Business process management, workflow : concepts & definitions

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Learn in 5 minutes what is a workflow and business process management tool!

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The concept of Workflow is nothing new. It dates back from computing tools spread in businesses (from the end of the 70’S). Workflow has a way much older history than the computing one : In the 20’S, in a context of booming industry, we already were using automation of certain administrative procedures.

Workflow definition : what is it about?

Workflow is about modeling different required tasks. It also implies the different actors of the business procedure fulfillment. It gives the opportunity to automate information flows between the different procedures of the company. As for the procedure, it is a set of correlated or interactive activities that turns input elements into output elements. A procedure can include activities done by different services, entities. More precisely, workflow allows business procedure automation. There are many workflows such as a holiday request, a new product launch or a customer file care…

We can count several types of workflows and we can sort them in categories depending on the operating environment:

Production Workflow, also called procedural or guiding workflow. It is a very structured workflow and strongly focused on procedure. It is about pre-established basic businesses procedures from the company…

Example : insurance contract, customer complaints…

The main softwares are: Filenet (IBM), SAP Business Workflow (SAP), Staffware…

Administrative workflow, it is a structured workflow focused on procedure. It deals with administrative management procedures…

Example : Mission orders, training requests…

The main softwares are : Oracle BPM Suite 11g, W4, BW2E, Bonita…

Ad-Hoc Workflow, it is a not much structured workflow that covers information. It treats management of secondary procedures which are non-determined.

Example : information notes flow

The main softwares are : Action Builder (IBM) or Teamware Flow

Cooperative or collaborative WorkFlow, when it comes to that, it is a not much structured workflow and focused on information. It handles procedures which are often evolving, and it is created for a work team.

Example : collaborative work, online team…

The main softwares are : IBM Notes (ex Lotus Notes), Exchange (Microsoft)

Workflow linked to CRM

CRM Tools (Customer Relationship Management) include the different business procedures of the company.

In fact, CRM is now a tool that helps decision and it has many features. Used at first plan to increase the company’s sales, CRM allows in a first plan defining customer profiles, identifying potential customers, win their loyalty and guarantee customer care, but also, other Marketing, IT, HR functionalities…

All that implies the setting of a multitude of workflows such as those which are used. Each of them will have obviously a particular setting: for instance, the setting for a HR recruiting management, will be evidently different from the emailing campaign one.

Therefore, each workflow follows a different procedure according to its operating environment. CRM allows in this way tasks and procedures setting within the business. Hence, we are dealing with workflow linked to CRM. In this case, Workflow will treat automatically and quickly the different tasks that the company has to lead.

Let’s take the example of an online order and let’s explain the different associated tasks to achieve this :

1. Shopping cart (selection of the desired item(s) )
2. Purchase request (cart validation)
3. Customer registration (filling the purchase form)
4. Order payment (redirection to the payment page by credit card)
5. Order completed (invoice creation)
6. Order reception (after sale customer care)

When a customer wants to order on an website, he has to complete these steps before achieving his request. All of these automated steps are joined with a workflow.

Customer Relationship Management will constitute a set of workflow, which provides an automation in the procedures of certains functions of the company. That is why it is essential to have an efficient and high-performance tool, which will make workflow management easy.

Easy CRM Tool, Simple Workflow Management:

Prediwell is a CRM Workflow hybrid software suitable for companies of all sizes.

His philosophy could be summed up in one sentence : an intuitive CRM solution giving the possibility, to automate easily the different tasks to lead in the business. Example : customer care(of contacts), historial of interactions, project process campaign customization, collaborative tool (team board), intuitive research of keywords and customizable Dashboards.

Prediwell guarantees the management of four main activities within the company, which are marketing, human resources, sales and IT.

This adaptable and simple to learn Customer Relationship Management allows us to :