of process are automated.
Fully automated workflow – all tasks are automated and ran in specific software, following defined business rules. By automating, organisation get faster and better process outcomes and deliver a better experience for a client.

BENEFITS

Streamline internal workflow by reducing manual entry and request handling

Allow staff and management to focus on value-added projects and tasks.

Identify and remove process barriers or bottlenecks.

Better compliance with policies and regulations with clear responsibilities and data-based audit trails

Improved agility by adapting standard workflows to meet changing operational needs

Eliminated most of the tedious upfront work of each task which leads to more efficient processes

Let’s take a quick dip into Workflow Management

Workflow management is organisational discipline that is made of procedures. They represents how workflow is set up within the project or organisation and how to apply it to tasks or processes. It helps organisations to analyze, organize and coordinate business processes by looking at all of them individually.

Workflow management ensures that people, machines and systems included in a specific process are coordinated in an effective way in order to prevent redundancies and bottlenecks. Systems allow users to to define different workflows for different types of jobs or processes.

The main role of workflows is to connect tasks and automate repetitive ones for greater efficiency. By applying Workflow Process Management all aspects of organisations are running optimally: resources are used properly, number of errors and time wasted on repetitive tasks are reduced, teams become more productive and different software systems become integrated which leads to more cost-efficient businesses.