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Workflow management software

Written by Ana Canteli on 10 october 2017

Digital transformation has made more and more companies perceive the urgency, if not the need to increase efficiency in their business activities, grow the speed of their services and simplify their processes. Everything  with the aim of implementing continuous improvement in the company's overall vision. Those organizations that remain anchored in inefficient business processes not only lose productivity, but also suffer from lack of flexibility. They are not able to adapt to regulatory changes or customer requirements in a more dynamic and global economy.

Workflow management softwares helps companies manage and automate business processes. Known as BPM software, abbreviation for business process management , it is a tool designed for business activities, carried out by the staff. Organizations can use these management solutions, workflow software, to apply business rules, improve customer service – promoting customer retention - while reducing management costs. Workflow management system contribute to the continuous improvement of the workflow, facilitating the analysis of the processes, that allows to influence in the key capacities of the human, material and financial resources of the company.

For this reason, workflow software is necessary to have business solutions that allow us to multiply productivity in the organization; to help us take control of the activities and tasks that are part of the processes.

Workflow management software should enable us to:

• Automates repetitive tasks, freeing staff to carry out more meaningful and higher added value activities.
• Apply the business model to the processes, while obtaining statistical data that allow the analysis of the management of the products and services that are offered.
• Strengthens teamwork between departments and communication between staff; keeping synchronized all the people involved in each process.
• Workflow automates the quickly detection of incomplete tasks or procedures in each business process.

Process management solutions must incorporate the necessary documents or information into the workflow at the right time; to the appropriate person or department. It should allow us to automatically redirect the documentation or information in workflow defined in relation to the business process, and not based on technical stages.

OpenKM's BPM software incorporates a Workflow engine capable of supporting the most complex business rules. Because when we start to design a business process, we are sure to come up with 3 more processes, related to the first, which can be automated. The OpenKM workflow engine allows create, manage and modify simple and complex workflows in an intuitive, logic-based way. WYSIWYG stands for what you see is what you get. And using its own development platform, to maximize the design efficiency of worlflows.

So when we design a business process; if there are deviations between the goal sought and the results obtained we can always redesigned it. Key indicator performance or service level agreements indicators are critical to determine the suitability, utility and efficiency of the automation implemented.

In this aspect the feature of Reports, included in OpenKM allows us to obtain a real-time picture of the results produced by the designed workflow. We can also use service level indicators as an element to identify possible bottlenecks that may occur; redistributing the workload, or managing other types of solutions. Reports functionality is the tool that allows the detailed analysis of the results of the business process, which allows to rationalize efforts, and to propose improvements.
In addition OpenKM's document management and knowledge management system, incorporates the automatic notification utility. Users can continue their usual activities, knowing that they will receive an email notification, including pop-up warning; or update the status of the workflow icon, to inform them of the assignment of a new task.

On the other hand, it is possible that workflows contain sensitive information, which is not intended to be accessible to all members of the process. OpenKM's document management and knowledge management software applies multi-layer security control. 1st is necessary to have login and password to be able to enter the DMS of OpenKM. In second place, the allocation of roles - depending on our position in the organizational chart, belonging to a particular department or area, etc. - allows to manage access to documentation in a more efficient way. Third, it is possible to determine access to documentation (read privilege), in addition to exercising other privileges (editing, deletion, download ...) at the document level. And finally, thanks to the assignment of profiles, each user will have access to the adequate workflows related to their role.

From the workflow tab of the properties panel of any node in OpenKM (folder, email, record or document) we can check if there is any workflow linked to the node, and we can also check its status in real time.

Not least, mention the ability of any BPM software to integrate with third-party applications. Because throughout the life cycle of companies,they are incorporating more programs that contain information that can be part of a workflow. That's why OpenKM offers SDK's for Java, PHP and .NET that allow the company to now integrate - with a view to the future - the workflow management system with the rest of the company's suite of programs.

BPM software is the best option to automate business operations and increase business efficiency, streamline processes and build custom-made work routines that are focused on meeting organizational goals.