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Recently in the work to achieve a "process approval" function, access to information that workFlow technology can meet my needs, so began to settle down to learn this technology. The summary of the study materials are also taken out to share with you.

What is a workflow:

Workflow refers to a series of business activities or tasks that are connected to each other and carried out automatically.

A workflow generally includes tasks, their relationships, and their startup and termination conditions.

The situation of workflow in most practical applications can be described simply as follows: on the hardware platform of network, server and multiple computer clients, the business process is completed according to pre-set rules and with the help of applications and people to process the relevant data. For example, in daily work, after a report has been written, it may need to be submitted to the leader for review or approval; approval opinions may need to be collected and submitted to another person for further revision of the report. In this way, it is possible for the same document to be delivered sequentially or simultaneously among multiple individuals. In such cases, we can use workflow technology to control and manage the automatic transfer of documents between computers rather than manually. This can be called a workflow.

Similar automated processing of documents is just a simple application of workflow technology. In fact, workflow technology can accomplish more and more complex tasks in real life. Such as the automatic processing of all kinds of data or information within the enterprise (or organization), the integration of a variety of business processes, the data exchange between enterprises (or institutions), the cross-regional data transmission and processing with the help of Internet technology, and so on.

The development of workflow:

Workflow technology originated from the research in the field of office automation in the mid-1970s. Because the computer was not yet popular at that time, the level of network technology was still very low and the theoretical basis was lacking, this new technology did not succeed. From 1983 to 1985, early commercial systems with workflow features appeared in the field of image processing and e-mail.

After entering the 1990s, with the popularization and promotion of personal computer and network technology, as well as the increasing improvement of information construction, the research and development of workflow technology has entered a new upsurge. In August 1993, the first industrial organization for workflow technology standardization-Workflow Management Alliance (Workflow Management Coalition, referred to as WFMC, the same below) was established. In 1994, the Workflow Management Alliance issued a workflow reference model for interoperability between workflow management systems, and successively formulated a series of industrial standards. At the same time, the academic research on workflow technology is also very active, and many prototype systems have been developed in the laboratory. Since the beginning of the 21 century, workflow technology has been recognized by more and more people, and the related standards, workflow engines and commercial products are numerous. While developing and popularizing workflow products, people pay more attention to the theoretical research of workflow in order to promote the maturity of this technology.

Characteristics of workflow:

1, graphical and visual design flow chart

2. Support a variety of complex processes

3. Organizational structure-level processors specify functions

4Bhand S structure, pure browser application

5. Strong security features

6. The form is powerful and easy to expand.

7, flexible strategy of going out and overtime management

8. The process can be tracked and managed.

9, rich functions of statistics, query and report

10, integrate with MAIL system

Advantages of workflow:

The benefits brought by the implementation of workflow management in enterprises are very obvious. this includes improving enterprise operation efficiency, improving the utilization of enterprise resources, improving the flexibility and adaptability of enterprise operation, improving work efficiency, focusing on core business, tracking business processing process, quantitatively assessing the efficiency of business processing, reducing waste, increasing profits, and giving full play to the role of existing computer network resources. The implementation of workflow will shorten the enterprise operation cycle, improve the internal (external) processes, optimize and make rational use of resources, reduce human errors and delays, and improve labor productivity.

The benefits of implementing workflow can be summarized as follows:

1, the task to be handled has been automatically transferred to the personal computer

2. It is no longer necessary to train employees in the process, and realize the process change smoothly.

3. Employees only need to focus on dealing with the data they care about.

4. Get historical data at any time

5. Generate processing efficiency reports at any time

6. Achieve the goal of paperless office.

7. Fully support mobile office and synchronize jobs

8. Scientific management has been further improved, and office efficiency has been significantly improved.

9. The core competitiveness of enterprises will be improved.

10. Improve the decision-making ability through the integration of process automation and database, as well as the statistical query function of various forms.

Implementation of workflow:

The implementation of workflow requires three basic steps: mapping, modeling and management.

Mapping is the first step, and its first task is to identify and document all existing manual and automated business processes within the organization

Modeling is to develop a model that helps to build a streamlined business process.

The third stage is software implementation and seamless system integration across all work departments, business units and even the entire enterprise.

Specific steps for developing a workflow:

In order to ensure that the workflow system can be implemented "seamlessly" into the organization, the project team must follow the defined and proven working methods, and must have measurable results at each work stage. A thoughtful implementation plan executed by an experienced team is a decisive factor in the successful adoption and implementation of workflows. The following figure describes a recommended high-level workflow (implementation process) that can be adopted by a typical organization. The following steps are described in detail in the figure.

1. Establish a project management office

The composition of the project management office is the first and most important step. The members of the Project Management Office must be carefully selected, and they must represent, to an appropriate extent, the business, operations, IT and audit departments within the organization. Product experts, technical support personnel and managers from the product supplier must also be involved to complement users. Change management consultants are often included in the PMO, which helps to diversify the thinking of people in the organization. The roles and responsibilities of each member must be clearly defined. PMO establishes the implementation scope, goal, time frame and priority of the project as a whole. PMO is also responsible for managing and tracking the progress of the project, setting indicators for testing the success of the project, and reporting the status of the project to senior management on a regular basis.

2. Business analysis

The project team will analyze the user's existing business processes, find out which processes need to be optimized and improved to achieve better results, and analyze the timeline and expected results of each process. They will hold discussions with key personnel to collect and identify the correct information and data to determine how the workflow system meets the needs. The next business analysis will identify which processes can be optimized, automated, streamlined, and even need to be redesigned.

3. Determine the goal

The determination of the best goals is based on a detailed analysis of the business process. The goal definition of the workflow project should be clear and verifiable, and a good goal means the success of the project. At each stage of the implementation process, the project team must ensure that the results achieved are the results they expect. For example, if the goal is to shorten the invoicing cycle by two weeks, you must analyze existing time tracking, bookkeeping, and invoicing processes.

4. Determine the implementation plan

After the goal is established, the project team composed of users and software vendors shows the various modules of the workflow solution, defines their functions and features according to the specific needs put forward by users, and based on the priority of the business, jointly determine the launch time of each module.

5. Model the business process in the workflow system

Building a business model in the implementation process is a very important step. Users should work closely with software product application experts to strike a balance between ease of use and functional requirements.

Users can test the model before the deployment phase to ensure that the model meets the actual requirements and does not have too much overhead. It should be pointed out that if this modeling step is not completed correctly, it will result in incorrect reports or redundant management work.

6. Realize process and software integration

At this stage, the project team will identify existing processes and systems that need to interact with the workflow system. If not handled properly, the integration of old and new processes will lead to failure. An important aspect of process integration is to eliminate or minimize redundant data between multiple systems and replicate it across multiple systems. Processes must be tightly integrated and data must flow smoothly across different processes and applications.

The project team must also ensure that the workflow system complies with the security standards of the user organization, which is often overlooked before the deployment phase.

7. Deploy the workflow system

The deployment of workflow system includes two parts. The first part is naturally the technical part, which covers the installation, backup, recovery and network installation of hardware and software, which is similar to the general implementation of IT applications.

The second part refers to the on-line trial run. The commissioning team should be truly representative. The project team must communicate with the commissioning team about the importance of the project and ensure that adequate training is provided to enable the commissioning team to be comfortable with the commissioning work. It is suggested that the project team should establish a clear communication channel to ensure timely feedback on users' opinions and suggestions during trial operation. The trial run will enable the project team to identify the weaknesses and shortcomings of the original design and plan, and solve them before large-scale online operation. This can also increase user acceptance of the new process because users feel that they are also involved in the development part of the project and that the solution is not imposed on them.

It is generally believed that the phased implementation of workflow system can make users get benefits more quickly. Because users can learn the new system step by step more effectively and achieve immediate benefits. Phased implementation also gives users more time to understand and evaluate their further needs, making it easier to modify during project implementation. In addition, phased implementation of the project reduces the risk.

8. System evaluation

In particular, after each phase is completed, the project team should evaluate the completed results based on the goals set at the beginning of the project, analyze the results achieved and compare them with the original design goals. To ensure that the workflow solution optimizes better results in the existing business environment, the project team must regularly monitor, evaluate, and communicate to understand what needs to be changed.

9. System support

In order to ensure successful implementation and better use of workflow software, organizations must invest in services, appoint professionals to provide first-line services, and be responsible for signing contracts with suppliers to obtain second-level support.

Workflow applicable industry:

Consumer goods industry, manufacturing, telecommunications services, banking and securities insurance and other financial services, logistics services, property services, property management, large and medium-sized import and export trading companies, government institutions, research institutes and educational services, especially large multinational enterprises and group companies.

Specific application of workflow:

Key business processes: order, quotation processing, procurement processing, contract review, customer phone processing, supply chain management, etc.

Administrative management: travel application, overtime application, leave application, car application, all kinds of office supplies application, purchase application, daily weekly newspaper and other administrative forms that were originally handled by manual circulation.

Personnel management: staff training arrangements, performance evaluation, job change processing, employee file information management, etc.

Financial related categories: payment request, receivable processing, daily reimbursement processing, travel reimbursement, budget and plan application, etc.

Customer service category: customer information management, customer complaints, request processing, after-sales service management and other management.

Special service category: ISO series corresponding process, quality management corresponding process, product data information management, trade company customs declaration processing, logistics company cargo tracking processing and other tasks gradually completed by manual flow through the form can be automatically and standardized implemented by workflow software.

As a mature and stable workflow product, it not only provides intelligent management of daily office and key business processes, but also can easily and conveniently customize various processes at any time according to the special actual requirements of the company. and can achieve different roles and different tracking, query, statistics, printing and other powerful functions

Reflection:

Many organizations have ambitious plans to take back lost time and gain competitive advantage, hoping to make a big stride, deeper (enterprise or multi-level), wider (multi-application), and faster (short time) into the digital workflow era. I often find that they fail miserably for many reasons. According to my personal experience, it is wise to start on a small scale and grow as the workflow grows. Phased implementation provides a smooth way to transition to a new process. As users see the benefits, it makes it easier for users to accept the new workflow. Another reason for phased implementation is that users cannot afford to discard the entire process at once and start from scratch. Organizations should focus on finding their "sore spots" in the most inefficient parts of the current business process, and then use the "case-driven" principle to influence them.

Organizations must also recognize that administrative power and corporate culture must be taken into account when planning to implement a new workflow.

The last key element of success is "people". When we change business processes, technology is one aspect, but the bigger challenge comes from employees. Indeed, digital workflow systems should be carried out in stages to enable people to gain experience "gradually" rather than "revolutionarily".

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Author: wbliu001

Source: CSDN

Original: https://blog.csdn.net/liuwenbiao1203/article/details/53157162

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