If you’re a business owner, you’d most probably want to organize and keep your processes or transactions flowing smoothly
in order to achieve success and growth for your business. You’d most likely try to find all the solutions that you can in order
to coordinate tasks effectively between people & synchronize data between systems in order to increase responsiveness
and ultimately improve profitability.
Your goal in implementing an effective workflow is to automate your employee’s task and activities at the same time reduce
the effort & time it takes to do a certain process. Because you aim to improve efficiency, with the automation of your
workflow you’ll be able to reduce errors caused by human interaction.
When we come to think of it, implementing an effective workflow automation tool should be easy and simple. You may have
all your processes already lined up & all you need is to automate & digitalize them, right? But, that’s hardly ever the case.
A number of things could prevent a highly efficient workflow system. Whether it may be an overly-complex software,
processes that are unclear, or improvised workarounds, an enterprise workflow software can often bring in more chaos than
stopping it.
Let’s discover some common failures in automating workflows and figure out ways on how to avoid them:
Most implementations start with too much excitement around the new tool that people may marvel at how easy and
user-friendly it is while gaining new possibilities. You have launched the product and everyone is very impressed. The
company may even bring in an expert to help set up some of the initial forms and workflows. But that’s where it ends as no
one enforces the use of the enterprise workflow system. People are free to use it whenever they want but are not trained
properly nor are they encouraged or rewarded to do it.
You may have your IT director feeling satisfied by being the one to bring in the software and buying the licenses, yet the
workflow system starts decaying down to its digital half-life after it goes live.
WAYS TO AVOID THIS FAILURE:
• Provide a comprehensive training beyond a demo to users who are responsible for creating workflows.
• Integrate your workflow tool with your other core apps for easy sharing.
Another failure for an enterprise workflow software is only managing the flow and not the work. For instance, a contract
approval where your workflow system might track the sequence of sign-offs needed, yet the contract still needs to be printed off and signed at each step. This leads to a file named something like FinalFinalContract4-JimVersion2.docx.pdf. Workflow management tools can’t be just a parallel system that tracks approvals while the real work is done outside the system.
WAYS TO AVOID THIS FAILURE:
• You have to make sure that when the final step is completed, the work is actually done.
• Integrate your workflow tool with your other core apps for easy sharing.
Another failure for an enterprise workflow software is only managing the flow and not the work. For instance, a contract
approval where your workflow system might track the sequence of sign-offs needed, yet the contract still needs to be printed off and signed at each step. This leads to a file named something like FinalFinalContract4-JimVersion2.docx.pdf. Workflow management tools can’t be just a parallel system that tracks approvals while the real work is done outside the system.
WAYS TO AVOID THIS FAILURE:
• You have to make sure that when the final step is completed, the work is actually done.
• Integrate your workflow tool with your other core apps for easy sharing.
Another obvious failure is when you automate a flawed system. Forcing a workflow management tool onto a poorly run
process means delivering poor results faster than ever. A workflow automation tool can never correct an inefficient process.
In most cases, enterprises may digitize and automate processes that were always a source of confusion and chaos without
going through the important work of making sure the process is ready for it. According to Bill Gates, “...automation applied
to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency...automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the
inefficiency.”
WAYS TO AVOID THIS FAILURE:
• Analyze & Improve your process before automating it.
• Interview people involved in the process and ask them how it can be improved.
Another obvious failure is when you automate a flawed system. Forcing a workflow management tool onto a poorly run
process means delivering poor results faster than ever. A workflow automation tool can never correct an inefficient process.
In most cases, enterprises may digitize and automate processes that were always a source of confusion and chaos without
going through the important work of making sure the process is ready for it. According to Bill Gates, “...automation applied
to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency...automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the
inefficiency.”
WAYS TO AVOID THIS FAILURE:
• Convince process owners to do quarterly reviews of their workflows and identify areas for improvement.
• Don’t Fall Into the Traps
Starting an enterprise workflow automation project is not an easy task and that there are plenty of failures to prove it. Yet
workflow management tools are supposed to bring order and clarity to your business processes, and not more chaos. Avoid
these common failures, and you’ll be well on your way to seamless communication and a smooth-sailing business with
nothing to do but go up. For comments, suggestions or any inquiries, you may leave them below or check out our site at
streamline.com for more details on how to utilize effective workflow automation & avoid failures that may hinder your
business’ growth.
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