Although the concept of workflow management has been around for quite a while now, not all organisations have adopted it. Most Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) are either not aware of the concept or are already convinced that workflows are not for them. Often, the opinion is that workflow management is of use to larger enterprises only. Especially, for an organisation that has just started up or is just beginning to gain pace, setting up a workflow for the processes involved will be intense and time consuming. You are right, such enterprises won’t have a structured set of processes at an early stage and would constantly undergo change. Introducing workflow management in such an organisation may be futile. That’s the misconception.
Workflow management provides the right edges for your organisation to shape up, here is how..
Usually when you start working on a new project you have a fair idea of what’s ahead in store for you and what is necessary to accomplish it. However, a thought constantly lingers in your head, keeping you anxious if the steps you’ve taken are good enough to bring the desired outcome. You’d give anything to have an eagle’s view of the trail that you are set to travel in, and that’s exactly what workflow management provides you. A platform giving a detailed view of every intricate process taking place, the ‘what, why, where, who and how’ of each process. This insight enables you to alter strategies as and when required to achieve the set targets.
Once the target is set and the course of accomplishing it is established, you can assess the cause and effect of each existing process. There are many factors which stall the process from its successful completion, from the personnel handling the process, who may not be well informed; the process dependencies (hardware or software) which may not deliver the expected results, repetitive processes which jeopardize the flow.. etc., all of these can be avoided. Workflows allow you to map users to their tasks (which can be defined) ruling out the possibility of any miscommunication and enforcing employee accountability.
Keeping a tab on your resources will help you by large, specially when you are setting up shop. A workflow tool provides a holistic view of your existing resources and your requirements. Sam’s expertise is pizza baking but he is into sales and he sucks at it.. Workflows help you to map skills to requirements. You get a clear picture of the resources, human or otherwise, that each process requires for a smooth run. This improves the efficiency of each process and makes the whole cycle a lot more productive, saving you loads of time and money.
As your business grows, there’ll be a need every now and then to redesign processes. You may be required to introduce new processes, parts of which may overlap an existing one. It is important for every business to keep the flow of process agile for them to grow. Workflows not only provide details of the steps that cripple the flow of process, but also help in identifying better ways to run them. It helps you to redesign processes by giving an insight into each process’s objective and the larger goal. This removes unnecessary replication of processes and gets the flow of processes streamlined.
Workflow management software enables you to manage and utilize your resources to the best possible extent without having to trouble your IT guy. It just gets better as workflows today can easily be automated and doesn’t require a constant human watch-eye. Workflow Management FTW!
Sign up today for Kissflow Workflow to try for free!
