Yesterday, Kansas City Life Insurance hosted a User Group Meeting with us in Kansas City, MO. We love creating these events because they give customers the chance to meet and really talk about the ins and outs of using OnBase. Steve Ropp, Senior VP of Operations with Kansas City Life, and Dean Hill, Applications Systems Analyst/Programmer III also with Kansas City Life, both presented and shared how they have evolved with OnBase.
Implementing Workflow
One of our favorite takeaways from their presentation was the fun way they implemented workflow with their employees. Getting people in the habit of using workflow can be challenging at times. And holding everyone accountable is not always fun. To combat these challenges, they created the “Work Flow Bill of Rights”.
In here, they outlined “Realistic Expectations” for using workflow like recognizing that it is a “tool available to manage your operations”, it is not the end-all be-all. While it definitely takes on the “heavy lifting”, at the end of the day employees are still the ones making the decisions. We’re not living out the plot of I, Robot yet, everyone. People still have a very important role in automation and knowing what to expect going in makes the transition much easier.
Communication Gap
Another aspect they brought to light was bridging the “Communications Gap”. Implementing OnBase brings both the Operations and Technical teams together. However, both of these teams are likely to use jargon specific to their jobs. The bill encourages each team to learn how the other talks so at the end of the day, everyone understands each other. How neat is that?
The fifth section is called “Incremental Approach” which talks about looking for new “opportunities to introduce workflow processes” whenever possible. The main goal of this line in the bill is to have everyone look at workflow the way the aliens in Toy Story look at “the claaaawwww”. With an open mind and an excitement for the program you can see new opportunities and ways to expand every day! Being able to evolve with OnBase is one of the main draws to the program and one of the best ways to push that evolution is by encouraging the people using it to look for improvements.
Everyone takes on a switch to OnBase in their own way and it is really neat to hear about these different processes. If you are about to add on to your existing automation platform or implement an entirely new one, consider introducing a few of them with a fun twist like Kansas City Life Insurance. If you have already created a new way of looking at workflow or OnBase in general, comment below and share. We would love to hear about it! Who knows, maybe you will even be our next blog post?