Workflow. It may sound like a “buzzword” that gets thrown around by digitally focused companies but it’s actually so much more. It’s one of the main components in streamlining processes. When we say you can take more work off your hands and automate it instead, workflow is probably a part of that equation.
Routine tasks like routing a document over to another department for approval or sending email alerts to each party throughout a process can be automated with workflows.
Quick Implementations, Quicker results
Workflows on many systems come with ready to go, easy-to-configure drag and drop solutions. OnBase and SharePoint, for example, both come with a robust selection of point-and-click rules and actions that you can order and reorder to build out your process. Business users and IT admins both have the ability to create workflows in a user-friendly environment.
Once the workflow is built out, it accelerates your processes immediately. There is no real “wait time” to see the immediate return on your workflow. It starts right away, moving your tasks through the system, tracking them the entire time and taking all of the manual work off your plate.
The Workflow
With your “workflow toolbox,” you’ll be able to boost productivity, increase transparency and guarantee consistency. Here’s a look at one of the crowd favorite workflow processes.
Step 1
A document enters your system, maybe it’s a bill request or a new employee approval form, and it moves into your workflow.
Step 2
Based on the document type (you can tell your process what to look for to determine this) it’s sent off to the first person who needs to review, add more information and approve the document. It can be sent directly to their email or uploaded to your document management system. If it is directly uploaded and assigned to them, you can set up an automatic alert so they are notified that it’s in there.
Step 3
Once it’s added to their task queue, they can see all of the documents they need to work on, when they are due and, anything else you want them to have access to. Once they complete their end of the approval, they hit submit and it’s sent off to the next stage.
Step 4
After it’s gone through and been approved and reviewed by everyone you included, the document is then sent back to the original requester. Maybe it’s back to the hiring manager in a PDF format so they can reach out to the new hire and send it over to them. Or maybe it’s sent off to a local community member who requested approval on something. They can easily log in to a portal and see if it was approved, denied and access any comments you gave.
With workflow, it’s easy to see the difference and it’s the ultimate relief from mundane, manual tasks. It’s way more than a buzzword, it’s a simple fix that handles the complex processes that should no longer be manual in today’s world.
Learn more! Download the case study below to see how Radio One was able to decrease their workflows from 250 to 15 and create a single repository where all of their workflow processes could be stored and managed with SharePoint.
