Workflow Management: Streamlining Business
Goods and services must be produced both faster and smarter through teamwork and efficiency. Only those companies with innovative staff, products, services, and short development cycles will prosper.
Workflow management, a strategy for automating business processes, is a powerful tool for translating the collaborative vision into real-world business applications with clear and measurable paybacks. The aim of workflow management is to streamline the components of various office systems by eliminating unnecessary tasks (and the costs associated with the performance of those tasks) and automating the remaining tasks in a process.
Workflow management is the effective application of information technologies to internal business processes in order to accelerate the collaborative and creative processes that drive innovation. The goal of workflow software technology is the creation of a single environment for managing the complexities multiple-office automation environments. As software has moved from individualized solutions with dedicated functionality to integrated groupware solutions, workflow has evolved as a metaphor for the efficient coordination of multiple workgroups using multiple technologies.
Most workflow products support two basic functions:
Tools for mapping business processes, which might be defined sets of routes, roles, and rules for the movement of documents and tasks.
Implementation of those business processes through linkages with a company's computer network, shared databases, and email systems, so that information can flow through the organization at a controlled and efficient pace.
This flowchart illustrates a basic workflow process for approving an increase to a customer's credit limit:
