4 min read

Process Automation: The Meaning of Complexity

By Catie Leary on Dec 5, 2023 10:14:00 AM

process-complexity-spaghetti-junction

Business processes are the lifeblood that keeps organizations thriving. Yet, not all processes are created equal. Some are straightforward and linear, while others resemble labyrinths with multiple twists and turns. Welcome to the world of process complexity, where the challenges of managing intricate workflows can lead to a cascade of issues that significantly impact operational efficiency and compliance.

In this article, we explore the world of complex processes and dive deep into one of the most frequent components of complex processes — approvals. Whether you're navigating the convoluted paths of complex processes or cruising down simpler workflows, our insights will help you make an informed choice when selecting an automation solution that aligns with your unique needs.

Complex processes vs. simple processes

Suppose you’re deciding between investing in a robust process automation platform or opting for an off-the-shelf SaaS solution. You must first determine whether your process is simple or complex.

Simple business processes are typically straightforward and linear, with minimal decision points and a limited number of steps. In contrast, complex business processes are characterized by their intricacy, involving numerous decision points, conditional pathways, and interactions across various departments or stakeholders.

Managing complex processes manually or through inadequate process automation tools can result in increased operational costs, higher error rates, compliance risks, and bottlenecks. Organizations can avoid these headaches by implementing a robust process automation solution specifically designed to handle complexity, like Process Director. Such a solution can streamline workflows, reduce error rates, ensure compliance, and mitigate bottlenecks, ultimately driving operational efficiency and cost savings.

Of course, while robust process automation solutions excel at handling complexity, they may be overkill for relatively simple and straightforward processes. When dealing with simple processes, opting for a less sophisticated Software as a Service (SaaS) solution could be a more cost-effective and efficient choice.

Four telltale signs of a process complexity

By accurately assessing the complexity of your workflows, you can ensure you are leveraging the right level of automation to enhance efficiency without tacking on unnecessary complexity. But how do you know if your processes are complex?

Here are four indicators that you're dealing with a complex process:

Responsible for sensitive information

You need a secure way to handle trade secrets, financial data, and personal information.

Rigorous regulatory & data integrity standards

You need to maximize traceability and quality control so you can prevent errors and close compliance gaps.

Sophisticated routing & integrations

You have intricate approval processes and must integrate data spanning multiple departments or parties.

Advanced conditional logic required

You need a smarter system with workflow options that change dynamically based on specific attributes.

Process complexity in approval workflows

Let’s zero in on how complexity actually manifests in processes with an example. 

As one of the most critical facets of business operations, approval workflows can make or break operational efficiency. That’s why it should come as no surprise to learn that approvals frequently exhibit all four signs of process complexity. Here’s how:

  • Sensitive information handling: Complex approvals often involve reviewing and authorizing critical documents and decisions, such as financial transactions or access to sensitive data. Ensuring a secure and confidential handling of this information is paramount to prevent data breaches or unauthorized access.
  • Regulatory and data integrity standards: Many approval workflows are subject to strict regulatory guidelines, especially in industries like healthcare and finance. Compliance with these standards is non-negotiable, requiring meticulous tracking, auditing, and quality control to avoid costly errors or compliance gaps.
  • Sophisticated routing and integrations: Approval processes can span multiple departments or even external stakeholders, necessitating seamless integration and data exchange. Ensuring that the right people or groups review and approve documents in the correct order is vital for efficient and compliant operations.
  • Advanced conditional logic: Complex approvals often involve intricate decision-making criteria. For example, approval may be contingent on specific attributes or conditions being met, such as budget thresholds or compliance with company policies. These rules require a sophisticated automation system to ensure accurate and consistent decision-making.

Complex processes often involve intricate approval workflows that can make or break operational efficiency. Approvals demand a level of sophistication and precision that standard automation tools may struggle to provide.

To accommodate complex approval needs, process automation solutions like Process Director can leverage a range of different approval types. Let's examine three approval types frequently encountered in complex processes.  

1. Conditional approvals

Grants approval based on predefined if-then conditions or criteria, allowing for automated decision-making and streamlining the approval process.

Example: Purchase requisitions

conditional-approval-process-type

 

2. Nested approvals

Allows for hierarchical approval structures, where multiple authorization levels are required sequentially.

Example: Marketing content review

nested-approval-process-type

 

3. Parallel approvals

Enables simultaneous review and approval by multiple individuals or groups, reducing approval time and increasing efficiency.

Example: Publication management

parallel-approval-process-type

 

Don't let chaos hold you back

Whether you're dealing with straightforward workflows or tackling the challenges of complexity, choosing the right automation solution for your business processes requires a keen understanding of their intricacies.

Contact us today to learn how Process Director can help you conquer complexity. 

Topics: business process automation
6 min read

How Manual Tools Fall Short for Regulatory Affairs Processes

By Catie Leary on Nov 3, 2023 12:51:09 PM

How Manual Tools Fall Short for Regulatory Affairs Processes

Efficient processes are critical for regulatory affairs teams aiming to bring new drugs to market. However, many organizations still depend on manual, decentralized tools like Excel and Outlook to navigate highly regulated and complex processes. While these tools may appear cost-effective and familiar, they pose practical challenges when applied to Investigational New Drug (IND) and New Drug Application (NDA) processes. These challenges can ultimately impede progress and lead to delays or regulatory consequences.

Discover the strategic pitfalls and practical obstacles inherent in manual regulatory affairs processes and uncover how automation holds the solution to unlocking growth, innovation, and compliance excellence in the life sciences industry.

High-level strategic risks of using manual tools for regulatory affairs processes

Clinging to outdated manual tools for facilitating regulatory affairs processes carries several profound strategic risks:

1. Missed opportunities

IND and NDA submissions are time-sensitive due to the intricacies of drug development and regulatory processes. Using manual tools for data collection, formatting, and submission can lead to submission delays, which, in turn, can:

  • Extend development timelines: Delays can push back crucial clinical trials, affecting the overall development schedule.
  • Affect market competitiveness: Timely approvals are vital in gaining a competitive edge in the pharmaceutical industry.
  • Impact patient access: Swift approvals mean quicker access to potentially life-saving drugs for patients.
  • Result in missed regulatory deadlines: Regulatory agencies enforce strict review timelines; missing them can lead to approval delays.
  • Shake investor confidence and funding: Delays can affect investor and stakeholder confidence, potentially impacting funding.
  • Disrupt clinical trials: Delayed IND submission can disrupt the recruitment and conduct of clinical trials. 

2. Data inaccuracy

Manual data entry and management are prone to errors, which can affect the quality and accuracy of submissions. Inaccurate data can lead to questions and requests for clarification from regulatory authorities, prolonging the approval process.

3. Compliance delays

Manual tools lack the structure and control needed for strict regulatory compliance.

For example, in the IND and NDA processes, specific documentation requirements must be met. IND documentation requirements may include comprehensive preclinical study reports, detailed manufacturing processes, and clinical study protocols, while NDA documentation requirements may encompass labeling information, clinical trial summaries, and rigorous quality control data.

These documents must adhere to specific formats, standards, and timelines outlined by regulatory authorities like the FDA to ensure compliance and facilitate the review process. Failure to meet these requirements precisely can lead to regulatory delays, setbacks, or fines.

Practical obstacles of using manual regulatory affairs process tools

Those strategic risks don't exist in a vacuum; they stem from the tangible issues faced during the daily grind. Let's explore how the practical, day-to-day obstacles inherent in manual process tools create and amplify these strategic risks.

1. Data disorganization

Excel and Outlook are not designed to manage complex regulatory affairs data comprehensively. Storing critical information across multiple spreadsheets, emails, and documents can lead to data disorganization and difficulties in retrieving essential data when needed.

2. Version control issues

Collaboration in Excel and Outlook often results in version control challenges. In the regulatory affairs context, multiple teams and stakeholders may need to review and contribute to documents. Manual tools make it difficult to track changes, leading to confusion and potential errors.

3. Lack of process visibility

Processes in the regulatory affairs department are intricate and involve coordination across various departments. Manual tools lack visibility features, making it challenging to track the progress of tasks, set reminders, and allocate responsibilities efficiently. 

Hypothetical case study

Wondering how these strategic risks and practical obstacles tend to manifest within an actual research and development department? Let's walk through a hypothetical scenario involving a fictional pharmaceutical company working to bring a groundbreaking drug called "Dimoufus " to market.

Throughout the R&D phase, this Dimoufus team encountered many challenges during both the IND and NDA processes. These challenges were rooted in their reliance on manual tools like Excel and Outlook, which are ill-suited for the complex, time-sensitive world of drug development.

From the start, data disorganization emerged as a significant problem during the IND phase. With critical documents scattered across different spreadsheets, emails, and drives, the Dimoufus team struggled to compile preclinical study reports, manufacturing processes, and clinical study protocols in a timely manner, causing delays in submission preparation. The impacts of data disorganization escalated during the documentation-heavy NDA phase — during which a crucial clinical safety report was inadvertently overlooked and nearly delayed the FDA review. 

Strategic consequences of data disorganization:

  • Missed opportunities: The delays caused by data disorganization extended the development timelines for Dimoufus, impacting their market competitiveness and patient access to the drug. Missed regulatory deadlines and investor confidence were also affected, representing missed opportunities for the company.
  • Data inaccuracy: Rushed work due to data disorganization increased the likelihood of errors, jeopardizing the quality and accuracy of Dimoufus' submissions and potentially leading to regulatory queries.
  • Compliance delays: The frantic search for data consumed the Dimoufus team's time and resources, resulting in rushed work and potential errors. This, in turn, delayed the submission process, putting them at risk of missing regulatory deadlines and incurring fines. 

Version control issues further complicated matters. Collaboration across teams was vital, but shared spreadsheets and email attachments led to version control chaos. Revisions were made simultaneously, making it difficult to track changes accurately. This problem worsened during the NDA phase. Multiple versions of essential documents circulated, causing confusion and miscommunication among teams. Critical updates were inadvertently overwritten by outdated versions, jeopardizing the NDA submission.

Strategic consequences of version control issues:

  • Missed opportunities: Version control issues led to inefficiencies in the review process, consuming valuable time and leaving less time for substantive review and improvement of the submission package. This could have affected the company's market competitiveness and patient access to the drug.
  • Data inaccuracy: Overwriting critical updates with outdated versions posed a significant risk of data inaccuracy in Dimoufus' submissions, potentially resulting in regulatory queries and approval delays.
  • Compliance delays: Version control challenges resulted in confusion and potential errors, which could have led to inaccuracies in Dimoufus' submissions. Regulatory authorities may require clarification, causing delays in the approval process. 

The lack of process visibility compounded these challenges. During the IND process, the absence of real-time progress tracking made it impossible to monitor task responsibilities and deadlines. Delays became inevitable, undermining the drug development timeline. In the NDA phase, the complexity of tasks involving different departments worsened the problem. Without transparency, the Regulatory Affairs Project Manager struggled to allocate responsibilities and ensure timely task completion. Manual reminders and follow-ups added to the inefficiency.

Strategic consequences of poor process visibility:

  • Compliance delays: The absence of real-time progress tracking made it challenging to monitor task responsibilities and deadlines, leading to delays in Dimoufus' drug development timeline. These delays could have resulted in missed regulatory deadlines.
  • Missed opportunities: The lack of process visibility caused bottlenecks, miscommunications, and missed deadlines, which could have impacted Dimoufus' market competitiveness, patient access, and investor confidence. Delays could also disrupt clinical trials.
  • Data inaccuracy: Inefficiencies caused by the lack of process visibility could lead to rushed work, increasing the potential for data inaccuracies in Dimoufus' submissions, which might prompt regulatory queries.

How automated solutions solve regulatory process headaches

As we've seen through the challenges faced by the Dimoufus team in our hypothetical case study, manual tools can create significant complications and stressors during crucial regulatory affairs processes. However, there's a way to streamline and simplify these processes, eliminating the need for scattered documents, version control woes, and visibility gaps. Enter automated solutions like Approvia.

Approvia helps regulatory affairs teams take control of complex document management, bringing together critical functions like document creation, review and approval, and audit and compliance.

By centralizing regulatory document management, Approvia eliminates the need for password chasing, enhances collaboration with external stakeholders, and significantly reduces errors and compliance risks through comprehensive audit logs. 

Approvia-Before-After

This powerful workflow automation tool offers a user-friendly experience, complete configurability to match your specific procedures, and affordability that sets it apart in the industry. With Approvia, you can structure your FDA submissions as dossiers, customize approval processes, and ensure seamless compliance with FDA guidelines—all in one cohesive platform.

How exactly does Approvia alleviate the strategic risks and tactical obstacles associated with manual tools like Excel and Outlook?

1. Compliance management

Approvia ensures regulatory compliance by providing structured templates for IND and NDA submissions, automatically formatting documents to meet FDA standards. It tracks compliance throughout the process, reducing the risk of compliance-related delays or fines.

2. Efficient data handling

Approvia centralizes data storage and management, eliminating the need for scattered spreadsheets and documents. It offers controlled access to authorized personnel, reducing data disorganization and streamlining data retrieval.

3. Version control and collaboration

Approvia offers collaborative document editing with version control. Teams can work on the same documents simultaneously, with changes tracked and easily reversible. This prevents version conflicts and ensures document accuracy.

4. Task and process visibility

Approvia provides a dashboard that offers a clear overview of the entire IND and NDA process. Users can set reminders, track task progress, and allocate responsibilities efficiently, enhancing process visibility and control.

5. Automated submission

Approvia simplifies the final submission process by compiling all approved sections into the required eCTD format. It conducts quality checks to ensure error-free submissions and offers integration with the Electronic Submissions Gateway for seamless FDA submissions.

From Excel to excellence

By harnessing the capabilities of specialized software solutions like Approvia, regulatory affairs departments within life sciences organizations can not only streamline their regulatory processes but also enhance compliance, accelerate drug development timelines, and ultimately contribute to the delivery of safe and effective treatments to patients. 

Topics: regulatory affairs approvia
5 min read

Manual Publication Management Tools Aren’t Enough: The Downsides of Excel & Outlook

By Alex Reinthal on Sep 12, 2023 9:36:26 AM

Manual tools for publication management

An efficient publication management process is critical for medical affairs teams tasked with bringing a drug to market. Yet, many companies continue to rely on decentralized tools like Excel and Outlook to manage key aspects of this process. While these familiar tools might seem low-risk and affordable, they come with practical challenges that can hinder growth and compliance risks that could result in delays or penalties.

Explore the strategic dangers and day-to-day hurdles of manual publication management and learn why automation is the key to unlocking growth, innovation, and compliance in the life sciences industry.

Strategic risks of manual publication management tools

Clinging to outdated manual tools for publication management in the fast-paced life sciences industry isn't just a matter of convenience – it carries several profound strategic risks:

1. Cost escalation

Inefficiencies and errors caused by manual processes can lead to higher operational costs due to increased labor hours and rework, not to mention potential fines stemming from compliance violations. The company may also need to invest in additional resources to manage the growing complexity of the publication process.

2. Missed opportunities

Inaccurate or delayed publication submissions can lead to missed opportunities to present research at conferences, submit articles to prestigious journals, or engage with key stakeholders. These missed opportunities can impact the company's visibility, influence, and ability to drive innovation.

3. Delayed time-to-market

Inefficiencies in the publication management process can lead to delays in getting research findings published. These delays can slow the dissemination of critical information to the medical community, regulatory bodies, and other stakeholders, potentially slowing down the development and adoption of new drugs or treatments.

A study by the University of Texas at Austin found that drug approval delays can cost life science companies an average of $1 million in revenue for each day a drug remains in limbo.

4. Reputation damage

Inaccurate or delayed publications, compliance issues, and inefficiencies can tarnish the company's reputation within the industry and among peers, potential partners, investors, and patients. A damaged reputation can undermine the scientific credibility and impact of the company's work, as well as impact the company's ability to secure future funding, partnerships, and collaborations.

Tactical obstacles of manual publication management tools

These strategic risks don't exist in a vacuum; they stem from the tangible issues faced during the daily grind. Let's explore how the practical, day-to-day obstacles inherent in manual publication management tools create and amplify these strategic risks.

1. Manual data entry 

The life sciences industry thrives on precision, accuracy, and timely dissemination of critical information. However, when manual data entry becomes the linchpin of your publication management process, you introduce an element of uncertainty and inefficiency that can have far-reaching consequences.

Why is manual data entry bad news for publication management? There are two key reasons:

  • Increases risk of error: Manual data entry and copying and pasting between tools increase the risk of errors. Even small mistakes in data entry can have serious consequences when it comes to the accuracy of publications.
  • Poor use of resources: Manual processes and tools are resource-intensive and consume valuable time and labor. Rather than research professionals spending excessive time on time-consuming administrative tasks (such as entering data into Excel spreadsheets or manually consolidating review feedback from multiple reviewers), this time could be better spent focusing on higher-value research tasks such as analyzing data, strategizing, and contributing to the content itself.

At LimFlow, an early-stage life sciences company specializing in treatments of critical limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI), Director of Medical Affairs Cecilia Petrella was grappling with just this very challenge. The manual, time-consuming effort of managing publication reviews was pulling Petrella’s attention away from higher-level strategic projects.

"If we had ten reviewers providing feedback on a single publication, that meant there were ten versions of the publication that needed to be reconciled," Petrella explains. "Manually combing through each version and reconciling all the feedback into one cohesive document requires a lot of time and effort on our part."

To solve this problem, LimFlow implemented PubPro, a publication management system that enabled multiple reviewers to work on the same document simultaneously.

2. Lackluster process visibility

Process visibility is vital at all levels of the medical affairs department — from the tactical day-to-day level of managing the back-and-forth of publication review to the bird's eye 10,000-foot view that provides leaders with insights and data to make informed strategic decisions.

Let's dive into the hallmarks and risks of a publication management process that lacks visibility:

  • No automated workflow routing: Reviewing and approving publications often involve multiple rounds of feedback and revisions. Manual tools lack automated workflows for routing documents to the right stakeholders, resulting in delays and potential oversights in the review process.
  • Rudimentary or non-existent version control: Managing versions of documents becomes challenging without a centralized system to track changes and maintain version history.
  • Creates data silos: Manual tools are often isolated from other systems used within the organization, leading to data silos and duplication of efforts. Information can be scattered across different files, folders, and email threads. These data silos make it difficult to keep track of important details such as publication status, deadlines, and author contributions.
  • Limited process insights: Managers and stakeholders need visibility into the publication pipeline to make informed decisions and allocate resources effectively. Manual tools offer limited reporting and analytics capabilities, making it difficult to assess the progress of different publications.
  • Limited scalability: As a life sciences company grows and handles more publications, the limitations of manual tools become more pronounced. Managing a larger volume of publications with manual tools becomes increasingly challenging and inefficient. 

3. No auditing features

Compliance is king in highly regulated industries like life sciences. Publication management processes that lack auditing capabilities pose serious risks:

  • Compliance violations: Regulatory bodies such as the FDA have strict guidelines for publication and data reporting. Non-compliance with regulatory requirements, industry standards, and internal processes can result in serious legal and financial consequences. Excel and Outlook do not provide the necessary security measures and audit trails to ensure compliance with industry regulations.
  • Data security risks: Decentralized tools lack the security measures of dedicated software solutions, increasing the risk of data breaches and loss of sensitive research data.

Why automated publication management solutions matter

While Excel and Outlook have their uses, relying on them for complex publication management in the life sciences industry is a recipe for setbacks and missed opportunities. The practical challenges of version control, auditing, data entry, process visibility, and workflow routing all have tangible impacts that can result in cost escalations, missed opportunities, delayed time-to-market, and reputation damage.

To overcome these challenges and reduce business risks, life sciences companies should ditch the use of manual, decentralized tools and invest in a dedicated publication management software solution such as PubPro.

 

 

PubPro is an automated publication management system equipped with outstanding version control, robust auditing features, automated workflows, and analytic tools that offer several key benefits:

  • Enhanced efficiency: Streamlined workflows and reduced data entry tasks free up time for high-value activities, accelerating publication timelines.
  • Error reduction: Automated data entry and version control mitigate human error, ensuring accurate and reliable publications.
  • Seamless collaboration: Dedicated software fosters smooth collaboration, allowing stakeholders to access, review, and contribute to publications in a centralized environment.
  • Risk mitigation: Compliance features and alerts ensure adherence to industry regulations, minimizing the risk of fines and reputational damage.
  • Resource optimization: By automating manual tasks, companies can reallocate resources to research, development, and innovation.

From Excel to excellence

By embracing the power of specialized software solutions like PubPro, life sciences organizations can not only streamline their publication management processes but also advance scientific knowledge and improve patient outcomes.

Request a demo of PubPro today. 

Topics: publication management
4 min read

Overcoming FDA Accelerated Approval Challenges with PubPro 

By Alex Reinthal on May 31, 2023 3:12:07 PM

accelerated-approval-fda-aduhelm

The world of drug development is evolving rapidly, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the realm of accelerated approvals.

Established in 1992 in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, the FDA's Accelerated Approval pathway has been a critical tool for getting life-saving drugs to patients faster than ever before. However, recent controversies, such as the approval of the Alzheimer's medication Aduhelm in June 2021, have highlighted the need for stricter regulations around accelerated approvals.

To address this issue, the FDA is proposing new requirements for drug companies to conduct confirmatory studies and provide greater transparency around the results.

Let’s explore the implications of these new requirements and how publication management software solutions like PubPro can help with potential challenges.

FDA drug approval woes: How we got here

The FDA's Accelerated Approval pathway has come under fire in recent years due to concerns about the quality of evidence used to support accelerated approvals as well as the lack of timely follow-through on confirmatory studies afterwards.

Let's talk about one of the most recent controversies.

DownloadImagine a new drug comes onto the market that promises to change the game for Alzheimer's patients. Sounds great, right? But what if the evidence supporting this drug's approval was shaky at best, and the price tag was exorbitant? That's exactly what happened with Aduhelm, which received accelerated approval from the FDA in 2021. This drug removes sticky amyloid plaque from the brain, but because there was no proof that the ability to remove this plaque slows the deterioration of patients' mental faculties, insurers refused to cover its $56,000-per-year price tag.

The controversy surrounding Aduhelm brought the Accelerated Approval pathway into the spotlight and sparked a national conversation about the need for stricter regulations.

A recent report by NPR found that a staggering 42% of confirmatory drug studies required after accelerated FDA approval were either delayed for more than a year or hadn't even started yet.

This highlights the crucial importance of the FDA's new requirements for drugmakers to ensure timely and effective completion of these studies, as well as improved reporting to increase transparency around the pathway.

The role of technology in meeting new FDA requirements

While the FDA's new regulations for accelerated drug approvals are necessary, they pose a challenge for life science companies that must comply with them. These companies are now required to ensure timely and effective completion of confirmatory studies, as well as improved reporting to increase transparency around the pathway. These new requirements can be time-consuming and laborious, but luckily technology can alleviate some of these challenges.

Enter PubPro, a publication management solution that can help life science companies comply with the FDA's new requirements for accelerated drug approvals in two key ways:

Benefit #1: Ensure timely and effective completion of confirmatory studies

The FDA now has more leverage to hold drug companies accountable for their promises about conducting confirmatory studies as a condition of accelerated approval. Drugmakers must ensure they are completing their studies in a timely and effective manner or face potential consequences such as fines or even loss of approval.

PubPro can help drugmakers manage and automate this process, allowing them to easily track confirmatory studies and ensure they meet their regulatory obligations. Here are some of PubPro's key publication management features that can help:

  • Automated reviewer assignments ensure that the right people are assigned to review and provide feedback on the necessary documents.

  • With its collaborative document editor, PubPro provides a centralized platform for reviewers and authors to communicate and make revisions in real-time, reducing the time it takes to consolidate and implement revisions.

  • PubPro's automated reminders and notifications ensure that confirmatory studies are conducted and completed on time, preventing delays and noncompliance.

With these tools, drugmakers can streamline their confirmatory study process and stay on top of their regulatory obligations, ensuring that they comply with the FDA's new requirements and avoid potential consequences.

Benefit #2: Prove compliance and simplify reporting for confirmatory studies

The FDA's new transparency requirements mandate that drugmakers promptly report their confirmatory studies' results, which poses a challenge because drug companies must ensure they can meet these reporting requirements while also ensuring compliance with the FDA's regulations.

PubPro helps alleviate this challenge by providing companies with the tools they need to easily track and manage these reports in a timely and compliant manner. Here's how:

  • PubPro's audit tracking abilities allows drugmakers to provide evidence of compliance with FDA requirements, demonstrating that they follow the necessary procedures and processes.

  • With PubPro's configurable reporting, drugmakers can generate comprehensive reports for proving compliance, making it easy and quick to ensure all requirements are met.

With these features, PubPro simplifies the reporting process, allowing drug companies to ensure compliance with the FDA's transparency requirements while reducing the time and effort needed to do so.

Streamline publication management with PubPro

PubPro is the ultimate solution for life science companies struggling to comply with the FDA's new requirements for accelerated drug approvals.

By automating key tasks and streamlining the publication management process, PubPro ensures life science companies can stay on top of their regulatory obligations and maintain positive relationships with the FDA.

Stay on top of new FDA regulations

Get in touch today to learn more about how PubPro can help your life science company comply with the new FDA requirements and ease the burden of compliance efforts.

Topics: medical affairs publication management
2 min read

Configurable Publication Management Software: Make PubPro Your Own

By Alex Reinthal on Apr 18, 2023 8:44:15 AM

PubPro Configurability

One-size-fits-all solutions don't work when it comes to publication management software.

That's why PubPro from BP Logix offers organizations unparalleled configurability. Built on our low-code Process Director for Life Sciences platform, 80% of the solution already built and the remaining 20% configured within days to your company's specific requirements.

80/20 configurability
Here are four recent improvements we’ve rolled out on PubPro that make it easier than ever to configure and use the solution according to your organization's SOPs.

1. Automated reviewer assignments

PubPro's automated reviewer assignments feature makes it easy to ensure that the right people review your publications.

When authors submit new publications, PubPro automatically assigns the appropriate reviewer based on criteria such as subject matter expertise or workload.

PubPro-Automated-Reviewer-Assignments-demo

These automated reviewer assignments help streamline the review process and ensure that publications are always in the right hands.

2. Updated user interface

PubPro's new look is sleek and user-friendly. Our updated interface is more intuitive and straightforward to use than ever, ensuring your team can easily navigate the system and complete tasks efficiently.

3. Role-specific dashboards

PubPro's role-specific dashboards allow users to quickly see the tasks and activities most relevant to their role.

Whether the user is an author, reviewer, or administrator, PubPro's dashboard is tailored to their specific function. For example, here's a peek at a reviewer's dashboard and workflow:

PubPro-Action-Visibility-Reviewer-Dashboard-View

4. Variable user deadline settings

With PubPro, you can configure different turnaround times for reviewers based on your publication's unique requirements. This ensures that everyone works according to the same deadlines and that your publication stays on track.

Don't settle for "one size fits all"

Configurability is vital when it comes to choosing publication management software.

PubPro allows your organization to easily tailor processes to meet specific needs, from automated reviewer assignments to variable user deadline settings.

Contact us today to learn how PubPro can level up your publications team.

Topics: publication management
8 min read

Evaluating Publication Management Vendors: 8 Factors to Consider

By Will Gillespie on Apr 11, 2023 2:50:32 PM

Choosing-Publication-Management-Vendors

Publication management is a critical function intended to facilitate the timely and efficient dissemination of valuable research data. However, medical affairs teams often face significant pressure to streamline their publication management process, especially in light of the rapidly evolving role of medical affairs.

Due to the complexities of peer-reviewed articles and research papers, publication management processes can often become bogged down by information bottlenecks. These information logjams are hard to detect and even more difficult to resolve.

Some of the challenges that publication management teams will encounter while navigating these information backlogs include:

  • Keeping track of publication timelines and deadlines

  • Managing complex authorship and collaboration processes

  • Ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements

  • Dealing with a large volume of publications 

  • Balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders, including authors, reviewers, and senior management

  • Overcoming limited visibility and control over the publication process due to a lack of technology or tools

  • Working around limited resources and budget for publication management 

Publication management teams that can overcome these hurdles and optimize their processes will be able to:

  • Achieve a faster time-to-market for new drugs and treatments

  • Reduce costs and resource waste

  • Improve accuracy and compliance

  • Increase efficiency and productivity

  • Enhance collaboration among teams and stakeholders

  • Increase visibility and reporting capabilities

You should consider partnering with a publication management vendor to empower your publication management team to tap into these benefits. To help accelerate your search for a reliable vendor partner, we have outlined vital factors you need to consider so you can achieve a strong return on investment. 

What to consider when looking for a publication management vendor

When selecting a publication management vendor, make sure to consider factors such as:

1. Reputation

There are many factors to consider when evaluating a publication management vendor's reputation. First, ensure they have experience working with organizations in the same industry. After all, publication management is not a function that's exclusive to health sciences businesses. Therefore, you may encounter more generalized publication management solutions that were not purpose-built for this sector during your search. 

To determine whether a vendor has experience in your vertical, look at their list of past clients. For instance, BP Logix worked with LimFlow, an early-stage life science company that specializes in treating critical limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI), to automate their publication management process and accelerate the production of their medical publications. If an organization can effectively meet the needs of a leading organization in your vertical, it can undoubtedly assist with your publication management challenges. 

Any reputable vendor will also have case studies and other information about previous partnerships available to read on their website. If the list of clients does not primarily or exclusively feature entities within your industry, they're probably not the right vendor for you.

Another effective tactic for assessing a vendor's reputation is examining their attendance and participation at industry conferences. Vendors like BP Logix attend Mass East/Mass West conferences and events hosted by the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS).

2. Configurability to SOPs

Your publication management processes are likely similar to those used by other entities within your industry. However, they are not identical. Therefore, it is vital that you select a solution you can adapt to the nuances of your organization's unique standard operating procedures (SOPs).

pharma-automation-processYou can configure many publication management solutions to align with your SOPs, but how long will making these customizations take? More importantly, what will be the cost? Most vendors use traditional software development processes, meaning these customizations will take time and money.

Conversely, BP Logix leverages Process Director for Life Sciences to rapidly and efficiently tailor our publication management software to your needs. Process Director offers unparalleled flexibility and enables us to make changes quickly, which cuts your development costs and decreases your time to value. 

The sooner you roll out your solution, the faster you can overcome publication management headaches. BP Logix outpaces other leading options in terms of deployment time, which enables you to put your publication management woes behind you for good. 

3. Intuitive UI

One of your most significant priorities is ensuring that your publication management vendor can support your long-term organizational goals and provide financial benefits. However, it is equally important to consider the quality of the solution's user interface (UI). Keep in mind that your team members are the ones that will be interacting with the platform on a daily basis. Therefore, it is vital that you provide them with an intuitive, user-friendly solution.

The ideal UI should enable medical affairs teams to seamlessly transition from task to task without disrupting their workflow. The interface must be easy to navigate, simple to learn, and organized in a way that supports overall efficiency. 

But how can you determine whether a platform provides an intuitive UI that will streamline publication management? The most pragmatic approach is to schedule a demo.

When arranging your demonstration, make sure to include members of your medical affairs team. They will be able to evaluate the solution from their unique perspective and provide insights that assist with your purchasing decision. Keeping them in the loop during the early stages of your search will also promote better buy-in down the road. 

4. Efficiency-oriented UX features

During your demonstration and assessment of publication management solutions, look beyond the interface and explore its features. Before setting up any demos, make a feature wish list. When creating this list, categorize items based on their must-haves or nice-to-have capabilities. The best solutions will check all the must-have boxes while also throwing in some additional features that will optimize your team's efficiency. 

Without question, automation tools should make it into your must-have category. By automating redundant aspects of your publication management processes, you can increase team productivity and reduce friction from your workflows. While you may not be able to automate everything, you should be able to automate many key tasks that can lead to bottlenecks.

For instance, BP Logix's publication management solution, PubPro, allows you to automate debarment checks and automatically assign tasks to team members:

PubPro automated reviewer assignments

Thanks to these features, our solution has received overwhelmingly positive client feedback. Specifically, they have credited our platform with making their processes more effective and efficient. 

5. Support responsiveness

To derive maximum value from your publication management solution, you must choose a vendor that provides responsive support. You should also ensure that the vendor offers more than post-deployment product support. Additionally, they should provide exceptional customer service during the purchasing process. The ideal partner will also support you during configuration, deployment, and rollout.

Working with such a vendor will set the stage for a more seamless implementation process. It will also empower your team as they adapt to the new platform.

Vendors that prioritize support responsiveness and are open to your product suggestions can be a massive benefit to your organization. These vendors will apply your feedback to refine their solutions and service model, which means you will have access to a product that provides both short- and long-term value to your organization. 

A vendor's responsiveness will be evident from the moment you reach out to their sales team. Conversations should center around the product, its capabilities, and how they align with your business goals. If a vendor makes your organization the focus from the outset of your interactions, they will likely do so when you voice product concerns or come to them for support. 

6. Seamless collaboration

Historically, collaboration during publication management processes has been exceedingly difficult. It has been particularly challenging for internal and external authors to collaborate, as they typically use disparate tools and software. 

To eliminate these hurdles, you need a robust publication management solution that facilitates seamless collaboration. It should come with tools that make it easy for internal teams, stakeholders, and external authors to work together on shared projects. 

For instance, PubPro makes it simple for both internal and external project participants to collaborate by seamlessly integrating with an organization's existing tech stack.

PubPro Submission Dashboard

As part of our continuous improvement initiative, BP Logix is also developing integrations to enhance collaboration and information sharing further. These improvements will include SMS and Microsoft Teams-based notification tools, which allow you to grant external authors access to projects.

Tearing down barriers preventing teams from working together is just one of the many ways PubPro promotes better publication management efficiency. Productivity increases significantly when project members can effortlessly communicate and share information. 

7. Competitive pricing

While searching for a publication management vendor, you will encounter many solutions at varying price points. Some platforms are designed and priced for large life science companies. However, these solutions are not economically viable for small to medium-sized entities. Even if the price point is something that your organization is willing to overlook, you will need significant internal IT resources to deploy the platform.

Beyond these enterprise-level solutions, you will find several platforms designed for smaller to medium-sized life science companies. But the cheapest options may offer minimal features or require a colossal back-end investment.

On the other hand, PubPro is a feature-laden publication management software that is ideal for smaller to medium-sized companies. Our platform is competitively priced, easy to customize, and supported by a world-class team. If you have been searching for an enterprise-quality solution without the enterprise price tag, BP Logix's PubPro platform is an excellent option for your business.

8. Reporting/analytics capabilities 

Medical affairs teams have been dealing with information bottlenecks as a proverbial thorn in their side for years. Unfortunately, these productivity disruptors can stem from many factors that are difficult to trace back to a single cause. So before publication management departments can eliminate these roadblocks, they must first identify where they are occurring and why they exist. 

If you want to make it easier to optimize efficiency and address these issues, you need a publication management solution that includes advanced reporting and analytics capabilities. Such a platform will provide actionable insights that you can use to reduce workflow friction and bolster productivity.

Streamline publication management with a reputable vendor

Overseeing your publication management functions in-house with no external support can be a tedious, labor-intensive, and costly endeavor. Furthermore, publication bottlenecks can limit the efficacy and reach of potentially groundbreaking research, slow your market speed, and hamper innovation.

Download the PubPro product fact sheetConversely, investing in a robust publication management solution from a reputable vendor like BP Logix can streamline every facet of publishing research and other high-level content. With BP Logix's PubPro solution, your organization can:

  • Slash publishing and management times

  • Expedite the time-to-market for new drugs and treatments

  • Improve compliance and records accuracy

  • Facilitate better collaboration among teams and stakeholders

  • Enhance visibility and improve reporting capabilities

Our solution lets you pinpoint where bottlenecks occur, identify why they are forming, and resolve these information logjams. BP Logix's technology is a true game changer for your organization.

To learn more, connect with BP Logix to schedule a demo. 

4 min read

PubPro: Publication Management for Growing Life Science Startups

By Cecilia Petrella on Mar 29, 2023 12:00:00 PM

Limflow-PubPro-Publication-Management-1

Cecilia Petrella, Director of Medical Affairs at LimFlow, explains why she turned to BP Logix for a powerful publication management solution that delivers the same core functionality as competitors at a more cost-effective price point.

Cecilia Petrellla of LimflowWhen I stepped into a leadership role at an early-stage life science company, I knew I’d wear many hats. I also knew I’d need to be strategic about where I devote my energy if I wanted to stay focused on the big picture.

Finding technology that speeds up the more time-consuming parts of my job was a priority for me because it would help LimFlow bring our life-changing therapy to patients and providers faster.

At LimFlow, we’re dedicated to improving the lives of patients suffering from critical limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI). This severe form of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) restricts blood flow to the legs, feet, and toes, which can lead to tissue damage and even amputation.

Limeflow-CLTIThe LimFlow System is a minimally invasive procedure that improves blood flow by creating a bypass around blocked arteries. Our unique approach to treating this debilitating condition offers new hope to those who have been told amputation is their only option.

One of my top priorities as LimFlow’s Director of Medical Affairs is to ramp up our publications and build out our department. However, we faced significant challenges with our publication management process that were hindering our ability to achieve these goals. As a smaller company, we struggled to find an affordable and accessible solution for automating our publication management process.

Here's how we’re overcoming those challenges by partnering with BP Logix.

Our publication review challenge

One of the biggest challenges of our publication review process was how much time we had to spend managing feedback from multiple reviewers. If we had ten reviewers providing feedback on a single publication, that meant there were ten versions of the publication that needed to be reconciled.

Manually combing through each version and reconciling all the feedback into one cohesive document requires a lot of time and effort on our part, and it increased the chances of errors creeping into the process.

To make matters worse, we were relying on email exchanges to facilitate the entire review process, which resulted in a lot of inefficient back-and-forth communication between the reviewers and our team.

Pouring so much time and manual effort into managing publication reviews meant pulling my attention away from other opportunities for growing the company, building our brand, and establishing a reputation within the industry. Overall, our publications were taking longer to produce, and we couldn't share important research as quickly as we would have liked.

To ensure our new medical affairs department can keep pace with the company’s growth goals, I knew we’d need to find a publication management solution that could free our team from tedious, time-consuming busy work.

Evaluating solutions

During our search for a publication management solution, we initially considered Pubstrat, a well-known option in the industry. However, after reviewing the pricing, it became clear that it was not feasible for our budget.

PubPro-product-pharmaThat’s when we decided to take a closer look at PubPro from BP Logix.

While larger companies with bigger budgets might be able to justify the cost of solutions like Pubstrat, we found that PubPro offered the same basic functionality at a much more reasonable price point — making it an excellent fit for the needs of a smaller, early-stage company like ours.

What really stood out to us during the evaluation and sales process was the BP Logix team's willingness to accommodate our needs. They worked with us to develop a solution that fit within our budget while still meeting our functionality needs. We appreciated the level of personalized attention we received. It was clear that BP Logix was invested in helping us succeed.

Implementing PubPro

Working with BP Logix has been an incredibly positive experience so far. They have made implementation a smooth, seamless process, working with us every step of the way to ensure that the solution meets our needs.

The functionality we're most excited about are the collaborative document authoring tools. We expect this to be a game-changer for us, as it will streamline the publication review process and reduce the amount of manual effort required to reconcile multiple reviewers’ feedback.

With the ability to have multiple reviewers working on the same document simultaneously, our medical affairs team will be able to save so much time:

PubPro-Publication-Reviewer-Tasks

While PubPro is a newer product, we're excited about the potential for future features and capabilities. We know that BP Logix is invested in listening to customer feedback and using it to shape the product roadmap.

We look forward to the continued development of PubPro, and we're confident that it will be a valuable asset for our team as we continue to grow and develop our medical affairs department.

Topics: publication management
7 min read

Adverse Event Reporting Challenges & How to Overcome Them

By Catie Leary on Mar 22, 2023 12:00:00 AM

Adverse Event Reporting Challenges

An adverse event report (AER) is a self-initiated medical report detailing an undesirable clinical outcome associated with a medication or medical device. The reports fall under the umbrella of medical information requests (MIRs), as both are initiated by providers or consumers and are then directed at pharmaceutical companies or medical device manufacturers.

AERs are typically generated by physicians, though manufacturers or consumers may also submit them. Regardless, adverse event reporting is critical to patient safety and the refinement of medications. Without the information provided by AERs, manufacturers would be unable to track the frequency of unfavorable events or monitor the severity of unintended clinical outcomes.

By leveraging adverse event reports, manufacturers can continuously improve their products, protect consumers, and remove potentially dangerous medications from circulation. However, although virtually every entity in the life science and healthcare industry understands the importance of adverse event reporting, many struggle to efficiently manage their AERs.

As part of our efforts to expedite adverse event reporting, we have identified some common forms of adverse events, outlined the challenges associated with their AER submission, and provided some strategies to circumvent these roadblocks. Care providers and other entities in the life science and healthcare sectors can use the insights below to promote compliance and expedite reporting.

Types of adverse events

Any unintended and undesirable clinical outcome caused by an administered medication can be categorized as an adverse event. Some of the adverse events that warrant an AER include the following:

  • Unexpected or harmful side effects brought on by drugs or medical devices

  • Overdoses or accidental exposure to unnecessary medications

  • Issues related to product quality, purity, or potency

  • Cases of medical errors or problems related to product labeling or packaging

  • Environmental or occupational exposure to chemicals or other substances

  • Incidents that fall into the above categories should be classified and documented via an adverse event report in most instances.

Failing to file an AER promptly and efficiently can expose a provider and their organization to significant liability while endangering patients and hindering manufacturers’ ability to improve their offered medications or devices.

Reporting unexpected or harmful side effects is particularly important and time-sensitive. Such occurrences must be reported as soon as possible to relay the information to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the product manufacturer.

When filing reports, providers must differentiate between side effects that were explicitly harmful to the patient and those that were simply unexpected. For instance, suppose a provider prescribes a new headache medication to some patients. One patient reports nausea and vomiting, whereas another finds the drug improved their sleep quality.

While the pharmaceutical company needs to know about each incident, reports are documented using distinct processes. Therefore, both outcomes should be properly reported; the negative effect through an AER and the positive result via a medical information request form.

The challenges of adverse event reporting

Adverse event reporting is a relatively straightforward process: Providers should promptly report any undesirable clinical outcome caused by a medication or device. Despite its relative simplicity, however, the reporting process is muddled due to a wide range of confounding factors, including the following:

Regulatory compliance

Adverse event reporting is a tightly regulated process, and companies that fail to adhere to these strict ordinances can incur hefty penalties and lawsuits. Additionally, non-compliant organizations will likely suffer long-lasting reputational damage, which could negatively impact consumer trust for years.

Unfortunately, a single governing body does not set adverse event reporting regulations. While the FDA does establish many AER protocols, companies must also contend with their state-specific regulations. Navigating a single set of regulatory guidelines can be challenging enough, so keeping up with multiple sets of continuously evolving requirements is undoubtedly even more difficult.

Data silos

Far too often, adverse event data is stored in multiple systems across different departments. When data is scattered and stored on disparate software solutions that don’t properly communicate, the details surrounding adverse events will get lost in the shuffle.

Data silos hinder the proper documentation of AERs and make it challenging to submit or manage any medical information requests. Organizations in such scenarios often struggle to track and analyze adverse event information, much less report it within established time constraints.

Therefore, businesses must proactively work to eliminate data silos while maintaining their AER and MIR compliance. Doing so will also promote better organizational efficiency and improved collaboration among team members.

Adopting a modern, fully-integrated reporting solution is the most practical way to tear data silos down. A platform like BP Logix’s MIR solution facilitates the seamless tracking and analysis of all outstanding medical information requests, including adverse event reports. Organizations can ensure they meet regulatory requirements and preserve their reputations.

Managing large volumes of data

Adverse events include a broad array of harmful and unintended clinical outcomes. As a result, organizations are bound to rack up a large volume of AERs, and keeping up with that data can prove quite challenging.

Entities not adopting streamlined data management workflows will struggle to respond to AERs within established time constraints, leaving the door open to compliance violations and penalties.

As part of their data management protocols, organizations must also be able to categorize and prioritize their AERs. More significant adverse events, such as hospitalization, need to be addressed before less pressing ones.

Responses must be timely

Delays in adverse event reporting can be highly detrimental to an institution’s reputation. More importantly, they can pose a serious risk to patients. The longer potentially dangerous or compromised batches of medication remain in circulation, the higher the chances are for a severe event, such as permanent injury or death. Even a single negligence-related death or injury can expose an organization to significant legal repercussions.

For instance, let’s say that a physician’s patient is hospitalized due to a severe reaction to a medication. The physician does their due diligence, immediately submitting an AER to the manufacturer, but that manufacturer does not have a means of prioritizing its AERs. Instead, it processes them in the order they were received, which means the original AER is not responded to for upwards of 30 days. During that time, two dozen other patients are hospitalized.

The above example might seem somewhat hyperbolic, but it illustrates the dangers of adverse event reporting delays in that they magnify an organization’s risk. Therefore, life science entities must make every effort to expedite their reporting and response processes.

Complex processes

Generating and responding to AERs can be an incredibly involved, complex process. Even a single AER may require input from multiple stakeholders, such as regulatory bodies, internal teams, and healthcare providers. The process becomes even more complicated when patients are directly involved in adverse event reporting.

While there is no way to remove stakeholders from the equation, organizations can facilitate better collaboration and information sharing by breaking down communication barriers between these entities. When stakeholders can efficiently provide and relay their insights, the reporting process becomes streamlined.

How to overcome these challenges

Adverse event reporting is an intricate procedure that involves dealing with several different hurdles. Still, although there is no singular solution for overcoming these challenges, organizations can simplify and expedite their AER processes by proactively eliminating points of friction.

Specifically, companies striving to facilitate more efficient adverse event reporting should do the following:

Establish clear internal procedures and guidelines.

Though they may seem obvious, some organizations do not have clear, repeatable processes for adverse event reporting. When reporting guidelines are unclear and easy to follow, errors are bound to occur.

Any organization interested in revamping its AER management strategies should reevaluate its internal procedures and guidelines, gathering feedback from employees that submit or receive AERs. Doing so will help stakeholders make meaningful improvements to existing protocols.

Use a centralized adverse event reporting system to eliminate silos/improve visibility

Adverse event reporting will always be an organizational pain point if data silos exist. In light of such, organizations must replace their antiquated, disparate reporting systems with a centralized alternative. Aggregating all adverse event reports into a single platform allows businesses responsible for processing or responding to AERs to promote better visibility and improve compliance.

Adopting a unified database will improve AER visibility, eliminate data silos, and promote enhanced medical information request management. Addressing MIR and AER management is critical to compliance within the life science and healthcare verticals. An organization that succeeds at both will be able to foster trust among its consumers and providers while also avoiding any regulatory penalties.

Implement process automation to reduce errors

Deploying a centralized AER management database is a significant step toward better efficiency and compliance. Still, if adverse event reporting workflows continue to rely on manual inputs, they will always be plagued by human errors. Organizations tasked with AER management should implement process automation tools like BP Logix’s MIR solution to combat errors and further mitigate risks.

Our dynamic platform enables entities to automate traditionally tedious, manual processes, in turn freeing up AER management teams to tackle more dynamic tasks while simultaneously reducing the frequency of errors and mitigating their risks. BP Logix’s MIR solution integrates into an organization’s existing reporting system and can be tailored to meet the needs of nearly any healthcare or life sciences entity.

Leverage predictive analytics to identify trends

When AERs are dispersed across an entire team, detecting and tracking trends among them can be tricky. The longer a concerning pattern of adverse events goes undetected, the more likely it is to result in reputational damage and patient harm.

With that in mind, companies must incorporate data analytics software into their AER management workflows. Analytics and machine learning tools can detect trends as soon as they emerge, allowing stakeholders to use real-time data to guide decision-making processes.

Provide training and support to employees

Although workflow automation technologies can improve reporting efficiency, employees will always be the backbone of any AER initiative. Adverse event reporting will remain a challenge without talented, well-trained, confident workers.

Therefore, decision-makers must invest in employee training and upskilling efforts to turn AER management into an organizational strength, all of which must be designed with the employee in mind.

Generally speaking, it is best to avoid long, tedious training blocks and break down programs into smaller, easier-to-digest sessions. Such an approach can improve information retention and help team members get the most out of each training session.

Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements with regular audits

The abovementioned strategies should significantly improve an organization’s adverse event reporting processes. Still, organizational leaders must ensure compliance with regulatory requirements by conducting regular audits and process reviews. These reviews will reveal which tactics are working and what shortcomings still exist within the AER management strategy of the business.

If possible, organizational leaders should outsource audits to ensure objectivity. Using a third-party auditing firm can also provide additional insights, as the outside source may be able to offer a fresh perspective on old business challenges.

Modernize adverse event reporting

While many challenges are associated with adverse event reporting, your organization must navigate each to ensure compliance and preserve its reputation within the healthcare community.

DownloadYou can create a dynamic strategy to facilitate streamlined reporting by leveraging the adverse event reporting tactics outlined above. When you pair that strategy with BP Logix’s robust MIR management solution, you can further expedite your reporting processes and achieve ongoing compliance.

BP Logix’s platform includes a suite of automation and visibility tools designed to help you track MIRs and adverse events throughout the reporting process. You can prioritize time-sensitive requests and avoid reporting mishaps that expose your business to fines or other penalties. Additionally, our solution reduces instances of human error and facilitates complete reporting of adverse events.

If you are ready to rethink how you manage adverse event reporting, explore BP Logix’s MIR solution to learn more.

Topics: medical affairs medical information requests
8 min read

Choosing IRMS Software for Effective MIR Management

By Catie Leary on Mar 13, 2023 8:41:00 AM

Choosing an IRMS software

Medical information request management is undoubtedly one of the most important functions of medical affairs teams that operate within the life sciences space.

Be that as it may, processing medical information requests (MIRs) has, historically, proven to be a challenging, tedious, and time-consuming task that ties up essential resources and exposes pharmaceutical entities to compliance issues, which can lead to fines, reputational damage, and other penalties that threaten profitability and business continuity.

Fortunately, organizations that produce pharmaceuticals and medical devices can mitigate these risks by implementing a versatile information request management system (IRMS) solution. Modern IRMS software empowers organizations to rethink how they handle medical information requests, promote efficiency, and facilitate compliance.

With that said, there is a sizable number of IRMS software solutions on the market today, which can make it difficult for life science entities to find the right platform for the needs of their organization. To help expedite your search, we’re walking through some must-have features and attributes to look for when exploring IRMS software for your company.

What are medical information requests?

MIRs are self-initiated, unsolicited requests made by a healthcare professional and submitted when a clinician or other healthcare professional needs to obtain technical, scientific, or medical information about a product that is not readily available in its instructions for use (IFU) or initial prescribing information.

There are several different types of MIRs, including adverse event reports (AERs), product complaints, general requests for information, and notifications about potential off-label effects or uses. Due to the broad scope of MIRs, it is important that all inbound requests are quickly reviewed, categorized, and assigned to the appropriate medical affairs team members.

Why manual MIR processing falls short

Medical information requests are commonly received via shared inboxes and subsequently tracked via spreadsheets, but any organizations that have used or are currently using such an approach can attest to its inefficiency.

When multiple team members are using the same inbox to receive and process inbound requests, it is all too easy for MIRs to slip through the cracks. Similar issues arise when medical affairs personnel are tracking dozens of MIRs at once, with spreadsheets that are scattered about their organization’s network.

For instance, let’s say that your team uses both spreadsheets and a shared inbox. When the medical affairs team returns to the office on a Monday morning, they have several dozen new MIRs in the joint inbox, which means that each team member is assigned to handle a specific type of request (adverse events, general requests, etc.).

As each staff member begins filtering out the requests that fall under their purview, the individual that is tasked with responding to general MIRs accidentally moves an AER to their personal inbox. They don’t notice their mistake until the following day, at which time they reroute it back to the shared inbox. However, since the message is already showing as “read,” the team member tasked with handling AERs does not see the message for several days, resulting in a delayed response to a time-sensitive MIR.

When your organization bases its MIR processing protocols around such antiquated technologies and procedures, even if they’re detail-oriented, talented medical affairs teams are bound to make these sorts of mistakes on occasion. Even a single oversight can lead to serious financial consequences and set the stage for irreparable damage to your organization’s reputation. Therefore, automating the MIRs of your life sciences entity with IRMS software should be a top priority.

Automating MIRs with IRMS software

Manually handling MIRs only serves to bog down medical affairs teams and limit their productivity. Additionally, inefficient manual MIR processes diminish the experience of healthcare professionals and their patients, creating compliance headaches and making it nearly impossible for teams to respond to requests in a timely manner.

Fortunately, organizations in the pharmaceutical and medical equipment sectors can circumvent these issues by adopting IRMS software.

These technology suites include tools that enable medical affairs teams to automate traditionally manual, tedious MIR-related tasks, such as report intake and analysis. The most robust IRMS software solutions also assist with categorizing, prioritizing, and responding to medical information requests, thereby streamlining every touchpoint of MIR processing.

With IRMS software, medical affairs teams will no longer be inundated with a seemingly endless list of pending MIRs. Instead, they can effortlessly respond to each request, generate detailed reports, relay information to healthcare professionals, and ensure compliance with relevant regulatory requirements.

Benefits of an IRMS software

The benefits of IRMS software are significant and far-reaching. By implementing such a solution, organizations in the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries can achieve the following:

Improve efficiency

Using inefficient processes, like using a shared inbox to receive requests or leveraging spreadsheets to track outstanding MIRs, sets the stage for delayed responses and missed deadlines, which can cause frustration among healthcare professionals, endanger patients, and diminish trust in an organization.

An IRMS software solution can improve end-to-end MIR processing efficiency by providing medical affairs teams with the tools and technology they need to maximize productivity. They can automate intake processes, categorize and prioritize inbound MIRs in seconds, and distribute each request to the appropriate staff member, making missed requests and delayed responses a thing of the past.

Enhance compliance

The pharmaceutical and medical device sectors have long been, undoubtedly, some of the most tightly regulated industries. In recent years, state and federal authorities have enacted even more stringent regulations, which not only raise the bar for compliance but also include severe penalty schedules for violators.

IRMS software can help ensure compliance with state and federal regulations by facilitating timely, transparent, and efficient responses to medical information requests. Upon receiving a request, medical affairs teams can quickly begin processing the MIR and conveying the appropriate information to the submitting healthcare professional.

Furthermore, IRMS software supports additional compliance by providing teams with analytics tools they can use to monitor and improve the efficiency of their MIR processes.

Facilitate better data management

Tracking medical information requests with spreadsheets creates data silos and leads to a lack of MIR visibility. In other words, MIRs can end up overlooked, misplaced, or outright lost, and when that happens, medical affairs teams are bound to provide delayed responses or relay inaccurate or otherwise incomplete information to those requesting it.

Transitioning to a centralized IRMS software solution will facilitate better, more transparent data management. Medical affairs teams, compliance personnel, and decision-makers will be able to easily view how many MIRs are in the pipeline, what the status of each request is, and other important factors. They can then use that information to ensure that response deadlines are met while also monitoring the efficacy of MIR processes.

What to look for when choosing an IRMS solution

Investing in an IRMS solution is a major decision that will have a profound impact on patient and healthcare professional experiences. The platform that your team chooses to implement will also affect compliance, which is why you must carefully evaluate each prospective IRMS software before settling on a solution.

Therefore, as you search for IRMS software for your organization, you should consider a wide range of factors and attributes that include the following:

Customizability

While the general process of responding to MIRs is relatively standardized, the needs of every medical affairs team are unique. Therefore, it is important that you select IRMS software that can be tailored to align with your team’s structure, objectives, and needs.

The ideal IRMS software or platform for your organization will allow you to customize several aspects of the user experience. Specifically, you should choose a solution that allows you to modify workflows, create custom data fields, and augment the dashboard to provide a more seamless user experience.

User-friendliness

Speaking of the user experience, the best IRMS solutions are exceptionally user-friendly, though it’s important to note that some options out there are clunky, tedious to use, and downright complicated.

If you implement IRMS software that falls in the latter camp, you will experience diminished employee buy-in and a reduced return on your investment.

On the other hand, when your new platform is intuitive and easy to use, your team will experience a shallower learning curve, be more accepting of the software change, and will embrace the tools you provide them with. On a broader scale, adopting user-friendly IRMS software will decrease your time to value and boost your ROI.

Integrations

One of the biggest challenges associated with traditional MIR management is a lack of data visibility. When your medical affairs team uses disparate software to manage its MIRs, visibility is poor, and errors occur far too often.

With that in mind, tearing down data silos and promoting total MIR visibility are both vital if you want to streamline your medical information request management processes, and to achieve those goals, you need an IRMS software solution that seamlessly integrates with your existing technology stack.

Before you commit to a solution, though, make sure it is compatible with your customer relationship management (CRM) software and other database systems, as well as your email and collaboration tools. Such a solution will be able to share vital data with your other systems and empower your staff to optimize productivity.

Compliance

Your IRMS software should also support your compliance efforts. Choose a solution that provides various compliance and governance tools so that you can closely monitor and regulate your medical information request management processes. In particular, you should use IRMS software that features audit trails, permission controls, and a notification system that updates you on the latest regulatory changes so you can ensure adherence.

Reporting and analytics

Implementing an appropriate IRMS software solution and modifying your medical information request processing protocols will help promote compliance and improve efficiency.

However, it is important to closely monitor the efficacy and performance of your MIR processes on an ongoing basis, and selecting an IRMS solution that provides robust reporting and analytics capabilities will help you do exactly that. You can leverage the insights from these reports to identify potential pain points, further promote efficiency, and deliver a frictionless experience for healthcare professionals.

Security

In addition to responding to MIRs in a timely manner, your organization is also tasked with protecting sensitive medical data. Failing to do so can lead to severe reputational damage and hefty civil penalties.

Unfortunately, antiquated MIR management tools, such as shared inboxes and spreadsheets, not only leave the door wide open to security breaches but also increase your exposure to cyber threats.

A modern, cloud-based IRMS solution can support your cybersecurity strategy and help you avoid these challenges. Maximize your security by choosing a platform that offers features such as user authentication, access controls, and encryption, as each of these will help you ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information you manage.

Transform your MIRs management processes with MIRador

MIRador screenshotsWithout the right tools in place, your medical affairs teams will become overwhelmed by the complexity and sheer volume of MIRs that they receive. If your pharmaceutical entity wants to position your teams to succeed while simultaneously promoting compliance, you need IRMS software.

DownloadInvesting in an IRMS software solution can help you streamline the medical information request management process and unlock other benefits, including:

  • Better data management
  • Enhanced compliance
  • Improved efficiency
  • Optimized visibility

However, if you want to get the most out of your investment and expedite time to value, it is critical that you select a solution that is customizable, user-friendly, and robust.

MIRador provides the tools and capabilities your medical affairs team needs to facilitate compliance and optimize overall MIR handling efficiency.

When discussing our IRMS software, a senior pharmaceutical executive had the following to say:

“Every company does MIR differently. Some companies have dedicated medical information teams, while small to midsize companies might not have a dedicated person in that role. Having established best practices and a technological foundation for collecting and processing this information is critical. Any organization that is looking for a medical information solution should consider BP Logix as an option.”

If you would like to learn more about the purpose-built solution that was delivered for this executive, and many other entities in the life sciences space, book a call with BP Logix today.

Topics: medical affairs medical information requests
13 min read

Medical Information Requests: Everything You Need to Know

By Steve Altschuler on Mar 3, 2023 8:00:00 AM

Medical information requests - blog

Medical information requests (MIRs) are a crucial part of the healthcare and life sciences industry, allowing healthcare providers to obtain the information they need to provide the best possible care for their patients. However, without an efficient MIR management process, delays and inaccuracies can jeopardize patient safety, regulatory compliance, and a company's reputation.

In this guide, we'll explain what MIRs are, why they matter, and share best practices for handling them. We'll also cover the benefits of using a centralized management strategy and process automation tools, such as BP Logix's MIR solution, which can alleviate common MIR management challenges and ensure prompt, accurate, and compliant handling.

Whether you're a medical affairs professional, healthcare provider, or pharma executive, this guide will help you navigate the complex world of medical information requests. Already well-versed in MIRs? Skip ahead to MIR management best practices!

Types of medical information requests

Types of medical information requests

MIRs can take many forms:

Let's delve into what these MIR types entail and what role they play in the lives of healthcare providers, patients, and medical affairs teams.

Adverse event reporting

Adverse event reporting is a critical component of medical information requests. In this type of request, healthcare providers submit information about any undesirable or unexpected health events experienced by patients while using a particular medication or medical device. These events could range from mild side effects to severe allergic reactions or even fatalities.

For instance, imagine a patient is prescribed a new medication and then experiences an adverse health event that they suspect is caused by the medication. The healthcare provider would then create an adverse event report to submit to the company that manufactures the medication. This report would contain detailed information about the patient, the medication, and the adverse event experienced.

Pharmaceutical companies must carefully track and promptly respond to all adverse event reports they receive. Failure to do so can have severe consequences, including patient harm, regulatory sanctions, and reputational damage. Effective management of adverse event reporting is essential for maintaining patient safety and ensuring that products remain compliant with regulatory requirements.

Product information requests

Product Information Requests (PIRs) are a common type of MIR that medical affairs teams handle. PIRs seek general information about a product such as its indications, dosages, contraindications, and clinical trial results.

For example, a physician might request PIRs to understand whether a medication would be a suitable option for their patient with a specific condition. Another provider may want more information on a medication than what is listed on the label.

Handling PIRs requires the ability to provide comprehensive information about the product to healthcare providers while ensuring regulatory compliance. It is essential to handle these requests efficiently as they could impact providers’ decision-making process and, ultimately, patient outcomes.

Medical inquiries

Medical inquiries are a specific type of medical information request that requires a detailed response from a medical affairs team. These requests are often initiated by healthcare providers seeking guidance on a specific medical issue or question related to a product.

Let's say a provider inquires about the appropriate dosage for a patient with a specific medical condition, or the potential drug interactions of a product with other medications. As with other types of MIRs, it is important for companies to respond to medical inquiries in a timely and accurate manner to provide healthcare providers with the necessary information to make informed decisions.

Clinical study data

Clinical study data requests are another common type of MIR. Healthcare providers may request access to detailed clinical study data, such as results from clinical trials, to help them make informed decisions about treatment options for their patients.

For instance, a physician may request clinical study data on a new medication before prescribing it to their patient. This request may include information about the drug’s safety, efficacy, and potential side effects.

Handling clinical study data requests requires companies to provide accurate and comprehensive data while adhering to regulatory requirements for data privacy and protection.

Off-label information

Off-label information requests are a specific type of MIR that requires companies to respond to requests for information about the use of a product outside of its approved label indications. These requests could include information about the potential benefits and risks of using a product off-label.

Let's say a healthcare provider inquires about using a medication to treat a condition not listed on its label indications. In these cases, companies must ensure that their responses are accurate and do not promote the off-label use of their product.

Handling off-label information requests requires companies to carefully evaluate the information they provide and ensure that their responses comply with regulatory requirements.

Product complaints

Product complaints are a type of MIR that companies use to collect and address customers' concerns about their products. These complaints can range from product quality to issues with packaging, labeling, or other components of the product.

Imagine a patient files a complaint about a medication they took because they believe it's causing them harm. A company must investigate the complaint thoroughly and respond in a timely manner to address any issues with their product.

Handling product complaints requires companies to have an effective complaint management process in place to investigate and address concerns raised by patients.

Why medical information requests matter

Why medical information requests matter

MIRs have a significant impact on providers and patients, as well as medical affairs professionals and the organizations they represent. As such, it is essential for life science companies to establish clear MIR submission protocols and develop an efficient system for processing incoming requests.

While larger companies often have a dedicated team to handle MIRs, smaller organizations may have limited resources and rely on a smaller team to manage these requests. Regardless of the size of the organization, it is crucial to handle MIRs efficiently and respond to them promptly in order to:

Let's take a closer look at why mastering medical information request management is vital in these areas:

Regulatory compliance

Pharmaceutical and medical device companies have a legal obligation to provide timely, accurate information about their products to the general public, patients, and healthcare professionals. Failure to comply can result in severe consequences, including legal actions, fines, and damage to your company's reputation.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandates this reporting and outlines pharmaceutical companies' responsibilities in its authoritative guide, “Responding to Unsolicited Requests for Off-Label Information About Prescription Drugs and Medical Devices.”

Under these guidelines, pharmaceutical companies must respond truthfully to unsolicited medical information requests. Misleading information and off-label promotion of product uses are prohibited in these responses, and the company must maintain detailed records of all MIRs and their responses.

Regulatory requirements for MIRs are becoming increasingly stringent. Non-compliant organizations risk penalties and other punitive measures. By ensuring regulatory compliance, you protect your business continuity and profitability.

Patient safety

Prompt and accurate responses to medical information requests are crucial to ensuring patient safety. When healthcare providers have access to the information they need about medications and devices, they can make informed decisions that promote positive health outcomes.

However, when pharmaceutical companies are slow to respond to MIRs, patient safety can be compromised. Providers may be hesitant to prescribe a particular medication, potentially resulting in delayed or inadequate treatment for patients.

MIRs also provide healthcare providers with a way to report concerns or adverse events, which pharmaceutical companies can use to improve products and protect patients from the risks associated with faulty devices or medications. By prioritizing the efficient management of MIRs, companies can maintain a strong focus on patient safety and improve overall healthcare outcomes.

Reputation management

In today's age of social media and online reviews, negative news can spread rapidly, potentially harming a pharmaceutical company's reputation. To stay ahead of any rumors or concerns, it's crucial to respond quickly and effectively to medical information requests.

Swift, accurate responses to MIRs can help put out any potential fires before they spread too far. This proactive approach can help maintain public trust and protect a company's reputation from the fallout of adverse events.

On the other hand, slow or inaccurate responses can have the opposite effect, damaging public trust and causing patients to seek out competitor products. Mishandling MIRs can ultimately lead to decreased product usage and revenue loss.

Competitive advantage

In the fiercely competitive industry of life sciences, companies must go the extra mile to maintain an edge over their rivals. Responding to medical information requests promptly is an excellent way for companies to gain a competitive advantage.

A streamlined MIR process shows healthcare providers that a company is transparent, trustworthy, and patient-focused. These factors are crucial in building long-term trust and relationships with providers and patients.

By developing an efficient MIR process, pharmaceutical companies can help providers make informed decisions about prescribing their products. This proactive approach can alleviate prescription hesitancy and increase the likelihood of a provider choosing their product over a competitor's.

Ultimately, having an efficient and effective MIR process can set a company apart from its rivals and contribute to its long-term success.

Continuous improvement

In order to provide better outcomes for patients, life science organizations must be able to stay ahead of the curve. This is another area in which MIRs shine — they can provide valuable insights that may help companies innovate and drive continuous improvement in their products.

For example, imagine there is a medication indicated for pain relief that could also help patients overcome sleep issues. By bringing this information to organizational decision-makers, the company could obtain funding to explore other uses for the medication — ultimately helping them stay competitive in the market, generate more revenue, and improve patient outcomes.

Best practices for handling medical information requests

MIR best practices

Managing medical information requests can be challenging, but life science companies can simplify the process and promote transparency by following a few established best practices.

Specifically, organizations tasked with handling medical information requests should:

1. Develop a clear, standardized process

The first step to mastering medical information request management is developing a clear and standardized process.

A well-designed process will act as a blueprint for the medical information team to follow and should cover the intake, response, tracking, and record-keeping aspects of MIR. It should also align with FDA guidelines to guarantee compliance and prevent any monetary repercussions.

Without a clear process to follow, the medical information team may miss key steps in the process, leading to delays in responding to requests, inaccurate information, and even noncompliance with FDA regulations. Inconsistent processes can also lead to confusion among team members, making it difficult to track and manage requests efficiently. A standardized process is essential for ensuring that all medical information requests are handled promptly, accurately, and in compliance with regulations.

To create a robust and comprehensive process, it's essential for decision-makers to gather feedback and input from the people who are most familiar with the day-to-day management of medical information requests. This feedback can help ensure that the process is clear, comprehensive, and easy to follow for all team members. The end result is a well-designed process that meets the needs of the organization while also ensuring compliance and efficiency in managing MIRs.

2. Create a dedicated medical information team

All organizations, regardless of size, should establish a dedicated medical information team to manage MIRs. This will ensure that requests are promptly and efficiently processed, and nothing falls through the cracks. If responsibilities are delegated to other teams, such as sales or marketing, it can lead to delayed responses, compliance issues, and damage to a company's reputation.

Creating a dedicated MIR team will require effort, but the benefits will be worthwhile. This team will be better equipped to handle requests, maintain compliance, and ensure that information is communicated transparently.

While some smaller companies may not have the resources to create a dedicated medical information team, there are ways to overcome this challenge and still manage MIRs effectively.

One option is to assign MIR responsibilities to a small group of individuals within the organization who have transferrable expertise and knowledge to handle these responsibilities.

Another option is to harness process automation to help streamline MIR management and reduce the need for a large team. Automated systems can be used to track and manage requests, respond to routine inquiries, and flag urgent requests for immediate attention. This can help smaller organizations manage MIRs more efficiently while maintaining compliance and ensuring prompt responses to healthcare professionals.

3. Use a centralized system to manage MIRs

Managing medical information requests through email or shared files can be risky and cause unnecessary confusion. Without a centralized system to manage MIRs, time-sensitive requests can get lost or overlooked, leading to delayed responses and a risk of noncompliance. This can cause friction among healthcare providers and ultimately damage the organization's reputation.

Additionally, managing MIRs without a standardized process can create confusion among team members about their roles and responsibilities, leading to inconsistent responses and inaccurate information being disseminated to healthcare providers.

Implementing a centralized system to manage MIRs will simplify the process, prevent any mishaps, and ensure that all requests are responded to promptly. Storing MIR data in a single location will help the MIR team leader oversee the management of requests and verify that the team responds to them appropriately based on their priority and urgency.

4. Implement a prioritization system

Pharmaceutical companies should prioritize MIRs to ensure that urgent requests are handled before routine inquiries. Developing a prioritization system will help the medical information team manage their workload and address requests based on their urgency.

For instance, consider a medical information team that receives two MIRs on the same day: one is a routine inquiry about dosage information, while the other reports a potential adverse event associated with one of the company's products. In this scenario, the team should prioritize the adverse event MIR, addressing it promptly to mitigate potential risks to patient safety. MIRs that are of equal urgency should be handled based on the order they are received.

Having a clear prioritization system in place ensures that the team is efficiently managing their workload while addressing the most pressing issues first.

5. Monitor MIR response performance

Want to ensure that your medical information request management program is continuously improving? Consider monitoring the the performance of your organization's MIR responses. You can gain valuable insights to make data-driven decisions by tracking metrics like response times, request volumes, and other relevant data points.

For example, let's say a pharmaceutical company notices an increasing trend of requests regarding potential off-label uses of their product. By monitoring this trend and analyzing the data, the company can conduct further research into the potential off-label uses, test the product's efficacy in those areas, and potentially apply for FDA approval for new indications.

This type of data-driven decision-making leads to product innovation, new opportunities in the market, and increased revenue.

On the other hand, neglecting to monitor MIR response performance could lead to missed opportunities for growth and potential noncompliance with regulatory requirements. For example, let's say a pharmaceutical company receives an MIR regarding the use of their product in a specific patient population. Monitoring MIRs may help the company identify potential gaps in how they are labeling or indicating their product. Failing to address these gaps puts the company at risk for being noncompliant with FDA regulations, resulting in fines, penalties, and PR nightmares.

By monitoring MIR response performance, companies can avoid regulatory issues and protect their reputation from negative PR. The insights gained from monitoring response performance can also help companies continuously improve their MIR process as a whole by allocating resources more effectively and going the extra mile to meet the needs of healthcare providers and their patients.

Automating your centralized MIR system

Implementing the best practices and centralizing your MIR system is essential for compliance and efficient management of medical information requests. However, not all centralized systems are equal, and rudimentary ones such as shared email inboxes lack the tools and management capabilities necessary to ensure compliance.

To meet FDA requirements for adverse event handling and auditing, it's crucial to route inquiries to the appropriate team members. Failing to do so can result in difficulty obtaining treatment approvals and even revocation of previously approved treatments, as demonstrated by the cases of chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate.

DownloadTo ensure compliance and efficient MIR management, consider implementing a powerful management system that includes sophisticated process automation tools. Leveraging tools such as BP Logix’s MIR solution enables you to tap into the power of predictive analytics, facilitate centralized data management, automate workflows, and integrate your database with existing systems.

Process automation tools not only streamline your MIR system but also reduce manual errors, speed up response times, and enable proactive management of requests, leading to a more efficient and compliant system.

Optimize MIR management with BP Logix

Medical information requests are a critical aspect of the healthcare industry, with the potential to influence patient outcomes, regulatory compliance, and revenue generation. As such, it's imperative to have a robust and streamlined process in place to manage them effectively.

By embracing process automation and optimization tools, you can revolutionize your approach to MIRs and achieve a more efficient and compliant management system. With BP Logix's MIR solution, you can leverage cutting-edge predictive analytics, centralized data management, and customizable workflow automation to streamline your MIR process and reduce the risk of errors and compliance issues.

MIR-screenshots

Our advanced platform also enables seamless integration with existing systems and workflows, making it easy to adopt and implement into your existing infrastructure.

With BP Logix's MIR solution, you can ensure that your organization is equipped to manage MIRs effectively, promote compliance, and protect your reputation in the healthcare industry. Contact us today to learn more and take the first step towards optimizing your MIR management process.

Topics: medical affairs medical information requests
10 min read

Facility Space Management Strategies in Higher Education

By Catie Leary on Feb 2, 2023 10:00:00 AM

Facility Space Management Strategies Higher Education

Space management refers to optimizing productivity within an organization by maximizing the efficiency of space utilization. Space management strategies provide a framework for assessing the availability of space, planning resource allocation, and ensuring that current space utilization practices support an entity’s objectives and goals.

Without an effective space management strategy in place, an organization will experience a host of logistical challenges. Some spaces may be underutilized, whereas others may be crowded or overused, causing friction between various teams and hindering collaboration.

All types of facility spaces should be managed with a cohesive plan, including:

  • Office buildings
  • Warehouses
  • Retail stores
  • Higher learning institutions

Historically, facility space management has been especially challenging for higher education organizations, as the institution’s leadership is tasked with managing various spaces while juggling the needs of dozens of faculty members and thousands of students.

Fortunately, higher education facilities can simplify this task and optimize space utilization by leveraging facility space management software.

Facility space management in higher education

There are numerous challenges associated with managing facility spaces in a higher education setting. Most notably, these learning institutions are responsible for managing a huge diversity of spaces, including:

  • Classrooms
  • Labs
  • Study rooms
  • Residence halls
  • Student centers
  • Libraries
  • Parking spaces
  • Fitness centers
  • Conference rooms

When creating space management strategies, the institution’s leadership must ensure that they meet the needs of faculty, student organizations (i.e., sports teams and recreational groups), individual students, and entire classes or programs.

The process of space management in higher education is further complicated because these institutions must also manage an inventory of shared and rentable assets, including A/V equipment, laptops, tablets, and other devices.

The organization must ensure that the right assets are available and deployed to the appropriate spaces or groups and must frequently allocate staff to help set up equipment for the groups that reserved it.

How to implement effective facility space management in higher education

Creating winning space management strategies in higher education requires a systematic approach. When creating or revamping a space management plan, organizational leaders should:

1. Identify and analyze the needs of the facility and its users

Step one is to figure out how many different groups, professors, classes, or programs need access to space and equipment. In other words, who is using what, and when?

Once organizational leaders better understand their user base, they should then conduct an assessment of available resources. During this assessment, organizational leadership should identify any potential deficiencies.

For example, if a higher education institution plans to offer 10 science courses that include a lab component during a single semester but only have one serviceable lab, scheduling issues are bound to arise. In this instance, the institution may need to invest in a second lab or reschedule some courses for the following semester.

2. Develop a space utilization plan that factors in fluctuating demand throughout the academic calendar

The next step involves the development of a space utilization plan, which must account for fluctuating demand throughout the academic calendar.

For instance, when several teams’ sports seasons overlap in late fall or early spring, the demand for the fitness center and the gym will be at its peak. As such, organizational leaders must take a proactive approach to space management and start looking for potential scheduling conflicts so they can be quickly remedied.

The space utilization plan must address spikes in demand for other types of space. This may include the library, labs, conference rooms, and even parking spaces. Ideally, space management strategies will also include a future demand planning component.

Demand planning will help organizational decision-makers continue to meet the needs of faculty and students as the institution grows.

3. Implement a space management system

Having a great plan is only part of the equation. Next, organizational leaders will need to implement a space management system to support the strategy they’ve devised. The space management system may entail software like a class scheduling platform, room reservation technology, or some combination of the two.

Space management systems vary greatly in terms of sophistication, usability, and other qualities. With that in mind, higher learning institutions should seek a solution that was purpose-built for educational organizations.

Using a generic, off-the-shelf solution might help simplify space management, but it won’t optimize the allocation of available facility resources as effectively as an industry-specific platform.

4. Utilize technology to optimize space usage

To truly optimize space usage, higher education institutions should implement custom facility space management software.

Such a solution can provide real-time insights into the status of all spaces and AV resources. Facility space management software can streamline scheduling tasks, prevent human errors like double booking, and help the university precisely track space usage.

Higher education institutions can further enhance space management by deploying internet of things (IoT) sensors.

These sensors can be used to track the status and location of AV equipment or monitor the state of available spaces. Using IoT devices like smart thermostats can also enhance space management by enabling facility leaders to automatically adjust temperatures when rooms are in use and minimize HVAC usage when they’re not.

Using technology to streamline facility space management

Facility space management software is designed to streamline the process of finding, renting, scheduling, and monitoring space usage on your campus.

The best facility space management software solutions also provide advanced reporting to track usage trends, identify which resources are in high demand, predict future demand, and meet the evolving needs of faculty and students.

Investing in the right software can turn space management into an organizational strength that enhances the student experience and minimizes friction between faculty members and departments.

Benefits of using space management software

There are numerous advantages of levering the right facility space management software. By implementing such a solution, you’ll gain instant access to the following:

1. Better visibility

The key benefit associated with facility space management software is enhanced visibility.

Put simply, a solution for higher education institutions will provide facility staff with an administrative-level bird's eye view of all reservable campus spaces, including classrooms, labs, library meeting rooms, and more. These users can configure space availability and make  scheduling conflicts a thing of the past.

Facility space management software also increases visibility for end users, such as students and faculty, because they can easily see what spaces are available and book the desired room or area using an intuitive interface.

2. Real-time data

Booking a space using traditional processes is often tedious and sometimes downright frustrating.

A faculty member has to contact the person tasked with scheduling spaces. Then, that person has to verify that the space is available and hope it wasn’t accidentally double-booked. Facility space management software simplifies this process by providing schedulers with real-time data.

The technology takes the guesswork out of scheduling classrooms, labs, and other spaces. When students or faculty members book a space with modern software, they can be confident that it will be available when they arrive at the scheduled date and time.

3. Actionable reporting

Facility space management software provides robust reporting tools that administrators can leverage to gain meaningful insights into utilization through comprehensive and eye-opening reports about current utilization rates or historical usage trends. These reports can help administrators predict future demand or pinpoint underuse issues.

For instance, let’s say you have three conference spaces located at different points across the campus. After generating a utilization report, you determine that two are almost always booked, but the third is rarely used.

With this insight, you can survey users and determine why the third space is used so much less. You may find that the layout isn’t conducive to your faculty’s needs and decide to revamp the lab or replace the existing furniture or equipment with modern alternatives.

4. Automation 

Managing facility space at a larger higher education institution is a complex, labor-intensive task. Facility space management software can make things much easier by providing powerful higher education automation tools and self-service solutions.

These tools can automate processes like scheduling, notifying users of their upcoming time slot, and tracking which spaces are currently available. Empowering students and faculty with self-service tools will further reduce the burden on your administrative staff and give them more time to engage in dynamic tasks.

Facility Space Management  Room Reservation

Room reservation systems

Let’s look at a detailed example of the challenges associated with managing room reservations on your campus. Specifically, these issues can arise when doing something as simple as reserving classroom space for a school club’s meetings or events.

We’ll examine four hurdles you likely encounter on a regular basis and outline how facility space management software can help you overcome each of these challenges.

Challenge #1: Complex scheduling requirements

As you’re no doubt aware, managing space scheduling at a higher education facility can be incredibly challenging.

One of the things that makes it so difficult is that the demand for space on a college campus is constantly in flux. For example, you may experience low demand the week after a semester ends and peak demand during final exam periods.

During lulls in demand, ensuring that your space is being used efficiently can be tricky. On the flip side, you may struggle to get staff and students what they need during periods of peak demand.

Facility space management software can help you automate scheduling by allowing users to easily request and reserve spaces. Faculty members can even set up recurring reservations if they need a specific space throughout a term.

The platform will automatically track existing reservations and take the academic calendar into account to prevent double bookings.

Challenge #2: Lack of visibility into room usage

Another challenge that arises when using outdated space management strategies is a lack of visibility into room utilization. Conflicts and inefficiencies will abound when you don't have a clear picture of what rooms are occupied or how frequently.

Room reservation software provides real-time visibility into how your rooms are being used.

Your facility management team can use this data to track usage patterns, identify inefficiencies, and, if needed, make recommendations for adding new spaces. Additionally, facility management can rework existing spaces to make them more appealing and versatile.

Challenge #3: Error-prone manual processes

Performing room reservation management with manual processes takes time, which is something you won’t always have in abundance. Manual practices also set the stage for problematic data entry errors. Ultimately, these errors will lead to confusion and frustration for faculty members that need to reserve spaces.

Facility space management software safeguards against human error by automating the bulk of the reservation process. A leading solution can automatically send confirmation emails, generate usage reports, and save your facility management team valuable time.

Room reservation tools also provide the space management staff with a single source of truth, which prevents double bookings or scheduling conflicts.

Challenge #4: Poor communication

Traditional space management strategies are notorious for hindering communication between faculty, staff, and students.

When there's a lack of clear communication about space usage and availability, conflicts are the inevitable result. This friction can disrupt the learning experience, negatively impact participation in clubs or school organizations, and decrease staff morale.

Room reservation software provides availability information that enables faculty members to verify whether a space is vacant or in use. If the room they need is already reserved, they can explore alternative solutions, such as claiming a different space or pushing back a lab session to another date.

By improving communication between staff, groups, and students, room reservation software reduces the likelihood of conflicts.

Best practices for ensuring effective ongoing facility space management

Facility space management software will lay the foundation for optimized space utilization. However, if you want to ensure that your space management strategies support your organizational objectives, you should also take the following steps.

Conduct regular reviews and analyses of space utilization data

Implementing facility space management software allows you to tap into all your utilization data, but it’s up to you to put it to use. To do so, you should conduct regular reviews and analyses of space utilization trends. You can closely monitor weekly, monthly, seasonal, or even semester-long trends to identify periods of peak demand.

Conducting these reviews will enable you to make better use of all of your facility’s space. From classrooms to labs and even parking spaces, you can make sure none of your precious resources are going to waste.

Collaborate with stakeholders

You should routinely collaborate with stakeholders as part of your space management strategies.

Each month or quarter, gather feedback from faculty, support staff, and students about your space management efforts. Find out what challenges they encountered when reserving spaces on campus and assess whether there’s a need for additional space on your campus based on current usage trends.

While every higher education institution would like more space and resources, you may find that your current ones are adequate but simply underutilized.

Gathering feedback from your stakeholders will help you determine how to make the most of your existing spaces. Their input will guide furniture purchasing decisions, remodeling efforts, and other efficiency-promoting measures.

Be flexible and adaptable to changing needs

Facilities like classrooms, labs, and conference areas are often viewed as static resources. While this is partially true, the most effective space management strategies promote flexibility and adaptability. A great plan will identify ways to make every space more versatile so it can meet the ever-changing needs of your campus.

While you may not be able to easily expand the square footage of a room, you can make each space more user-friendly and appealing. For example, you might install multi-purpose furniture, compact equipment, and ample storage to take advantage of the space you have.

Designing rooms with flexibility in mind will give faculty and students more options in case their desired rental space is unavailable.

Use data and analytics to inform decision-making

Although you can restructure or repurpose existing rooms in short order when necessary, you can’t create new space overnight. It’s therefore important to take a proactive approach to space management at your higher learning institution.

Facility space management software can provide you with detailed usage reports and powerful analytics tools that you can use to plan ahead. You can predict the space requirements of your campus years in advance so you can budget accordingly, invest in additional resources, and ensure that your students and faculty are being served.

It's time to get serious about your facility space management strategy

Space management strategies rooted in traditional practices and manual processes can produce untold amounts of confusion, frustration, and unnecessary expense for your institution and its faculty and students.

When your organization relies on outdated facility space management software — or worse, paper-based practices — double bookings and other errors will run rampant. Fortunately, you can modernize your space management strategies by leveraging leading-edge technology that provides real-time insights into space utilization.

The right solution will help you optimize resource usage, avoid errors, and automate traditionally tedious booking processes. The result will be a more sophisticated institution, more orderly internal processes, and a better experience for everyone. Hasn’t that been the goal all along?

Want to learn more about automating space management at your higher education organization? Contact BP Logix today for a demo of our space management solution.

Topics: higher education
5 min read

5 Reasons to Use Low-Code Platforms in Higher Education

By Andrew Kelly on Aug 1, 2022 7:00:00 AM

low-code-higher-education-blog

COVID-19 accelerated the transition to remote learning at a pace that is impacting the quality of education at higher education institutions.

Poor student experiences can lead to enrollment decline and add to the financial burden already facing these institutions. A growing number of institutions are turning to low-code platforms like BP Logix to accelerate their transition to remote learning.

In this blog, we introduce low-code platforms and discuss some of the benefits of adopting this innovative technology in higher education institutions.

What is a low-code platform?

A low-code development platform is a software development approach that uses a graphical user interface in place of native coding.

Low-code empowers non-programmers to create applications in a visual, drag-and-drop environment while leveraging reusable components' full power. The speed of low-code development is dramatically faster (5 to 10X), while still delivering the same results as hard-coded applications. A low-code platform can also help reduce risks related to data privacy and information security.

At a time when software developers are hard to find or expensive to afford, this technology has the potential to keep the pace of digital transformation. In addition to an intuitive front end, a low-code platform comes with pre-built templates and out-of-the-box integration capabilities. Research by Gartner estimates that 65% of all applications will be delivered through low-code platforms by 2024.

Let's dive into five reasons why your institution should use low-code platforms in their software development lifecycle.

1. Cuts the cost of development

Universities and colleges have tight budgets, but they need to make critical investments to stay competitive at a time when they are competing for a shrinking pool of students. The traditional options can be both resource intensive and time consuming.

Many schools have an aging portfolio of core enterprise applications like Student Information Systems, Learning Management Systems, HR/ Payroll Systems and an ERP for Finance.

To stay competitive and introduce new programs, they need to make changes to these systems which can be challenging due to high cost and lack of availability of software developers proficient in their respective platforms.

Building custom applications from scratch and buying off the shelf SaaS solutions can be equally expensive and resource intensive. Meanwhile, a low-code platform can plug into the ERP at the back end and provide a much more intuitive front end to make the required enhancements. No coding required equals dramatically lower delivery costs.

Coupled with low maintenance and easy integration with third-party applications, low-code platforms offer modern and futuristic solutions for institutions to significantly reallocate their IT budgets.

2. Speedier delivery

Hard-coded applications lack the component reusability capabilities of low-code platforms. It can take months or sometimes years to code, test, and deploy applications using the high code development lifecycle process. On the other hand, a university IT team can deliver a flawless app or site within weeks using state-of-the-art AI-powered low-code platforms like BP Logix.

Wondering how these platforms achieve such a quick turnaround? Low-code platforms have pre-coded templates, reusable components, and click-and-drag capabilities that shorten the time that would otherwise be used to write code. Essentially, you need only to customize the templates and features, and the platform automatically generates the code for you.

3. Improved experiences for students, faculty, and staff

Most schools have built their workflow automation gradually over time using a range of options including buying off the shelf and building bespoke. As needs have changed, these applications have been fixed with patches. The typical student or faculty members touches multiple applications in the process of going through their academic and campus life. The result is a fragmented discontinuous experience in many cases requiring data reentry and logging in and out of multiple systems. This fragmented experience can result in lost productivity, data integrity issues, and an overall poor end user experience.

A low-code platform functions as the glue that seamlessly connects across different systems in the background while providing a simple unified front end to end users.

Higher ed low-code in action

Working with BP Logix, an Ivy League university implemented a first-time remote system to let 6,000 students update course and grading preferences without being on campus. Professors can efficiently meet and teach students virtually via a remote learning system developed using low-code platforms. Moreover, students can automatically get notifications from a remote e-learning system for what previously required an in-person presence on campus. 

4. Better data and insights

Staff and faculty at higher education institutions use data to make decisions. If the application portfolio at the institution consists of a large spaghetti of disparate systems, data can get fragmented and unreliable.

Accessing actionable information can become a challenge. A robust low-code platform will capture key data and allow you to slice and dice to provide actionable insights.

BP Logix has advanced AI and ML capabilities which allow the platform to capture in process data and provide advanced predictive analytics. For example, you may be able to predict that a key process (enrollment, payroll, grants application, etc) is likely to get delayed, which can trigger an automatic email escalation to the appropriate user.

5. Reduced complexity

Traditionally, there is a tradeoff between speed and complexity. Meaning, you can get a software platform that can help you build applications quickly, but is unable to handle complexity.

With a low-code platform like BP Logix's Process Director, you get the best of both worlds. The right platform has an in-house team that understands your domain and creates pre-built components tailored to address even your most complex use cases.

Higher ed low code in action

ucf logoUniversity of Central Florida (UCF) is responsible for over 3000 international students from over 130 universities across the world. UCF Global was seeking to double their enrollment over a three-year period while enhancing the onboarding experience for its students.

UCF chose BP Logix low-code platform to automate complex processes across immigration, employment authorization, visas, and international taxation.

Read the full UCF Global case study.

Explore low-code in higher education

The number of higher education institutions seeking to use low-code platforms continues to grow. However, not all low-code platforms are tailored to the higher education sector and come built in with relevant templates.

Pursuing low-code means you get to become part of a community of collaborative higher ed colleagues that are committed to embracing the next generation of digital transformation in higher education.

 

Schedule a demo today to learn how BP Logix can help your higher education institution be responsive to the changing needs of the next generation of students and faculty.

 
Topics: higher education
8 min read

The Evolving Role of Medical Affairs in Pharma Companies

By Girish Pashilkar on Jun 21, 2022 11:37:02 AM

The future of medical affairs

Pharmaceutical organizations must constantly evolve in order to stay competitive in the market and compliant with regulations.

Recent years have seen significant change in the role of medical affairs teams in the pharmaceutical industry. COVID-19 accelerated these changes. As a result, many medical affairs departments now face a pressing need to meet shifting expectations.

Technology is in a unique position to alleviate some of the growing pains that medical affairs teams experience as they take on greater responsibilities. Process automation, in particular, can play a valuable role in streamlining and improving the efficiency of medical affairs workflows.

With process automation solutions, medical affairs leaders can:

  • Deliver actionable insights to key decision makers
  • Reduce administrative overhead to enable team members to spend more time on stakeholder engagement
  • Digitally engage HCP’s and KOL’s increasing the capacity of the team to engage these key stakeholders
  • Streamline collaboration across departments to speed up the new drug development
  • Contain costs, by introducing new efficiencies

The role of process automation is becoming more critical as the field of medical affairs continues to grow. In this article, we’ll walk through why and how medical affairs is changing (including the role played by the COVID-19 pandemic), and dive deep into how technology must adapt to meet the needs of this growing sector.

How medical affairs is changing

Historically, medical affairs provided support to the research and commercial pillars of pharmaceutical and medical device companies, but that's changed drastically over the past decade.

These organizations are faced with increasing regulatory pressures, rising drug development costs, and a faster-paced competitive market. To meet the increasing market demands, medical affairs departments are facing greater expectations and workloads without a proportionate increase in budgets. 

To address this challenge, companies are turning to process automation solutions to help medical affairs teams do more with less. By automating routine tasks and optimizing resource utilization, medical affairs teams can focus on delivering high-quality, credible information to physicians and patients in a timely and efficient manner.

Medical affairs is brought to the table earlier in the drug development process to foster more seamless collaboration with other departments and contribute to strategic decision-making.

COVID-19's impact on medical affairs

covid-19 vaccination

The changes to the medical affairs industry have been in the works for the past decade, but the COVID-19 pandemic galvanized the situation further by rewriting the script on (a) how pharma develops and brings drugs to market, and (b) how the HCP/MSL engagement model functions.

Developing and bringing drugs to market

When we talk about how the pandemic changed the way drugs are developed and brought to market, there’s no way not to mention the impact that Operation Warp Speed (OWS) had on the time-to-market speed for pharmaceutical products.

OWS was initiated by the United States government in spring 2020 to help accelerate the development and distribution of testing, vaccines, and therapies for COVID-19.

In addition to saving millions of lives and helping gain better control over the pandemic, the operation demonstrated that it was possible to move pharmaceutical products through the development and approval process much faster than previously thought.

Of course, developing a vaccine to combat an active pandemic is a unique situation. Most drugs do not warrant emergency use authorization, nor are they backed by the whopping $10 billion budget granted to Operation Warp Speed by the CARES act.

Even so, it’s an incredibly valuable case study for medical affairs teams and their colleagues to consider in medical planning. The process for developing and approving drugs often takes between 10-15 years. Imagine a pharmaceutical market that reduces that timeline estimate by half.

That's not only a game changer for patients – it's a competitive advantage for businesses in the pharmaceutical industry.

While the conditions for developing drugs under a pandemic are not replicable for most other drugs, investment in automation technology can emulate some of these fast-paced outcomes. Upgrading medical affairs software with automated solution can not only help teams move faster and more efficiently, but they also provide a better experience for users.

Shifts in the HCP/MSL engagement model

The first year of the pandemic marked a significant increase in digital engagement interactions between healthcare providers (HCPs) and medical science liaisons (MSLs).

Due to pandemic-related travel restrictions, MSLs were now conducting the vast majority (or in some cases, all) of their work remotely.

This new mode of working meant that they could easily engage with multiple HCPs in a single day.

But how did HCPs feel about this change?

According to a June 2020 EU5 report, 55 percent of HCPs said they preferred transitioning to virtual engagements with MSLs. However, only 30 percent of HCPs expressed satisfaction with the quality and value of these digital interactions.

These stats illustrate that the demand for digital MSL engagements is there, but there is still work to be done to ensure these experiences are useful for HCPs.

In the white paper, “Beyond the Field: Evolving Field Medical Engagement and Talent for the Future,” the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) suggests that the increase in digital MSL engagement presents a golden opportunity for the medical affairs industry to take steps to improve their processes:

“The move to virtual conferences and meetings, where data is not consumed in real-time, has highlighted an opportunity for the industry to revisit compliance, review and approval processes to keep pace with information needs. The timing and consumption of information changes significantly when it’s available online for a clinician to download at their convenience. […] This amplifies the need for the accurate and accelerated review/approval of materials to accommodate the speed that data is consumed virtually.”

The most effective way for pharmaceutical organizations to grasp this opportunity and satisfy the needs of KOLs is to prioritize technology investments that can improve the quality of digital engagements.

Oversight and compliance challenges 

oversight and compliance in medical affairs

Another critical way medical affairs is changing comes down to compliance and oversight. As scientists and pharmaceutical leaders seek innovative treatments as quickly and safely as possible, the regulatory environment grows more complex by the day.

A significant reason for this complexity has been the outgrowth of pharma applications to more technical, niched scientific areas. Today, pharmaceutical companies are making important advancements in the realms of biologics, mRNA technologies, gene therapies, and more.

These advancements necessitate greater scientific rigor and oversight for medical affairs processes across the board – which is important for safety and validation, as well as for ensuring the sponsoring organization can remain competitive and reduce their legal risk.

The challenge is that as regulations grow more robust and complex, an organization’s SOPs must evolve to meet those requirements. This is another area in which technology must play a critical role.

Investing in purpose-built technology can lessen the challenge of updating SOPs to match the complexities of the moment, as well as help teams work faster because automation makes it easier to meet compliance requirements and check for debarments.

Medical affairs technology needs are also changing

In addition to the impact of COVID-19 and the pharmaceutical industry’s ever-changing regulatory requirements, medical affairs faces greater pressure to provide better customer experiences (CX) and user experiences (UX) to physicians, payers, regulators, journals, and congresses that must access and review drug information digitally.

There are a variety of different tools and technologies that medical affairs professionals can use to improve efficiency and productivity both within their organization and outside of it. These technologies range from custom applications to licensed outsourced solutions, but choosing the right ones is not always simple.

Pharmaceutical companies face three main challenges when researching and selecting technologies:

1. Identifying functionality that can evolve with them

With how quickly medical affairs teams are growing and changing, it’s imperative that the technology they use can evolve with them. That is why any technological solutions under consideration should:

  • Meet the emerging needs of the medical affairs professionals.
  • Offer the flexibility to customize solutions within its architecture.

For example, in our discussions with medical affairs leaders about their publication planning systems, one of their primary motivations for seeking out a new technology is frustration with the functionality of their existing solutions, including out of date user interfaces, failure to keep up with changing business or regulatory requirements, and insufficient customer support. These incumbent solutions are often longstanding in the industry but have grown complacent, neglecting to prioritize innovative improvements.

Download the PubPro product fact sheetAs the role of medical affairs grows more complex and wider in scope, these mission critical teams are chafing against the confines of technology that can no longer meet their needs and expectations.

That is why our team of process automation experts created a new publication planning solution, PubPro.

PubPro is designed to improve the speed and efficiency of publication planning processes for medical affairs and medical communications teams. Customers can reduce their publication planning costs by as much as 50%, in addition to solving high stakes compliance issues.

2. Overcoming the perceived burden of switching technologies

Another major hurdle to overcome involves all the perceived barriers associated with switching technologies.

When an organization has used the same system for managing a process for many years, it can feel daunting to make a switch to a new solution. Even if the new solution promises outstanding improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and user experience, organizations may feel tethered to their existing systems and processes for "sunk cost” reasons or they may rationalize that it’s simply “not the right time to shake things up.”

There may also be concerns about the transition itself. Will the implementation and training period cause disruptions to critical projects? How difficult will it be to migrate from the old system? How challenging will it be to train employees on the new system?

The fact is, medical affairs leaders do not have the luxury of taking their time to onboard software slowly, which is why technology partners must prioritize delivering a fast and seamless transition to their customers.

3. Ensuring seamless integration with existing technology

One of the functions of a medical affairs team is to help connect various departments at their organization with external stakeholders, such a HCPs, KOLs, and patients.

In order for medical affairs teams to work effectively, the organization's data must be able to move seamlessly across departmental and organizational boundaries while maintaining privacy and compliance standards.

That is why it is imperative that technology buyers at these organizations ensure they are making investments that can easily integrate with existing tools and legacy systems. The end result should be a streamlined, cross-functional workflow that provides clear visibility into any bottlenecks.

The ideal choice of technology to meet these needs should provide multiple options to enable single sign-on and multiple formats for exchange with the existing technology platforms.

Maximizing competitive advantages

With how rapidly the medical affairs landscape is changing, it’s important for pharmaceutical leaders to bring in technologies that can match the gait of this fast-paced growth and be ready to adapt quickly to new developments and requirements.

Ready to level up your medical affairs team? Contact our team of process automation experts to learn more about implementing one of our process automation solutions at your organization.

Topics: publication planning publication management
4 min read

Improving the Debarment Check Process in Publication Management

By Alex Reinthal on Apr 26, 2022 4:30:00 PM

debarment-check-drug-approval-publication-planning

With all the hard work that goes into the complex and delicate process of medical innovation, the last thing pharmaceutical and biotech companies want is to see publications delayed by an incomplete or unnecessarily lengthy debarment check process.

The good news is that new technologies can now automate and introduce new efficiencies into checking for debarments. 

Let’s dive into a comprehensive refresh about what debarment checks are, how they work, and how to work them into your pharmaceutical publication processes so that you can more readily identify the advantages of refreshing your company's approach to this regulatory responsibility.

What is an FDA debarment?

In regulatory terms, a debarment is when an individual, organization, or any affiliates are excluded from conducting business with a federal agency.

In the case of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there are two types of debarments that apply to the development, approval, or regulation of food and pharmaceutical products:

  • Mandatory debarments are the result of a felony conviction for the individual in question. These debarments are typically permanent.
  • Permissive debarments usually result from an individual's misdemeanor conviction or a conviction of accessory or conspiracy charges. Corporations can also be debarred for a period of time for direct or indirect violations of FDA law. Permissive debarments can last up to several years.

The FDA maintains a list of individuals who have been convicted of felonies (permanent debarment) and misdemeanors (permissive debarment) related to the development, approval, or regulation of a pharmaceutical product.

What are the business risks of collaborating with debarred individuals?

Working with debarred individuals or entities could have serious ramifications on the development of pharmaceutical products. For example, if a debarred individual is found to have contributed on the planning or development of a new pharmaceutical drug or device, the company and team associated with the project could face fines, delays, and potentially even the temporary debarment of organizations that have neglected to terminate debarred individuals in their employ.

Failure to identify the engagement of debarred individuals or entities can have serious repercussions on the publication and on the company at large. Fines can reach levels of $250K per debarred individual or $1M per organization.

Consider how the failure to screen for or terminate a debarred person would impact your competitive edge in the market. Years of hard work and investment could be jeopardized by a few bad faith collaborators.

With so much at stake, how do medical affairs teams in the pharmaceutical industry ensure they are working above board? By performing thorough debarment checks.

The importance of debarment checks

A debarment check ensures that you have not hired debarred individuals or contracted with debarred entities at any point in the process of bringing a drug to market. When applying to the FDA for approval of a drug, medical affairs professionals at pharma and biotech companies are required to certify that they have not and will not engage in such a hire.

Regular debarment checks are necessary to avoid regulatory penalties, not to mention the bad press or approval delays that could also result for your business if you fail to catch a debarment issue.

When it comes to publication management, the debarment check protects your company against liabilities financial, reputational, and even social. Thorough and regular checks help medical affairs professionals avoid costly fines, protect against damage to company credibility, and prevent go-to-market delays. They also protect consumers and help to maintain the integrity of the FDA as it works to protect consumers as well. When debarment checks work as advertised, it benefits everybody.

Ensuring ongoing compliance with the FDA debarment list

Of course, with the FDA debarment list being continuously updated, ensuring compliance requires ongoing debarment checks. This does not mean that the process has to remain laborious, or turn into a cost that you “just have to eat.”

This is where automation comes in. With the power of low-code automation, medical affairs professionals can build a solution designed with their complex SOPs and compliance requirements in mind — all without having to spend an unreasonable amount of time and money on manual or outsourced debarment checks. 

Automated debarment checks in publication management

The benefits of automation in the publication management process, including debarment checks, are numerous.

First, consider the sheer number of administrative tasks that medical affairs teams need to complete to support the development and approval of a new drug, in compliance with regulations both domestic and international. 

Extending to debarment checks and beyond, smart automations that fit to your existing processes and workflows are sure to introduce new efficiencies that save time and money, resulting in better margins on R&D as well as greater speed-to-market.

Download the PubPro product fact sheetPubPro by BP Logix was created with these specific goals in mind. With PubPro, medical affairs directors and managers can:

  • Manage publication process timelines, including via metrical data for identifying efficiencies and bottlenecks
  • Intelligently route and approve tasks
  • Collaborate across document authoring, to conduct quality checks and manage feedback
  • Customize reviewer assignments
  • Resolve high-stakes compliance gaps, including debarment checks and training verifications
  • And more!

This robust automation system produces many efficiencies, including ensuring compliance more quickly, so that you and your team can focus less on administrative work and more on the remainder of the publication management process. PubPro can conduct automated debarment checks for not only the FDA database, but also the OIG (Office of Inspector General) and SAM (System for Awards Management) databases.

Improve compliance and speed up your publication process with PubPro.

Contact us today to learn more about our solution built for medical affairs teams.

Topics: publication planning publication management
6 min read

How to Improve Your New Employee Roadmap

By Catie Leary on Apr 11, 2022 7:45:00 AM

new-employee-roadmapA new employee roadmap can be an effective way to get your HR onboarding processes “on paper,” so that you can then review both their effectiveness and their fit to the current needs of various stakeholders within your organization.

Let’s explore how and why such a roadmap is good policy, as well as the many ways to optimize the process using thoughtful planning and cost-saving HR automations.

The importance of the employee experience

As has been greatly underscored by the current, hot job market, the success of your organization in pursuing its financial and business goals depends in large measure on how your employees view their experience(s) working for and with you.

Employees who benefit from a clear, thoughtful, and efficient new employee roadmap will contribute towards greater retention in your organization. This reduced turnover will have a net positive impact on recruiting costs.

Additionally, employees who are happier, more informed, and feel valued  – all byproducts of smart and thorough onboarding, in addition to general company policy and culture – generate increased productivity.

Taken together, these two benefits of smooth onboarding (decreased turnover and increased productivity) help improve workplace culture.

So, let’s explore how to ensure that you’re doing everything you can with your new employee roadmap to optimize for such benefits and improvements.

How to improve your new employee roadmap

Remember that metaphorical “piece of paper” we start with, that outlines your current onboarding process?

Hopefully, it’s digital by now. But a more important question is whether you’re taking full advantage of all the opportunities to develop the best roadmap for your new employees.

1. Sync related processes

In a word, we recommend client’s “sync” related and overlapping HR processes with smart automations. This commonly manifests as a streamlined system that identifies and removes redundancies – or introduces new efficiencies – into your recruiting, preboarding, and onboarding cycle.

The main benefit of this approach becomes immediately apparent once implemented: a seamless experience, visible end-to-end, of the entire initial employee experience. In addition to cost-savings and the good impression it makes on new hires, HR leadership is able in this way to identify areas of future improvement within your evolving new employee roadmap.

2. Develop a standardized provisioning checklist

Imagine you’re a new employee. It’s your first day. You have everything you need to hit the ground running. Sounds perfect, right?

Except this is still a rare scenario, in too many organizations.

With the right groundwork, and smart automations, your HR department can stand out in this key area to new employee onboarding.

Here are some examples of what can be included in a standardized provisioning checklist:

  • Computer
  • Office supplies
  • IT accounts
  • VPN access
  • Other equipment
  • Facility access
  • Parking pass
  • Welcome package

Standardization doesn’t mean inflexible. With solutions like those offered by BP Logix, provisioning can be customized to your organizational needs, no matter the industry or administrative structure.

With everything listed in one place, HR leadership can enable management and departmental leadership to automate as much provisioning fulfillment as possible, leaving more time for important tasks like job fulfilment and company growth.

3. Engage with new hires before their first day

While a relatively simple and straightforward recommendation, pre-engagement merits a special mention when it comes to your new employee roadmap.

After the offer and acceptance, and before the official start date of your new hire, consider systematically equipping your new colleagues with the option of getting a head start. It helps both parties to clear some paperwork before engaging in the exciting but potentially overwhelming task of getting started in a new role.

Engaging with new hires before their official start can help smooth out the earliest days of a new business relationship, to the benefit of everyone.

4. Digitize new hire paperwork

Not every organization has digitized their new hire paperwork yet. Often, this is just something that’s gotten kicked down the road. That’s okay. But revisiting or rebooting your new employee roadmap should start with digitization.

As in – everything. There’s no need to fill in any gaps with paper forms, anymore.

Digitization makes everyone happier. Critical for remote-first and/or hybrid workplaces, but arguably just as or more important for physical office spaces, digitization reduces clutter (and your carbon footprint), speeds up form-filling, and enables data sharing across departments.

5. Assemble a welcome package

Perhaps you’ve seen them in snapshots posted to LinkedIn. A welcome package can be an opportunity for more than simple data collection, for forms and regulatory requirements.

Welcome packages impress employees, help them to feel connected at the onset of their work with your company, and they contribute to retention increases of up to 82%.

Some items you might include in a welcome package:

  • Welcome letter
  • “Getting to know you” survey
  • Welcome gift
  • Business cards
  • Company swag (mug, notepad, koozie, etc.)
  • Employee handbook
  • Org chart/directory
  • Info on company tools, office amenities and perks, nearby eateries and cafes

It takes just a little bit of upfront effort to plan and fulfill welcome packages, with high dividends paid back to you in the form of boosted retention and productivity.

6. Assign an onboarding buddy

Before remote and hybrid work became more common, many organizations large and small would often consolidate new employee onboarding processes into an orientation day. While this can still work, in today’s workplace this same motivation to build culture and speed up onboarding can be achieved by assigning onboarding buddies or cohorts digitally (and/or IRL).

An exhaustive new employee roadmap will focus on softer benefits like this along with other more tactile solutions. Help new hires acclimate by pairing them with others who might know more directly how they are feeling in their first days.

7. Home Run swing – knock your "day one" agenda out of the park

If we’re mentioning retention goals again, it’s because we’ve seen firsthand how valuable it is to our clients. On top of streamlining as much as possible, and as a supplement to other efforts to provide your new hires with a warm welcome, knocking your employee’s day one agenda out of the park is a great way to impress them and make onboarding more comfortable.

A strong first day agenda might involve:

  • An office tour (bonus points for creativity)
  • Meet-and-greet with team/leadership
  • 1:1 with direct manager
  • 1:1 with onboarding buddy
  • Welcome lunch or other social event

Much of what we’re discussing around your optimized new employee roadmap is about clear, direct, thoughtful communications with new hires – and a winning day one schedule sets the tone in this regard.

8. Develop a 30/60/90 plan

Make it clear, document goals and milestones, establish expectations at the onset.

With things like automated onboarding helping to clear the busywork at the start, a firm and clearly communicated 30/60/90 onboarding plan will see so many positive returns for both your organization and its new hires.

Productivity will benefit from such a structured plan, as will morale.

9. Streamline training and orientation with online learning

Especially when paired with many of the above strategies and tools, employing online learning for new hire training and orientation can provide additional onboarding efficiencies. It also documents regulatory compliance efforts and makes them easily reportable.

Finally, especially for trainings that are important but don’t require you or other leaders to necessarily be “in the room”, online learning provides a speedier process for employees eager to go at their own pace – and then get to work on their day-to-day responsibilities.

10. Get feedback from new hires

Last but not least, a comprehensive new employee roadmap will create space for many feedback touchpoints. Automation can help again here, but whether you use it or choose to check in manually, it’s worth engaging new hires at regular intervals to see how things are going for them. Take advantage of their perspective to identity improvements or new additions to your roadmap.

Process automation: The core of your roadmap

As has hopefully been made clear, process automation for your employee onboarding can introduce many efficiencies and benefits into your new hire roadmap.

At BP Logix, we’ve designed products that maximize these efficiencies, while also leaving room for custom solutions built to the unique needs of your organization.

To more closely explore how process automation can take your new employee roadmap to the next level, set up some time with BP Logix to demo our software.

Better retention, higher productivity, a happier workplace culture – all these and more can be won by smarter, faster, error-resistant new hire data collection and processing.

Topics: hr automation
7 min read

How to Automate Your Employee Onboarding Process

By Catie Leary on Mar 31, 2022 11:15:00 AM

employee-onboarding-hr-automation

Automating your employee onboarding consolidates and reduces redundancies in HR processes, saves you time, and improves the accuracy and security of organizational data. In even better news, it also contributes to greater productivity and retention among new employees.

In this guide, we’ll dive deep into how and why implementing an HR automation solution for onboarding proves so powerful for future-forward organizations.

Why should I automate in the first place?

Manual onboarding or partially automated onboarding processes can leave a lot to be desired for both HR leaders and employees. 

With all respect for the challenges of managing employee data in a complex and/or growing organization, legacy processes often suffer from a number of inefficiencies:

  • Siloed data, both within HR departments and between shared departmental resources
  • Disconnected recruiting, hiring, and onboarding processes
  • Human error

Automated onboarding enables greater leveraging of the same data points across departments and functions in your organization. By identifying areas of overlap, or revealing new opportunities for data sharing – all while proving more secure than manual processes – automated onboarding introduces a greater fluidity to existing processes.

With AI-enabled technology leading the way, errors are reduced, compliance is made simpler, and employees are left impressed by your organization. This not only fosters greater satisfaction in their first days at the job, it also improves retention in the long term and ensures more productivity at the onset. 

In this way, employees can jump into their new job functions with confidence, while you report to management that the help they needed is on the way, faster than ever before.

How to automate your employee onboarding process

At BP Logix, we do not advocate for a one-size-fits-all approach to automated employee onboarding. Every organization has unique needs, and your automated onboarding process should meet those needs better than your current manual or partially-automated processes.

In most cases, you and your team will know best which processes could benefit from automation. You probably have a list of headaches and bottlenecks from processes that either need a complete update, or could stand to be made more efficient.

When identifying how to automate more holistically, you’ll want to audit current processes to discover which (and how many) need to be retired or integrated with other solutions.

Examples of onboarding processes and HR tasks that are frequently improved through automation can include:

  • Recruiting and hiring
  • Employee referrals
  • New employee forms
  • Benefits enrollment
  • Equipment provisioning and/or reimbursements or expenses
  • Facilities access
  • IT setup
  • Vaccination attestation
  • Training and compliance

Many of the data inputs and outputs inherent to these processes can be shared, and organized in such a way that they both align with your unique organizational structures and meet the essential needs for internal reporting, regulatory compliance, and employee engagement.

What to look for in your automated employee onboarding solution

While there are many onboarding solutions on the market, several options seek to force the disparate needs of various organizations into one, broad approach. 

This can help to marginally improve things, but such an approach often shortchanges HR departments on some of the very promises that automation offers in the first place.

Instead, look for software that promises a robust set of capabilities that matches your organization’s unique needs.

  • End-to-end visibility: Track progress and identify bottlenecks with a high-level view of the entire employee onboarding cycle, from recruitment, to day one, through to 30/60/90 day analyses.
  • Customizable workflows: Automated onboarding systems should fit your company’s particular HR needs – not the other way around.
  • Pre-built workflow components: Customization doesn’t mean you can’t hit the ground running, or that you can’t implement a new automated system quickly. Smart onboarding automations provide templates and pre-built modules for common tasks like requests/approvals, document submission and filing, and provisioning checklists. This allows HR managers to swiftly improve core processes even as bespoke integrations are being implemented (these can also be built quickly, with the right software).
  • Intelligent routing and approvals: Ensure the correct review/approval tasks are delivered to the right hands, at the right times, with automations that account for the busyness and imperfection of humans in the loop. Automations are meant to make lives easier. They aren’t just a means of simply duplicating manual processes in digital form.
  • Predictive analytics: Be warned when a task is going to be late, or if there’s another similar challenge looming. Analyze organizational trends to target new efficiencies.
  • Seamless integrations: Plugging into existing IT systems should be as easy as possible. Low-code, AI-enabled technology will reduce friction in matching new automated solutions to existing data architectures.
  • User-friendly dashboards: HR managers want automations that help them do their jobs, which should include reports and interfaces that are as easy-to-use as the underlying automation technologies they are built upon. Extended to users and onboarding employees, this easiness should reap many more positive benefits within the organization, once rolled-out.

A great way to see just how crucial features like these can optimize your employee onboarding processes is with a tour of BP Logix's solution:

Employee onboarding tour

Spotlight: Automated employee onboarding success in action

Let’s look at how customers are using BP Logix to automate and improve their employee onboarding process:

University of Wisconsin Eau Claire

UW Eau ClaireWhen the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire was looking to replace a legacy onboarding system that was no longer meeting their evolving needs, and costing too much money for a fixed cohort of licensed users, they did a lot of homework

After looking at over 100 products, a few key factors in particular led to them to shortlist Process Director, from BP Logix.

UW-Eau Claire needed an onboarding solution that:

  • Favored cross-compatibility
  • Didn’t cost more than made reasonable sense
  • Was easy to develop to internal needs
  • Was easy to use
  • Did not charge per-seat for licensing
  • Did not have any barriers to development
  • Featured better responsiveness and support

According to UW-Eau Claire, they ultimately selected BP Logix as their partner for automating employee onboarding based on the strength of their demo of Process Director. 

In line with the professed advantages in speed, simplicity, customization, compatibility and cost-reduction, UW-Eau Claire found that Process Director  for BP Logix delivered on the promise of automation to make their HR processes better and more modern.

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)

UTEP BP Logix case studyHuman resources leaders at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) wanted to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the organization’s decision to go green, to also streamline employee onboarding and other processes through more advanced automation.

Ultimately, they chose BP Logix as their partner in this, with the end result being the elimination of 200 paper forms and counting. 

On top of this, UTEP cited the following benefits to automating their documentation:

  • Easy to install, use and customize BP Logix software
  • Time saved – the UTEP IT team saved countless hours with low-code implementation
  • Less frustration, no more missed deadlines, thanks to greater visibility and smart notifications from the BP Logix dashboard

UTEP ultimately felt they found a perfect match in BP Logix, considering that they also needed more advanced functionality with their new automated employee onboarding solution, such as user authentication and dynamic documentation routing.

With this blend of streamlining and custom modification, UTEP was able to leverage automated onboarding to make user experiences more pleasant for employees and students alike.

Smart automation makes for happier humans, too

While perhaps less easy to quantify in the past, in recent years researchers have begun to see how the right automations can lead to happier, more productive employees

We’ve already touched on such benefits a bit, but let’s dig in more fully, considering the importance of employee engagement to organizational success.

The employee advantages to implementing an automated onboarding system are numerous, and often include:

  • Removing tediousness from the process
  • Bridging the gap, and speeding up the handoff, between recruiting and onboarding
  • Empowering and impressing new hires from the onset
  • Positive impacts on workplace culture

Automated onboarding represents the sort of technology organizations will want to adopt, as they continue to focus more on the human in human resources – towards results that will also impress leadership, when costs are reduced and productivity grows.

Take employee onboarding into the future with BP Logix

Examples like the above highlight just some of the ways by which BP Logix seeks to deliver automated onboarding solutions that strike the appropriate balance of efficiency and customization for an organization like yours.

If you’re reading this and wondering if a new automated employee onboarding solution could make your life easier, and your organization more productive and happy, let’s get you a demo and dig in on what particularly BP Logix can do for your HR team.

Happy onboarding!

Topics: hr automation
7 min read

HR Automation: The Essential Guide to Streamlining Business Processes

By Catie Leary on Feb 14, 2022 7:45:00 AM

HR-automation-essential-guide

HR automation software can streamline recruitment workflows and enhance the employee onboarding and offboarding experience. Here's our guide for businesses looking to streamline their HR processes with technology.

What is human resources (HR) automation?

Human resources (HR) automation is a process of streamlining repetitive human resource functions, including employee onboarding and offboarding, payroll, benefits administration, and more. HR automation uses technology to digitalize and automate time-consuming and repetitive tasks that fall under the scope of the HR department.

Statistics from Gartner’s Artificial Intelligence Survey showcase that the businesses who are implementing automation tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline repetitive HR tasks improve employee experience and make informed decisions. In fact:

  • 51% of businesses implement HR automation tools to capture cost savings.
  • Over 56% of those deployed AI-powered HR automation tools are looking to improve customer experience and automate repetitive, time-consuming, or manual tasks.
  • 62% of those deployed AI-powered HR automation tools are looking to improve the accuracy of decision-making.

Automating HR processes is a paramount for organizations of all sizes as it helps in reducing employee turnover rates and increasing organizational productivity. We put together this guide to help businesses understand the benefits of HR automation and identify the common HR workflows to automate.

Common HR processes and workflows to automate

A few common HR functions and workflows to automate are recruitment, development, payroll, employee relations, employee retention, tax compliance, health and safety, performance management, and offboarding. Let’s take an in-depth look at a few of these below.

Recruiting efforts

The recruitment process comprises several steps, including recruitment planning, strategy development, searching for ideal candidates, screening of candidates, and evaluation.

An HR automation software can reduce the cost-per-hire and improve recruiter productivity by eliminating the need for human interference in the following recruitment tasks:

  • Candidate sourcing and engagement.
  • Screening resumes based on various predetermined parameters such as experience, qualifications, salary expectations, and skill sets.
  • Applicant’s status updates throughout the recruitment journey.
  • Scheduling interviews.

Employee onboarding

Over 36% of HR leaders in a recent survey blamed insufficient technology for their inability to streamline employee onboarding programs. An HR automation software can enhance the onboarding experience for new hires by eliminating the need for manual interference in activities such as:

  • Pre-boarding workflows, including sending welcome emails and creating user accounts.
  • Scheduling orientation meetings.
  • Employee onboarding documentation.
  • Collecting feedback on recruitment and onboarding process.

Not sure where to start? Don't miss our guide for how to automate the employee onboarding process.

Employee offboarding

Employee offboarding is a process that involves several activities leading to a formal separation between the employer and the employee. Organizations need to streamline the employee offboarding process to meet compliance standards, minimize legal risks, and provide the best possible experience for the departing employee. An HR automation software can automate offboarding activities such as:

  • Resetting shared passwords.
  • Creating backups of data or documentation.
  • Revoking access controls.
  • Getting non-disclosure agreements signed.
  • Conducting exit surveys.

Payroll and employee benefits

Manually managing payroll is time-consuming, error-prone, and labor-intensive. The lack of automation often results in employees receiving salaries and benefits at a later date than expected, or identifying mistakes that take great lengths of time to resolve.

A few payroll and employee benefits tasks that can be automated are:

  • Timekeeping and time tracking.
  • Calculating wages based on working hours, overtime, and holidays.
  • Processing direct deposits and sending notifications to employees about their salary deposits.
  • Managing deductions for employee benefits.
  • Completing and filing relevant paperwork.

Expense claims

Expense claims are reimbursement requests submitted by employees to claim back the costs they paid on behalf of their employer. Every month, HR team members receive expense claims in the form of mileage, food, and travel expenses. However, a recent survey found that 43% of businesses are still managing expense reports manually. Of those who implemented automation software, 82% have said they aimed to simplify the expense reporting process for employees and managers.

An HR automation software can simplify the expense claims process by:

  • Eliminating the need for physical reports/paper documents.
  • Enabling employees to scan and upload claim reports.
  • Getting the approvals from managers through e-signatures.
  • Automatic and timely pay-outs.

Routine data entry

Did you know that HR professionals lose over 14 hours a week on manual and repetitive data entry tasks that could be automated? In most organizations, HR teams are forced to do routine data entry tasks with regards to HR processes such as attendance, payroll, employee data recording (personal and medical), and taxes. An HR automation software can eliminate human interference in routine data entry processes such as:

  • Entering employee data.
  • Identifying the incorrect, irrelevant, incomplete, and duplicate data.
  • Verifying and validating data.
  • Updating the database.

Tax filing

Staying compliant with employment tax requirements is one of the biggest concerns for businesses. With manual HR processes, it is very difficult for HR teams to keep up with tax laws and deadlines.

According to Deloitte, organizations have a 15-90 percent cost reduction opportunity depending on the taxation activities they select for automation.

HR automation software can help businesses streamline the following activities within the scope of filing taxes and help them stay compliant with tax laws:

  • Gathering and validating data from employees.
  • Running reports and calculating adjustments.
  • Filing income tax returns.
  • Keeping tax reports to meet the compliance standards.

Performance reviews

91% of companies that adopted continuous performance management are making informed-people-decisions and removing biases in promotion and advancement. With automation software, HR teams can streamline the feedback collection process and spend less time on administrative tasks related to performance appraisal such as:

  • Gathering self-feedback from employees.
  • Gathering feedback from peers and managers.
  • Sending reminders to employees/managers.
  • Implementing Objectives and Key Results (OKR) framework (OKR is a tool used by organizations to determine SMART goals and track their outcomes.)

Benefits of automated HR systems

There are a myriad of benefits to implementing automation in your HR systems and processes, including:

Improved efficiency that positively impacts operations

HR teams often waste time on unproductive and repetitive tasks such as screening candidates, scheduling orientation meetings, and manually entering employee data into spreadsheets and timesheets.

Software that automated processes in HR systems can improve the efficiency of HR teams by letting them focus more on strategic tasks such as recruitment planning and succession planning than unproductive and repetitive tasks. This level of efficiency can trickle down to other parts of the business, positively impacting revenue-generating departments of an organization.

Less dependence on paper documents

HR is a document-driven department. However, paper-based processing is highly time-consuming and costly. In fact, U.S businesses waste over $8 billion managing papers every year. Additionally, they spend an average of $120 to find a misplaced document and $220 to recreate a lost document. An HR automation software reduces the dependence on paper documents and increases the productivity of HR teams by digitalizing activities such as onboarding, offboarding, tax filing, and feedback collection.

Reduced clerical errors that cause financial loss

An overwhelming 97% of the workforce, in a recent survey, stated that automation can help their organization in reducing human errors and improving productivity. An HR management software may help organizations reduce clerical errors that cause financial losses.

Improved experience for job candidates

Job candidates often feel anxious about the company when they don’t receive updates on the status of their recruitment journey from the HR department. When manual processes are in place, HR staff struggles to provide updates to job candidates on a regular basis, risking the loss of potential new employees. This often results in dismal recruitment experience for job candidates and reflects poorly on the organization as a whole.

An HR automation tool can improve the experience of job candidates through following ways:

  • Providing regular updates on the status recruitment journey.
  • Answering repetitive questions about the job through chatbots.
  • Streamlining the employee evaluation through push notifications.
  • Streamlining pre-boarding workflows.

Put your people first! Better experience for existing employees

An HR automation software enables you to put your people first and provide them with a better working experience. This often results in higher employee retention rates and better organizational performance. To add, organizations in which HR departments facilitate a positive employee experience report 1.3 times higher organizational performance.

Effective HR and business process automation with BP Logix

Automation can help HR managers eliminate redundant, time-consuming, and labor-intensive tasks in areas such as recruitment, onboarding, payroll, offboarding employee benefits, expense claims, tax compliance, performance management, and more.

A human resources automation software can improve the efficiency of HR teams and make them less dependent on papers.

Ready to accomplish the same?

Streamline your human resource management processes with the help of BP Logix HR Automation Software. Request a demo to see how it can assist your organization today.

Topics: hr automation
3 min read

Cal/OSHA ETS: California Employers' Guide to Return-to-Work Criteria

By Steve Altschuler on Feb 1, 2022 9:25:00 AM

calosha ets california employers

OSHA may not be enforcing their ETS at a federal level, but that isn't stopping some state and local governments from moving forward with their own guidelines requiring employers to track employee vaccinations and enforce testing.

In California, employers must comply with the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Prevention ETS, which was updated in December 2021 with changes that include the adoption of California Department of Public Health (CDPH) guidance on isolation and quarantine recommendations.

These revisions, which went into effect on Jan. 14, include things like updated standards for acceptable face coverings and new definitions for the term "fully vaccinated." However, the changes that are likely to have the biggest operational impacts on employers revolve around return-to-work requirements and testing protocols.

In this article, we'll summarize these changes and explain how California employers can reduce the administrative burden of complying with them.

Return-to-work requirements

One of the most impactful revisions to the Cal/OSHA ETS concerns the timelines and requirements for allowing employees to return to work following a positive test or close contact. The return-to-work criteria in the revised ETS are as follows:

Employees who test positive for COVID

Any employee, regardless of their vaccination status, must isolate for a minimum of 5 days if they test positive for COVID.

An employee may return to the workplace after day 5 if symptoms are not present or are resolving and a diagnostic test collected on day 5 comes back negative. If they return to the workplace after day 5, they must wear face covering around other for 10 days following the positive test.

If the employee does not undergo testing or if their symptoms do not resolve, they may return to work once their symptom resolve or until after day 10. The one exception is a fever – an employee may not return to work until their fever resolves.

Employees who are exposed to COVID

Unvaccinated

Employees who are not fully vaccinated are required to quarantine for a minimum of 5 days if they have been exposed to someone with COVID-19.

The exposed employee must take a COVID test on day 5, and if no symptoms are present and the specimen tests negative, the employee may return to the workplace. If the employee does not undergo testing and does not have symptoms, they may return to the workplace after day 10. If they test positive, they must follow isolation requirements.

Fully vaccinated

If an employee is fully vaccinated with a booster or they are fully vaccinated but not yet eligible for their booster, they are not required to quarantine after exposure to someone with COVID.

However, they must test negative on day 5 following exposure, as well as wear facial coverings around other for 10 days following exposure. If they develop symptoms, they must be excluded from the workplace pending test results, and if they receive positive test results, they must isolate.

Vaccinated but not boosted despite eligibility

If a vaccinated employee is booster-eligible but has not received their booster yet, they are required to quarantine and obtain a negative tests 3-5 days after being exposed to someone with COVID-19.

Regardless of test results, they must wear facial coverings around others for 10 days following the exposure.

Testing standards and availability

Additional revisions to the Cal/OSHA ETS seek to improve the standards and availability of COVID testing in the workplace. These changes include:

Improving the integrity of self-administered tests

The definition of "COVID-19 test" now includes specific instructions for workers using a test at home with self-read results.

According to Cal/OSHA ETS, "over-the-counter (OTC) tests may not be both self-administered and self-read unless observed by the employer or an authorized telehealth proctor."

Making testing widely available during outbreaks

In the event of an outbreak, employers must make weekly COVID-19 testing available to all employees, regardless of their vaccination status. For major outbreaks, employers must make testing available to all employees on a twice-weekly basis (or more frequently depending on local health department recommendations).

A vaccination and COVID test tracking solution for California employers

All of the requirements in the Cal/OSHA ETS are designed to make workplaces safer, but that leaves employers holding a bag brimming with logistical and administrative headaches.

From juggling all the complex variables of the return-to-work process to arranging for independent observation of employee testing, there's an awful lot of moving parts employers need to consider.

That's why employers in California are turning to BP Logix's Vaccine Tracker App to manage their workplace vaccination/testing policy. With this solution, employers can ensure compliance with the Cal/OSHA ETS, keep employees safe and fit for duty, and reduce potential impacts to revenue during an outbreak.

Ready to learn more about vaccine tracking for employers in California? Book a free demo today.

 
Topics: vaccine tracking
9 min read

HR Automation Guide to Employee Offboarding

By Catie Leary on Jan 28, 2022 2:00:00 PM

HR-employee-offboarding

Employee offboarding is a process that leads to a formal separation between employee and employer. The offboarding process involves several activities, including deactivating access rights, returning equipment, collecting feedback through exit surveys, and transferring job responsibilities. Let's walk through how employee offboarding works and how HR automation can streamline the process.

When to start offboarding an employee

The offboarding process begins immediately after the employee tenders the letter of resignation for the job. A few common reasons for kickstarting the employee offboarding process are:  

Voluntary resignation

Voluntary resignation takes place when an employee chooses to leave the organization voluntarily. Employees opt for voluntary resignation for various reasons, including a better offer from another organization, personal conflict with managers, health issues, and relocation.

Retirement

Retirement takes place when an employee permanently leaves the job as he/she attains the full retirement age. For instance, the full retirement age in the United States ranges between 66 years and two months and 67 years.

Furloughs and layoffs

A furlough is a temporary mandatory leave given to human resources in special situations such as an economic recession or a pandemic like COVID-19. A furloughed employee may be called back to work when the situation returns to normalcy. 

Layoffs are a temporary or permanent termination of employment of a worker or a group of workers.

Involuntary termination

Involuntary termination refers to the dismissal of an employee from employment by the employer. A few reasons for involuntary termination may include poor performance, willful insubordination, fraud, and dishonesty.

Onboarding vs. offboarding

Onboarding and offboarding aren’t the same. Here is a table that identifies the differences between employee onboarding and offboarding:

Onboarding

Offboarding

1. Integrating new hires into the organization and its organizational culture.

2. Onboarding documentation. This may include enrolling the employee in payroll, benefits, and taxation. 

3. An induction program enables the employee to understand administration must-haves, meet co-workers, and take an office tour.

1. Making arrangements for the seamless withdrawal of employment.

2. Documentation for termination. This may include signing non-disclosure agreements, benefit transfers, and tax documents. 

3. An exit interview enables the employer to collect feedback from the resigned employee.

Most employers don’t give as much priority to offboarding as they give to the onboarding of employees. The below statistics showcase the importance of the formal offboarding process for organizations:

  1. According to Intermedia SMB Rogue Access Study, 89% of employees were able to access sensitive corporate applications after they completed offboarding formalities.
  2. 72% of CEOs, in a recent survey, admitted that they have taken important intellectual property (IP) details, ideas, and sensitive data with them from their former employer.

Moving forward into this article, we’ll explain more about why proper employee offboarding is important for the organization and provide a checklist that helps HR teams to improve the effectiveness of the offboarding process.

Why is proper employee offboarding important?

Organizations may need to implement a proper employee offboarding process to:

1. Meet compliance standards and regulation

Data leakages by former employees may result in compliance violations and attract huge penalties from regulatory bodies. For instance, the penalties imposed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) for data breaches can go up to $1.5 million per violation.

Automation helps the organization avoid costly data breaches and meet compliance standards by preventing email forwards and resetting passwords without any manual intervention.

2. Minimize legal and security risks

Around 50% of IT leaders, in a survey conducted by TechRepublic, said that the outgoing employee’s accounts remain active for longer than a day after they left the organization. This poses a huge security risk to the organization.

By automating the employee offboarding process with the help of HR Workflow Software, the HR team can deactivate the access rights to sensitive information immediately after the employee’s resignation is accepted.

3. Collect critical feedback for the department/organization

Employees are the best source of information for the organization. Since employees interact with various stakeholders, including co-workers, suppliers, customers, and creditors daily, they will be in a better position to provide honest feedback about both department and organization-wide operational practices.

An employee offboarding process, powered by automation software with a user-friendly interface, can collect and interpret the critical data from employees through:

  1. Detailed and well-thought-out template questions.
  2. Best-in-class analytics.

4. Part ways on the best terms

Former employees can make or break the employer brand. A poor offboarding process may spread negative word of mouth about the employment practices of an organization in the market. This negative word of mouth makes it difficult for the organization to attract qualified employees. Therefore, the organization should always try to part ways with employees on good terms.

By automating the offboarding process, the HR teams can streamline the activities such as getting the documentation signed and issuing the final paycheck on time.

The two major benefits of automation here are:

  1. Hassle-free offboarding experience to employees.
  2. On-time relieving of the employee.

5. Helps with future onboarding processes

Offboarding and onboarding go hand-in-hand. An ineffective offboarding may negatively impact the onboarding processes of the organization.

For example, if the knowledge transfer is not properly done during an employee offboarding, the organization may need to train the new employee separately by spending additional resources. Therefore, HR teams should focus on streamlining the offboarding if they want to improve the effectiveness of the onboarding processes.

A quick employee offboarding checklist for HR teams 

Here is a nine-point checklist that helps HR teams to complete the employee offboarding process successfully:

  • Notify all key stakeholders of the employee leaving
  • Get all relevant paperwork and documentation signed and filed
  • Plan an official knowledge transfer
  • Issue final paycheck and update payroll
  • Update your organization charts
  • Recover all company assets and hardware
  • Revoke or cancel systems access
  • Conduct an exit interview 
  • Stay in touch!

1. Notify all key stakeholders of the employee leaving

Employees regularly interact with various stakeholders including co-workers, suppliers, and customers. When an employee leaves the job, the first thing the HR team should do is to notify all key stakeholders about this development through email, phone, or any other relevant means of communication.  

This communication may include the following details:

  • The last working day of the employee.
  • Details of the person, who handles the work until a replacement is found.
  • Details of the successor, if already a replacement has already been hired.

2. Get all relevant paperwork and documentation signed and filed

Documentation is a vital step in employee offboarding. The employee needs to sign a few documents and receive several forms from the HR team while leaving the organization.

  1. Get the non-disclosure agreement signed, if applicable. This agreement ensures the employee does not use the company’s sensitive information for his personal use or third-party’s benefit.
  2. Get the Change of Address form filled, if the employee is relocating. This ensures the employee receives his/her Form-W2 without any delay.
  3. Gain the employee’s written permission to release the employment records for future reference checks.
  4. Give out the letters related to the status of health insurance, retirement benefit, and other benefits the employee might have received from the company.
  5. Provide details about Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA).

3. Plan an official knowledge transfer

Knowledge transfer is a process of transferring the skillsets, job knowledge, and behaviors from the relieving employee to the one who replaces him/her. An effective knowledge transfer, at the time of employee offboarding, may involve several steps, including, but not limited to:

  1. Explain the job responsibilities.
  2. Identify the outstanding tasks and give knowledge on how to address them.
  3. If possible, facilitate the work shadowing for a week (work shadowing is an on-job training wherein a new employee observes an expert performing the job).
  4. Use knowledge measurement tools to assess the success of knowledge transfer.

4. Issue final paycheck and update payroll

HR teams may follow the organizational policies while issuing the final paycheck to employees. If the organizational policy states that the employees receive their final paycheck on the last day, HR teams should stick to the same and make appropriate arrangements.

HR teams should consider the following aspects while issuing the final paycheck:

  1. Deduct the salary advance from the final paycheck.
  2. Add bonus, commissions, and reimbursements, if any, to the final paycheck.
  3. Add the money the employee had accrued through paid time off (PTO) to the final paycheck.

Once the final paycheck is issued, HR teams should remove the employee's name from the payroll. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the organization may need to maintain the payroll records of employees for at least three years. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) asks employers to maintain the records of employment taxes for at least four years.

5. Update your organization charts

An organizational chart represents the hierarchical structure of roles, responsibilities, and relationships within the entity. The organizational chart plays a vital role in seamless communication flow and internal reporting at the workplace.

Employee termination or resignation creates a void in the organizational chart and obstructs the information flow within the organization. Immediately after an employee departs from the organization, the HR team should update the organizational chart and ensure there is no disruption in the information flows and internal reporting.

In large-scale companies, HR teams may need to update the organizational charts both department and organization-wide.

6. Recover all company assets and hardware

HR departments need to recover all the company’s assets and hardware from the employees when offboarding them. The following are the assets the HR team may need to recover from employees:

  1. ID badges
  2. Computers, laptops, and chargers
  3. Hard drives and pen drives
  4. Drawing pads
  5. Phones
  6. Car or other vehicles
  7. Credit cards

Though it is a bit rude, the HR teams are advised not to give final clearance until the employee returns the company property that they may have in their possession.

7. Revoke or cancel systems access

Considering the increasing number of data breaches, revoking system access is a vital step in the offboarding process. While revoking the systems access, the HR team should focus on four aspects:

  1. Reset shared passwords
  2. Prevent email forwarding or sharing files.
  3. Revoke access to corporate applications.
  4. Create reliable backups.

8. Conduct an exit interview 

An exit interview is the best way to collect honest feedback from the departing employee. It helps the HR team to identify areas of improvement in employment practices.

A few exit interview questions that can be asked to a departing employee are:

  1. Why do you choose to leave the job?
  2. Which aspects of our organizational culture you did not like?
  3. What could we have done to retain you?
  4. What did you like the best and least of the job?
  5. Were your accomplishments recognized throughout your employment?

The “check the box” type of feedback collection is ineffective. The HR manager should engage in face-to-face interaction with the exiting employee to gather feedback.

9. Stay in touch! 

Never get disconnected from your former employees. Stay in touch with former employees, learn about their career progression, and offer compliments for their professional achievements even after they exit from the organization. HR teams can make use of social networks such as LinkedIn and Twitter to maintain a relationship with ex-employees.

Simplify and automate the employee offboarding process with BP Logix

There is no better way to simplify the employee offboarding process than by automating it. A proper offboarding process is important for the organization because it helps to meet compliance standards, minimize legal and security risks, collect critical feedback for the department/organization, and part ways with employees on the best terms.

HR team members may need to create a checklist for the employee offboarding and make sure each point in the checklist is marked before giving a formal send-off to the employee. An HR workflow software enables the organization to streamline the activities involved in the employee offboarding process and ensure employees are relieved on time.

Automate the employee offboarding process with the help of BP Logix HR Workflow Software. Request a demo to see how it can assist your organization.

Topics: hr automation
6 min read

How the CMS Vaccine Mandate Applies to Healthcare Employers

By Steve Altschuler on Jan 24, 2022 2:54:41 PM

cms-mandate

With all the recent legal challenges to federal vaccine requirements, there's a lot of confusion about the status of not only the OSHA ETS but also the CMS mandate.

While the OSHA ETS has likely exhausted its chances of passing, the Supreme Court has allowed the CMS mandate to move forward per a recent ruling on Jan. 13 that overturned stays of the CMS mandate that had been applied to 25 states.

There are still court cases pending, although given the ruling, it would appear that those legal battles will face a significant challenge in getting the CMS mandate overturned.

In this article, we explain everything you need to know about the CMS and walk through what healthcare organizations need to be doing right now to prepare.

The CMS mandate, explained.

cms-medicare-medicaid-logoThe Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) vaccine mandate was first announced in September 2021 as component of President Biden's sweeping vaccination plan that also included the OSHA ETS and federal contractor mandate. Broadly, this mandate would require vaccination of any staff working in healthcare facilities that participate in Medicare/Medicaid.

Let's explore some common questions about the CMS mandate:

1. What healthcare facilities are covered under the CMS mandate?

The CMS mandate applies to healthcare facilities regulated by Medicare, including:

  • Ambulatory surgery centers (ASC)
  • Clinics
  • Community mental health centers
  • Comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation facilities (CORF)
  • Critical access hospitals (CAH)
  • End-stage renal disease (ESRD) facilities
  • Home health agencies (HHA)
  • Home infusion therapy suppliers
  • Hospices
  • Hospitals
  • Intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities
  • Long-term care facilities
  • Medicare federally qualified health centers (FQHC)
  • Programs for all-inclusive care for the elderly organizations (PACE)
  • Psychiatric residential treatment facilities (PRTF)
  • Public health agencies as providers of outpatient physical therapy and speech-language pathology services
  • Rehabilitation agencies
  • Rural health clinics (RHC)

The CMS rule does not apply to most physician groups, even if they participate in the Medicare or Medicaid program.

2. How is the CMS mandate different from the OSHA ETS vaccine-or-test guidelines?

Unlike the OSHA ETS, the CMS mandate is a full vaccination mandate. There is no option for testing, although there are still provisions for accommodations based upon disability, medical reasons or sincerely held religious beliefs. Also, the CMS mandate applies to all staff in covered healthcare facilities, not just employees. This includes licensed practitioners, students, trainees and volunteers. The mandate also applies to any individual who provides care, treatment or any other service for the facility or their patients.

3. What are the compliance deadlines for the CMS mandate?

There are two sets of deadlines for states, depending on whether the state was one of the 25 where the stay had been in place or not.

For providers in the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and the 25 states where the stay was not in place, the deadlines are as follows:
  • By January 27, CMS will expect covered facilities to have developed and implemented policies and procedures to ensure that all staff are vaccinated and that 100% of staff have received at least one dose of the vaccination, or have a pending request for, or have been granted a qualifying exemption.
  • By February 26, those facilities must also ensure that 100% of staff have completed their vaccine series or have been granted a qualifying exemption.

The 25 states subject to these deadlines are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

For the 24 states in which the CMS had been stayed (until being lifted by the SCOTUS ruling), the deadlines are as follows:
  • By February 14, covered facilities are expected to have developed and implemented policies and procedures to ensure that all staff are vaccinated and that 100% of staff have received at least one dose of the vaccination, or have a pending request for, or have been granted a qualifying exemption.
  • By March 15, those facilities must also ensure that 100% of staff have completed their vaccine series or have been granted a qualifying exemption.

The 24 states subject to the deadlines above are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

What about Texas?

Texas is a special case in which the compliance deadlines have not been determined yet.

4. What happens in the event of non-compliance?

CMS has stated that within 90 days of the issuance of applicable guidance (on December 28, 2021 or January 14, 2022, depending on whether the state had been stayed or not), facilities that fail to maintain compliance may be subject to enforcement action.

That enforcement remedy for non-compliance is termination of the provider’s ability to offer Medicare and Medicaid services, although for nursing homes, home health agencies, and hospices, CMS may impose civil monetary penalties or deny payments. For CMS, however, the primary goal is to bring facilities into compliance. Termination or penalties would only occur after a facility is provided with an opportunity to make corrections and come into compliance.

vaccine-gloves-covid

What should healthcare employers be doing about the CMS mandate?

There are 4 things that healthcare providers need to consider when evaluating their next steps.

1. Confirm whether they are a covered facility.

Simply receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds does not by itself mean that a facility is covered by this rule. The rule only applies to certified providers which involves an application and surveying process, adherence to conditions of participation and being subject to period follow-up surveys. There is a list below that identifies the types of facilities that would qualify as a covered facility.

2. Roll out a facility vaccination policy aligned with CMS requirements.

If they are a covered facility, they need to be tracking vaccination status and issue a policy by January 27 (or February 14). The facility should determine and continue to track the vaccination status of its staff. Covered facilities should have developed policies describing how applicable tracking has been implemented along with compliance, recordkeeping documentation and training requirements. Also, procedures should have been implemented to ensure confidential consideration and responses to requests for accommodation, which would include any additional precautions that would be applicable to individuals who are granted accommodations. The facility needs to be prepared for CMS inspections, which will likely begin in the next few weeks or months.

3. Understand how the CMS mandate intersects with other orders.

They need to be aware of state laws or executive orders which conflict with the CMS mandate. Those states are primarily Florida, Texas, Tennessee and Montana. Usually, a federal law would prevail but with the litigation environment, facilities should be prepared for further legal challenges.

4. Have a plan to handle employee requests for accommodations.

As providers who may have already mandated vaccines are aware, employees will make requests for accommodations based on medical or religious reasons. Prompt and appropriate processing of those requests is crucial to complying with both the CMS mandate as well as other federal laws. It is critical to directly engage with employees in this interactive process and documenting that process and those efforts are extremely important.

Prepare for the CMS mandate

Complying with the CMS mandate doesn't have to be a logistical nightmare. Comply with the federal CMS mandate and make it as easy as possible for staff to submit proof of COVID-19 vaccination status with the BP Logix Vaccine Tracker.

vaccine tracking app

Book your free demo today.

 
Topics: vaccine tracking
6 min read

HR Automation Guide to New Employee Onboarding

By Catie Leary on Jan 21, 2022 11:15:00 AM

HR-employee-onboarding

Streamlining the employee onboarding process with HR automation can increase the new hire retention rate. Here is an HR guide to best practices for new employee onboarding.

What is employee onboarding?

Employee onboarding is a systematic process of introducing new hires to the organization and integrating them into the organizational culture. The process of onboarding a new hire starts from the day the organization releases the offer letter.

A proper onboarding process creates a positive first impression about the organization and its culture. It helps the HR team establish the company culture and set up the stage for a collaborative workspace.

The following statistics showcase many organizations haven’t yet adopted the best practices for employee onboarding:

  1. In a survey conducted by Gallup, 88% of employees said that their employers did a poor job onboarding them.
  2. As little as 37% of companies are extending the employee onboarding process beyond a month.

The absence of the best practices for employee onboarding is a cause for concern because it increases employee turnover rates and lowers organizational productivity. We put together this guide to help HR teams of manufacturing companies adopt best practices for the employee onboarding process and develop a checklist for day one of the employee onboarding.

Benefits of the onboarding process for new hires

The major benefits of the onboarding process for new hires to the organization may include a higher employee retention rate, better workplace productivity, increased employee confidence, and improved employee performance.

Read more about how a streamlined onboarding process can benefit organizations:

  1. New hires that undergo a streamlined onboarding process are 58% more likely to stay with the organization for more than three years.
  2. A streamlined onboarding process can increase the retention of new hires by 82%.
  3. A standard onboarding experience can increase the productivity of new hires by 50%.
  4. Organizations that use the pre-boarding process retain 81% of their new hires.

The ideal employee onboarding process - best practices for HR

Organizations need to adopt several best practices to create an ideal employee onboarding process. Here is a list of the seven best practices every HR team should follow to improve the employee experience:

1. Refine your hiring process

The hiring process creates a path for onboarding. Rather than using traditional job portals, HR teams should use platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter to attract suitable candidates and assess their competencies.

HR teams should focus on creating a job description that communicates about the job position, major duties, the scope of the work, working conditions, compensation, and qualifications. Organizations should also engage a hiring manager who works in coordination with the HR department and supervises hiring processes.

2. Make good first impressions

A first impression is the best impression one could make. Since office visits aren’t very commonplace anymore due to hybrid work settings, organizations can create a great first impression by automating the entire onboarding process.

An automated onboarding process can get all the documentation done, schedule an introduction call with new team members, set up user accounts, and create an email flow that communicates the organization’s policies, vision, and objectives. Organizations can make the onboarding process transparent and inviting with the help of automation.

3. Send the offer letter

The process of employee orientation should start from the time of sending an offer letter to the new hire. The offer letter is a formal document sent to a candidate offering a job. The offer letter should comprise several details on the job offer including the start date of employment, job title, compensation, benefits, and company policies.

4. Check in with the new hire before day one

Hiring managers need to check in with the new hire before day one to start the onboarding process. Automation helps to streamline all activities involved in pre-boarding. For instance, the HR automation software would help the organization automate the pre-boarding workflow, which comprises the following activities:

  • Sending a welcome email to the new hire.
  • Upon receiving an acknowledgment from the new hire, the software may trigger a notification to the IT team to set up a user account to start the onboarding process.
  • Once the user account is created, the software sends the username and password for the new hire to log in to the onboarding platform.
  • Once new hire logs in to the platform and fills out their forms and gives their e-signatures, the software uploads them.
  • The new hire would provide bank account details to the software in order to set up their direct deposit.

5. Provide a welcoming first day

The HR team should provide a welcoming first day to the new hire. The first day is where the actual onboarding experience for the employee starts.

HR teams should give warm welcome to new hires and take them for an office tour. The paperwork, if pending, should be completed on the employee’s first day itself. Introduce the new hire to team members and provide them with the employee handbook that highlights the company’s culture, reporting structure, vision, and mission.

6. Encourage employee engagement during their first month

Employee engagement is the key to workplace productivity. If the organization wants to achieve higher productivity, it should engage new hires in the work during their first month itself. An effective onboarding program that establishes the expected workflow encourages new hires to engage in the work during their first month.

The workflow may include activities such as:

  1. Communicating expectations in the first week.
  2. Assigning key responsibility areas (KRAs).
  3. Developing clear reporting structures.
  4. Providing the training schedule.

7. Turn their first month into their first year

Successful onboarding ends when the employee becomes a part of the company culture. An effective onboarding process enables the new hire to learn about the company and become a part of its culture within a month or two.

With a poor onboarding process, this may take six months to a year. Employee retention rate increases if the employees align their goals with the organization and start to share the organization’s culture.

Benefits of automating the onboarding process

Automation is the best way to streamline your employee onboarding process. McKinsey reported that 56% of hire-to-retire (human resource management) tasks can be automated with the help of existing automation technologies.

Here are the five major benefits of automating the employee onboarding process.

  1. Automation simplifies the pre-boarding workflows which include sending welcoming emails, creating user accounts, adding the new hire to the onboarding channel, and scheduling orientation meetups.
  2. Quick turn-around as the automation streamlines activities such as reviews, approvals, and sign-offs (hours vs. days and days vs. weeks).
  3. The authorized people have visibility into all aspects of the employee onboarding process.
  4. Automation digitalizes the entire onboarding process through electronic forms, e-signs, and online change requests. It eliminates redundant documentation and reduces paperwork. Therefore, HR teams can allocate more time to answer queries from new hires and coordinate with them to create a streamlined onboarding experience.
  5. Automation helps the organization meet the compliance guidelines by creating an online platform that gathers employee vital data accurately and stores it on a secure cloud.

 

Day-one employee onboarding checklist

Day-one of the employee onboarding is the right time for HR professionals to create a strong positive impression about the organization’s policies, culture, operational procedures. The onboarding process should make employees feel they are at the right place on their starting day.

An onboarding program may be termed successful when employees get acquainted with their roles, new co-workers, and the organization’s culture. Here is a checklist for successful day-one employee onboarding:

  • Finish the paperwork or documentation
  • Introduce to team leader and team members
  • Tour of workspace.
  • Assign employee training
  • Give brief about the organization’s vision, mission, and objectives
  • Establish expected workflow
  • Introduce to company culture
  • Introduce to team members
  • Set up communication channels
  • Set up the employee’s desk
  • Communicate policies, code of conduct, and procedures

 

Streamline your employee onboarding process with BP Logix

The traditional onboarding process takes time and involves a lot of paperwork. Automation is the best way to streamline the employee onboarding process. An employee onboarding software, which eliminates the new hire paperwork and increases the speed of the onboarding process, may help the organization improve the new hire onboarding experience. Not sure how to get the ball rolling? Don't miss our how-to guide for automating the employee onboarding process.

A streamlined onboarding helps the organization to improve employee retention and workplace productivity. The first day and the first month are critical in the employee onboarding process. Ideally, the HR teams should create a first positive impression on the first day and make the employee become a part of the company’s culture by the first month of the employment.

Automate the employee onboarding process with the help of BP Logix HR Workflow Software. Request a demo to see how it can assist your organization.

Topics: hr automation
6 min read

Workplace Vaccination & Testing: Why Doing Nothing is Not an Option

By Girish Pashilkar on Jan 12, 2022 10:00:00 AM

osha-ets-supreme-court-decision-vaccination

After spending the better part of two months winding its way through the courts, OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on Vaccination and Testing has finally reached the Supreme Court.

Based on how the arguments played out last week, many legal experts predict the ETS is likely to be struck down, which begs the question:

If the Supreme Court blocks the ETS from moving forward, are employers off the hook for adopting a workplace policy requiring employees to be fully vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing?

Not necessarily.

Regardless of the fate of the OSHA ETS, employment law experts agree that doing nothing is not an option. Let's walk through the four main reasons why employers should start tracking employee vaccinations and testing sooner rather than later.

1. Employers must still contend with state and local requirements

Even without federal-level guidelines requiring employers to implement vaccination policies, there are still state and local governments that have rolled out their own laws and mandates.

California, New York, and Illinois enacted vaccine mandates months ago, and some states, like Minnesota, have adopted the ETS as part of their OSHA state plan.

At a local level, cities like Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia have also announced vaccine requirements for many businesses operating indoors.

Multi-state employers have even greater challenges

Employers will obviously need to be prepared to comply with their specific jurisdiction’s laws, but the situation is even more complicated for employers that operate in multiple states. Multi-state employers must contend with workplace vaccination requirements that vary widely across multiple jurisdictions.

For example, an employer may have to simultaneously accommodate requirements from states that have instituted strict employee vaccination mandates, while also taking care not to overstep in states that have instituted bans on requiring employee vaccination.

Complying with the requirements of multiple jurisdictions results in a significant administrative burden for HR teams, which is why technology needs to play a key role in managing such complexity. That’s why we equipped our Vaccine Tracker app with functionality that allows employers to create multiple policies under which employees can be classified.

2. Vaccination and testing policies can help employers avoid lawsuits by reducing their liability

Another huge reason employers need to get serious about rolling out an employee vaccination policy? Avoiding lawsuits from employees.

The OSH Act’s “General Duty” clause says employers have a “general duty” to ensure a safe workplace for employees. This clause is not dependent on the passing of the OSHA ETS, which means that the potentially fatal consequences of doing nothing to mitigate the spread of the virus within a workplace can result in costly litigation, OSHA penalties, and considerable hits to a brand’s reputation. 

It's no surprise to see the uptick in employment and labor lawsuits related to COVID-19. According to the Jackson Lewis COVID-19 Employment LitWatch, there have been 287 cases citing workplace safety since March 2020.

See’s Candies hit with COVID-19 wrongful death suit

One of the most notable cases is a wrongful death suit filed in California against See’s Candies. An employee of the company claimed general negligence and premises liability after she contracted COVID-19 at her workplace and passed it on to her husband, resulting in his death.

What’s interesting about this case is the court’s decision that the employee’s COVID-19 negligence claims are not subject to exclusive remedy provisions in the state’s workers compensation law. Sometimes referred to as “the great bargain,” exclusivity provisions are designed to shield employers from civil litigation involving liability and negligence in exchange for providing injured workers with compensation for workplace injuries.

When See’s Candies cited exclusive remedy provisions as a reason to dismiss the lawsuit, the courts refused. Their reasoning was that the “grand bargain” does not extend to injuries and deaths of non-employees because exclusivity provisions are an arrangement between employer and employee.

So, how do employers avoid lawsuits like this? 

While employers in states with stricter requirements around employee vaccination and testing may already be legally compelled to cultivate a safe workplace, employers in jurisdictions with more lax requirements should explore rolling out a policy that can insulate the company from future litigation.

“Employers should continue to monitor guidance from the CDC, local health departments, state requirements, and of course, OSHA, for implementing best practices in the workplace,” explains Melanie L. Paul, a Principal at Jackson Lewis, P.C. “Reliance on such guidance could be an employer’s best defense to COVID-19 lawsuits. And, even without the ETS, OSHA will continue vigorous enforcement. Temporary staffing agencies as well as other higher-risk industries are especially vulnerable to being targeted by OSHA for COVID-19 related inspections under OSHA’s Revised National Emphasis Program for COVID-19."

One idea for reducing liability is to implement a policy that aligns or draws from the OSHA ETS guidelines. Aligning your workplace policy with the OSHA ETS can reduce employer liability by serving as an affirmative defense in the event of litigation involving injuries stemming from an employee’s exposure to COVID-19.

"Federal OSHA sets a floor, not a ceiling,” Paul says. “OSHA state plans, or any private employer, for that matter, can adopt the ETS or require even more to combat COVID-19.”

We’re already seeing this move from some private employers, as well as states like Minnesota, which have adopted the ETS as part of their OSHA state plan.

3. Tracking vaccinations and testing helps you manage incidents quickly and avoid short staffing or revenue loss

Keeping track of employee vaccinations and COVID test results can help employers ensure compliance and reduce legal liability, but there’s one other major business benefit to consider. Requiring vaccinations or testing in the workplace allows you to make smarter, more informed decisions about your business operations.

The need for these insights couldn't be more evident in the wake of the recent Omicron surge that left many workplaces reeling. As the highly contagious variant swept the nation, businesses were forced to run with skeleton crews or shut down completely for a few days because so many workers contracted the virus seemingly all at once.

Without knowing the vaccination or testing status of employees, you can’t accurately assess the risks in your workplace, nor will you be able to respond quickly enough to manage incidents and mitigate potential impacts to revenue.

For example, if you require employees to take a COVID test every week and disclose their test results, it’s much easier to spot and isolate potential outbreaks in the workplace before the virus spreads to more of your staff.

You can easily automate processes like this with vaccine tracking applications like the BP Logix Vaccine Tracker. This application can not only help employers track employee vaccination data and test result data, but it also offers incident management features. If an employee tests positive, the system can trigger workflows for mitigating spread to other employees and facilitating the employee’s safe return to the workplace once they have recovered and are fit for duty again.

4. Clients of staffing firms and other vendors may require vaccination/testing proof for any worker placements

Rolling out an employee vaccination and testing policy is especially critical for businesses that place employees at client worksites. For example, staffing agencies that work with numerous clients must be able to accommodate the workplace policies of all of their clients. If they can’t, the staffing firm could risk losing business.

Making sure a staffing firm’s workforce can comply with policies across multiple client placements undoubtedly creates a lot of administrative burden, but technology can reduce that burden. In the case of staffing agencies, the BP Logix Vaccine Tracker allows administrators to create unique policies based on the requirements of each client worksite, which can then be applied the workers based on their placements.

Start tracking employee vaccinations and COVID testing in mere weeks

end-user-voew-vaccine-trackerWhether or not the OSHA ETS is reinstated, employers should still prepare to track employee vaccination status if they want to truly reduce their risks in a global pandemic.

The BP Logix Vaccine Tracker application can help. This app makes it easy for large employers, staffing firms, and PEOs to:

  • Track employee vaccination status, test results, and symptoms
  • Comply with vaccination requirements across multiple jurisdictions
  • Avoid COVID-related workplace liability lawsuits

Book a free demo today to get started:

 
 

 

Topics: vaccine tracking
6 min read

HIPAA and COVID Vaccines: What Are Employers’ Responsibilities?

By Catie Leary on Jan 10, 2022 1:14:40 PM

HIPPA-employee-vaccination

As more employers roll out workplace vaccination policies that require employees to share their vaccination status and/or COVID test results, there’s a lot of confusion surrounding the role of HIPAA in this effort. Do employers need to comply with HIPAA policies when collecting and storing employee vaccination and testing data?

In this article, we’ll explore employers’ responsibilities in safeguarding employees’ COVID-19 vaccination and testing data. But first, let’s answer the most burning question:

Does HIPAA apply to employee vaccine tracking?

No. HIPAA requirements do not apply to employers or any technology they use to track their employees’ vaccination data in this situation because they are not a covered entity under HIPAA. Any vaccination or testing data an employer collects is considered employee data, rather than patient data.

To explain why, let’s dive a bit deeper into how HIPAA works.

What is HIPAA? What is a covered entity?

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a United States federal law that ensures the protected health information (PHI) of the patient is not disclosed to anybody without the consent of the patient or the patient’s authorized representative.

There are four covered entities of HIPAA. According to HIPAA, a covered entity is an individual, institution, or organization that is involved in the transaction of protected health information. This transaction may be related to healthcare status, enrollment, treatment, insurance, and payment.

The covered entities of HIPAA are:

  • Healthcare providers: Including doctors, nursing professionals, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and other entities that transmit patients’ health information electronically.
  • Health plans: Including insurance companies, government insurance agencies that pay for programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, health maintenance firms, and military health programs, and veteran’s health programs.
  • Healthcare clearinghouses: Entities that act as intermediaries between healthcare providers and health insurers. These clearinghouses process non-standard health information and convert it into the standard that meets the HIPAA regulations.
  • Business associates: Individuals or companies that have access to, store, and disseminate the patients’ health information.

All covered entities of HIPAA must comply with the HIPAA Security Rule that safeguards the patient’s electronically stored health information. To comply with the HIPAA Security Rule, covered entities should execute the following responsibilities:

  • Ensure the confidentiality of patients’ protected health information.
  • Detect threats and protect the information against these threats.
  • Restrict the impermissible uses and disclosures of the data.
  • Ensure compliance by workforce.

Employers are not considered one of the four covered entities under HIPAA. Any vaccination or testing data shared with an employer is considered employee data, not patient data for which the HIPAA privacy rule applies.

Regardless of HIPAA, keeping employee data secure is still crucial

Although employers need not worry about HIPAA compliance, they aren’t completely off the hook. Just like any other employee data, employers still have a general responsibility to keep their employees’ COVID-19 vaccination and testing data confidential and secure.

Failing to safeguard employee data – whether it’s contact information, social security numbers, or COVID-19 vaccination and testing data – can have a serious, life-changing impact on employees. In a recent study conducted by Kaspersky, nearly 48% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), where a minimum of one data breach happened in the previous year, reported the incidents harmed the overall work experience of employees.

In addition to lowering employee morale, poor management of employee data can result in major repercussion for employers in the form of PR debacles and legal problems. Organizations that don’t follow legal guidelines for safeguarding data could face legal action from their employees. For example, employee data is legally protected under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). A data breach or poor management of employee data could result in lawsuits from employees in the State of California.

To avoid these issues, employers need to identify a secure way to collect, store, and maintain employee COVID-19 vaccination data and test results. The most efficient and secure way to do this is to implement a vaccine tracking solution that takes the privacy and security of employees’ health information seriously.

When researching vaccine tracking solutions, employers should look for applications that:

  1. Are hosted in a secure cloud SOC2 environment. According to the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), SOC2 is a compliance standard that meets the five trust service principles, which include security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy).\
  2. Meet the international and industry-specific compliance standards such as ISO/IEC 27001:2013, and NIST SP 800-53.
  3. Allow administrators to define the user roles and allow the data access to only a few authorized people.

Why should I be tracking my employees’ vaccination status?

With all the complexity that comes with ensuring the security of employee vaccination and test data, some employers may wonder if it’s even worth the effort.

Tracking vaccination status and safeguarding the employee data related to COVID-19 vaccination or testing with the help of a vaccine tracking application can benefit the organization in several ways.

Watch the full webinar.

Here is a list of several reasons why organizations should be tracking employee COVID-19 vaccination status.

Avoid lawsuits

There is a growing number of COVID-related workplace lawsuits being filed by employees under the OSH Act's General Duty clause, which states that employers are responsible for providing employees with a generally safe workplace. Implementing a solution now can help prevent COVID-related workplace liability lawsuits by reducing an employers’ general liability for unsafe workplaces. The OSH Act is not dependent on mandates.

Improved incident reporting

As reported by scientists of the University of Hong Kong, the Omicron variant can spread 70 times faster than the Delta variant. Left unchecked and unmonitored, the virus can spread very quickly in workplaces. Without vaccination records and weekly testing reports of unvaccinated employees, it can be incredibly difficult to make informed decisions impacting the daily operations and staffing of your workplace. Tracking vaccinations helps employers manage incidents and instill greater confidence for employees concerned about COVID transmission in the workplace.

Reduce manual processes and data entry

Collecting vaccination data from each employee and manually entering it into a system can be an administrative nightmare, especially for companies that operate in multiple states with varying vaccination policies.

The best way to automate this process is to implement a tracking application, such as the BP Logix Vaccine Tracker, that allows employees to easily upload vaccination proof and test results from desktops, smartphones, and tablets. A vaccine tracker solution helps the organization reduce the dependency on manual processes and data entry, improving the speed at which the organization identifies the unvaccinated employees, gathers proof of vaccination, and complies with any established policies or governmental mandates.  

Keep employees’ health data safe and secure

It is the responsibility of the organization to safeguard the employee’s health data. Manual processes can lead to data leakages and make the organization vulnerable to penalties and lawsuits. A vaccine tracker solution rolled out via secure cloud deployment (SOC2/3) helps organizations safeguard employees’ health data.

Keep track and keep safe with BP Logix

HIPAA makes sure that its covered entities, including healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and business associates don’t disclose the protected health information of patients to anybody without their consent.

Though employers don’t need to comply with HIPAA privacy rules while collecting, storing, disclosing, and disseminating employee vaccination and testing data in this COVID-19 situation, they may still want to implement a vaccine tracking solution to eliminate the chances of employee’s health data breach and manual oversight.

Employers should choose a vaccine tracking solution that can be hosted in a secure cloud SOC2, meet international compliance standards, and allow data access to only a few authorized people.

Effectively track employee vaccination information and comply with COVID-19 vaccination mandates with the help of the BP Logix Vaccine Tracker application.

bplogix-vaccine-tracker-app-pr

end-user-voew-vaccine-tracker

Take a tour of the app and request your demo today.

Topics: vaccine tracking
7 min read

Employer’s Guide to the OSHA ETS Vaccine Mandate

By Steve Altschuler on Jan 3, 2022 10:15:00 AM

employers guide osha ets

COVID-19 and the workplace

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted labor markets and different sectors across the world in 2020. Regulatory bodies have come up with a wide range of standards for employers and instructions for compliance officers to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the workforce. For instance, OSHA issued an emergency testing standard (ETS) mandate to protect employees from the risk of COVID-19.

In this article, we’ll review OSHA’s ETS vaccine mandate, its requirements for employers, effective dates, and ramifications of non-compliance.

First, what is OSHA?

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor. It aims to improve workplace safety and facilitate healthy working conditions by enforcing standards and guidelines for employers. It also offers training, assistance, and education to employers on creating a secure workplace for working men and women.

The regulatory agency conducts inspections at workplaces and imposes fines for compliance violations. Inspections are often triggered by referrals, workplace fatalities, workplace injuries, and employee complaints. Inspections are conducted without any advance notice by trained compliance officers through telephonic discussions and/or on-site visits.

What is the OSHA ETS vaccine mandate, and what does it mean for my business?

OSHA issued an ETS that requires private employers operating with 100 or more employees to ensure all their workers get fully vaccinated. 

In lieu of the OSHA ETS COVID-19 vaccine mandate, employers should provide weekly COVID-19 negative test reports of employees and enforce wearing a face mask in the workplace (these rules may change from time to time based on the decisions of the Federal Government and the Department of Labor in conjunction with COVID-19 trends). 

A few vital aspects of OSHA’s ETS vaccine mandate for employers are:

Support for vaccination

As per the ETS, every employer should support the COVID-19 vaccination by:

  1. Providing sufficient time for each employee to get vaccinated.
  2. Offering a paid sick leave to recover from vaccination side effects.

Obtain and maintain records

As per the ETS mandate, employers must maintain a record of every employee’s vaccination status.

Employers need to provide proof of vaccination, which may include:

  1. The medical report documenting the COVID-19 vaccination.
  2. The COVID-19 vaccination record card itself.
  3. The record of immunization from a healthcare provider or public health information system.

Weekly COVID-19 testing

Employers should conduct a weekly COVID-19 test for employees who are not fully vaccinated. If a remote employee is returning to the workplace, he or she should be tested for COVID-19 within 7 days before returning to work.

Communication

It is the responsibility of the employer to communicate ETS requirements, guidelines, policies, and standards to employees in a language they understand. 

The employer vaccine mandate is in place to protect workers from falling ill, spreading the virus, and in severe cases, passing away due to the virus. OSHA believes that the pandemic can be controlled if employers have a framework that emphasizes full vaccination, the use of face masks, frequent testing, and not allowing infected employees inside of the workplace.

Note: Even if a vaccine mandate from OSHA were to not exist, employers would still need to implement a vaccine tracking solution sooner rather than later because it’ll allow them to:

  1. Reduce the administrative burden of managing variations in vaccine policies across the country.
  2. Reduce the general liability of unsafe workplaces and avoid lawsuits from employees.
  3. Monitor and maintain the general health of all employees to the best of their abilities.

Employers covered by the ETS

Private companies with 100 or more employees and state and local government employers with OSHA-approved State Plans are covered by the ETS. However, not all employees working for employers covered by the ETS are required to follow the provisions of the ETS.

The guidelines of the ETS do not apply to the following types of employees even though their employers are covered by the ETS:

  1. Employees who are working from home.
  2. Employees who work outdoors.
  3. Employees who don’t attend workplaces where others are present.

Workplaces not covered by the ETS

OSHA believes that not all workplaces have the capability to implement programs that comply with the requirements in the ETS.

The following types of workplaces are not covered by the ETS:

  1. The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force.
  2. Healthcare settings that offer healthcare and support services.
  3. Private companies with fewer than 100 employees.
  4. Public employers in states without State Plans.

OSHA ETS vaccine mandate FAQs

What does the ETS require of employers?

Employers are responsible for:

  • Implementing and enforcing workplace vaccination policy that either (a) requires mandatory vaccinations, or (b) allows employees to choose between vaccination or weekly COVID-19 testing.
  • Providing information to employees about the ETS, COVID-19 vaccines, and workplace vaccination policy.
  • Determining the vaccination status of all employees, obtaining valid proof of vaccination or weekly test results, and maintaining records to ensure compliance.
  • Reporting work-related COVID-19 fatalities and hospitalizations to OSHA.

What employers are covered under the ETS? 

All employers currently under OSHA’s jurisdiction would be obligated to comply with the ETS if they have 100 or more employees. This accounts for approximately two-thirds of all U.S. workplaces in the private sector. 

What workers are counted under the 100-employee rule?

Generally, if a worker is directly employed by a company, they will be counted toward the 100-employee threshold that determines whether an employer is covered by the ETS. This includes:

  • Remote employees
  • Part-time employees
  • Employees that work exclusively outdoors
  • Temporary or seasonal workers

Are independent contractors counted under the 100-employee rule?

No, independent contractors are not counted.

How are workers from staffing agencies classified?

Staffing agencies hire workers and then coordinate placement at workplaces operated by “host” employers. Because the staffing agency is the legal employer of the worker, these workers are counted toward the staffing agency’s employee headcount, not the host employer’s.

Are some employees exempt from the ETS requirements?

Yes. Employees are not subject to ETS requirements if they work from home, work exclusively outdoors, or report to workplaces that do not have co-workers or customers present. However, these employees are still counted when determining whether an employer reaches the 100-employee threshold for ETS coverage.

What are the ramifications of non-compliance? 

Normally, employers face penalties up to $13,653 per violation for serious violations from OSHA. The penalty for failure to abate is $13,653 per day beyond the abatement date. These same penalties may apply to non-compliance with ETS after compliance dates.

When does the ETS  take effect?

The ETS technically went into effect on November 5, 2021 – the day it was published in the Federal Register. Enforcement was supposed to begin December 5, 2021 for all portions of the ETS other than testing and vaccination compliance date, which would have been January 4, 2022.

With current challenges to the OSHA ETS, the exact timeline for enforcement is up in the air.

What if I have operations in multiple states?

When operating in multiple states, you need to follow varying guidelines, standards, and timeframes applicable in each state. Let’s say you are operating in Alabama and Alaska. Alabama is a Federal OSHA state and Alaska is a State OSHA state. Therefore, you need to follow the standards and timelines of OSHA’s ETS for the operational unit located in Alabama and the State OSHA regulations for the operational unit located in Alaska.

Do remote employees need to comply with requirements?

Although remote employees count towards the 100-employee requirement (i.e. an employer with 75 onsite employees and 25 remote employees would come under the OSHA ETS),  ETS requirements, such as showing proof of vaccination and weekly testing, do not apply for remote employees.

Are employers required to collect proof of vaccination?

Yes. Under the ETS, employers will need to collect proof of vaccination from employees and maintain an updated, accurate record. An employee who does not produce proof of vaccination status must be treated as an unvaccinated employee.

Stay compliant with BP Logix’s vaccine tracker

Having a vaccine tracker with a customizable dashboard that offers an integrated view of the enterprise’s vaccination data would be helpful in staying compliant with the OSHA COVID-19 vaccine mandate guidelines.

BP Logix’s vaccine tracker includes an employee, supervisor, and administrative view for access by all employees of your company.

Comply with COVID-19 vaccination mandates and respond quickly to policy changes with the help of the BP Logix vaccine tracker application. Request a demo to see how it can assist your organization remain compliant!

       
Topics: vaccine tracking
3 min read

OSHA ETS Stay Lifted: What Employers Need to Know

By Steve Altschuler on Dec 20, 2021 7:45:00 AM

osha-ets-stay-lifted

You might have heard that there was some big news over the weekend concerning the OSHA ETS, which was stayed by the 5th Circuit Court in mid-November. Here are the three big takeaways, plus some insights for employers trying to decide what to do next.

1. The OSHA ETS stay has been lifted.

On Friday, December 17, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved the stay that the 5th Circuit had placed on the OSHA ETS. That means that the ETS is back in force.

Shortly after that decision was issued, multiple plaintiffs filed emergency applications for an immediate stay of the ETS with the Supreme Court of the United States. Those applications will be reviewed by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who is assigned to hear petitions from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Kavanaugh has several options:

  • He has the authority to grant the petitioners’ applications and stay the ETS pending review of the entire Court.
  • Given OSHA’s decision to delay compliance dates, he could refer the applications to the full Court for a decision.
  • He could take no action on the applications pending review of the full Court.

The Supreme Court will try to avoid a scenario in which employers would take steps to implement the ETS only to have it invalidated later.

Although it is always difficult to predict how quickly a ruling might come, the speculation is that the Supreme Court will most likely take action in advance of January 10, 2022, to give employers some certainty.

2. The underlying merits of the ETS are still pending with the 6th Circuit.

The dissolution of the stay does not mean the ETS has passed. The final ruling is still pending with the 3-judge panel and even after their final ruling could still go to a full 6th circuit en banc review and decision.

3. Following the 6th Circuit ruling, an appeal may be made to SCOTUS.

Only after the final 6th Circuit ruling (either by the 3-judge panel or en banc) would an appeal be made to SCOTUS to make a final ruling. The Supreme Court may not issue on the underlying merits case, which it may choose to do. The Supreme Court often declines to hear cases.

What does all this mean for employers?

Here's a quick Q&A for employers wondering how to proceed in light of the OSHA ETS news:

  • Should I start planning for ETS compliance? Legal experts strongly recommend getting a policy in place. That includes lining up testing resources if necessary, providing necessary communications to employees, collecting info on vaccination status and keeping roster, etc.
  • What are the new timelines for compliance? The ETS is effective immediately. According to employment law firm Jackson Lewis, OSHA "will not issue citations for noncompliance before January 10, 2022. The agency also stated it will exercise its discretion and not issue citations for noncompliance with testing requirements under the ETS before February 9, 2022, if an employer is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance with the standard."
  • What is meant by “…reasonable, good faith efforts…” to come into compliance with the ETS? It's unclear at this point, but a degree of reasonable diligence is required to get everything in motion.
  • Other than the dates, has any changed regarding testing requirements, accommodations, or exemptions? Nothing else changed.
  • Will the OSHA ETS override state rulings (e.g. Florida or Texas state requirements conflicting with OSHA)? This answer depends on whether any of the decisions on the merits of the ETS address preemption arguments.

Webinar: Learn how to navigate the mandates

With all the up's and down's concerning the fate of the OSHA ETS, some employers are taking a "wait and see" approach before committing to roll out a vaccine policy.​ What do top employment lawyers recommend? "Start planning now."

Learn more in our free webinar featuring top employment/labor law experts from Jackson Lewis P.C., and be sure to check out BP Logix's Vaccine Tracker application.

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Topics: vaccine tracking
7 min read

Verification vs Validation in Software: Overview & Key Differences

By Catie Leary on Dec 16, 2021 10:15:00 AM

Verification vs. validation

Verification vs Validation: Definitions

Software testing is a process of examining the functionality and behavior of the software through verification and validation. 

  • Verification is a process of determining if the software is designed and developed as per the specified requirements. 
  • Validation is the process of checking if the software (end product) has met the client’s true needs and expectations. 
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Software testing is incomplete until it undergoes verification and validation processes. Verification and validation are the main elements of software testing workflow because they:

  1. Ensure that the end product meets the design requirements.
  2. Reduce the chances of defects and product failure.
  3. Ensures that the product meets the quality standards and expectations of all stakeholders involved.

Most people confuse verification and validation; some use them interchangeably. People often mistake verification and validation because of a lack of knowledge on the purposes they fulfill and the pain points they address.

The software testing industry is estimated to grow from $40 billion in 2020 to $60 billion in 2027. Considering the steady growth of the software testing industry, we put together a guide that provides an in-depth explanation behind verification and validation and the main differences between these two processes.

Verification

As mentioned, verification is the process of determining if the software in question is designed and developed according to specified requirements. Specifications act as inputs for the software development process. The code for any software application is written based on the specifications document. 

Verification is done to check if the software being developed has adhered to these specifications at every stage of the development life cycle. The verification ensures that the code logic is in line with specifications.

Depending on the complexity and scope of the software application, the software testing team uses different methods of verification, including inspection, code reviews, technical reviews, and walkthroughs. Software testing teams may also use mathematical models and calculations to make predictive statements about the software and verify its code logic.

Further, verification checks if the software team is building the product right. Verification is a continuous process that begins well in advance of validation processes and runs until the software application is validated and released.

The main advantages of the verification are:

  1. It acts as a quality gateway at every stage of the software development process.
  2. It enables software teams to develop products that meet design specifications and customer needs.
  3. It saves time by detecting the defects at the early stage of software development.
  4. It reduces or eliminates defects that may arise at the later stage of the software development process.

A walkthrough of verification of a mobile application

There are three phases in the verification testing of a mobile application development:

  1. Requirements Verification
  2. Design Verification
  3. Code Verification

Requirements verification is the process of verifying and confirming that the requirements are complete, clear, and correct. Before the mobile application goes for design, the testing team verifies business requirements or customer requirements for their correctness and completeness.

Design verification is a process of checking if the design of the software meets the design specifications by providing evidence. Here, the testing team checks if layouts, prototypes, navigational charts, architectural designs, and database logical models of the mobile application meet the functional and non-functional requirements specifications.

Code verification is a process of checking the code for its completeness, correctness, and consistency. Here, the testing team checks if construction artifacts such as source code, user interfaces, and database physical model of the mobile application meet the design specification.

Validation

Validation is often conducted after the completion of the entire software development process. It checks if the client gets the product they are expecting. Validation focuses only on the output; it does not concern itself about the internal processes and technical intricacies of the development process. 

Validation helps to determine if the software team has built the right product. Validation is a one-time process that starts only after verifications are completed. Software teams often use a wide range of validation methods, including White Box Testing (non-functional testing or structural/design testing) and Black Box Testing (functional testing).

White Box Testing is a method that helps validate the software application using a predefined series of inputs and data. Here, testers just compare the output values against the input values to verify if the application is producing output as specified by the requirements.

There are three vital variables in the Black Box Testing method (input values, output values, and expected output values). This method is used to verify if the actual output of the software meets the anticipated or expected output.

The main advantages of validation processes are:

  1. It ensures that the expectations of all stakeholders are fulfilled.
  2. It enables software teams to take corrective action if there is a mismatch between the actual product and the anticipated product.
  3. It improves the reliability of the end-product.

A walkthrough of validation of a mobile application

Validation emphasizes checking the functionality, usability, and performance of the mobile application. 

Functionality testing checks if the mobile application is working as expected. For instance, while testing the functionality of a ticket-booking application, the testing team tries to validate it through:

  1. Installing, running, and updating the application from distribution channels like Google Play and the App Store
  2. Booking tickets in the real-time environment (fields testing)
  3. Interruptions testing

Usability testing checks if the application offers a convenient browsing experience. User interface and navigations are validated based on various criteria which include satisfaction, efficiency, and effectiveness.

Performance testing enables testers to validate the application by checking its reaction and speed under the specific workload. Software testing teams often use techniques such as load testing, stress testing, and volume testing to validate the performance of the mobile application.

Main differences between verification and validation

Verification and validation, while similar, are not the same. There are several notable differences between these two. Here is a chart that identifies the differences between verification and validation:

 

Verification

Validation

Definition

It is a process of checking if a product is developed as per the specifications.

It is a process of ensuring that the product meets the needs and expectations of stakeholders.

What it tests or checks for

It tests the requirements, architecture, design, and code of the software product.

It tests the usability, functionalities, and reliability of the end product.

Coding requirement

It does not require executing the code.

It emphasizes executing the code to test the usability and functionality of the end product.

Activities include

A few activities involved in verification testing are requirements verification, design verification, and code verification.

The commonly-used validation activities in software testing are usability testing, performance testing, system testing, security testing, and functionality testing.

Types of testing methods

A few verification methods are inspection, code review, desk-checking, and walkthroughs.

A few widely-used validation methods are black box testing, white box testing, integration testing, and acceptance testing.

Teams or persons involved

The quality assurance (QA) team would be engaged in the verification process.

The software testing team along with the QA team would be engaged in the validation process.

Target of test

It targets internal aspects such as requirements, design, software architecture, database, and code.

It targets the end product that is ready to be deployed.

 

Verification and validation are an integral part of software engineering. Without rigorous verification and validation, a software team may not be able to build a product that meets the expectations of stakeholders. Verification and validation help reduce the chances of product failure and improve the reliability of the end product. 

Download the Free E-Book on Identifying Processes for AutomationDifferent project management and software development methods use verification and validation in different ways. For instance, both verification and validation happen simultaneously in agile development methodology due to the need for continuous refinement of the system based on the end-user feedback. 

Testers can use automation tools developed with low code development to streamline the processes of verification and validation. Contact us today to discover how BP Logix's workflow automation platform, Process Director, can help automate your software testing process.

 

6 min read

IT Process Automation: What is it & What are the Benefits?

By Girish Pashilkar on Dec 13, 2021 11:30:00 AM

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IT Process Automation (ITPA) is an approach to streamline IT operations through automated workflows. An analysis conducted by McKinsey at two financial services organizations revealed that a staggering 90% of IT departments were focused on inefficient and manual tasks such as testing, code-fixing, and maintenance. ITPA automates these kinds of inefficient, repetitive, and manual IT processes to improve operational efficiency and eliminate costly human errors.

A few widely-known ITPA use cases are:

  1. Service request handling
  2. Bug reporting and testing
  3. Compliance monitoring and IT security
  4. Incidence response, messaging, and notifications
  5. IT asset tracking and management
  6. Server automation (automation of server shutdown and restart, and automation of server disk space cleanup)
  7. Network automation (deploying patches to network devices and triggering upgraded configuration settings)

As ITPA becomes increasingly popular and beneficial, Gartner predicts that 40% of Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) teams in large enterprises will use AI-augmented automation to improve IT productivity and achieve greater agility by 2023.

We put together a complete guide that reviews the steps involved in IT process automation and explains how it benefits enterprises across all industries.

How does IT process automation work?

IT departments should create predefined events or workflows before setting up ITPA tools. For instance, the IT department may need to create a bug-tracking workflow involving steps such as capturing bugs, prioritizing bugs, assigning bugs to the relevant team, fixing bugs, and pushing the fixed code to deployment before setting up an ITPA tool.

An ITPA tool can automate workflows using three vital steps, which include:

  1. Monitoring
  2. Trigger
  3. Reaction

1. Monitoring

ITPA tools may monitor the performance of the system against the pre-defined performance metrics until a trigger or a defect is detected. For instance, the bug-tracking ITPA tool monitors for bugs in the software application until a bug is detected.

2. Trigger

When a trigger is detected, the ITPA software starts the automated workflow. For instance, when the bug is detected in the software application, the bug-tracking ITPA tool would start the next workflow (in this case, perhaps fixing or isolating the bug) automatically.

3. Reaction

The ITPA tool then automatically performs all tasks involved in the workflow as a reaction to the trigger. For instance, the bug-tracking ITPA tool automatically executes the workflow that involves capturing the bug in the relevant format, prioritizing the bug (based on its intensity of impact), and so on.

How does it differ from business process automation (BPA)?

Business Process Automation (BPA) is an approach to streamlining general business functions with the help of digital technologies. Though both BPA and ITPA automate manual and repetitive tasks, there are several differences between both of these approaches.

 

Business Process Automation

IT Process Automation

Focus The focus of BPA is broad as it is concerned about the entire organization. ITPA is narrowly focused on the IT department and technical processes.
Automated tasks BPA can automate business functions encompassing all departments. For example, a BPA can automate the HR practices such as hiring, onboarding, leave management, and performance management. Likewise, BPA can automate finance-related tasks such as accounts payable, payroll, invoicing, and tax compliance. ITPA tools streamline business functions encompassing only the IT department. For example, an IT process automation software can automate IT processes such as service requests, change requests, ticketing systems, asset management, and compliance.
Complexity and skills requirement Users don’t need to have advanced coding skills to deploy BPA tools. Even a citizen developer who does not have coding knowledge can deploy low-code or no-code automation tools that streamline simple and daily tasks. ITPA tools are often deployed by technically savvy IT teams to automate complex IT processes. These tools are built with advanced functionalities that require higher-level skills to deploy.

 

Main benefits of IT process automation

ITPA plays a vital role in the digital transformation of the business. It helps the organization improve the efficiency of IT service delivery. Here are some of the other main benefits of ITPA to businesses:

Cost-savings

IT businesses waste a lot of resources on repetitive and manual processes. For example, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) spend huge amounts of money on the Service Desk. Nearly 40% of calls that a MSP service desk receives are about password resetting. According to Forrester, a few large-scale organizations spend over $1 million for password-related support costs. The average service desk labor cost for a single password reset is $70.

An ITPA enables MSPs not only to automate routine tasks, but also to create a self-service interface that allows their customers to remediate incidents such as password resetting on their own. The self-remediation helps MSPs save money that they otherwise spend on password resetting help desk service or other menial requests. Gartner also predicts that hyper-automation technologies may help enterprises reduce operational costs by up to 30% by 2024.

Increased transparency between tech teams and management

Automation makes internal processes more transparent. ITPA tools not only show business users what the process looks like, but also the status of the process after it starts. The authorized people can control who can view the process and give user-based permissions.

By implementing ITPA tools, the management of the enterprise can track the status of network infrastructure and collaborate effectively with tech teams to improve the compliance, security, and efficiency of the IT operations.

Improved productivity and better utilization of IT staff

In a recent survey, 74% of IT and engineering leaders said that process automation helped their human resources save up to 30% of the time previously spent on manual processes.

ITPA software tools enable enterprises to free up qualified IT personnel from doing manual tasks and engage them in activities related to strategy, innovation, and technology. The productivity and utilization of staff can be measured in various ways, including employee time savings, cost savings, and faster operations.

Mitigate costly IT and human errors

One of the most obvious benefits of ITPA is that it mitigates costly human errors.

Did you know that most service outages are caused by human intervention? In fact, on February 28, 2017, Amazon Web Services S3 got disrupted due to a small mistake done by an authorized executive.

According to Amazon, the glitch happened after the person wrongly entered the command which resulted in the removal of additional servers. This human error took down Amazon Web Services for around 4 hours. An ITPA tool might have helped prevent the Amazon Web Services S3 outage caused by human error. Enterprises may need to implement ITPA tools to mitigate costly IT errors.

Increased compliance

ITPA tools restrict unauthorized data access and improve compliance through granular process monitoring, automated reporting, and audit trials. For instance, enterprises need to change server administration passwords every 30 to 90 days as per the security compliance standards. ITPA systems can automate and complete this laborious and time-consuming task with zero error and meet the compliance requirements.

Likewise, an ITPA tool can run an automated workflow to check if servers, applications, and networks meet the compliance before triggering and performing an update.

IT Process Automation Solutions with BP Logix

IT Process Automation tools work just like Business Process Management (BPM) or Robotic Process Automation (RPA), but they are narrowly focused on IT operations. Enterprises can use ITPA tools for network automation, server automation, storage automation, and application automation. ITPA tools, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, are often built with advanced functionalities that require technical proficiency and coding skills to deploy.

A few main benefits of ITPA are cost savings, increased compliance, reduced human errors, improved productivity, and higher transparency among internal staff. Enterprises may need to implement ITPA tools to improve the accuracy, speed, and efficiency of IT operations.

Discover how the Process Director, a workflow automation software from BP Logix, can help you automate your IT workflows and improve the efficiency of IT service delivery.

Get in touch with us today to learn more!

Topics: business process automation
3 min read

Vaccination Mandates for Staffing Firms, PEOs, & HROs

By Girish Pashilkar on Dec 3, 2021 7:15:00 AM

webinar-vaccine-mandate

How does your company plan to respond to employee vaccination mandates?

What does the Fifth Circuit’s decision to stay OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard mean for staffing agencies, PEOs and HROs? What is the best strategy for employers to mitigate risk while protecting their employees? What can employers do to prepare for the additional administrative burden of tracking employee vaccinations and test results?

Join BP Logix on Tuesday, December 14 at 11:00 AM PT for Vaccination Mandates: Imperatives for Staffing Firms, PEOs, and HROs, an educational webinar that explores these questions with the nation’s top employment law firm, Jackson Lewis P.C., and leading analyst firm, Intellyx.

Following the discussion of how staffing firms, PEOs, and HROs should respond to vaccination mandates in the wake of recent court challenges, our panel of legal and tech experts will answer your questions during a live Q&A session.

Register for the webinar

Can't attend the webinar?

Register today and we will send you a recording of the webinar after the event for you to review on your own time. If you have any other questions, please contact us.

Meet our panelists:

photo of Melanie Paul

Melanie Paul, Jackson Lewis P.C.

Melanie L. Paul is a principal in the Atlanta, Georgia, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. She is co-leader of the firm’s Workplace Safety and Health practice group. Her practice focuses on occupational safety and health and wage and hour issues. Melanie's clients benefit from her unique inside experience as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for more than a decade.

photo of Jenifer Bologna

Jenifer Bologna, Jackson Lewis P.C.

Jenifer Bologna is a principal in the White Plains, New York, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. Jenifer is a member of Jackson Lewis’ Disability, Leave and Health Management group. She specializes in preventative advice and counsel primarily related to disability and leave management issues. Jenifer helps employers navigate the complex and growing body of federal, state and local laws, most notably the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

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Charles Araujo, Intellyx

Charles Araujo is an industry analyst, internationally recognized authority on the Digital Enterprise and author of The Quantum Age of IT: Why Everything You Know About IT is About to Change. He is Principal Analyst with Intellyx, the first and only industry analyst firm focused on agile digital transformation. He has authored three books and published over 100 articles. He has been a regular contributor to both InformationWeek and CIO Insight Magazine and has been quoted or published in magazines, blogs and websites including Time, CIO, CIO & Leader, IT Business Edge, TechRepublic, Computerworld, USA Today and Forbes.

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Topics: vaccine tracking
11 min read

What is Business Process Automation? The Essential Guide to BPA

By Catie Leary on Nov 16, 2021 10:07:47 AM

business-process-automation-guide

In this article…

What is business process automation (BPA)?

Business process automation (BPA) is the process of automating complex functions (beyond traditional data collection and record-keeping activities) with the help of digital technologies.

Business process automation is not the same thing as case management. (Case management deals more with a group of processes, and therefore is much more complex. Cases typically involve multiple people and/or departments.)

Organizations implement workflow automation solutions such as Intelligent BPM and Business Rules Engines to enable accurate data reporting, improve accountability, identify and eliminate inefficiencies, streamline communication, and reduce operational costs. 

The market size of the global Business Process Automation (BPA) industry was approximately $9.8 billion in 2020. It is forecasted to grow at an annualized rate of 12.2% and reach $19.6 billion by 2026. 

In this article, we will cover the advantages of BPA and highlight its use cases in areas such as logistics, education, bookkeeping, human resources management, finance, contracts management, and more.

What kind of tasks and processes should be automated?

compliance industries

Did you know that employees waste 22% of their productive time on repetitive tasks and wasteful procedures? As such, every organization should aim to increase operational efficiencies by eliminating wasteful procedures and practices. One way to do this is through business process automation and business process management (BPM). 

BPM software helps organizations achieve optimal performance by automating very specific processes such as:

  • High-volume, repetitive tasks that involve the same steps
  • Tasks that require multiple people
  • Back office workflows
  • Time-sensitive tasks 
  • Compliance and audit trails
  • Scheduled tasks which occur at the same time on the same day each week
  • Employee onboarding
  • Purchase orders, accounts payables, and bill payments
  • IT services desk support
  • Marketing automation across multiple promotional channels
  • Sales activities like lead qualification, prospecting, and funnel creation

To learn more about how to prioritize process automation projects, you can view our guide here.

Business process automation use cases and examples

Business owners may not have an idea of what processes and workflows they can automate at the workplace. Because of this, businesses often postpone adopting business automation platforms and end up wasting millions of dollars due to repetitive processes, low employee productivity, and poor compliance. 

The BPA use cases and examples below can help determine how automation efforts can improve operational efficiency and provide a competitive advantage: 

Human resources

The manual HR process is likely to result in an unpleasant experience for new employees. It may also lead to excessive paperwork for the HR team, inconsistencies in the hiring process, and a low employee retention rate. In fact, 36% of HR leaders feel that the lack of automation is the reason for their inability to better organize the onboarding process.

BPA empowers the organization to automate paperwork, map the employee onboarding journey, meet compliance standards, and so much more. BPA also makes it easier for HR teams to enroll benefits and assign key performance indicators (KPIs).

A few human resource management (HRM) functions that BPA can automate are:

  • Hiring 
  • Onboarding
  • Training
  • Leaves management
  • Performance management

Legal and contracts management

Legal and contracts management comprises all legal tasks related to the management of contracts. A few vital tasks involved in the process of contract management are drafting contracts, preparing bids, processing claims, monitoring contract performance, and managing change requests. 

BPA enables organizations to create a central repository of contracts with a search function, automate contract drafting, send reminders to relevant teams about contract deadlines or renewals, automate approvals with e-signatures, meet compliance, create touchless contracts with fully-executed NDAs, and build conditional workflows.

Some legal and contract management tasks that BPA can automate are:

  • Procurement and supplier management
  • Contract management
  • Contract compliance
  • Claims processing
  • Audit trails

Financial

Typically, finance-related tasks rely heavily on manual, repetitive, and time-consuming activities. Most finance tasks include invoice processing, financial data recording or reconciliation, budgeting, and financial projections, and more. These tasks are prime candidates for automation because of their highly-structured and rule-based nature. 

BPA automates these rule-based finance functions to reduce the likelihood of errors and fraud, achieve greater efficiency, meet compliance, and save time. It’s projected that organizations can automate 42% of the financial department’s work with the help of automation technologies like BPA and RPA (Robotic Process Automation).

Some finance-related tasks that BPA can automate are:

  • Purchase orders
  • Accounts payables
  • Financial reporting
  • Payroll processing
  • Invoicing and accounts receivables
  • Tax compliance and reporting

Data aggregation and bookkeeping

Improper data aggregation is the reason why accounting teams struggle with financial close and consolidation. Due to this, accounting teams have been failing to provide critical decision-making inputs to business owners. It also forces accounting teams to spend more time on mechanical data and manual financial consolidation adjustments. 

BPA enables organizations to automatically update and approve journal entries, conduct audit trials, create financial close checklists, match transactions with general ledger, compare account balances against sources to identify discrepancies, and give automated alerts on uncollected invoices.

Some data aggregation and bookkeeping tasks that BPA can automate are:

  • Journal entries
  • Basic data entry 
  • Bank reconciliations
  • Expense management
  • Credit control
  • Risk management

Education

27% of tasks in educational services can be automated with the help of existing technologies like business process management (BPM), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

BPA helps educational institutions transform from paper-based procedures to electronic procedures. It eliminates the hassle for students to visit the college premises multiple times to enroll in courses. Automation streamlines the process of student enrollment and engagement.

Some tasks that BPA can automate in the educational services industry are:

  • Student enrollment and course registration
  • Immigration compliance for international students
  • Financial aid services

Logistics and shipping

Automation has become a common trend in the logistics and shipping industry. As business trends and demands evolved, organizations in manufacturing industries quickly learned that they cannot survive without an efficient logistics department and automated processes.

BPA software enables logistics and shipping companies to reduce inventory costs, eliminate the scope for costly errors, meet compliance standards, access real-time freight data analysis, improve stock visibility, and manage the distribution.

Some logistics and shipping processes that BPA can automate are:

  • Lead management
  • Inventory tracking
  • Shipment scheduling and tracking

Why are businesses turning to BPA? Benefits and advantages

Gartner predicts that businesses will adopt at least 3 out of 20 process-agnostic types of software by 2024 to enable hyper-automation. Why?

It’s because any medium- to large-scale business can greatly benefit from implementing no-code BPA technologies. To name a few, businesses can streamline processes, reduce human errors, save time and money, and improve customer service.

Let’s review a few more of the key benefits to BPA below.

Streamlined and standardized processes

rapid-deployment

The primary role of BPA is to streamline and standardize complex and repeatable tasks. It enables organizations to develop a set of rules to complete each task and create a workflow that does not require human intervention.

Automation helps employees spend their quality time on tasks that improve organizational productivity. According to McKinsey, streamlining and standardizing processes through automation can increase productivity by 1.4% on a global basis annually. Further, BPA significantly contributes to overall business process improvement.

Compliance records

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BPA helps businesses create automated reporting and documentation procedures that meet compliance regulations like Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

For instance, employee benefits compliance is one of the major concerns for organizations. Employee benefit laws like HIPAA and ERISA want organizations to roll out employee benefit plans and maintain records of the same. 

A BPM streamlines the employee benefits process and maintains its compliance records impeccably. It simplifies the complex process of collecting eligible employee data, gathering signatures, and generating approvals while processing employee benefits.

Transparency between teams and stakeholders

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BPA increases visibility and accountability within organizations. It creates a workflow that all authorized professionals can track.

Likewise, automated workflows may also help an internal auditor assess whether the project team has followed a set of standards, policies, and regulations while executing an operational activity or not with a single mouse click.

Eliminate costly errors

management-reporting-dashboard

Did you know that the Citigroup credit department accidentally sent $500 million to Revlon’s lenders by mistake? This was a severe human error that could have been avoided if automation tools were in place.

The implementation of automation technologies makes organizations less vulnerable to clerical and reporting errors that cost millions and millions of dollars.

Improved customer service

cloud-sync-data

Customer engagement is the key to an increased customer satisfaction rate. BPA allows businesses to streamline activities like customer engagement, customer support, and customer experience through automated social media, automated emails, and automated service interactions.

For instance, a Social BPM can create a workflow that sends an automated alert or trigger when a customer makes a complaint on a social media platform like Twitter or Facebook.

Choosing the right BPA solution for your business

 

Choosing the right business process automation software that is more powerful than a traditional ERP or CRM can be challenging. However, you can choose a suitable BPA solution by analyzing if it meets the expectations in the following parameters:

  • User experience: It involves analyzing the ease of use and efficiency of the solution. How friendly is the user interface? How smooth is the interaction between the user and the software?
  • Artificial intelligence: How much human involvement is required while executing complex tasks? After all, you are purchasing the BPA solution to reduce user intervention. Choose a BPA solution that is powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning.
  • Integrations: BPA platforms should facilitate API integration between existing software and solutions at the workplace for better efficiency. 
  • Flexible deployment: Make sure that the BPA vendor offers flexible deployment options. The flexibility allows you to deploy the application on your premises or third-party cloud infrastructure based on your preference and requirement.
  • Low code development: Coding can be a hassle and complex. With low-code applications, you can customize and quickly adapt the applications in response to the fast-changing business environments.
  • Mobile use: 60% of employees use mobile apps for work-related activities. If the BPM solution is not mobile-friendly, it would not make tasks and to-do lists available for employees on the go.

BPA solutions can boost the productivity of workplaces. They can save millions of dollars to businesses by standardizing workflows in areas like accounting, finance, human resources, contracts management, and logistics. They can also help eliminate costly errors and improve the quality of customer service. Ensure you choose a low-code and user-friendly AI-enabled BPM software.

Ready to learn more about how digital transformation powered by business process automation tools can streamline your complex processes and increase the efficiency of business operations?

Schedule a demo of BP Logix’s Process Director, or get in touch with us today!

Topics: business process automation
5 min read

Fifth Circuit Blocks OSHA ETS: What Employers Need to Know

By Steve Altschuler on Nov 15, 2021 9:15:00 AM

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The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling on Nov. 12 that blocks the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from enforcing its Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing.

In the ruling, the Fifth Circuit argued that the ETS "exceeds the bounds of OSHA's statutory authority."

Under the ETS, employers with 100 or more employees would be responsible for:

  1. Implementing and enforcing a workplace vaccination policy that either (a) requires mandatory vaccinations, or (b) allows employees to choose between vaccination or weekly COVID-19 testing.
  2. Providing information to employees about the ETS, COVID-19 vaccines, and workplace vaccination policy.
  3. Determining the vaccination status of all employees, obtaining valid proof of vaccination or weekly test results, and maintaining vaccination records to ensure compliance.
  4. Reporting work-related COVID-19 fatalities and hospitalizations to OSHA. 

In response to the court order, OSHA issued the following statement:

"While OSHA remains confident in its authority to protect workers in emergencies, OSHA has suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the ETS pending future developments in the litigation."

What employers need to know

Enforcement of OSHA's ETS was slated to begin on Dec. 5, so this recent ruling poses some interesting questions for employers that are currently exploring their options for employee vaccination tracking. Here are six key questions employers should be asking about Fifth Circuit's recent ruling on OSHA ETS.

1. Under the Fifth Circuit’s ruling, are employers still required to comply with the ETS? Can OSHA conduct audits or issue fines for non-compliance?  

The Fifth Circuit’s ruling functionally puts the ETS on a nationwide pause. While the ruling remains in effect, the federal government is prohibited from taking action to enforce the ETS. This means OSHA cannot conduct audits or issue fines until a decision is made. 

Although the ETS has been blocked, it’s important to note that the Fifth Circuit’s order is a temporary measure intended to maintain the status quo while appeals are pending. 

Because multiple parties have filed challenges to the ETS in multiple circuits, a consolidation proceeding known as a multi-circuit lottery will take place on November 16. This means the case may be transferred out of the Fifth Circuit before the court has a chance to issue a final ruling. Further, the federal government has the option of asking the US Supreme Court to dissolve this temporary stay. 

2. How long will it take to reach a final decision on this matter in the Court of Appeals or at the Supreme Court level? 

A final ruling from the Court of Appeals may take several weeks. It is also possible that the federal government will ask the US Supreme Court to dissolve this temporary stay. The Supreme Court could take much longer and if they were involved it would likely take place in Q1 2021.

3. What is the likelihood that OSHA's ETS will be diluted as a result of the legal challenges?

OSHA has the power to update and adopt new language to the original ETS. This power is intended to account for unconsidered items (e.g. booster shots), but it could also be used to make other changes, such as expanding the scope of exceptions or allowing additional time to meet the mandates.

However, it is unlikely that these changes would occur while challenges are pending. As part of its rulemaking procedures, OSHA is currently accepting comments, which the agency would take into consideration when finalizing a permanent standard.

4. If the Federal ruling is blocked, can states issue their own vaccine mandates for employers?  

Yes, states can and likely will issue their own vaccination mandates for employers.  

When OSHA enacts a federal-level emergency temporary standard, states are required to either (a) amend their standards to be identical or “at least as effective as” OSHA's new standard, or (b) demonstrate that their existing standard is “at least as effective” as the federal government’s new standard. 

However, some states may go a step further by adopting standards with even greater levels of protection and efficacy than what is required by OSHA. 

5. If the federal mandate holds up in the courts, how will OSHA enforce the mandate on such a large scale?  

OSHA has authority to review and determine non-compliance to the ETS mandate. They will likely focus their initial investigations on organizations that have willfully ignored the ETS. We also expect to see OSHA compliance investigations based on employee complaints about employer noncompliance.

6. Under the Fifth Circuit’s ruling, do employers still need to comply with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) interim final rule for healthcare workers and President Biden’s Executive Order 14042 on mandatory vaccinations for federal contractors?

The Fifth Circuit ruling has no impact on these rules. Employers should continue to adhere to these requirements as applicable. 

Topics: vaccine tracking
8 min read

The BP Logix Guide to Low-Code Platforms

By Catie Leary on Nov 9, 2021 10:10:08 AM

low-code-platform-guide

Low-code platforms are on the rise across all industries. Read on to discover the benefits of low-code platforms for businesses.

In this article…

undraw_software_engineer_lvl5

What does low-code mean?

Low-code is a software development approach that uses little to no coding to create new applications, mobile apps, and software. Low-code approaches use graphical user interfaces with drag-and-drop capabilities rather than complex coding programs and languages.

This method is gaining much momentum, and Gartner has projected that the global low-code development platform market is forecasted to grow to a total of $13.8 billion.

Why is everyone shifting to low-code application development?

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Low-code doesn’t necessarily mean limited; in fact, its capabilities are varied and far and wide

Usually, businesses tend to use custom coding and off-the-shelf SaaS as alternatives to low-code applications. Custom code is the code that isn’t part of the licensed software. Instead, it’s often programmed by implementation partners, supported end-users, and third-party developers to customize the application based on the specific needs of the organization. This implementation of custom code applications is time-consuming and cost-oriented. Developers may need to have sound knowledge of programming languages like Java, Python, or PHP to build custom applications. 

Off-the-shelf SaaS comes with a standard set of features to meet the requirements of a broad range of customers. It may not be customized and adapted to the changing business needs of the organization. 

Benefits of low-code development

Fast time to value

management-reporting-dashboardBusinesses tend to choose low-code platforms because of the fast time to value (TTV). Time to value (TTV) refers to the time a product or service takes to offer desired benefits to the customer. The development lifecycle of low-code applications is as low as a couple of weeks to three months. 

This case study shows how a low-code BPM application was built and deployed within 45 days. Low-code development has also been a tremendous help in other large-scale universities and higher education institutions

Wide variety of industry applications

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Various industries including, but not limited to manufacturing, education, healthcare/pharmaceuticals, advertising, financial, and more are implementing low-code applications to streamline their operations. Regardless if you operate in a highly complex and regulatory industry, a low-code application can solve your worries related to increasing costs of application development, long timelines of implementation, and maintaining an in-house development team.

Easy integrations

complex sopsLow-code platforms facilitate the integration of existing applications and systems. They help IT departments create application programming interfaces (APIs) that play a crucial role in developing sophisticated and next-generation mobile applications based on the needs of the business.

Today, most of the reliable low-code platforms are facilitating integrations of database applications, document imaging software, email servers, SharePoint, social BPM, and web services/REST.

Unparalleled security 

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Security is the biggest concern for every organization that implements enterprise-grade applications. Low-code development platforms offer unparalleled security through global access controls and user-based permissions.

Since low-code applications are hosted on enterprise secure DMZ or secure private cloud infrastructures, they can easily pass cybersecurity clearances. Most low-code applications have third-party certifications like SOC 2 Type 2 and SOC 3 that guarantee cloud security, availability, and confidentiality controls.

Improved customer/user experience

undraw_develop_app_re_bi4i97% of development professionals believe that the low-code platforms enhance the end-user experience through features such as quick updates, visual development, flexible designs, and mobile-friendly interfaces. For example, low-code BPM software can help educational institutions to improve the experience of students through mobile-accessible enrollment forms and real-time visibility about the status of their applications. 

Likewise, retail companies can implement low-code workflow automation software that improves the consumer experience through better interaction, real-time updates, optimized assortments, and personalized promotions.

Increased transparency across teams

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Today, most organizations operate with a functional organizational structure that groups employees as departments based on the specialized set of tasks they do. For instance, a manufacturing company comprises several teams or departments including, but not limited to procurement, production, accounting, human resources, and delivery. The lack of transparency and visibility across these teams can result in conflicts and increase production lead times. 

The implementation of a low-code application like Business Process Management (BPM) can address this issue by creating workflows that all authorized people across teams can track. For instance, the BPM enables the production team members to have visibility on raw materials or the inventory levels that help schedule the production activities in a better and more simplified manner.

Simple deployments

scalability

A recently conducted research indicated that low-code digital automation applications can shave off 50-90% development and deployment time when compared to traditional applications. 

Since low-code frameworks are built on the principles such as speed, efficiency, and democratization of technology, they can be deployed quickly on the third-party cloud infrastructure or on-premises of businesses. These features all come together to help businesses with their scalability.

Difference between low-code and no code

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The functionality of low-code and no code, while similar, is not the same. There are several differences between low-code and no code in terms of business users, the complexity of the end product, the amount of customization required, and the cost.

Low-code

No code

  • Little coding is required in a few situations.
  • Businesses may need professional developers who have the technical knowledge and coding experience to deploy low-code business applications.
  • Low-code application platforms can be customized based on customer requirements.
  • Low code is known for its speed of development.
  • Low code can be used to create complex applications.
  • No coding is required because it uses a pure drag-and-drop interface to build applications.  
  • No coding experience is required; any citizen developer can implement them.
  • No code platforms often have limited customization and use templates.
  • No code development tools are known for their ease of use.
  • No-code is often used for front-end use-cases and simple applications. 

What can you build with low-code? 

About-BPLogix

  • Optimization apps: Optimization apps are the applications built to enhance the performance of a specific device or an operating system.
  • Customer engagement apps: These are omnichannel communication applications that facilitate interaction and engagement between the organization and its customers. These apps help marketing teams to maintain customer relationships and increase customer retention rates.
  • Business processes: These are automation applications that streamline complex business processes to improve organizational efficiency. Business Process Management (BPM) is one of the finest examples of business processes apps.
  • Data models and business logic: Data model apps are the platforms that help you build logical data models and database structures. Business logic apps create automated workflows that integrate business apps, information, and services of an organization. Business logic apps can help you develop a scalable integration solution.
  • AI-based solutions and processes: Low-code development can also be used to create AI-enabled chatbots, visual information processing tools, data analytics applications, and machine learning tools. These solutions and processes help businesses reduce human errors and optimize internal operations.

Low-code business process automation solutions with BP Logix

PD Screenshot

Low-code tools are playing a significant role in digital transformation. Low-code helps businesses quickly develop and deploy enterprise-grade applications that streamline internal operations and optimize productivity. The low-code development process is more effective than custom-coding and off-the-shelf SaaS. 

Low-code is widely-used to develop customer engagement apps, optimization apps, business process automation apps, case management, and AI-based solutions. Faster time to value, increased customer experience, unparalleled security, and quick deployments are a few of the most cited benefits of low-code app development. 

Discover how the Process Director, a low-code Business Process Management software from BP Logix can help you automate workflows and optimize productivity.

Book a Discovery Call

6 min read

4 Challenges PEOs Face with Employee Vaccination Tracking

By Catie Leary on Oct 15, 2021 7:15:00 AM

Vaccine tracking application for PEOs and co-employers

As employers with 100 or more employees join healthcare facilities and K-12 schools in efforts to comply with the federal COVID-19 vaccination and testing requirements, professional employer organizations (PEOs) are facing some interesting questions about their role in this situation.

Let’s examine the some of the hurdles that co-employers must overcome in light of recent government mandates and executive orders. 

1. The burden of responsibility

PEOs provide comprehensive HR services to small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) through a legal arrangement known as co-employment. Under a co-employment partnership, the PEO take on the management of HR functions (payroll, employee benefits, taxes, etc) and assume a share of employer liability and responsibility for employment risks. By outsourcing most (or all) of their HR activities, business owners can reduce costs and focus their efforts on growing their business, revenue, and customer base.

What this means is that the company's employees are also legally employees of the PEO, which begs the question:

If PEOs legally share the role of employer with their clients, are they on the hook for ensuring their clients’ employees comply with vaccination and testing mandates?

At the moment, it’s unclear what level of responsibility PEOs should expect to bear when it comes to vaccination mandates, which brings us to the second challenge:

2. Becoming an expert in vaccination compliance

PEOs do more than simply handle payroll and send out annual W2s. They also regularly serve an advisory role to their clients for matters involving compliance and labor regulations.

Do PEOs have a plan for helping their customers navigate vaccine mandates and implement processes that reduce employee anxieties? They ought to. Companies involved in a co-employer partnership will be looking to their PEO for guidance and resources on how best to handle his uncharted territory. After all, it's a pretty complex task to confirm the vaccination status of a company's workforce and set up weekly testing for employees who are not fully vaccinated. 

COVID-19 rapid testing

PEOs will not only need to have a firm handle on federal and state mandate requirements – they must also be ready to provide their clients with a solution for tracking employee vaccinations and tests. If PEOs don’t have one at the ready, they should at the very least be able to direct their clients to a solution so that no one has to resort to the dreaded task of tracking vaccinations via spreadsheet.

3. Retaining clients and winning new business

It’s no secret that the pandemic drastically changed the nature of work and commerce. Businesses must adapt, and PEOs are no exception. As vaccination mandate deadlines close in, PEOs must make sure they are investing in digital tools and infrastructure that keep existing customers ahead of the compliance curve while also enticing potential new business to sign on the dotted line.

Tools for tracking vaccinations and tests are a prime example. If PEOs can't provide the necessary support and guidance to customers as they navigate vaccination mandates and other COVID-related policies, that could be a major dealbreaker for both current and potential customers.

Some larger players in the PEO industry know this and have already taken steps to adapt to rapidly shifting market needs by rolling out some simple vaccine tracking solutions for their clients or partnering with companies like BP Logix to provide a solution.

4. Identifying the best vaccine tracking solution for PEOs

Before we dive into what makes an ideal vaccine tracker for PEOs, let's first take a step back and talk about vaccine applications broadly.

Numerous applications for proving vaccination and testing status have rolled out over the past year, but there is no “one size fits all” solution. Why? Well, the end user goals of one vaccine status app may be completely different than the end user goals of another vaccine status app.

For example, while vaccine passports are incredibly useful for providing proof of vaccination on an individual basis (such as getting through the airport to catch flight to Hawaii), they don’t serve quite the same function as a vaccination tracking application for private employers, which boils down to trying to ensure compliance of mandates and manage large quantities of data collected from hundreds or even thousands of employees. 

With those goals in mind, a vaccination tracking app designed specifically for employers should offer the following features and benefits: 

  • It should be accessible and mobile-friendly. 
  • It should have workflow trigger for handling exemption requests and testing for unvaccinated people. 
  • It should be simple to pull vaccination and testing data to prove compliance to regulatory bodies. 
  • It should be flexible to scale with your organization as policies shift or expand.
  • It should be ready for rapid deployment in order to meet mandate deadlines. 

5. Rolling out a vaccine tracking solution to client companies

When it comes to choosing a vaccine tracking solution, PEOs have an even more complicated task than independent employers. Not only must they find a solution that offers all of the features listed above, but they must also be able to roll it out to multiple co-employer clients at a reasonable cost.

BP Logix’s Vaccine Tracker app accomplishes this additional challenge with its multi-tenant model.

Vaccine Verification App (1)

How? It all comes back to how co-employer partnerships work. In order to carry out their responsibilities within the arrangement, PEOs require their customers to provide them with access to employee information and core HR systems. BP Logix's multi-tenant model is able to leverage this technical arrangement for the Vaccine Tracker app to provide PEOs with lower pricing at scale, as well as the following benefits:

  • Partitions between client companies and their data
  • Customizable app configuration per client company
  • Personalized in-app branding

Ready to learn more about our vaccine tracking solution for PEOs?

Schedule your customized demo of BP Logix's Vaccine Tracker app today.

Request a Demo

Topics: vaccine tracking
5 min read

Why You Shouldn't Use Spreadsheets to Track Vaccinations

By Catie Leary on Sep 24, 2021 7:00:00 AM

vaccination-spreadsheets

As more private employers take the necessary steps to comply with state and federal mandates for tracking COVID-19 vaccinations and testing, many of them are seeking out solutions to make the effort as easy as possible.

Spreadsheets are often the first option to come to mind. After all, they are a “free” option and it’s fairly simple to set them up, even if you only have basic Excel experience. Unfortunately, that's where the advantages end.

Let’s take some time to break down exactly why it’s not a great idea to use spreadsheets for tracking vaccinations.

The limitations of spreadsheets

While spreadsheets are not the worst option for smaller employers that are only trying to monitor vaccination and testing for a handful of workers, they fall short for larger employers with 100 or more workers. Under the new OSHA rule, these larger employers are legally required to track vaccination status and testing for unvaccinated employees. This means that they must collect data from hundreds or even thousands of people and maintain records to ensure compliance.

Spreadsheets simply aren’t equipped to tackle that level of complexity or scale. A better option is to roll out a dedicated application that is specifically designed to collect vaccination and testing data, such as the Vaccine Tracker App. Let's dig a bit further into the disadvantages of spreadsheets.

1. Spreadsheets are tedious – for employers and employees alike

Manually collecting data from hundreds or thousands of people and then ensuring that data is entered correctly into a spreadsheet is a nightmare. It’s especially tedious when you consider the unvaccinated testing component of recent mandates, which requires employees to submit new data on a weekly basis and employers to keep records of that data. That's a lot for managers and HR teams to keep up with while also maintaining their regular job responsibilities. It's not too fun on the employee's end either.

Compared to spreadsheets, an application like the Vaccine Tracker provides a more accessible and mobile-friendly user experience for employers and employees alike. By making the tracking process as easy as possible, you can reduce barriers to access and maximize compliance. Applications also help employers reduce the time they spend agonizing over spreadsheet cells through the power of workflow automation and stronger verification features that circumvent the vaccination tracking “honor system."

2. Lack of exception handling

The lack of exception handling is, by far, one of the biggest limitations of using spreadsheets. As mentioned earlier, in addition to tracking vaccination statuses, employers must also have workflows in place for handling exceptions involving unvaccinated people, such as:

  • Enforcing weekly COVID-19 testing and documenting results for compliance purposes.
  • Collecting attestation for medical or religious exemption requests.
  • Escalating contact tracing in the event of positive test results.

If these workflows aren’t automated, employers must devote significant administrative resources to sending out follow-up emails and weekly testing reminders, receiving proof of test results via email or text, manually updating employee data on a weekly basis, and keeping an eye out for instances of non-compliance that must be escalated. Depending on the size of the workforce, that can add up to several hours of work for administrative staff per week.

Exception handling is where vaccination tracking application shines. An application like our Vaccine Tracker handles exceptions with ease. If an employee indicates they are unvaccinated, the system triggers automated workflows and reminder notifications that help keep employees accountable to testing requirements.

3. Reporting and proving compliance is a headache

When tracking vaccinations, collecting the data is only one piece of the pie. Being able to make sense of that data through reports is just as important – especially for workplaces that must submit weekly or monthly reporting to regulators to ensure they are following through with mandates.

For example, when managing weekly testing for unvaccinated personnel, it’s helpful to have reports that tell you who has been tested and not tested that week, as well as see that data broken down by department or worksite. This allows employers to identify problem areas quickly and stay in compliance.

Unfortunately, this is yet another area where spreadsheets stumble. Using spreadsheet data to create reports and dashboards for these purposes can take hours, while a dedicated application takes only minutes.

4. Poor collaborative and integrative capabilities

Many organizations need vaccination data to make decisions, whether it’s deciding if facilities need to close temporarily due to an outbreak or determining if incentives should be offered for vaccinations. These kinds of decisions may require collaboration across different departments or worksites. In some cases, organizations may wish to share public-facing reports of their vaccination and testing data on a dedicated website for all to see.

This level of collaboration and transparency is difficult to achieve with a simple spreadsheet, which is limited in its capability to integrate with other data sources or applications.

For example, K-12 schools may need the ability to integrate with district data. Unfortunately, a spreadsheet isn’t powerful enough to enable pushes and pulls from HR information systems or applications like ClassLink single sign-on.

5. Poor security and data privacy best practices

While the way employers store employee vaccination data is not covered under HIPAA, it’s still important for organizations to treat their employee’s private data with care and respect.

Unfortunately, improper data sharing is not uncommon with spreadsheets. An application designed to help you track vaccinations and testing, on the other hand, will be provide a secure environment (e.g. SOC2 and HECVAT certified) and have the ability to add or remove decision makers and create rules-based permissions.

6. Prone to errors and instability

On top of poor data security, spreadsheets are more prone to human error. It’s easy to input incorrect data, alter or delete data, mess up conditional formatting, or even lose files completely – often without even realizing it. Plus, there’s no independent backups to rely on should disaster strike.

7. Dismal scalability

As vaccination and testing mandates evolve, the way you approach tracking this data must be able to keep up.

Spreadsheets are ill-equipped for adapting to changing requirements, and there are limits to the amount of data you can collect. The flexibility to scale and add new features is why it pays to choose a future-proofed solution at the beginning.

Discover the Vaccine Tracker app.

Discover how easy we make it for employees to confirm COVID-19 vaccination status or test results. Get in touch with the BP Logix team today to schedule a customized demo.

Request a Demo

Topics: vaccine tracking
3 min read

Reduce Employee Anxiety With a Strong Vaccination Policy

By Catie Leary on Sep 17, 2021 11:30:00 AM

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Tracking vaccination status in the workplace helps companies ensure compliance with government mandates, but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee employee confidence.

That’s because the vast majority of vaccination tracking efforts are based on the honor system, which, as the Wall Street Journal explains, is “one in which health information is often given voluntarily, and employees have few ways to be sure their co-workers are following the rules.”

When faced with poor transparency and lax enforcement around vaccination policies, some employees are choosing to join the “Great Resignation” rather than endure the anxiety of returning to in-person worksites under unknown health risk factors. That's why it's becoming more critical than ever for employers to upgrade from the honor system to a more robust and accountable COVID-19 vaccination tracking process.

Let's walk through the vaccination tracking challenges faced by employers before and after the FDA's approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine, and then discuss where to start with building a truly strong workplace vaccination policy.

Vaccine hesitation in uncharted territory

Back when the vaccines were only available under emergency use authorization, it was not a big surprise that employers weren't exactly rushing to impose vaccination and testing mandates.

Even though a August 2021 survey by Mercer revealed that 65% of workers want their employer to mandate vaccinations, few businesses were eager to risk a potential lawsuit or deal with the headache of hiring new workers should unvaccinated employees choose to quit due to medical reasons or political or religious beliefs.

There’s also the matter of the costs required to implement a vaccination and testing program with actual teeth. While it’s quick, easy, and virtually free to establish a “you only have to wear a mask if you’re unvaccinated” policy based on the honor system, it takes significantly more resources to require employees to provide documentation confirming vaccination status or weekly test results. Since there were no governmental vaccination mandates up until recently due to the vaccines’ emergency use authorization status, there wasn’t much to compel employers to expend the necessary resources.

FDA vaccine approval flips the switch

Once the FDA approved the first COVID-19 vaccine, the floodgates opened to vaccination mandates across the United States. At the state level, many governors ordered vaccination and testing for K-12 school employees, and at the federal level, President Biden instituted a new OSHA rule that requires vaccinations or weekly testing for workers at private companies with 100+ employees. Businesses that do not comply could face OSHA fines of up to $14,000 per violation.

What this means is that worries over employee lawsuits have now been replaced by worries over fines and penalties for non-compliance. In addition, companies must grapple with the possibility of not only losing unvaccinated employees – but vaccinated employees, as well.

Backed by the clout of FDA authorization and governmental mandates, many vaccinated employees at in-person worksites are now expecting more from their employer when it comes to fostering a safe working environment. Instead of the honor system, these employees want to see employers offering stronger measures, such as:

  • Disclosure of the number of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated workers at worksites
  • Assurance that employees and visitors forgoing masks have been confirmed as vaccinated
  • Clear processes for enforcing weekly testing of unvaccinated workers
  • Contact tracing infrastructure to handle positive cases

How to build strong, accountable COVID-19 workplace policies and procedures

Workplace COVID-19 policies and procedures should ideally accomplish three key goals:

  • Prevent the spread of disease in the workplace
  • Comply with mandates to avoid fines and penalties
  • Reduce employee anxiety about workplace safety

Of course, even with vaccination mandates on the rise and vaccinated employees feeling more confident in demanding safer pandemic workplace policies, that doesn’t change the resource cost of implementing a robust vaccination and testing program.

When you’re dealing with hundreds or thousands of employees, manually checking paper CDC record cards and enforcing weekly testing of unvaccinated employees is simply not a feasible option. Combine these challenges with tight deadlines for complying with governmental mandates, it quickly becomes clear that automating these procedures as much as possible will be critical.

That’s exactly what BP Logix is helping employers do with the Vaccine Tracker App.

bplogix-vaccine-tracker-healthcare-cms-mandate

This secure, mobile-friendly application enables employees to easily upload proof of their vaccination status or test results, while providing administrators with a reporting dashboard to manage enforcement and access proof of compliance should OSHA come a-knocking.

Ready to strengthen employee confidence in workplace COVID-19 policies?

Get in touch with BP Logix today for a customized demo of the Vaccine Tracker app.

Request a Demo

Topics: vaccine tracking
4 min read

Vaccination Tracking and Testing for Private Employers

By Catie Leary on Sep 13, 2021 8:15:00 AM

private-employer-vaccination

President Biden announced a sweeping federal vaccination plan last week that is making major waves in the private sector. Let’s walk through the details of this new plan and discuss the best way for employers to implement and enforce these new requirements with a vaccination tracking solution.

A summary of Biden’s vaccination plan

As part of Biden's plan, private employers with 100+ employees must ensure everyone in their workforce is either fully vaccinated or require unvaccinated employees to undergo weekly COVID-19 tests. Businesses that do not comply with the requirements may face fines up to $14,000 per violation from OSHA.

In addition to the vaccination mandate for private employers, Biden also expanded the scope of requirements for federal employees and health care workers. Vaccination is now required for all executive branch federal employees, all federal contractors, and all workers at hospitals and other healthcare facilities where Medicare and Medicaid patients are treated. There is no test-out option.

All in all, Biden estimates that his new plan will affect about two-thirds of all workers in the U.S.

The new federal requirements come just a couple weeks after several states announced similar vaccination and testing mandates for K-12 schools, many of which are slated to go into effect mid-October.

How private employers can implement and enforce vaccination mandates

With hefty fines and penalties on the line, employers are now on the hook for developing clear policies and procedures that comply with the mandates, as well as keeping records for compliance purposes.

According to the New York Times, the new OSHA rules would “require employers to keep records of which workers are vaccinated and which have recently been tested, [and] the agency could ask inspectors following up on unrelated concerns to check records for compliance with the vaccination rule.”

What's the best way for employers to implement and enforce these mandates to ensure optimal compliance – especially when they’re responsible for tracking hundreds or even thousands of employee vaccination records? Certainly not a spreadsheet. Employers need to be looking for an application that can automate the entire process for them.

Where to start? Here are seven critical questions to ask when researching applications for tracking employee vaccinations and testing.

1. How quickly must you roll out your tracking plan?

With looming compliance deadlines and the threat of fines, it’s important for organizations to find a solution that can be implemented quickly. A custom solution built from scratch by an in-house IT team or your company’s outsourced development vendor is unlikely to be ready in a span of just a few weeks. It’s more efficient to find an existing application, like the BP Logix Vaccine Tracker app, which can be deployed rapidly while remaining flexible enough to customize to a company’s unique needs.

2. Is your solution accessible and easy for employees to use?

When you’re trying to collect the vaccination statuses of hundreds or thousands of employees, the most effective solution is the one that is the easiest for everyone to use. Accessibility is key. A vaccination tracking app must be mobile-friendly so employees can use it whether they are on a smart phone, tablet, or desktop. Likewise, workflows must be logical and easy for users to navigate through.

3. How will you handle unvaccinated employees?

While vaccination rates continue to climb, there are still many people who are not vaccinated. Depending on your workplace’s policies, you will likely need to have automated workflows set up for handling exceptions, whether it’s gathering materials for medical or religious vaccine exemption requests or setting up a workflow that allows employees to share recent test results.

4. How will weekly testing for unvaccinated employees be enforced?

For many companies, employees that decline full vaccination will need to be tested for COVID-19 every single week. For compliance purposes, employers will need to cover all of their bases by making sure this data is collected every week. Manually collecting this information just isn’t feasible, but an automated system can keep everyone accountable by sending employees regular testing reminders, alerting managers to non-compliance, and triggering additional workflows in the event of a positive test results.

5. How will you sync data with existing HR systems?

Any good vaccination tracking solution should be able to easily integrate with an organization’s existing data sources, whether it’s a human resources information system, an enterprise resource planning system, or a student information system.

6. What is your plan for proving compliance?

Because OSHA is requiring employers keep records of employee vaccination and testing, one of the most important components to look for in a vaccine tracking app is a management dashboard that allows you to easily pull reports for your organization’s vaccination rates and testing history.

7. Will you be able to adapt to changing requirements?

The final thing to consider when researching solutions for tracking vaccination status is flexibility and scalability. If there is one thing we’ve all learned during this pandemic, it’s that things move fast. The application you choose must be able to evolve along with changing policies and current events. Not only does this help your organization respond quickly to new developments, but it can also help you avoid technical debt in the future.

Our solution? The Vaccine Tracker app

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The Vaccine Tracker app is a flexible, mobile-friendly solution that enables employees to securely share proof of their vaccination status with their employer. For employees that are not fully vaccinated, the app can automatically handle exceptions by triggering workflows for weekly diagnostic testing, medical/religious exemption requests, and other escalation tasks.

Built using BP Logix’s powerful low-code platform called Process Director, the Vaccine Tracker app is endlessly customizable and easily scaled. In fact, while the app was originally designed for use at K-12 and higher educational institutions, the Vaccine Tracker app can be customized to suit the specific needs of any number of workplaces, including manufacturing plants, government facilities, retail establishments, private offices, and more.

Ready to automate vaccination tracking at your workplace?

Get in touch with BP Logix to learn more about our Vaccine Tracker app.

Get Started

Topics: vaccine tracking
2 min read

Checklist for Tracking School Employee Vaccination Status

By Catie Leary on Sep 2, 2021 6:58:10 PM

Here's our checklist of everything a K-12 school administrator must consider when researching automation solutions for tracking employee vaccination status. 

K12-vax-status

With students and teachers resuming in-person learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, many K-12 school leaders are scrambling to identify the most effective solutions for complying with new vaccination and testing policies mandated at the state, local, or institution levels.

Like most things impacted by the pandemic, this is uncharted territory for everyone. However, one thing is clear: If you’re trying to quickly and securely track the vaccination statuses or weekly test results of hundreds or even thousands of people, a rudimentary spreadsheet just won’t do. Schools must be able to collect data efficiently, sync with existing IT systems, report data for compliance purposes, and be prepared to adapt quickly to ever-changing policy requirements.

So, how do school leaders pick the best solution for the job? How can they achieve compliance with budgetary constraints, limited IT resources, and aggressive timelines?

Vaccine Tracker AppAt BP Logix, we’ve spent the last year working closely with higher education institutions and K-12 schools on developing a vaccination tracking app customized for their unique needs. Through this experience, we've put together a checklist of everything school leaders need to keep an eye out for when evaluating applications for tracking COVID-19 vaccination status, test results, and contact tracing.

To ensure your district is prepared for these evolving requirements, look for solutions with the following capabilities. 

Download as printable PDF

Key capabilities

  • Ability for users to upload vaccine cards proving vaccination status
  • Integration with district data (push/pull from HR, Student Information Systems, ClassLink)
  • Flexibility to scale and adapt to changing requirements as mandates evolve
  • Exception handling for unvaccinated individuals, including workflows for diagnostic testing and religious/medical exemptions with attestation
  • Contact tracing workflow triggers for COVID-19 positive test results
  • Automated alerts and notifications for reminders and non-compliance

User experience and accessibility

  • Intuitive and mobile-friendly user experience
  • Single Sign On enabled (SAML integration)
  • Accessible for users with disabilities (VPAT)
  • Institutional branding

Compliance

  • Secure environment (HECVAT, SOC2)
  • Data privacy

Implementation

  • Speedy deployment to meet mandate timelines
  • Cost effective
  • Ability to easily customize to your unique needs

Management

  • Reporting dashboards
  • Visibility/ Escalations handling
  • Administration (add/remove decision makers, rules based permissions, etc.)

Get the Vaccine Tracker app today.

Make it easy for employees to confirm COVID-19 vaccination status or test results. Get in touch with the BP Logix team today to learn more or schedule a customized demo.

Request a Demo

Topics: vaccine tracking
10 min read

Solving the Vaccination Tracking Conundrum for K-12 Schools

By Catie Leary on Aug 27, 2021 7:15:00 AM

Vaccine verification conundrum

With “back to school” season in full swing and the recent FDA approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Aug. 23, several states around the country have announced vaccination mandates for K-12 school systems. 

“We think this is the right thing to do and we think this is a sustainable way to keeping our schools open and to address the number one anxiety that parents like myself have for young children,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said earlier this month while announcing California’s new K-12 vaccine and testing mandate.

The vaccination mandates for schools are a bold step aimed at reducing the spread of the highly contagious delta variant, but logistical questions remain – how will the vaccine tracking process actually work?  

In this article, we break down current statewide vaccination and testing mandates for K-12 schools and explain how BP Logix’s new Vaccine Tracker app can help school officials implement and ensure compliance of these new mandates. 

COVID-19 vaccine requirements for K-12 schools by state 

Information last updated August 27, 2021. 

  • California: All workers at public and private K-12 schools must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15 or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing. 
  • Connecticut: All workers in public and private preschools, K-12 schools, and childcare facilities must receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 27 or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing. 
  • Illinois: Teachers and staff at public preschool and K-12 schools as well as personnel and students at public colleges and universities must provide proof of vaccination by Sept. 5 or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.
  • New Jersey: Workers at public and private preschool programs and K-12 schools in New Jersey must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing. 
  • New Mexico: All workers at public and private schools must be fully vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing effective Aug. 23. 
  • Oregon: All teachers, educators, support staff, and volunteers at K-12 schools in Oregon must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18. 
  • Washington: All employees and contractors at public and private K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and childcare/early learning providers serving children from multiple households must be fully vaccinated or obtain a religious or medical exemption by Oct. 18. There is no test-out option. 

The challenge for schools? Vaccine tracking logistics 

Faced with these new requirements, school administrators are now tasked with finding and implementing a solution for verifying the vaccination status of employees in time to meet their state’s deadlines. 

Manually checking paper CDC record cards is not a feasible option when you’re dealing with thousands of people, which is why finding a way to automate this process is critical. 

Thankfully, K-12 schools seeking a solution can look to their higher education counterparts, who are already one step ahead in their search for a solution. In April, California’s massive UC and Cal State university systems announced plans to require COVID-19 vaccinations for all students, faculty, and staff upon official FDA approval of the vaccines. At the time, the three COVID-19 vaccines were only available under emergency use authorization, but that didn’t stopped universities from thinking pro-actively about technical solutions for eventually verifying vaccination status. 

Tracking vaccinations with an app 

In response to requests from our higher education customers, the team at BP Logix developed the Vaccine Tracker app to allow school administrators to simplify and automate the vaccination status tracking process for their employees and students. 

With our app, school employees can easily and securely provide proof of their vaccination status, while administrators can manage enforcement and comply with mandates. 

 

There are several reasons why educational institutions are turning to BP Logix’s Vaccine Tracker app. 

1. Rapid deployment

Faced with looming compliance deadlines, schools subject to statewide mandates must move quickly to establish and roll out a process for verifying COVID-19 vaccination status for their teachers and staff. The Vaccine Verification app can be customized and deployed in as a little as a few weeks. 

2. Mobile-friendly and accessible

The trick to successfully verifying the vaccination records of thousands of people? Make it as easy and accessible as humanly possible. Vaccine Verification is a web-based app that streamlines the verification process for employees with a simple, intuitive form. It can be used on any device – from desktops to tablets and phones. 

3. Simple system integration

One of the best parts about Vaccine Verification is that it easily integrates with your existing campus data sources, whether it’s a student information system (SIS), a human resources information system (HRIS), or an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. By linking up the app with your key systems of record, you can effortlessly authenticate users and streamline their user experience. 

4. Compliance verification and exception handling

Vaccine Verification can do more than just verify vaccination information from immunized individuals. It can also handle exceptions for users that indicate they have not been vaccinated. You can pose additional questions or collect additional information required for your school to remain compliant with mandates. 

5. Management reporting dashboards

The administrator view of the app offers a robust, customizable dashboard with a bird’s eye view of your school’s vaccination data, as well as actionable reporting, data drilldowns, and always-on audit tracking. 

6. Customizable, flexible, scalable

The reality of living in a pandemic means that things change very quickly. While the COVID-19 vaccines are not yet authorized for children under 12 years old, that could change in a matter of months. Will schools have a plan ready should the K-12 vaccination mandate be extended include all children? That’s just one example of why it’s critical to choose solutions that can keep up with your changing needs and help you avoid technical debt. 

Built using a powerful low-code platform called Process Director, the Vaccine Verification app is endlessly customizable and easily scaled. In fact, while the app was originally designed for use at educational institutions, the Vaccine Verification app can be customized to suit the specific needs of any number of workplaces. 

Want to take our Vaccine Tracker for a spin?
Sign up for a 14-day demo. 

Automate vaccine tracking and other critical campus processes 

As a process automation partner to many higher education institutions across the country, BP Logix is well-versed in helping schools build solutions that automate their most complex or unique processes. In fact, our vaccine tracking app is just one component of a larger suite of apps geared to educational institutions. 


Ready to transform and scale your school with BP Logix? 

Book a Discovery Call

Topics: vaccine tracking
3 min read

10 Reasons Why Workflow Is Important For Your Business

By Girish Pashilkar on Jul 30, 2021 8:06:00 AM

The importance of workflow in business

During the course of our relationship with customers, there is usually a point that constitutes the "a-ha" moment. It is at that time they realize the importance of workflow in standing up an automation initiative.  While few dispute the need for workflow, it usually requires seeing workflow ‘in action’ (and understanding the resulting benefits) before people recognize that workflow is important and is more than just a tool for process efficiency.

Developing your workflow is important but it has challenges; it’s like planning the world's largest reception and taking into consideration every plate, glass, napkin, hors d’oeuvres, beverage and the hundreds of other details that must be coordinated beforehand. Planning the reception mandates viewing the event holistically yet acting with singular precision. 

Workflows operate in a similar way. They create a foundation on top of which business activity can happen more efficiently. The result is the ability to view, operate, manage, analyze and improve your business in dramatic ways.

Knowing the importance of workflow is one thing, but having a sense for what an effective workflow software solution is — and what it can do — is the next step.

workflow-map-purple

The following list may be helpful in better understanding the importance of workflow and specific areas that business process automation software offers tangible workflow-related benefits to organizations:

1. Paper trail is replaced by a digital trail

We have talked with people who manage warehouses full of files. The result is a morass of paper, cabinets, lost or misplaced documents — and stress. Workflow software keeps digital copies of files, automates the routing of tasks, alerts those who need to take action, and keeps a record of everything relevant to the process.

2. Eliminate redundancy

So much activity in an organization is duplicative (or, worst, wasteful.) A workflow software solution helps to identify up-front the critical points of activity, enabling you to define specific actions, participants and results that should occur.

3. No stopping for signatures

Electronic signature technology on eForms allows for fast approvals (including executives on the go) and the reduction in time lost as a result of waiting for paper-based signatures.

4. A better understanding of how time relates to action

Business activities are deadlines driven. Effective workflow solutions provide triggers that keep processes moving according to a timeline, enabling participants to see precisely when and where input is required.

5. Greater insights

Your business processes are meant to deliver results. You should know what is happening within your operation at any point in time. Workflow is important because it gives you regular insights into what is occurring within your processes, the people involved, and a sense for how effectively your organization meet its deadlines.

6. Automation focuses on activities

A workflow engine that has the ability to create automated workflows allows you to set up processes, then let them run. The majority of work that occurs within processes can be automated, freeing up time and allowing you and your team to focus on more strategic activities.

7. Accentuates the positives

Workflow is important because it's an excellent tool for assigning tasks to people based on their strengths and skill sets. By giving people the most appropriate tasks, you can improve productivity and keep employees more engaged.

8. Workflow is important because it never forgets

Every activity in digital workflow is tracked. Whether you need information for compliance purposes or to review how your organization operates, the ability to quickly see the ‘who, what, where and how’ of your processes provides important insights.

9. The business runs the business

Workflow used to be the domain of people who walked around buildings with plastic flowchart tools; it was a fairly specific function. Now, there are workflow solutions with rapid application development software capabilities that enable and encourage non-developers to build, adapt and manage workflows. Business managers know the importance of workflow and how it has become an important tool for themselves, ensuring that the requirements of the business are not at the mercy or interpretation from IT.

10. Encourages collaboration

Whether through more access points (mobile, Internet of Things), communication channels (social media), or platform (on-premise, cloud, hybrid), a solid workflow solution gives everyone involved with your processes—both inside and outside of your firewall—the appropriate level of access along with the BPM tools to make a difference.

Have more questions about implementing strong workflows in your business? Contact BP Logix today.

Topics: workflow
3 min read

Getting Out of Technical Debt in Higher Education

By Andrew Kelly on Jun 24, 2021 12:41:25 PM

Getting out of technical debt in higher education

 

IT departments in colleges and universities haven't always faced the same level of pressure as businesses to keep up with the latest technology. But those expectations have rapidly changed as providing a modern student and faculty experience has become a key objective for many institutions. As time passes and systems continue to fall behind, it becomes more difficult to catch up, as entrenched systems become more difficult and costly to update or replace. 

The pandemic has stressed schools’ IT resources, as remote access has become more important than ever, adding to the pressure. Schools with outdated systems have been left in a critical situation.

Why higher education institutions have trouble keeping up

The gap between how an organization's systems are running, and where they should
be, is called "technical debt." Every organization that maintains software deals with the
issue. As with regular debt, the more an organization has, the more impossible it seems
to get out of it. Just maintaining existing systems becomes harder.

Traditional large-scale systems, like Student Information Systems or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), are massive systems with thousands of manual processes and traditional customizations that run the risk of becoming stale and outdated. Cut off from innovation, lacking automated governance, these systems have become a burden on every department with their ever increasing requirements for effort and ongoing customizations. This presents a huge barrier to innovation and introduces serious risk into any organization. It gets worse with time like quicksand, when organizations are reliant on legacy systems that get more and more outdated but are extremely difficult to move off of.

As the number and complexity of solutions grow, their usage can become siloed, and users who should be able to benefit from things like cross-departmental applications often get increasingly further away from the data and processes they need. This not only creates a poor return on technology investment, but it also kills efficiency efforts and prevents businesses from moving rapidly to deliver solutions. 

Overcoming the technical debt challenge

How can educational institutions overcome these challenges and bring technical debt
down? It's an ongoing effort where several steps are necessary

  • Awareness of the issue. In the absence of a commitment to keep up, it's easy
    not to think about the need for improvement. Academic IT operations need to
    review what they have and how well it serves the students and faculty. Top
    administrators need to keep this in mind and devote budgets to modernization.
  • A school-wide commitment to keeping up. Fragmentation of services makes it
    hard for any office to catch up on its own. Resource sharing and elimination of
    redundancy are key steps.
  • Pooling of knowledge. When departments and offices don't communicate, they
    don't get the benefit of each other's knowledge, and they often create redundant
    solutions to the same problem, or purchase off the shelf applications that don't integrate with the rest of the ecosystem.
  • Appetite for innovation. IT operations can get so wrapped up in the old methods that they aren't aware of the advantages new software and tools offer. They need to commit part of their effort to discovering what's available to help them modernize. Low-code software like BP Logix' Process Director is a great example of a modern solution that can solve many of Technical Debt's problems.


Automating educational operations

Institutions of higher education need to make the best use of limited resources. Systems
that require little or no custom coding help accomplish this. BP Logix Process Director,
Higher Education Edition, is designed to help educational institutions simplify their
business processes. They can reduce the use of paper forms and simplify workflow
designs. Developers can define rules to ensure that processes comply with campus
policies. Process Director's low-code approach lets non-programmers do much of the
work.

Overcoming technical debt isn't easy, but with committed support, the modernization of
campus IT resources is within reach.

Topics: higher education
3 min read

Automating the Approval Process in Biotech and Pharma

By BP Logix on May 25, 2021 3:43:04 PM

Download the Process Director for Life Science Product Fact SheetHeavily regulated industries inherently have a lot of rules. The biotech and pharmaceutical industries are no exception. Adhering to complex regulations requires significant amounts of administrative work to ensure that the proper directives are being followed. Extensive regulations also present significant risks of hefty fines for noncompliance. Failed clinical trials also present a significant risk to pharmaceutical companies and can cost billions a year. 

Getting a new drug to market involves an infinite number of variables, many of which influence who needs to sign off on content development and research projects. This leads to a very complex process that, if done manually, can be very inefficient.

While eliminating steps in the approval process can lead to losses, waiting for approvals that delay a new product’s launch can be equally costly. Streamlining the approval process improves time to market while reducing risks. An effective business process automation strategy is key to a much more efficient approach.  

Research concept approval

The process of getting a clinical trial approved and budgeted often requires the collection and organization of significant amounts of data. Researchers must submit information on the type of study, the objective of the study, the subject of the study, and use case descriptions. This data needs to be accurately and completely documented for researchers to have any chance of obtaining the resources to move forward. Automating this process with digital forms that enforce requirements can ensure all the necessary application data is present, mitigating the risk of delays or bad clinical studies moving forward. 

Once the data is collected, the proposal needs to be vetted and approved. Who needs to approve the project and in what order is often driven by several variables. Whether a project is studying a molecule or a device may dictate whether legal, medical, or regulatory experts need to approve it. Significant efficiencies can be realized by incorporating these rules into an automation system that defines the approval path.

Pharma Content Approval Processes

Once research is completed or drugs are ready for the market, the process of disseminating information and data on these advancements requires significant scrutiny. 

Scientific Publication Review

Once new findings from research studies are ready for publication, an extensive review process is initiated. Reviewers may include third-party experts and professionals with diverse backgrounds. The appropriate protocol depends on the type of product being studied, the country or region the data is being published, or the type of data being presented. For example, some products may require review by a minimum number of statisticians or lawyers. Finding the right resources and routing the document efficiently to each expert for their review is a complex process that can easily be held up or delayed. Automating the routing process based on these variables can eliminate the manual process of designing workflows for each individual project. 

Marketing Content Review

Publishing marketing content also requires multiple levels of approval before it can be made available to the general public. But, marketing content comes with an additional level of complexity and risk. 

Marketing content can be delivered through a variety of channels and in different forms, leading to a much more complex approval process. Video is created for TV or the internet, web copy and brochures also need to be created to publicize the benefits of a new drug or device. Content can also be developed for different markets that speak different languages. All this content is required to go through a specific approval process and each of these variables dictates the appropriate path. 

Managing the approval process through multiple levels including legal, medical, marketing, and patent review slows the process of getting products to market. But, it is vital marketers get this approval process right. Ineffective management of the process can lead to misleading messaging reaching the public resulting in significant penalties. For example, publishing content that overemphasizes the benefits of a new product that is not balanced with acknowledgments of side effects and risk factors can result in hefty fines. In 2012 GlaxoSmithKline was fined $3 billion and Abbott paid $1.6 billion for miscommunicating information in direct to consumer advertising

Automation

Automating the approval process provides many benefits. Rules and variables can be used to automatically route content to the appropriate reviewer. By digitizing and automating the process, sophisticated systems can not only ensure content is signed off on by the appropriate authorities but can also calculate the most efficient route to final approval. For even greater efficiency, leading platforms can also create parallel paths so reviews can happen simultaneously on a single document. 

Time to market is a competitive differentiator in the pharma space but shortcuts can be costly. A solid automation strategy can streamline the approval process, reducing risk and increasing competitiveness.

Topics: publication planning publication management
3 min read

Improving collaboration workflows for drug approval

By BP Logix on May 11, 2021 11:22:37 AM

Time to market has a significant impact on profits, particularly in the ultra-competitive life science and pharmaceutical industries. Delays in bringing products to market can lead to deferred or missed revenues. But, the heavily regulated drug approval process requires a variety of inputs and approvals to validate each step of the process, extending the development period. While there are many hurdles to clear, skipping any of these steps can expose operations up to compliance risks. 

Pharmaceutical firms with well-tuned automation strategies that enable professionals to easily collaborate around the drug approval process will be better positioned to capitalize on market opportunities. Improving how teams are built and creating workflows that move documents and data quickly through the process are two areas that can be streamlined with smart automation.

Vetting resources

Each stage of the drug approval process, from research to publications to marketing copy, requires input from a variety of professionals. Statisticians, physicians, chemists, pharmacologists, and copywriters all must contribute, approve and validate content and data as it moves through the pipeline. In many cases, these experts are third parties that must be properly vetted to ensure that they are in good standing in their field. Working with experts that have been excluded or disbarred can jeopardize the process. This task of researching and documenting contractors’ status can be very manual and slow. 

Automating this collection of data and documentation of certifications can lead to significant time savings. Executing consulting agreements with contractors is another important part of the process which, if skipped, can lead to legal issues down the road. An automation platform that enforces rules to properly vet and engage third parties is a smart way to reduce risk. 

Automating approval workflows

Once resources are procured and vetted, managing and coordinating how collaborators work together is key to streamlining the approval process. Whether it is an approval of a research publication or a study protocol review, approvals need to be routed to the appropriate people at the right stage of the process. Appropriate controls and constraints also need to be in place and enforced. For example, a minimum number of people may need to review and approve a document. Automated workflows can be built to ensure that documents don’t move forward without the required number of experts signing off on content. Rules within the workflow can also force users to record key data points that may be critical in the event of an audit. 

With so many different professionals required to complete so many tasks, workflows can get complicated, especially at large firms running a high volume of projects. These approval workflows can be unique to every company, clinical study, research publication, or marketing copy. Over the years, organizations have learned what works and what doesn’t within their operation based on corporate culture, markets, products, resources, and risk tolerance. In some cases, this institutional knowledge lives in the heads of more experienced professionals and is applied manually to define the path that each project takes through the approval process.

Instead of reinventing the wheel or mapping workflows for each individual project, significant efficiencies can be gained by standardizing and automating the process. By implementing a platform where rules and steps can be standardized, workflows can automatically be created based on the types of products in the pipeline or available resources. This not only significantly increases efficiency but also documents institutional knowledge. 

Workflow platforms can also provide greater visibility of the entire process to identify bottlenecks and enable changes to the workflow before the process stalls. Incorporating rules and analytics into your workflow automation also allows the system to identify critical paths so professionals can work in parallel, leading to greater velocity. By automating the administration of the approval process, products can get to market faster and at a lower cost.

Low-Code vs. Build vs. Buy

By implementing a low-code solution, pharmaceutical companies can create systems that adapt to their unique processes instead of adjusting processes to an off-the-shelf generic software package. Low-code BPA options are also much less disruptive, quicker, and less expensive than building a solution from scratch. 

The rush to digital transformation and automation is redefining how businesses operate. The velocity of change will only accelerate. Streamlining administrative tasks that hinder the drug delivery process will lead to better corporate performance.

2 min read

University Vaccine Tracking - the New Higher Ed Requirement?

By BP Logix on Apr 23, 2021 12:25:23 PM

shutterstock_1827506501

A recent Los Angeles Times post announced that UC and Cal State Systems are among the first state university systems to implement plans to require COVID-19 vaccines for students who want to take classes in person this fall. How will universities keep track of student inoculations? At BP Logix, we have developed an application for university vaccine tracking, in anticipation of what is proving to be a trend in higher ed nationwide.  You can sign up to get a 14 Day demo of our Vaccine Tracker here

How many universities will require vaccination?

Rutgers and Cornell were the first to announce the requirement weeks ago. Brown in Rhode Island, Northeastern in Boston, Nova Southeastern University in Florida, and Fort Lewis College in Colorado have announced they plan to require vaccines this fall as well. Add the UC and Cal systems and it's clear that the dominos are falling. 

Though there could be some legal issues with making vaccination a requirement for university attendance, a USA Today post reported that most parents seemed likely to be in favor of required vaccinations if the condition would allow the return of the traditional college experience. That sentiment was shared by students at Boston University, which just released their plan to require vaccination.

Private universities, which normally have more autonomy over student choices, and which, in some cases already required some types of vaccinations before the pandemic, are more likely to be able to adopt the requirement without legal challenges. 

An expert in both university life and law offered the following perspective in the above-cited USA Today article.

Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, a professor at the University of California, Hastings College of Law who studies vaccine law, said, "even before the pandemic it was normal to see variation in universities' vaccine requirements. More universities may also make decisions after they see their peers act."

If many universities adopt mandatory vaccinations as predicted, a vaccine tracker will need to be readily available.  

Vaccine tracking will become a priority - is your university ready?

Current conditions make it seem the pressure is on universities to require students to get vaccinated. Although vaccinations will lessen worries about spreading the virus, the new challenge of implementing a vaccine tracker will arise.

How can universities keep track of student vaccinations? How difficult is it to set up vaccine tracking programs or applications? In response to inquiries by our Higher Ed customers, BP Logix is debuting a Vaccine Verification Application that is now available for purchase.  

Our long-term focus on higher education helped us prepare a vaccine tracker solution

Our experience with our higher ed customers gives us great insight into which processes within higher education have the greatest demand for automation. Our library of higher education Apps has been built based on our highest used and requested processes from our customers. This background was instrumental in our development of the university vaccine tracking application for higher education which is available today.

Learn how higher ed is using process automation to transform and scale. Check out BP Logix low-code platform for higher education at the link here.     

Topics: vaccine tracking
5 min read

How Low-Code Automation can help Pharma Evolve - 5 Key Imperatives

By Girish Pashilkar on Apr 15, 2021 2:48:09 PM

The average cost of developing a drug is $2.6 Billion and rising, with a 12% success rate1.  As pharma companies look to 2021 and beyond, the Medical Affairs, Commercial and Regulatory affairs teams will be collaborating more closely amongst themselves and with third parties to accelerate new product launches while navigating burgeoning compliance requirements.  What role can technology play?  In this blogpost we explore how low-code software platforms can enable a competitive advantage learning from the experience of one of the largest Pharmaceutical companies in the world.  

 EOS Slides (1)

5 key Imperatives for Pharma

Agility: Pharma leaders are increasingly turning to the concept of agility to help them navigate a volatile, uncertain and complex external environment2.  COVID 19 has challenged the sector to explore innovative ways to produce new drugs faster and cheaper.  Pharma leverages “Agile” practices from the Tech industry to do more rapid prototyping of new drug concepts and “fail fast” to get to the finish line quicker with the right candidates.  With a low-code platform, companies can quickly put in place automated workflows to approve new concepts and tailor the priorities as more information becomes available. 

Transparency:  As Pharma aspires to move new drugs faster through their development pipelines, they must also recognize the greater demand for transparent data, policies and operations.  Regulations change depending on product categories, delivery mechanisms and legal jurisdictions.  For example, when preparing to publish in peer review journals, rigorous debarment checks and review of authorship agreements are essential.  Furthermore, regulatory requirements are constantly changing.  It is important to select an automation platform that can handle the complexity of Pharma while also providing the necessary audit tracking. 

Collaboration: Expiring patents and a tight regulatory environment are just some of the issues that are hoped to be resolved through forming partnerships across the industry, academia and even with competitors.  There is also need for greater collaboration between public and private sectors so that we can combine capabilities and experiences.  For example, the launch and distribution of the COVID 19 vaccine saw collaboration between, J&J and Merck, Oxford and Astra Zeneca and Pfizer and BioNTech.  Geographically dispersed teams both within and outside of an organization can work together using tools such as Collaborative Document Authoring and Management.  It is important that data privacy, version and audit tracking ensure the integrity of any work products of such a collaboration. Learn more about our compliance capabilities here

Patient Outreach: Patients are emerging as an important decision maker in healthcare.   Medical Affairs must develop a deep understanding of patients’ needs that encompass the patient insights from different healthcare stakeholders.  This will require a more flexible engagement model that utilizes multiple channels including mobile and social media.  Does your automation provide you the capability to have compliant communications across multiple channels?  

Cost Containment: US healthcare costs increased from 5% of GDP in 1960 to 18% in 2018. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) project that by 2028, such costs will climb to $6.2 trillion, or about 20 % of GDP. How does your choice of a workflow automation platform help you maintain a consistent focus on optimizing medical value across the product lifecycle?  Does your platform provide you better visibility into your process bottlenecks in a real time fashion?  Do you have a spaghetti of multiple applications adding to your cost of managing processes?  Can you consolidate some of these applications and invest the savings in areas that help you make your processes more agile and compliant? 

 Click here to learn how a Low-Code Platform can help you gain the competitive edge in Pharma.   

3 min read

Better Student Engagement through Automation - Webinar Recap

By BP Logix on Mar 31, 2021 11:53:51 AM

In our recent webinar on how automation can drive better student engagement, a strong dialogue between Charles Araujo from Intellyx, the digital transformation experts, and John Rezendes, Director of IS Operations from Cal State Stanislaus uncovered great insights into how Higher Ed institutions are leveraging technology to improve the student experience.

Experiential Trends and the Impact on Student Engagement

To frame the conversation, Charles discussed the evolution of the experience economy and how that has shifted business models to focus on delivering a better customer experience as a new form of value. In the new experience economy, businesses must continually reinvent themselves to deliver on evolving customer expectations. This evolution of customer, and in this case, student experience expectations, has changed the landscape of how we deliver educational services to students, and has accelerated due to the changes brought on by Covid-19.

Covid-19 as the Instigator for Student Experience Evolution

John Rezendes is living in the center of this evolution, and has embraced the opportunity for change. Taking advantage of a multi-campus pilot that Cal State Schools kicked off in 2019, John partnered with BP Logix to start automating processes that were too time consuming for his homegrown platform and too complex for simple automation tools.

Like many Universities, a mandate to optimize for better student experience was a primary driver in the shift of the IT team from a focus purely on back-office process optimization and infrastructure to student facing departments and processes. With the perfect storm of this mandate for change and a pandemic, John and his team took up the mantle of transforming the enrollment experience with the help of his partnership with BP Logix. Hear John in his own words at the video below.

How Automation Initiatives Can Drive Better Student Experience 

The initial focus in improving the enrollment experience lead John’s team to prioritize the Course Change process as an early win. Prior to their automation initiative, students were filling out paper forms and hand delivering them across the university for signature. With their new initiative, a dynamic process was set up on the BP Logix platform to grab course enrollment data from their SIS, and make sure that a student’s course selection and available options were auto-populated, that the form was then electronically routed to the right departments for approval, and the whole process was tracked and visible by both enrollment services and the student. “Now, we can keep everybody in the loop, we can let everybody know where it is in the process, who’s done what with it…these things can take minutes as opposed to days,” said John.


One of the biggest takeaways from the conversation came in a discussion around lessons learned. John discussed the importance of breaking both cross-functional and technology silos, and specifically the role that data integration has in elevating the student experience. "There has to be a way to get data from one system to another, and the processes behind that to make sure data is tracked and handled properly." Their ability to move data from SQL Databases on premises into the cloud, and back into Sharepoint is a big part of the value that the BP Logix platform gives his team in how they’re able to improve the ease of use of their student facing processes and thus the student experience. Added John, “It’s the glue to what we do.”

You can watch the webinar in it’s entirety at the link below.

Watch the Webinar

 

2 min read

10 Steps to Engaging End Users for Successful Automation

By BP Logix on Mar 16, 2021 7:27:39 AM

Let’s face it, organizational change is difficult. Business leaders who can take an innovative idea and push it forward to adoption within their organizations are hard to find, and they are often rewarded when successful.

 

When undergoing a new automation initiative, choosing the right technology partner is important, but engaging end users and preparing stakeholders to adopt a change mindset is of equal importance. Here are 10 steps for making your Automation initiative a success. 

  • Choose the right process - Collaborate with end users to choose the right process. Initially, choose a process with high impact but low complexity that you can roll out quickly and will generate excitement for end users.
     
  • Analyze Stakeholders – Research and identify ALL the stakeholders who will touch, or are touched by the process, including users, managers, and administrators.

  • Communicate! -User buy-in is incredibly important, so discuss the benefits of automation with users, and explain how it will make their job easier.

  • Gather Requirements - Document both the inputs and outputs of the process as well as any pain points, with the context provided by your stakeholder interviews. 
  • Map out the current process and define requirements –Sketch out the process from beginning to end, considering the view from the end user’s perspective, and try to implement new efficiencies. 
  • Build iterativelyRegularly check-in with stakeholders to get feedback on progress and take note of any evolving requirements. 

  • Train end users –Explain to users how to use the new system and to run the process, so they are comfortable with using it.

  • Documentation - Create a process guidebook. Good documentation of the process and how to use it is the key to enabling your users to do self-serve troubleshooting. 

  • Test and tweak -Ensure that Stakeholders test the process and that process designers make tweaks based on the feedback.

  • Roll out to production and monitor the system closely – Have needs been met? Is everything running smoothly? Watch for ways to further improve the process as it runs.

    Interested in learning more about how to successfully launch a business process automation initiative?  We're ready to talk.

Schedule Your Demo Today!

 

Topics: business process automation
4 min read

Digital Transformation in Higher Education - The 3 Step Process

By BP Logix on Mar 10, 2021 7:57:11 AM

The pandemic has spurred the digitization of processes within every industry, but it hit institutions of higher education harder than most. Digital transformation (Dx) is essential, not only to provide services safely today, but to keep up with evolving student expectations. Higher education leadership needs to tackle key questions like . . . “How do I build a more connected student experience? How can I get faculty and staff on board and enthusiastic about digital transformation of their departments? How can digital transformation simplify processes for students?"

 

Defining Digital Transformation as it Applies to Higher Education

EDUCAUSE provides us with a great definition – “Digital transformation is a series of deep and coordinated culture, workforce, and technology shifts that enable new educational and operating models and transform an institution's business model, strategic directions, and value proposition.”

 

An Evolving, 3-Step Process

Step 1 - Digitization

Student facing forms, applications and other documents that used to be distributed in paper form via the sneaker net are now stored and completed online. Records and reports are ideally stored on the cloud and can be accessed from anywhere. Digitization has occurred gradually over recent decades, but paper forms still exist on campuses across the country, despite the challenges with COVID-19.

Step 2 - Digitalization

The process of digitalization is the collective utilization of technology for specific operational purposes, like research, administration functions, payroll, procurement, or online delivery of courses. Many of our customers have undergone digitalization of their departments, which offers encouraging green shoots of progress. The difference between digitalization and the final step: digital transformation is that Dx demands a coordinated effort to efficiently implement digitization for every practical purpose throughout the organization. 

Step 3 - Digital Transformation

This concept might be described as a global movement within and throughout an organization. A movement to transform the workforce's attitude, the company's culture, an effort to coordinate every department.  To steer, in this case, an entire educational institution's digitalization efforts in a strategic direction to increase value and deliver a better experience across the student journey from recruitment to graduation. This takes organizational willpower, strong leadership, and an increased level of cross-departmental coordination. 

Digital transformation can be a daunting task for leadership and IT teams, a time-consuming effort at reprogramming, of continuing support as staff members strive to fully understand their role in adapting to and driving change. It must be more than a task for the IT team if it's truly going to be successful, though IT has a strategic position as both a driver and implementer. Ultimately, institutional leadership must sponsor an organization-wide mandate. Organizational silos must be busted to deliver lasting change.

A global solution for a movement encompassing every department

By investing in a platform built for driving digital transformation in Higher Ed, designed for the needs of a higher education institution, implementation can be accomplished without extensive IT resources. A low-code/no-code platform requires no software development expertise to digitalize processes across departments. With the right coordination, business users and students alike can help the organization make great strides in Dx.  

BP Logix offers a simple, low-code/no-code solution for bringing your Digital Transformation strategy together through efficient digitalization across departments.

 

Some ways our Higher Ed customers have utilized our platform to drive Dx:

  • To create a seamless experience for students in enrollment and registration by connecting applicable data from different legacy platforms, to surface elsewhere to students in online forms. .
  • To automate manual HR processes.
  • To save hours of development time automating financial applications.

Benefits backed by customer testimonials:  

John Rezendes, Director of IS Operations at Stanislaus State commented on the system's simplicity:

“Process Director gives us a suite of tools we can use without needing a lot of development experience. It's cutting development time at least by half to get an electronic form and a backend workflow up and running and working for our students on campus.”

 

Eddie Serrano, Deputy Director for Research Business and Operations at UNC mentioned the ease of coordinating data.

"With Process Director, we were able to quickly modify existing financial forms — Expense Reimbursement, Invoice Payment, Purchase Order Request — to track COVID-19-relatedexpenses." . . . "Our new workflow also allows us to easily seek other necessary approvals according to procedural changes instituted by the University."

 The easiest way to implement digital transformation is through the combination of an organization wide initiative and the right automation platform designed for Higher Ed. 

Interested in learning more about how your university can use a low-code platform to jump start your digital transformation initiative? View a demo of Process Director. Watch our webinar "Process Automation Solution Tailored for Higher Education" .

 

Topics: digital transformation
2 min read

How Enrollment Leaders are using Technology to Transform the Student Experience

By Girish Pashilkar on Mar 2, 2021 2:00:00 PM

Keeping enrollments up is mission critical to institutional leaders in higher ed and increasingly so as balancing budgets have become more difficult amidst funding uncertainty with Covid-19. However, as every VP of Enrollment knows, keeping enrollment levels high isn’t something they can manage without collaboration across departments.

The move to a virtual student model has exacerbated the misalignment of student expectations with institutional processes. Processes and priorities need to be coordinated across new student recruitment, registration, financial aid, student support services, curriculum development, and other academic areas that affect enrollments, student persistence, and student outcomes.

When processes and departments remain siloed, student experience suffers. Asking students to consistently swivel between disconnected systems, scan and email documents, or worse yet, run paper from one department to another for signatures can negatively impact student satisfaction early on.

Siloed Enrollment Experience

One of the key hurdles to achieving cross-departmental coordination is that systems and processes are often siloed and disparate. How can enrollment leaders break through these silos with their limited budgets and resources?

Integrated Enrollment Experience

Traditional approaches of building cross functional processes rely on a combination of working with large monolithic ERP systems (eg: Ellucian/ Banner, PeopleSoft, etc), point SaaS applications and custom-built applications. The challenge with these approaches is that they fail to adequately address the core problem, which is to allow for seamless processes across organizational silos.

With a low-code platform, higher ed institutions can use a single platform to build out a broad range of connected applications across the enterprise keeping the student at the center. The right low-code platform can connect at the backend of enterprise applications and serve as the technology layer to providing a consistent user experience. This can be done without requiring an army of software developers and the associated high costs and lack of agility. 

With BP Logix Higher Ed Edition, leaders in enrollment and student services have the added advantage of a platform that understands the unique needs of higher education (eg: accessibility, FERPA compliance, etc) and comes with built in templates for a broad range of processes across functional areas. Add to that access to a community of higher ed professionals with whom you can collaborate and benchmark processes.

Build best in class processes with minimal support from your IT organization. For example, the University of Central Florida created a student portal in less than 45 days. The portal allowed students to access a broad range of services across multiple departments by conveniently logging in from their computers, kiosks and mobile phones.

“We care about making sure our international students have the best student experience, so we asked ourselves, how do we use technology to make this better? Through forms and workflows, we connect with our students and make sure the data gets into our SIS or continues to our internal processes,” said Paulo Graxton, Associate Director of Operations at UCF. “Working with BP Logix has absolutely improved our student experience.”

A better student experience was one of the key reasons for 15% year over year growth in student population. Learn more about how higher ed leaders like Paulo are using automation to improve the student experience in our upcoming webinar Driving Better Student Engagement through Automation

4 min read

7 Ways Workflow Automation Software Can Improve Your Onboarding Process

By BP Logix on Feb 12, 2021 8:07:45 AM

The process of onboarding new hires is critical both to the organization and to the success of new employees. A well-designed onboarding process improves employee retention in the first three critical months of work, sets the pace for engagement, and can either make or break initial productivity.

And yet, according to a Gallup report, only 12% of employees reported that their companies did a good job of onboarding. With that in mind, it should be no surprise that 51% of organizations reported losing new hires within the first 6 months.

Clearly, employee onboarding is in a bleak state. The situation has only deteriorated since the pandemic began and work-from-home policies were implemented. 

But with HR automation, employee onboarding does not have to be a task for HR teams to dread and avoid. The right workflow automation software takes away most of the onboarding work from your hands and makes it much more fulfilling, engaging, and effective for everyone involved.

The Role of Low-Code Process Automation In Onboarding and HR

While workflow automation is normally a strategy employed by IT teams, and might not seem rife for use cases within HR, Onboarding has increasingly become a set of processes that take well to automation. Even more so when paired with a low-code platform that can be utilized by those without a developer skillset.

Specifically, onboarding involves new hire paperwork, orientation, training, performance tracking, and project management. These are repetitive tasks, and intelligent automation systems handle them effectively. 

 For new hires, onboarding is full of uncertainty, pressure, expectations, and a general feeling of being overwhelmed and oftentimes, lost.

One study showed exactly what employees want from onboarding:

  • 76% wanted on-the-job training
  • 73% wanted a review of company policies
  • 56% wanted to be assigned a mentor or buddy

With this data in mind, it becomes easier to understand just how powerful workflow automation in employee onboarding can become to make the process easier for all parties involved.

1. Simplify Onboarding and Training of Remote Employees

Remote working threw a wrench in an already difficult onboarding process. Without physical contact, tasks like training and document generation have become more of a challenge. However, virtual onboarding using automated workflows can make sure the proper training, resource provisioning, and other critical processes are always consistently counted for.

 What makes automated training so effective is that employees are taken through every process step-by-step without room for manual error. Unlike an employee handbook, automated workflows are dynamic and can pivot quickly to handle new policies.

2. Digital Tracking and Document Management Eliminates Manual Bottlenecks

 Automated HR workflows carry you through pre-processing, onboarding, and ongoing employee management. At each of these stages, an automation solution like BP Logix’ Process Director generates dynamic forms for applicants to fill along the way and automatically stores, shares, and updates records as needed. Audit trails are always there for compliance purposes.

 You can even automate the setting up of new accounts in payroll systems, trigger notifications to the people concerned, and requisition any resources needed such as software licenses or access credentials. This eliminates the headache of manual document pivoting from system to system, or worse: scanning and filing. 

3. Track the Progress of New Employees Automatically

An automated workflow system also allows HR teams to track the progress of all new applicants as they go through the virtual onboarding process. Processes can be designed to automatically capture important metrics and run reports as needed to keep track of applicants as they advance through the system.

 The detailed data and analytics availed by automated HR workflows provide precious insights that can help you figure out how to improve your onboarding processes for the future, including finding the critical path to make processes more efficient.

4. Standardize the Onboarding Process Across All Applicants

In organizations without automated onboarding processes, some new hires come in and receive a full concierge onboarding program, while others come at a bad time and are left to their own devices. Leaving onboarding processes to individual leaders allows for markedly different new hire experiences.

 Automated onboarding processes streamline and standardize this experience so that everyone receives the same treatment. 

 The system also ensures that employees are trained in the same way, creating a consistent brand experience for every client. When new hires are left to figure things out, variance exists between the way each employee carries out supposedly similar tasks.

5. Improved Policy and Regulatory Compliance

The right onboarding platform can be programmed to ensure compliance at every stage. Whether that's overtime compliance, fair labor standards, FMLA, federal civil rights, accountability, or labor laws, automated workflows can be built to take care of the complex compliance regulations for you.

 It is common knowledge that HR compliance has become a minefield. However, unlike manual onboarding processes, automated onboarding also provides visibility into the whole process and makes compliance audits much easier.

6. Integrate with Legacy Applications

Integration with finance applications, active directory and legacy ERP systems like Peoplesoft make sure data easily gets from one system to another, without manual error. Low-code automation platforms equipped with robust integration capabilities, like BP Logix, make sure documents and data can be easily actioned and never fall through the cracks.

7. Collaborate with Other Team Members for Successful Onboarding

Using automated workflows for onboarding new employees sets up channels for communication and collaboration not only with HR teams, but with other team members as well. The right onboarding platform can integrate with email and UCC platforms to ensure that even new team members stay involved and engaged with their team.

Automate HR Workflows to Ease Administrative Workload: How BP Logix Can Help

Onboarding is a challenging and complex process that demands a high level of commitment from HR teams to conduct successfully. However, thanks to the power of a Low Code onboarding platform like BP Logix, you get to take much of this workload off your plate and create an effective onboarding process for your new hires. 

 BP Logix specializes in intelligent BPM software with a low-code platform that excels in automation of critical business functions in HR and across the business.

Contact us to learn more about how our intuitive AI-powered engine can help transform your HR onboarding to a smooth, effective process for you and your prospective hires.

Topics: hr automation
3 min read

A Case for Investing in HR Onboarding and Offboarding

By Girish Pashilkar on Nov 13, 2020 2:52:16 PM

HR - Onboarding V1.2

A survey of 350 HR leaders in the U.S. found that 76 percent of respondents’ workplaces1 are not effectively onboarding their new hires. A delayed or uncoordinated onboarding can result in lost productivity, low employee morale and, in extreme cases, unplanned attrition. Similarly, missing key steps in offboarding can increase your compliance, litigation and reputation risk.

Several studies have been conducted that point to the need to paying closer attention to employee onboarding and offboarding and investing in HR automation. For example: 

  • More than 50 percent of job seekers checked a company’s job reviews on Glassdoor before applying for a job.
  • Organizations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%.
  • Employees who have negative new hire onboarding experiences are twice as likely to look for new opportunities in the near future
  • 88% of employees think their employer did a poor job with the onboarding process

The challenges of onboarding and offboarding

The average new hire has 54 activities to complete during their onboarding experience which makes it one of the most complex HR processes. Therefore, it is not surprising that the main reason for neglecting onboarding includes managers not having the time to undertake it (57 percent), the absence of tools to measure its effectiveness (55 percent) and the lack of digital onboarding technology to automate the process (39 percent).

Today's workforce is made up of digital consumers, and they expect the same conveniences of on-demand, flexible, and simple processes and innovation at work that they experience in their personal lives. More recently, the COVID 19 pandemic has forced several organizations to maintain a high level of flexibility with their staffing plans, resulting in higher-than-normal level of termination, hiring, and rehiring. This has increased the HR onboarding and offboarding workload on an already lean HR organization. 

At most organizations, onboarding and offboarding of employees touches multiple departments and sometimes, external entities. The end result is typically an onboarding and offboarding process that is both complex and unique.  As a result, a cookie cutter approach and off the shelf software tools rarely gets the job done.  What is more is that HR policies can change as can the needs of the hiring manager.  Not only is it important for these critical HR processes to be tailored but they also need to be agile and responsive to the changing needs.

How to improve the employee onboarding and offboarding process

Given the complex nature of the onboarding and offboarding processes, HR organizations need a way to build tailored processes quickly and easily adjust them as their requirements change to create a positive onboarding journey for new employees.  Similarly, because the HR teams are burdened with an overflowing to do list, they need access to intuitive dashboards and reports that inform them and alert them about deadlines, processes and resources.

A low code onboarding and offboarding platform is a better technology to build and automate your process compared to either building such a workflow as a custom application from scratch or a rigid off the shelf application.  A low code onboarding and offboarding platform is like a set of Lego blocks that can be quickly assembled to create a tailored workflow.  In addition, the right onboarding and offboarding platform should have the following key capabilities:

  • Easy to install and upgrade.
  • Low code – no coding knowledge required.
  • Rich integration capabilities that make it easy to coordinate the HR onboarding and offboarding process across multiple departments.
  • Strong in audit tracking of the activities which can be critical for certain industries.
  • Powerful process modeling capabilities allow clients to model complex processes with ease
  • Ability to proactively identify potential delays and recommend corrective action to ensure timely onboarding. 
Using the right onboarding and offboarding platform can help you:
  • Gain 70% in cost savings
  • Improve internal team productivity by 40%+
  • Reduce in process time (5 to 10 times faster)

Take decisive action now

Click here to learn more about how some of your colleagues are using a low-code platform to address the unique challenges posed by onboarding and offboarding. In particular, how they are quickly assembling tailored onboarding and offboarding processes to improve their employee retention and relieve the HR team from administrative tasks at an affordable cost and in a short timeframe. 

Topics: hr automation
2 min read

How UNC's Nutrition Research Institute Improved Efficiency with Low Code Automation

By Girish Pashilkar on Oct 27, 2020 9:00:00 AM

Scientific research requires a complex web of documents, processes, approvals, and reviews, and to keep things on track. To support all of that work also requires that back-end functions like finance and accounting be efficient. That’s why many research-based organizations turn to Process Director from BP Logix as a way to create, deliver, and adapt their operational processes. Being able to put move quickly enabled the Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill - (UNC) to be agile in the face of sweeping changes from COVID-19.

UNC is home to a wide array of research centers and laboratories conducting leading-edge projects to deliver scientific progress. NRI is among those, and is an internationally recognized facility that conducts innovative studies relating to how differences in requirements and responses to diet affect our individual nutritional needs. Their research has led to successes in preventing or mitigating the negative effects of chronic diseases and aging, as well as in improving human development, even prior to conception.

To keep the engine of innovation humming at NRI requires the work of an entire organization — HR, Finance, IT, and other departments that must be effective at their tasks to enable NRI-based research to become usable. When COVID-19 hit earlier this year, all these groups within NRI had to retool their processes and workflows in order to maintain continuity. 

This transformation effort included adapting to new procedures and policies for managing operational and HR expenses. Especially pressing for the NRI operations and administrative teams was the need to modify existing forms for reimbursement, invoices, and purchase orders related to COVID-19. These are expenditures that hadn’t been planned for prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, and it was critical to track them because these expenses translate to research dollars lost. The institute had to be able to deliver accurate and timely reports on the financial impact of the pandemic to university, state, and federal sponsors that support its research.

Speed and accuracy were essential requirements. Process Director helped them code expenses quickly on the front-end which saved the NRI finance team approximately 100 hours in following up with their laboratories and doing retro campus journals to code the expenses as COVID-19 after the fact.

In our recent webinar, Eduardo Serrano, Deputy Director of Research Business and Operations at NRI walked attendees through their experience implementing workflows using a low-code approach. Joined by Dave Kieffer, Vice President of Research and Large Enterprise Systems at the Tambellini Group, these two experts explain how NRI used Process Director to rapidly implement change, with adherence to specific requirements, and without requiring expensive custom software development. Specifically, it covers:

  • How workflow is uniquely qualified to streamline processes and rapidly implement changes with a low code approach
  • Insights and trends from The Tambellini Group on the new resource-light approaches to workflow automation
  • An introduction to and benefits of using a low-code approach to workflow automation

Learn more about workflow automation for higher education, or contact our team of process automation experts to learn more about our low-code platform.

6 min read

Workflow-driven Digital Transformation to Improve the Student Experience

By BP Logix on Sep 28, 2020 7:26:26 AM

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, one of 13 state institutions in the University of Wisconsin system, needed a way to improve how it managed and tracked documents for critical processes to keep the school running smoothly. Their criteria for the right solution included:

  • Cross platform compatibility
  • Price
  • Ease of development
  • Ease of use
  • No per-seat licensing
  • No barriers to development
  • Excellent responsiveness and support

The UW-Eau Claire team looked at 106 products and decided on Process Director from BP Logix. The eForms Project Lead, Mike Sharp, said: “What wowed me was the demo. When I called to schedule the demo, I was asked to send one of our forms. No one ever asked me that before. BP Logix asked me for a form, converted it quickly and demoed our form. They personalized the demo – and that was a huge wow!”

Let’s look more closely at how automation and workflow are helping many universities dramatically improve the student and administrative experience.


 Higher education is experiencing unprecedented change. Colleges and universities face lingering uncertainty as a result of the COVID pandemic, but they also are coming head on with the stark realities of declining enrollments and changing demographics. To remain competitive, schools must meet the demands of a new breed of student, one that is digitally savvy and may not be interested in the traditional model of higher education. Many want a different type of college experience, and in order to survive and thrive, schools have to transform to meet these changes.

 Effective college IT teams are not sitting back to see what happens. By using data and applying the right mix of technology, they are providing their schools with an agile foundation that can react to changing situations and identify ways to thrive. This enables them to deliver student-facing applications and solutions that are unique to today’s college environment.

 The new college student experience

Today’s college students are digital natives. They have grown up in a digital world and expect access to technology as a way to navigate almost every part of their lives. Just about everything they want is available through their smartphones, and they now expect to be able to click their way through tasks and plans. Innovative colleges and universities understand this and are going through a transformation, powered by workflow, to help students with everything they require from admissions all the way to graduation.

 The first step is to establish a foundation that can reliably help achieve these new goals. Workflow provides this because it can be aligned with the goals of both students and their higher education institutions in a way that moves beyond legacy systems and uses digital solutions to change course as needed. It’s not just a way to make better use of data and create efficiencies of scale. In the context of education, it is used to provide a more connected overall experience across the student’s lifecycle.

 Some organizations see their processes as a series of unconnected events. They don’t recognize the need to effectively orchestrate the user experience, nor do they always see the value of deploying solutions in a student-driven context. From a business standpoint, this is critical because it’s the essence of customer satisfaction. Give students (customers) what they need to be successful, and be willing and able to adapt as the route to success changes.

 Using workflow and data to drive transformation

University IT teams realize that workflow is more than just a series of tactical activities. The data from the diverse set of technologies that make up the university IT ecosystem can be used to create user-friendly apps that improve how students engage with their school. This promotes connectivity to the institution, which leads to a better student experience. But schools also have the benefit of collecting data from these applications and processes to learn about student behaviors and preferences. Armed with that kind of data, they can remain agile and prepare for anticipated changes.

 The concept of digital transformation is perfectly suited to the university environment because schools must operate a complex web of offerings to keep students engaged. This includes everything from admissions, financial aid, and registration to health services, student activities, and career counseling. And that’s just scratching the surface of what today’s students expect.

 Innovative schools recognize the importance of adapting traditional process principles and leveraging the inherent flexibility of workflow. With that as the centerpiece, the process of digital transformation enables integration among other applications, user inputs, data sources, and other elements that improve awareness and process accuracy.

 Workflow as the key to adaptability

The models for how to operate and scale these schools for a modern student body have to remain flexible. The impetus for many of these transformations include: 

  • Student demographic shifts: More college students are attending part-time or are balancing school with other life priorities. These students may require more flexible scheduling options, access to financial aid resources, and career advisory services, among other things. With each semester, these demographic shifts are likely to change to some degree, and traditional methods for supporting students will need to align accordingly
  • Revenue impacts: There is no question that universities have to be marketable and competitive from a financial standpoint. A key way to ensure they can maintain aggressive revenue goals is to reduce costs at every level of the organization. For the IT department, this doesn’t require a reduction in student services if the technology is used for repeatable processes and rapid application development. In fact, schools that apply workflow effectively can become leaner while increasing their efficacy in supporting the student population.
  • New learning styles: Today’s students are digitally aware and expect a balance of interactive digital education along with in-person coursework. This will increasingly be a key point of differentiation for schools.

 Delivering on these objectives requires university IT teams to strategically manage their data and processes as the foundations for the new college experience. The insights this approach can derive will enable schools to meet today’s demands and prepare for the future.

 A higher ed transformation framework

The most important aspects of aligning with the student experience all have to do with usability paired with functionality – ease of use, solution context, and communication. The backbone, however, is effective workflow, which ensures that all these elements are met so that users can be both more efficient, and consistently meet their needs to make student life easier and more meaningful.

 Let’s look at these in detail:

 Ease of use

Today’s typical college student grew up accustomed to an inbound style of productivity. Rather than having to wait in lines and submit paperwork, they use online apps and smart forms to submit information and receive results.

 There is an expectation among these students that they’ll have access to digital tools for most of the tasks they want to accomplish. College IT teams can use workflow automation tools to create sophisticated, low-code digital applications that take into account the necessary data and workflow sources on the back-end, and consider how users on the front-end will actually use the app. By being able to create simple apps that integrate relevant information, including smart forms and processes, students can get the information they need and take action on things like class scheduling, financial aid, and other relevant events. The teams who build the apps benefit when they apply an agile approach to development.

So while Process Director is easy to use for those who need to build applications intended to engage students and help them with decisions and actions necessary to their experience, that ease of use is also reflected in elegant, simple usability that encourages repeatability and adoption.

Relevance and context

Managing multiple classes, along with administrative issues like financial aid, all compete for students’ attention. Add to this to extracurricular activities like intramural sports and campus activities, and it becomes clear that schools have to piece together a massive amount of integrations and connections among data repositories to deliver solutions. Optimizing the use of data can have huge benefits, including the ability to interpret student and school trends. That data can ultimately help schools to be more efficient in things like operational expenditures and hiring.

Human interaction is complex, but workflow can be automated with rules to pair different sets of data and route it to appropriate decision makers. This level of automation functions not as a linear phenomenon, but as a continuously shared collection of usable elements that allow for context-based structural changes, last moment decisions, and individualized attention depending on each circumstance.

A case management approach can help greatly when delivering applications that integrate historical data on students (transcripts, payments, scholarships). With navigable data that can be filtered for omission or inclusion depending on the situation, applications can adapt as the students’ situations change and evolve. This approach supplies students with applications that provide them with what they need when they need it, all without forcing them to search outside the context of the case to find answers.

School-to-student communication

Students receive emails, texts, direct messages, and a host of other types of communication to keep them connected to their school. But information can go unnoticed if it doesn’t fit with how they are accustomed to consuming it. Schools have to ensure that students see important messages, but also create ways for students to communicate back with them.

To facilitate connecting and communicating across departments, the data collected from applications, forms, and sources can be organized into a collective portal that delivers all students’ actionable information into a single interface. That reduces response time and enhances the kind of communication students require in order to meet deadlines, stay on top of opportunities, and keep their good standing with their school.

The data-driven digital transformation of higher education cannot happen on an application-by-application basis. Schools that want to align their goals and processes to student behaviors will apply digital transformation through the use of smart workflow and processes. To serve these needs, Process Director provides digitally transformative and contextual education workflow solutions, facilitates efficient distribution of information, and streamlines the monitoring and management of information.

4 min read

Higher Ed Needs an Agile Approach to Workflow Automation

By BP Logix on Sep 16, 2020 1:59:35 PM

Higher education institutions adhere to a disciplined cadence of organizational milestones in order to operate effectively. To manage workflows and processes, ensure that documentation is delivered and acted upon correctly, and enforce accountability across all stakeholders is a job that’s highly dependent on the orchestration of workflows across the many teams in a university organization.

Forward-thinking colleges and universities are using workflow automation to support business processes for every aspect of the educational lifecycle, including student management, hiring, facilities, vendor management, capital expenditures, compliance and governance, and a host of other issues that demand continuous oversight and action.

True workflow automation is most successful when IT teams adopt an agile approach that allows them to create a rules-based environment that facilitates repeatable actions and shares data among different applications and repositories. Being freed from the responsibility of manual intervention allows IT teams to identify new and better ways to deploy data to support new processes. And in a time where so much is new, being able to develop and implement solutions to new issues can deliver meaningful value.

Process Director is used by a variety of colleges to support their digital transformation initiatives. With digital process automation capabilities, it enables schools to integrate data among processes across a wide array of services and departments. Different schools look for various ways to achieve this, and the use cases of BP Logix customers illustrate how BPM can be a critical aspect of higher education transformation and organizational growth.

 Rapid application development and forms automation

All schools in the United States had to move quickly to transition students from on-campus classes to 100% remote learning in the spring of 2020. All of this had to happen in a matter of weeks, and it involved a long list of details, dependencies, and processes to coordinate across the student experience.

 At the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), there was a desire to provide students with a way to change their grade type for the Spring semester. This would encourage students to choose a “Pass/Fail” option rather than drop a letter grade while they adapted to a new style of learning.

 The UPenn IT team sought to enable this option for students quickly and easily. Using Process Director, they created a digital form driven by an automated process that gave students a fast, efficient way to request the new grading option and have it approved. With the workflow, requests were automatically routed to the appropriate school registrar for processing. Students were notified when the school acted on the change request, and the school registrar gets a PDF copy of the whole transaction.

 The key for UPenn was speed and accessibility to data. Process Directors’ forms-building capability and rapid application development approach allowed them to build this in a short time period.

 Automation and governance for student records

UCF Global is part of the University of Central Florida system that serves a global population of more than 64,000 students every year through 93 bachelors, 86 masters, and 27 doctoral courses of study.

 A key challenge for the university is managing private student data that is distributed across many different repositories and applications. Because that personal data is protected by governmental compliance standards, it’s critical that the school safeguard how it’s accessed and used. With student records management as a primary driver, the UCF Global IT team sought a way to be efficient and secure with data, but to also make it usable so they could deliver rapid solutions for their students. By adopting Process Director, they have been able to take advantage of a diverse set of functionality that is supporting their needs. This includes:

  • Comprehensive and automatic logging, with digital signatures, of every action taken by any actor, human or automated.
  • The highest levels of encryption of data at rest and data in transit.
  • Digital signature of documents.
  • Granular permissions structure, with temporary privilege escalation.

By ensuring a safe environment for transactions and storage of student data, UCF has been able to build processes that automate the flow of student information through all processes in the student lifecycle, from admissions to graduation.

 Digital reviews and approvals

One of BP Logix’ higher education customers, the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), used Earth Day as the impetus for adopting a BPM approach. With a mandate to reduce paper usage, the UTEP IT team embarked on a plan to eliminate paper where possible by relying instead on the digitization of forms through scanning and digital storage. It quickly became clear that efforts to improve reviews and approvals through digital means could lead to other efficiencies through BPM.

 With the rollout of this new digital emphasis, the UTEP IT organization began to implement Process Director BPM across more parts of the University. They focused their efforts on 1) the easy movement of documents across campus via electronic workflows, 2) enabling the review and approval of electronic documents via email, 3) the ability to have dashboards that allowed users to edit, view, and receive messages regarding activities and tasks as well as to retrieve reports, forms, and notifications, 4) Having electronic records signed via a digitized image of a signature and 5) ability to populate a series of form fields by extracting information from a database instead of requiring users to input that data.

 With broad usage of Process Director’s capabilities, UTEP has instilled an agile, prowess-driven mindset in how IT delivers solutions to various departments. Speed has been a critical driver, but so too is how comprehensive Process Director is at ensuring that necessary participants are included in reviews and other transactions throughout the various university lifecycles.

4 min read

Is Your College Prepared to Change Course?

By BP Logix on Aug 26, 2020 2:13:24 PM

In recent days, three major universities — the University of North Carolina, Notre Dame, and Michigan State — sent students home and moved all classes to online formats after COVID outbreaks created health and safety scares. It is likely that more will follow a similar course of action as millions of students arrive on college campuses in the coming weeks.

 Even with the best conditions and preparation, schools will be faced with mass groups of students congregating on campus, in social gatherings, and in the streets of the local town or city. In short, it’s a recipe for an outbreak and it will force schools to be swift in their efforts to adapt.

 Colleges facing the reality of opening in the fall

University IT leaders spent the spring and summer creating strategies and backup plans for the coming year. All different types of scenarios were taken into account and failover plans were created. But as these plans were being developed, the coronavirus continued to spread, and with it was more uncertainty.

 Now that the new school year has arrived, the reality is that keeping 18-22-year-olds compliant with social distancing and mask-wearing is likely much harder than anyone had accounted for. What we’re facing is what will likely be a domino effect of schools that need to reverse course and go 100% virtual learning after they’ve opened their doors.

 Some are calling for all universities to keep their doors closed until there is a sustained flattening of the curve. In a blog by NYU business professor, Scott Galloway, that tied the current situation with colleges’ ability to operate, he said, "Right now half of colleges and universities plan to offer in-person classes, something resembling a normal college experience, this fall. This cannot happen. In-person classes should be minimal, ideally none.”

 Immediate action needed by IT teams

So, what happens when your plans have to change in a matter of days? Are you prepared to adjust your systems to keep school running smoothly and give students the kind of college experience they seek? Those schools that have effective workflows and processes in place will be the ones who will minimize disruption. Their IT teams will be tasked with carrying the burden of communication and delivering a complete but effective digital experience for students and faculty.

 Consider just some of the changes that schools will need to employ: 

  • Housing arrangements: students being asked to leave dorms will need systems for transporting their personal belongings or keeping them in place for safe-keeping by the university. Schools bear a heavy responsibility for young people who are away from home, who need to make major decisions in a short period of time.
  • Academic delivery: just like we experienced last school year, schools that go 100% online will need to support faculty who need to adapt their material to a virtual format. Some professors simply won’t be proficient with technology to make the change. Others may have special needs for the type of instruction they perform.
  • Safety: in the cases of the schools that have recently gone all online, students were given only a short period of time to leave campus. The school needs to provide communication and online resources for students to operate in an orderly, safe way.
  • Refunds: there will no doubt be an increase in students opting out for the semester. They will want refunds for tuition, housing, and other fees.

 The key will be to rely on the IT infrastructure to deliver everything through digital channels, and do it quickly. The most important factor will be communication: the school needs to get information about changes, course structure, fees, and a host of other issues, and they can’t afford to miss a beat. So schools will need to use application integrations to pull data out of existing sources and deliver them through social media, the college website, phone calls, and any other manner that will guide students through a smooth transition.

 Using data to meet digital transition needs

The origin of effective solutions is data — access to it, ability to transact with it, and responsiveness to it. University and student data are stored in a wide variety of applications. They range from the basic (spreadsheets and graphics) to complex (some data analytics solutions and massive ERP systems). While all of that data serves a purpose, it’s no good if it can’t be accessed and put to use to solve problems.

 When school IT teams need to adapt entire systems in a matter of days, access to data is critical. Using information is important, but using it in context with other data is where schools stand to be most effective. To do this requires being able to build software apps quickly and for specific purposes.

 Because speed is critical, creating solutions means reducing development time. To meet this challenge, low-code development can be employed as an efficient way to build integrations and applications fast. It is a methodology and approach that uses reusable, pre-built components of code and applies them in a drag-and-drop fashion. It simplifies the coding effort and accelerates the pace at which applications can be delivered and put to use.

 No school operates with a single system of record they can rely on for all necessary data. Rather, colleges use a variety of different student information management systems and other types of enterprise planning apps. The key becomes, then, the ability to integrate data from those sources into custom-built apps to serve their changing needs. Speed will be critical to developing these new apps. Schools will not have time for traditional software development cycles, which means non-developers will have to be included in the process of scoping and building apps.

 The right mix of planning and having a workflow-based approach to application development will enable universities to adapt with limited disruption to the campus environment. And as the school year progresses, there will likely be even more change, so making the investment to build the right foundation will put schools in good shape for what promises to be an unusual school year.

8 min read

Ready, Set...Go? Making Student Safety a Priority

By BP Logix on Aug 19, 2020 2:37:20 PM

Controlling the spread of COVID-19 is the primary goal for health officials across the country, and they are especially concerned with the potential for more spreading as college students are returning to campuses. With clusters of people in their late teens and 20s accounting for major increases in cases in heavily populated states, school administrators are also concerned and most are taking crucial steps to creating a safe and healthy return to school for students.

 The reality for young people is that while they run the risk, just like everyone else, of contracting COVID, the possibility of being hospitalized for it is low. The Centers for Disease Control indicate that only 4% of people in their 20s who have COVID will need to enter a hospital. For those in their 20s and 30s, the fatality rate is currently about 0.1%. This is good news, but we still haven’t seen the result of thousands of students living together, being in classrooms, going to parties, and partaking in seemingly normal college behavior. There is no leaving that to chance.

 Most schools have already put measures in place to create a safe environment at school, but it will take effective coordination across each university’s community to protect students and contain the spread of cases.

 The colleges and universities that navigate this most successfully will be those who stick to a disciplined plan but are agile enough to make changes as new information becomes available. A plan has to be specific in the actions that different departments will take, and there must be orchestration among teams, workflows, and processes to ensure consistency and a common focus on outcomes. Let’s take a closer look at the actions that are most critical to making this work.

 Implement regular COVID testing

University student health services will be a critical player in the plans to create a safe school campus environment. Schools are already planning to utilize student health services to, a) identify students who have the virus and provide treatment for them; and b) to reduce the spread of COVID by quarantining test-positive students. These preventative measures will likely be the single most effective way of containment, according to health officials.

 Students from different parts of the country are essentially bringing all different types of exposure levels into the same environment when they set foot on campus, and this creates an entirely new potential breeding ground for the virus. Testing students before school starts, at regular intervals, and perhaps any time a student travels outside of the local area need to be operationalized and put into action.

 In order to provide this kind of testing and make use of the resulting data, colleges will need to do the following: 

  • Create a regular, mandatory cadence for testing in conjunction with student health services officials. Testing intervals should be coordinated with local health officials and need to comply with state and regional regulations.
  • Communicate to students through all available means (mobile app, email, social media, and on-site signage) that testing is mandatory, explain the process for getting tests and results, and be clear about test logistics. This step may be the most important because getting the attention of a busy student body is challenging, no matter what the content of the message is.
  • Employ incentives for compliance, and penalties for lack of compliance. Schools cannot function if students do not abide by the testing program. Lack of participation could create gaps in awareness which could lead to faulty assumptions about the overall state of the coronavirus on campus. By making enrollment for the following semester contingent on compliance, for example, schools can create incentives for adhering to the testing plan. Schools might want to consider initiating a campaign for those who participate, or even gamify it so students are incented to take part.
  • Establish defined testing locations in convenient campus locations, or provide testing through mobile delivery. The keys here are to make the testing locations visible, easy to access, and not demanding on students’ time.

 With testing results, schools can take the next set of steps to ensure they operate responsibly. These include:

  • Providing medical services or even hospitalization for students who test positive.
  • Coordination with faculty for students who must miss classes or tests due to treatment.
  • Data collection to establish awareness of positive and negative trending cohorts.
  • Initiate planning for dramatic measures, including shutting down living facilities or classroom facilities, if needed. The right data will also give schools foresight into planning for the following semester or quarter.

 Increase student awareness via peer evangelism

Colleges need students to be aware of risks, treatments, and their responsibilities in order to maintain a safe environment. Communication to students will be most effective when it comes from other students. For this reason, universities should consider creating a corps of student evangelists who are visible, accessible, and effective at modeling the right types of behavior, and acting as effective resources for other students.

 Some schools, like Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, are recruiting Public Health Ambassadors to support the University’s new reopening and operating plan. This group will be responsible for enforcing plan policies, and for encouraging members of the campus community to engage in healthy, safe behaviors, which include: 

  • Hand washing, use of disinfectants, and actions that students need to bake into their ongoing, regular behavior.
  • Social distancing and mask-wearing.
  • Avoiding large gatherings. This might include advocating new types of social get-togethers that are geared for 12 or fewer people as alternatives to large parties and group recreational activities.

 These programs can be effective when students are equipped with the right policies and behaviors to communicate. But it’s the optics of peer-to-peer influence that give these programs validation among students.

 Students in these programs need training on written communication and public speaking and should be equipped with the right platforms (social media, college website, on-campus visibility) to help them amplify their messages. This might include a specific brand that connects the goals of the program to the student corp of evangelists. Their program and messages should have regular exposure in regular communication channels that help imprint their brand and message on the minds of the student audience. 

Create a “low-touch” campus

Universities have a wide variety of meeting places, all of which need policies for ongoing cleanliness and safety. The more people who enter these spaces increases the risk of coronavirus spread. Keeping these places clean, or shutting some of them down, will require a continuous set of tasks that campus teams must orchestrate across all facilities and programs.

 For starters, campus buildings must have clean air filtration systems which may require significant infrastructure improvements, but will also have a major impact on reducing the spread of the virus. Buildings, classrooms, and all physical elements of the school will need to be cleaned on a regular basis. There is also a need for seating arrangements in classrooms, meeting rooms, and other common areas that keep people at a safe distance from one another.

 Some schools are establishing best practices for facilities cleanliness for classrooms that include: 

  • Classroom configurations that are adapted to 30% of normal capacity. Two empty chairs should sit between occupied ones.
  • Daily (at the minimum) disinfecting with industrial-strength solutions for all buildings.
  • High-touch surfaces (desks, doors, windows, for example) will need to be cleaned at least every hour, if not more.
  • All classrooms should have video capabilities so lectures can be recorded and provided through digital channels for students who choose remote learning.
  • A daily assessment process and communication channels to cancel on-site classes if a student or professor in that classroom has tested positive for COVID.
  • Hand sanitizing stations placed in classrooms, all buildings, and generally distributed across the campus. 

Even for schools with a smaller physical footprint, students are accustomed to freedom to most buildings, and that creates more to manage and clean. School administrators and facilities teams should determine which buildings to keep open and which to close. This list could be based on campus needs combined with the complexity of the logistics of maintenance. A hierarchy might include:

  •  Critical facilities: these include anything related to health services, buildings with small classrooms where classes will be held, safety services (campus security), and some parts of administration (financial aid, academic counseling).
  • Small group facilities: some buildings will be used for smaller groups including classes with fewer than 12 students. But schools might also have recreational locations or student unions that allow small groups to meet for exercise, clubs, or studying. Even the campus libraries will have to use a distancing plan to keep students apart from one another, while still providing access to research and study materials.
  • Phased activity facilities: one option for things like recreational facilities and administrative services is to segment usage. For example, it may be that students are allowed into certain buildings on certain days, based on alphabetical order, academic major, or some other designator that will allow the overall population to be spread out.
  • Temporarily facilities: it will make sense in some cases to provide temporary locations for services. Student COVID testing, for example, might be best delivered if it is done in a conveniently situated, but temporary building, Similarly with some classes, it may make sense to lock down permanent buildings because of the logistics of cleaning them, and instead, use portable or other types of buildings.
  • Closed facilities: buildings with large lecture halls and places that draw large numbers of students will need to be closed. These include large recreational facilities, on-campus restaurants, and other services that are designed for congregating.

 Many colleges are getting creative in providing some sense of normalcy for students with things like:

  • Broader access to WiFi and tented, outdoor study areas to encourage safely distanced common areas for studying and socializing.
  • Access to masks, everywhere, and all the time. Both as a way to serve forgetful students who leave masks at home, and to instill the behavior of mask-wearing, clean masks should be available at locations around the campus.
  • Dividers made of plexiglass can be installed in libraries and eating locations to give students the ability to be in the same area but to do so at a safe distance.
  • Mobile health screening available across campus. Any student, at any time, should be able to quickly and easily be treated if she/he feels ill. This is important for student safety, but also to curb the spread, and to behavioralize students to seek help before their condition worsens.

 Parents and students across the country are facing difficult decisions about when, if, or how they are going to return to school. University leaders are working hard to ensure that the environment they create will protect students and the entire campus community.

 While mask-wearing and social-distancing are crucial, so are the behaviors that schools mandate and instill in students, and across the university. With the right focus both on immediate health needs and preventative measures, colleges will likely see that they have created a foundation for long-term success and leadership for student health and safety.

Contact us today to learn more about solutions to support your COVID-19 response.

3 min read

Colleges Use Workflow Automation for Administrative Orchestration

By BP Logix on Aug 13, 2020 9:02:12 AM

The 2020 fall semester will likely be the most disruptive that universities have faced in the past few generations. When last year’s rapid, mass exodus out of classrooms changed in-person to remote learning overnight, higher education IT teams went into reactive mode. At the time, they were still months away from understanding and planning for what will become the next normal. Now, as colleges begin to open for the new school year, we’re seeing that communication and orchestration among processes and teams will be among the most essential factors in having a successful re-opening. The key to that coordination is automated workflow.

Pairing agility with orchestration

University IT teams provide solutions based on function and milestones. In the university setting, much of this activity is structured around the vital campus departments like administration, financial aid, admissions, and student services. Their corresponding milestones typically map to calendar events like enrollment, the semester cadence, and FAFSA deadlines. All of this effort requires documentation and the sharing of data across a variety of different stakeholders, which is the fundamental job of business processes and workflows.

 But the coming year will have many unforeseen changes, so having a workflow-driven approach that includes automation, continuous learning, and predictability will create significant organizational advantages for college IT teams.

 The advantages of workflow automation

Automated workflow supports the various needs of higher education administrators because processes drive virtually all aspects of campus and academic life. It provides an agile approach to process development and management that ensures that higher education IT departments can serve a wide variety of stakeholders (administrators, parents, students, financial aid organizations, among others). Workflow has the added advantage of providing continuous monintoring to maintain adherence with governmental, organizational, and industry governance requirements and compliance frameworks.

 By automating workflows -- and every university, no matter the size, has a LOT of workflows -- teams can create a rules-based environment that facilitates repeatable actions and shares data among different applications and repositories. After all, the educational lifecycle is vast; it includes student management, hiring, facilities, vendor management, capital expenditures, compliance and governance, and a host of other issues that demand continuous oversight and action. Being freed from the responsibility of manual intervention allows IT teams to identify new and better ways to deploy data to support new processes. And in a time where so much is new, being able to develop and implement solutions to new issues, that can deliver meaningful value.

 Focus on outcomes, automate everything else

Coordinating data and documentation among different campus departments typically requires a large set of process-driven milestones, most of which must be integrated among various school departments, students, and sometimes the government. For example, student financial aid can be funded by the school’s FAFSA offering, through the school’s privately funded scholarships, or grants. To ensure that all interested parties (admissions, enrollment, housing, among others) have the financial aid information they need to make decisions that support the student experience, they need a framework for coordination.

 Forms, paper documents, approvals, data sharing among applications and databases, tracking, and general lifecycle management -- these are among the actions and artifacts needed to make decisions. These are usually unconnected and disjointed pieces within the overall process, but with so much at stake, it’s critical that milestones are achieved and deadlines are met. Workflow creates order among, and between different data sources and process stages to develop a system that is inclusive of the various participants and enables consistency and compliance. Ultimately, the process is about speed and efficiency, which is precisely what fast-adapting universities will need as they encounter issues they have not yet accounted for.

 Automating (and protecting) student records

Let’s consider an example from a large university system; UCF Global is part of the University of Central Florida system. In addition to managing the data of thousands of students (the entire university system supports more than 64,000 students every year through 93 bachelors, 86 masters, and 27 doctoral courses of study) in their system, they are obligated through a sense of responsibility, and through compliance mandate, to keep that data protected.

 Using automated workflow helps solve for these requirements with a rules-based framework that provides:

  • Comprehensive and automatic logging, with digital signatures, of every action taken by any actor, human or automated.
  • The highest levels of encryption of data at rest and data in transit.
  • Digital signature of documents.
  • Granular permissions structure, with temporary privilege escalation.

 By ensuring a safe environment for transactions and storage of student data, UCF has been able to build processes that automate the flow of student information through all processes in the student lifecycle, from admissions to graduation.

3 min read

Has COVID Provided an Opportunity to Reinvent Higher Education?

By BP Logix on Aug 5, 2020 1:21:07 PM

The fall-out from COVID has created short-term change in every institution and plans to address a new course of action are focused on “getting back to normal.” But the notion of normal is not only hard to define in the current climate, but it’s also based on a concept that may be gone forever. Colleges and universities are clearly going through massive disruption and it’s causing stress among administrators, students, parents, faculty, and staff.

 But schools can also use this time to reframe while maintaining their mission. The time to change is now, and colleges that are willing to adapt their approach can come out of this period with a better plan for their longer-term success. To do so will require a new focus on what it means to be an institution of higher learning, and what the goal of education is all about

 Higher education is more than a degree

Colleges and universities perform a wide variety of services, but ultimately, they are responsible for student advancement. For some that means having access to better career opportunities upon graduation; for others, it has to do with broadening themselves as individuals. But higher education institutions also have a responsibility to society to provide opportunity and access and to hopefully create an environment that encourages growth through work and merit. Inherent in that contract is the idea that education and growth are good for society, but it doesn’t mean that it has to follow the current prescribed path to do it. The English philosopher, G.K. Chesterton said, “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.”

 With this in mind, it makes sense that schools might want to take a step back to rethink how they achieve their mission. Higher education has always promised to be a place for students to learn and develop skills so they can become thoughtful, enlightened contributors to society. However, many are asking how a school can achieve this, or how it can achieve anything of value when they’ve demanded that their entire student body take classes remotely in the fall. And from a practical standpoint, this scenario begs the question of economic viability — how attractive to prospective students can a college be if all it can offer are lectures via Zoom?

 To be true to their missions and to be able to deliver real value, schools don’t have to operate with an “online OR remote” quandary. If they remember their focus on giving people access to learn and develop usable skills, they likely already have what they need to be successful.

 A new foundation for higher education

While uncertainty and the stress it causes is top of mind for students and university administrators alike, schools know that remote learning will be a significant part of their future, irrespective of changes due to the COVID pandemic. Rather than seeing virtual learning as a short-term panacea, or even a set-back, it should be championed, and there should be a focus on how to deliver the best academic product through digital means.

 This can actually create advantages for schools that commit to doing remote learning well. In fact, a report by Babson College found that in 2018, more than 30 percent of U.S. college students had already taken an online course and were planning on taking more. What’s more, today’s college students came of age with smartphones and online access. The move to virtual classrooms isn’t as drastic as originally thought.

 Herein lies the opportunity. Colleges have invested heavily in technology infrastructures to provide better delivery of academics and student services. While the original purpose may not have been solely to deliver remote learning, the tools, applications, and processes that university IT teams have at their disposal can create the foundation for their next phase.

 Additionally, the applications and databases that make up that tech infrastructure provide the means to measure student performance through digital means in a way that offline engagement can’t. This isn’t a signaling of robotic, data-driven forms of learning. Quite the contrary; with all of this technology, students can learn more about themselves and where their strengths and weaknesses are. They can make more efficient use of their time to review lectures and course materials in an on-demand format. Ultimately, they can focus on outcomes rather than just adhering to a checklist of academic requirements.

 This is about more access to more students. It also opens up more opportunities to change how instruction is delivered and when it is delivered. Schools will need to think through the ramifications of a multidisciplinary approach that takes into account academics, scheduling, grading, and every other form of engagement that students are accustomed to.

 Perhaps most importantly, the “next normal” is about creating a different type of student. The future promises nothing but change, and those who are most agile and adaptable will succeed. So, while colleges and universities are rethinking how to balance online and offline learning, maybe they can start to remake the college experience as preparation for the world they’re entering, and the one that society needs them to thrive in.

6 min read

Bring Your Staff Back to Campus with Maximum Safety and Wellness

By BP Logix on Jul 29, 2020 11:57:26 AM

A return to regular schedules is coming soon for many colleges and universities across the country as COVID-related restrictions are lifted and the fall semester approaches.

The transition is a welcome move for schools that had to rapidly adapt to a completely new learning environment in March and April. Students left campus, instructors learned how to teach in an online format, and administrators scrambled to create and deploy new processes and solutions.

But with schools getting ready to have hundreds or thousands of people back on their campuses, they must also develop healthy and safe ways to reintegrate faculty and staff. They need to be able to do so in a way that allows them the freedom and flexibility to perform their work, but also keeps them protected.

Schools must create and deploy a comprehensive reintroduction plan to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, while also addressing the fears and safety concerns of their staff. The foundation of this type of plan takes into account a variety of health and wellness factors, most of which can be implemented in an actionable way. There are also behavioral components that have to be factored in, and ultimately, creating and operating such a plan will take the efforts of university HR, IT, and administrative leaders. 

An effective plan will go a long way in managing virus-related issues in the campus setting and will provide peace of mind and build morale for employees as they return to work. 

Here are four general areas, and a variety of specific actions and considerations, that colleges and universities can take to ensure they are providing a safe and trusted working environment for their employees.

Establish On-site Guidelines

Large numbers of employees returning to a shared workplace all at once creates a major risk for the spread of viruses. Managing schedules, creating a framework for how they can interact, and operating with firm guidelines on social distancing are all critical for protecting employee health at work. Colleges should identify a path that balances productivity with flexibility, and includes at least some elements of the following:

Flexible work options: some jobs simply don’t need to be performed on-site, and employees in those roles should be encouraged to continue working remotely as much as possible. A good rule to follow is: if in-person interaction is not needed for an employee to successfully execute her job, she should remain at home. Additionally, to reduce the number of people on campus at any one time, work schedules should be staggered into shifts.

Facilities and maintenance: it’s important to prepare facilities to be clean. All campus buildings must have efficient, clean air filtration systems which may require significant infrastructure improvements, but will also have a major impact on reducing the spread of the virus. Buildings, classrooms, and all physical elements of the school will need to be cleaned on a regular basis. There is also a need for seating arrangements in classrooms, meeting rooms, and other common areas that keep people at a safe distance from one another. 

Hygiene practices: social distancing should be mandated and reinforced, and to do this, reminders of effective hygiene need to be available everywhere. This should include having things like hand sanitizers and cleaning stations throughout each building, and schools should provide masks, gloves, and disinfect wipes for phones, computers, door handles, and everywhere people are touching.

Responsiveness: managers cannot be afraid to act quickly to send employees home who display signs of illness, or even close offices if they’ve been inhabited by someone who has been sick. 

Restrict travel: school leaders should mandate that only essential travel is permitted for employees who must attend school-related activities. As much as employees like traveling to conferences and industry events, schools need to take a break from those for the coming semester (and possibly beyond). For individuals who travel on planes, trains, or busses for personal reasons, it’s important that they quarantine for a safe period before returning to the workplace.

Encourage Well-being

College HR and health departments should prepare programs that support the emotional and mental health wellness of employees as they get back to work. These are as important as physical health concerns, and doing so will reduce disruptions in productivity, they will also create an environment where employees feel safe and trusted. 

There are so many ways for schools to help employees stay balanced and to avoid stress. Consider some options that can have a huge impact: 

Watch for signs: Everyone should be given some form of training to recognize signs of depression and anxiety in themselves and others. Many employees have been isolated for a long period of time, and coming back into the workplace at a time when there is still a great deal of uncertainty can add to their stress. Encourage people to watch out for others and demonstrate compassion. In general, an organization that cares for its people will ultimately be rewarded with happier, healthier employees.

Be a resource: HR teams should communicate information on any mental health benefits provided in your school's health insurance. It would also be helpful to email regular reminders, and display signage that reminds people both to social distance, but also to care for themselves. Any programs that support employee efforts to maintain emotional health should be communicated and supported.

Create a community environment: Support groups and opportunities for employees to voice concerns are important vehicles for employee wellness. While still practicing social distancing, it would be helpful to organize groups for people with various interests. Some will be parents struggling to get back to balancing kids and work, others may be caring for a sick relative. Having a sense of support through a work community can help employees handle the many issues they are facing as they reintegrate.

Communication and Training

Effective ways to enable employer-to-employee and employee-to-employee communication are going to be critical to keeping the workplace safe. This will help schools reinforce policies, but will also help avoid confusion at a time of change. Some of these efforts can piggyback on existing programs, while others will require new efforts:

Training: Whether it’s through regular email communication, an employee manual, or through an employee portal, you will need to train employees on a detailed and comprehensive set of guidelines about things like:

  • Expected health practices like hand washing, use of disinfectants, and other things that employees will need to begin regularly doing.
  • Work hours and schedules. Since you will likely have some form of staggered scheduling and work from home policies, these will need to be spelled out clearly and with corresponding expectations.
  • Social distancing reminders cannot be emphasized enough, and a codified training will do a lot to establish important, necessary habits in employees about safe contact.
  • Employees need training about when to stay home, what to look out for when feeling under the weather and what to do if you feel ill when at work. 

All-hands meetings: Interactive town hall meetings are an excellent forum for employees to hear from management about decisions being made that will impact how they work and will educate them on factors related to their health. These should be done regularly (even weekly) so that employees feel they are in the loop and have a voice. Include options to broadcast via video calls for employees working at home.

Use a standard communication platform: Tools like Slack or Google Hangouts can help employees stay connected in real-time. These give them the ability to communicate among one another (which also reduces the need for face-to-face interaction), and it allows for management to deliver news and alerts rapidly.

Flexible Processes

One of the keys to successfully navigating the new normal is through flexibility. No one knows what the coming months will bring, and campus leaders must be aware that they are asking a lot of their employees to be back at work. As such, certain rules and guidelines must be followed, but they must also make allowances for the fact that much can change rapidly. Being cognizant of when to change, and then operating in an environment where change can be implemented are essential ways to approach reintegration. It also gives employees assurances that campus leadership is being responsive to health and safety needs.

Be prepared for productivity swings: Managers must be comfortable knowing that productivity may suffer at times while employees adapt to new ways of working. While goals need to be maintained, being flexible in the face of change will enable teams to set appropriate objectives, but be able to re-scope those plans if they need to be changed.

Technology solutions will need to adapt: In a normal environment, IT support staff are able to meet face-to-face with employees who need a laptop fixed or have problems with their workstation. But now that most support is done over the phone and through digital means, it may mean supporting employees in a different way. Rather than go through normal acquisition processes, some schools are doing things like ordering and shipping laptops and monitors directly from Amazon to employees who need them. Always remember that serving employees to make them productive and feeling supported is the goal.

Employee support: Many will be facing unique challenges in their lives, and they will not be very effective at work unless they have the help required to handle the issues they face. HR teams should create shortcuts to help employees gain access to medical benefits, financial counseling, and other types of support that will enable them to navigate a challenging time for themselves and their families.

How schools return to work is as important as when they return. Looking out for students and the myriad services offered to them is core to the mission of all schools, but without the backbone of the staff and faculty, no school can operate effectively. 

COVID-19 has disrupted the world, but it also offers colleges and universities an opportunity to transform the higher education workplace. The steps taken now will be critical for the success of hiring and managing employees in the future; we simply cannot know what lies ahead in the coming months and years, but by starting with the health and well-being of employees, schools can be assured that they have the right foundation for sustainable success.lp cover 2

 

4 min read

How Higher Ed Can Use Predictive Analytics for Student Recruitment and Retention

By BP Logix on Jul 22, 2020 1:36:54 PM

The use of predictive analytics has enabled colleges and universities to perform critical planning for things like enrollment and student retention, and also to understand trends that impact academics and student services. 

With the right mix of data points, schools are better equipped to make smart choices that will impact every aspect of the educational lifecycle. At a time when higher education administrators are anxious about enrollments and operational expenses, being able to predict how to allocate resources and funding can be a major benefit to surviving the first school year after COVID-19. 

Using data to make predictions is nothing new for innovative colleges. In fact, it’s becoming an increasingly useful tool for admissions planning and to help schools avoid the coming enrollment cliff. But in the midst of preparations to resume classes in the fall after months of dealing with the effects of COVID-19, many schools are wondering if anything is predictable in today’s environment. 

Trends among prospective and current students are in a constant state of change, which means that predictive models that worked in the past are no longer usable. With so many unknowns facing colleges and universities, it can sometimes seem that admissions, operations, and IT leaders are increasingly having to make decisions in the dark. Predictive analytics, however, can shed light on a challenging situation.

Benefit from predictive analytics  

To benefit from predictions, schools have to integrate vast amounts of data from various repositories, and then make decisions about how to allocate their organizational attention and resources. Armed with that information, they can make informed decisions that reduce operational friction and improve the acceleration and implementation of actions that impact goal-driven outcomes.  

Some critics are suggesting that predictive analytics are ill-equipped to support the current needs of colleges and universities. The argument is that available data about student intentions and needs have changed so much over the past few months that it can’t paint an accurate picture of what’s to come.  

But the whole purpose of using data to make decisions is predicated on when the data is used. And data changes continuously, so predictions are always based on new information that is informed by changing behaviors. At times of massive change, predictive analytics is probably at its most effective, and colleges and universities are going to benefit from using it as they plan for the fall of 2020 and beyond. 

Let's consider the promise of predictive analytics and look at what schools have been able to do with it:

  • Create programs and frameworks that make student success a primary element of the school’s mission
  • Enable a discipline of adaptability and flexibility that enable schools to meet changing needs as they arise
  • Deploy technology effectively to solve operational issues
  • Maintain quality as a core component of all student-directed efforts

Improve student outreach and retention

Even with so much change happening as a result of COVID-19, colleges and universities are on a never-ending cycle of recruiting, enrolling, and retaining students.  Irrespective of how those students are going to learn, be it through online classes, on-campus, or some hybrid version of the two, schools need to identify students who will be a good fit, convert them into students, and then retain them for the duration of their college experience. That process starts with data.

Communicating with prospective students has always been heavily informed by data. For starters, schools won’t be able to host as many students on-site, as travel restrictions are delaying or even canceling traditional recruiting events. That means that digital communication will become a particularly important channel for marketing efforts, and those efforts will need to be highly targeted to get the attention of prospects who have many options in front of them. 

Schools are able to reach potential students through paid digital media ads, direct mail, email nurturing, and other online formats. These efforts will likely provide schools with even more accurate data about students’ intentions because these channels also give them an avenue to collect data as well. As that collection of information grows, it starts to inform decision-making and creates the ability to start making predictions. 

Some examples of data sets that schools will be able to collect through direct communication include things like:

  • Geographic interest: understanding where pockets of interested students live will help schools maximize their marketing spend by investing heavily in these areas. Conversely, they can reduce spending on areas where there is little interest.
  • Financial aid: schools can ascertain the potential for students to fund their educations and the resulting financial aid requirements that need to be provided for students. This will be a huge benefit to economic planning.
  • Hiring: admissions departments will be able to make predictions about the number of incoming students  which can be used by HR teams to scale up or down as needed. 

Similarly, as current students spend more time away from campus due to sheltering-in-place, it’s critical that schools maintain communication with them. Keeping students informed of upcoming changes and guiding them through an uncertain future will help them stay connected. It also is an important aspect of student retention.

Research has shown that when students are having their needs met and have actionable ways to achieve their goals, retention rates rise significantly and they stay on the path to completion. With data about students’ patterns, backgrounds, and behaviors, schools are identify specific areas where they can support a student who is at risk. Some of these include:

  • Predict when a student is likely to drop out. When students’ grades decline or they continually take less demanding workloads, they may be on a path to leaving school. Intervention through academic counseling, tutoring, or other academic services can keep a student academically engaged and feeling connected to their school.
  • Identify students who are facing financial challenges. When tuition bills are habitually late or if a student has a complex web of financial aid sources, algorithms can alert students to alternative sources of funding. Or there could be a process that signals the financial aid office to contact the student to initiate a meeting to explore options to fund their school experience.
  • Alert when a student may be facing a mental or physical health risk. Health services information can be pulled together to identify students who may be at risk for certain types of health issues. Student services organizations can be marshaled to help the students take part in counseling and other medical and social services to ensure wellness. 

Students may not be interested in predictive data, but what colleges and universities do with that data is critical to students’ success. By employing predictive intelligence and analytics, schools can help students do more than simply navigate the four or more years of college. They have the tools for a meaningful experience that keeps them engaged through graduation.

Topics: application development automation
5 min read

How to survive a dip in Higher Education enrollment

By BP Logix on Jul 17, 2020 1:24:12 PM

Even before Coronavirus spread across the globe, colleges struggled with financial constraints and declining enrollment. Now, they’re scrambling to implement tools and reconfigure processes for remote learning.  

Some universities have already issued statements that the upcoming fall 2020 semester will continue virtually, which could even last through spring 2021. Students are also seeking tuition refunds after switching to online classes, sparking class action lawsuits across the country. 

Because of this, it’s more critical than ever that colleges and universities future-proof their academic and operational model. Nothing but uncertainty lies ahead, and those who are not prepared are likely to fall. But while America’s colleges and universities are sure to lose students in the short term, the pandemic’s obstacle is only temporary compared to the permanent structural forces affecting higher education. 

Digital learning and declining enrollment for fall 2020

Education experts predict that college enrollment will be lower next semester and many colleges and universities are unsure if they will hold classes in-person in the fall.

According to The American Council on Education, a higher education lobby group, on-campus college enrollment will fall by 15% in the upcoming fall semester. This would cost institutions nearly $23 billion in foregone revenue, which would force many campuses to close their doors. Likewise, schools that are able to remain physically open through the pandemic are expected to see a surge in enrollment once it’s safe for students to return to the classroom.

Many universities have already announced their on-campus operational plan to encourage student commitment and provide some assurance of what form their education will take. Some, like Boston University (BU), plan to reopen its residential campus for the fall semester, but other universities like California State University–Fullerton plan to start the fall term online. 

Some universities are also attempting to lead prospective students to enroll in the fall, rather than defer for a year until the pandemic is under greater control. For example, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is offering free tuition to all incoming freshmen who enroll in its campus-based programs next year and will reduce published tuition for all of the following years by 61%. 

According to Lynn Pasquerella, President of the Association of the American Colleges and Universities, colleges are not sure what to expect. “There’s some certainty with respect to a decrease in the number of international students that’s already been in rapid decline with a 14% decrease over the past few years. And they’re worried that this current global pandemic that has spurred an economic recession is going to further catalyze a depression, making it difficult for parents to send their children to college. On the flip side, I think we will see enrollments in online programs rise quite a bit, driven by adult learners — many of whom have been recently laid off — looking to wait out the recession and use their time productively by skilling up.”

Virtual processes can combat shrinking college budgets

The shift to digital learning and online classrooms has forced colleges to refund on-campus expenses like housing, meal plans, gym memberships and more––resulting in huge financial deficits and struggling colleges. On top of this, schools are also expecting a decline in enrollment this fall. 

Yet college leaders have more to worry about––even if campuses reopen this fall, there are worries that many students won't return for fall 2020 due to the recent economic downturn that’s left many unable to afford tuition. Even more, universities are forecasting steep enrollment drop-offs among international students who feel hesitant to study abroad so closely after a global pandemic. And for colleges that rely on international students, officials are bracing for international enrollment to drop by 25%, causing a loss of $70 million next year.

Plunging student enrollment will present different challenges for higher education organizations. Fewer students means less tuition, and much of funding at the state and federal levels relies on the number of students who show up and occupy seats. Even if students are enrolled digitally, they won’t be occupying dorms or purchasing meal plans, causing colleges to lose major sources of revenue. 

It’s not just students who will be missing from campus––renting out property and real estate throughout the summer for things like conferences and freshman orientations, tickets for sports games and summer camps are also a big source of revenue and employment for institutions. We’re even at risk of losing college football and fall sports, leaving organizations faced with the decision to play in front of empty stands, which would eliminate ticket revenue and incur broadcast licensing fees.

  During a recession, enrollment usually goes up as more and more look for safety during a time of high unemployment or look to re-sharpen their skills. Now, university officials are nervous that families whose personal finances have been hurt since they filled out financial-aid forms may decide college has become an unaffordable investment for the time being. 

Following the mid-March college shut-down of campus, schools have announced hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Universities project that a $14 billion federal aid package will not be enough to keep struggling schools afloat, and experts say this recession is just the beginning of hardship if schools cannot identify ways to persuade and convince students to return in the fall, despite colleges preparing to transition into entirely digital learning by the end of the semester. 

Establish future-proof workflows and processes with BP Logix

Colleges and universities are turning more and more to digital workflow solutions that connect their students and employees. Now that students aren’t in dorms, faculty aren’t on campus and the entire world is working from home, there’s still a critical need for structure and process implementation. 

While scale of technology may always be an issue, the approach to problem-solving can be addressed by schools of any size. Workflow can be the defining factor for schools being agile because it is foundational for how problems are solved, irrespective of the technology that’s used.

To implement smooth transitions and enable changes in structure, exchanging data from information systems and financial applications must be solidified and secure. This allows colleges to create clear views into student information and provides the ability to relocate employees so you can become extremely agile as the “new normal” begins to take shape. 

In a normal environment, the reliance on paper forms and manual intervention for decision-making milestones might be tolerated. But with massive pressure to conserve money and be highly efficient during this time of great change, college management, admissions and IT teams have to pull together all these things into an integrated, rapidly moving set of workflows in record time. New workflows and processes require a variety of forms, documents, requests, and decisions to be made.

Many BP Logix higher education customers are already using Process Director to handle these types of issues. Schools like California State University Stanislaus and the University of North Carolina NRI cite their ability to be flexible and quickly develop new processes as major advantages of using Process Director’s workflow automation capabilities as core to their foundation.

Successfully adapt to remote learning and survive a dip in enrollment for the coming semester(s) by transforming your processes and workflows. Process Director delivers capabilities like workflow automation that enables higher education teams to use pre-configured templates to quickly enable remote learning and reduce enrollment decline. 

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Topics: workflow management
4 min read

Machine Learning and Workflow Enable Smart Planning for Higher Ed

By BP Logix on Jul 8, 2020 10:11:23 AM

Behind the admissions process at any college and university is a complex set of activities, milestones, and decisions that go into evaluating students and offering opportunities for enrollment. While the admissions process has never been simple, new layers of complexity have been added as schools deal with new admissions policies and processes in the wake of a post-COVID world.

As more institutions look to adapt, they will need the help of machine learning to support complex layers of decision-making and an agile approach to serving their own needs and those of prospective students.

How machine learning helps smart admissions planning

Colleges typically operate according to an admissions rubric that uses some combination of test scores, high school GPA, and extracurricular activities. Additional measures are also considered, and some academic majors within the school are impacted and are more competitive than others. Now that schools are challenged with hitting aggressive enrollment numbers, even more factors will come into play. Some schools will continue to rely on standardized test scores while others will choose to eliminate them. Hybrid learning options will change the numbers of students that schools can enroll. These factors will have to be agile as schools adapt to meet changing needs in the coming years.

Schools that admit too many students won’t have the resources to serve their needs and aren’t equipped from an institutional level to rapidly adapt to an increase. Conversely, admitting too few students means less enrollment revenue, fewer students in classes, and an impact on staffing and other resources. Hitting the sweet spot of the right number of admitted students is essential, but it’s also a delicate process of prediction.

Process Director applies machine learning (ML) to make sense of historical admissions and enrollment levels, and other demographic data to deliver informed, accurate information that makes intelligent recommendations. It uses Process Timeline, a workflow engine that is easily modifiable by non-developers, can operate in parallel with other applications and processes, and delivers the concept of time-awareness to processes and workflows. The combination of this predictive analysis with case management provides a structure that can identify patterns in current and historical data, and apply that to the admissions process.

The data derived from student information systems (SIS) for student data, learning management systems (LMS) for course capacity, and other repositories of essential data can be integrated into the admissions process. Planning and execution of all admissions activities can be dramatically improved when the data can be analyzed to create a more complete picture. Machine learning can identify patterns and predict behaviors which can then contribute to building the right processes that support expected workload.

Without the ML component, most schools are modeling simply from old data. With Process Director, that data can be predicted in real-time, and continuously improve within this churn of new data and recorded results to improve the reliability of enrollment data.

Process Director and Predictive Analysis

A variety of large, small, public, and private colleges and universities are already using Process Director as the engine for application and admission processes. Workflow automation ensures applications are given the necessary level of scrutiny and review in order to meet the school’s specific requirements. Process Director also enables admissions teams to rapidly build and deploy applications through low code development. This empowers teams because they are equipped with a tool that builds applications that work in a human-directed work style.

Especially as schools have to operate within time constraints as they accept applications, review them, and then deliver acceptance or rejections, it is critical to be able to build and apply the most impactful workflows and processes. Schools are transforming the way they manage the admissions process through Process Director innovations, including:

Document and forms management

Students submit all manner of supporting documentation to improve their chances of admission. This includes transcripts, test scores, recommendation letters, confirmation of awards, and other documents. Some of these are submitted digitally, while some are delivered in paper form. Process Director is able to digitize these documents and include them in each students’ file, which eliminates outdated and inefficient processes like managing files through email attachments and paper-based artifacts.

Reviewing documents or searching for a specific asset about a particular student is enabled through Process Director Knowledge Views, which are easy to configure and even easier to use. The machine learning component can recognize aspects of the students’ academic and extracurricular performance to understand his or her student potential.

The result is more context about a student, provided through validated documents. Process Director also enables sharing of information with trusted decision-makers so that milestones in the process can be made with greater efficiency.

Application integration

The application submission is usually a student’s first touch point with the university, but also a way to engage student data with other applications that can improve her experience. Process Director uses built in connectors for a variety of student information systems, and allows users to construct forms that can pull and deliver data that can be useful for things like financial aid and scholarships, and eventually for housing, remote learning, on-boarding, registration, and course scheduling.

Workflow-enhanced decision-making

The final result of all this work is, for lucky students, acceptance into a desired school. To enable this, Process Director uses the following innovations that make it a first choice for many colleges and universities:

  • Attractive, web-based, and responsive user interaction;
  • Built-in support for multiple languages, locales, and cultures;
  • Easy integration with a broad array of databases, web services, and applications;
  • Directory synchronization with LDAP, Active Directory, and Windows network security;
  • Full integration with federated authentication services, including Oauth and SAML.
  • Strong encryption of data at rest, and data in-flight;
  • Digital signature of documents;
  • Granular permissions structure, with temporary privilege escalation.

Colleges and universities have to adapt their admissions processes as young people evaluate their path through higher education. No school can meet the demands of the post-COVID-19 world on an application-by-application basis.

Small schools that want to align their goals and processes to student behaviors will need to apply change through the use of smart workflow and processes. To serve these needs, Process Director provides digitally transformative machine learning and workflow, facilitates efficient distribution of information, and streamlines the monitoring and management of admissions activities and information.

 

3 min read

Digital Transformation Leads to Operational Efficiency in Higher Ed

By BP Logix on Jun 30, 2020 1:24:14 PM

Colleges and universities must operate with maximum efficiency if they want to have the financial and organizational resources to deliver on their mission to educate and develop students.

At a time when the future is so uncertain, it is critical for schools to emphasize accuracy in their data, accountability in their technology, and have a foundation that will support change. Doing so requires that college IT departments commit to optimizing their technology foundation through the process of digital transformation.

Universities are complex ecosystems that require processes for HR management, financial aid and services, facilities management, capital expenditures, teaching tools, and now more than ever, options for remote learning. Key to having both focus and flexibility to deliver on this wide variety of tasks are workflow and process management.

By pivoting to embed different approaches to teaching and school administrative needs, colleges can transform the way they support their stakeholders and create continuous efficiency as part of the fabric of their normal operations. Business process management (BPM) supports the various needs of higher education functions because processes drive virtually all aspects of campus and academic life.

Lead the digital transformation of your institution with Process Director

BP Logix customers regularly cite Process Director for its agile approach to processes that ensure that higher education IT departments are able to serve a wide variety of stakeholders (administrators, parents, students, financial aid organizations, among others), and still maintain adherence to governmental, organizational, and industry governance requirements and compliance frameworks. Additionally, higher educational institutions are often constrained by a limited budget, and Process Director BPM provides a foundation for delivering effective solutions in a cost-effective way.

Consider how schools are currently benefitting from their transformation efforts. With the creation and re-use of customized, automated processes IT teams are able to do the following

  • Reduce dependence on manual and paper-based processes for student and staff
  • Eliminate redundancies by creating a unified front-end for all campus digital needs.
  • Deliver a better student self-service experience and empowering students to drive their educational paths.
  • Streamline and reduce the steps involved in the review and approval process for requests.
  • Track and summarize requests that needed to route through multiple departments before approval.
  • Meet compliance and regulatory requirements and improve internal audit controls.

Let’s look at some examples of how these things are being realized by schools that have adopted Process Director to support their transformation needs.

Continuous growth, change, and innovation

Davis Applied Technology College (DATC) in Utah has made continuous improvement and transformation part of its strategy for growth and student success. It does this through digital delivery of programs to students and HR, finance, and other types of services to support staff.

Prior to using Process Director, these efforts were hampered by an outdated system of data collection and integration. The school had cabinets filled with paper forms, but recognized how the processes that were manifested in those forms would benefit from workflow automation.

The DATC IT team initiated their transformation efforts with the rapid deployment of Process Director to a number of departments in only a short amount of time. Positive outcomes came rather quickly; the student services department alone the school was able to deliver 17 completed processes within only a few quarters after being deployed. Finance, HR, and IT departments all showed measurable progress in short timeframes.

DATC’s Director of IT said, “Knowing where our business processes and workflow are without having to chase them down is invaluable. What used to take days is taking hours — what used to take weeks is taking days.”

Protecting and automating student records

UCF Global is part of the University of Central Florida system, and supports more than 64,000 students every year through 93 bachelors, 86 masters, and 27 doctoral courses of study.

A major challenge is handling the massive amount of private student data. While that data is protected by federal and state regulations, it’s also important for the school to build trust with students by doing everything possible to safeguard their data. Process Director helps solve these requirements by providing:

  • Granular permissions capabilities, with flexible (and temporary) privilege escalation.
  • Comprehensive and automatic logging, with digital signatures, of every action taken by any actor, human or automated.
  • Data encryption at rest and data in transit.
  • Digital signature and verification of documents.

Digital transformation has helped UCF create a safe environment for transactions and storage of student data. They have been able to build processes that automate the flow of student information through all processes in the student lifecycle, from admissions to graduation.

Colleges and universities are preparing for a variety of different scenarios in both the near and long term. To help them have a foundation that enables agility, Process Director delivers digitally transformative education workflow solutions, which facilitates the efficient streamlining and management of information.

 

 

4 min read

How Colleges and Universities are Preparing for Post-COVID Reopening

By BP Logix on Jun 24, 2020 6:12:04 AM

American colleges should be applauded for their quick and decisive action to protect the health and safety of their communities when COVID-19 first hit. Now that states and institutions are gradually shedding shelter-in-place policies and allowing the opening of businesses and gatherings, there will be scrutiny on higher education leaders to create a logical, workable plan for the fall semester and the foreseeable future.

In an effort to determine effective plans for reopening in the fall, colleges and universities are currently reviewing guidelines and policies from a variety of private and governing bodies. Because there is no single organization policing these plans, it is up to individual institutions and state-wide systems to evaluate guidelines and policies and ultimately determine what will be most effective for them.

Four areas to focus on when returning to campus

To be judicious and thoughtful in their approach, most schools are taking into consideration the advice of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), state and local guidelines, local laws, and the concerns and needs of their own campus communities. University leaders are rapidly reviewing their own policies, in addition to research from the CDC, the American Health College Association, and insights from a variety of college presidents. From this work, we can see that there are four main areas of focus around which colleges and universities are creating their own set of reopening guidelines:

Student and faculty behavioral strategies

Schools want to reduce the spread of viruses by limiting exposure among students. This includes reducing class sizes for on-campus courses, mandating wearing of face masks, and education around things like hand washing, self-care, and limiting gatherings to small groups. Much of these efforts will require education and instilling behaviors. Some schools will choose to simply not return in the fall to seriously limit any form of exposure. Others will pursue a hybrid plan of online and offline courses. Those that will have students on campus in the fall are preparing for the need to increase staffing and resources at campus health facilities.

Effective management of campus facilities

University facilities, student services, and IT teams are working quickly to adapt the physical environment of their schools to be more conducive to social distancing. This includes upgrading and managing ventilation and water systems, adopting continuous disinfection and cleaning practices, limiting usage of common areas like recreational areas, dining halls, and student unions. The impact of these things will dramatically change the student experience, and schools are being cautious to balance safety with student needs.

Balancing remote learning with student needs

The move to online learning that began in March 2020 won’t go completely away. Some schools are opting for 100% online in the fall, while others will adopt a hybrid model. Schools realize also that most students have access to laptops or tablets, which will enable them to be effective at connecting to online, remote classes. For students who don’t have the technology required, colleges will need to provide these to them or offer an effective way to stay engaged when not in actual classrooms and lecture halls. Most schools are currently developing comprehensive strategies for online learning as a long-term option for college students, so what happens in the fall of 2020 could likely form the foundation of the future of learning in higher education. Doing so requires more than just porting coursework and curriculum to an online format, and will demand the efforts of academic experts, IT leaders, and representatives from student, faculty, and university administration.

Protecting the physical and mental health of students and faculty

The CDC recommends that schools develop protocols for isolating, transporting, and caring for students and faculty who develop symptoms or are diagnosed with COVID-19. These include processes that impact health and safety regulations beyond just the campus; local and state health officials will need to be alerted and cases tracked.

The actual implementation of fall plans will undoubtedly integrate various elements of these four factors. Current scenarios that are being considered include the following:

  • Business as usual - some campuses, like Purdue in Indiana, will resume normal campus life and on-campus learning, albeit with precautions and social distancing policies in place. For schools that choose this route, students will be in classes, some recreational activities will resume, and there will be a semblance of normal campus life.
  • 100% online - the California State University system has opted to keep all students at home and go completely online for the fall. There will be economic factors that these schools will need to deal with, as some students will opt not to return to college or may take a gap year. Additionally, faculty and IT teams will be working feverishly to ensure that they can deliver all aspects of academics via the Internet.
  • Hybrid model - the hybrid model of learning will function with classes being conducted both face-to-face and online. For many schools taking this route, they have established a threshold for the number of students allowed in an on-campus class. Many have chosen to limit the number of students in a face-to-face class to fewer than 20. All other classes will be conducted online.
  • Adapted schedules - a common approach is to begin the fall with a mix of online and in-person classes, and to reduce the amount of time the students are on campus. Many will start with their regularly planned beginning of the semester but will close at the start of the Thanksgiving break. That break will last until after the new year, which limits the amount of travel to and from schools, and thus, hopefully reducing exposure to students and faculty.

As colleges figure out their plans, they are factoring in things like feasibility, economic impact, and ensuring they are staying true to their academic missions. Irrespective of the path they take, it will undoubtedly hasten the implementation of certain strategies that some schools had planned for a much later time. But just as universities are leaders in innovation, they may be the best places to see how disruptive changes will impact the face of the new university.

 

 

Topics: COVID19
3 min read

Process Automation Helps Higher Ed Admins Maintain Operational Continuity

By BP Logix on Jun 4, 2020 10:41:39 AM

Colleges and universities have received a lot of praise for how they’ve reacted to the COVID-19 crisis. They had to scramble to put courses online, relocate students out of university housing, and deal with a host of student and institutional financial issues.

Now, colleges are looking to the summer, fall, and beyond as they prepare to maintain some level of continuity in the face of uncertainty. The methods they apply to these challenges will define them for the current and next wave of students, and may reshape higher education for the long term.

Higher education faces disruption

Challenges to American higher education were already on the minds of university administrators and IT leaders before COVID-19. Student enrollment has been in decline, new legislation is requiring them to put efforts into technology compliance, and students’ needs are changing with a new generation entering college.

But then came the coronavirus, and the speed required to meet changing needs has meant that new technology solutions are being applied in almost real-time. For schools that use manual processes and workflows, those changes have been slow to come to fruition. But for institutions that have been willing to apply process automation to their workflows, the ability to shift to meet changing demands has helped them prepare for the uncertainty they face.

Maintaining operations with process automation

Here’s why that’s such a major advantage: most tasks, especially repeatable ones, can be automated so users don't waste time and lose focus. Process automation is all about getting stuff done; at best, it gives people the freedom to do what they're good at while automating the things that can bog them down. Basically, it’s an approach that emphasizes speed while providing guardrails so that key measures aren’t missed. In the complex environment of a university, being able to apply speed to rapidly changing issues is critical.

Universities can improve rapid process change and effectively guide participants by doing the following:

  • Maintaining focus: Centralize all activity on a project towards a specific goal. Eliminate distractions and extraneous activity, enable people to work where they are, when it’s most convenient for them, and in a way with which they are most comfortable.
  • Utilizing status alerts: Use alerts to improve response time for project milestones and timelines.
  • Reducing bottlenecks: Waiting for approvals or feedback can be major momentum-killers. Process automation can eliminate the typical delays that usually accompany decision making; waiting for another participant to deliver feedback on your work can cause collateral damage that the entire team feels. Enabling things like mobile channels keeps projects moving forward because it reduces wait times.

Most importantly, organizations that apply process automation are prepared for current needs, and for an uncertain future. With a process and workflow foundation and the ability to do things like apply case management to specific tasks, and use case management capabilities, process automation can support the need to capture data from multiple sources and communicate it to necessary stakeholders. These are critical for colleges to manage information and act on it quickly.

Benefits of process automation in higher education

When outcomes change rapidly, as is happening as state, federal, and institutional mandates are being continuously updated, process automation offers a foundation on which admissions, housing, financial aid, facilities, HR, and other operational elements that a college can build from. Specifically, it allows agile IT teams to do the following:

  • Automate processes, integrate apps with existing systems, and easily connect to data from multiple sources so information and functionality render in a single user experience. Each instance of building a connector can cost as much as $25,000 in developer expenses when using traditional methods. Process Director, for example, uses process automation so that even non-developers can pull necessary data into applications.
  • Optimizing ROI from legacy applications to rapidly deliver user experiences and increase user adoption. This is especially critical at a time when students and faculty will be engaging with new forms, systems, and experiences that guide them through things they haven’t done previously, such as registering for online courses, purchasing digital textbooks, applying for financial aid in new ways.
  • Designing and building best-in-class apps that can be deployed when needed. Provide the ability to iterate and improve as schools learn more.
  • Recognizing and delivering solutions for all aspects of the university experience. This includes things like HR management, student recruiting, facilities and operations, and alumni relations.
  • Migrating applications from on-premises to the cloud.
  • Delivering applications in mobile formats to increase usage for students, faculty, and school staff.

Adaptation to recent changes is a critical priority for innovative university administration and IT leaders, which is dictating new operational approaches. These include a new-found focus on how services are delivered and what that means for student engagement. To facilitate these changes, the effective application of process-related solutions will be critical to have a long-term effect.

Learn how colleges like Cal State Stanislaus and Ogden-Weber Technical are using process director and preparing for a post-COVID reopening

5 min read

Colleges Use Workflow & Process Management to Navigate COVID-19 Disruption

By BP Logix on May 21, 2020 2:06:10 PM

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No matter their size, private/public designation, endowment, or geography, all colleges and universities are experiencing major changes due to COVD-19. While large universities have received the most attention for the challenges they’re experiencing, it’s often smaller schools that are hit hardest. 

Faced with limited budgets and fewer resources, small colleges are already dealing with the challenges of meeting enrollment demands, effectively servicing students and being nimble enough to adapt to change. With major disruptions for all schools because of COVID-19, smaller schools have to make moves to be prepared for navigating uncertain territory. 

There is no question that smaller schools are an essential part of higher education. They usually have better student-to-faculty ratios, offer specialized academic tracks and are better options for students who want to be part of a smaller environment. 

Small liberal arts colleges emphasize a broad array of academic disciplines, while some regional schools focus more on training for professional services like fire services, nursing and other service-related professions. 

Higher education workflows address key technology needs

The changes that stem from the coronavirus have thrown everyone for a loop. Schools are having to build solutions immediately to address current needs and they are developing plans for an uncertain future. The major difference between big and small schools in the current education landscape comes down to technology and how it’s applied to solve these problems. 

However, budget restrictions of smaller schools prevent massive student relationship management systems and armies of software developers that spin up solutions as needed. While scale of technology may always be an issue, the approach to problem-solving can be addressed by schools of any size. Workflow can be the defining factor for schools being agile because workflow is foundational to how problems are solved, irrespective of the technology that’s used.

Establishing a workflow & process management foundation

Effective workflow, however, is more than just a series of tactical activities. It aligns with user intent and is applied to the unique technology functionality required of a college’s students, faculty and other stakeholders. 

It also helps to create behaviors that maximize usage and deliver meaning to users. This is especially important when higher education is changing behaviors for things like online learning, applying for financial aid, hiring and offering new types of student services. 

A workflow foundation will also help when even those new solutions change as schools change regulations to adapt to new governmental and health and safety requirements.

The three most critical aspects of aligning workflow, technology and university needs are ease of use, solution context, and communication. Effective workflow ensures that all these elements are met so that users have not just a more efficient experience, but one they can begin to rely on to consistently meet their needs irrespective of the rate and type of change they will experience in the short- and near-term. Let’s look more closely at how these factors can support the needs of smaller schools:

Workflow & process management simplifies digital experiences

Process Director provides a great example of how ease of use can translate into effective solutions. It enables the creation of sophisticated, low-code digital applications that take into account the necessary data and workflow sources on the back-end, and considers how users on the front-end will actually use the app. 

By being able to create simple apps that integrate relevant information, including smart forms and processes, students can get the information they need and take action on things like class scheduling, financial aid, and other relevant events. The teams who build the apps benefit from Process Director’s agile approach to adapt as needed to increase adoption and productivity. 

While Process Director is easy to use for those who need to build applications rapidly and continuously meet changing needs.

Workflow & process management provides context for data

Small college IT teams use Process Director to optimize the use of data so that the applications they create help students engage and complete tasks with limited disruption to their schedules. 

Process Director helps direct the way that organizations surface and orient data through interactive forms and workspaces. Just as human interaction is complex, Process Director looks at the workflows in applications not as a linear phenomenon, but as a continuously shared collection of usable elements that allow for context-based structural changes, last moment decisions, and individualized attention depending on each circumstance.

The case management approach inherent in Process Director also helps greatly when delivering applications that integrate historical data on students (transcripts, payments, scholarships). With navigable data that can be filtered for omission or inclusion depending on the situation, applications can adapt as the students’ situations change and evolve.

This approach supplies students with applications that provide them with what they need when they need it, all without forcing them to search outside the context of the case to find answers.

The Importance of Communication

Students and faculty are being bombarded with emails, texts, direct messages and a host of other types of communication in order to get the information they need. However, that information can go unnoticed if it doesn’t fit with how they are accustomed to consuming news and alerts. Schools need to ensure that students see important messages, but also create ways for students to communicate back with them.

With capabilities that facilitate connecting and communicating across departments, Process Director can help schools collect applications, forms and data sources into a collective portal that delivers all student’s actionable needs into a single interface. That reduces response time and enhances the kind of communication students need in order to adapt to changes, stay on top of opportunities and always be current about how they can interact with their school.

Final thoughts

No school, irrespective of size, can meet the demands of the post-COVID-19 world on an application-by-application basis. Small schools that want to align their goals and processes to student behaviors will need to apply change through the use of smart workflow and processes. 

To serve these needs, Process Director provides digitally transformative and contextual education workflow solutions, facilitates efficient distribution of information and streamlines the monitoring and management of information.

Learn how colleges like Cal State Stanislaus and Ogden-Weber Technical are using process director and preparing for a post-COVID reopening

Topics: application development case management education COVID19
4 min read

Low-code Development Supports College Admissions Changes Due to COVID-19

By BP Logix on May 11, 2020 5:45:32 PM

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"There's no good time for a pandemic. But for admissions, this has got to be the worst time.”
- Jon Boeckenstedt, vice provost for enrollment management at Oregon State University

For millions of current and incoming college students, the financial, health, and social factors surrounding COVID-19 are causing them to change their higher education plans. As a result, college admissions and IT departments are going to have to change their normal processes to adapt to the needs of a whole new wave of college students.

Consider the findings from a recent poll about incoming college freshmen: One in six high-school seniors who expected to attend a four-year college full time before the coronavirus outbreak are now planning to embark on a different path in the fall of 2020. Three out of five students who still plan on attending college are seriously concerned about their ability to afford college.

The reality of all this uncertainty creates a huge workload for college admissions officials and IT leaders who will need to develop new software applications processes to address a variety of admissions issues, including:

  • Enrollment deferment 
  • Changing admissions requirements
  • Communication with students
  • Timelines and plans for reopening campuses, which includes facilities and scheduling

These are just some of the issues that schools are dealing with, none of which can be addressed in a simple fashion. For IT departments, the key is agility. Decisions are being made by school leadership on a daily basis which impacts enrollment, admissions for the fall semester and beyond. 

Low-code development starts with data, builds with process

University data and content is currently stored in a wide variety of applications. They range from the basic (spreadsheets and graphics) to complex (some data analytics solutions and massive ERP systems). All of that data serves a purpose, and in a time when colleges are moving quickly to create new and updated admissions and enrollment processes, the data has to be able to be called into use whenever and wherever it can be most applicable. Information is important, but using it in context with other data is where schools stand to be most effective. To do this requires being able to build software apps quickly and for specific purposes.

The best way to bring new applications to productive use is to reduce development time, and when addressing the changing landscape in response to COVID-19, speed is critical. To meet this challenge, low-code development has emerged as an efficient way to create software. It is a methodology and approach that uses reusable, pre-built components of code and applies them in a drag-and-drop fashion that simplifies the coding effort and accelerates the pace at which applications are built.

Rapid application development for the post-COVID university

The promise of low-code development is attained through speed, efficiency, and the democratization of technology. Business needs can be met through rapidly-built applications that can be created by non-programmers. All of a sudden, solutions can be created and put to use by those closest to business problems. At a time when the future is difficult to plan for, this level of agility will give college IT departments their best chance at delivering solutions for these unique times.

It’s easy to think of low-code as a rip-and-replace substitute for all application development, but in this case, it’s more about enabling university administrators to iterate on their changing admissions application requirements.  It also puts people who are closest to problems in a position to create or at least initiate solutions. But much of the ability to do that corresponds to understanding admissions needs, changing academic requirements, and the available data the school can work with. Even though low-code is much easier than complex development, it still demands time, a plan, and trial-and-error. 

There is no one single system of record that can be used when changes are happening so quickly; colleges typically rely on a variety of different student information management and other types of enterprise planning apps. The key becomes, then, the ability to integrate data from those sources into custom-built apps to serve their changing needs. Speed will be critical to developing these new apps. Schools will not have time for traditional software development cycles, which means non-developers will have to be included in the process of scoping and building apps. 

Learn how colleges like Cal State Stanislaus and Ogden-Weber Technical are using process director and preparing for a post-COVID reopening

Topics: application development case management education COVID19
4 min read

COVID-19 Impacts Higher Ed HR Practices – Workflow Automation Can Help

By BP Logix on May 5, 2020 3:17:09 PM

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Changes happening now in higher education as a result of the coronavirus pandemic are undoubtedly having a major impact on students all across the country. The way they engage with classes and benefit from various services will undergo sweeping changes as social distancing becomes more normalized into every day human behavior. 

There have been hero-like efforts by many who have conceived and delivered short-term solutions; these are the people in IT who have had to integrate systems, build custom apps, and generally drive a completely new face of the university in record time. But their solutions are helping with changes that affect more than just students.

What many may not realize is this: for schools to remain viable and adhere to their mandates, they will need to change their HR practices in order to create a workforce that can deliver the next phase of higher education. To do that will require HR processes that enable them to hire, reassign, and manage the right people to deliver solutions for the new world of higher education.

Agility to meet changing HR needs in higher education

Higher education strategies for HR have typically been built around hiring that’s mapped to long-term growth plans. But in the face of COVID-19, these plans are largely thrown out the window while schools move rapidly to adapt to their new and changing needs. As a result, a new HR playbook must be created.

Some schools have established hiring freezes. Others have reduced staff who were performing outdated functions. Others recognize that they need people who can turn their campuses into innovative engines that can recreate what a university is going to be in the post-COVID world. For some, that means hiring for these roles, while for others, it means reassigning existing staff and faculty. For each of these situations, schools need to develop effective workflows for smooth transitions and ensure they have the staff they need to limit disruption.

All of these situations require some form of organizational orchestration which can be driven by effective workflow automation. At most schools, the goal is to do whatever is necessary to finish out the school year and maintain the effective delivery of classes. But forward-thinking colleges are not only delivering for the short-term. Long-term strategies can wait, but limiting disruption by deploying the right staff is a priority. But it takes more than a checklist to ensure that goals are met. 

Using workflow automation to meet immediate and long-term needs

Staffing changes involve many organizational and personal data. In order to create smooth transitions, these changes must be supported through data from HR information systems and financial applications. This enables a title change or reporting structure to become officially recognized and creates a clear view into an employee’s job description and responsibilities. It means that schools can reallocate employees where they can most be beneficial in meeting new challenges and sets up the college to be agile once a “new normal” begins to take shape. This is clearly important for the college - the HR team is able to quickly adapt as needed. But it also takes into account the issues of privacy of individual staff information.

To make this all happen requires a variety of forms, documents, requests, and decisions to be reviewed and acted on. In a normal environment, the reliance on paper forms and manual intervention for decision-making milestones might be tolerated. But with massive pressure to conserve money and be highly efficient during this time of great change, HR and IT teams have to pull together all these things into an integrated, rapidly moving set of workflows in record time. 

Many BP Logix higher education customers are already using Process Director to handle these types of issues. Schools like the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)  and Davis Applied Technology College (DATC), near Salt Lake City, cite their ability to be flexible and quickly develop new processes as major advantages of using Process Director’s workflow automation capabilities as core to their foundation.

With a limited budget and vague goals, all college HR and IT teams need to be able to innovate to hire, reassign, and perform other essential tasks related to having an efficiently operating workforce. Process Director delivers capabilities like workflow automation and lightweight application development functionality that enable higher education HR teams to do the following:

  • Rapidly build processes and create forms to collect new and existing HR information housed in existing applications, and to be able to integrate that with updated information from the employees themselves.
  • Create time-dependent milestones that use automated communication and workflow to ensure that the right decision-makers are included.
  •  Efficient approval handling.
  • Insight and visibility into all aspects of processes.

Workflow automation can intelligently apply relevant data from various applications and documents into a shareable profile of each employee. This case management approach provides clarity for all workflows that touch each employee so that important decisions that impact their working situation can be achieved faster and with greater context. Process Director also has native integration with popular HR systems like PeopleSoft and other enterprise apps which makes it easy for non-developer to build workflows with the full complement of various application modules that are relevant to employee management.

COVID-19 has clearly changed all aspects of higher education and will test the ability of university leaders to maintain the viability of their schools. When they are able to build the right school with the right people, colleges and universities will be prepared to meet the demands of the new normal. Through the application of workflow automation, colleges will be equipped to meet both the short-term changes and long-term HR demands required in our changing world.

Learn how colleges like Cal State Stanislaus and Ogden-Weber Technical are using process director and preparing for a post-COVID reopening

Topics: application development case management education
4 min read

Case Management for Student Mental Health

By BP Logix on Mar 31, 2020 10:12:51 AM

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College students face a world that is far more complex than it was even 20 years ago. They must navigate more than only their academic environment; the world they’ve grown up in, and the path for a post-college life present challenges that have left many with anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Without a doubt, this is a massive issue. Many administrators are applying innovative ways of helping students through individualized care, supported through effective approaches like case management.

Student Mental Health Trends

Emotional and mental health issues like depression and anxiety have become far more prevalent among today’s higher education students, with many feeling that these issues are among the biggest barriers to fully engaging and performing well in school. More than 16% of  students reported that depression had a negative impact on how they performed with academic and social issues, with anxiety impacting more than 24% of students. Mental illness is clearly affecting far more young people, so it’s important for schools to provide mental health support for their students and for students to have opportunities to seek the help they need.

The management of mental and behavioral health requires different processes and the coordination of many people. Effectively administering services has become more sophisticated and requires the input of a broader array of medical and university stakeholders, and more data from a variety of sources. The key is to focus these inputs and resources so they can deliver better outcomes for students in the form of treatment, medical care, intervention, or other avenues. The most effective way of achieving positive results is through applying a case management approach. This provides insights and context for each individual student who is receiving services and treatment.

Mental health case management has to incorporate strategies from multiple fields and departments across the institution. It includes social workers, psychology professionals, and medical doctors, and the information they provide about the student must be centrally collected and accessible so they can collaborate. Despite its complicated nature, best practices for behavioral health case management can be summarized by three guiding principles: individualized care, professional responsibility, and a comprehensive approach to treatment. Each of these is an umbrella under which many aspects of effective case management fall. Let’s look at these in more detail:

Individual student care: Case management takes into account that not all situations are the same. Effective case management must take each client’s unique combination of situations and needs into account. This means being able to pull relevant data from different data repositories to get a comprehensive picture of the student’s situation. It might include:

  • Background: student demographics and personal information from administrative applications can provide a picture of the student’s family situation and support structure.
  • Academic performance: information coming from grades, projects, and reviews may give insight into trends about where, and when, students have been both successful and unsuccessful academically.
  • Medical history: university healthcare and insurance information will provide information about substance abuse, medications, or other factors that might contribute to students’ situations.

Professional responsibility: academic organizations are dealing with very sensitive information, so case managers and social workers need a special kind of discipline. The two most important factors in maintaining a disciplined and responsible approach is through, 1) effective documentation, and 2) patient privacy:

  • Documentation: higher education health professionals and their support staff must maintain accurate, up-to-date records of their clients that are easily accessible when necessary, and can be used in processes that deliver services. While in the past that meant detailed, hand-written notes kept in a physical folder, the transition to digital patient records has facilitated more diligent documentation along with more streamlined coordination of care.
  • Privacy: college and university healthcare providers have to abide by compliance mandates to protect student privacy. A case management approach can ensure guidelines so that patient information is only shared for specific needs and only with student permission. Those guidelines will be used to share information where necessary and permitted, and prevent data from getting into the wrong hands.

Comprehensive approach: successful behavioral health case management requires an understanding of all aspects of a student's life. The right case management solution will connect all relevant providers so as to better integrate clients' medical, social, educational, and vocational information and then apply that information into effective treatment. This treatment may come from university health services, or through contracted arrangements with other providers. But by coordinating through a single case management application, academic organizations have a much better way of achieving the kind of success that’s needed to address very serious problems, and help students become successful.

Case management is a powerful way to enable higher education professionals to be effective contributors to the successful delivery of student health. It also enables integration of relevant data, and timeline-driven workflows that can give professionals visibility into the best courses of action. Case management enables organizations to build and manage digital applications that coordinate the efforts of different groups, yet can connect them all to the same goals. This creates a powerful framework that helps university departments and the power of their IT stack to achieve truly powerful outcomes for students in need.

Process Director can be used to apply a case management approach for student mental health services. It allows schools to integrate data and documents from various applications into a shareable profile of students under care. This provides clarity for all workflows that touch the students during their treatment so that important decisions that impact their mental health can be achieved faster and with greater context.

Topics: application development case management education
3 min read

Using Process Timeline to Embrace Customer Journey Mapping

By BP Logix on Mar 26, 2020 9:07:08 AM

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Knowing all you can about customers gives you insights into how they’re using your product and how you can support them. The best-case scenario for customer intelligence is that you learn predominantly during the prospecting phase and then maintain a close relationship that allows you to continue to build your customer knowledge thereafter. When that happens, you can be strategic about developing products that you know will meet their needs, which will help you continue to sell (and upsell) while you maintain your relationship.

But the reality is that it’s difficult to understand customers and how they think. You may not always know what questions to ask, and they might not even be aware of the benefits they’re receiving (or not receiving) by using your product.

Customer journey mapping, however, can be an effective way to get inside the brains of your customers. And even better, it identifies patterns that will help you understand customer behaviors, which can help predict future actions. This will put you in a position to service the specific needs of customers throughout their entire engagement with you.

Customer journey mapping is applicable across many departments in a company because it’s an exercise that impacts so many customer-driven activities. Sales, marketing, product management, user experience (UX), and IT all benefit from insights into how customers work with their product and company. The results of mapping help you to visualize your customer’s experience from the customer’s point of view, and for all the various touch-points they have with your product and people as they seek to achieve a specific outcome.

Customer Journey Maps Deliver Key Insights

The format for a customer journey map is usually an integrated, visual representation of the customer experience. How do they use your product/service? What information and support do they need from your services and sales teams? These journey maps can take complicated information and analytics about customers and provide a unified set of data about how customers engage with your company.

The customer map is generally built from the customer’s point of view and gives vendors a powerful way to make better decisions that will benefit customers. It is a combination of behavioral data (some of which requires deeper analysis) and anecdotal feedback from customers and provides the following:

  • A comprehensive understanding of a customer’s overall experience with the vendor and its product
  • Identification of how impactful the vendor’s product has been in helping them address specific goals
  • Awareness of potential points of frustration, or where the vendor falls short of expectations

This kind of information is hugely valuable and gives companies far better and more usable insights than the traditional tools, which usually rely on competitive analysis, sales forecasts, and general market trends.

The Dimension of Time in Customer Insights

What if you could predict how your product and service could make your customer more successful, and then use that information in your engagement? This can only be done with predictive capabilities, which is what Process Timeline was designed for.

Process Timeline enables companies to apply business process automation for creating time-aware business processes to help organizations get deeper, and more meaningful insights into customer activity. It uses machine learning to integrate information from multiple applications and data source, and then create processes that can predict actions based on behavioral norms. Applying this in the context of customer usage means that you can create a sense for how customers are using your products, how they engage with your company, and where there are gaps you might want to fill.

When the dimension of time is applied to customer journey mapping, the major advantages are insights into what you’re doing well, and what you could be doing better in order to create an overall better experience. This includes things like:

  • The quality of your interactions with customers. What things do you provide that make them most satisfied, and where are they dissatisfied? Gain insight into behavioral patterns so you know what needs to be emphasized and what needs to be fixed. 
  • Where are customers prevented from achieving their business goals? Could your product or service do more to support them and relieve them from having to rely on multiple solutions or apps in order to be successful? Having an understanding of the limits of your product (at least, the limits they perceive) will guide you in building a more usable product.
  • Customer decision-making. Knowing how your customer is making decisions, and who in the organization is responsible for them will make sure you’re building the right product for the right people.

Process Timeline delivers these and other insights and does it in a future context. In other words, it identifies patterns and gaps and can communicate those to your team so they can refine the processes for product development and customer communication. Armed with this kind of information, you can communicate intelligently to your customers about issues you are taking steps to resolve. You can also involve customers early in the various decisions that will impact how they engage with you in the future.

The element of time offers a strategic advantage when planning for the future. And because your future depends on happy customers, adding Process Timeline into your customer journey mapping processes will keep you tightly engaged with prepared to meet future challenges.

Topics: application development
2 min read

How to Prioritize Process Automation Projects

By Andrew Kelly on Mar 17, 2020 8:57:58 AM

How to Prioritize Process Automation Projects

Automating processes is easier to do today than ever before. Most workers have an understanding of how automation impacts their work, and IT teams are automating increasing numbers of business-critical tasks. Ultimately, automation reduces operational costs and improves productivity, so it is a no-brainer as a top priority for almost any company. You can find more on how to stand up an automation initiative here.

In order to actually deliver on the automation promise, however, IT teams need to be selective about what processes they automate, and how they reconcile their automation efforts with company goals. Without a plan based on specific goals, time, money, and resources are misspent and it prevents more important processes from getting priority. That’s frustrating for the internal team members who rely on process improvement, but the real impact is felt when companies see their growth slowed while they waste time trying to implement the wrong things.

With that in mind, consider that automation works best for repetitive tasks that typically suck a lot of time from humans. Also, think about how machine learning and artificial intelligence can deliver advantages in some things that humans might typically complicate.

Your team does not have unlimited time, and the business cannot stop while you figure out your priorities. So, it’s best to start your list of automation projects where you can get the biggest potential impact, along with the highest probability of success.

Identifying which processes need automation requires focus on the part of IT and business team leaders. It’s challenging to agree on how to move forward, but with a well-formed plan, teams can create an effective priority-based list of automation projects. The first step will require exploration and discovery, which can be built with a standardized methodology for evaluating and prioritizing the right processes, and in the order, they should be automated. This approach will enable a defined set of criteria to determine which processes are good candidates for process automation.

The team tasked with this needs to explore these issues and questions:

  • What are the current pain points our company faces that could be potentially solved through process automation?
  • Does automation of these processes align with company goals?
  • If we automate, do we get ROI, and will the cost to automate be absorbed through these savings?
  • Do we have the expertise and resources available to perform the necessary tasks to automate a given process?

The answers you get from the above list is a starting point, but armed with a set of potential processes, your team now needs to get into “brass tacks” and determine if you can actually take the necessary steps to automate. When looking at your project candidates, see if they meet these criteria:

  • Are prone to human error
  • Operate with frequency
  • Have repetitive elements
  • Can be integrated with other processes or applications
  • Use a structured format for data
  • Can be performed in a continuous fashion (e.g., are not dependent on specific hours of the day when they run)

With these questions answered, you should be able to prioritize your list of automation projects. The next step is to create general requirements for these projects. This list of requirements should include the following:

  • Executive sponsor
  • Key stakeholders
  • Goals
  • Project milestones
  • Document requirements and needs; e.g. when a document is needed, where can it be accessed from, and where will it be stored?

Your team should now be comfortable with a list of projects, prioritized in such a way that they can be achieved, and that they can show impact quickly. This strategic approach will ensure you can deliver value and save costs. These things will demonstrate true transformational change that will create a better operating model for your organization.

Topics: application development automation digital transformation
2 min read

Process Timeline: Automation with the Benefit of Time

By BP Logix on Mar 9, 2020 9:06:32 AM

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Process Director is an effective, proven, and comprehensive process automation solution for a variety of vertical markets. An additional advantage it delivers to customers is a unique function called Process Timeline™, which is process automation functionality for creating easily modifiable and time-aware business processes to help organizations with their process improvement.

BP Logix developed Process Timeline to help organizations improve planning for business outcomes by addressing the lack of predictability in workflows and processes. While most process automation solutions can only tell you when a particular task is late, Process Timeline uses its knowledge of an organization’s process execution history to automate and predict when each task is likely to complete, no matter how far in the future that task is scheduled to begin.

Process Timeline Features

Process Timeline offers a simple way to compose, manage, and modify business processes. Process-related data and analysis, such as process duration and critical path insights, are delivered in a continuous fashion as processes are running. Organizations recognize significant advantages through features such as:

Low-code Approach

Designed for business users, Process Timeline gives non-developers the ability to build and deploy enterprise-grade, time-aware workflows and processes, with no programming.

  • Build rich, complex applications through point-and-click method.
  • Intuitive graphical user interface facilitates rapid deployment and time-to-value.

Continuous Improvement

Time is essential to all business activity. Late actions, or actions that Process Timeline predicts will be late—are highlighted and identified while they are running.

  • Visual task building interface that lists tasks, dependencies, and highlights potential issues.
  • Process Timeline automatically generates and updates a visual interface that identifies, at a glance, how (and for how long) the process will run

Keep Processes On-Track

Process Timeline offers the earliest possible notification that some future task is predicted to be late, and can automatically take direct action, escalating or rerouting activities to account for the predicted delay.

  • Process Timeline continuously evaluates processes based on past experience and current status.
  • Provides accurate predictions when any future activity is likely to be delayed, offering the earliest possible opportunity for manual or automatic intervention.

Tracking and Measurement

As organizations evolve, performance analysis and awareness are critical for continuous improvement.

  • Process Timeline records every action taken by every process participant (human or automated), ensuring total accountability.
  • Process Timeline maps users to activities within process that are consuming the most time, so users can quickly focus process improvement efforts where they will have the most impact.
  • Drill down to review historical information about any activity, or to see how different actors have performed within a given task.
  • Reset analytics at any time to get a fresh perspective.
Topics: application development
3 min read

Digital Integrations for Higher Education

By BP Logix on Mar 2, 2020 8:45:16 AM

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Today’s colleges and universities require comprehensive data communication to be successful in supporting the needs of students, faculty, and other stakeholders. In an ideal situation, applications connect seamlessly with one another, but in reality, different software solutions were built to solve for different needs. As a result, they weren’t necessarily designed to share data. Yet, for innovative campus IT teams, achieving harmony among all these systems can be achieved with a smart digital integration strategy.

When applications and technology systems operate together as a functioning, cohesive machine, colleges achieve optimal outcomes with their technology investments, and they’re also better equipped to meet their goals as academic institutions. Achieving that level of interoperability requires a focused effort to align tools and strategies. This includes the processes built around those applications, the methodologies for applying them, and systems and the people managing those processes. As digital transformation changes the way that academic organizations stay innovative, it’s important to know how each can advance their enterprise integration management strategies.

Preparing for Higher Education Digital Integration 

Integrating digital systems is an ongoing challenge for colleges and universities because they require such a diverse set of systems, from ERP to SIS to HRIS. Some are centrally-run systems while others are spun up at the departmental level. Campus IT teams are constantly trying to meet new technology needs that come from things like compliance mandates, the creation of new student services, developments in academic departments, and a host of other changes.

The best way to optimize a school’s technology investments and maximize the potential of its systems is to integrate applications so data can be shared. Doing so requires a foundation, one that is process-based, that will provide the framework for building new applications and connectors between and among applications.

To get started with an integration plan, schools must first identify the outcomes they desire and then map the applications that will provide the necessary data and functionality to meet those outcomes. For example, the registrar’s office could schedule classes faster if it could integrate data about facilities availability, enrollment numbers, and course requirements. In many cases, that information has to be retrieved in separate and disparate formats. A single view, delivered through integration, helps expedite scheduling.

Build Process and Workflow into Integration Requirements

Requirements can then be built, and on top of those requirements, teams can start to build processes. These processes must deliver, at a minimum, these things:

  • Workflow automation: most applications will have some level of built-in workflow. The goal of processes is to ensure that workflows are connected so that real-time updates in one application are correspondingly made in applications to which it is connected. Consider how convenient it is for financial aid information to automatically populate with a students’ tuition bill so she knows, in real-time, precisely what her financial responsibility is.
  • Connector flexibility: applications are upgraded from time to time, and they deploy new functionality. Make sure that processes are flexible enough to adapt to changes in existing systems, and can be applied to new technologies.
  • Productivity gains: the whole point to an integration strategy is to be more productive with the technology that’s available to you. Make sure that stakeholders are actually getting better visibility into data and then able to apply that, through automation, to improving performance.

Deploying a Sustainable Digital Integration Strategy

Once goals have been identified and processes begin to be built, IT teams need to perform some important steps as part of their strategy as the initiate integration efforts:

  • Develop a set of proven best practices from process thought leaders. Familiarize yourself with case studies of colleges who have done this kind of work.
  • Partner with stakeholders (others in IT, department heads, users, executive sponsors, and others) to determine what their specific needs are. Learn their pain points and understand what constitutes “integration nirvana” for them.
  • Establish a content governance framework so that processes adhere to a specific, but flexible, set of requirements.
  • Ensure compliance for industry and institutional compliance frameworks.

A Continuous Integration Roadmap

At this point, you will have a vision and an actionable roadmap. With a tool like Process Director, you can initiate the integration process. This can be done by identifying which inputs will inform your integrations, and how that data will be incorporated into it. Typical integrations come from applications like these:

  • Databases
  • LDAP or directory servers
  • Standard enterprise applications like CRM, marketing automation, HR systems, and others
  • Specific higher education tools like student lifecycle management, financial services apps for financial aid, scheduling and logistics apps, and others
  • Document Imaging Software / Scanners
  • File System Monitor Application Integration
  • Email Servers
  • Social BPM Application and Workflow Application Integration
  • SharePoint or other file-related applications

With a process-driven approach, campus IT teams will be able to dramatically reduce cost and improve efficiency. Processes allow them to handle connections among the applications and systems listed above, as well as others so there are repeatability and consistency. Insight and visibility into all aspects of processes.

With integrated applications, the entire student lifecycle can become far more streamlined, and university operations can be more efficient. Academic organizations can realize significant cost savings and better deployment of resources. By sharing data and functionality, colleges and universities will be able to emphasize their strengths to their stakeholders as they provide the best possible college experience for all stakeholders.

Topics: application development business process automation
3 min read

New Higher Ed Accessibility Legislation – What it Means for Your Processes

By BP Logix on Feb 25, 2020 9:15:43 AM

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Recently, a bipartisan team of members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill that would promote equal access to academic opportunities, services, and materials for students with disabilities. The Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act, also known as the AIM HIGH Act, would create a commission to develop voluntary accessibility criteria for instructional materials and educational technology.

The AIM HIGH Act is the result of a collaboration between the National Federation of the Blind, the Association of American Publishers, the Software and Information Industry Association, the American Council on Education, and Educause. To successfully implement the provisions of the Act, schools will need to create processes both for implementation and to monitor compliance. Done effectively, these processes will also generate analytical insights that will help schools become better at delivering services and at meeting their institutional goals and legal mandates. The most effective tool to support these efforts is with a business process solution.

Codifying Accessibility with Processes

Accessibility takes on many different forms. As a general rule, information and communication technology is considered accessible and usable if it can be used in a similar fashion, and to the same effective results by people both with and without disabilities. Essentially, comparable access to information must be provided, taking the needs of all users and learners into account. Digital formats can complicate accessibility for not just the sightless and the hearing impaired, but also for those who are color blind, those prone to seizures, and people with physical limitations that require keyboard navigation rather than the use of a mouse. These are only some examples.

Things like what to make accessible, and how to comply with the Act will fall to individual schools to decide. Without specific guidelines, the effort could be complex, but with a process-driven approach, IT teams can frame the scope of the effort to become AIM HIGH compliant and customize to their own needs.

University IT departments can start by developing workflow standards to guide all aspects of development and implementation. Building these standards will be critical for establishing the consistency needed to be accessible in the eyes of the legislative framework, and the agility to manage the specific needs of individual cases.

IT teams can start by identifying specific categories they need to work on, including:

  • Testing and data collection tools: this includes things like Web-based tests (open-ended or multiple choice), or data collection that students might employ in the course of doing academic research.
  • Academic presentation material: includes electronic document templates used to create coursework-related documents or presentations. This could be a standard PowerPoint template that’s required to establish a common look and feel for presentations or requirements for using and submitting term papers in Google Documents.
  • Educational materials: this covers interactive online courses, which are increasingly becoming used in higher education. This includes self-paced training courses; educational webinars; other educational presentation formats; and support materials for such activities, including electronic worksheets, required reading, and tests. It could also include a course syllabus or administrative documents and tools.

Implementing Accessibility with Process Director

Process Director has long been used in higher education to meet all manner of student and institutional needs. It can be a critical tool in helping to codify and manage the necessary processes that will help schools be successful in administering AIM HIGH and other accessibility requirements.  IT teams can use functionality in Process Director to apply a guided approach that includes:

  • Discovery: it’s essential for IT teams to understand the unique needs of the issues for which they are solving. A well-prepared team will be better able to incorporate specific milestones, approvals, and decision-making into workflows if can use a process-driven approach to understanding and implementing necessary tasks.
  • Awareness: this is about recognizing when to accommodate and when it’s not necessary. This may seem easy to ascertain, but for someone who has never had to consider accessing a website in a way where they have unique physical or mental abilities, it may be difficult to truly understand how to meet the needs of different users.
  • UX design: make sure that the design of any digital format is built in an accessible way, and perform UX testing with the audience for which the solution is being developed.
  • Visual design: this is different from UX. Visual design is about the actual placement and layout of web pages, forms, and other tools so they can be interpreted and understood.
  • Development: your code should be accessible so that, irrespective of ability, it is able to be deployed in different formats.
  • Workflow development: ensure that in all workflows, AIM HIGH requirements accounted for.

To successfully meet the needs of higher education inclusion, colleges and universities will need a dedicated effort that includes some level of complexity. In order to make sense of it and roll it out successfully, they will require a process-driven approach. Being compliant with legislation like AIM HIGH will be one goal of these efforts, but of far more importance will be the ability to create an inclusive learning environment for learners of all types of abilities.

Topics: application development business process automation digital transformation
5 min read

Higher Education Low-Code Process Automation

By BP Logix on Feb 18, 2020 12:27:00 PM

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Modern institutions are realizing significant advantages from low code development, an approach to building software which allows non-developers to build applications in a visual, drag-and-drop environment with components for different types of functionality. Low-code platforms have enabled the rise of a business analyst support system who can direct application priorities by abstracting the typically complex coding tasks associated with programming by using reusable components. Innovative college and university IT teams are taking advantage of low-code platforms to improve process automation and derive significant ROI from their technology investments, and it’s changing how they build for the future.

By employing low-code capabilities that enable non-developers to connect various stakeholders and implement sophisticated functionality, users and teams realize greater efficiency. Essentially, those closest to the problems can now have the greatest impact at solving those problems. In higher education, solutions are wide-ranging, and low-code allows schools to benefit from:

  • Automating processes, integrate apps with existing systems, and easily connect to data from multiple sources so information and functionality render in a single user experience. Each instance of building a connector can cost as much as $25,000 in developer expenses when using traditional methods.
  • Optimizing ROI from legacy applications to deliver better user experiences and increase user adoption.
  • Designing and building best-in-class apps that can be deployed when needed. Provide the ability to iterate and improve as needed.
  • Recognizing and delivering solutions for all aspects of the university experience. This includes things like HR management, student recruiting, facilities and operations, and alumni relations.
  • Migrating applications from on-premises to the cloud.
  • Delivering applications in mobile formats to increase usage for students, faculty, and school staff.

Low-code solutions like Process Director give users a highly visual dashboard and software components that can be used to create an application without having to use code. The combination of rapid development capabilities along with the low-code approach offers enterprises the ability to build, deploy, and iterate quickly. Additionally, it provides ways to identify deep insights into usage and performance of applications.

Higher Education Technology Transformation

In higher education, using a low-code approach is about much more than just the applications themselves. It can save schools money, improve how IT resources are used, and deliver services to better meet the ever-changing needs of the 21st Century university student, faculty members, and staff. These things, in turn, make schools more competitive and economically viable.

This is important for colleges because they operate according to prescribed schedules — admissions, registration, financial aid, and the routine of the quarter or semester system. It’s difficult to innovate when the next milestone is right around the corner. Having to adhere to the typical application development lifecycle is slow and typically results in solutions that can be obsolete before they even become available. However, by building and delivering quickly, and with reusable components, university stakeholders can not only deliver fast, but IT teams and departmental groups can iterate and update applications continuously.

Low-code process automation provides a foundation for all university processes, and operates as the engine that moves the student through their journey from first point of contact, all the way through graduation.

Process Management and Workflow for Higher Education

In a university environment, admissions, financial aid, HR, and all departments are using Process Director to effectively manage the complex processes involved with operating a school and delivering effective services. Higher education institutions are able to deploy Process Director to help them meet business-level goals for things like student outcomes, effective recruiting, employee management, and facilities-related operations. It also supports IT goals like integration, process efficiency, and repeatability.

Institutions use Process Director to automate services delivered according to a school’s specific requirements. An example is its digital process automation capabilities, which enable the efficient processing and reviewing of applications across all necessary admissions counselors and administrators. As the application process has become more competitive and rigorous, students are required to provide more data points to make their case and stand out from other applicants. Consider that the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) received 102,242 student applications in 2017, each of which required analysis and processing, all within a 3-4 month timeframe. Building the application framework to support this scale of automation cannot be done in normal development timelines. Low-code changes how a school like UCLA would be able to adapt to increased demand through effective process automation.

The Importance of Process Automation for Colleges and Universities

Low-code equips teams to build applications that work in a human-directed work style. Process Director encourages this innovative approach through things like:

Document and forms management: Consider how students submit all manner of documentation in the course of their time on campus. And employees use a variety of forms in order to be hired in the course of their time as employees. Schools like the University of Central Florida Global deliver low-code solutions to ingest and make sense of things like transcripts, test scores, recommendation and letters for students. For employees, it manages applications, personal data, benefits information and a variety of other types of documents. Some of these are submitted and stored digitally, while some are delivered in paper form. Process Director is able to digitize these documents and include them in individual files. This eliminates outdated and inefficient processes like managing files through email attachments and paper-based artifacts. The result is more context about students and other stakeholders, provided through validated documents. Process Director also enables sharing of information with trusted decision-makers so that milestones in the process can be made with greater efficiency.

Application integration: The student and potential employee application submission is the first touch point with the university, and kicks off processes that will lead to admissions or employment. Process Director uses built in connectors for a variety of ERP systems, and allows users to construct forms that can pull and deliver data that can be useful for things like financial aid and scholarships, housing, and registration for students, and things like hiring and benefits administrations for employees.

Decision-making, enhanced with workflow: Process Director uses the following innovations that make it a first choice for many colleges and universities:

  • Attractive, web-based, and responsive user interaction;
  • Built-in support for multiple languages, locales, and cultures;
  • Easy integration with a broad array of databases, web services, and applications;
  • Directory synchronization with LDAP, Active Directory, and Windows network security;
  • Full integration with federated authentication services, including Oauth and SAML.
  • Strong encryption of data at rest, and data in-flight;
  • Digital signature of documents;
  • Granular permissions structure, with temporary privilege escalation.

Many colleges and universities rely on outdated systems that cannot support schools’ desires to meet the competitive needs of 21st Century organizations. While there is an increasing need to move fast and address specific needs, the low-code capabilities of Process Director can provide digitally transformative education solutions that facilitate efficient management and streamlining of processes.

An article in Educause summed it up nicely, "The digital transformation of higher education is at hand. Leaders must prepare their institutions now to take strategic advantage of the coming shifts in culture, workforce, and technology.”

Topics: application development business process automation digital transformation
3 min read

Process Automation and The Clery Act

By BP Logix on Feb 12, 2020 2:29:56 PM

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“A student who is concerned for their personal safety cannot learn.”

- Virginia Smith, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)

Most colleges and universities have made student safety a priority, but campus crime is still an unfortunate reality. Ranging from petty theft to physical violence, crimes on college campuses are far more prevalent than anyone is comfortable with, but thankfully, from 2001 to 2016, the aggregate number of reported crimes committed on college campuses decreased by almost 32%.

Much of this is due to the passage of the Clery Act, which was signed into law in 1990. The act requires all higher education institutions that receive federal financial aid to keep and publicly disclose data about crime on and near their campuses. Adherence with the Act is governed by the U.S. Department of Education, and those who do not comply with its requirements are subject to substantial fines and can be suspended from participating in student financial aid and other federally-funded programs.

In addition to reporting incidents and maintaining statistics, the Clery Act requires that schools also provide warnings and emergency alerts for safety issues, information on victim’s rights, and other important resources that can be used by members of the campus community. In order to comply with all the requirements of the Clery Act, schools need to employ a systematic way of capturing information and deploying it through processes in an effort to effect change. Process automation is the most effective way to support this.

If one were to break down the elements of what’s required to comply with the Clery Act, they would note three main elements:

  • Tracking incidents
  • Reporting incidents and alerting on safety issues
  • Managing data about criminal activity

Solving for all of these needs is best done with a single, comprehensive process automation solution like Process Director. Because it has a process and workflow foundation and uses case management capabilities, Process Director can support the need to capture data from multiple sources and communicate it to necessary stakeholders. These are critical for colleges to manage information and act on it quickly.

It’s important to recognize that inherent in the goals of the Clery Act is not simply data collection. To have a positive impact on reducing crime and keeping students safe, the results of all activity relating to the Clery Act must result in decision making about policies.

University IT departments can initiate a process-based approach to identify and manage massive amounts of data. That data is also coming from a variety of internal and third-party sources, which adds a layer of complexity. Smart processes can identify the right processes to kick-off based on that data. But it can also guide it through streamlined processes that can anticipate future-dependent actions, communicate with necessary stakeholders, reduce errors, and ultimately track all of this activity to demonstrate compliance.

Process Director provides a way to collect that data and immediately apply machine learning to understand the details of incidents (location, time of day, victim information, perpetrator information, and other relevant data), and initiate the necessary processes that will perform the tasks needed to meet the demands of the Clery Act framework. It does this with a variety of critical process automation features, including:

  • Access data that can help with decision-making and meeting workflow milestones.
  • Efficient approval handling that guides crime-related data and corresponding communication to the right milestones and decision-makers.
  • Insight and visibility into all aspects of processes.
  • Sophisticated reporting that pulls user-identified data points into visual charts.
  • Case management to categorize and report on specific incidents and/or individuals.
  • Processed-based security capabilities for managing, securing, storing, and ultimately, protecting a massive amount of data including students (student information includes personally identifiable information [PII] like student records, financial aid information, and healthcare data, among other things), staff and faculty HR records, operational data, and records related to government funding.

Additionally, Process Director applies future planning into processes with its time-based process engine— Process Timeline™. This offers a simple way to compose, manage, and modify business processes. Process-related data and analysis, such as process duration and critical path insights, are delivered in a continuous fashion as processes are running. This enables schools to be informed in near real-time and effect necessary changes rapidly.

Process automation is an effective tool for compliance with the Clery Act, but more importantly, it can be a critical ingredient to keeping students safe. Schools that employ a process-focused approach to safety are able to improve response time and awareness about campus crime, which ultimately helps them be better and more effective, caretakers.

Topics: business process automation
4 min read

A Security Roadmap for Higher Education

By BP Logix on Dec 3, 2019 4:39:41 PM

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A recent study of the threat potential for a comprehensive set of industries called out higher education as one of the most targeted. In the past couple of years, cyberattacks have increased by 68%, and the average cost of each attack is almost $700,000. Colleges stand to lose a great deal when attacked— beyond just the theft of data and financial loss from ransom demands, they also risk reputation damage that can negatively impact student recruiting and potential for advantages such as research grants.

As we know in today’s global, data-rich economy, all organizations face cybersecurity risks. Some are manifested in attacks that go after individuals for their personal information for financial or other types of exploitation. In other cases, the security targets include intellectual property and system-wide information. Organizations that touch large numbers of stakeholders are targeted because of the variety of data and multiple access points they offer.

Higher education institutions fall into this category and have become attractive targets for attack. They serve a disparate audience of constituents, and they store and transact with sensitive data about all of their different stakeholders. Because of this, colleges and universities require a structured security roadmap that enables flexible access to data and records, but protects also students, faculty, employees, and other stakeholders within the higher education ecosystem.

The Security Risks for Higher Education

University IT departments are responsible for the managing, securing, storing, and ultimately, protecting a massive amount of data including students (student information includes personally identifiable information [PII] like student records, financial aid information, and healthcare data, among other things), staff and faculty HR records, operational data, and records related to government grants and research, much of which is sensitive in nature.

Attackers go after private, critical data through a variety of tactics, including:

  • Cloud attacks: with more higher education institutions rapidly moving critical workloads to the cloud, hackers are exploiting aspects of the shared responsibility model that leave holes in workloads and cloud environments.
  • Phishing: one of the most common types of attacks is phishing, which is done through sending unsolicited and unscrupulous email messages that link to fraudulent websites.
  • Device security: most organizations operate with “bring your own device” (BYOD) policies that enable employees and contractors to use personal smartphones, computers, and tablets for business use. Proper security protocols are often not enforced for these devices, which can leave sensitive data vulnerable.
  • Malware: malware is software that has maliciously been installed on users’ computers. Various types include ransomware, viruses, worms, and adware. As recent events have shown, these malware threats are often used as a means to steal information and to commit fraud, including extortion.
  • Denial of service (DoS): in DoS attacks, individuals who normally have access to systems or networks are suddenly denied the ability to view data or systems. It includes critical, university-specific applications, email, or other digital points of access.

Developing an Effective Security Framework

 University IT security programs require a framework for continuous monitoring and response, one which manages threats to stakeholder data and intellectual property. This would not simply be a monitoring tool that sends alerts when certain security controls are breached. Rather, a foundation of vigilant approach must be embedded into processes and the way that schools conduct their operations.

The risks are ever-present and increasing in regularity. Education IT departments must apply a methodology that enables security regulations to be adapted to meet both the changing needs of their school, and to combat the increasing complexity of cyber-attacks.

Higher education IT departments are using business process management and workflow solutions like Process Director to understand their threat landscape and implement plans and policies that automate attack prevention. To begin the process, colleges and universities have to initiate a strategy that takes into account the data risks of the different populations they serve, as well as the processes employed across all different IT applications in use. While most schools have some set of loosely-defined guidelines, this first step demands mapping a comprehensive plan to a process-driven framework.

Necessary Steps for Higher Education Data Security

This security plan should be developed, implemented, and managed with an approach that takes into account the following elements:

Collaborate and plan effectively: awareness of stakeholder needs in higher education can be tricky; the requirements to operate effectively as a student is much different than how one functions as a faculty member. Consideration for these differences is critical because higher education comprises such a diverse set of needs and user types. Even within academic departments, there are vast differences in how workflow tools and process management is applied. Learning the work, goals, use cases, and language of different teams, and then tapping into their processes and methods, will give IT teams the right perspective into how to secure them.

Understand business patterns: the most effective way to understand security risk is to have an automated way to detect behavioral anomalies within workloads and processes. IT teams should develop a scenario of regular business and data patterns and establish them as baselines. They need to also meet with department leaders to gain an understanding of concern areas or vulnerability areas where behavioral anomalies tend to occur. These can be accounted for when building processes, and will lead to better visibility into what is considered as acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

Automate processes: in the course of business transformation efforts, college IT departments should seek ways to give departmental managers flexibility and ownership of their processes. In doing so, they should establish policies that encourage repeatability and automation. Processes should emphasize self-service wherever possible, and facilitate straight-through processing of standard requests and account provisioning.

Integrate tools with processes for better outcomes: colleges have already invested a great deal in their technology stack. It’s imperative that IT teams understand the tools, data, and communication channels that are used across all technology efforts, and then recognize where security vulnerabilities could happen within each of them. Reducing overall ‘application spaghetti’ is an excellent first step toward consistency of process. This can start by collecting the security protocols required of each system, and then finding a way to apply them appropriately to the processes they touch, or whether the systems themselves should be eliminated altogether in favor of a self-build low-code application.

Implementing a security approach to higher education management does not happen overnight. IT teams have to be thoughtful about what they want to achieve, and operate with awareness of stakeholder needs and the intricacies of the technology stack. Additionally, while digital transformation efforts to move workloads into the cloud and use BYOD policies are delivering greater flexibility, they are also opening new threat vectors. With a process-focused approach, colleges and universities can improve their security posture and help to ensure the safety of critical data.

Topics: BPM
4 min read

Optimize GRC with BPM and Workflow

By BP Logix on Nov 1, 2019 2:12:18 PM

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In modern IT environments, compliance and security are highly reliant upon one another, and they share a common goal: responsibility for keeping an organization’s data, users, resources, and intellectual property safe and usable. Some enterprises compartmentalize governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) as a separate function that sits apart from workflows and business processes. This thinking prevents the true integration of GRC principles into all aspects of how IT environments operate, which reduces visibility into a company's security and compliance posture. Innovative enterprises understand that effective compliance and security are tightly coupled, and why it’s critical to use a solution that enables rapid, agile workflow, but does so with GRC embedded into it.

GRC is typically codified as a collection of controls that are applied broadly across the IT landscape, and are designed to ensure that organizations manage their information security risks appropriately. GRC identifies gaps in security controls and provides a framework for prioritizing mitigation and remediation activities. Adhering to internal, industry, and/or governmental frameworks, GRC measures the effectiveness of security controls against relevant security requirements. It’s basically looking for proof that organizations do what they say they do, and then validates that.

Risk and Security Management Protect Company Assets

Requirements for governance and compliance come in many forms, starting with an organization’s internal information security policies. These policies should align with the company's business objectives and reflect its specific infrastructure and services. Compliance with internal security policy can be assessed through internal security reviews and any discovered exceptions should be appropriately managed.

In addition to security requirements defined by internal security policy, enterprises must abide by compliance frameworks established by industry and governmental groups. There is a tacit, although sometimes explicit, understanding that operating in accord with these guidelines is mandatory to conduct business within a specified region or market. These security requirements typically come in the form of audits and assessments performed by external regulatory groups. Some companies elect to be audited in order to demonstrate best-in-class business and security practices; these include things like ISO 27001 and SOC 2. For some companies, these can be competitive differentiators, as they demonstrate a focus and commitment to GRC principles.

The most effective approach to governance and compliance is to align GRC guidelines within an organization’s processes and workflow. This creates consistency and establishes a behavioral mindset for anyone touching processes (which is pretty much everyone in the organization).  This type of solution must be able to collect data from across workloads and data sources which may be used for identification, direction, and reduction of risk. Process Director employs both predictive modeling (which may help a company avoid being out of compliance), and automated reporting and collection that provide insights to how closely processes are adhering to GRC requirements.

In breaking down the value of BPM and workflow for GRC, consider the impact of the following on how teams can improve efficiency and their overall security posture:

Consistency

When an organization develops a framework for GRC, they still have to implement and manage it across disparate groups. If GRC requires anything, it’s consistency. Without it, there’s no way of knowing how well or poorly the company is adhering to its principles. By implementing GRC-based requirements into workflows and processes, teams have immediate visibility to identify where they are out of compliance. If they are using a BPM platform like Process Director, which enables non-programmers to create and modify processes, then issues can be addressed and remediated quickly. BPM is like a continuous insight engine for GRC, and that gives organizations the ability to be consistent in how they approach the work of risk management and compliance.

Automation

Companies get stuck if they have to evaluate every activity that deviates from normalized behavior. Because BPM can help optimize the continuity and consistency of GRC behavior, this becomes a critical way for companies to ensure governance and compliance adherence. Some will choose to do it manually, but this is a time killer and can distract process actors from focusing on outcomes while they fix problems that don’t add value. Effective BPM solutions automate the GRC framework which enables managers to focus on process improvement rather than fixing process shortcomings. They can be set up to deliver alerts that pinpoint where GRC-related issues exist and help managers rapidly address them.

Visibility

With GRC, teams get a broad picture of the organization and its processes -- this includes how data, people, and resources are accessing, being accessed, and transacting among internal and external stakeholders. Because BPM can be set up to apply specific GRC-influenced requirements to various stages of processes, managers have access and control to change processes, if needed. But perhaps more importantly, the deep visibility enables actors to understand where GRC issues are common. This may indicate a vulnerability within internal systems, or it could mean there are teams or data sources that are not in compliance.

Reduce CapEx

With GRC visibility and automation provided by a BPM solution, teams can dramatically reduce the manual work needed to identify issues and manage change. They also become aware of which systems, applications, and data sources might be regularly out of compliance. The attention required to fix these issues is lowered significantly because fewer people are needed to manage GRC, there is less of a trail to unravel to identify the source of problems, and insights gathered over time can help managers make technology purchasing decisions and allocate expenditures that are ultimately more advantageous (and cost effective) for their GRC needs.

Business Culture

When objectives and missions are aligned through a workflow solution, the actual principles by which the business operates can become tightly integrated into the fabric of how the company operates. This is important because it essentially codifies those things that will reduce risk and maintain a healthy level of governance within the business activities of the company.

GRC is intended to give companies better control over their data and intellectual property, but there are no shortcuts to managing it effectively. It is a continuous process, but one that BPM and workflow are optimized to manage.

3 min read

Education Process Management - Scholarship and Grant Processes

By BP Logix on Oct 22, 2019 9:07:32 AM

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There were more than 20 million students enrolled in colleges in the United States in 2018, and that number is forecast to increase in the coming decade. More than 2/3 of all college students receive some kind of financial help in the form of grants and scholarships. Just as admissions are critical to an institutions success, ensuring that these same students have access to funding sources is critical to the future of higher education.

Colleges and universities operate to serve their students, and the financial aid they provide reflects this commitment. Unfortunately, however, most of the processes and workflows that support grants and scholarships exist in a combination of paper-based formats and disparate digital repositories, which can make it difficult to identify and utilize the necessary data. Lacking a system for moving this data from intake to funding, colleges are at risk of preventing deserving students from being able to attend and benefit. Fortunately, process automation enables higher education institutions to facilitate the requests of students to help them fund their education.

Is Automation the Future of Education Process Management?

Automation is the foundation of simplifying grant and scholarship management. Just as workflow has enabled human resources in higher education, it is also being used by colleges and universities to facilitate the flow of that data of students, financial institutions, and universities so it can be evaluated and disbursed. Access to this data is only one aspect of the process. Utilizing it and processing it with the right permissions, and with speed, give all parties the best shot at ensuring grants and scholarships are awarded efficiently.

But the process-driven coordination of financing, collection, and student lifecycle management demands an effective workflow framework, one that incorporates activity among government bodies, non-profits (who are often the benefactors who distribute scholarship money), students, parents/guardians, and financial aid departments within the schools. Ensuring your grants and scholarship management solution has the capability to navigate this intricate web of decision-makers and groups in an organized fashion is pivotal in expediting the processes around financing students.

Streamlining all Points in the Financial Aid Process

Managing workflows for grant and scholarship awards with a platform like Process Director helps present a clear picture to scholarship and grant administrators of all aspects of the financial aid process.

Financial aid processes typically require the input of multiple sources, and not all of them exist within the same organization. Process Director can apply a case management approach which is optimized to coordinate the activity of all involved in the process. This includes university departments like the Office of Financial Aid, Admissions, Registration and Academic Records. External groups include banks and other funding sources, government agencies who disburse grant money, and private institutions and individuals who fund private scholarships.

The Tools Necessary for Comprehensive Education Process Management

Pulling all of this together demands a broad assortment of tasks that includes data that includes paper records, approvals, data sharing among applications and databases, and forms management. With so much at stake, it is essential that deadlines are met and that milestones are attained. Procedure Director generates arrangement among, and between, process phases and different information sources. The result is a system that's inclusive of participants, allowing efficiency, compliance, and consistency. The course of action is all about efficiency and speed. Process Director applies abilities for lightweight application creation, workflow automation, forms management, and integration through a process that uses these steps:

Data collection: students submit applications for grants and scholarships from a variety of sources. This data will likely include artifacts such as an essay, high school transcripts, letters of recommendation, and family tax history among others. All of these items are relevant to the deciders of how grant money is distributed.

Case management framework: Every application is tied to a unique student, and can be considered as an individual case. As a case is created, it will likely be stored in a database, LDAP repository, or cloud storage bucket. But the case is very much active as member schools evaluate the application. Process Director uses a case management approach which enables each student’s file to be moved through the processes and milestones required by financial aid committees and departments.

Distribution of funds: Process Director is built with workflow automation as a critical component, which gives those involved with financial aid evaluation the ability to create rules and processes that will distribute applications internally to important decision-makers, and externally as application data is shared among banks and government groups.

Review/Evaluation: decision-makers will not miss data or milestones when the process is managed with automated workflow. This ensures that all available data can be shared and reviewed, but ultimately, it means that all students have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their needs.

As competition among schools becomes fiercer, there is an increasingly need to provide access to all worthy applicants. Process Director provides digitally transformative education workflow solutions that include facilitating scholarships and grants management, so deserving students can benefit from a higher education experience.

Topics: Uncategorized workflow management business process management education
3 min read

Workflow Process and Optimized Business Outcomes

By BP Logix on Oct 11, 2019 12:01:16 PM

 

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The original intent of workflow processes was to create a standardized and accepted way of identifying and solving for issues of efficiency. Eventually, workflow processes were introduced as a component of effective BPM, and today, innovative organizations apply both in a way where they support one another. These organizations realize that a workflow process will help you create repeatable outcomes, and workflow process is the workhorse that maintains consistency among the disparate elements that make up processes. To put it another way, workflow tools give organizations visibility into processes in order to monitor results, reduce inefficiencies and incorporate automation. But let’s look more closely at how workflow and process support outcomes through their own unique attributes.

Workflow Process Evolution: from Coordination to Prediction

Workflow Process serves to align the process management discipline to tasks and to support and work with patterns of business behavior. The technology that drives workflow is all based on coordinating interactions, milestones, and assets. When workflow automation software was first available as a codified technology solution, it was embedded into applications to supercharge their connectivity and operational capability. For the most part, those who benefited were typically just those with access to the specific applications. Over time, workflow became a foundational element to the overall process-driven mindset that smart companies employ. It now operates almost as a middleware technology, and its shared capabilities enable interactions among disparate groups of stakeholders. This includes both internal and third-party users.

But today’s innovative workflow solutions do far more than just coordinate the flow of activity. Platforms like Process Director apply machine learning and time recognition to help users take advantage of predictive insights and understand behavioral patterns. The component of time offers workflow users control they can’t get solely through application analytics and dashboards. With the inclusion of machine learning, Process Director’s workflow automation now allows identifies patterns that can require human intervention if a task isn’t expected to complete on time. In this way, the coordination of activity that a workflow process provides actually considers patterns of behaviors among different work streams to create a more focused model for delivering to specified outcomes.

Clearly, workflow design has evolved to the point that, as opposed to a typical flowchart it can almost drive activity from inception to completion. Rather than just relying on, “what happens next”, workflow is now equipped to identify and ask, “what must be completed before this step can begin, and how long will it take?” It’s in this way that workflow demonstrates its support for BPM, process efficiency improvement and governance. It delivers what’s required to provide oversight over multiple streams of activity, all working towards a common goal.

Business Workflow Process Instills Outcome-Based Discipline

For all of this effort to truly be effective, it must operate within a workflow process management framework, and this is where we find the distinction between workflow and BPM. A comprehensive workflow process approach emphasizes a holistic approach to coordinating everything that contributes to the outcome of business goals. This includes documents, cases, people, tasks, and sub-tasks are completed and executed for quality and/or compliance. Workflow assumes the work involved to connect and communicate among these things but that activity must adhere to the context of BPM.

Effective BPM solutions are foundational, and as a software application, they have to be able to integrate through APIs and other connectors so the right information and assets are available to decision-makers. Today’s knowledge workers — and in this economy, just about everyone is a knowledge worker to at least some degree — require a combination of subjective and analytical criteria in order to make decisions and move activities towards successful outcomes of business goals. BPM is the structure that enables repeatability for those processes and workflows that require consistency, but they also enable flexibility for processes that have to adapt to changing business needs.

Workflow Process and BPM are Foundational 

No business can operate without a foundation of sound, yet flexible, workflow processes. Part of that flexibility comes from being able to do more things with processes that might have been previously intended for more narrow purposes. Take, for example, an experience from the world of retail. Imagine a marketing process intended to deliver email notifications to customers about upcoming sales. While that may appear to be relatively simple, underneath that activity are a series of connected processes that include pulling data from a user database, engaging writers, involving the graphics department, and scheduling the mailing on a calendar. The end result is more contact with customers— contact that is the result of connecting processes and workflows that ultimately involve partnering with stakeholders.

Today’s business users need flexibility and accessibility to influence and participate in business solutions. Working in concert, workflow and BPM can deliver that access where and how they work and live, and engage all different types of users who are relevant to outcomes. For people and companies driving results, the ability to adapt and modify, review and approve in real-time, improves decision-making and keeps things moving forward.

Topics: workflow workflow management
4 min read

Workflow Analysis: a Blueprint for Optimal Outcomes

By BP Logix on Sep 24, 2019 9:58:50 AM

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Organizations depend on their business processes for the smooth, orderly flow of all their activities. But as companies evolve, the workflows they have relied on may not necessarily have evolved accordingly, and this can limit an organization’s ability to grow and adapt. The shelf life of most workflows is fairly limited, especially in a business climate that never stops changing. This is where workflow analysis comes in.

Workflow analysis can provide major benefits because it identifies where workflows are either outdated, need to be re-worked, or where a process requires an entirely new approach. The process takes apart the workflow in order to identify where there are issues of inefficiency and where changes within the process demand corresponding changes in the workflow. Going through this exercise of workflow analysis identifies bottlenecks, users who are no longer stakeholders, redundant tasks, and uncovers where improvements can be applied.

Ultimately, a well-performed workflow analysis will provide an organization with three key outcomes:

  • Elimination of manual and redundant tasks.
  • Application of automation where it is currently not being used.
  • Gaps in the workflow that prevent it from being optimal.

Once identified, an organization will be able to use its human and technology resources more efficiently, which reduces costs and speeds the delivery of time-dependent processes. Even small improvements save costs and time, so workflow analysis should be a regularly scheduled activity that businesses create a discipline around. To initiate an effective analysis, an organization should take into account these considerations:

Create the Workflow Analysis Structure

It’s best to have a team of reviewers that is made up of representatives from different groups. This will provide perspectives from those with a stake in certain workflows, as well as independent thinking from others. This team should have a cadence of regular meetings, a communication tool like Slack, and a set of requirements by which they will conduct their analysis. The workflow analysis should consider the impact of a workflow in a variety of ways, including these:

  • Is it efficient by impacting the speed and/or efficiency of how tasks are accomplished?
  • Are stakeholders able to automate repetitive tasks by using it?
  • Is it directly improving business goals?
  • Does it improve my organization’s ability to be compliant?

Creating an Inventory of Workflows

Collecting all the workflows you want to review may be harder than you might think. Organizations with good process discipline will have a repository of their workflows, but in many organizations, these are created in an ad hoc fashion and are not necessarily accounted for in any type of orderly way. The discovery process will require input from stakeholders across the company and will initiate the review process, so be prepared to have either an individual or team who leads this effort and can be the key decision maker.

Initial Workflow Review

After having an inventory of workflows, it’s best to start reviewing to determine what you should keep and what is no longer relevant. For some, this may take a deeper analysis of the current and future viability of certain workflows, but for others, you’ll know what can be eliminated when you see it. Those that don’t make the cut should be officially taken out of practice. Stakeholders should be made aware of next steps on these workflows - that usually means alerting about removal for some, while for others, it may mean that a replacement will soon follow.

Workflow Analysis and Data Discovery

Workflows generate all kinds of data, most of which should provide insight into usage and efficacy. A workflow that might appear to be really effective may have not been used in many quarters; this data might help you decide to eliminate it. Or perhaps the data will demonstrate that there is a task within a certain workflow that takes an unusually long period of time to complete — that might be an indicator of where the workflow needs a reformatting.

Consider reviewing for this type of data:

  • How many workflows have been initiated over the previous two quarters?
  • Of those workflows, how many have been completed, and how many are still in process?
  • Average of the time taken to complete tasks.
  • Length of time to do reviews.
  • How many are currently using forms?

Involve Stakeholders in the Workflow Analysis

Armed with data, you can begin to get a better sense of what you’re dealing with, and it can act as an important filter. But the data may not tell the whole story, which is why you need to now get out of your office and talk to people to determine how workflows are being used. Identify stakeholders from different teams and groups and consider evaluating based on these types of questions:

  • Start with getting a general sense of the workflow; ask them to walk you, step-by-step, through the processes they go through.
  • Find out where they are frustrated by the process.
  • Get a sense for whether or not they are getting things done faster and/or with greater efficiency.
  • Ask for their input on how a workflow could be improved with the right workflow tools (it’s usually those closest to the problem that have the best solutions). Encourage them to be specific on this point; is there certain data they need, is there a problem of automation, do they get the notifications they need, etc.
  • Consider using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) methodology by asking, “On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being ‘most likely”), how likely are you to recommend this workflow to a colleague?” The answers may give you insight into both the necessity and efficacy of a given workflow.

Regroup and Assess

Now that you’ve collected data and put boots on the ground, the review team needs to go through workflows again and determine their state, which should fall into one of these categories:

  • Eliminate the workflow
  • Re-design the workflow
  • Replace the workflow with a new workflow

Beyond the Workflow Analysis

At this point, you should have the beginnings of a blueprint to start moving forward with the next phase of your workflow design and implementation. With a focused team and the right tool, you will now be equipped to make better decisions about what you want to achieve and how your workflows can help you attain those goals.

Topics: workflow workflow management
4 min read

Workflow Design: A Foundational Framework

By BP Logix on Sep 13, 2019 2:39:01 PM

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Most workflow projects take the approach of addressing an outcome and then working backwards to build an efficient, linear flow of processes and actions. Designing steps to think through workflow design requirements is essential, but it must be done with a methodology that accounts for all manner of variables, and includes the element of time. Every workflow is intended to deliver faster and/or better returns on work, but process agility and the application of predictive capabilities, translates into additional competitive advantages. The true goal of workflow design is getting to a state of continuous innovation, repeatability, and efficiency, and this is best accomplished by using smart, disciplined thinking.

An effective workflow is liberating for users. They can automate decision making and rely on the application to deliver content and assets to the correct stakeholders, which frees them to focus more on analyzing outcomes and coming up with creative solutions. With the component of time built into workflows design, business users get additional control by having a way to predict events that can be automatically built in to processes, all with the flexibility of being able to intervene as necessary. To take advantage of a timeline-influenced workflow, an organization should structure their workflow design with a framework that takes these elements into account:

Workflow Design - Define Your Requirements

This may sound elementary, but to get the right outcomes, you need to be specific about the results you seek. For example, declaring that you want a workflow for “manufacturing optimization” encompasses a wildly broad set of activities. But breaking that down so you understand the various, separate tasks that help you ultimately achieve manufacturing optimization will enable you to be specific about the upcoming workflows design process.

Tasks, Events, Dependencies – Know Your Process

You’ll need a whiteboard, a really big whiteboard. The best way to get started is to actually diagram the logical sequence for a workflow, and then iterate as you factor in decision points, approvals, assets, sub-workflows, and all other factors that will guide a process from beginning to end. This part of your planning is tactical, and is truly foundational, and the way your workflow design is structured will be among the most important factors on whether or not your workflow management software is successful in achieving intended goals. During this part of the planning, you should be looking out for these things:

  • Be thorough and include all information and detail so you know precisely what is required to achieve success at each step.
  • Know, document, and account for dependencies at every step of the workflow.
  • Highlight gaps where more information is needed to ensure effective process flow, and then fill those gaps.
  • Simply where you can, reduce steps, if possible, and be rigorous about eliminating the potential for wasted effort.

Account for Continuous Processes

Also, don’t forget to consider the continuous nature of some processes; for these, a true ending point may not necessarily exist. When that is the case, ensure that workflow stakeholders are prepared to continuously adapt their workflows tools as they integrate more inputs and data into the process.

Assign Roles In Your Workflow Design

Know your stakeholders, whether they be inside or external to the company. Identify which tasks and activities they will be part of, and their level of involvement. This might also be applied in terms of groups or teams, rather than just individuals. For example, some decisions may require the approval of any member of a specified team, while others may need approval from anyone who has a “Vice President” title. And in other instances, decisions might be handled by anyone in a specific team or region. Know how roles are going to be used within your workflows so you can design them for best efficiency.

Apply Timeline Dependencies

A typical flowchart lays out “what happens next”, but when you apply timeline approach to your workflow design, it forces you to think, “what must be completed before this step can begin, and how long will it take?” These questions help you to imprint process efficiency improvement and governance with a timeline-focused workflow design, and provide additional control by allowing integrating predictive elements, and allowing for human intervention if a task isn’t expected to complete on time. Typical workflow processes may include an approval step, but usually fail to communicate when the task or full process will complete.

Know What You Need to Integrate - Inputs and Outputs

Today’s workflows can be so powerful because of the amount and type of data available within a typical organization’s IT infrastructure, and through integration of data from partner and customer sources. To get the power of all this data, you need to identify which inputs will inform your workflow, and how that data will be incorporated into it. Typical integrations come from applications like these:

  • Database Application Integration
  • Document Imaging Software / Scanners
  • File System Monitor Application Integration
  • Email Servers
  • Web Services / REST
  • Social BPM Application and Workflow Application Integration
  • SharePoint or other file-related applications

After identifying these, you will need to build requirements for the tactical implementation of your integrations. This might come in the form of pre-packed integrations or with vendor-provided APIs. Your team may need to build custom integrations, so you’ll need to account for the resources and time required to do all this work.

Review Your Workflow Design

This isn’t just a “check my work” step; it’s really intended to give all stakeholders an opportunity to provide input and change anything that isn’t supposed to be part of the workflow. Additionally, it allows you to take a step back and evaluate whether or not the structure of your workflow is still capable of meeting your intended goals.

Automate Your Workflows

By automating workflows, organizations will be able to dramatically reduce cost and improve efficiency. Automation allows them to handle every manner of workflows and sub-workflows so there is repeatability and consistency, all while freeing time to focus on more strategic issues of the business. Workflow automation enables teams to do the following:

  • Build processes and create forms to meet changing business goals.
  • Access data that can help with decision-making and meeting workflow milestones.
  • Efficient approval handling.
  • Insight and visibility into all aspects of processes.

Business goals involve increasingly complex levels activity and collaboration in order to achieve them. Workflows, however, don’t need to be overly complex, and this is why they provide huge benefits. Developing and codifying workflows removes barriers to speed and alleviates the stop-start cadence that trips up too many organizations.

While there is not a single way to develop and manage workflows, adhering to a smart framework of workflow design can help organizations improve their operational capabilities and achieve better outcomes.

Topics: workflow workflow management
4 min read

BPM: Supporting Manufacturing Digital Transformation

By BP Logix on Sep 12, 2019 3:29:20 PM

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As economic growth spreads across the globe, one of the main engines of progress is manufacturing. Especially in the United States, which produces more than 18% of the world’s goods, the manufacturing sector is driving not only financial health, but also innovation. Increasingly, manufacturing companies are looking for competitive advantages which are being facilitated by business process management as a way to encourage digital transformation. Organizations that are effectively pairing agile business process management (BPM) with things like Six Sigma and other operational excellence frameworks are able to move fast to respond to market trends and customer demands.

Digital Transformation is Necessary for Manufacturing

To realize just how important manufacturing agility and innovation is to business growth, consider just how important and impactful it is to the U.S. economy:

  • In 2018, manufacturing drove 12% of overall economic output, accounting for $2.3 trillion.
  • Every dollar spent to develop and improve manufacturing operations contributes $1.89 in business growth to other economic sectors.
  • Manufacturing in the U.S. is projected for continued growth into 2020 and beyond.

The primary benefits of digital transformation in manufacturing include better efficiency and reduced costs. Those two goals alone, once achieved at a sustainable scale, can create massive value for companies that want to differentiate themselves from competitors. Manufacturers that are employing digital transformation strategies that can immediately address a variety of use cases where innovation can deliver incremental changes in quality, performance, process management, analysis, or other aspects of operations.

Agile and Six Sigma in Manufacturing Digital Transformation?

Technology intended to support manufacturing can often look overly complex. But when agile and Six Sigma thinking is applied to it, one starts to recognize that technology is really only focused on getting the actions in the manufacturing process from point A (initiating manufacturing activity) to point B (finished product) faster, and more efficiently that was done previously.

Digital transformation enables this simplification of these processes through the application of effective BPM principles. Typically, processes handle everything involved with the development, creation, collaboration, and fulfillment of every manufactured good. BPM forces organizations to identify not just what points A and B are, but also incorporate workflow management software to determine what intermediary steps are involved in every process, and evaluate how valuable and/or important those steps are.

Manufacturing organizations have to know what’s happening at every step in every process. This includes development-related documents (many of which don’t fit standard document types, like blueprints and photographic images), compliance information, change orders, distribution tracking, parts ordering, inventory control, and a massive number of actionable steps that must be included in order to be optimized. A surprising number of manufacturers operate with a cobbled-together structures of paper-based systems and manual operations that are impediments to speed. Ad hoc processes used to manage the flow of unstructured data can create knowledge gaps which can slow processes and even prevent essential data from being part of the manufacturing continuum.

Streamlining Manufacturing Business Operations

Especially as manufacturing becomes more complex through the addition of additional content sources, suppliers, and other stakeholders, BPM is needed as a foundation to streamline every aspect of manufacturing processes. It helps eliminate organizational redundancy AND oversight, both issues which contribute to slow down of activity and confusion. These are the “enemies” that digital transformation seeks to eradicate, and an effective BPM solution like Process Director rapidly delivers an actionable framework for elements such as:

  • Product development: Gone are the days when a blueprint was created and then years and years of consistent delivery of that product constituted a healthy business. Today’s planning and design requires the input of many (often many who are not internal employees) and it must be adaptable so incremental improvements can be made along the way. A BPM solution like Process Director enables collaboration, data management, and change capabilities through its lightweight, low-code application development capabilities.
  • Procurement: To get the best cost efficiency, companies need an agile approach to working with vendors and suppliers. The ability to rapidly integrate with a stakeholder’s systems and share necessary data means fewer roadblocks on the way to incorporating the advantages of that vendor into your own processes.
  • Production: Here again, the essence of effective manufacturing is getting from point A to point B quickly, painlessly, and with the right outcomes. However, in today’s connected world, nothing seems linear, so making that connection is a major challenge for companies that are producing goods. To overcome that, BPM can act in a way that captures data and assets, includes the necessary inputs from the right people, and ensures that all of that information is available, automated, and correctly inserted across and throughout processes.
  • Distribution: Manufacturers need visibility and awareness so they can fulfill orders and plan accordingly for changes in demand. Process Director provides unique functionality in this regard through the use of its patented Process Timeline, which models workflows to anticipate capacity, demand, and activity. This predictive analysis means better notifications for stakeholders, as well as automated reassignment and rerouting at the earliest possible notice that a future milestone or deadline might be at risk.

The right mix of digital innovation with a logical BPM-focused approach means that manufacturers can build a framework to rapidly and efficiently coordinate their operations. Process Director is purpose-built with the needs of enterprises that take advantage of modern methods to operate their manufacturing with lean, agile principles. As the economy gets more complex, Process Director is helping to simply how manufacturing gets done.

Topics: BPM software digital transformation
4 min read

Understanding the Relationship Between Digital Process Automation and BPM

By BP Logix on Aug 30, 2019 12:00:26 PM

 

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“In practice, digital process automation (or DPA) refers to the use of intelligent interpretation, automation and presentation of business solutions to their intended service customers. DPA includes by nature the dynamic assembly or reordering of a given process, based on declared business objectives and customer requirements.”

- Jason English, Analyst, Intellyx

From workflow management software to BPM, now to digital process automation – it can be difficult to keep up with the ever-changing trade terms… and the overlaps therein. Digital process automation (DPA) enables enterprises to identify and manage new channels where their data and services can be pushed, and when paired with technologies facilitating this journey (often sharing space with BPM platforms), it provides companies with major competitive advantages over those who still rely on traditional methods. Not all organizations that tout themselves as BPM have the agility or adaptability to facilitate business goals around digital process automation, and now more and more that do provide these advantages are promoting themselves as DPA platforms.

Processes have always been at the foundation of how businesses operate, and in an environment where organizations seek to increase their reach through new channels, they are using modern technologies like the cloud, machine learning, and even social media to extend their digital footprint. It’s through this digital process transformation that companies are able to become more efficient and better able to deliver their services and brand.

Process Director includes DPA capabilities like a foundation of rapid application development, as well as smart forms, predictive process management, and a flexible deployment model. This creates a comprehensive solution that makes Process Director a digitally-enabled DPA platform that dramatically shrinks the gap between technology functionality and desired business outcomes.

DPA for Stakeholder Engagement 

A platform created to be a digital process automation solution will give you the means to engage your customers, gain exposure, and increase customer satisfaction and retention, simply and quickly, without the overhead of traditional software development or legacy packaged applications.

This solution should be agile, and support rapid environments with automation, case management, predictive analytics, and more. As well, a low-code BPM approach to rapid application development gives the ability to be highly responsive for all types of stakeholders, and digital capabilities means the solution will be able to reach those stakeholders through channels where they are accustomed to operating.

Does Digital Process Automation Just Mean Agile and Innovative BPM?

There is still an overlap between BPM and DPA, and the products that successfully embody this new generation of digitally transformative tools fulfill the promise of helping companies be more customer-focused, as well as enabling the employ of analytics and other context-necessary data. As market competition becomes fiercer, there is a corresponding need to provide immediate access to processes and data. DPA platforms pave the way for these digitally transformative applications, ones that that facilitate efficient management and the streamlining needed for an organization to be a market leader and instill a culture of growth.

With DPA combined with BPM, enterprises are able to build, operate, and automate processes that are driven by both data and human decision-making, and they can also then distribute and connect them more effectively as business needs change and adapt. When different types of stakeholders can contribute to process development and goals, the organization benefits from a more collaborative mindset and lens; this provides and advantage in both technology and business scenarios because data is used more efficiently and the enterprise gets a more accurate view of how data and applications are being used.

DPA and BPM combined in Process Director

Process Director brings process automation to an organization's digital transformation initiatives in a number of different ways: for one thing, it delivers a scalable, no-code platform that is widely used by IT as well as business users. This democratizes enterprise problem solving so it can be extended to anyone, irrespective of whether or not they have a background in coding. Process Director operates as a perfect marriage of BPM with digital process automation capabilities by providing:

  • Diverse platform deployment options including on-premises, cloud, multi-cloud, or hybrid environments.
  • Multiple APIs, connectors, and other frameworks for using and distributing data across third-party apps and even IoT.
  • Smart forms and menu-driven builders for easy data capture and usage.
  • Ability to combine structured and unstructured data into different types of process patterns.
  • Case management capabilities for project focus and sophisticated, case-aware applications and reports.
  • Process Timeline, which enables a simple, rapid, and time-aware way to execute a process-driven engine for digital channels.

IT can no longer operate as the sole driver of digital change; there is simply too much demand placed on IT departments from businesses hungry to adapt and move fast to meet aggressive business goals. Digital process automation helps by giving organizations a way to both distribute operations and to increase the reach of the results of those operations. Process Director helps by implementing digital business excellence across the entire organization, so that a company is better equipped to manage their human capital and optimize their technology investments.

Through DPA combined with BPM, the tactical steps required of processes are able to be managed in an automated process flow. The human element can enhance automation with insights that can be used as needed to refine outcomes. Together, these two operate to make efficient organizations equipped to put those efficiencies to work immediately, and for those who can best benefit from them.

Topics: BPM
4 min read

How BPM Empowers Operational Excellence

By BP Logix on Aug 23, 2019 2:31:19 PM

How Does BPM Help Operational Excellence?

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“An organization cannot simply shut down operations while processes are re-tooled for operational excellence.”

With greater flexibility and a framework for innovation, business process management (BPM) is improving how organizations apply technology towards their digital transformation goals. More than ever this connection is integral to an organization’s cultural improvements, as well as their contributions to overall operational excellence. BPM is driving digital transformation, and with it, is delivering greater efficiency, more widespread user adoption, and agility. All of these create an environment of continuous innovation. And now everything from meeting business goals to the management of IT infrastructures are undergoing a rapid evolution of operational capabilities, paralleling the evolutionary path of BPM technology itself.

Better outcomes through BPM and Operational Excellence

There is not just a single way to apply business process management for operational transformation. Organizations must be thoughtful in their approach— perhaps it’s employee efficiency, more collaboration, reduction in paper-based processes, or any myriad of outcomes. For organizations that have a concept of what “ideal” looks like, they will find that BPM provides them a platform to make the changes required to transform the way they operate and the results they get.

With an organizational mindset that encourages collaboration, efficiency, and continuous improvement towards becoming a true digital enterprise, BPM acts as a foundation for transformation. The right tools in the right organization can go a long way towards helping transform how work is accomplished, but giving people the ability to actively engage with these tools and contextual data to effect change is what truly has a transformative effect.

Process Director delivers a complete operational platform for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, one that provides low-code development, application integration, AI-driven decision-making capabilities, and other elements that map to organizational transformation goals. For those who rely on processes to drive their business goals, Process Director is recognized as much more than workflow software - it's a fundamental platform for how they operate their business.

Organizations that want to improve their operations through their digital transformation efforts need to concentrate their efforts around three key areas:

BPM Adoption and Usage

To build engaging tools that meet the needs of fast-moving organizations, Process Director delivers a way to create sophisticated, low-code digital applications that take into account the necessary data and workflow sources on the back-end, and considers how users on the front-end will actually use an application within a process. By being able to create simple apps that integrate relevant information, including smart forms and processes, users can get information they need, can contribute with their own informed input, and can glean insights that will help them perform better.

To truly enhance operational efficiency, processes must be easy to use for those who need to build and use them. True BPM provides that and reflects it in elegant, simple usability that encourages repeatability and adoption.

Collaboration is Key to Operational Excellence

With capabilities that facilitate connecting and communicating across departments, and even externally, BPM enables organizations in creating a digital environment where applications, forms, and data sources can be included into a collective portal. This delivers the assets, timelines, and other important information needed to change how work gets done. It enables more engagement and participation, too, because it is optimized to deliver and transact through digital channels that older systems cannot do.

The digital transformation of enterprises cannot happen on an application-by-application basis, however. Companies that want to align their processes to business goals need the ability to apply digital transformation through the use of smart workflow and processes. To serve these needs, Process Director provides digitally transformative and contextual workflow solutions, facilitates efficient distribution of documents and assets, and streamlines the monitoring and management of information.

Transparency Provides Clarity

Process Director maps directly to operational excellence is because of the transparency it provides. BP Logix has customers who, prior to using Process Director, could not place the location of a document during its approval routing, and did not know when to expect a business action to be completed. By employing BPM technology actions are now automated and each status is given real-time visibility, enabling quick remediation. That visibility means that goals and deadlines can be applied and met rapidly and in context with business goals. That, in turn, leads to far more efficient planning according to whatever schedules (quarterly, yearly, by-project, by team) are demanded by the organization.

With the added level of visibility comes the ability to review and analyze outcomes. Knowing where things tend to stall, and where there is room for process improvement enables the business to continuously improve and optimize its actions -- and as they do, purposeful transformation begins to take shape. There are huge advantages to being able to review and understand in the midst of a transformation project. Like a continuous post-mortem, this allows a team to identify areas that can benefit from being modified or changed — and can bring together the players that will help them achieve their goals. This can be done concurrently with an eye towards efficiency and profitability, and involves all necessary decision makers in the process.

This is how transformation happens. An organization cannot simply could shut down operations while process are re-tooled for operational excellence. This is not a “lift-and-shift” activity because for it to be successful, it requires context for those who will be close to processes - end-users, LOB managers, decision makers; pretty much everyone in the organization has to internalize operational excellence into their business approach. Process Director enables consistency and enhancement of technology by creating better, more inclusive processes.

BP Logix recognizes that those closest to business issues are in the best position to create corresponding solutions. Having the ability to adapt as goals and business needs change, all without having to engage with IT or apply technical expertise results in faster implementation of meaningful solutions. People being able to respond rapidly to issues, coupled with tools that support their need to make changes, all leads to the best kind of digital transformation.

The transformational advantages provided by Process Director are championed by a wide variety of BP Logix customers in different vertical markets. While they may seek different goals, the common thread among them is less about the computing capabilities themselves, and more about the benefits an organization realizes from more visibility, more collaboration, easier ways to collect and distribute information relevant to processes, and a culture that is steeped in the idea of operational excellence.

Topics: BPM
3 min read

What Do You Need Your Business Process Management Software To Do?

By BP Logix on Aug 22, 2019 8:41:33 AM

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The Origins of Business Process Management

Business process management has been around for as long as there have been systems. Adam Smith penned “The Wealth of Nations” in 1776 and described the division of labor as a way to improve organizational processes. In 1911, Frederick Taylor Winslow, often considered the father of modern management, published “The Principles of Scientific Management” that emphasized standardization of methods, considered improved working conditions, and espoused cooperation among different groups within an organization. Even as the world has become enamored with the latest technology, smart enterprises recognize that the best way to optimize these solutions is when they are deployed across teams that have a process mindset.

What Business Process Management Software Should Do

In terms of approach and goals, not much has changed about BPM - it is still the most effective way for organizations to optimize the way they assign tasks, use resources, and ensure efficiency. In an environment where digital transformation efforts are causing both IT and business unit teams to accelerate the speed at which their teams can meet new, and changing goals, business process management software is called upon to facilitate success. If properly executed, BPM supports process design, execution, optimization, and continuous improvement, backing efforts to drive digital transformation. Applications, workflows, new tools, and entirely different ways of working can be normalized when they are driven with a process-based mindset. In fact, no company can thrive without a dedicated approach to change and adoption of new solutions. Fortunately, the right business process management software serves as an agile, adaptable foundation for companies that need to change rules, deploy resources, and act with real-time immediacy in order to stay competitive.

Process Director: The Next Generation of Business Process Management Software

Rather than approaching business process management as a linear set of functions, Process Director applies machine learning to help teams derive analysis of events, responses, and decision points to predict activity that can be enhanced through rapid, agile improvements to processes. With capabilities that support validation, verification, optimization, and deep insights, Process Director helps users evaluate the performance of their processes. And as a platform for process-based collaboration, integration with social media and enterprise apps, and real-time decision management, it is a business process management software solution that extends its capabilities across the entire enterprise.

BPM as a Customer Retention Tool

Peter Drucker, the great management thinker, famously said that the purpose of a business is to create a customer. Businesses know that they must also retain that customer to continue to derive sustainable profits. The most astute companies understand how to use BPM to create a customer-tailored chain of events and activities that deliver exceptional value to these customers.

These companies use their business process management software to create end-to-end processes that extend outside of the company walls, connecting with customers and delivering results at a speed and efficiency that differentiates them from competitors. Customers are no longer satisfied with having a product sold to them. They seek relationships with the vendors with whom they do business, and want to know their needs are not just met in one-off fashion, but that they are integrated back into the company processes to ensure continuous improvement.

Your business process management software solution is an integral tool in creating a better customer journey through things like case management and predictive processes. These things allow for customization of processes that ultimately deliver a unique solution for customers, and anticipate what customer needs will be. Smart BPM solutions are also highly adaptive which gives companies an easy and rapid way to correct aspects of product delivery and customer interaction.

Business process management software solutions like Process Director apply a case management approach which enables companies to integrate data and documents from various applications into a shareable profile of each customer. This provides clarity for all workflows so that decision-makers can identify potential issues and rapidly apply improvements; this ultimately enables them to achieve results faster and with better context, and demonstrates to customers that their needs are important.

Process Director also has native integration with many modern enterprise applications which enables workflows to be comprehensive in the data they can deliver. Users can build workflows with Process Director with the benefit of data from the full complement of application modules that impact decision making. In this way, case management-based workflow becomes a critical component of outreach, responsiveness, and retention for key customers.

Business Process Management Software Should Facilitate ALL Connections

For more than a generation, business process management (BPM) has been used by forward thinking enterprises to create an efficient path to achieving their objectives. Organizations may subscribe to different schools of thought around how best to use their business process management software, but all have benefitted from the idea that good processes—adapted as needed and adhered to with discipline—are the most important tool they apply to achieving operational excellence.

What they have discovered is the essence of BPM: when technology is used to support and improve business activity, while adhering to principles of operational excellence, it can lead to dramatic competitive advantage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUuQYbYdOro

Topics: BPM software business process management
3 min read

The Importance of Incremental Software Upgrades

By BP Logix on Aug 9, 2019 10:37:56 AM

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As software “is eating the world”, it seems that EVERY company is a software company, at least to some degree, and the software they use and manage becomes one of their most valuable assets. In order to operate at the speed of business and deliver the best solutions, both internally and to customers, it is critical that companies use all that their software solutions have to offer. In terms of strategic assets, having the latest, most feature-rich versions of software will facilitate the agility required by modern enterprises to create and sustain their competitive advantages. To reduce constant learning curves and internal disruptions, incremental upgrades of successful enterprise software solutions gives the greatest lift, for the least time and effort.

Software upgrades lead to operational success

By upgrading to new software versions, companies benefit from “outsourcing” innovation at the tooling and platform level. With a process engine that extends to new channels and drives towards new goals, an agile platform equipped with modern workflow tools becomes the facilitator of IT and LOB team strategy. Teams are better equipped to test and execute pioneering changes when they are building on a tool equipped with the latest code base.

BP Logix has always been hyper-focused on two things: 1) product innovation and 2) customer success. The Process Director development team continuously explores how best to enable customer success within their BPM software investment. Additional features and functionality are not meant simply as a way to keep score against our competitors. Rather, continual advancement enables customers to operate on a stable, consistent, and innovative BPM platform, one that will always be able to support their changing business needs. We recognize that upgrading software is a fundamental element of business continuity and this becomes a critical aspect of our competitive differentiator.

Continuous innovation relates to better outcomes

Some organizations seek to disrupt by being the first to market with something new and exciting; others focus on ensuring the delivery of a consistent, stabilizing workflow software solution which supports repeatable business outcomes. Doing either one of these things (or accomplishing anything along this spectrum) requires a foundation on which organizational strategists and developers can build.

When a company doesn’t upgrade to the latest versions, there is not only the opportunity cost of not taking advantage of new features, but there is also the sunk cost of falling behind. With each new version comes a learning curve as well as some up-front changes to how the supporting team manages processes. As an example, when Process Director was upgraded to its current version, 5.0, users had immediate access to a host of functionality that could deliver new benefits, including:

  • Support for compliance frameworks through out-of-the-box controls and compliance automation.
  • Sentiment analysis for contextual data to make operational improvements.
  • Addition of machine learning capabilities to drive behavioral and timeline-driven decision making.
  • UI enhancements for iterative list search, inline text editing, calendaring, and knowledge views.
  • New connectors for a variety of enterprise applications, including SharePoint 365, Microsoft Exchange, and Laserfiche.

Software upgrades map to customer needs

Among the inputs used to build new innovation should be insights from analysts and a deep understanding of business and market trends. But the most significant effort, however, goes into delivering a product that equips customers with solutions to real problems. This means incorporating a bit of crowdsourcing into the model, where key requirements needed by actual users are built back into the product in a continuous cycle of development and delivery. This model reduces the total cost of ownership and provides “future-proofing” for users. Rather than having to reinvest in new integration models and establish connectivity with other assets and applications in the customer’s IT stack, upgrades ensure a continuous compatibility with operating systems, browsers, applications, and third-party solutions.

The solution product team should understand the trends that are being adopted by customers and seeks to implement functionality that supports these trends. All of our developments — among them, no code/low code BPM, AI, digital application development, support for IoT — have been created to support the changing landscape of organizations that are adopting new technologies and environments for their business processes. Some are aggressively moving workloads into the cloud, while others are building a hybrid infrastructure of on-premises and multicloud systems. Because Process Director upgrades are all governed by general principles of aiding the flexibility and adaptability of customer needs, companies are able to take advantage of new technologies at a pace with which they’re comfortable.

The economics of upgrades

New versions of software happen in incremental steps, but they can lead to transformative effects. The time and cost savings of not having to hyperfocus on platform improvements enables teams to emphasize the implementation of the business goals they are trying to achieve. Through upgrades, new technology is readily available to complement the organization’s desires to make advances in capabilities and in reduction of costs and complexity.

Software is like any other type of asset; its utility and value diminishes over time. But upgrades generate continuous value; it’s like there is a built-in evolutionary component that adapts to meet new needs and reduce any identifiable issues. This becomes a critical asset for organizations that want a cost-effective, sustainable way of driving newer and better solutions.

Topics: BPM software
4 min read

Higher Education BPM Examples: Improving Efficiencies for Today’s Colleges and Universities

By BP Logix on Aug 2, 2019 12:59:39 PM

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Higher education institutions must adhere to a disciplined cadence of organizational milestones in order to operate effectively. To manage workflows and processes, ensure that documentation is delivered and acted upon correctly, and instill accountability across all stakeholders is a hugely demanding job, irrespective of the size of the school. Low-code process automation is being employed by many higher educational organizations to help automate business processes around every aspect of the educational lifecycle, including student management, hiring, facilities, vendor management, capital expenditures, compliance and governance, and a host of other issues that demand continuous oversight and action.

Business process management (BPM) supports the various needs of a higher education administrator’s department, as processes drive virtually all aspects of campus and academic life. BP Logix customers regularly cite an agile approach to process which ensures higher education IT departments are able to serve a wide variety of stakeholders (administrators, parents, students, financial aid organizations, among others), and still maintain adherence to governmental, organizational, and industry governance requirements and compliance frameworks. Finally (but definitely not least importantly), higher educational institutions are often constrained by limited budget, and BPM provides a foundation for delivering effective solutions in a cost-effective way.

Process Director’s digital process automation capabilities enable schools to focus on what they do best: deliver quality education to students eager to improve their lives. Different schools look for various ways to achieve this, and the use cases of BP Logix customers illustrate how BPM can be a critical aspect of higher education digital transformation and organizational growth.

There are plenty of higher education BPM examples that show successful implementation and deployment of BPM Software across colleges and universities.

Higher Education BPM Examples

UCF Global is part of the University of Central Florida system, and acts as a hub for students and faculty who are studying and teaching abroad. In order to manage the thousands of students (the entire university system supports more than 64,000 students every year through 93 bachelors, 86 masters, and 27 doctoral courses of study.

A key challenge for UCF Global is handling the massive amount of private student data. While student records are protected by federal and state regulations, it’s also important for the school to build trust with students by doing everything possible to safeguard their data. Process Director helps solve for these requirements by providing:

  • Comprehensive and automatic logging, with digital signatures, of every action taken by any actor, human or automated.
  • The highest levels of encryption of data at rest and data in transit.
  • Digital signature of documents.
  • Granular permissions structure, with temporary privilege escalation.

By ensuring a safe environment for transactions and storage of student data, UCF has been able to build processes that automate the flow of student information through all processes in the student lifecycle, from admissions to graduation. UCF is a great higher education BPM example of success and efficiency.

Technical School BPM Example

For Davis Applied Technology College (DATC) in Utah, continuous innovation is core to its strategy for growth and student success. Another higher education BPM example, it uses Process Director for digital delivery of academic programs and other types of campus services, and it also supports staff by providing easy-to-use rapid application development capabilities to enable HR, finance, and other staff departments to create agile apps and process that are specific to their departmental needs.

Prior to using Process Director, these efforts were hampered by an outdated system of data collection and integration. The school had cabinets filled with paper forms but accessing them and applying them to digital routing channels was time consuming and inefficient. The IT team recognized how the processes that were manifested in those forms would benefit from workflow automation.

DATC's IT team created requirements, scope and criteria, then decided that Process Director BPM would be the most effective way to deliver on their goals. The IT team rolled out Process Director to a number of departments in only a short amount of time; in the student services department alone the school was able to deliver 17 completed processes within only a few quarters after being deployed. The Finance, HR and IT departments all showed massive progress in short tie. The Director of IT for DATC said of Process Director, “Knowing where our business processes and workflow are without having to chase them down is invaluable. What used to take days is taking hours — what used to take weeks is taking days.”

Higher Education Electronic Forms (eForms) Example

One of BP Logix’ higher education customers, the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), used Earth Day as the impetus for adopting a BPM approach. With a mandate to reduce paper usage, the UTEP IT team embarked on a plan to eliminate paper where possible by relying instead on the digitization of forms through scanning and digital storage. It quickly became clear that efforts to improve reviews and approvals through digital means could lead to other efficiencies through BPM.

With the rollout of this new digital emphasis, the UTEP IT organization began to implement Process Director BPM across more parts of the University. They focused their efforts on 1) the easy movement of documents across campus via electronic workflows, 2) enabling the review and approval of electronic documents via email, 3) the ability to have dashboards that allowed users to edit, view and receive messages regarding activities and tasks as well as to retrieve reports, forms and notifications, 4) Having electronic records signed via a digitized image of a signature and 5) ability to populate a series of form fields by extracting information from a database instead of requiring users to input that data.

With broad usage of Process Director’s capabilities, UTEP has instilled an agile, prowess-driven mindset in how IT delivers solutions to various departments. Speed has been a critical driver, but so too is how comprehensive Process Director is at ensuring that necessary participants are included in reviews and other transactions throughout the various university lifecycles.

Higher Education Digital Transformation

Higher education institutions are seeing more demand as young people come to rely on higher education as a path into the global economy. To serve these needs, Process Director is providing digitally transformative education workflow solutions, facilitating efficient distribution, as well as streamlining the monitoring and management of information.

Topics: BPM BPM software
4 min read

Low-Code Development: What Works and What Doesn’t

By BP Logix on Jul 26, 2019 9:13:47 AM

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The democratization of technology is completely reshaping business methods and the outcomes they seek to achieve. Helping organizations take advantage of this revolutionary shift in technology and business operations is low-code development. Low-code/no-code solutions, when leveraged properly, put users in positions to create applications that solve their immediate problems. By employing low-code capabilities that enable non-developers to connect various stakeholders and implement sophisticated functionality, users and teams create greater efficiency while business goals are achieved more accurately. Essentially, those closest to the problems can now have the greatest impact at solving those problems.

Low-Code Development: Enabling the Citizen Developer

When business process management was first delivered as a solution in the later part of the 20th century, it was seen as a revolution. Mostly driven through elements of workflow, BPM came to symbolize efficiency at mass scale at a time when technology was rapidly becoming widely adopted. As business users came to rely on BPM to achieve their business-related tasks, more demand was created on the IT teams that had to build complex applications. The IT queue began to lengthen and process-related applications weren’t being built to solve the problems needed to maintain an agile, growth-oriented culture.

So into the fray comes the notion that empowering employees to create their own applications would reduce the onus on IT, AND deliver applications faster. To deliver this, a highly visual dashboard of drag-and-drop workflow tools and software components were created so that “citizen developers” could create an application without having to use code. The combination of rapid development capabilities along with the low-code approach offers enterprises the ability build, deploy, and iterate quickly. Additionally, it provides ways to identify deep insights into usage and performance of applications.

Low-Code and Rapid Application Development

By integrating workflows and application functionality, comprehensive low-code platforms offer a solution that can move business objectives rapidly from conception to implementation. And by using an agile model for creating functionality as well as enabling users at different levels to contribute critical modifications to workflows and processes, organizations are able to respond more quickly to customer demand because they can build and modify customer-focused solutions based on the deep insights and predictive capabilities. With low-code (or no-code) solutions such as these, teams can deliver their own rich digital applications, on any platform, before competitors have laid down the first thousand lines of code.

Organizations that want to enable their teams with an agile low code development software solution should consider how this will change their current relationship with IT, and what demands it might place on their own team members. They should also, however, look closely at what is required to fully implement using low-code development and how it can best be applied. The following help to illustrate the realities of using low code development within a BPM environment:

Efficiency Means Different Things for Different People

The low-code option makes it easy to build applications fast, and speed has real economic value. But applications built from low-code environments are typically meant to address narrow issues and may not be optimized for efficiency. Business leaders need to understand that full-fledged, comprehensive applications typically still must adhere to the rigors of the full application development lifecycle.

Low-Code Development is Still Development

Anyone can drag-and-drop, but for it to generate anything meaningful, one must understand not only WHAT she is dragging and dropping, but how to use all that dragging and dropping to achieve a desired outcome. Those using a low-code platform need to understand the business context for what they’re building, and they need to also recognize how the “chunks” of applications work and fit together.

This requires that you create a culture that encourages employees to learn the basics of how applications are structured, where they fit within the internal technology stack, and how to build them around specific goals. It is also important to instill in process actors that application development takes more than just clicking; even though it can be done rapidly, it needs attention and oversight.

All Low-code Development needs Project Management

Many vendors position low-code development as a way for anyone to go into a room by themselves and come out hours later with a usable application. It’s just not that simple. While low-code gives many people the ability to contribute, they must still adhere to some level of requirements and apply discipline to keep application projects within scope.

In addition to building the applications, these citizen developers must also build tests, identify issues, scale easily, and ensure that they can deliver a highly secure application.

Low-code Security

Applications built through low-code are typically optimized for a speedy deployment. While not the same approach as DevOps, which prizes continuous iteration, low-code applications still are not necessarily built with a comprehensive set of security rules built into them. These applications, and the data they transact, will need to rely on third-party tools that the IT department must procure and deploy. This doesn’t slow down anything, but it is something that applications developers must be serious about because all applications must use some level of security monitoring and remediation capabilities with them.

Executing sophisticated business logic and using complex rules typically requires a standard application development approach. But getting solutions addressed rapidly and specifically can help organizations solve problems quickly after they are identified. Ultimately, using a low-code approach can save millions on expensive technical staff, incompatible packaged applications, and maintenance of obsolete code.

Topics: business process automation
3 min read

Business Process Modeling for Continual Optimization

By BP Logix on Jul 19, 2019 9:13:50 AM

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In order to organize and focus an organization’s efforts, and the people involved therein, business processes are developed. While the intention is to drive efficiency, issues of complexity and scale can creep in to derail their efforts. Even structured, disciplined organizations can get off track if they don’t adhere to the requirements they’ve built for their processes. To help maintain order, business process modeling and the ability to effectively build and manage parallel processes assists those tasked with managing processes. This results in more focused efforts, and acceleration toward target goals.

Time and Business Process Modeling

Time is a critical ingredient of a business process. It enables organizations to gain control over outcomes, while creating the ability to predict how later process stages will be impacted by earlier actions. This early notification leads to early intervention and response, which results in a more comprehensive view of business options, the players that can affect them, and how they can be executed. The capability to predict changes the entire nature of how we perform business tasks, and this is where Process Timeline becomes a defining element of Process Director, providing BP Logix customers with a particularly unique view into how BPM is handled.

BPM is often thought of as a linear function, but the reality is that any type of work is abstract. Most BPM vendors also tend to view processes through the lens of methodology, rather than for practical action and reaction. Process Director takes into consideration that processes, actions, and decisions are time-dependent, and that the amount of time needed to complete, route, authorize or do any number of actions for a given activity is dependent upon other activities in the process. Activities that may need to be adjusted as the process evolves.

Optimize with Parallel Processing

Effective timeline management provides advantages for organizations wanting to plan beyond just day-to-day operations. At any given time organizations must operate multiple processes to maintain continuous improvement and growth. The more valuable aspect of the timeline, therefore, is in the reliability of how it manages parallel processing; in other words, the most effective way to deliver better business outcomes is through the agility of multiple, disparate processes, all being managed through a realistic lens of timelines.

We created Process Timeline to enhance our customers’ abilities in measuring and predicting process execution times, and to do so for different stakeholders who need to manage different types of projects and processes. Process Director enables organizations to be flexible in modeling parallel processes, and to give non-technical users the controls to build and adapt these processes as their business goals change. Every step of the way is governed by three specific ways of thinking:

  • What must complete before this step can begin?
  • How long will this step take to complete?
  • What processes do I have running in parallel?

Using Business Process Modeling to Deliver Value

The questions above help users apply elements of dependence, duration, and disparate-ness. Each activity will begin as soon as its prerequisites, if any, are complete. The result is a solution with many valuable features:

  1. Modeling is greatly simplified: project owners list each activity, estimate its duration, and then drag-and-drop it onto the activity or activities that must complete before it can begin.
  2. As many of the activities as possible will run at the same time, without the need to explicitly configure parallel behavior.
  3. The status of the process can be determined at a glance.
  4. At any point — even the moment the process is launched — the system can determine which activities, if any, may not complete by their due date.
  5. The system records actual versus predicted execution times each time the process is run, and adjusts its time estimates accordingly.

Organizations look to Process Timeline to help them deliver better results with more addressable solutions. The benefits from Process Timeline include:

  • Faster time-to-value: The simplified model gives businesses the opportunity to go from discovery to full automation faster than was previously possible.
  • Proactive response: The earliest possible notice of potential delays (and the resulting missed deadlines) — even for tasks that haven’t yet begun — means that your business can predict a future problem, adapt to changing circumstances, and succeed in overcoming those obstacles.
  • Improved compliance: Every approval, every piece of data entered, and every step of every process is permanently stored by Process Director, and can be made available to internal or external auditors, regulators, or risk management personnel.
  • Rapid changes: Business processes must respond rapidly to changing requirements. Process Director is configured through a simple, intuitive graphical interface, requiring no programming skills. As a result, Process Director makes it possible for your processes to change at the speed of your business.

When a business goal is addressed through a realistic application of governance and execution, the likelihood of success is significantly increased. When a reasonable timeline can help identify potential issues and predict outcomes, the organization can adapt and be flexible in how it handles the situation.

Topics: BPM business process automation business process management
3 min read

SOC 2 Certification Gives Process Director Users Better Process Integrity

By BP Logix on Jul 12, 2019 1:05:05 PM

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Security is at the forefront of everything we do at BP Logix. By ensuring the safety of our customers’ data we facilitate their journeys to better, more secure, process applications. This means happy customers, and better business operations. Our recent SOC 2 certification is testament to our ongoing commitment to deepening the trust of our customers and other stakeholders in Process Director.

Achieving SOC 2 status gives us verifiable proof that we demonstrate operational excellence and deliver to our customers the assurance that we are committed to ongoing client security. It’s something that is both integrated in how we conduct our business, as well as in how we build our solution. Customers and partners want assurances that their data is not only being treated securely, but that the company that stands behind Process Director operates as a trusted source, and with continuous application of processes and methods that meet strict security-first requirements.

The SOC 2 standard was created, and continues to be governed, by standards developed and managed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). It was designed as a way to enable organizations that transact private data with options for communicating information about their system descriptions and deliver sensitive information. While there are different SOC standards, SOC 2 is especially important for business processes because in addition to making sure data is safe when stored, it also pertains to data when it’s made accessible to external sources.

SOC 2 provides detailed information related to, and gives assurance of, an entity’s controls surrounding the security, availability, and processing integrity of the systems used to process users’ data. This also extends to the confidentiality of the data processed by these systems. SOC 2-compliant companies must demonstrate that they are managing customer data against five “trust service principles”—security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy.

For BP Logix customers, our SOC 2 compliance means they can trust that we operate with the following principles tightly integrated into Process Director and in every interaction with customer data:

BPM Security and Process Data

One of the most important aspects of any process is the data being used within the process. That data drives decision-making and enables various actors to apply their knowledge in the right context, at the right time. Contextual insights drive process activity, but what if that there was a compromise of your IT infrastructure? Data could be compromised, and it would normally require forensic analysis to understand just what was affected. SOC 2 compliance requires that organizations gather information and store them as logs. If a data breach is discovered, an audit of these logs means the customer can easily identify where issues exist, the data affected, and then more easily apply fixes. This is a huge help for customers because it can help them isolate issues before they become bigger problems for their company.

SOC 2 and Process Integrity

Process Director users not only actively develop process applications, but also constantly point to the demonstrable benefits yielded from them. In essence, this is all about identifying the right data within the organization’s infrastructure, putting it to use in the appropriate, contextual place, and transacting with it to achieve specific goals. And in order to do this, business processes have to be complete, substantiated, accurate, timely, and accessible.

However, the integrity of the process does not necessarily translate into integrity of the data. SOC 2 offers a framework so that the data being used is accurate and devoid of misuse. Adhering to SOC 2 means that data that containing errors prior to being included in a process will be detected. Process Director’s adoption of SOC 2 principles means that data, and the processes used with the data, are monitored with quality assurance procedures and ensure processing integrity.

Data Confidentiality and BPM

Process applications rely on specific levels of access and entry points; it’s one of the ways that control is applied to ensure consistency. Limiting access helps maintain a level of confidentiality, and SOC 2 Data is considered confidential if its access and disclosure is restricted to a specified set of persons or organizations.

Process Director supports this approach through federated identity management which enables companies to include third parties as active participants in their processes and workflows.  Authentication mechanisms like ADFS, SAML and OAuth give partners and suppliers access and create a new dynamic of collaboration, while giving companies greater control over who has access to what information.

Process Director was developed to provide the highest possible service to organizations that want to improve business performance through process-driven methods. With SOC 2 certification, Process Director can now ensure that customers get the highest level of availability, security, and consistency in our operational practices.

Topics: BPM software business process automation
2 min read

Invoice Processing Workflow Automation

By BP Logix on Jul 5, 2019 11:30:08 AM

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Invoice Process Solutions

Though digital transformation is upon us, many organizations still face a pesky outlier in the form of paper (or otherwise outdated) invoices. Because of this, invoice processing solutions are becoming a heightened priority. The most common complaints include:

  • Lost invoices
  • Incomplete information
  • Illegible data
  • Errors in data entry transfers
  • Purchase order matching
  • Supplier/vendor discrepancies

Accounts payable and management become so frustrated with these issues that they have turned to Process Director as their invoice processing solution. BP Logix client IDEX, has met with tremendous success from implementing Process Director.

IDEX’s Cost Savings

"We discovered that Process Director’s business logic lets you go as deep as you need to be consistent with your business process. With auditors, this has made our lives a lot easier."

IDEX Corporation manufactures and markets a wide array of engineered pumps and other industrial products
and is the world leader in fluid-handling technologies. They needed an invoice approval workflow automation software solution to centralize their CapEx process.

Accounting wanted to control the process for capital expense (CapEx) requests, a manual, paper-based process at that time. As a result of misplaced documents, Accounting was missing deadlines for audits.

After an exhaustive search, they decided Process Director  was the best fit for their invoice processing requirements as it:

  • Would require minimal coding
  • Would enable users to make changes easily
  • Be scalable
  • Be cost effective
  • Be deployable out-of-the-box

Process Director Invoice Processing Benefits

Businesses choose Process Director to:

  • Reduce errors
  • Avoid delays
  • Track invoices
  • Consolidate multiple formats of invoices
  • Reduce costs associated with paper forms

Process Director allows businesses to streamline the approval process when invoice processing begins. This can be triggered by the scanning of paper-based forms, completion of online information, or even manually triggered when certain conditions are met. Invoices are easy to find as keywords, metadata, and indexing creates multiple search criteria, removing the problem of losing the document.

Easy integration with current accounting software, as well as other systems and software, reduces the learning curve and the need for expensive, time consuming coding. Reporting is critical to invoice processing, as is having all approval activities to create a complete audit trail for business process governance. And finally, approvals can be made on any device, making mobile workforce approvals and submissions faster and easier than ever.

The flow for invoice processing typically follows a fairly standard process, but can get stalled if the processes lack automated mechanisms for ensuring smooth movement from creation to completion. Process Director enables these processes to be easily created and modified to meet the specific finance and operation needs of a company. It provides the flexibility to incorporate different requirements and procedures that map to changes in invoice automation policies. With Process Director, IT teams can create electronic forms the enable uploading of receipts into a convenient online workflow, either as one-off expenses, or as a bulk upload.

Additionally, Process Director allows for invoice categorization capabilities for different regions, amounts, and expense types, and can automatically generate accounting codes that correspond to those categories. Those codes can be used to populate the auto-fills to validate that the dropdowns are correct.

Transform your manual, paper-based processes with audit friendly, searchable, consistent electronic forms, automation processes and simple integration with current programs. Reduce redundancies and delays through streamlined invoice processing with Process Director.

Topics: workflow
3 min read

BPM Security Requirements: How to Evaluate and Implement the Security You Need

By BP Logix on Jun 28, 2019 2:29:05 PM

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Because processes use and transact massive amounts of data, much of it of a sensitive nature, enterprises must apply a security-first approach to their process management discipline. It is the responsibility of organizations to properly protect the data that is transacted within their environment; it’s a measure of responsibility to their own organization, and to partners and customers. To do so means asking the right questions and performing the necessary due diligence in creating an appropriate framework for data and asset security.

Organizations using BPM to digitally transform their processes are combining both technology and business best practices to support a more responsive, and responsible, way of managing data, people, and decision-making. BPM solutions like the SOC 2 Certified Process Director facilitate these goals through the integration of multiple applications into a platform that allows for collaborative, data-rich solutions.

What is the Right Type of BPM Security

Identifying the right type of security for your organization requires both technology and strategic thinking. One of the key reasons for adopting a BPM approach in the first place is to take advantage of the flexibility and dynamic nature that process management and workflow can deliver; it's an environment that maps to your business needs while effectively leveraging your technology investment.

Process Director has been developed to be an effective enabler of data transactions and communication, both into and out of your enterprise environment. Your business depends upon integration with both internal and third-party applications and the ability to share unique (and usually very sensitive) data with different types of stakeholders. This requires that your data be controlled effectively, but also not totally locked down.

Within all of this must be a security posture that safeguards data and ensures your technology assets and resources cannot be penetrated. Users can certainly apply security controls in their environment, but you have to continuously be aware of the risks and vulnerabilities. Ensuring you have processes in place to alert and remediate allows you to fix issues before they result in your company being the next corporate poster child for data breaches.

How to Ensure BPM Security

As you begin developing your framework for security, consider things like internal policies and requirements, compliance, application development, security training, automation, remediation, and other critical elements that are necessary to having a comprehensive security mindset. The following questions should help you and your team make smarter decisions around how you're going to procure, develop, apply, and manage security while you’re using Process Director:

  • Support for alerts and remediation: Do your security policies demand that you alert partners and other stakeholders, as well as trigger remediation processes upon detection of security issues? If so, you should apply an automated, process-driven approach that will integrate security alerts so users can be made aware of issues based on the risk, along with information that identifies where the issues lives. Only with a clear view over your entire IT surface can a user adequately rectify issues.
  • Customizing security settings: If you’re using Process Director in the cloud, your cloud security provider (CSP) will likely offer out-of-the-box security settings, but these might not be totally appropriate for your specific needs. Process Director in an on-premises environment will give you some predetermined controls, but these also may need to be customized to your needs. You will want to create guidelines for what levels of security are adequate, and then apply those requirements as controls across Process Director and other assets in your environment.
  • Security management: Is security handled by a single team within your organization, or is responsibility handled across your enterprise? It is likely a team with the IT organization, and they should be aware of how broadly Process Director is being used, with specifics about teams and the role within those teams that are using it. Management has to be flexible enough that your security solution can extend to different teams based on their needs, skill levels, and requirements.
  • Security Training: Process Director maximizes the contributions of more team members so they can be active participants in how applications are built and decisions get made. With that in mind, it's critical that there is a training roadmap for whatever security approach you choose to use. How will you handle security skills and training? Not every user will have a background in security, but training and education will go far in enabling them to innovate and build while adhering to smart security policies.

The goal of security, no matter what platform or environment you use, is to protect your critical data from attacks and from internal misconfigurations. By customizing your organization’s security framework to fit your architectural and platform needs, you can be better assured that you will be able to maintain continuous awareness and apply risk mitigation best practices.

Topics: BPM
5 min read

Five Steps to BPM Purchase Success

By BP Logix on Jun 21, 2019 1:55:48 PM

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Making an investment in a BPM solution has far-reaching implications, extending across many different areas of your organization. While the decision-making process most likely involves the IT department, beneficiaries include end-users in a myriad of business units. The chosen solution must be able to meet the demands of a wide range of users and business needs, but much of purchase team input will be biased towards their own individual priorities. Therefore, spending time considering what you will have to address in order to generate achieve structured success in your organization is critical.

Many technology solutions are purchased to address fairly specific use cases. LOB-specific applications, security tools, databases; with these kinds of tools, people can fairly anticipate the outcomes. A BPM solution, however, delivers value in a wide variety of ways and its benefits differ along with each team’s unique processes. With that in mind, it’s critical to establish a disciplined approach to the journey of vendor discovery.

Starting Your Journey To BPM Purchase Success

Initiating your plan to adopt BPM should begin with an honest and insightful analysis of the needs of the different groups within your organization. One of the things you’ll need to effectively assess the economics of your project is agreement among the different stakeholders who will be impacted by adoption of a new solution. Once identified, you should consider kicking off your vendor search by getting agreement on these questions:

  • Process breadth: Will the solution need to enable our processes to work only internally, or externally as well?
  • How will processes be accessed? What impact do I anticipate from mobile, social and other types of digital interaction?
  • Are we looking at short-term, repeatable processes only? Is this limiting our ability to achieve better results from BPM?
  • Are there documents and data sources that, if included in my processes, could make it more valuable?
  • Could my processes be more valuable if it provided data analysis and metrics?

With a better overall sense of how the organization wants to proceed, and with a more accurate barometer of what you’re looking for, your organization should evaluate your decisions with these steps in mind:

Gathering requirements

Start by knowing the desired outcomes for your BPM solution, and then consider the requirements that will help you arrive there. These requirements are represent the functionality that the solution must deliver. This may seem laborious, but it’s best done by having team members walk through decisions, processes, milestones together. Almost like reading the script before actors go on stage, it allows team members to develop fine-grained clarity over what constitutes “have to.”

Remember that requirements must be both of a technology and business nature. If your solution needs the ability to operate in IoT devices and through social media integration, identify those things are requirements - those are technology elements that have to be part of your ultimate decision. Perhaps there are specific ERP systems you need to integrate with; ensure that information is accounted for. But also recognize that some solutions may have been deployed in verticals like yours and therefore may be better equipped for your environment. If that’s important to your team, make sure it exists in your requirement list.

Also consider your staff and resources; if this solution will be used broadly by non-programmers, then make sure you seek something that is low-code/no-code and uses a graphical user interface that empowers business users to participate in process management.

Evaluating BPM vendors

You’re looking at features and functionality, but you also want to work with a vendor that has a trusted brand and a legacy of happy customers. Ask to speak with customers that are actively engaged with your prospective vendor, read case studies, find the word on the street.

While you may need to kiss a few toads before you find your prince, spending time with different vendors will help you determine where there’s the best fit. It’s important to keep criteria like the following in mind:

  • Does the solution map to my requirements?
  • Does the product team have plans for future versions that will meet anticipated needs for my organization?
  • Can the solution capable of doing things I might not yet have considered as critical for my organization?
  • Can I do a proof-of-concept (POC) that is an accurate representation of the solution?
  • What is the customer turnover rate for the vendor?

Remember that you are investing considerable financial and human resources into this endeavor, and the vendor should be able to patiently and effectively address your current and anticipated needs.

Getting buy-in

Many BPM projects fail because executives and decision-makers do not fully understand its value and how it will be used. Some will view it only as another technology solution and will either tacitly, but noncommittally acknowledge it, or perhaps they will actually question its overall variability. Getting buy-in for your BPM project from your business and technology leaders ensures that you will be equipped with the long-term resources required to deploy a sustainable BPM solution.

Educating execs about how BPM is a critical bridge that delivers cross-functional processes should be one of the first steps to demonstrating comprehensive value. When done correctly, cross-functional types of processes lead to a more collaborative working environment that demonstrate real, measurable results. Without a tool to support this interactivity, companies will continue to rely on inefficient modes of communication and application development, and because these inefficiencies breed delays, companies will always lag in their efforts to deliver meaningful solutions.

You have a vision for your BPM solution, but does your purchase team really understand what that is? Some educational material will be required, in-person meetings with influencers are important, and framing the conversations around value will all help you make your pitch. Create a vision that demonstrates how they can be part of something really important, like digital transformation, and show them the path to be a player in that process.

Do some modeling that actually shows what “value” actually looks like. Create a PowerPoint that highlights goals and plans for achieving them, a spreadsheet that shows cost savings, and flowcharts that show before and after scenarios. You want to paint a vivid picture of what differences you anticipate ahead. And not just differences, but also the subsequent benefits.

Preparing for launch

Whoever leads the BPM charge in an organization needs to communicate the impending changes in a way that emphasizes preparation. BPM adoption can be initially disruptive because it is something that can only be conducted through humans. That disruption, however, can be minimized by willingness to embrace the change.

The staff should understand what to expect and feel supported in their efforts. There are a lot of stakeholders, and it’s incumbent upon you to set expectations for how this project will impact them. For the IT team, they will have to build some connectors, do some testing, and identifying ways to add continuous change into the new BPM system. End-users will need some level of education before they begin to see demonstrable outcomes. Provide your team with timelines and milestones, but with a continual reiteration of the big picture, or ‘mission statement’.

Identifying “improvement”

All enterprises seek improvement from new technologies and business methods, yet there is a certain amount of naiveté in thinking that simply buying and using a new tool will ensure success. Remember that a BPM solution is not just deployed; BPM needs to be integrated into how the organization works. The essence of what BPM is and provides has to be embedded into the minds of employees and manifested in their work.

Do you know what results you are trying to achieve? A workflow is wonderful only if it improves results by delivering a result faster, better, or more efficiently. The key for you and your business is knowing what that “thing” is. You should give serious thought to the results you are currently achieving— and create a model for what a post-BPM world would look like. Make intelligent, thoughtful predictions about the improvements you will see, then measure whether or not you are actually achieving them.

Once you have initiated your solution, you can begin to look at the results: Are projects being accomplished faster? Did you eliminate time-consuming steps? How is process automation contributing to your company’s overall efficiency and effectiveness? Remember to think about the metrics that will demonstrate the improvements you wanted to achieve — then analyze your processes to determine whether or not BPM is helping you reach them.

Good luck on your journey – the future is bright ahead!

Topics: BPM
3 min read

What is bpmPaaS?

By BP Logix on Jun 14, 2019 12:51:17 PM

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The Gartner-generated term bpmPaaS is being used with increasing frequency in the technology media and among analysts, but just what is bpmPaaS? On its surface, it seems like a logical part of the evolution in the realm of process management and services-based architectures. By combining them, organizations conceivably have a solution to apply and adapt processes to specific business needs as they arise. It’s a perfect way to deliver on the promise of BPM as it was first conceived - a way to create processes that make work more efficient, build reusability into those processes, and track the progress of the people, data, and assets involved with those processes. By invoking the power of the cloud and microservices, bpmPaaS now adds the advantage of on-demand development and delivery.

For almost any organization, this is the “a-ha” moment. IT managers have been looking for a way to empower business users to create and deliver processes, and to be the central hub for change management. When delivered as a service, BPM is more flexible and adaptable, which is key at a time when business demands change rapidly. The promise is big, and some organizations are already benefiting from this platform-based, services-based, BPM solution - these are the ones that are using Process Director.

Process Director as a Services-Based BPM Platform (bpmPaas)

Process Director was originally developed as an easy-to-use, low-code development platform to enable teams to build and adapt processes to changing needs, whether those changes were mandated from outside or inside the company. While the cloud was not as popular when Process Director was created as it is today, its developers recognized that BPM on a platform, especially one that is agile, is the only true way to provide organizations with the promise that effective process management can deliver. After all, if teams are stuck having to deploy, build integrations, update, and manage the engine that’s running their processes, it eliminates the ease and flexibility that BPM is supposed to offer in the first place.

Gartner, who has been articulating the concept of bpmPaaS, pointed out last year that Process Director was already en-route to capturing the essence of what the category is all about. They, and countless BP Logix customers, point to how Process Director is able to integrate new technologies like predictive analytics, process intelligence, and machine learning in a solution that is built to continuously optimize for organizational process efficiency. This optimization gives business teams a platform on which to create tasks, processes, and systems, while allowing more flexibility and human guidance to create truly intelligent business process management that assists not just in creating efficiencies, but also in effectively meeting customer demands.

To capitalize on the services model, Process Director is available through a variety of platforms, including the cloud. For those that take advantage of the cloud, companies can use Process Director as they evolve in their needs. As they grow from using a multi-tenant environment to a solution with customization applied to it, they are able to build an agile process machine with minimal capital, infrastructure, and IT expenses.

bpmPaaS Drives Transformation

Consider the entire concept of digital transformation. While organizations dedicate considerable time to planning the tools and behavioral changes they need to make to transform core to how they run their business, they never stop transforming once they commit to it. The tools that enable them to do that need to be foundational and provide the necessary functionality to operate as a solution-of-record that provides continuous innovation and change on-demand. Just as transformation never stops, the organizations that want to close the gap between concept and solution must look to the services-based model provided by the cloud that offers a path to process optimization.

Process Director uses inherent rapid application development, the concept of time, and a cloud-native approach to deliver on the promise of bpmPaaS. Specifically, it looks to improve users’ business conditions and efficacy of processes with these following elements that are optimized for cloud delivery:

  • Built in application integration and database connectors that enable connectivity, on-the-fly, to any data source that can inform processes and deliver information to improve business outcomes. It must have the ability to access data directly through SQL and integrate that data directly into forms and workflow.
  • Ability to build, pilot, and adapt applications that ingest and use data from a variety of internal and third-party sources.
  • Operate on a process engine that applies rules and provides compliance management to ensure processes are working as intended.
  • Identify and predict outcomes, and then use that time-informed intelligence to automate building of better processes.
  • Coordinate and choreograph how various services work together to deliver transformative outcomes.

bpmPaaS solutions can be used across different types of environments. Process Director, for example, is used in cloud-native, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments. Ultimately, its flexible architecture enables a better approach to identifying the most optimal data, applying it in context, and giving end-users a faster path to decision-making. An effective bpmPaaS like Process Director gives IT departments and line of business managers a way to respond quickly to market changes and internal business demands. Because it is built to deliver processes in a services-based environment, team members can emphasize their expertise in implementation, uptime, security, and getting the processes created the right way.

Topics: BPM
3 min read

Digital Transformation Do-Overs: 3 Early Adoption Mistakes

By BP Logix on Jun 7, 2019 9:54:00 AM

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Arbiter of digital transformation, or early adopter regret? This is the question many enterprises are asking as they look back on their efforts to move into a more modern approach. But with the luxury of perspective, many have discovered that their early digital transformation intentions were either short sighted or totally missed the mark. The promise was attractive, but the ultimate goal not yet totally understood. This resulted in these early digital pioneers frequently shuffling their way through half-baked ambitious projects that never completed or took companies in misguided directions that ended up costing them dearly.

The Early Digital Transformation Promise

Walk the show floor of any technology event and you’ll find all kinds of vendors who promise to be “next generation”, “emerging”, or “built for a new [fill in the blank].” While they may be truly developing something innovative and exciting, organizations can only implement a certain amount of new technology before they overwhelm their IT teams and end users to the point of adoption fatigue. Many of these early adopters become rigidly beholden to making a nascent strategy work, and in their attempt to use that strategy to move ahead of their competition, often found themselves married to technology that wasn’t actually ahead of its time and didn’t offer any of the benefits of continuous change.

A Bridge is not the Path Forward

Originally, enterprises became enamored with the promise of digital transformation because it was the bridge from legacy tools to an environment that made more productive use of technology, employee resources, and data. Though building this bridge should not have been the end-goal, it is nonetheless where many early adopters stopped. They invested heavily in tools and software solutions, but now find that they are now saddled with systems that don’t talk to one another, are not agile, and cannot support the speed and scale required by modern enterprises.

The real value in transforming a business has to begin with a clear vision for how it can boost productivity and efficiency while being an enabler for organizational change. Early attempts were often derailed because they lacked a roadmap and neglected the inevitable need for streamlined automation and integration with multiple applications. These organizations typically fell into traps around the following issues:

No Clarity on Digital Transformation Ownership

The advent of digital business often looked like an attempt to be more inclusive - that inclusivity was supposed to extend to people, data, and technology sources. But in order to deliver on those goals, transformation processes require distinct ownership of design and implementation processes. Successful optimization always demands some level of executive sponsorship and top-down control, but it’s especially the case when a project includes such a far-ranging set of activities like digital transformation. To keep the project in scope and prevent overwhelming implementers, organizations needed to solidify operations and management around key decision-makers. In the absence of that type of ownership, many projects simply became too unwieldy, or veered off in directions that didn’t adhere to original goals.

Over-Emphasis on Replacement

Many saw ‘transformation’ as replacing existing tools or processes, rather than being a way to improve overall operations. This made the project easier to manage, because it only demanded 1:1 mapping of old too new. But this totally neglected the importance of why a company would embark on digital transformation in the first place. The idea was to build processes into a company that could rely on digital methods for implementation. Doing so meant that the organization could benefit from automation, a faster way to develop applications, and the reduction or inefficiencies. Being so tactical in their approach prevented many companies from truly taking advantage of becoming a digital business.

Wrong Endgame

The whole notion of transformation is that it never truly stops. Once a transformation begins, it is supposed to pave the way for continuous evolution and enablement of other things that transform and change as well. But many organizations sought an endgame that was narrowly focused - maybe they just wanted to integrate key applications, or perhaps they wanted the ability to pull data from internal sources and deliver it to customers through forms. In that light, the transformation project ends once the goals are achieved, but as we now know, the ability to apply digital methods for process-oriented outcomes, and to continuously improve on those processes, never ceases. Companies that sought the former approach were rewarded with new solutions, but they still lacked a foundation that was enabled continuous innovation.

Today’s organizations have access to more data, more connections, and an ever-expanding list of new technology. For these organizations to thrive in today’s competitive marketplace, they must evolve from previous models to ones that engage more stakeholders and make better use of data. But they must also be able to support the need for rapid development of new solutions and subsequent delivery through all necessary channels.

Topics: digital transformation
3 min read

What Is Today’s Workflow Engine?

By BP Logix on May 31, 2019 1:00:49 PM

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A business is, among other things, an assortment of activities that are intended to produce profit-generating products and services. To arrive at the successful goal of delivering those products and services, a company has to rely on a myriad of actions, events, resources, and decisions. As economic demands require companies to move faster, and as technology creates a more efficient way to adapt, organizations need a way to coordinate and manage the different, but related, recurring tasks that form the foundation of a business. The vehicle for these management efforts often come in the form of a workflow engine.

Workflow Engines vs Intelligent Process Modeling Engines

At its core, a workflow engine is the technology used to apply logic and rules to move operations toward completion. At BP Logix, the thinking is that while that is all fine and well, generic workflow is far different from applications driven by an intelligent process modeling engine— one that uses automation, can adapt to changing business needs, and is able to apply the concept of time to help users predict a path for better outcomes.

Those are precisely the reasons for developing Process Director. With organizations operating in a continuous, non-linear world, Process Director employs a process modeling engine that goes beyond workflow to unify different business elements into models that can be executed to derive more efficient processes.

Legacy Workflow Systems: The Enemy of Productivity

The enemy of productivity isn’t just lack of action, it’s waste. It comes in the form of wasted time, wasted effort, and unnecessary resources that don’t apply to the intended solution. Legacy workflow systems hand information and documents from one actor to the next, all with the presumption that each decision point was arrived at with all the necessary data needed to make an actual decision. As workplaces and systems have gotten more complex with multiple digital input channels and a working style that prizes collaboration, old style workflows cannot rely on the standard style of handoff. As a modern solution for transformative enterprises, Process Director uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to incorporate predictive analytics and create not only seamless processes, but ones fueled by informed, data-fueled decisions.

A Workflow Engine Heading Where?

Popular author and researcher Brene Brown uses a concept called, “what does ‘done’ look like” to emphasize that there are many ways to arrive at the completion of a task, but it requires all parties to be on the same page about what they’re trying to accomplish. Process Director uses Process Timeline™ to enable the aggregation of different viewpoints and methods, and arrive at an agreed-upon goal. We get a sense for this through the element of time, a major component missing from the standard workflow engine, that is heavily leveraged by Process Director customers in a variety of vertical markets.

Traditional BPM focuses on quality and business process governance, but adding a modeling engine with business process automation capabilities (along with the predictive element of time) gives the user the ability to see how later process stages will be affected by the previous ones. This adds huge value to the managed process by allowing the earliest possible notification of potential delays to allow intervention before timeline problems arise.

Beyond Review and Approval

In most workflow engines, there is a review and approval step in place, but it doesn’t answer questions about the specifics of completion. These questions are of huge importance to management, because while it may be great to know you are on track to hit a specific goal, it is still important to know what is currently happening. It is similar to comparing the act of looking at a transaction in a register to discover errors, rather than simply looking at a monthly profit and loss statement. This is where Process Timeline within Process Director can establish a continuous assessment of, and application of actions for, the direction of where the process will move in its effort to guide processes forward.

With a process modeling engine that uses predictive capabilities, simple models can be created to help businesses go from discovery to full automation faster, yet more intelligently. Process Timeline gives each activity with its duration estimate to create faster processes. Activities can run at the same time, without complicated coding to configure parallel behavior. The status of the entire process, as well as sub-processes can be determined at a glance, which allows for proactive response and the earliest notification of potential delays to allow for quick intervention. When confronted with similar ‘tasks of parallelism’, standard workflow engines tend to stumble.

A Predictive Workflow Engine?

The predictive nature of Process Timeline is such that it identifies potential problems in the course of the process, and can trigger actions to the changing circumstances. This results in obstacles being overcome before deadlines are missed or production halts. Process Timeline records predicted execution versus actual time, every time the process runs and adjusts the time estimates for even better management. Process Director stores every aspect of the process for audits, internally or externally, for improved compliance.

Today’s workflow engine takes a very different form: with a foundation that combines IT process automation with BPM software solutions, Process Director provides a codified way to deliver timely, effective processes for organizations of all types.

Topics: workflow workflow management
4 min read

What Are Modern Workflow Tools?

By BP Logix on May 24, 2019 2:17:48 PM

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We all know that as technology has become more accessible, it’s also created more data and more connections that users must manage. According to ZDNet, the average medium-to-large enterprise uses between 300 - 400 different software applications. The irony of this proliferation is that it creates a gap between the data we should use versus the data that’s most accessible to us. In the past we used the term ‘workflow tools’ to describe the bundle of amenities used by organizations to tackle these issues, but is ‘workflow tools’ still an appropriate fit?

Intelligent Process Automation vs Workflow Tools

‘Intelligent process automation solution’ has replaced ‘workflow tools’ in many spheres, but a process-driven approach still embeds a mindset within organizations around how to develop and deliver better data, be more agile, and ensure that approvals and requirements are addressed according to expectations. What has changed is the scope available in the modern BPM solution, now workflow tools are just a component of a larger whole.

When business (and thus processes) were simpler, workflow simply looked like a series of lines and shapes that veer off into multiple directions. And this worked, for the most part. Workflow tools streamlined a goal-oriented task, and was a critical tool that made life easier. But the modern organization is hardly linear, and workflow tools have hit the ceiling of enabling communication between disparate people, data, and decisions. For the modern solution to be successful, it must allow processes to be easily centralized and distributed.

Process Director: The Way Forward For Workflow Tools

Serving these widespread needs was the reason we created Process Director in the first place, with its unique Process Timeline process modeling engine– a replacement for the standard workflow tools of the past. At the time we first developed it, we couldn’t have known how rapidly and completely digital transformation would change the nature of business and technology. Yet, part of our mission was to give organizations a foundational structure that they could use to adapt and grow their business.

But Process Director is so much more than a workflow tool, it was also created with the mindset that those closest to problems are likely the ones best equipped to solve for them. Rather than building a complex application development solution that demands highly skilled coding capabilities, Process Director allows for non-programmers to build robust, comprehensive process-driven applications. Additionally, it helps organizations reduce complexity and enhance results through these advantages, which could be considered tools for your process tool box:

Workflow: A Part of a Greater Whole

  1. More collaboration: Whether through more access points (mobile, Internet of Things), communication channels (social media), or platform (on-premise, cloud, hybrid), a solid workflow management software solution gives everyone involved with your processes—both inside and outside of your firewall—the appropriate level of access along with the BPM tools to make a difference.
  2. Insight through analytics: Process is a facilitator, but it delivers additional value when it provides insights about your operations. Process Director uses analytics to deliver regular insights into what is occurring within your processes, the people involved, and a sense for how effectively your organization meet its deadlines.
  3. Moving from paper to digital: Even in the digital age, so much data is collected and transacted through paper-based documents. It’s hard to process and requires dedicated manual effort to store and retrieve. Process Director enables the digitization of documents as images so they can be included as assets within workflows. This delivers relevant data directly to decision-makers and ensures relevance throughout the process.
  4. Maximize skill sets: Process Director can automatically assign tasks to people based on their strengths and skill sets. By giving people the most appropriate tasks, you can improve productivity and keep employees more engaged.
  5. Avoid redundant behavior: Process Director views workflow tools as an organized, automated way to eliminate unnecessary steps. It does this by initially identifying the critical points of activity, enabling teams to define specific actions, participants, and results that should occur.
  6. More inclusive: Process Director applies rapid application development capabilities that enable and encourage non-developers to build, adapt and manage process. Non-technical employees can apply their knowledge directly to workflow solutions that will both reduce the IT burden, and deliver solutions in context.
  7. Enable rapid validation through digital approvals: Process Director enables non-developers to rapidly create eForms , which enables fast approvals (including executives on the go) and the reduction in time lost as a result of waiting for paper-based signatures. This is where workflow becomes a critical factor in supporting speed and real-time action.
  8. Automation: Automated workflows allow you to set up processes, then let them run. The majority of work that occurs within processes can be automated, freeing up time and allowing you and your team to focus on more strategic activities.
  9. Adapt the concept of time to processes: Business activities are deadline-driven. Process Director provides triggers that keep processes moving according to a timeline, enabling participants to see precisely when and where input is required.
  10. Tracking provides historical data: Every activity in digital workflow is tracked. Whether you need information for compliance purposes or to review how your organization operates, the ability to quickly see the ‘who, what, where and how’ of your processes provides important insights.

Is Your Digital Transformation Toolkit Ready?

To produce anything meaningful in today's market requires discipline, repeatable actions, and a foundation that will help conduct ideas from inception to desired outcome. The pace of today's business demands that traditionally time-consuming tasks like collaboration, reviews, and approvals all be done with incredible rapidity and yet still be brand compliant and impactful. Workflow tools have traditionally been proven to be the most effective way of achieving that, but the tool box has expanded to include so much more. The very foundation on which agility and transformation needs to take place rests on the shoulders of intelligent process automation.

Topics: workflow workflow management BPM business process automation
4 min read

Invoice Automation and Management for Streamlined Reimbursement

By BP Logix on May 17, 2019 3:07:07 PM

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All businesses rely on financial transactions between buyers and customers, with partners, and investors. But financial relationships also exist with staff who pay for certain expenses out of their own pockets and must be reimbursed. Without a consistent invoice automation process for tracking and funding these transactions, however, organizations cannot operate efficiently and meet their financial obligations to their most valuable resource -- their employees. Invoice management is a critical part of all modern organizations, and it requires a process automation foundation that ensures employees are repaid, and that also gives companies insight into the accounting and tracking of finances.

Invoice automation processes can be complex— approvals and reviews are performed through the work of multiple people, and timeliness is a critical factor. Companies tax the trust of employees when they’re left holding the bag for out of pocket expenses because of delayed reimbursement. Process automation must be simple so that employees can adhere to a repeatable process, comfortable in the knowledge that they will be repaid. But every invoice management process must also be rigorous so it is not abused with illegitimate claims.

Invoice Automation

Modern organizations, therefore, must balance these different needs with a solution that gives their invoice processes the flexibility and agility to adapt as needed. At its core, invoice process automation is a combination of capturing, tracking, approvals, and transactions. Process Director addresses all of these aspects as a comprehensive solution that enables an organization to automate, track and report on all review and approval processes. Process Director invoice management solutions ensure that proper approval process will be created and followed, and it also allows for historically lengthy, sequential, manual processes to become efficient, highly parallel automated reimbursement processes. The end result is effective compliance and accountability, both for the company and for employees.

Many invoice automation solutions were created as part of legacy ERP applications, and they retain much of their inherent complexity. This means that integration, management, and updates require dedicated teams with specific skill sets in order to deploy and manage these applications. It also typically reduces adoption, as employees are required to work with outdated interfaces and complicated sets of rules. Process Director gives organizations the ability to rapidly develop expense-related applications with an easy-to-use integration framework, and can be built and managed by non-developers. Included is the ability to apply rules to auto-route to specific managers and supervisors for approvals.

From Paper-Based to Invoice Process Automation

When most people think of invoice management, they visualize a variety of receipts, print-outs, and other paper documents. But physical documents are easily lost, hard to read, and require a lot of manual data inputs. As a proven driver of digital transformation efforts, Process Director applies capabilities that reduce, and even eliminate, the need for paper document delivery, storage, and management.

Process Director enables the collection and organization of photo receipts, so employees can snap pictures of receipts and submit them immediately, along with contextual information about the reason for the expense. The photo becomes part of that employee’s expense case, and the company now has a record of the expense and some supporting data that helps during review and approval processes. Imagine a scenario where an employee meets with a customer over a cup of coffee and light breakfast. The expense might be relatively small -- maybe less than $10. Yet, those expenses add up, and if employees lose receipts, they’ll eventually be out a significant amount. By providing a digital way to submit an expense with immediacy, they can be assured of repayment, and don’t have to make a project out of creating their reports.

To further reduce the burden, employees can also email receipts that are automatically imported and assigned to the user’s profile. This ensures that the necessary data is captured and the necessary triggers are initiated to move the expense through approvals.

Invoice Automation Supported by Case Management

Process Director is built with case management functionality tightly embedded into its foundation. It can pull together processes, data and rules around accounting and compliance rules, and actively assesses, coordinate, and plan every aspect of a given expense report (treated as a “case”) ultimately working toward time-based goals.

These processes, transactions, and responses that define a complex set of activities like expense tracking and approvals must be tracked over a period of time, with a very specific deadline (most companies abide by a timeframe in which an employee can expect to be repaid). This allows invoices to be reviewed by as many different people, both inside and outside of the organization, who are required to evaluate them. Every action, message, response, and document generated during this complex activity becomes part of the case, and that gives the organization a trackable log of data about the employee, his or her expenses, and how/when they were reconciled.

Better Reviews with Invoice Automation

The process flow for invoice automation typically follows a fairly standard process, but can get stalled if the processes lack automated mechanisms for ensuring smooth movement from creation to completion. Process Director enables these processes to be easily created and modified to meet the specific finance and operation needs of a company.  It provides the flexibility to incorporate different requirements and procedures that map to changes in invoice automation policies. With Process Director, IT teams can create electronic forms the enable uploading of receipts into a convenient online workflow, either as one-off expenses, or as a bulk upload. The bulk option allows employees to submit mass numbers of receipts, and for workforces that are mostly mobile, or that require a lot of travel, this significantly reduces the workload for employees and their managers. The forms that are built can also apply auto-filling, so regularly used data is automatically populated, also saving time.

Additionally, Process Director allows for invoice categorization capabilities for different regions, amounts, and expense types, and can automatically generate accounting codes that correspond to those categories. Those codes can be used to populate the auto-fills to validate that the dropdowns are correct.

Process Director gives organizations the ability to develop and deploy invoice automation capabilities that are robust, but that don’t come with the complexity of legacy solutions. It enables integration of multiple applications into a single user interface that gives employees a fast and easy way to submit expenses, for companies to validate and track them, and ultimately for fast and effective reconciliation.

Topics: automation business process automation
4 min read

The Operational and Economic Advantages of the Cloud

By BP Logix on May 10, 2019 11:52:29 AM

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Cloud platforms are rapidly being adopted by enterprises as an agile, adaptable foundation for their IT environment. The move to the cloud requires serious consideration, however. IT leaders should understand the impact on their organization and how they will need to change. But they should also understand how the cloud can provide them with a new, and fundamentally better way of using technology to support business goals. Organizations that use the cloud as a foundation for their IT and business operations are deriving true economic value and demonstrable improvements in efficiency.

It is important to think of a cloud environment in the right context: it's not so much a solution or a tool as it is a foundation for the intersection of technology and business. The cloud offers a way of managing your technology investments that is more efficient and aligned with the needs of a growing enterprise. It lowers management and maintenance costs dramatically, while also providing the scalability that allows an organization to use computing and transactional resources as needed.

Cloud platforms operational efficiency: Reduce IT maintenance and support tasks

IT teams are filled with highly specialized staff who look out for the various parts of their technology strategy. While they may be focused on specific initiatives, invariably, issues arise that require an "all hands on deck" approach to problem solving, and it will take the time and attention of even your most specialized people. When your team is working to avoid outages or handling other infrastructure issues, they are not being as productive on critical issues as they could be. Nor is your company getting the maximum benefit from their valuable skill set.

IT departments will always have KPIs around daily technology-related tasks, but imagine if you didn’t have to actively manage them. Consider the difference in staffing and cost when much of the usual heavy lifting is no longer required. Besides the reduction of fixed costs like staffing, meetings, and physical requirements, having your applications in the cloud means that you can determine KPIs for what's critical for your business, rather than your technology, and rely on the vendor to perform accordingly.

Find out from your cloud vendor how different your allocation of resources could be. Analyze what it would look like if you deployed your people to projects and tasks that will move the company forward. Doing so will benefit from efficiencies around economies of scale and distribution of responsibilities— efficiencies that can only be achieved in a cloud environment.

The shared responsibility model of security

The reputation of your brand is based on trust among your company’s various stakeholders. Providing information so business users can make better decisions creates benefits, but there is potential risk. Every endpoint that your technology touches becomes a potential security risk.

Enterprise organizations require solutions which ensure data is only accessible for intended purposes and by known users. As more data and functionality become available and usable, CIOs must find ways to make data available where it can be most effective, without opening up the organization to potential risks. Yet, as more data is used by more people on more devices in and new ways, are you able to keep up with the ever-present potential risks?

Using the cloud means you can take advantage of a platform that has the ability (and for reasons of business sustainability, the necessity) to dedicate staff and resources solely to the pursuit of protecting their tenants, applications and customer data. Consider the focus your team can place on strategic issues and initiatives if you could reduce the need to constantly stay up to date and focused on security.

Make sure you are comfortable knowing that, while your data is owned by your company, it is being handled by the vendor through their ability to continuously deliver better security solutions. Security is important to an organization’s operations, so ask hard questions and insist for proof points from your vendor to ensure risk is mitigated.

Controlling your data and how it's used is critical to a company's health, and is fundamental to the CIO's role.

Economic advantages of using the cloud

Purchasing enterprise-grade technology hardware requires a lengthy review process, an implementation phase, ongoing management, and then finally depreciation and updating tasks. Every one of those tasks is time consuming, non-productive, and expensive. They also involve the valuable time of staff whose expertise could be used far more effectively and productively.

The cloud eradicates most of these wasted costs and instead uses a more efficient model where customers are billed on a subscription basis. Even more appealing is how cloud service providers break down spending based on usage type and amount. Cloud users pay on a per-minute model, rounded down to the nearest minute. In this way, organizations can efficiently manage costs and plan for growth.

When moving to the cloud, some of the money normally allocated for management of physical resources and upgrades can be used to develop a skilled staff that’s capable of using the cloud to implement innovative new services. Additionally, the cost effectiveness of the cloud is recognized in terms of scale. Organizations can grow without having to meet corresponding needs of more hardware, networking assets, and other manifestations of legacy, on-premises environments. That level of scalability is precisely what is required for modern enterprises that need to be highly responsive to changing market and customer needs.

A new model for modern enterprises

IT departments must respond quickly to market changes as well as shifts with internal KPIs. It is incumbent upon them not just to manage technology tools, but to figure out how to best use those tools to drive an agile business agenda. Instead of spending so much time on things like implementation, upgrades and uptime, the modern IT can now use the cloud to optimize the tools at their disposal, and create optimized, and secure, business solutions.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iVLdyf7Nb4[/embed]

Topics: Uncategorized BPM business process automation
4 min read

How BPM Improves the College Student Experience

By BP Logix on Apr 30, 2019 9:09:14 AM

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Process Director has empowered many higher education institutions in delivering automated application development and workflow pointed at supporting students’ varied needs. Of course, some of the advantages that BPM delivers are behind the scenes, for things like university administration, student financial aid and a myriad of internal processes. All of these add up to a mountain of Process Director supported use-cases, and result in it being an important engine for schools wanting to deliver an exceptional student experience.

Today’s college students have grown up in a digital world. Just about everything they want is available through their smartphones, and they now expect to be able to scroll their way through tasks and plans. Innovative colleges and universities understand this and are creating highly digital experiences, powered by BPM, to help students with everything they need from admissions all the way to graduation.

Process Director’s capabilities are aligned with the goals of higher education organizations that want to move past legacy systems and adopt digital solutions that meet the needs of demanding student populations. BPM is not just a way to make better use of data and create efficiencies of scale; in the context of education, it is used to provide a more connected overall experience across the student’s lifecycle.

Effective Workflow for Colleges and Universities

Effective workflow is more than just a series of tactical activities. It has to align with user intent and create behaviors that maximize usage and deliver meaning to users. Some organizations see their processes as a series of unconnected events; they don’t see the connectedness of the user experience, nor the value of deploying solutions in the context of the user’s lifecycle while they’re engaged with the organization.

Process Director, however, has been built to recognize that schools serve the needs of an audience that is busy and operates with many competing demands. Many are still learning how to prioritize life events and meet deadlines. Registering, paying, signing-up — these actions and others must be fairly simple and easily incorporated into the daily lives of students in order for solutions to be adopted.

The three most critical aspects of aligning with the student experience are: ease of use, solution context, and communication. Effective workflow ensures that all these elements are met so that users have not just a more efficient experience, but one they can begin to rely on to consistently meet their needs to make student life easier and more meaningful.

Ease of Use for College Students with BPM Software

Most students are in their late teens and early 20’s; this is a generation accustomed to an inbound style of productivity. Rather than having to wait in lines and submit paperwork, they have used online apps and smart forms to deliver and receive information.

To build engaging tools that meet the needs of students, schools can use Process Director to create sophisticated, low-code digital applications that take into account the necessary data and workflow sources on the back-end, and considers how users on the front-end will actually use the app. By being able to create simple apps that integrate relevant information, including smart forms and processes, students can get information they need and take action on things like class scheduling, financial aid, and other relevant events. The application build teams from Process Director’s agile approach to adapt as needed to increase adoption and productivity.

So while Process Director is easy to use for those who need to build applications intended to engage students and help them with decisions and actions necessary to their experience, that ease of use is also reflected in elegant, simple usability that encourages repeatability and adoption.

Managing Academic Workload

Managing an academic workload of multiple classes, administrative issues like financial aid, and extracurricular activities like intramural sports and campus activities all compete for students’ attention. School IT teams use Process Director to optimize the use of data so that the applications they create help students engage and complete tasks with limited disruption to their schedules.

Process Director helps direct the way that organizations surface and orient data through interactive forms and workspaces. Just as human interaction is complex, Process Director looks at the workflows in applications not as a linear phenomenon, but as a continuously shared collection of usable elements that allow for context-based structural changes, last moment decisions, and individualized attentions depending on each circumstance.

The case management approach inherent in Process Director also helps greatly when delivering applications that integrate historical data on students (transcripts, payments, scholarships). With navigable data that can be filtered for omission or inclusion depending on the situation, applications can adapt as the students’ situations change and evolve. This approach supplies students with applications that provide them with what they need when they need it, all without forcing them to search outside the context of the case to find answers.

[embed]https://youtu.be/4dbjEdajGwY[/embed]

Better Communication

Students are bombarded with emails, texts, direct messages, and a host of other types of communication. But more information can go unnoticed if it doesn’t fit with how they are accustomed to consuming information. Schools need to ensure that students see important messages, but also create ways for students to communicate back with them.

With capabilities that facilitate connecting and communicating across departments, Process Director can help schools collect applications, forms, and data sources into a collective portal that delivers all student’s actionable needs into a single interface. That reduces response time and enhances the kind of communication students need in order to meet deadlines, stay on top of opportunities, and keep their good standing with their school.

The digital transformation of higher education cannot happen on an application-by-application basis. Schools that want to align their goals and processes to student behaviors will apply digital transformation through the use of smart workflow and processes. To serve these needs, Process Director provides digitally transformative and contextual education workflow solutions, facilitates efficient distribution of information, and streamlines the monitoring and management of information.

Topics: BPM software
3 min read

Process Automation Supports Higher Education Students’ Financial Aid Needs

By BP Logix on Apr 18, 2019 12:10:08 PM

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As college becomes increasingly expensive, financial institutions are facing more demand to extend loans to students eager to further their education. The student loan process has become an industry unto itself, and the only way to manage it for students, families, and schools is with effective BPM and workflow. Process Director is already being used by higher education institutions across the United States to deliver effective process automation solutions that help schools deliver financial and academic support to students.

Process Automation for Financial Aid

Financial aid is critical to higher educational institutions to help them meet enrollment quotas, and in a competitive student market, they need to be able to quickly process and deliver aid packages in order to retain admitted applicants. American colleges and universities enrolled almost 20 million students in 2018, and that number is expected to maintain, or even increase, in pace over the coming decade. Of those students, 67% received some form of financial aid that enabled them to pay for tuition, books, and living expenses. Currently, more than 44 million people owe just over $1.5 trillion in student debt. This is a major source of economic activity in our country, but more importantly, it’s a channel for students to change their lives.

Coordinating applications, funding, debt services, and collection requires a huge set of processes that must be integrated among different school departments, students, and sometimes the government. Aid can be funded by the school’s FAFSA offering, through the school’s privately funded scholarships, or through grants. To ensure that schools are making the right moves to fund qualified students, they must navigate this complex web of teams and decision-makers.

The typical applications involved in the wide range of financial aid activities require forms, paper documents, approvals, data sharing among applications and databases, as well as tracking, and general lifecycle management. These are normally unconnected and disjointed pieces within the overall process, but with so much at stake, it’s critical that milestones are achieved and deadlines are met. Process Director creates order among, and between, different data sources and process stages. What results is a system that is inclusive of many disparate participants, enabling consistency, compliance, and efficiency. Ultimately, the process is about speed and efficiency. Process Director applies capabilities for forms management, workflow automation, lightweight application development, and other process-related functions that are already being used by leading educational institutions.

Process Automation for Workflow and Case Management

Workflow and case management features drive the process among the different parties, and Process Director is already helping leading colleges with a platform that provides, among other things:

  • Attractive, web-based, and responsive user interaction;
  • Built-in support for multiple languages, locales, and cultures;
  • Easy integration with a broad array of databases, web services, and applications;
  • Directory synchronization with LDAP, Active Directory, and Windows network security;
  • Full integration with federated authentication services, including Oauth and SAML.
  • Strong encryption of data at rest, and data in-flight;
  • Digital signature of documents;
  • Granular permissions structure, with temporary privilege escalation.

Students and parents initiate the aid process with applications to schools and/or to private banks. Process Director can provide a framework for the initial capture and routing processes with both forms management capabilities, and by applying a case management approach to each application. This gives each student a shareable profile that can store and share relevant documents and data.

Process Automation with Process Director from BP Logix

Process Director integration connectors can identify and pull data from disparate repositories and applications so that meaningful information can be used for better decision-making. The finance department may need personal data; the specific department the students wants to major in may require academic data to determine if the student qualifies for an academic scholarship. With Process Director, schools can create lightweight applications to fulfill their workflow needs, and use these connectors to connect and exchange information with databases that store relevant data. Any data that can be accessed via SQL can be integrated directly into forms and workflow.

As data is updated, or new documents are added to the case file, Process Director applies continuous monitoring to ensure the workflow detects and attaches those documents. Especially as schools work with other sources like FAFSA to determine a students’ loan qualifications, it’s important to be able to see the most current information so it can be shared and used in the decision-making process.

Process Director is optimized for workflow and process automation, and it’s also heavily adopted within the higher education market because it can serve the needs of the school while also delivering benefits to the end user. In this case, that user is the student. The ultimate outcome of the financial aid process is a happy student who can now attend college, and that’s a worthy goal of any product. BP Logix is proud of our part in supporting the efforts of schools to be accessible to students, and giving them a way to be efficient in their goals.

[embed]https://youtu.be/4dbjEdajGwY[/embed]

4 min read

Workforce Automation and Case Management Support Higher Education HR Teams

By BP Logix on Apr 12, 2019 5:02:35 PM

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To remain competitive for enrollment and to provide a great experience for students, colleges and universities must hire and retain top talent. This applies to every level of the school, from professors and instructors, to campus administrators, and to all support staff.  Process Director BPM for HR and workforce management is helping higher education institutions create order for HR teams so they can execute their important role in hiring and creating an excellent working environment for faculty and staff. Delivering effectively on these tasks is critical to HR teams contributing to their school's vision and goals.

Now, more than ever, it is critical for higher education HR strategies to align with the applications and workflows that drive other university departments. Process Director provides this critical path through innovative workforce automation, process management, forms management, and other capabilities that encourage consistency, compliance, and efficiency.

Higher Education HR For Complex Workflow Needs

Streamlined HR management provides critical insights to a school’s human capital strategy, enabling them to maximize the strengths of their people. But human resources must do it in a way that is cost-efficient and covers a wide range of different types of employees — full time, part time, contractor, tenure track, special needs, underrepresented, and a host of other categories of workers. To do this effectively requires the ability to collect, process, and transact data from many sources and make it usable throughout the employee lifecycle, and deliver it to other workstreams happening within the school IT and HR environments.

Colleges and universities are using Process Director to handle their complex HR issues and tasks so these departments can play a valuable role as schools compete for talent and strive to remain economically viable. With limited budget, it’s important for these teams to be able to innovate on their own. Process Director delivers capabilities like workflow automation and lightweight application development functionality that enable higher education HR teams to do the following:

  • Build processes and create forms to meet changing institutional goals. These range from things like improving the onboarding process to using BPM to demonstrate compliance adherence.
  • Access data that can help with decision-making and meeting workflow milestones.
  • Efficient approval handling.
  • Insight and visibility into all aspects of processes.

How Process Director Supports College and University HR Processes

Because HR deals with so many different aspects of an employee’s experience, it demands a solution that is responsive and adaptable. An improved way to request vacation time means less stress for a busy worker, and a better way to plan for when that worker will be absent. Onboarding new employees with greater efficiency means they can start work and be productive faster.

Process Director can be used to apply a case management approach for employees, which allows schools to integrate data and documents from various applications into a shareable profile of each employee. This provides clarity for all workflows that touch each employee so that important decisions that impact their working environment can be achieved faster and with greater context. Process Director also has native integration with popular HR systems like PeopleSoft. Users can build workflows with Process Director with the benefit of data from the full complement of PeopleSoft modules that impact employees.

Consider also that schools operate on a cadence that maps to the academic calendar, and HR needs to help ensure that workers are available and can be productive for things like the beginning of each semester and during the summer planning months. Process Director users can build workflows that take into account these timeframes. Process Timeline, the business process modeling element provided by BP Logix, captures time as a formal process dimension so teams can benefit from better planning. With AI-driven technology, this time-driven workflow engine can take direct action by escalating or rerouting actions to account for predicted delays. This is a critical factor in helping HR teams plan and be prepared for those busy times of the school year when hiring may take a back seat to more operational tasks.

Innovative Higher Education Institutions Using Process Director Workforce Automation

Many forward-thinking colleges and universities are using Process Director to transform how their HR teams operate. Davis Applied Technology College (DATC), near Salt Lake City, is using Process Director across all their administrative departments. Within HR, they have used it to build processes to manage conflict of interest disclosures, fitness center applications, leave requests, personnel action notices, W4 forms, and other critical employee-centric actions.

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) has built processes around hundreds of different types of forms used by their HR department. Part of that was driven by a university-wide goal of automation and reducing paper document management. The ability to scan documents and store them with contextual information was a key reason for UTEP adopting Process Director for HR and across their entire IT department.

To meet goals of hiring, onboarding, and creating an exceptional experience for workers in a competitive economy, Process Director is being used by leading colleges and universities for its workflow automation, case management, and the efficiencies delivered through BPM. Higher education organizations demand an effective way to onboard, manage, and serve employees through a complex process of milestones; Process Director provides the foundation to support that.

[embed]https://youtu.be/4dbjEdajGwY[/embed]

Topics: workflow management case management
4 min read

How Workflow Management Software Can Optimize The College Admission Process

By BP Logix on Apr 5, 2019 5:56:52 PM

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Across the country every year, students apply to colleges and universities unaware of the complex series of processes that support their admissions application. Getting this mix of processes and workflows streamlined is critical for this major milestone— one which has a huge effect on the culture of the school, and the life of the student.

Process Director by BP Logix empowers universities in the creation of customized higher education admissions processes, and currently supports a myriad of colleges and universities both nationally and internationally. For students, the intended outcome is simple: acceptance to their desired school. But behind the scenes, Process Director is supporting this potential result through process efficiency, reliability, repeatability, using a suite of unique workflow and adaptive case management tools. With these, admissions departments have the ability to optimally identify and select those students who will be the best fit for the school.

Business Process Management for Efficient Admissions Process

Business process management (BPM) is critical for efficient higher education admissions department because processes drive the student journey from the first point of contact (admissions application), through the financial, housing, and scheduling aspects of a student’s life, and ultimately, all the way to graduation. But this is not without layers of complexity.

This requires an agile approach to process, one that ensures higher education IT departments are able to serve a wide variety of stakeholders (administrators, parents, students, financial aid organizations, among others), and still maintain adherence to governmental, organizational, and industry governance requirements and compliance frameworks. Additionally, they are often restricted by budget constraints, and to ensure equity, the admissions process is usually held to rigorous standards.

How Process Director supports Higher Education Admissions

Process Director is uniquely positioned to support the needs of college IT organizations. Its digital process automation capabilities enable the efficient processing and reviewing of applications across all necessary admissions counselors and administrators. As the application process has become more competitive and rigorous, students are required to provide more data points to make their case and stand out from other applicants. The University of Central Florida, for example, received 43,225 applications for the 2018-2019 school year alone, each of which required analysis and processing, all within a 3-4 month timeframe.

To optimize the process, higher education can rely on Process Director’s case management capabilities as well as the ability to build and deploy these applications through low code development. This makes it easy to create sophisticated digital applications that emphasize a human-directed work style. A case management approach also enables each student’s file to be moved through the processes and milestones required by admissions departments. Process Director applies automation to improve how and where applications are routed, and individual admissions team members are equipped with the tools necessary to collaborate, advocate, and discuss students and the factors being weight to determine acceptance. In the higher education applicant process, this includes: 1) screening, sorting, and scoring; 2) individual analysis; 3) committee collaboration; and 4) decision.

 

To facilitate and optimize these processes and workflows, Process Director uses capabilities that have been proven to help the unique needs of fast-moving admissions teams, including:

  • Application and workflow application integration: The application submission is usually a student’s first touch point with the university, but also a way to engage student data with other applications that can improve her experience. Process Director uses built in connectors for a variety of ERP systems, and allows users to construct forms that can pull and deliver data that can be useful for things like financial aid and scholarships, and eventually for housing, onboarding, registration, and course scheduling.
  • Digital process automation: Especially because the admissions process is time sensitive and involves key milestones, universities benefit from Process Director unique suite of tools to stay agile and move fast. Process Director functionality gives organizations the ability to manage, automate, and report on the critical business processes that will take a student’s application from first touch point to final decision. Process Director workflow tools are managed through a browser and require no programming expertise, which enables even non-technical admissions team members to easily create and modify workflows according to their specific needs and processes.
  • Among the key features that support the admissions process is document workflow management. Students often need to submit multiple documents, including transcripts, recommendation letters, and other documents that speak to their fitness as a potential student. Process Director offers a document workflow management system that empowers team members to rapidly create filtered searches and tabular reports with a few keystrokes. Reviewing task lists, browsing document folders, or searching for a specific asset about a particular student, Process Director Knowledge Views are easy to configure and even easier to use.
  • Digital transformation optimized for education organizations: Most campus administrative desks contain stacks of paper waiting for decisions, approvals, mailing or filing. Departments print, fax and mail electronic documents and information. Email inboxes are filled with important attachments waiting in Outlook files on desktops where they are subject to being lost or deleted. Process Director is enabling colleges and universities to rapidly digitize processes and apply automation solutions to optimize the use of data. The result is greater visibility into each student’s profile and the data within their application packages. Documents and information can be shared with the necessary decision-makers, and milestones in the process can be made with greater clarity.

Colleges and universities are seeing more demand as young people seek higher education as a path into the global economy. To serve these needs, Process Director provides digitally transformative education workflow solutions, facilitates efficient distribution, and streamlines the monitoring and management of information.

The modern educational organization must effectively manage a complex process of applications, reviews, acceptance, and confirmation— and a digital process platform facilitates just that.

[embed]https://youtu.be/4dbjEdajGwY[/embed]

3 min read

KMWorld 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management 2019

By BP Logix on Mar 11, 2019 9:54:22 AM

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“The 2019 KMWorld 100 list spans a wide variety of companies that are each addressing the evolving demands of knowledge management,” said Tom Hogan, Group Publisher of KMWorld. “Some are long-standing companies with well-established offerings that have evolved over time, while others are much more recent entrants to the field. In selecting organizations to be included on the list, we consider insights gleaned from our own interactions with companies during interviews and events, how they have succeeded in helping customers solve business problems, and we review product updates to make sure that capabilities are advancing to address evolving requirements.”

For ten consecutive years, KMWorld has continued to recognize BP Logix by including us in their annual list of organizations who influence the constantly changing landscape of knowledge management. Compiled by analysts and experts, as well as users, the list of KMWorld 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management reflects not only innovation in theory, but also practice.

KMWorld considers customer stories on how each product aided them in solving their business problems, how the product has continued to improve, and where each organization’s ambitions place them as future contributors in the world of knowledge management.

The Future of BP Logix

This recognition builds on key milestones in product enhancements with the launch of Process Director 5.0, a comprehensive platform designed to enable digital innovation and business transformation and give users the needed visibility into processes in order to make sound business decisions.  

“Our product and service offerings are continually growing in order to meet BPM and digital transformation requirements and the bigger trends in the industry with AI and machine learning solving critical enterprise challenges,” commented Jay O’Brien, CEO of BP Logix. “This recognition is a testament to the critical work we do to help customers achieve their business goals through the use of low-code BPM applications.”

Read the Press Release

About KMWorld

KMWorld is the leading publisher, conference organizer, and information provider serving the knowledge management, content management, and document management markets. KMWorld magazine and its digital marketing resources reach more than 50,000 information and knowledge management professionals. They are a publishing unit of Information Today, Inc.

About BP Logix

Our leadership combines decades of business strategy, technical experience and thought leadership— effectively collaborating to translate a proven track record of results into rapid business growth. From product positioning and development, to sales strategy, to developing a strong company culture, BP Logix leaders continue to spearhead the initiatives that have resulted in consistent growth since the company’s inception.

But the foundation of BP Logix’s success lies in its employees, from sales to BPM implementation to customer care and beyond. These are the people who embody the BP Logix ethos of innovation, commitment and accessibility, and whose efforts you see translated each day into positive engagements with Process Director BPM software. The most valued asset of BP Logix is its personnel, without whom none of our achievements would have been possible.

Request a Free Demo

Request a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM software
2 min read

Gartner BPM Magic Quadrant 2018 For iBPMS

By BP Logix on Feb 18, 2019 10:52:35 AM

gartner-bpm-magic-quadrant-for-intelligent-business-process-management-suites-ibpms

BP Logix is a BPM Vendor Listed on the 2018 Gartner BPM Magic Quadrant for iBPMS

Gartner recognizes leaders in intelligent business process management suites (iBPMS) and has named BP Logix to the list of 2018 Gartner BPM Magic Quadrant for Intelligent Business Process Management Suites making it the fourth year in a row.

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About Gartner

Gartner is an American research and advisory firm that aims to provide a qualitative analysis into a market and its direction, maturity and participants. The Gartner BPM Magic Quadrant for iBPMS report evaluates BPM software vendors once a year and defines their intelligent BPM platforms as “platforms which compress the observation-to-action-to-outcome cycle, and help business transformation leaders, business process directors and solution architects establish a fluid capability to handle big change.”

Gartner does not endorse any BPM vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those BPM vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner BPM Magic Quadrant for Intelligent Business Process Management Suites (iBPMS) research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About BP Logix

BP Logix is BPM vendor that unites IT and business users enabling them to deploy sophisticated, form-based, workflow-driven enterprise apps in a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost of traditional development. Our award-winning BPM software and workflow automation software powers workflow-driven solutions that cross organizational boundaries, embracing the C-suite, operations, sales, customers and prospects.

Customers including Barclay Damon, the City of West Allis, IDEX, Leo Burnett USA, Memphis Light, Gas and Water, MultiPlan and University of Central Florida rely on Process Director innovations such as its mobile BPM capabilities and its broad integration with SharePoint, MS Dynamics and MS Office integration, and other enterprise applications and data bases. Process Director low code / no code BPM applications enables customers to build award-winning applications that deliver clear and measurable improvements in productivity, compliance, and customer engagement.

Schedule a Free Demonstration

Process Director sets the pace for your BPM and digital transformation. Schedule a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our business process management software have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BP Logix BPM
5 min read

BPM Examples

By BP Logix on Jan 9, 2019 10:49:45 AM

Our BPM Solutions. Your Examples.

 

 

On the long journey toward purchasing a BPM solution, leveraging BPM examples can be instrumental in not only deciding on a vendor, but also best practices for those first few applications. Here we offer you the resources to do just that: BPM video testimonials, customer case studies, links to pages around function as well as digital transformation do-overs

BP Logix offers both on-premise and cloud BPM solutions of our flagship product, providing customers with the advanced digital process automation capabilities they need to manage their business processes.  Some of the leading organizations in various industries that entrust BP Logix with their business process management (BPM) needs. Browse our BPM examples below and learn how Process Director BPM software can solve real world industry problems.

BPM Examples By Industry

Advertising 

From cost estimating new projects to automating approvals, Process Director BPM software helps advertising and marketing firms streamline their review process, improve engagements with customers, and avoid duplicating data entry.

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Education 

Whether addressing student admission requirements, purchasing issues, course certifications or research grants, BP Logix digital process automation solutions aids educators in the distribution, monitoring and process management of information.

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Energy and Utilities 

Engineered to deliver a collaborative working platform while eliminating regulatory compliance headaches, Process Director workflow solutions helps pipeline companies, utility providers and distribution organizations manage, monitor and continuously improve internal business activities.

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Financial Services

In a time of regulation, consolidation and reporting, BP Logix solutions empower financial services companies to more readily demonstrate compliance, automate SEC filings and quickly report on end-of-the-month activities.

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Manufacturing

Bringing automation to order processing, quality assurance, engineering change control and Sarbane-Oxley/ISO compliance, BP Logix BPM software enables manufacturers to avoid redundancy, increase the spend of decision-making and eliminate waste.

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Healthcare

In these BPM examples learn how healthcare organizations are able to improve efficiencies while reducing operational costs by standardizing their business operations and workflow processes.

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Public Sector

With business processes that span departments, roles and systems, the need for public sector BPM solution for government has become increasingly important. Maintaining efficiency and speed along with greater integration and near real-time responses creates a leaner, more productive organization.

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BPM Examples By Function

Accounts Payable

These BPM examples demonstrate how with Process Director, you can automate the entire approval process surrounding accounts payable handling-while maintaining real-time visibility into the approval process at every step along the way.

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Application Integration

To ensure that your business operations are optimized, Process Director provides built-in BPM application and workflow application integration with many third-party and in-house applications and databases.

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Expense Management

Process Director is a BPM solution that includes approval software— providing expense management solutions that allow you to automate, track and report on all of your organization’s review and approval processes.

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Human Resources

When it comes to expense management, it seems like everything you do requires some type of review and approval. Routing paperwork to the right people in the right order-without losing anything along the way- can be a difficult challenge. These BPM examples showcase how Process Director BPM software provides expense management solutions enabling you to automate, track and report on all of your organization’s review and approval processes.

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Mobile Inspection

Even though it runs in your browser, Process Director BPM software takes full advantage of your mobile device’s unique features. Snap a photo to attach to a workflow, or record your GPS location information at the click of a button. 

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Governance Risk and Compliance

In today' unpredictable and highly competitive business environment, with its changing regulatory requirements, a holistic approach to governance, risk and compliance (GRC) just makes sense. With these BPM examples learn how Process Director business process management solutions can help your organization be efficient, effective and compliant.

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Topics: BPM BPM software
5 min read

BPM Trends 2019

By BP Logix on Jan 5, 2019 7:16:26 AM

bpm-trends

Clearly, no one can predict the future — however there is a significant difference between a ‘guess’ and an informed estimate. In our case, we derive our workflow and BPM trends by combining our knowledge of products, technology, workflow and BPM trends we’ve seen with the continuous feedback we receive from our customers, analysts and other influencers to develop what we believe to be an informed estimate.

Our customers in various industries, you see, are a fairly vocal bunch. Because we partner closely with them, we learn about their vision and the direction(s) they are pursuing. We also learn about what they consider to be hard priorities and daily realities. That combination of information and factors brings us to propose (and share) our view of key potential workflow and BPM trends in 2019 for business and IT managers:

Championing Simplicity: We are all aware of the vast number of digital workflow tools available to modern employees. As technology drives more of our lives, it also exerts a greater influence on almost every decision and action we take. This is neither good nor bad. The reality, however, is that the sheer number of options we have for applications, tools, processes and devices can become stressful and difficult to manage. We believe that one of the workflow and BPM trends in 2019 will be that BPM companies will take measures to reduce technology options and, instead, rely more heavily on processes, checklists and repeatable methods to create desired behaviors.  Organizations will use processes that are easy to build and change as-needed, updated when necessary, and managed by the business users themselves, reducing the reliance on IT. Business managers will seek solutions that allow employees to be productive on-the-fly and make an impact in real-time to company operations.

A Prediction about Predicting: Time can be both the greatest asset and, potentially, biggest enemy, of any business. Failing to meet a schedule or not delivering on expectations can be disastrous. Having insight into your organization’s operations and rhythm, then applying that information to ‘predict and prepare’ is one of the most important advantages a company can have. We believe the BPM trends in 2019 we are going to see is that more organizations will be insisting on using analytics to provide insights. They will anticipate and predict outcomes based on both historical references and current operations. These companies are going to plan and allocate resources more effectively, becoming more agile and efficient.

The Value of Collaboration: ‘Mobile’ is a BPM trend that has clearly changed the nature of how we work. It has given employers who offer the ability for employees to work remotely a huge advantage— and has accelerated the time it takes to complete approvals and, often, tasks as well. With technology providing a foundation for productivity and communication, companies can utilize the best talent irrespective of where employees choose to live and work. Remote workers, however, have not always been able to take advantage of real-time interfaces — and this has been a challenge to that strategy. We predict that some of the workflow and BPM trends in 2019 we will see will be that companies will ‘implement collaboration’ at a greater level driven by workflows that keep employees engaged with one and other more easily (“collaboratively”) resulting in increased productivity. These capabilities will come in the form of process-driven tools that encourage workers to distribute, share and create together.

A Different Kind of Workforce: The job market is hot and all indicators suggest it will remain so in 2019. As with any cycle, however, there is a shift happening that will have waterfall effects regarding how people work in the coming years. More millennials will be hired in 2019 than at any other time; in fact, for the first time in a while, the Gen X’ers will become a secondary group. We expect millennial workers to be dedicated and passionate. Moreover they have grown up with technology and expect there to be very little difference between the technology they use for social purposes and that in their work environment. Employers who will win the war for talent will do so partly by providing recognizable interfaces and technology infrastructure that this younger generation will be comfortable using.

The Shrinking IT Department: As more applications run in the cloud and use more consumer-oriented interfaces, there is less reliance on IT departments to deploy, maintain and manage apps and support users. While IT is, and will always be, a critical element of every enterprise, the infrastructure that was used in companies in the 90s is very different from what we use today. We believe the will probably see less direct hires in IT, but more hiring among LOB managers who have an understanding of IT basics. The key will be ensuring that employees can address most of their own issues using tools with interfaces and dashboards that enhance decision-making.

We would love to know more about your BPM trends and plans for 2019— and how we can help you achieve them. In that spirit, we invite you to meet with us so we can share information about how workflow and BPM can help your organization in the New Year.

About BP Logix

 

BP Logix is a BPM vendor that offers Process Director, an innovative business process management engine combining the power of BPM software with the flexibility of rapid application development—with no programming. Electronic forms, workflow automation software and BPM case management solutions are just the beginning of digital app development. Process Director combines the easiest and most efficient workflow engine in the industry with a rich set of tools offering snap-in data integration, rapid prototyping and release, and comprehensive reporting and analytics.

Schedule A Demo

The new Process Director 5.0 is transforming the above-stated predictions into reality by utilizing BPM and AI and BPM and IoT to enhance predictive analysis, create dynamic business rules and facilitate collaboration within cases. Schedule a private demonstration and learn what Process Director will do in assisting your organization with its digital transformation goals.

 

Topics: workflow BP Logix BPM business process management
5 min read

BPM Vendors 2019: Choosing The Right One

By BP Logix on Jan 2, 2019 11:36:43 AM

Deciding on a BPM and Workflow Vendor


After many rounds of internal reviews, building requirements and validating various BPM vendors and their BPM software and workflow software solutions, I have chosen a BPM vendor to implement BPM software and workflow software across our company. This is important because I have made the case for why it is so badly needed. And in the course of doing that, I have many important people watching the project to ensure it delivers results and value. bg-home-hipster-300x189

The review and validation process for any new product is always challenging. You are given a lot of attention from potential BPM vendors, but more often than not, they just want to tell you about their product (and are not very good listeners.) Sure, it is fun to be courted, but the attention wanes quickly when you realize that some of the BPM vendors aren't being honest with you, or you discover, after a big investment of time, that their product simply cannot deliver what you need.

Because of our due diligence in our search for BPM vendors, we made it very clear what we wanted in a workflow solution and how it should work with our existing infrastructure. We went to great lengths explaining to multiple BPM vendors our company culture and how technology is used: We let them know our IT department is already over-worked and not able to respond to change requests as quickly as they or we would like, that our sales team operates mostly in the field and requires mobile and cloud capabilities, and that our users are getting younger and more accustomed to consumer-like user interfaces.

The result: We chose a BPM vendor with a workflow automation software solution that provides functionality that no other product could deliver, get an experienced vendor who listens more than talks, a company that is already over-delivering and wants to partner with us to ensure that our feedback and experience are considered as they add additional functionality into next versions of the product.

That last part is really important to us. More than price or any other factor, knowing that the vendor will be involved and available to us after the PO is signed is so important! I can’t say we have been burned too badly in the past (as we are cautious), but we’ve heard lots of war stories about BPM vendors selling a product, upselling services, and then upselling further when later versions are introduced. That is part of their model, and I understand that. But the vendor we chose is already proactively addressing our implementation —and our comfort level about the kind of people they are speaks volumes. Our executives and I, myself, have a great deal of trust in them.

There were four elements that made this the right choice for us in terms of product fit within our organization and how we anticipate it growing. Some BPM vendors had one or two of these, but none had all four — and none had the flexibility to adapt to our changing needs. We fell in love with these aspects of the solution:

The time continuum: Falling behind, or being unaware of when activities are happening, and not properly setting expectations can lead to potentially disastrous consequences. And that’s precisely the problem we are trying to solve: getting better insights and a deeper understanding of what we can do — and how long it will take. After validating and reviewing multiple BPM vendors in 2019 and their solutions we chose one that can look at the dimension of time within our environment. Their BPM technology includes a workflow engine that provides early notice of potential delays and the ability to subsequently intervene to correct the course we are on. This advanced BPMN software solution also provides workflows and processes represented as "what if" scenarios, which gives us the ability to anticipate the impact of hypothetical situations. These cannot be represented, or acted upon, through ‘typical’ BPMN flowcharts.

No coding needed: When meeting with various BPM vendors in 2019 I stressed that we needed a workflow tool for process owners, not programmers. Understanding the impact of an action is very different from knowing how to use REST APIs to pull data from different repositories. Previously we relied heavily on IT to make changes to our processes: build requirements, code the changes, test them, and then roll them out. With IT drowning in requests and application backlog, that paradigm no longer works. We want our people to make changes they determine are necessary to the processes directly. The solution we chose is FOR and ABOUT the people who are involved in the processes. The process itself is not necessarily the goal; outcomes are. Having a BPM tool with rapid application development capabilities that can be used by our team will keep them engaged and ensure that processes are operating efficiently. Our solution provides an intuitive graphical user interface that makes building, deploying and managing processes easier. The result will be greater time-to-value from our processes and business operations.

Deployment options: I explained to multiple BPM vendors how I am looking to move most of our applications to the cloud to minimize spending, simplify our infrastructure and reduce the IT workload. Our new solution can be implemented and used on premise, in the cloud, or a hybrid of both. This gives me the flexibility to determine what works best for us. In some ways, I feel that getting a sign-off for this BPM and workflow solution is, by itself, a huge step for our organization. At the same time, this might be ‘just the right time’ to initiate my cloud plans. From what I have seen, the tool is optimized for the cloud, can extend business processes more broadly across our enterprise and into third parties (like customers, partners and suppliers). This flexibility and functionality will serve us well as we grow.

Extensibility and enterprise application integration capabilities: Our organization is becoming more complex. That said, we do not want it to also become more complicated. We rely on internal data from our enterprise applications as well as from third-party repositories. Without those, we would not have a complete picture of what our company is doing or how we can address problems that arise. After meeting with various BPM vendors in 2019 we chose a solution that has APIs, workflows, forms and business rules, offers, hooks and callouts that support scripted interactions. We will also be able to access data through extensive web services and APIs because the solution adheres to WSDL and works with REST-enabled applications. With BPM application and workflow application integration and document imaging integration built-in, I’m confident that we will not only be able to meet our needs now, but also as we grow, change and adapt.

Now, with our list of BPM vendors narrowed down to just one in 2019, our decision is made and we are moving forward. There will be a lot of organizing and planning that need to happen, but we are closer to our goals already — and I am incredibly excited to request a demo and move to the next phase.

Topics: workflow BPM business process management
3 min read

BPM Compliance Automation Software Solutions

By BP Logix on Dec 14, 2018 12:42:19 PM

Regulatory-Compliance-SolutionsAutomate and improve your workflows and business processes while avoiding BPM and workflow compliance landmines

Process Director BPM and workflow software enhances process efficiency and reliability of virtually any business process and helps establish efficient workflows. Highly regulated processes, such as those in the financial services and pharmacology industries, face specific regulatory compliance and BPM compliance challenges. They are subject to more scrutiny than their lightly regulated counterparts. They must track and record every meaningful transaction in a way that can be retraced later by auditors and regulators. Finally, their data must be tightly protected, with minimal impact to customers and operations.

As a process workflow solution, Process Director supports the unique workflow compliance and BPM compliance automation needs of these organizations. Offering enhanced data security, audit, and access control features, this enterprise workflow automation software enables these highly regulated businesses compliance automation to automate and improve their business processes while avoiding compliance landmines.

Process Director Includes BPM Compliance Automation & Management Features:

  • Enhanced Audit Support
    • Form field auditing tracks any change to form data
    • User reference reporting identifies all objects in which a given user is explicitly named
    • External audit log records all events and actions
  • Enhanced Authentication
    • Digital Signatures
    • Electronic Signing
    • Re-authentication
    • Multi-factor Authentication
    • Strong password enforcement
  • Other Features
    • Ability to print detailed reports of process and form definitions
    • Strict default permissions
    • Optional encryption of form data
    • Machine learning capabilities for risk detection
    • Configurable restrictions on the set of users to whom a given individual may delegate his/her authority

Process Director uses BPM and workflow capabilities to help organizations easily and operate fluid, reliable, and dynamic processes while at the same time ensuring that they don’t run afoul of auditors and regulators. Strong, compliant processes are the best predictor of a healthy and growing business. With Process Director workflow compliance and BPM compliance automation solutions as a key partner, organizations can flourish even in the face of ever-changing regulatory and business process governance conditions.

Highly regulated processes, such as those in financial services and pharmacology industries, face regulatory compliance challenges, meaning that data must be tightly protected and every transaction tracked in a way that can be retraced by auditors and regulators. Process Director ensures organizations meet this high hurdle. If your organization is in financial services, health care, government, or any other highly regulated industry, Process Director is the best solution for secure, auditable business process management (BPM).

Schedule a Free BPM Software Demo

Request a free BPM software demonstration of Process Director BPM and discover for yourself how its unique low-code BPM capabilities sets the pace for digital transformation, empowering unparalleled ability to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Contact us with any questions you have regarding Process Director’s BPM software and workflow management software capabilities.

5 min read

Internal Process Automation Solutions

By BP Logix on Dec 12, 2018 9:39:44 AM

Internal Process Automation Solutions With Process Director BPM Software

Process Director has always been the internal process automation solution of choice for meeting the business process management (BPM) requirements of enterprises, mid-sized companies, agencies, and non-profits. These business and IT leaders have counted on Process Director to automate and improve internal processes, and have realized the many benefits of doing so.

Increasingly, forward-looking organizations have begun to look for ways to take advantage of cloud-based and social media technologies to extend their internal processes not only more broadly across their own enterprises, but also outward to their customers, partners, and suppliers. Process Director BPM software provides the capabilities and features for internal process automation making this strategic expansion possible.

The Process Director social capabilities were built with three simple principles in mind:

  • Engage the customer by making it easy for her to communicate her problems and expectations, and for you to acknowledge them.
  • Embrace the customer by enabling him to participate directly within the internal processes you have designed for them.
  • Extend the cloud into your work environment by integrating popular cloud services within your workflows.

Engage the Customer

Customers today set a higher price than ever on their loyalty. They expect not only outstanding products at a reasonable price—they demand round-the-clock access to company representatives and swift resolution to problems.

Social media, mobile apps, and cloud-based services have been the primary drivers behind this shift to greater customer engagement. The legacy customer service model of the (frequently offshore) phone center accessed via IVR (interactive voice response) systems has been completely upended by the simplicity and immediacy of Twitter and Facebook. Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar retailers—those hardy survivors of the first e-commerce revolution—are facing competition within their own walls by customers “showrooming” products on the shelves, seeking lower prices online. Customers are mobile, they’re connected, and their expectations are high.

How can you leverage BPM software to engage these customers? By making sure you can reach them where they live: in the mobile, socially-connected cloud. Process Director BPM software provides you with internal process automation solutions that gives you the power to:

  • Drive workflow behavior from social media events (such as a tweet or Facebook status update)
  • Respond to your customers via Twitter (tweet, RT, DM, reply)
  • Manage Facebook campaigns (likes/unlikes, comments)

Engaging your customer with Process Director will help you improve your internal process management which leads to gaining exposure, increasing customer satisfaction, and ultimately improving retention rates for your organziation.

Use Case

You're waiting for your flight to push back from the gate, comfortable in the business class seat the airline upgraded for you just before boarding. As directed, you are reviewing the safety card from the seat back in front of you when your realize that the overhead light isn't working. You send a tweet:

The airline customer service agent is using Process Director to identify problems reported by customers. He views the tweet, and from the same window, opens a service ticket to have the matter looked at by a maintenance team at the next airport.

Once the ticket has been created, the agent sends a response to the customer via Twitter, again from the same Process Director electronic form:

Fortunately, there's another seat available. You settle in, reassured by the knowledge that you were able to reach somebody at the company who actually cared about your issue.

Embrace the Customer

Engaging your customers by connecting with them on social media is an important step. The next is to give them the opportunity to interact with you directly within your own business processes—processes that extend beyond your corporate boundaries to offer valuable services, not only to your customers, but to your partners and suppliers as well.

Process Director BPM software provides internal process automation solutions enabling you to provide a broad range of services to individuals not only inside your organization but outside of your organization as well. Your customers can participate directly in your workflows as authenticated users by taking advantage of the accounts they already have from providers such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google. Your corporate partners and suppliers can login as well using federated authentication technology such as SAML or ADFS.

Of course, Process Director BPM software includes strict, granular protections, so your outside users only have access to the workflows, forms, and data that you've authorized them to use. Offer secure access to your custom services to partners and suppliers, prospects and customers, enhancing your value proposition and strengthening your relationships.

Use Case

Let's extend the previous example. Besides simply thanking you, perhaps the airline wants to go a bit further and compensate you for your inconvenience. The customer service agent's response might be:

You go straight to the site and pick up the coupon. Because you're already logged into Twitter, and the offer is linked to that account, only you have access to download the coupon. You download it to your phone, and present it to the flight attendant. Drink in hand, you kick back and relax for the remainder of the flight.

Meanwhile, Process Director internal process automation solutions has opened a service ticket and added it to a group queue for maintenance. The airline outsources its maintenance activities to a third party, but a technician from that company is able to log in to the airline's system and accept the ticket. The technician does not have a login on the airline's network, but rather is able to use his login credentials from his own employer thanks to Process Director's support for federated authentication via SAML.

Extend the Cloud

Process Director has always enabled you to build and manage your internal processes in your datacenter or in the cloud. Now, Process Director BPM software brings internal process automation to the cloud, enabling you to integrate a variety of useful and popular network- and cloud-based services directly into your business processes. Save files to Dropbox, download documents from Google Docs, or populate form fields with data from Amazon SimpleDB. Whether you are filling dropdown menus using Google Sheets, or collaborating with colleagues on a presentation using Sharepoint, Process Director brings the cloud to your internal process management.

Use Case

You work in a widely distributed enterprise. Projects are set up and torn down relatively often, and teams are highly dynamic. Project documentation is tracked within SharePoint, but tracking project organization—who leads which effort, who is involved, etc.—can be difficult. The company is attempting to track this information using the cloud, so that no matter where somebody is, they have access to, and can update, the relevant data.

But organizational data isn't only useful for human consumption—your business uses this information to determine, for example, to whom to assign a given task, or how an overdue task should be escalated. When an escalation event occurs, Process Director BPM software provides internal process automation solutions that retrieve the necessary information from from an Amazon SimpleDB table in real time, combine it with documentation extracted from SharePoint, and forward a notification to the appropriate individual for further action.

Schedule A Demo

Schedule a demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how it's internal process automation solutions empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

 

Topics: BPM software business process automation
4 min read

BPM Basics: Business Process Management 101

By BP Logix on Nov 28, 2018 9:54:25 PM

bpm-basics-business-process-management-101

BP Logix helps companies change the way they operate through business process management (BPM). View our resources on the BPM basics to find foundational business process management content to help get you started on your journey.

BPM Basics: What is Business Process Management?

According to BPM.com, an online resource for the business process management industry, the business process management definition is: “A discipline involving any combination of modeling, automation, execution, control, measurement and optimization of business activity flows, in support of enterprise goals, spanning systems, employees, customers and partners within and beyond the enterprise boundaries.”

What is Business Process Management to BP Logix?

What is BPM to us? We here at BP Logix think of it a little more simply: it’s the practice of refining business processes that will improve process efficiency and profitability. Really, it means is what it sounds like — identifying, improving, and maintaining processes within a business.

Passing a routine piece of paper to a co-worker is a business process. It’s when you establish rules and a method, either a manual method or technology-driven method, to govern how and when that piece of paper is distributed that you enter the realm of process management. That’s our specialty.

BPM Basics Resources

Get the BPM basics. View our resources below created to help you on your journey to finding the right solution for your business process improvement and process efficiency needs.

What is Workflow?

What is Process Improvement?

What is BPM?

BPM Vendors: Choosing The Right One

What is Digital Transformation?

BPM vs Workflow: Is There a Difference?

What is Workflow Management Software?

What is Case Management?

What is Workflow Automation?

Agile BPM vs Custom Coding

Benefits of BPM: The Value of BPM Software

What is Rapid Application Development (RAD)?

What is Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)?

What is Intelligent BPM (iBPMS)?

Digital Process Automation vs Business Process Management

BPM Use Cases & Workflow Automation Examples

Process Director


BP Logix offers Process Director, an innovative and powerful business process management and workflow software combining the power of process management with the flexibility and leverage of rapid application development—with no programming. Workflow software and eforms are just the beginning of digital app development.

Process Director BPM software combines the easiest and most efficient process management and digital process automation software in the industry with a rich set of workflow tools offering snap-in data integration, rapid prototyping and release, and comprehensive reporting and analytics.

Check out these BPM examples to see how our customers in every sector are successfully using Process Director to prepare and deliver transparent, end-to-end digital applications offering engaging customer experience, robust business process governance, regulatory compliance, and smooth, efficient operations.

An Award Winning Platform

BP Logix and Process Director have won awards for innovation and excellence from many prestigious organizations, both domestically and abroad. Our most valued recognition, however, comes from our customers who have achieved goals beyond those they had originally imagined through their partnership with us.

Process Director offers:
• Unsurpassed ease of use
• Rapid time-to-value
Rapid application development software

Topics: Uncategorized BPM software business process management
5 min read

Workflow Management Software Overview

By BP Logix on Nov 22, 2018 10:22:50 AM

 

workflow management software

Why Utilize Workflow Management Software?

Every efficient organization wants to do more with fewer resources. Technology can be an enabler of these goals, but only if the tools used are accompanied with an effective foundation of processes that support business goals. And as organizations seek to go faster in today's hyper competitive and increasingly connected world, they are relying on processes to enable change, create sustainable growth, and help them adapt to changing business and technology conditions. Enter workflow management software.

When organizations apply process to their operations, they not only can improve how work gets done, but it also provides continuous insight into where improvement can be made. Ultimately, efficient workflow management software leads to cost reduction, worker productivity optimization, better engagement with customers, and even higher profit margins. Without process and workflow management discipline, human, physical, and intellectual assets cannot be effectively deployed to meet business goals. And if goals aren’t met, there’s no chance for an organization to grow and establish a repeatable, sustainable model for continued growth.

Much of this is because both as methodology and practice, business process management (BPM) and workflow management have been designed to bridge the efforts of IT and business units. Both are proven, effective methodologies for disparate teams to collaborate in order to achieve better business outcomes through the use of technology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HduhwGtEMKI

Process Director: A Different Kind of Workflow Management Software

Process Director's workflow management software is equipped with powerful features that provides organizations with the ability to manage, automate and report on their critical business processes. Workflow software is foundational component of “lean BPM”, and is integral in achieving not only automated, but also fully optimized, processes.

Managed through a browser, Process Director requires no programming expertise, thus enabling business or IT users to easily create and modify workflows according to their business needs and processes. Workflow software definitions enable organizations to capture and manage their business processes according to their own policies and procedures.

In summary, Process Director is a workflow management software that enables businesses to model their review and approval procedures, automate the process, monitor the results, and satisfy their business process management needs.

The Power of Low-Code Electronic Forms

Workflow Management SoftwareYour digital applications deserve a great user interface. Developing a flexible and responsive UI on your own used to demand lots of time, lots of programmers, and lots of money.

Not anymore.

Process Director empowers you to create beautiful reports, dynamic smart forms and electronic forms, and rich graphical dashboards—no code required. IT organizations are slashing their development backlog by utilizing Process Director’s fast, cost-effective workflow management software for building powerful user interface elements. Business units benefit from the ability to develop mock-ups or even fully-functional dynamic e-forms using their own “citizen developers”, thereby fusing the business’s intimate knowledge of the customer and the desired customer experience with IT’s strength in building essential rules, logic, and governance features, all backed by modern workflow tools.

Process Timeline™

Workflow Management Software and Workflow SoftwareProcess Timeline is a workflow engine with workflow automation technology that provides an easy way to compose, manage, and modify your business process. Key data, such as process duration and critical path, are available at a glance using a Gantt-style chart automatically produced and updated as your process is running. At the same time, Process Timeline is unmatched by any other iBPMS software solutions or any other workflow management software available.

 

Extensible Workflow Management Software

Workflow Management Software and Workflow SoftwareProcess Director offers these workflow management software capabilities to enable you to extend your applications with custom features:

  • A broad range of web services and REST APIs that can control virtually every Process Director action or access data, reports, or metadata
  • A comprehensive C#/ASP.NET software developer kit to create scripts, extensions, or custom tasks (available via the Process Director SDK)

Process Director workflow management software also enables you to insert custom logic at virtually any point in the life of a workflow. And you can do so without worry: we have a great track record of backward compatibility for SDK specifications, and that’s a tradition we plan on continuing.

Document Workflow Management Software

Workflow Management Software and Workflow SoftwareProcess Director offers a document workflow management system that empowers you to rapidly create filtered searches and tabular reports with a few keystrokes. Whether you want to review task lists, browse document folders, or search for a specific item, Process Director Knowledge Views within its workflow management software are easy to configure and even easier to use. And Knowledge Views aren’t only for display: you can export the results, automatically trigger processes, or even use the data to drive decision making in running forms, processes, or rules. If you’re looking for brilliant graphical reports, turn to Process Director’s Advanced Reporting component to produce colorful, real-time charts and graphs, suitable for interaction, email, or printing.

Web Based & Mobile Friendly Digital Transformation

Workflow Management Software and Workflow Software
The applications you create with Process Director are web apps: all you and your users need is a browser to view reports, submit requests, manage processes, etc. Any browser: all recent-release browsers on all major platforms (including iOS and Android) are supported. Your knowledge workers aren’t tied to their desks, and your applications shouldn’t be, either. Navigate Process Director’s responsive UI, create mobile-friendly interfaces for your own applications, and take advantage of native mobile BPM capabilities such as geolocation and photos—no app store download required. Just boarded a flight without WiFi? No problem: you can even take action via email. The tools that Process Director workflow management software offers enables you to do your work wherever you are, whenever you’re ready.

Application Integration and Workflow Management Software

Workflow Management Software and Workflow Software
Process Director-driven workflow applications don’t live in a vacuum. Most businesses today rely on a plethora of applications, information, and services, both within and beyond your datacenter. As an intelligent BPM platform, Process Director BPM and workflow automation software ties these disparate workflow and BPM applications together, making it easy for you to access, combine, and update information, whatever the source.

 

Topics: workflow workflow management BPM BPM software business process management
2 min read

BPM Solutions and Workflow Solutions

By BP Logix on Nov 21, 2018 9:13:58 PM

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Process Director offers comprehensive BPM solutions including case management software and workflow automation software capabilities that enables both IT and business users to create robust business process management and workflow solutions to address a variety of business challenges. Whatever sector your organization occupies, and whatever your function within that organization, we invite you to join thousands of others who now rely on Process Director as their workflow and business process management solution.

Specifically, this BPM and workflow solution helps automate your processes, predict potential delays, eliminate programming and integrates easily into existing applications. If you want a business process workflow with eforms and reusable business rules and other workflow management software features but without programming, this is the BPM software and workflow solution for you.

Digital Transformation Solutions

Process Director workflow and business process management solutions powers digital transformation across the enterprise, providing an innovative, no-code/low-code platform for digital solutions connecting you to your customers, suppliers, employees, and stakeholders.

Learn More

Workflow & BPM Solutions By Industry

Process Director workflow and business process management solutions play a key role in helping organizations in sectors including Advertising, Education, Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Manufacturing and other industries. View solutions by industry by scrolling over "Solutions" in the main navigation.

BPM & Workflow Solutions By Function

Process Director workflow and BPM solutions drives growth, reduces expenses, and mitigates compliance risk. Learn more about the business departments leveraging our advanced workflow and BPM solutions. View solutions by function by scrolling over "Solutions" in the main navigation.

Schedule A Free BPM Software Demo

Process Director is an award-winning low-code/no-code BPM software solution for building and operating workflow-driven business applications. Innovative and unique, Process Director is a business process management software that offers fast time-to-value, greater flexibility, and deeper insight into your business than any other workflow software or BPM solution. Schedule a live, interactive free BPM software demonstration of Process Director.

Topics: workflow BPM software business process management
4 min read

BPMS: BPM Software (Business Process Management Software) Product Overview

By BP Logix on Nov 16, 2018 12:43:05 PM

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All organizations want to increase efficiency and operate at an optimal level with business process management (BPM). BPM Software, smart forms and workflow software help to create a business environment that is highly responsive, accountable, and compliant. Process Director BPM software (BPMS) provides the BPM tools required to automate all your business processes and improve your results.

Why Choose a BPMS (BPM Software) Solution?​

We all want more time and money. Businesses are no different. Business process management software (BPMS) setup takes some investment initially, but in the end, the benefits of intelligent BPM software are vast, not to mention measurable. Below are some reasons why organizations turn to Process Director BPMS software solutions:

  • Integrated Business Rules Engine: Process Director's business rules engine uses advanced machine learning algorithms to empower users to rapidly implement better workflow and more complex business processes.
  • No Programming: 100% web-based GUI workflow builder for business users on a bpm software foundation—no programming required.
  • Web-Based Smart Forms: A faster, easier and more cost effective way to create an automated electronic forms system.
  • Reporting and Process Intelligence: Process Director business process management software offers a variety of searching, reporting, business activity management (BAM), and process intelligence (BI) features.

Process Director is an Award Winning Business Process Management Software Solution


Process Director BPM software is a low code / no code BPM platform that has won many BPM awards for innovation and excellence, both domestically and abroad. Our most valued recognitions, however, come from our customers who have achieved goals beyond those they had originally imagined through their partnership with us.

Process Director offers benefits around business process management including:

  • Unsurpassed ease of use
  • Rapid time-to-value
  • No programming

Key Benefits of Process Director BPM Software (BPMS) and Workflow Software Solutions

  • Transparency: It can be difficult for senior business leaders to gain a comfort level with the various hardware and software “black boxes” deployed by IT.  Process Director business process management software and workflow tools bridge that gap offering a solution that is fully customizable and extensible, and yet does not require programmers.
  • Efficiency: If business process improvement (BPI) is important to a business—and in today’s world, it needs to be—then automation and metrics are a core requirement. Process Director business process management software measures the performance of each activity within a given process; as the process is executed over time, Process Director learns how its actual timeline varies from the original forecast. This unique capability, called predictive analysis, alerts process owners that upcoming activities may not complete on time, even before those activities have started.
  • ROI: In any growing organization, the number of homegrown and off-the-shelf solutions accumulates pretty rapidly. Each one brings with it another team, another vendor, maintenance, updates, infrastructure, and training.  Process Director BPM implementation gives the CIO the opportunity to start replacing those one-trick-pony products with a flexible, customizable BPM tools addressing a huge variety of business needs in operations, finance, HR, IT, sales, and other areas. Fewer vendors, less maintenance, reduced training costs, smaller infrastructure.
  • Improves Business Process Governance and Compliance: Improved process control, auditing, and monitoring help organizations to demonstrate business process governance and compliance. Replacing manual, paper-based processes with Process Director that offers a unique deployment for BPM compliance solutions such as automated, electronic forms and processes is an effective way to ensure users are in compliance.

Business Process Management Software Examples

Read specific BPM examples of how organizations use BP Logix’s customizable BPM software, Process Director, as their BPM solution. To start, check out City of West Allis and Columbus Technical College and see how these busy organizations used Process Director BPMS successfully to create process efficiency.

Automating Manual Processes


"It was taking us a phenomenal amount of time to research email archives and updated versions of spreadsheets. Manual processes were killing us in terms of productivity."

-Bill Kahlert

Solutions Director, Global IT Firm

Topics: BPM software
4 min read

Process Timeline Business Process Automation Solutions

By BP Logix on Nov 15, 2018 10:54:24 AM

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Accelerate Digital Transformation With Business Process Automation

In 2009, BP Logix introduced Process Director with its revolutionary Process Timeline, the first business process modeling and orchestration workflow engine to offer business process automation solutions through predictive analysis tied to automatic behaviors such as notification, reassignment, and rerouting. Process Director customers have taken advantage of this workflow engine and its intrinsic ability to provide the earliest possible notice that a future milestone or deadline may be at risk, and to take immediate remedial action.

Prediction Is Just the Start

This advanced workflow engine provides unique predictive/responsive business process automation capabilities that grow from fertile soil: a carefully architected, utterly unique way of thinking about the design and execution of sophisticated, end-to-end, low-code/no-code digital applications.

No flowcharts. No programming. Rapid time-to-value. Process Timeline is the perfect business process automation solution to speed your organization’s digital transformation past the competition.

Process Timeline and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Now, Process Timeline delivers the power of BPM and artificial intelligence (AI) to your enterprise applications. Process Director’s machine learning (ML) technology enables you to customize both how predictions are made, and what response should be triggered, to a greater degree than ever before. Of course, like all of Process Director, the AI features are easy to configure and use by analysts and process owners—yet rich enough to be appreciated by data scientists.

Process Timeline and Process Director have received over 50 awards and recognitions, and that's part of the reason why organizations around the world continue to rely on Process Director for robust, compliant, and flexible digital solutions.

Process Timeline Features:

Process Timeline business process automation solutions are successfully being used by organizations in various industries to compose, manage, and modify business process. Key business process data such as process duration and critical path are available at a glance using a Gantt-style chart automatically produced and updated as your process is running. At the same time, it offers powerful business process modeling and business process automation solutions unmatched by any other BPM solution, including:

No Coding

Designed for business users, Process Director business process automation solutions enable you to build and deploy efficient, robust workflows and business processes, with no programming:

  • Build rich, complex applications through point-and-click
  • Intuitive graphical user interface facilitates rapid deployment and time-to-value

No Complex Flowcharts

Time is a critical component of any business process. Late activities—or activities that Process Timeline predicts will be late—are highlighted and easily identified. Time to completion for any activity or for the business process as a whole is also immediately available with this workflow engine. Traditional flowchart-style workflows simply cannot offer this level of insight into your business processes—insights that translate into business success:

  • MS Project-like builder: list tasks, dependencies
  • Automatically generates and updates a Gantt-style chart to show you, at a glance, how (and for how long) the process will run

No Surprises

Any workflow software can tell you when your task is due, or late. But only this workflow timeline software offers the earliest possible notification that some future task is predicted to be late. And it can do more than just notify you: this workflow engine can take direct action, escalating or rerouting activities to account for the predicted delay:

  • Business process automation solutions that continuously evaluate your business processes, based on past experience and current status
  • A key part of BPM technology that predicts when any future activity is likely to be delayed, offering the earliest possible opportunity for manual or automatic intervention

No Unnecessary Delays

Ideal for automating, tracking and reporting on complex processes, Process Director business process management software is perfect for “activity-based” processes with well-defined milestones. Unlike a traditional workflow system, its workflow engine features “implicit parallelism" modeling and execution. Process designers no longer have to explicitly identify which steps can be run in parallel, a time-consuming and error-prone analysis:

  • Every timeline activity will execute as soon as it is eligible to do so
  • At any given moment, every activity that can be running, is running

No Excuses For Business Process Improvement

As your business evolves, you will want to analyze the performance of your business process (and your process actors), to find ways for business process improvement to make it even more efficient:

  • A workflow engine with business process automation technology that records every action taken by every process participant (human or automated), ensuring total accountability
  • Includes BPM technology that points you directly at those activities within your process that are consuming the most time, so you can quickly focus your process improvement efforts where they will have the most impact
  • Drill down to review historical information about any activity, or to see how different actors have performed within a given task
  • Reset analytics at any time to get a fresh perspective

Schedule a Free Software Demonstration

Schedule a free demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: business process automation
3 min read

A BPM Company That's Customer-Focused

By BP Logix on Nov 14, 2018 8:13:03 AM


While it is true that BP Logix offers Process Director, a BPM software that enables IT and business users to deploy sophisticated, forms-based, workflow-driven apps in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional development — we are more than a BPM company. We think of ourselves as creative, nimble and flexible people who work hard to help customers solve their business process management software problems—so that they can build and sustain successful businesses. In short, we help customers achieve their goals and deliver results.

Our roots are in the software industry however we are involved in our communities, work in philanthropic and non-profit organizations, and write books. We are grateful to be a part of a BPM company that thrives on challenge and rewards creativity and innovation.

As evidenced by multiple awards for business, BPM software, business process automation software and process excellence, we are a BPM company that is also recognized as a key partner to customers across industries and geographies.

We hope that knowing more about us and our business process management software – and what we do for our customers – will be the reason to check us out further. And we invite you to start that conversation.

More About Us

BPM Awards - View our BPM awards. We are proud to be recognized for our successful customer implementations and technological achievements.

Press Releases - Our central area for all our press releases and the latest information regarding us and our products.

Media Coverage - Learn more about the latest industry news, media coverage and announcements from us.

BPM Success Stories - Learn more about our customer and their success stories.

BPM Examples - View use cases for specific industry verticals.

Tell Us Your Story

BPM-Company-That-Is-Customer-Focused
BP Logix is a BPM company that helps companies change the way they operate through business process management (BPM). We know process, and we have discovered that it is not merely the movement of a decision, document or action along a workflow. Rather, process is an always-changing and flexible way of thinking about, and applying, a better way of doing things. What things? The things that are important to you.

Successful BPM implementation with our BPM software comes from us knowing your story and recognizing how we can help you meet your goals. That knowledge allows us to partner with you so we can collaborate to change the fundamentals of your business.

You know what you want to achieve. Tell us your story so we can help you get there.

Schedule a Free Demonstration

Schedule a free demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: workflow workflow management BP Logix BPM software business process automation business process management
2 min read

BPM and The Internet of Things (IoT) Combined

By BP Logix on Nov 8, 2018 7:37:54 AM

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The Possibilities Of BPM and IoT Data

If knowledge is power, then the seeds of its unfettered potential lie within the humble dataset. And yet, until recently, these seeds have struggled to take root, kept in check by the unforgiving soil of paper-based records, clunky ETL interactions, and stale or corrupted information.

Here at the dawn of the digital transformation era, however, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are fully blossoming. The power of BPM and IoT is unleashed, and it is revolutionizing our understanding of data and its possibilities.

BPM and Internet of Things (IoT) Drive Predictive Analytics

Process Director's AI capabilities analyze data from an array of sources to achieve that elusive element of control that has long been coveted by businesses: predictability. Accurate and consistent predictability requires tremendous amounts of data—the more that is fed into the AI algorithms, the more intelligent your applications become. And that means that the vast amount of data generated by Internet of Things (IoT) devices provide the high-octane fuel powering Process Director's machine learning driven predictive analytics.

The Solution


Process Director’s AI capabilities are seamlessly integrated into the innovative Process Timeline orchestration engine, enhancing and reinforcing its already industry-leading predictive features. But Process Director goes even further, making the same machine learning tools it uses internally available for you to exploit in your custom digital applications. Connect this foundation to Big Data streams using Process Director's no-code BPM and IoT integration, and the possibilities are unlimited.

Of course, Process Director has always provided the integration and connectivity tools you need to transform information into intelligent action. From databases, to social media, to cloud services, Process Director can mine critical data, wherever it may live. And the platform's unique data virtualization technology marries robust governance to easy, no-code development, so that sharing and reusing your critical information is easy.

Knowledge is power.  What could your organization do with IoT data and the power unleashed by Process Director?

Schedule a Free Demonstration

Request a free demonstration of Process Director, and discover for yourself how this unique BPM software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their BPM and IoT challenges.

Topics: BPM software
3 min read

BPM Capabilities of Process Director Business Process Management Software

By BP Logix on Nov 7, 2018 1:31:52 PM

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Process Director’s BPM capabilities continue to evolve over time as BPM technology advances and as organizations needs change making it an award winning business process management software that offers faster-time-to-value, greater flexibility and deeper insight into your business processes that any other BPM software.

According to BPM.com, “by simultaneously supporting both timeline and critical-path awareness, Process Director is able to blend business process management with project management with a flexible process architecture that supports both procedural automation and in-flight adaptation”.

Notable BPM Capabilities


Below are some of the out-of-the box BPM capabilities offered by Process Director BPM platform:
  • Low code development modeling favoring configuring over compiling, along with the ability to combine both traditional sequence and control flow with time-based dependencies within the definition of workflows.
  • Cloud and on-premise deployment options using the same codebase.
  • Integration and leverage of Microsoft infrastructure and environments including SharePoint, as well as persona-based workspaces and rich UI creation using a browser-based form designer.
  • User-centric alerts and notifications that enable actionable, closed-loop communication with process participants about status and events, including predicted impact on pending deadlines and dependencies.
  • Rich graphical reporting and report-writing capabilities allowing for building executive dashboards and defining KPIs.
  • Integration with social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and similar platforms, enabling direct-to-customer process interaction, as well as event-listeners for launching processes in response to social network events.
  • Includes a business rule driven data virtualization layer and lightweight ETL capability with a function called “Business Values.” These provide a straightforward method to create reusable access points for business data, but also allows for the definition of access controls.
  • Goal-driven actions that can be defined at either global, system-wide levels or down to the activity, which drive priority, state and context, and/or trigger activities and responses. They can launch specific actions, change the behavior of in-flight processes, or be linked with event listeners that serve as the “nerve endings” of the case to receive and respond to external events

Process Director Updates

Click the links below to get more details on how Process Director’s BPM capabilities have evolved with each BPM software update.

Schedule a Free Demonstration

Process Director sets the pace for your BPM and digital transformation. Request a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our business process management software have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: workflow BPM software business process automation
3 min read

Rapid Application Development Software

By BP Logix on Nov 2, 2018 1:19:59 PM

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Rapid Application Development Software For Digital Innovation

Rapid application development software is driving a whole new approach to the deployment and operation of digital applications. Organizations are racing to take advantage of these low coded applications to enter new markets, attract new buyers, and retain their hard-won existing customers. In so doing, they are opening a new front in the digital wars; namely, transformation of the way that those very digital applications are created, deployed, and enhanced.

For applications to provide value to the enterprise, they must be extensible, usable and able to integrate with a changing IT environment. Yet, what is among the more critical aspects of application value is when apps can unite development and IT operations teams to quickly and efficiently adapt and grow in response to an organization’s changing needs. Rapid app development software provides a path that enables businesses to use Process Director to deliver data and functionality through digital channels and across different platforms and form factors.

Process Director Rapid Application Development Software


Process Director is a BPM software solution that includes rapid application development software that responds to this urgent need by arming the business itself with the BPM and workflow tools it needs to rapidly build and deliver complete, end-to-end digital applications: without programmers and with low code or no code. As a result, Process Director equips the business to respond to the fast-paced, ever-changing needs of the marketplace.

This model puts those who are closest to business issues in a position to create solutions, and allows them to adapt and change these solutions over time. BPM software developed with rapid application development software capabilities is more usable and more effectively addresses business issues that are most relevant to business users.

Benefits of Process Director Rapid Application Development Software

  • Imagine your organization delivering its own rich digital applications, on any platform, before your competitors have laid down the first thousand lines of code.
  • Imagine saving millions on expensive technical staff, incompatible packaged applications, and maintenance of obsolete code.
  • Imagine providing straight-through processing and visibility all the way from your customers to your suppliers, while at all times guaranteeing compliance, accountability, and security.

Other Useful Features

Process Director has many other useful workflow management software features unique to BP Logix, most notably for the Process Timeline workflow engine and Process Director's electronic forms management software. Process Timeline includes a workflow automation technology that automates business processes. Charts and data are automatically updated as the process runs, which allows for accurate, up-to-date information to be viewed with ease.

Electronic forms software makes it possible to use only electronic forms throughout an entire company. The software connects the company to both suppliers and customers, so the handling of electronic documents goes smoothly. BP Logix BPM software makes handling even the most complex electronic forms a simple process that most any business user can handle.

Also, Process Director is an iBPMS solution that has been recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Intelligent Business Process Management Suites for several years in a row.

No Programmer? No Problem

If your goal is to deliver data digitally and fast then Process Director is the BPM solution for you. With Process Director rapid application development platform, you can focus on solving business issues instead of creating software to do so. BPM that relies on low code or no code is relevant to business users today. To learn more about Process Director’s business process management capabilities, contact BP Logix today.

Topics: application development
4 min read

Electronic Forms Software (eForms Software)

By BP Logix on Nov 1, 2018 9:54:00 AM

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A Simpler Approach to Building and Automating Your Electronic Forms

Why spend time coding when you could be innovating? Process Director BPM software provides electronic forms software (eforms software) with easy to use eForm builders that allow users to create electronic forms in the development environment in which they are familiar. Process Director's electronic forms software gives users the ability to design responsive and user-friendly web interfaces for their process-driven forms and applications that deliver business-critical results.

Using WYSIWYG interfaces with an HTML5 compliant browser, users with only a little training can rapidly create new functionality for their applications and processes. Those familiar with solutions like MS Word, the worlds' most used page layout solution, can now easily also create eForms. And for those that want to build using HTML, there is even a Visual Studio plug-in for building forms in an IDE.

We’ve added custom controls to our electronic forms software (like dropdown menus, radio buttons, e-signatures, and many, many more), giving you the tools to start creating rich digital forms with interactive user interfaces right away. Once the page is designed, use Process Director’s point-and-click UI to add rich, interactive behaviors without coding. With our eForms software you can create responsive digital forms, business process management (BPM) functionality, and dashboards and reports that work with existing applications and on different form factors like tablets, mobile phones and other devices. The result is a flexible, adaptable user interface, customized to your specific needs.

Dynamic eForms Software

  • Show/hide, protect/unprotect fields or entire sections on Smart Forms dynamically
  • Set dynamic form behavior based on easily configured conditions (e.g., “show this section only while in workflow step A”)
  • Electronic forms software with responsive functionality will automatically resize forms to render and work on smart phones, tablets and other devices
  • Change form appearance based on user input, process status, client device, or any other information
  • eForms software that automatically adjusts appearance, behavior for small form-factor devices

Smart Form Data Validation

  • eForms software that automatically validates common inputs such as phone numbers and email addresses
  • Simple point-and-click configuration for more complex validations (e.g., “end date is at least 30 days after start date”)
  • Invalid fields automatically highlighted for easy correction
  • Validate data on input or on form submission
  • Validate input against external data sources

Access

  • Electronic forms software that easily configures eForms to display only the information the end user needs and is permitted to see
  • Form access controlled by fine-grained permissions, ensuring that only those forms any individual requires will be available to them
  • Securely present forms outside the firewall without compromising your applications or data within

External Database Integration

  • Direct access to your organization’s data, right on the digital form
  • Fill dropdowns, search for information, or pre-populate fields—all without coding—using Process Director’s intelligent data connectors
  • Connect to data sources via SQL, web services, file uploads, and more

Routing Slips

  • Permanent record of every task performed and its result
  • Provides verifiable confirmation of approval, rejections, or other actions
  • Include comments, user pictures,  electronic signature technology

Digital Signature Technology

Electronic Signature | BP Logix
Electronic forms software with electronic signature technology allows BPM and workflow software applications to provide the types of non-repudiation, compliance and security that industries have been looking for. Process Director eForms software supports the major three types of digital signatures:

Digital Signatures

Our electronic forms software allows us to verify not only that a document was signed by the individual whose signature is affixed, but also that the contents of the document have not been changed since then. Automatically affix digital signatures to PDF documents that are automatically created in workflow. As a result, you and your counterparty are both assured of the document’s authenticity.

Electronic Signatures

Like the familiar pen-and-ink signature, an electronic signature is a way to indicate that a specific person acknowledges or agrees to the contents of a given document. Electronic signatures may or may not look like their traditional counterparts, but in many countries, including the United States, the European Union and Australia, electronic signatures carry the same legal authority. With our electronic forms software within Process Director, an electronic signature is applied each and every time an individual takes any action within a workflow. This mechanism provides a reliable audit trail for each process, enabling you to sail through audits, comforted in the knowledge that every activity can be traced back to its actor.

eSign

Electronic signatures are perfect when your process actors are part of your organization. By logging into the system, a user’s electronic signature is permanently connected to that individual.
Sometimes, though, you have process actors who are outside your organization, such as customers, partners, or suppliers. In such cases, the electronic signature is not clearly attached to a specific person. For these situations, Process Director's electronic forms software offers external users the ability to sign documents directly using their mouse, or a stylus (or even their finger) on a tablet such as the iPad.

Schedule a Free Demonstration

Request a free demonstration of Process Director, and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software offers electronic form software (eforms software) that allows you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital transformation challenges.

Topics: BPM software
5 min read

Benefits of BPM Software: Advantages of BPM With Process Director

By BP Logix on Oct 31, 2018 1:30:03 PM

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Learn the Benefits of BPM and Workflow with Process Director BPM Software

BP Logix Process Director provides many workflow advantages and BPM advantages as it empowers IT professionals by providing a BPM software solution that encompasses the benefits of BPM such as workflow automation, business process automation, document management, electronic forms and business rules to make lifecycle management and collaboration efficient and effortless.

Request a free BPM software demonstration to learn more about the advantages of BPM and advantages of workflow automation.

The Benefits of BPM Software from an iBPMS with Integrated Workflow and Business Rules

Process Director is an iBPMS that offers many workflow advantages and BPM advantages as it provides users with an intuitive, web-based rapid application development software that enables users to create and maintain Smart Forms of any complexity without requiring software development or IT resources. The integrated business rules engine provides a powerful graphic interface to define rules and conditions that control the behavior of the forms - and to easily route forms online in accordance with defined business processes, addressing any business function that involves completing or routing a form. Seamless integration with Process Director’s workflow engine, presenting users with familiar forms, pre-populating the forms, automatically kicking off the review and approval cycle, instantaneously track and auditing all tasks are some of the workflow advantages and BPM advantages of this integrated approach.

Process Director also incorporates a business rules engine that empowers users to rapidly implement more complex business processes. Business rules are reusable objects that can be embedded within your workflow processes to conditionally control how they should run and behave in various conditions. Business rules can be defined either as simple conditions or sophisticated interrelated rule sets. Process Director is an "out-of-the-box" product that is easy to install and administer.

Benefits of BPM Software: Streamlined Workflow Management

  • Speeds Internal Routing Processes: Reduces paper handling and manual routing; eliminates errors and reduces the lifecycle of document, content and forms processing.
  • Automates Business Processes: One of the workflow advantages of Process Director is that the workflow engine automates business processes by giving business users easy-to-use workflow tools. It allows existing processes to be mapped into powerful, predefined workflows. A graphical workflow builder and workflow reporter give users control over their workflows.
  • Shortens Projects: Time-to-market is critical for all organizations. Workflow automation software and tracking accelerate the approval of internal projects. All members of a group or team can simultaneously perform tasks as part of the workflow process. Automatic email notifications alert members when a task is assigned to them—or if they are in jeopardy of missing a due date.
  • Eliminates Errors and Miscommunications: Ensures process consistency, eliminating errors and problems due to lost or mishandled requests. Pre-defined workflow definitions guarantee that the same process is followed for each project or request. The products provide efficient tracking, management and reporting on all running processes.

Benefit of BPM Software: Electronic Forms

  • Reduce Costly Paper Handling and Manual Routing: Paper-based forms are costly to print, store, distribute, mail, and process. Automation of form processing ensures there is no disconnect between a form and the business process required for that form.
  • Tracking, Auditing, and Process Awareness: Instant access to current and prior activity, including completed forms and processes, ensures that authorized users have immediate access to the information they need. Having visibility into a form's complete lifecycle reduces cost, improves quality, and ensures access to vital business information.
  • Accelerate the Delivery of Form-Based Information: The BP Logix workflow software automatically routes completed forms to appropriate users for review/approval. The routing provides automated email notifications and personalized task lists for users who must review or approve a form. Users can complete tasks directly from within an email, even when offline.
  • Reduce Errors and Improve Accuracy: Pre-populating form fields from external sources and form segment isolation enable users to input only the data required of them. This results in fewer areas to complete, reducing errors and ensuring greater accuracy.
  • Expedite Collection of Quality Information: Presenting users with electronic forms that appear similar to their paper-based predecessor eases the transition to the form completion process and improves the quality of information collected. Integrated form help, field pre-population and instant validation improve the end user experience and reduce expensive support calls.

Benefits of BPM Software: Document Workflow Management System

  • Maintain Document Integrity and Security: BP Logix Server stores documents securely on the server, giving authorized users access to the most current version of each document. By assigning roles and granting permission, you can ensure secure access to all documents stored on the server.
  • Locate Documents Faster: Integrated document workflow management system features provide users with rapid access to documents based on their classification. Advanced search, indexing and categorization allow documents to be located quickly and easily so users can make timely business decisions.
  • Reduce Software and Training Costs: The Process Director interface is 100% web-based; native authoring applications are not required to review or approve documents. Documents are viewed inside your browser making the interface easy to use. No additional training is required.
  • Maintain Regulatory Compliance: Mitigate the risks associated with electronic information management and regulatory compliance. Comprehensive security management, access control, and auditing features enable your organization to maintain compliance with various regulatory mandates (Sarbanes-Oxley, FDA Title 21 CFR Part 11, HIPAA).
  • Eliminate Errors and Miscommunication: Efficiently communicate and collaborate on documents. Eliminate the "print/markup/fax" approach to document and content review, replacing it with easy-to-create graphical annotations. And you can foster real collaboration with members of your team or workgroup.

Benefits of BPM Software: A Dynamic Business Rules Engine

  • Increase Accuracy of Data and Processes: The rules engine allows your business policies to be defined and automated.
  • Ensure Consistency of Regulations: Reusable rules can be used by various objects to ensure that a policy is consistent across multiple processes.
  • Only be Alerted of Events You Deem Important: You define the rules that determine when you should be notified or alerted to events.
  • Allow Decision-Making Rules to be Easily Understood: With the graphical rules interface, your rules are easy to read and report on so you know how your processes are configured to behave.

Schedule a Free Demonstration

Schedule a demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: workflow BPM
3 min read

Business Application Development

By BP Logix on Oct 25, 2018 8:04:14 AM

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Extensible Software For Your BPM and Workflow Needs

Extensible software applications are an important part to business process management (BPM) because there can still be a mismatch between the features of off-the-shelf applications and the very specific needs of a given business. Custom business application development acts as the glue that fills these gaps, taking data from one or more systems, pushing that data through a process, and updating other systems as appropriate.

Thus, the real leverage of a BPM software solution with custom business application development is found in its ability to combine proprietary processes and data with off-the-shelf applications. However, that leverage is weakened considerably if the BPM solution itself requires custom programming, and all the overhead that goes along with it.


Using Process Director's custom business application development features, you can create complex, cross-functional workflows and rich, interactive forms without writing a single line of code. BP Logix works closely with technology partners and customers that have highly specialized requirements, and who are able to leverage Process Director’s comprehensive extensible software toolkit (SDK) and easy-to-access database. Taken together, the SDK and open database make it easy to extend and integrate Process Director in any direction you want to take it.

Programmatic APIs and Custom Tasks

Process Director is an extensible software solution equipped with numerous hooks and callouts supporting scripted interactions based on the product’s API. Workflows, forms, business rules: virtually any Process Director object can be augmented by scripting. You can also take advantage of Process Director custom tasks to create packaged, reusable scripts that can be treated as “black boxes” by your workflow and form builders.

Web Services / REST

Your applications can access Process Director data and manipulate the product’s behavior through the product’s extensive web services APIs. Process Director web services are WSDL-based and REST-enabled. Virtually any Process Director feature or function can be manipulated via web services.

Relational Database

Process Director stores all data in your relational database. The product supports MS SQL Server or Oracle RDBM systems. This information is structured in a documented schema, enabling easy access to external applications and report writers (such as Crystal Reports). For even simpler access, Process Director automatically generates SQL views of form and process data.

Other Features

Process Director an innovative and powerful business process management engine combining the power of BPM software, workflow software and case management solutions with the flexibility and leverage of rapid application development—with no programming. Workflow software and eForms are just the beginning of digital business application development. Process Director is an extensible software solution that combines the easiest and most efficient BPM software in the industry with a rich set of custom business application development tools offering snap-in data integration, rapid prototyping and release, and comprehensive reporting and analytics.

Check out these BPM examples to see how customers in every sector are successfully using Process Director's business application development tools to prepare and deliver transparent, end-to-end digital applications offering engaging customer experience, robust business process governance, regulatory compliance, and smooth, efficient operations.

Schedule A Free Demonstration

See for yourself. Contact us for a free Process Director demonstration from a BP Logix business process management expert.

Topics: application development BPM software
3 min read

Sharepoint Alternative Solution

By BP Logix on Oct 24, 2018 12:22:51 PM

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Process Director BPM Software as a SharePoint Alternative

If your organization is currently using SharePoint or if you’re searching for  better a Sharepoint alternative, then Process Director BPM software is the perfect solution. While Microsoft SharePoint includes some basic workflow functionality out-of-the-box, as well as separate tools for developing more advanced workflows, it’s not the only BPM solution available to manage, monitor and optimize workflows and business processes. In fact, while organizations may have chosen SharePoint for its collaboration, file sharing, and publishing capabilities, many are now looking for a SharePoint alternative for business process management (BPM) solutions when it comes to automating and monitoring anything beyond the most basic workflow scenarios.

Most businesses turn to SharePoint BPM but they underestimate the complexity of their existing processes. Translating a business process–such as onboarding a new employee–from a paper-based, manual process to a forms-driven, software-based process can be challenging. This kind of effort requires organizations to document and diagram the process; clarify roles, responsibilities, logic and decision points; and then map these steps and processes to capabilities provided by the software tools at hand. Translating the manual, human-based process of “bugging Mary in HR to approve a change" into a technology-based process that involves emails, reminders and escalations is challenging.

Indeed, most organizations interested in leveraging SharePoint workflows for more complex real-world workflows immediately find themselves stymied by the limitations of the out-of-the-box SharePoint workflows. At this point, organizations need to look at developing the more complex workflows. Microsoft offers its Designer product line which provides a range of tools that claim to provide “no code” solutions. More often than not, however, these solutions do require developers (and code) and are therefore considerably more complex to create and maintain than one might hope. Process Director from BP Logix is a SharePoint alternative that offers a powerful set of tools that organizations should consider when faced with the challenge of rapidly deploying flexible, robust workflow apps.


Like SharePoint, Process Director can be used to automate basic workflow tasks. Unlike SharePoint, however, Process Director has been designed to automate, manage, and optimize a variety of complex business processes across organizations. With built-in SharePoint integration points, Process Director can also be used to provide process automation on top of existing SharePoint workflow deployments.

Because it is a BPM platform, Process Director provides enterprise-strength BPM capabilities. The business rules engine enables business users to define and govern their processes with logic that is independent from the workflow, which provides greater flexibility and faster change when needed making it one of the most comprehensive SharePoint workflow alternatives on the market. In addition, the integration capabilities provide the ability to extend a complex business process across departments, and out to partners, suppliers, and customers.

Key Benefits of Using Process Director

Increased Efficiency

If business process improvement is important to a business then business process automation and metrics are a core requirement. Process Director measures the performance of each activity within a given process; as the process is executed over time, Process Director learns how its actual timeline varies from the original forecast. This unique capability, called predictive analysis, differentiates Process Director from other Sharepoint workflow alternatives as it alerts process owners that upcoming activities may not complete on time, even before those activities have started.

No Programming

Process Director is a rapid application development software making it extensible, usable and able to integrate with a changing IT environment. This allows organizations to arm themselves with the tools it needs to rapidly build and deliver complete, end-to-end digital applications: without programmers and with low code BPM or no code BPM. As a result, Process Director equips the business to respond to the fast-paced, ever-changing needs of the marketplace.

ROI

In any growing organization, the number of homegrown and off-the-shelf solutions accumulates pretty rapidly. Each one brings with it another team, another vendor, maintenance, updates, infrastructure, and training. Process Director gives the CIO the opportunity to start replacing those products with a flexible, customizable, streamlined solution addressing a huge variety of business needs in operations, finance, HR, IT, sales, and other areas. With fewer vendors, less maintenance, reduced training costs, smaller infrastructure, Process Director helps organizations increase their ROI.

Topics: BPM software
3 min read

Document Workflow Management System

By BP Logix on Oct 18, 2018 9:27:19 AM

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Simplify the Organization, Location and Distribution of Documents, Content and Electronic Forms

Process Director’s document workflow management system has integrated functions that simplify the organization, location and distribution of documents, content and electronic forms. Data is automatically assigned metadata, allowing approved information and content to be made available to internal or external users.

Process Director Document Workflow Management System Features

Process Director includes two key document workflow management features that help simplify the organization and distributions of electronic forms and electronic documents:

  • Knowledge Views

Knowledge Views form the foundation of our document workflow management system comprised with intelligent navigation, searching, retrieval, data mining, charting and ultimately delivery of information and knowledge. A Knowledge View allows both authenticated and anonymous users to navigate and retrieve related content or display it graphically. A Knowledge View provides a simplified, focused view so that end users are presented with only the information they need making the managing of documents efficient. Users can easily “zoom in” using a dynamic table of contents built by the Knowledge View to retrieve documents, Smart Forms or process related information.

  • Hierarchal Taxonomy

A hierarchical taxonomy offers business users the ability to structure content in the way that makes the most sense for their organization. Process Director's document management system supports a flexible and easy metadata structure that enables you to categorize and label documents, Smart Forms, and digital content, making information more secure and easier to locate.

Process Director Document Workflow Management Use Cases

Whittier Health Network

Whittier Health Network, founded in 1982, provides quality, comprehensive medical care to its residents in a compassionate “family” care setting.

Employing 2,500 people across 12 locations became a challenge every fall when the benefit enrollment process was initiated. As it had to be completed for all employees within a three week timeframe, the sheer volume of documents that had to be processed made the process onerous. Seeking an enterprise document management system that would take the pain out of the benefit enrollment process and achieve efficiencies was the IT department’s primary objective. Any document management solution Whittier acquired had to include workflows, electronic forms, an automated review and approval process and be competitively priced.

National Eye Institute

One of the requirements National Eye Institute faced dealt with improving its document management system in regards to its retention processes and procedures. One of the most visible sets of documents within NEI involved its ethics reporting process. Since reporting requirements also change from year to year, every Institute employee has to complete forms, validate ownership of funds, and be prepared to address financial and also moral ethics requirements. No sooner had the current year’s ethics reporting been completed than the process of vetting employees for the new year began again.

NEI needed a system that built on a methodology that was easy to configure, would enable information to be extracted and analyzed and addressed its IT security requirements as well. Process Director provided the document workflow management system solution National Eye Institute needed. From its early work in document management, National Eye Institute turned to Process Director to handle document disposition, storage and retention.

Schedule a Free Software Demonstration

Let us show you how Process Director can address your BPM compliance and business process governance needs, as well as enterprise document management and retention requirements. Schedule a free BPM software demo today!

Topics: workflow management BPM software
4 min read

Mobile BPM & Mobile Workflow Solutions

By BP Logix on Oct 17, 2018 11:14:21 AM

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Just Because You’re Away From the Office Doesn’t Mean You’re Out of the Loop.

Mobile BPM and mobile workflow solutions can undoubtedly give an organization more options as to how the company conducts its business. Processes and workflows require people to make decisions and add information at different points along the way. A process that is making use of all available data will need the input of people who may not necessarily be on-premise, or operating from the same type of device.

Process Director BPM Software is Web-Based and Mobile Friendly

Process Director has always been the mobile BPM solution of choice for meeting the business process management (BPM) requirements of enterprises, mid-sized companies, agencies, and non-profits. These business and IT leaders have moved beyond antiquated workflow tools toward Process Director to automate and improve their critical internal business processes, and have realized the many benefits of doing so.

Increasingly, forward-looking organizations have begun to look for ways to take advantage of cloud-based and mobile technologies to extend their business processes not only more broadly across their own enterprises, but also outward to their customers, partners, and suppliers. Process Director provides the BPM software and workflow software capabilities and features to make this strategic expansion possible.

Process Director mobile BPM and mobile workflow solutions were built with three simple principles in mind:

  • Engage the customer by making it easy for her to communicate her problems and expectations, and for you to acknowledge them.
  • Embrace the customer by enabling him to participate directly in business processes you have designed for them.
  • Extend the cloud into your work environment by integrating popular cloud services within your workflows.

Process Director empowers users with mobile devices such as tablets, laptops, and smart phones to participate fully in your organization’s workflow processes.

Using your mobile device, you can:

  • Review, complete, and submit forms
  • View dashboards and reports
  • Attach photos or record GPS data to forms
  • Complete tasks via email while offline

Mobile BPM and Mobile Workflow Solutions For Field Service and Inspections

For management: Real-time visibility and transparency

  • Configurable, rules-driven workflow, Corrective/Preventative Actions (CAPA)
  • Real-time geolocation tracking
  • Configurable UI/UX: reports, forms, charts, and more.
  • Easy information sharing
  • Robust data and user security
  • Real time integration with enterprise applications (e.g. ERP, CRM).
  • Mobile-ready
  • Offline information capture
  • Custom searches, fully accessible history

For field staff: Fast and easy data capture, wherever you are

  • Intuitive user interface, whether using tablet, smart phone, or desktop
  • Broad mobile data collection, including photos, video, location
  • Automated rules-driven distribution of collected data
  • Maps integration for easy route planning
  • Offline data collection, routed automatically when back online
  • Capture live customer signatures
  • Email integration for alerts, notices, updated instructions, etc.

Mobile BPM Example: Field Service and Inspections at the City of West Allis

The City of West Allis (Wisconsin), uses Process Director and its mobile BPM and mobile workflow solutions to manage a variety of processes that can best be accomplished by employees in the field. Building inspections are among the most time-consuming processes that City employees must regularly manage.

Jim Jandovitz, the Director of Information Technology and Communications, fully knows the value of the field service management software solutions that Process Director provides. He said, “If we only saved five minutes per inspection we would be saving tens of thousands of dollars per year. With building inspections alone we can anticipate saving almost 3,000 hours or 1.78 positions. And, as people retire we won’t be filling those positions which is an additional cost saving.”

Learn more about how the City of West Allis is accomplishing financial savings and efficiency improvement with field service and inspections. Read the Customer Story.

Mobile Devices

Process Director mobile BPM and mobile workflow solutions support most mobile devices, including Apple and Android smart phones and tablets, and Mac and Windows laptops. eForms are responsive and will automatically adjust themselves to match smaller form factor devices like smart phones; additionally, you can directly manipulate the way your form is presented on various devices for a fully customized experience. There's no need to download yet another app: Process Director mobile BPM solutions works with the browser your mobile device already has.

Even though it runs in your browser, Process Director can takes full advantage of your mobile device's unique features. Snap a photo to attach to a workflow, or record your GPS location information at the click of a button. Process Director's mobile workflow management features are perfect for:

  • Audits
  • Inspections
  • Clinical Patient Visits
  • Field Service Work
  • and more...
Topics: BPM BPM software
3 min read

Cloud Workflow Management Software

By BP Logix on Oct 9, 2018 7:12:32 PM

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The Elastic Cloud-Based Workflow Solution

No business is 100% predictable. On some days, you can hardly handle the volume that’s coming through the door. On others, there’s extra time to catch up. But are your cloud workflow management software solutions flexible enough to accommodate both your busiest and quietest periods? Or, do you have to pay for peak capacity at all times, just so that it’s available when you need it?

Process Director cloud BPM and cloud workflow management software grows to meet peak demand when your business requires it, while keeping your costs to a minimum when it does not. In technical terms, Process Director is a high-control BPM platform — but you’ll come to know it simply as a cloud-based workflow solution that quickly and easily adjusts to your needs. Shift into overdrive with additional capacity for those busy times, and apply the brakes to reduce costs when your workload permits. It’s all in your hands.

Private Instance Cloud-Based Workflow Solutions

VARIABLE CAPACITY

Fluctuating demand for your services may be predictable (for example, an accounting firm during tax season) or seemingly random. In either case, Process Director cloud BPM and cloud workflow management software has you covered with self-provisioned resources and elastic billing.

EASY UP, EASY DOWN

Project-driven customers can take advantage of Process Director’s easy provisioning/deprovisioning. Quickly bring new instances online as new projects arise, and just as quickly deactivate them when each project is complete. Elastic billing makes it easy for you to allocate costs appropriately.

FLEXIBLE ARCHITECTURE

Choose the workflow solution that best fits your needs and your budget. Process Director BPM and workflow management software can be provisioned as a virtual instance on shared hardware, or on-premise dedicated hardware. And, your license does not limit the number of users, workflows, or reports in your environment.

SECURITY AND RELIABILITY

Regardless of which architecture you choose, your Process Director BPM software private instance is allocated for your exclusive use. Dedicated CPU and memory resources, and a dedicated database instance, offer you the flexibility to provide as many workflow applications to as many users as your business requires.

ON-DEMAND RESOURCE MONITORING

Of course, in order to be sure that you’re provisioning the appropriate resources for your needs, you need to be able to monitor those resources in real time.

Process Director Cloud Workflow Management Software offers:

  • Historical resource usage
  • Threshold-triggered alerts
  • Scheduled auto-provisioning

Multitenant Cloud-Based Workflow Solutions

For smaller applications, applications with a limited number of users, or just as a quick way to get started, Process Director cloud workflow management software also features a multitenant option. The multitenant option offers the full power of Process Director cloud BPM and cloud workflow management software solutions at a fixed per user cost. Of course, multitenant customers enjoy the benefits of elastic provisioning, enabling you to increase or decrease the number of available user licenses as needed. Your invoice will automatically reflect these changes, and will include billing codes that will allow you to allocate usage costs appropriately within your organization.

Schedule a Free Demo

Schedule a demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: workflow BPM software
3 min read

Enterprise Workflow Automation Software & Solution

By BP Logix on Oct 5, 2018 1:47:29 PM

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Automate Your Workflow Processes with an Advanced BPM & Workflow Management Application

Enterprise workflow automation software and BPM software enables organizations of every stripe to become more efficient and effective. By eliminating legacy paper-based processes, workflow automation makes your business, agency, or non-profit better organized and more responsive.

Process Director Enterprise Workflow Automation Software


As the BPM and workflow automation software leader, BP Logix Process Director includes a powerful workflow engine to drive your business process & workflow management strategies. Process Director BPM software is designed to automate new and existing processes easily, rapidly, and reliably.
  • Rapid Application Development: 100% web-based GUI workflow builder for business users—no programming required
  • Business Process Improvement: Process Timeline also offers process owners the ability to examine “what-if” scenarios, enabling them to predict the impact of an anticipated or hypothetical delay in a given process instance.
  • Document Workflow Management: Route, manage and locate documents, eForms and content in accordance with your existing business processes

A Workflow Management Application Purpose-Built for Today’s Business Users

Process Director's unique workflow process software enables easy, point-and-click process modeling; automated routing, business activity monitoring (BAM), and sophisticated content management. The workflow automation software is configured through a 100% web-based interface enabling you to graphically model and build processes, requiring neither development nor advanced IT resources.

Using Process Director, business users create workflows, forms, and business rules without assistance from IT. Automated workflows enable organizations to take control of their business processes. Process Director workflow automation software ensures that critical information and vital documents are routed, reviewed, and revised in accordance with corporate and regulatory policy.

Of course, with modern workflow tools such as Process Director integrates with existing user directories such as Active Directory or LDAP, enabling your organization's entire staff to participate fully with automated workflow process software. Process Director enterprise workflow automation technology  automatically notifies users of assigned workflow tasks via email and is presented with a concise and easy-to-understand web page relevant to the task or activity requested. They do not require specific knowledge about the overall process because requests are automatically routed to the appropriate users as tasks are completed.

BPM application integration with the rules engine enables business analysts to define rules and conditions that control the routing and assignment of users.

Process Director automatically routes documents, forms and tasks in accordance with defined or ad hoc business processes. In doing so, the enterprise workflow automation aligns processes with business goals and individual job responsibilities, thereby uniting business, people, and technology.

Key Benefits of Process Director

  • Improved Efficiency: Reduce paper handling and manual routing; eliminate errors and improve the lifecycle of document, content and forms processing.
  • Easy Automation: Take advantage of Process Director's easy graphical tools to transform new and existing processes into powerful automated workflows.
  • Enhanced Regulatory Compliance: Ensure a robust GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) posture using Process Director's strong authentication, authorization, and audit capabilities.
  • Reduced Errors and Miscommunications: Email notifications, dashboards, and process intelligence reports ensure you stay on top of every step of every process.

 Schedule a Demonstration

See this advanced workflow process software for yourself. Request a free workflow software demonstration of Process Director today.

Topics: workflow automation
3 min read

Business Applications: New Approaches to Business Software Development Are Changing How the World Works

By BP Logix on Oct 3, 2018 2:57:12 PM

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We recently launched a new educational series: It’s Time to Think Differently About Applications, which will provide a series of articles, videos, and other resources that explain how organizations can gain advantages from a new, innovative approach to business application development. The purpose is not solely to offer a prescriptive roadmap for how you can improve and accelerate app development. It’s also about creating an organizational mindset around how to use business applications more effectively to address customer needs.

The series will be populated with new resources periodically over the coming weeks. It is our hope that these items will be both instructive and energizing. Most will undoubtedly recognize how there is a better way, one enabled by lean, modern technologies, that that will have dramatic impact on the way they concept business applications and use teams to build them.

Internet entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, Marc Andreessen, famously said, “Software is eating the world.” His point was that more and more of global economic activity is dependent upon business software applications and the processes they enable. People adapt to those changes through their behaviors, which created a rush to build better business applications. This, in turn, encourages employees, consumers, and others to buy, communicate, share, and transact online.

Andreessen made this comment in a 2011 Wall Street Journal essay; a lot has changed since then. With the rise of the cloud, mobile, and IoT, we are in the age of digital transformation. One might extend the metaphor to evolve to something like, “The way business software is developed is eating software.” OK, that might be a stretch, but the fact is that organizational activity is increasingly reliant on transaction-based processes, which are then delivered to stakeholders in the form of business software applications. These are the drivers of efficiency and revenue, and to accomplish standard business goals at today’s pace demands that these applications be built and adapted continuously, as business needs change.

The movement enabling this is digital transformation, which is all about change. However, change is not a goal unto itself. For organizations going through this transformative process, the effect that come from implementing new, agile, continuously innovative technology is that they are better able to adapt to changing business needs by applying technology rapidly and accurately to solve specific problems. To be successful, there has to be an understanding of how to use the right technology, and how to best apply it to the right situations.

For most people, the idea of app development is synonymous with coding and all the methodologies that come with it. But we’ve moved into an environment where non-technical people can take control of their tasks and goals by adapting business applications to help them achieve their goals. In the first piece in the series, Intellyx analyst Charles Araujo explains five ways to think differently about applications, and he initiates it with an emphasis on the customer journey. At BP Logix, we spend a lot of time with customers so we can learn from them and how they use Process Director. By understanding how they build business applications and leverage them to connect employees, partners, customers, and other stakeholders, we are better able to improve our own product. But we also learn the outcomes of how they integrate Process Director BPM software into their organization and how it supports their own needs. The ones who have been most successful, in terms of ROI of technology investments and overall revenue increase, are the ones who have created a culture of transformation driven by business applications.

Irrespective of how long you’ve been developing or using business applications, changes brought about by this new paradigm are welcome ones: less code, bigger ability to continuously push new features and functionality, and an agile BPM approach to integration and deployment. For everyone involved with driving business results, understanding that application development is a key part of this, and then understanding HOW to do it is precisely where they will create competitive advantages from business applications. Our educational series will offer all kinds of insights to support their efforts, and we encourage you to join them and us.

With the addition of leading-edge solutions, a new approach to business process management (BPM), and a dedication to change, organizations are adopting transformative strategies that improve the value of what they deliver to customers, and also position themselves for continued change. No aspect of this, however, is more material to the advancement of business goals than  application development, and the organizations that adopt new, innovative approaches are the ones who will reap the rewards of competitive advantages, more efficiency, and more profitable engagement with customers.

Topics: application development BPM software
4 min read

Digital Transformation: Influencers Validate Process Director BPM Software As Key To Success

By BP Logix on Sep 24, 2018 7:04:26 AM

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A recent TechTarget article by Jan Stafford painted a highly favorable picture of our flagship product, Process Director, and key aspects of AI, predictive analysis and other features that define the most recent version, 5.0. The piece offers a great overview and we’re grateful for the insightful and appreciative perspective Stafford brings to the topic of BPM and digital transformation.

Because we get to see how customers apply BPM functionality and what it ultimately does for their organizations, we have an even deeper perspective that has helped us define the roles that AI-enabled BPM software and intelligent workflow play in actually providing the foundation for the elusive holy grail of all innovative organizations - digital transformation.

What Digital Transformation Means To BP Logix

Now, we recognize that digital transformation can have a lot of different meanings. Indeed, some see it merely as a buzzword, but Process Director initiated the use of predictive intelligence as a core element of BPM. In our minds, digital transformation transforming one’s business isn’t just about transforming one’s business by moving from legacy systems to cloud or mobile environments. Our feeling has been that the value of BPM is in it’s inclusiveness. When business processes include the right people who have access to the most meaningful data, and who can then deliver results that meet specific objectives, we believe that in and of itself is transformative.

Our predilection for collaboration and context led us to make use of BPM and AI to drive users towards better outcomes. As organizations benefited from better compute capabilities provided by more agile infrastructures, we are able to equip them with a BPM solution that anticipates user behavior, expected results, and how to identify and make use of the right applications and data sources for the job. These new platforms could transact, crunch, and make sense of user, process, resource, and event activities to provide a clear picture of optimal outcomes.

Process Director 5.0: BPM and AI Combined


Process Director’s use of AI Process Director’s use of AI includes machine learning , sentiment analysis, identification and highlighting of dissimilar events, and conditions in single state as well as agile, configurable environments. User data from processes and actions enables Process Director to learn from past history, spot trends and deviations from normalized behavior, and recommend appropriate courses of action based on these insights.

Stafford makes an astute point about Process Director’s use of AI when she says, "Rather than present complex AI features, Process Director 5.0 offers a set of basic machine learning tools that the average app developer can use, such as a point-and-click graphical interfaces that guide configuration processes and display results of analytics, with no coding required.” We recognize that not all organizations will have data scientists available to them to make sense out of massive amounts of data coming from Process Director’s machine learning functionality. It’s also not lost on us that many organizations are not necessarily interested in the data science itself; they want better information and it’s only through AI-enabled processes that they can get that.

We know there is not just a single way to move data and information around the organization. Infrastructures are complex things and combine legacy tools and approaches in conjunction with newer ways that apply agile digital transformation solutions to dynamic environments. The TechTarget piece highlights a comment from Intellyx analyst, Charles Araujo, who said: “The value Process Director 5.0 delivers is less about features, per se, and more about accessibility.” Araujo’s point about accessibility extends not just to users, but also to data sources and the other tools being used in IT environments to provide better intelligence to processes. Access brings more meaning, and when AI is used, it also helps users plan with better precision.

Especially in the midst of evolving environments, where shadow IT can form and organizations rely more heavily on a “bring your own device” (BYOD) philosophy, BPM can act as a foundational element that keeps disparate systems, groups, and even rules and requirements organized around a forcing function; in this case, that function is BPM.

This is how digital transformation is allowed to happen. Some try to position it as a 1:1 migration, as if a company could shut down operations while systems move from massive databases to the cloud. Things don’t work like that; workloads are moved into new, dynamic environments incrementally, but they can’t lose their functionality during the transition phase. It’s up to BPM to maintain consistency and ultimately to enhance the use of data and the technology investment by creating better, more inclusive processes.

Stafford also makes the case that the low-code/no-code BPM approach to application development Process Director offers is core to BPM acting as a foundation for digital transformation. The right tools in the right organization can go a long way towards helping transform how work is accomplished, but giving people the ability to actively engage with these BPM software tools and contextual data to effect change is what truly has a transformative effect.

Bottom Line

BP Logix recognizes that those closest to business issues are in the best position to create corresponding solutions. Having the ability to adapt as goals and business needs change, all without having to engage with IT or apply technical expertise results in faster implementation of meaningful solutions. People being able to respond rapidly to issues, coupled with BPM software tools that support their need to make changes, all leads to the best kind of digital transformation.

Schedule A Demo

Schedule a demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM software digital transformation
5 min read

Business Process Management (BPM) Overview: The What, Why & How

By BP Logix on Sep 20, 2018 9:31:01 PM

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What is Business Process Management (BPM)?

Business process management (BPM) is the practice of refining business processes that will increase process efficiency and profitability using modeling, business process automation, measurement and optimization of business workflows.

Why is Business Process Management Important To Your Organization?

As business managers, we're expected to embrace − and manage − change in such a way that our businesses grow (and do so with the least amount of disruption.) Business process management (BPM) can play an important role here. And this is especially true in IT, as often the most noticeable changes are the result of changes in software technology which, in turn, bring about improvements in the way people work.

IT departments are faced with both managing change and improving productivity. When information flow is manual and paper-based, IT has an opportunity to accomplish both goals.  There are many processes that are a part of the changes management wants to embrace that lend themselves to improving production and increasing productivity. Among them are:

  • Onboarding/offboarding and transferring employees
  • Ensuring access to applications and resources
  • Providing a secure approval process for processing requests
  • Coordinating requests across departments, facilities, vendors, and suppliers
  • Ordering and supplying software, hardware and equipment
  • Obsoleting or disposing of assets
  • Maintaining and accessing information for audits

The solution to these challenges resides with automating change control. Business process management software provides a consistent method for routing and tracking the flow of IT requests and information.

What is Business Process Management Software?

BPM software is software that enables organizations to improve process efficiency by monitoring, optimizing and automating their business process with data and analytics.

What Are the Benefits of BPM Software?

When you look at how business process management software and workflow software have helped companies achieve business process improvement, you may start to get eager to start reaping the benefits of BPM software and everything that comes with it such as improved process efficiency and productivity. Considering that companies are reporting a 75% reduction in data entry, and are 50% faster in making decisions is exciting.

How BP Logix Can Help


BP Logix offers Process Director, an innovative and powerful business process management software combining the power of BPM with the flexibility and leverage of rapid application development—with no programming. Workflow software and eforms are just the beginning of digital app development.

Process Director combines the easiest and most efficient business process management and digital process automation software in the industry with a rich set of workflow tools offering snap-in data integration, rapid prototyping and release, and comprehensive reporting and analytics.

Check out these BPM examples by industry to see how our customers in every sector are successfully using Process Director to prepare and deliver transparent, end-to-end digital applications offering engaging customer experience, robust business process governance, regulatory compliance and smooth, efficient operations.

What is iBPMS?

The evolution of BPM technology, like most technology, has happened quickly. Within the industry, we have seen great strides and early adopters have come along on that journey to see truly revolutionary advances. As more enterprises look to streamline business processes and build leaner, more efficient business models, so must BPM technology become more effective. Therefore, Gartner has recently introduced the concept of intelligent BPM (iBPMS).

Gartner defines iBPMS as platforms  with "capabilities such as validation (process simulation, including "what if") and verification (logical compliance), optimization, and the ability to gain insight into process performance have been included in many BPMS offerings for several years. iBPMSs have added enhanced support for human collaboration such as integration with social media, mobile-enabled process tasks, streaming analytics and real-time decision management."

BP Logix’s Process Director has been named to the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Intelligent Business Process Management Suites (iBPMS) for several years in a row.

What is BPMN?

In the year 2000, the Business Process Management Initiative, a group of individuals intent on promoting the concept of BPM, gathered together and created the ‘Business Process Model and Notation’, or BPMN. This tome, now over 500 pages, has been managed by the Object Management Group since 2004 and serves as the authority for Business Process Modeling Language (BPML) today.

Business Process Modeling (BPMN) vs Process Timeline


Process Timeline workflow engine is a business process modeling alternative that uses a newer modeling approach that is more advanced than any BPMN software. It is the executable model, not just a “view”, that provides business process automation solutions like:
  • Continuous critical path analysis
  • Predictive triggers
  • Earliest possible notice of potential future delay
  • High efficiency
  • Intrinsic parallel behavior

Common Deployment Options

Mobile BPM – The ability to manage workflows and business process with mobile devices

Cloud BPM– Cloud based BPM solutions are now established ways of delivering and working with software and applications. Going this route saves on infrastructure investment.

Social – A strategic BPM tool that focuses on customer engagement, customer service and customer retention within your workflows connected to social media channels.

On-Premise – Allows organizations to keep all of their workflow systems in-house.

Choosing The Right BPM Software Vendor

Choosing the right business process management software vendor takes a lot of time and research. To help you with that process we came up with four elements organizations may want to consider in relation to selecting the right product and fit within your organization.

An Award-Winning Solution

BP Logix and Process Director have won BPM awards for innovation and excellence from many prestigious organizations, both domestically and abroad. Our most valued recognitions, however, come from our customers who have achieved goals beyond those they had originally imagined through their partnership with us.

Process Director BPM software offers:

  • Unsurpassed ease of use
  • Rapid time-to-value
  • No programming

Schedule A Demo

BP Logix makes innovative and intelligent BPM software that drives digital transformation in organizations across North America and around the globe. Process Director, the company’s award-winning solution, is a powerful—yet easy to use—high-productivity, rapid application development platform for building, deploying, and enhancing digital applications. Contact us to talk to one of our software experts and schedule a demo today.

Topics: BPM BPM software business process management
3 min read

Digital Process Automation (DPA)

By BP Logix on Sep 19, 2018 9:11:05 PM

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Business Process, Digital Applications, and Digital Transformation Solutions

In today's hyper-connected global economic environment, companies are racing to identify and adopt effective digital transformation solutions to engage customers and stay competitive. As a result, BPM software—already the gold standard for developing custom, process-driven digital business applications—is itself evolving to meet the needs of the digital enterprise. BP Logix Process Director is emerging as the digital process automation (DPA) platform of choice for trailblazing private- and public-sector leaders, who count on the award-winning digital process automation platform to stay a step ahead of nimble competitors, shifting markets, and fluid supply chains.

Your organization relies on digital applications to provide the features and experience that set you apart from the pack. No application operates in a vacuum, however: end-to-end engagement means relying on digital channels for communication, engagement, and transactions. From every corner of your business, you need to reach everywhere—in the cloud, on mobile devices, and yes, even embedded inside the Internet of Things (like smart homes and self-driving cars). In short, you need digital transformation solutions to be able to build process-driven business applications that meet your customers, partners, and stakeholders, wherever and whenever they prefer. And you need to do it:

  • Quickly. Rate of change is the signature metric of the digital era. Process Director is the platform of choice for no-code, rapid application development in a DPA environment. Process Director gives you all the workflow tools you need to develop fast, deploy easily, and improve on demand.
  • Broadly. Your customers can already order a pair of sneakers, catch a ride home, or pay their bills at any time of the day or night, using whatever device happens to be convenient. They expect no less from you. Process Director digital transformation solutions are driven digital applications are cloud natives, boasting a responsive, modern user interface that moves easily between phone, tablet, and desktop.
  • Securely. In the rush to share more information, with more people, on more platforms, GRC solutions (governance, risk management, and compliance) can easily become the first casualty of your DPA effort. Fortunately, Process Director digital transformation solutions ensure that your business rules are applied to every application, that every action is logged, and that every actor is accountable.

As workflow software once matured into business process management systems, BPM is now evolving into digital process automation, the linchpin of the digital enterprise. With its focus on rapid development, easily configurable and dynamic user experience, and strong governance features, Process Director sets the pace for digital transformation through digital process automation.

About BP Logix

BP Logix is a BPM company that offers Process Director, an innovative and powerful business process management engine combining the power of BPM software with the flexibility and leverage of rapid application development—with no programming. Workflow software and eforms are just the beginning of digital app development. Process Director combines the easiest and most efficient business process management and digital process automation software in the industry with a rich set of tools offering snap-in data integration, rapid prototyping and release, and comprehensive reporting and analytics. Check out these BPM examples to see how customers in every sector are successfully using Process Director to prepare and deliver transparent, end-to-end digital applications offering engaging customer experience, robust business process governance, regulatory BPM compliance, and smooth, efficient operations. Contact us to learn more and schedule a free demonstration today.

 

Topics: automation BPM software digital transformation
2 min read

BPM and Digital Transformation Solutions

By BP Logix on Sep 13, 2018 7:57:21 AM

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BPM and Digital Transformation Solutions Improving Business Outcomes

In a world of cloud computing and omnichannel digital access, enterprises differentiate themselves from competitors through time-to-market, agility, and increased engagement with customers. Reaching these goals demands that companies search for BPM and digital transformation solutions: embarking on a fraught digital journey, breaking down organizational silos and rationalizing disparate data sources to create a new framework for delivering and continuously improving digital solutions.

The goal of this digital journey is nothing less than the transformation of the enterprise itself: the way it works with customers, the way it measures its success—and ultimately, the way in which it thinks of itself.

The Process Director Digital Transformation Platform


The stakes are high, and the path is treacherous: don’t leave without the right tools. Process Director from BP Logix is a critical digital transformation solution. Process Director is a comprehensive, high-productivity, BPM-driven digital application development platform, providing you with everything you need to rapidly build and deliver custom, end-to-end digital applications—without programmers.

Process Director BPM and digital transformation solutions offers:

  • Graphical and menu-driven builders for every part of your application: forms, rules, workflows, data connections, etc.
  • A seamless combination of structured, unstructured, and case-management process patterns.
  • Flexible interaction styles, including web-based, email, and offline.
  • Freedom from complex data definitions, flowcharts, and other relics of a slower-moving era.
  • AI-Enabled business process management (predictive-BPM)
  • IoT connectors
  • Process Timeline™, the simplest to create and most efficient to execute process engine in the marketplace.
  • Cloud, on-premises, or hybrid deployment.

Setting Out on Your Digital Journey

You can’t climb a mountain in worn-out shoes, and you can’t dominate in the digital age using tools that have barely changed since the turn of the millennium. Let’s face it: the decades of accumulated home-grown code—millions of lines of it—defies modernization. And the inflexibility and sheer volume of packaged applications—and the procurement, support, and training required for each—is unsustainable.

It’s time to change the plan: time to meet the digital challenge with a robust digital response.

Schedule a Free Demo

Process Director sets the pace for your digital transformation. Schedule a free demonstration of Process Director, and discover for yourself how this unique BPM software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM digital transformation
3 min read

Approval Software: Approval Workflow Management

By BP Logix on Sep 5, 2018 12:40:14 PM

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Automate, Track and Record All Your Review and Approval Workflow Processes

Sometimes it seems like everything you do at work requires some type of review and approval workflow process. Whether artwork or documentation, purchasing orders or vacation requests, everything has to be checked and re-checked before proceeding.

Review and approval workflow process such as routing paperwork to the right people in the right order—without losing anything along the way— can be a difficult challenge:

  • Requests are sent off with no way to track where they stand at any given moment
  • Paper forms are inherently error-prone and easy to misplace
  • A missing link in the review and approval chain, due to absence or unavailability, can bring the whole process to a halt
  • Responding to audit or discovery requests can be expensive, time-consuming, and produce unreliable results
  • Paperwork can rarely be handled by multiple individuals in parallel: it must make its way sequentially through the process

The reasons listed above are why forward thinking organizations are searching for automated approval software solutions  to solve their review and approval workflow challenges which can help reduce operational cost and improve employee satisfaction.

Advantages of our Automated Approval Software Solutions


Process Director is BPM solution that includes approval software, enabling you to automate, track and report on all of your organization's review and approval processes. Process Director solutions:
  • Ensures that the proper approval workflow process is followed, each and every time
  • Turns your lengthy, sequential manual processes into efficient, highly parallel automated approval processes
  • Eliminates lost paperwork by permanently storing all electronic forms, documents, and other data until you delete them
  • Approval software that keeps things moving through our patented business process automation software technology that automatically escalates tasks that aren't completed in a timely fashion
  • Simplifies and accelerates access to archival data in response to audit or governance, risk and compliance requests

Request a Free BPM Software Demo

Leo Burnett Case Study

The Problem

Leo Burnett Worldwide is one of the world’s largest agency networks and the parent company of Leo Burnett and its marketing services arm, Arc Worldwide. They had identified the need for a more formal, technology-based solution to route client estimates for approval. Recognizing that automating the Agency’s project estimating procedure was a priority, that team had agreed to replace a tool which had outgrown its original scope. They needed a review and approval software solution to route estimates for the work that every client requests from the agency, as all estimates created for clients goes through a process that involves periodic updates along the way.

The Solution

Leo Burnett chose Process Director as their approval software solution and soon after Leo they decided to license Process Director they identified a ‘short list’ of 12-15 projects. The Automated Estimating System (AES) was the first one that needed to be addressed and completed as the agency needed a uniform workflow software solution to route, manage, review and approve all client estimates.

In the Leo Burnett environment there are designated users who create estimates for all new work entertained by the agency. Depending upon specific project criteria, each estimate is required to have specific levels of approvals prior to the commencement of work. These criteria are predefined and have been built into Process Director, allowing each estimate to run through a corresponding approval that routes it to the correct agency and client approvers. The approvers receive email notifications and are able to open, review and approve the estimates entirely within the system. Automating the estimating process drives efficiency, while allowing the agency to maintain strict internal controls and ensure that each review and approval workflow are received in the correct sequence and from the appropriate parties.

More BPM Examples

Request a Free Demo

Process Director approval software solutions sets the pace for your BPM and digital transformation. Request a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our business process management software have helped our customers conquer their review and approval workflow challenges.

Topics: workflow
2 min read

Application Integration

By BP Logix on Aug 28, 2018 6:55:03 AM

application-integration

Organizations go to great lengths to explain to prospective BPM vendors their company culture and how technology is used therein: from overworked IT departments that are not able to respond to change requests in a timely manner, or a remote sales team that operates predominantly in the field who requires mobile and cloud capabilities, or that the main users are youthful and more accustomed to consumer-like user interfaces. No matter the situation, companies due their due diligence to be clear on what application integration capabilities are required in their potential workflow solution and how it should augment within their current infrastructure.

Extensibility and Enterprise Application Integration Capabilities

Organizations are becoming more complex. That said, they do not want it to also become more complicated. They increasing rely on internal data from enterprise application as well as from third-party repositories. Without them, they would not have a complete picture of what their company is doing or how problems can be addressed as they arise. Choosing a low-code/no code BPM solution that has application integration with APIs, workflows, forms and business rules, offers, hooks and callouts that support scripted interactions is now necessary to achieve a macro-view of an organization. The ability to access data through application integration with extensive web services and APIs because the solution adheres to WSDL and works with REST-enabled applications also is stepping into the forefront of decision-making queue. With a solution having BPM application and workflow application and document imaging integration build in, the confidence that it will be able to meet not only current needs— but also ongoing changes as the organization grows, changes, and adapts— becomes secure.

Process Director BPM Software Offers The Following:

• Database Application Integration
• Document Imaging Software / Scanners
• File System Monitor Application Integration
• Email Servers
• Web Services / REST
• Social BPM Application and Workflow Application Integration
• SharePoint Integration

No Programmer? No Problem

If your goal is to deliver data digitally and fast then Process Director is the BPM software solution for you. With Process Director rapid application development software, you can focus on solving business issues instead of creating software to do so. BPM software that relies on low code or no code is relevant to business users today.

Schedule a Free Demo

Process Director sets the pace for your BPM and digital transformation. Schedule a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our business process management software have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM software
4 min read

Process Efficiency

By BP Logix on Aug 22, 2018 12:07:03 PM

Improve Business Processes With BPM Software

process-efficiency

Organizations want to grow and prosper, but the process efficiency they rely on is not always optimized to get them where they want to go. Just like any system, a change of focus or direction creates an inefficient use of the underlying foundation. While we all expect to be able to adapt to the new environment, we still have to run our business. Stopping to re-tool does not always seem to be a prudent step towards improving business processes.

How BPM Software Can Help


Business process management software is software that enables organizations to improve process efficiency through business process automation by monitoring and optimizing their business processes with data and analytics. It’s equipped with a series of business process management tools that help model, automate, execute, control, measure and optimize business processes.

Business Process Efficiency Improvement Due To Growth

BPM software and workflow software provide great value because, done the right way, it can integrate organizational behavior and legacy systems in a flexible way. As your organization changes, business process management and process efficiency can adapt with it.

Perhaps you are at a point where, “what got you here won’t get you there.” That is a natural state for an organization because it reflects growth. That is good. The fact that you recognize the need to operate in a different way is also good. This is the right time to think about how your organization and your business processes can be improved with BPM software.

Liquid Controls Improves Business Processes With Process Director BPM Software

Liquid Controls

Liquid Controls, a division of IDEX Corporation, has been a leader in flow measurement and process control instrumentation for over 50 years. The company serves a variety of industries from adhesives and beverages to cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Its products are used in fields as diverse as agriculture, manufacturing, the military, textiles and printing ink. Liquid Controls relies on in-house designs and a network of strategically located distributors to ensure that global customers are supported with technology tailored to each industry’s particular requirements.

Problem

Like most successful companies, Liquid Controls (LC) has an intranet that employees access for the forms and information they are seeking – from policies and procedures to expense forms. Employees wanted to make changes to these documents to reflect changing business processes, however the existing system could not accommodate those changes.

In addition, the Intranet provided a sales quoting tool that was used daily. While the form itself was appropriate it did not include a workflow management software solution. As a result employees would complete the form then submit it for manually processing, resulting in many documents being lost or misplaced.

With so many forms on the intranet being static and manual, Liquid Controls’ intranet appeared to be more of a repository than the dynamic portal it was envisioned to be.

Solution

To address the business process efficiency need, Liquid Controls needed a system that would address the work the way that employees worked. They began searching for electronic forms software and document workflow solutions. The search was quickly expanded to include workflow solutions, however, as it became apparent that addressing the underlying need for business processes efficiency was very important. Additionally, the IT group wanted a solution that did not require extensive back end development. IT wanted :
•A fast implementation and roll-out.
•A product that would be easy to rewrite or change as business processes changed
•Version control capabilities.
•A workflow tool that would allow IT to process user requests rapidly.

Liquid Controls is using Process Director for workflow applications ranging from attendance and engineering change control to shop floor work constructions. One challenge was to provide the appropriate workflows to ensure that a new hire could be able to build a product to the same tolerance as a more senior employee. Building a flow meter , for example, requires 600 work constructions. Changes to the process are now done through a workflow. Approved instructions are published in real-time which makes them available to shop floor employees immediately.

The IT department lives in a world of non-stop projects. Liquid Controls is in expansion mode always, with new companies being bought all the time. There are also gaps between the old and new ERP systems. Process Director helps to fill the gaps.

And then there are the business process governance issues. Liquid Controls is audited at least once a year for its ISO accreditation, as well as undergoing Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits. Once an organization is ISO-certified, procedures must be available to anyone who need to see them. Process Director BPM platform aids in business process efficiency by automating reporting, monitoring and auditing of processes seamless and gives authorized employees and auditors access to the information they need and the approvals that were given.

Perhaps the biggest advantage Liquid Controls has gained from using Process Director is that the IT team does not need to write code due to rapid application development, allowing them to focus on deploying other BPM applications.

Liquid Control employees appreciate the user interface and friendliness of Process Director. IT appreciates the business logic that lets them dive as deep as necessary to be consistent with their business process. Process Director is a low code BPM solution that  enables Liquid Controls to improve their business process efficiency to drive from the results side backwards and to better leverage its investments.

The roadmap is simple, and we are here to help. Contact us and schedule a free BPM software demonstration today.

Topics: BPM software
3 min read

IT Workflow Automation: IT BPM Software Solutions

By BP Logix on Aug 15, 2018 10:18:00 AM

Service Driven, Technology Enabled

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Whether they are installing and configuring hardware and software, or responding to engineering change orders and service requests, the IT team is vital to your organization. The need for IT workflow automation software and IT BPM solutions has become increasingly important as interacting with the IT department in many places has become cumbersome. Relying on organizational knowledge about whom to contact about what, and routing forms through multiple levels of review and approval has organizations searching for the right BPM solutions for their IT department.

Some IT workflow software can markedly reduce the time employees need to spend on specific tasks. Taking less time and using fewer resources to achieve desired results creates the kind of efficiency that all companies seek to achieve. To achieve those results requires an IT department who can identify the right BPM solution that can do the job, encourage collaboration, integrate successfully with existing applications (and the company’s security infrastructure) and be acceptable to stakeholders. After all, with the right mix of applications and tools, an IT department’s actions can contribute to reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

Most companies enable the IT department to make the workflow changes necessary to enable the organization to become incrementally more successful. But organizations that seek excellence and want to grow more dramatically have come to rely on a different kind of IT manager: one that knows both the technology and business requirements needed to achieve revenue growth. One of the ways this happens is through building a foundation with IT workflow automation with BPM software solutions, on top of which tasks and activities move fluidly towards business goals.

IT Workflow Automation Solutions With Process Director BPM Software

Process Director IT BPM solutions provides IT with workflow automation solutions that will help their department achieve those goals allowing them to become more nimble, more responsive, and more effective, so they can:
  • Ensure that new employees have timely and secure access to applications and other technology resources
  • Record and produce information needed for audits
  • Provide a consistent and secure approval workflow process for processing requests
  • Coordinate requests from various departments, facilities, vendors, and suppliers
  • Order and deliver hardware and software in a timely fashion
  • Meet SLAs
  • Fulfill change requests
  • Manage your ISO or BPM compliance documentation
  • Enforce and maintain internal security, business process governance and auditing policies

How can Process Director IT workflow automation software make your IT department so valuable and efficient? Its rich feature set and simple user interface combine to offer these BPM solutions:

  • Visibility into your internal processes
  • Timely reporting in support of management decisions, business process governance and regulatory BPM compliance
  • Process consistency and reliability
  • Enhanced process success through elimination of lost or mishandled requests
  • Electronic forms software for reduced paper handling and manual routing, eliminating errors and delays
  • Greater user satisfaction due to more efficient processing and more predictable results

Request a Free Demo

Process Director sets the pace for your BPM and digital transformation. Request a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our IT workflow automation and IT BPM software solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: workflow BPM software
2 min read

BPM Software and Customer Service

By BP Logix on Aug 8, 2018 6:56:49 AM

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Much has been made of the customer journey, of an organization providing for their customers’ needs, that reaction is a failure of anticipation. Onboarding an intelligent BPM software engine is often the best solution, allowing businesses to create applications that update and streamline their own processes, to the benefit of all.

That being said, choosing the right solution is only part of the journey. The organization in question must also consider the customer service behind the BPM software— the training program provided, the spectrum of services offered, and the customer care they expect to receive. Only with these amenities can a business expect to truly exploit the utility of the BPM software they spent so long researching. It takes receiving the best care to fully provide the best care.

The BP Logix Difference


BP Logix’s training, implementation and support services all share a single goal: the translation of your vision into reality. The applications you create are the solutions to your organization’s pain points and ambitions, and it is our goal to facilitate this journey from concept to creation. The comprehensive customer service we offer is just one of the reasons some of the world’s leading organizations trust BP Logix in supporting their digital transformation initiatives.

Our approach is to establish a close partnership with our customer. Taking the time to understand your company, market, and culture, we work with you to create a strategy that optimizes how Process Director BPM software will address both immediate and longer-term goals.

Our structured training program ensures that you move into Process Director BPM software with confidence. Our customer service ensures that you have a voice and a place to turn. Our technical support takes care of any issues along the way. That is the BP Logix structure for success.

How BP Logix Empowers Customers

• Identifies customers’ specific market needs and business goals.
• Accelerates business processes through integration with legacy, cloud, and hybrid applications.
• Creates new solution-based opportunities by embracing mobile, IoT, and cloud platforms.
• Drives customers’ digital transformation efforts through Process Director’s AI-enhanced predictive capabilities.

“BP Logix is very customer centric – they provide excellent service overall (pre-sales, sales, customer service, and technical support). Every time we need something and we reach to them they always respond promptly and help us resolve whatever issue we are having.”
-Chief Information Officer in the Services Industry

Request a Free Demo

Process Director sets the pace for your BPM and digital transformation. Request a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our business process management software have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM BPM software business process management
3 min read

The Evolution of Case Management Software Solutions

By BP Logix on Jul 27, 2018 2:35:23 PM

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By now we know that business situations ranging from customer interactions to transactional exchanges are hardly the linear creatures of the past, and now require context and ongoing coordination. Because of this, case management software solutions have surged to the forefront as a natural replacement to the linear processes of yore. Cases involve actions by many different people, both inside and outside of the organization, with every action, message, response and document generated becoming a part of the whole. That being said, case management software solutions still face some issues around coordination, communication and the actions threaded therein.

Process Director BPM Software's Milestone Feature


With Process Director’s new Milestones feature, the goal of actionable communication within adaptive case management software solutions has now been achieved. Not only does Process Director’s Milestones feature allow you to define context within cases, as well as comment and collaborate around milestone events or conditions, it also gives you the power to train the milestone as an event itself, with the ability to drive process. With this, Milestones serves as a bridge not only between employees within a case, but also from the technical-to-business side and onward toward streamlining all-round best practices.

This is why BP Logix Process Director is the perfect fit for BPM and case management software solutions:
• Built on a formalized BPM and case management framework
No code/low code BPM interface allows for adaptive case management solutions, such as workflows, to be created by the user rather than developers.
• Multimodal run-time patters combining sequential flow style with both event-driven and time-driven execution.
• Automatically adapt and respond to incoming events and ad-hoc changes.
• Milestones component allows actionable communications that can also drive process

As well, the patented business process automation software technology, Process Timeline™, will allow you to:
• Know exactly where you are in the state of the case.
• Know exactly how much longer it will take for the case to be completed.
• Have clear vision into the compensating steps or remedial actions that need to be launched at any given time.

Analyst Nathaniel Palmer has this to say about Process Director’s Process Timeline: “What continues to set Process Director apart from its BPM and Case Management software competitors is the Process Timeline™ — an executable process model that presents a Gantt chart-oriented notation. The Process Timeline captures time as a formal process dimension in ways not possible with other models.”

The Trifecta Of Process Director’s Case Management Software Solutions

With a solid case management framework in place, and Process Timeline acting as a major dimensional enhancement, Milestones then finishes the trifecta to allow actionable communication to reach its pinnacle— giving your business the opportunity for stream-lined clarity within adaptive case management.

Request a Free Demo

Process Director sets the pace for your BPM and digital transformation. Request a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our business process management software have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM BPM software business process management case management
3 min read

Change Control Management With BPM Software Leads To Better Business

By BP Logix on Jul 17, 2018 11:18:00 AM

Change-Control-Management

A business is not a sentient thing.  It's dynamic and lives according to patterns. There are thousands of processes, decisions, actions and reactions happening every day in businesses, regardless of size. The result of all that activity is change. For businesses that take the right risks and make smart decisions, change control management translates to growth.

Every good manager knows that the ‘status quo’ is rarely a good thing. To be successful, companies need to embrace change.  Yet as humans we are generally apprehensive about change because, well, it requires change. Change means forsaking some level of comfort now for the hope of realizing something better in the future: a better bottom-line, a more efficient way of doing things, a less complicated environment. We all have experienced a level of apprehension when it comes to change − but the idea of change in the way we conduct our business brings about an even great level of apprehension.

Embracing Change

As business managers, we're expected to embrace − and manage − change in such a way that our businesses grow (and do so with the least amount of disruption.) Business process improvement (BPI) and business process management (BPM) can play an important role here. And this is especially true in IT, as often the most noticeable changes are the result of changes in technology which, in turn, bring about in business process improvements in the way people work.

In this context we are talking about something beyond the scope of "change management." We are actually talking about changes that result from change control. Change control management is about managing change and using processes to deliver on change management goals.

IT vs Change Control Management

IT departments are faced with both managing change and improving productivity. When information flow is manual and paper-based, IT has an opportunity to accomplish both goals.  There are many processes that are a part of the changes management wants to embrace that lend themselves to improving production and increasing productivity. Among them are:

    • Onboarding/offboarding and transferring employees
    • Ensuring access to applications and resources
    • Providing a secure approval process for processing requests
    • Coordinating requests across departments, facilities, vendors, and suppliers
    • Ordering and supplying software, hardware and equipment
    • Obsoleting or disposing of assets
    • Maintaining and accessing information for audits

The Solution is Automation


The solution to these challenges resides with automating change control management. Business process automation software provides a consistent method for routing and tracking the flow of IT requests and information. We’ve seen customers like the National Institute of Mental Health and Columbus Technical College implement IT automation solutions that sit on top of Process Director. The results reflect marked improvement with regard to time, cost and efficiency.

With Process Director BPM software, IT departments achieve:

  • Process consistency
  • Greater visibility into their processes
  • Elimination of errors and delays
  • Improvements in productivity (no lost or mishandled requests)

We have all experienced changes introduced as a result of actions that IT has taken. We hope that underlying these actions are well-defined processes. At BP Logix, we are a BPM company that believes that business process management (BPM) facilitates change and  that, at its core, BPM software is a change control management tool that can bring about positive change for the organization.

Request a Free Demo

Request a free demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM BPM software
3 min read

Process Improvement: How BPM Can Improve Your Business

By BP Logix on Jul 12, 2018 11:19:24 AM

benefits-of-bpm-advantages-of-bpm

What is Process Improvement?

If you are looking for a one-time fix, then process improvement is not going to cut the mustard. Rather than a magic bullet, process improvement is a systematic, ongoing, and iterative methodology. After each round of improvement, an analysis and reevaluation occur before the next round, the results of which should be improved quality in whatever area is being targeted.

BPM platforms have facilitated process improvement by enabling businesses to design applications and automate processes that would otherwise be less efficient, less timely and less customer-focused. The concept behind low-code/no-code rapid application development is to allow those who have knowledge of their company’s culture, best practices, and ambitions to take the reins in creating applications to benefit their department and, in turn, their organization. If process improvement is an ongoing experience, then it follows that ongoing changes must occur within the applications themselves. This necessity for change means the platform upon which these processes are being structured must be nimble and intuitive enough to facilitate constant improvement.

One Step Beyond Other BPM Platforms


Process Director has emerged from the pack as a leader in process improvement with its combination of rapid application technology, predictive analysis and its unique process workflow engine, Process Timeline™. Process Timeline frees you to express your journey in the most natural way possible: by listing the steps along the way. Any part of your process can respond to any event, deadline, action, or condition. Anything that can happen in parallel simply…happens. There are no more head-scratching design sessions spent trying to figure out which things can happen at the same time, and which cannot. Finally, Process Timeline makes collaboration between IT and the business transparent and easy.

Process Director: Predictive and Intuitive


In addition to these innovations, Process Director 5.0 augments Process Timeline with new BPM AI -capabilities. The powers that be say that if you are reacting, it is already too late. Process Director’s machine learning components augment Process Timeline’s predictive analysis, using virtually any kind of information—document length, repair history, even Big Data streams generated by Internet-enabled devices (IoT)—to predict process behavior.

The use cases for the convergence of AI and BPM technology in digital applications are massive:
• Sales Process Automation: Predict the likelihood of a lead closing and alter the process in real-time
• Contract Negotiation: Forecast the odds of approval and allocate resources appropriately
• Customer Guidance: Based on historical user data, provide recommended actions to solve customer issues
• Manufacturing: Predict production-halting mechanical issues before they occur
• Loan Applications: Based on the amount, credit score, and type of loan, skip approval steps or indicate additional documentation that will likely be required
• Academic Admissions: Based on an applicant’s GPA, location and degree for which they are applying, predict the likelihood of scholarship, acceptance, or denial

Schedule a Free Demo

Process Director sets the pace for your BPM and digital transformation. Request a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our business process management software have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM
3 min read

Healthcare Workflow Automation Solutions

By BP Logix on Jul 3, 2018 1:48:21 PM

healthcare-workflow-management-solutions

Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences all face considerable challenges— updating legacy healthcare workflow processes, meeting shifting security standards, exceeding patient care targets, achieving internal operational goals and of course, revenue management. It is, in a word, complicated.

What these industries and their related concerns all require is a BPM healthcare workflow platform that bridges their care management, customer management and security concerns, while offering rapid application development and adaptability. Process Director offers this and more, delivering streamlined healthcare workflow automation solutions for healthcare, pharmaceuticals and life sciences with its combination of collaborative utility, predictive analysis and GRC software capabilities.

Security and Compliance Peace of Mind

Process Director BPM software has a BPM compliance deployment option that is equipped with Governance, Risk and Compliance software capabilities that can help make your organization more efficient, effective, and compliant. As an advanced healthcare workflow automation software solution, Process Director will:

• Track and report on document approval history
• Maintain a consistent, documented process methodology
• Enforce full accountability for all actions taken in the course of a process
• Reduce paper handling and manual routing, eliminating errors
• Prevent productivity problems due to lost or mishandled documents
• Provide easy-to-use and easy-to-access auditing functions that enable fast, accurate response to audit inquiries

Rapid Application Development – Change With Confidence

For healthcare workflow applications to provide value to the healthcare, pharma and life sciences, they must be extensible, usable and able to integrate with a changing IT environment. Yet, what is among the more critical aspects of application value is when apps can unite development and IT operations teams to quickly and efficiently adapt and grow in response to an organization’s changing needs. Process Director’s rapid application development software provides a path that delivers data and functionality through digital channels and across different platforms and form factors.

Predictive Analytics – Harness the Power


Process Director’s Process Timeline™ is the first business process modeling and orchestration workflow engine to offer predictive analysis tied to automatic behaviors such as notification, reassignment, and rerouting. Process Director customers have taken advantage of this workflow engine and its intrinsic ability to provide the earliest possible notice that a future milestone or deadline may be at risk, and to take immediate remedial action.

Now, Process Timeline delivers the power of BPM and artificial intelligence (AI) to your enterprise applications. Process Director’s machine learning (ML) technology enables you to customize both how predictions are made, and what response should be triggered, to a greater degree than ever before. Of course, like all of Process Director, the AI features are easy to configure and use by analysts and process owners—yet rich enough to be appreciated by data scientists.

Request a Free Demo

If you are in the market for robust healthcare workflow automation software then request a free demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our healthcare, pharma and life sciences workflow solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: workflow
4 min read

Automating Workflows: 3 Misconceptions To Avoid

By BP Logix on Jun 25, 2018 11:43:22 AM

automating-workflows

There may be some reluctance on the part of executives and stakeholders to implement workflow software for automating workflows within their organizations. That reluctance may be the result of either, 1) Existing habits and behaviors that are considered to be adequate, or 2) Fear. The former is actually more challenging to overcome from both an IT and business perspective, while the latter can often be addressed when an organization realizes how its business can become better, much better. It’s paradoxical to realize, too that fear is often what encourages people to hold on to old habits, thereby creating the mindset of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Smart businesses are not fooled by that adage, however.

We are not suggesting that there is a tendency towards organizational status quo; it is easy to understand, however, that with the hope and promise of workflow automation software comes some stress relative to not knowing what the future might bring. The vision of a well-oiled organization making more informed and logical decisions that lead to optimal business outcomes seems quite achievable in a demo- or on a video. To arrive at that point, however, means   letting go of a lot of “trusted habits” and relying on something new and not as familiar. And it may be comforting to stick with what you know and how you currently work.

When an organization automates its workflows – and truly looks at how processes are currently being done within itself – there may be a period of both “reckoning” and discomfort. Ultimately, however, the benefits are huge. We have numbers to support these changes, and can point to customer successes. Before we can talk about the upside, however, we often find we need to address the misconceptions about automating workflows—and what it will and won't do.

3 Misconceptions of Workflow Automation

Some of the misconception given for postponing the move to a workflow automation environment for business process, app and project development look like these:

1. Automating workflows cannot replace the way we currently do business: Automating workflows may be disruptive at first, but you are probably dealing with daily disruptions in your current environment already, especially if you not have a centralized structure for your processes. If you are operating without an adequate workflow process, you   may already be unable to absorb the rapid pace required for your organization to adjust and adapt to changes in the market, your sector or as a result of what competitors may be doing. Using workflow methodology and a tool that supports your business processes will ultimately provide a more consistent environment for your business operations.

2. We cannot afford the time it takes to implement a new way of working: Beyond the benefits you will realize today, your business is built on investing for the future. While automating workflows requires implementing new software, investing in user training, and other organizational modifications, those upfront costs are necessary to ensure a more efficient and effective operating environment, long-term.

3. Our team doesn't have the skillset to do this:  If your team is accomplishing its ”work”, it is probably using some form of workflow. It may not be with a BPM software solution with the  workflow management software capabilities like Process Director, but there is some routing and decision-making that follows a prescribed order. So, yes, you already have workflow. You may need to learn a new way of identifying and prioritizing   after adopting a focused-on-workflow tool, but workflow is largely dependent on smart decision-making. If your team is being successful you are part of the way there! Using a tool like Process Director requires some change in habits, but is based on knowing how and when to move things, and in what direction. Your team has more skills than you may realize.

Change often brings with it some trepidation, however change control also becomes easier with a more visible path to success. The first step towards having a clear picture for automating workflows is recognizing how it could fit into your current business, then understanding how automating workflow could help your business in ways you may not have considered.

When we talk with you it is to learn about your concerns and fears, so we can understand your business. Armed with that information, we can provide a roadmap to using workflow effectively, and in a way that optimizes your existing workforce and habits.

Request a Demonstration


Process Director sets the pace for your BPM and digital transformation. Request a free  demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique  BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or,  contact us to learn more about how our business process management software have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.
Topics: workflow automation BP Logix BPM business process management
3 min read

Hospitality Software Solutions

By BP Logix on Jun 21, 2018 10:01:19 AM

Hospitality-Software

More than any sector, hospitality engages with the changing needs of modern, connected customers, partners and colleagues. Modern standards necessitate going beyond simply reacting. Working with a hospitality software equipped with BPM tools that allow for clear, comprehensive views of constantly evolving situations is now required to provide today’s expected level of service. The anticipation of needs, and prediction of upcoming issues is the current marker of success not only for customer case management, but also, and just as importantly, wider operational excellence.

To do this, the digitally transformative service organization requires an intuitive BPM workflow engine that pulls in robust hospitality software functionality, allowing for constant communication and clarity within the asynchronous nature of today’s workflow, as well as providing tools to anticipate occurrences.

Process Director BPM Platform As A Hospitality Software Solution

Process Director’s collaboration capabilities and predictive analysis enables you to quickly and easily build highly scalable, integrated cases driven by time, events, human decisions and more. With Process Director’s patented Process Timeline™ you also have the workflow and business process management tools to know exactly where you are in the state of your process. When issues do occur, Process Timeline can take automatic actions to remediate while providing you with the earliest possible notice within your digital applications.

Whether your challenges are in food and beverage, travel and tourism, or accommodations, BP Logix’s BPM platform Process Director gives you the functionality you need by combining hospitality software oriented applications with case management and predictive analytics, to align your initiative and make your vision a reality.

Process Director BPM and case management solutions include:

Integration: Fully integrated, out of the box, into the Process Director environment. No additional options to purchase; no additional components to learn.

Reporting: Sophisticated case-aware applications and reports.

Documents:  Document workflow management features include configurable case folders for fast access to all case-related processes, documents, and data.

Import: Automatic (batch) or drag-and-drop import of documents and data into appropriate case folders.

Time: Multimodal run-time patterns combining sequential flow style with event-driven, time-driven, and decision-driven execution.

No coding:  A low code / no code BPM platform designed from the ground up for the “citizen developer”: users do not need to be programmers to build rich, responsive digital case management applications.

Migration: Built-in BPM application integration and migration tools, enabling users to add case management solutions to existing Process Director BPM applications and workflow applications, quickly and easily.

Process Timeline: The easiest and fastest way to configure and deploy the predictive, alert processes that lie at the heart of your digital business.

Request a Free Demo

If you are in the market for robust hospitality software then request a free demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our public sector workflow solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: workflow BPM BPM software
5 min read

Workflow Solutions With Process Director Workflow Software

By BP Logix on Jun 7, 2018 7:33:00 AM

workflow-solutions

Process Director Workflow Software Solutions

As an advanced business process management (BPM) software solution, Process Director BPM software includes workflow software that contains powerful workflow solutions designed to automate workflow processes within your organization, continuously evaluating and improving them over time.

Try it for Yourself – Request a Free Demonstration Now


Workflow Solutions Include:


Two Powerful Workflow Modeling Solutions


Process Director is the only workflow solution to offer you two powerful models for building and executing your business workflows: a traditional flowchart model, and the patented Process Timeline software. Process Timeline is a workflow timeline with workflow automation technology that creates easily modifiable, highly parallel, and exquisitely time-aware workflow processes. Additionally, you can combine legacy BPMN-style workflows and advanced workflow timelines to create rich, sophisticated processes that take advantage of the strengths of each model as needed. Process Director workflow software has many workflow tools to help your organization and listed below are some of the tools that Process Director has to offer:

Email Notifications

As your business process progresses, Process Director's workflow management software will send you custom notifications via email to process actors and others you specify. Notification features include:

  • Automated email reminders to let users know of tasks they need to complete
  • Custom email templates presenting exactly the right information at the right time
  • View and complete your tasks from within Microsoft Outlook
  • Email based approvals, even from your mobile device when working offline

Due Date Management

Time is critical to the execution and oversight of your workflow processes. Process Director's workflow software provides alerts for a variety of due date and time-related conditions. For example, you or your manager can be notified when a task is nearly due, or overdue.

But Process Director workflow software goes well beyond simple due date notifications. Thanks to the  Process Timeline workflow engine, Process Director can automate workflow processes and notify you when an activity or task is predicted to be late. Process Director's workflow software is constantly assessing each running process instance to determine if any future activity is likely to be delayed, and can notify you or take some other action that you specify. No other workflow solutions can offer you this innovative, patented technology.

Sub-Workflows & Business Process Segments

Process Director's workflow solutions offers support for sub-workflows which provides an easier way to manage and automate workflow processes that are complex. Create sub-workflows whenever you want to modularize a given set of tasks into a component that is reusable by other workflow processes. In this way, workflows and sub-workflows can act like process templates, suitable for use in a variety of applications.

Workflow Task Lists

At the very heart of any business process management software or workflow software is the ability for a user to see at a glance what tasks are assigned to them. Process Director's customizable task lists present this information in any number of ways that help keep you organized and on top of your game.

  • Each task can have an assigned priority: always know what needs to be done first.
  • Group queues and pooled assignments enable you to maximize process efficiency, either by enabling users to self-assign tasks, or by automatically assigning each task to the person with the least number of incomplete tasks.
  • Customized task lists, powered by sorting and filtering capabilities, help you separate tasks into categories for easy identification.

Ad-hoc & Unstructured Processes

Not every process follows a pre-defined path. Process Director's workflow solutions gives you the power to create and automate workflow processes that move in any direction you require, based on user behavior, internal data, or external conditions. Ad hoc features of Process Director include:

  • Leverage business rules to drive dynamic task assignment
  • Invite a user to share (or take over) a task simply by forwarding an email, emulating the way users work today with email
  • Choose one or more users from a menu or pick list to invite or assign them to a task
  • Record your ad-hoc comments and discussion within the form using Process Director's comment feature, leaving you with an auditable record of the conversation

Conditional & Rule-based Routing

Workflow solutions aren't useful unless it can account for changing conditions and modify its behavior accordingly. Process Director's workflow solutions are equipped with a condition builder and encapsulated business rules that offer you the ability to build and automate workflow processes that are highly dynamic, assigning tasks and choosing process paths based on process data, external conditions, and user activities. The condition builder uses a simple point-and-click graphical user interface, enabling you to create complex conditions quickly. Process Director's business rules engine offers a way to encapsulate these conditions in named, reusable objects that can be utilized in any number of forms and workflow processes.

Human-centric, Machine-centric, Document-centric

Frequently, workflow software products are considered either "human-centric" or "machine-centric." Process Director does away with these distinctions by providing a comprehensive workflow solutions supporting human interaction, automated functions, and document management. As a result, you can easily automate workflow, making Process Director's enterprise workflow automation software a great choice for virtually any situation.

Request a Free Workflow Software Demo

Request a free demonstration and see how Process Director workflow solutions can help automate workflow processes within your organization. Discover for yourself how it’s unique low-code and rapid application development software capabilities, sets the pace for digital transformation, empowering you with an unparalleled ability to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Contact us with any questions you have regarding Process Director’s BPM software and workflow software capabilities.

Topics: workflow
2 min read

Public Sector Workflow Management Solutions

By BP Logix on Jun 6, 2018 10:09:57 AM

public-sector-workflow
Public sector agencies stand before changing times – a public who is increasingly connected and require the same of their services, constantly shifting regulatory and compliance demands, and pressure to reduce costs while improving services. Whether your challenges are in cities, public healthcare, government services, security or justice— your agency’s digital transformation goals depend on engaging with public sector workflow that can translate your challenges into operational excellence.

From patient records to property assessment, Process Director’s public sector workflow management solution offers a unique Milestones component as well as predictive analysis making it a leader in adaptive case management by: incorporating the element of time into your cases, threading comments throughout actions and events to collaborate, and easily building highly scalable, integrated cases.

In the field, Process Director’s mobile inspection software empowers employees to take, tag, time-stamp, and location-stamp site photos as well as capture live customer signatures whether they are on or offline.

And of course BP Logix understands that security is a foremost priority when it comes to public sector workflow solutions. Use us in applications requiring FIPS approved standards and protocols for the protection of sensitive information. We also conform our security approach to the Microsoft Security Best Practices for Azure Cloud.

More on Process Director’s Public Sector Workflow Solutions


Utilize Process Director’s field service and inspection software for the enterprise and:

• Work online or offline
• Increase productivity of employees in the field
• Take, tag, time-stamp, and location-stamp site photos
• Eliminate data re-entry, transcription errors
• Capture live customer signatures
• Deploy for any use case: municipal, industrial, and more

Process Director is built on a formalized BPM and case management framework that enables:

• No code/low code interface allows for case management solutions, such as workflows, to be created by the user rather than developers.
• Multimodal run-time patters combining sequential flow style with both event-driven and time-driven execution.
• Automatically adapt and respond to incoming events and ad-hoc changes.

Process Director’s business process workflow automation software technology, Process Timeline™, will allow you to:

• Know exactly where you are in the state of the case.
• Know exactly how much longer it will take for the case to be completed.
• Have clear vision into the compensating steps or remedial actions that need to be launched at any given time.

Process Director is equipped with Governance, Risk and Compliance Solutions and can assist your agency by:

• Tracking and reporting on document approval history
• Maintaining a consistent, documented process methodology
• Enforcing full accountability for all actions taken in the course of a process
• Reducing paper handling and manual routing, eliminating errors
• Preventing productivity problems due to lost or mishandled documents
• Providing easy-to-use and easy-to-access auditing functions that enable fast, accurate response to audit inquiries

Request a Free Demo

Request a free demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our public sector workflow solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: workflow BPM BPM software
3 min read

Low Code/No Code BPM: Fluidity, Function and Freedom

By BP Logix on May 20, 2018 9:33:47 AM

low-code-no-code-bpm

The capacity of today’s deeper low code/no code BPM platforms is practically limitless, combining targeted applications with simplicity and speed of execution. Process Director is at the forefront of these platforms, with its highly scalable, highly intuitive structure. Our BPM platform enables those with knowledge of their own departmental or organizational pain points to take the reins in designing and launching solutions. The ease of building business process management solutions with Process Director’s low code/no code BPM structure translates not only to a better initial end application, but also to an application that can be changed, and re-changed, as the customer journey or business goals shift. This flexibility of purpose is a necessity for a digitally transformative business model.

While there are many low code/no code BPM suites on the market today, none of them combine the capacity and simplicity of Process Director. In an effort to offer the most competitive utility possible, other platform providers often get caught in the trap of pasting together their bells and whistles, resulting in a solution that, in the end, resembles Quasimodo. Process Director’s many workflow tools and features integrate organically into the overall structure, allowing the implementer to seamlessly incorporate robust utility into processes and applications without losing his or her way.

Another benefit of the low code/no code BPM environment is the autonomy it grants. Rather than being dependent on an already over-burdened IT department’s programmers, Process Director enables an application to be created quickly and accurately by citizen developers—often the very people who will be overseeing the application’s performance. Read below for more features and benefits that Process Director BPM implementation will provide:

Benefits of Process Director’s Low Code/No Code BPM Platform

  • Imagine your organization delivering its own rich digital applications, on any platform, before your competitors have laid down the first thousand lines of code.
  • Imagine saving millions on expensive technical staff, incompatible packaged applications, and maintenance of obsolete code.
  • Imagine providing straight-through processing and visibility all the way from your customers to your suppliers, while at all times guaranteeing compliance, accountability, and security.

Key Benefits of Process Director

  • Improved Efficiency: Improve process efficiency by reducing paper handling and manual routing; eliminate errors and improve the lifecycle of document, content and forms processing.
  • Easy Automation: Take advantage of Process Director’s easy graphical tools to transform new and existing processes into powerful automated workflows.
  • Enhanced Regulatory Compliance: Ensure a robust GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) posture using Process Director’s strong authentication, authorization, and audit capabilities.
  • Reduced Errors and Miscommunications: Email notifications, dashboards, and process intelligence reports ensure you stay on top of every step of every process.

Schedule a Free Demonstration

Schedule a free demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM BPM software
2 min read

Smart Forms

By BP Logix on May 13, 2018 11:01:34 AM

smart-forms
Before the days of smart forms, there was this material called paper. Do you remember paper? Thin sheets of pulped wood that we would walk to the bottom of the driveway each morning to collect, and then go to work each day to push about in exchange for a small stack of the stuff to put into our bank account? But those times have faded away (for most), to be replaced by forms software and more efficient business practices.

Transferring from paper to smart forms is a basic and essential first step toward digital transformation. An office culture should be created where, if someone drops off a sheet of this archaic material, the person receiving it should give them a look of confusion and betrayal. That being said, there is more to them than simply being a vehicle for information.

Process Director Smart Forms

 

 

For many organizations, smart forms play a pivotal role in wrenching company culture out of the past. But are you utilizing them them to their full capacity? Or are you simply transferring paper culture into a digital format? Process Director’s dynamics forms software transforms electronic forms into process-driven, web-interfacing business tools:

• Set form behavior based on easily configured conditions (e.g., “show this section only while in workflow step A”),

• Pre-populate form fields with static data, or with dynamic data from web services, databases, or other digital forms

• Electronic forms software that easily configures eForms to display only the information the end user needs and is permitted to see

• Securely present forms outside the firewall without compromising your applications or data within

• Direct access to your organization’s data, right on the digital form

• Fill dropdowns, search for information, or pre-populate fields—all without coding—using Process Director’s intelligent data connectors

• Connect to data sources via SQL, web services, file uploads, and more

And those are just a few of the smart form’s abilities. Process Director’s electronic forms software gives users the ability to design responsive and user-friendly web interfaces for their process-driven forms and applications that deliver business-critical results.

Fundamentally, an exchange of information is the foundation of all business process management structures. Smart Forms should use this exchange to create immediate, meaningful results for you and your organization. Process Director’s electronic forms software enables just that, and opens the door to a better way of organizing, and implementing results.

Request a Free Demo

Request a free demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM software
3 min read

Business Process Modeling & Notation (BPMN): What Is BPMN?

By BP Logix on May 11, 2018 10:22:38 AM

BPMN-Overview-Business-Process-Modeling-Notation

What is Business Process Modeling & Notation (BPMN)?

In the year 2000, the Business Process Management Initiative, a group of individuals intent on promoting the concept of BPM, gathered together and created the ‘Business Process Model and Notation’, or BPMN. This tome, now over 500 pages, has been managed by the Object Management Group since 2004 and serves as the authority for Business Process Modeling Language (BPML) today.

This language is based on flowcharts and graphical notations. The notations consist of four basic categories: flow objects, connecting objects, swim lanes and artifacts. Under these categories are an almost infinite variety of variabilities that combine in an endless series of ways to create Business Process Diagrams (BPD). All of this, with the goal of simplifying business activities and processes.

The Changing Times of BPMN

Unfortunately for BPMN, the default structure of applications moving in sequence is becoming rarer as times and technologies change. This lexicon has grown in an attempt to illustrate parallelism, but the end result is an increasingly complex tangle of notational language. Today’s business has moved away from the linear structures of yesteryear and business process model and notation terminology is struggling to keep pace.

In the modern terrain of parallel execution, case management and increasing nuance, how is the digitally transformative organization supposed to clearly convey their applications?

BPMN Reimagined with BP Logix’s Process Timeline™

 

 

Process Timeline is a business process modeling alternative that uses a newer modeling approach that is more advanced than any BPMN software . It is the executable model, not just a “view”, that provides:

• Continuous critical path analysis
• Predictive triggers
• Earliest possible notice of potential future delay
• High efficiency
• Intrinsic parallel behavior

Process Timeline is “Constraint-driven”. What does this mean? It means every Process Timeline activity wants to run RIGHT NOW…but it won’t, until:

• Predecessors are complete
• Eligibility conditions are met
• Necessity conditions are met

And when you say “constraints”, what are they?

• Process state
• Time (due/elapsed/predicted/etc.)
• Events
• Human actions

A few BPMN software advocates have attempted to bring some of the benefits of Process Timeline to that standard in the past—but without success. Process Timeline’s workflow engine includes a unique constraint-driven architecture, offering benefits like AI-powered customized predictive and response behaviors, continuous critical path analysis, and implicit parallelism are simply beyond the reach of business process model and notation software and related standards.

Discover an intuitive, executable business process modeling notation alternative – Process Timeline.

Request a Free Demo

Request a free demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

3 min read

Business Process Management (BPM), IoT & AI Together Fuels Predictability

By BP Logix on May 4, 2018 7:09:43 AM

Business-Process-Management-BPM-IoT-and-AI

The New Renaissance of Data and Business Process Management

In the long, long ago, in the before times, data was, once collected, considered relatively inert, amassed on clip boards and often relegated to dusty file cabinets to be forgotten or shredded. At the time, the tools had not yet been developed to utilize data’s true, practical possibilities. We were also not equipped to understand the breadth of data available in the world. Then we entered the digital transformation era. With digital transformation, the full potential of the internet of things (IoT) is blossoming, and this renaissance is changing the world of business process management (BPM).

BPM and IoT

Everything from mobile devices to vendor products to third-party-collected datasets are now swept into the BPM and IoT funnel. This communication deluge is increasingly intricate and expansive, but, when paired with Artificial Intelligence (AI), incredibly useful.

In today’s BPM, AI analyzes datasets to achieve that elusive element of control that has long been coveted by businesses: predictability. Accurate and consistent predictability requires tremendous amounts of data – the more that is fed into the AI algorithms, the more intelligent the processes become. And despite AI’s tremendous utility, without the data generated by the swath of connections that define the IoT, AI would be dead in the water.

Process Director Business Process Management Platform

 


Process Director’s integrated AI capabilities work in conjunction with the easily modifiable, highly parallel and time aware Process Timeline™ to provide the highest level of accuracy in predicting process behavior. That being said, it is Process Director’s ability to integrate internal and external datasets easily and from a plethora of sources that ensure the power of artificial intelligence.

 

Process Director enables you to:

  • Access built-in database connectors enable you to connect to and exchange information with your organization’s databases. Any data that can be accessed via SQL can be directly integrated. Common examples include ERP systems (for example, JDE/JD Edwards, SAP, or Microsoft Dynamics GP), HR applications, CRMs, and even home grown applications that store information in a database.
  • Import scanned images and the associated index data from your document imaging software
  • Monitor ETL or “dropbox”-style processes
  • Monitor your POP or IMAP email server (including Exchange, Lotus) for incoming email
  • Access BPM applications and services directly through a web services connector
  • Monitor social media comments, posts, tweets and events.

This is a sample of how Process Director draws upon countless datasets, including IoT devices, to derive the most robust dataset sources for AI analysis.

Give your organization the BPM tools to ride the ongoing waves of digital transformation with the intelligence of AI, the power of Process Timeline™, and the scalability of Process Director on your side.

Request a Free Demo

Request a free demonstration of Process Director, and discover for yourself how this unique business process management platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM software business process management
4 min read

AI and BPM: Deep Connections and Broad Implications

By BP Logix on Apr 27, 2018 10:43:16 AM

Machine-Learning-AI-and-BPM-Process-Director-v5

In every industry, businesses today are being swept up in the growing wave that is digital transformation. At the forefront of this movement is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Combining AI and BPM allows brands to deeply engage with and analyze their data, and facilitate a more interconnected and intelligent business architecture. Once considered a luxury, the current necessity of utilizing AI analyzed datasets is now undeniable in the business process management industry.

AI and BPM Conceptions

Popular conceptions of AI and BPM range from relatively simple data classification and analysis all the way to Skynet. No matter your outlook, simulating human decision making / perceptive skills finds innumerable practical applications within the BPM sphere. To remain competitive, businesses must strive to deepen the impact of their collected information. AI brings essential tools to this necessary goal.

Attainable and Crucial

In a 2017 Gartner report (“Applying Artificial Intelligence to Drive Business Transformation…” –subscription required), analyst Whit Andrews drives focus toward the CIO’s critical role in guiding their organization’s AI readiness and progression.

Digital business is already disrupting organizations. AI and machine learning will add to the disruption. By 2020, AI technologies will be a top-five investment priority for more than 30% of CIOs. They should be preparing their organizations to get the optimal return on that investment. They should understand what they're getting, and what they're getting into, with AI if they and their organizations are to be successful. Then they can orient the organization's thinking and practices toward exploiting AI's capabilities.

Combining AI and BPM is currently within the grasp of a wide range of organizations due to advances in algorithmic development and compute power. Now machine learning (ML) driven data analysis can be made available to enterprise businesses as well as to organizations who might have even a few years ago self-eliminated their involvement.

Introducing Process Director – Your AI and BPM Solution

 


Process Director’s Process Timeline™ workflow engine has long been unique – easily modifiable, highly parallel, and time-aware. Couple this predictive analysis with case management context and Process Director’s low code rapid development environment and you have the ideal BPM platform structure to instill an element of predictability into your business processes.

 

In v5, Process Director builds upon this robust platform by introducing powerful new AI capabilities, which serves to expand our already revolutionary predictive BPM technology. This ML and AI integration uses information far beyond past user performance. Everything from dollar amounts to submission types to document size – any data related to the process can be used to predict duration, thereby providing the highest level of accuracy when determining process behavior. As the number of processes increase, this continuous prediction only becomes more accurate.

Process Director’s powerful combination of AI and BPM technology also goes well beyond simple business process automation to fully utilize the capabilities of predictive analysis. Our ML algorithms run against historical datasets, including internal or external data (e.g. databases IoT, services and more), to catalog predictive outcomes. Process Director's workflow engine provides advanced machine-learning to make predictions in real-time, and continuously improves within this churn of input data and recorded results. These outcomes will drive your Process Director digital applications, controlling everything from the end user experience to the process itself.

The use cases for the convergence of AI and BPM technology in digital applications are massive:

  • Sales Process Automation: Predict the likelihood of a lead closing and alter the process in real-time
  • Contract Negotiation: Forecast the odds of approval and allocate resources appropriately
  • Customer Guidance: Based on historical user data, provide recommended actions to solve customer issues
  • Manufacturing: Predict production-halting mechanical issues before they occur
  • Loan Applications: Based on the amount, credit score, and type of loan, skip approval steps or indicate additional documentation that will likely be required
  • Academic Admissions: Based on an applicant’s GPA, location and degree for which they are applying, predict the likelihood of scholarship, acceptance or denial

Give your organization the BPM tools to ride the ongoing waves of digital transformation with the intelligence of AI, the power of Process Timeline™, and the scalability of Process Director on your side.

Request a Free Demo

Request a free demonstration of Process Director, and discover for yourself how this unique BPM software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM business process management
2 min read

How Rapid Application Development Helps With Digital Transformation

By BP Logix on Apr 18, 2018 10:08:59 AM

Rapid-Application-Deployment-and-Digital-Transformation

The need for digitally agile BPM platforms with highly subtle, rapid application development capabilities is no secret. Applications need to be built and then rebuilt based on the evolving desires of insistent customers and a constantly changing business terrain, with increasing levels of subtlety required. This is the central fact of modern business and woe be unto you if you fall behind the pace of digital transformation.

Rapid Application Development vs Speed and Nuance

There are two competing camps within the world of digital transformation and rapid application development: speed and nuance. Each is equally important and neither can be forfeited without serious cost. Many people believe that nuance is built on the back of complexity, which will then inevitably increase drag on the speed element.

It is true that many BPM platforms have, in an attempt to keep pace, tossed half-baked features into their architecture just so they can advertise having them in the product. Customer organizations are the real losers in this scenario. They will find themselves vainly trying to glean use from clunky functions that are poorly integrated, and from which neither speed nor nuance have been achieved. This is not functional rapid application development and is only masquerading as digital transformation.

I would argue that true nuance is built on the back of precision, which, from a product development standpoint, takes gallons of blood, sweat and tears. A violin is an example of nuance built from precision. To create a violin equal to the finest Stradivarius, the materials must be right, the vision accurate and the talent there. The end result is a magnificent instrument that helps you create amazing music. Now I am not comparing Process Director to a Stradivarius… except that I am. Oh yeah, I went there.

Digital Transformation with Process Director

Using our award-winning, highly scalable, rapid application development, low code BPM platform will show you the real power of combining speed with nuance built of precision. Let’s work together and make your applications sing!

Process Director BPM solutions offers:

  • Graphical and menu-driven builders for every part of your application: forms, rules, workflows, data connections, etc.
  • A seamless combination of structured, unstructured, and case-management process patterns.
  • Flexible interaction styles, including web-based, email, and offline.
  • Freedom from complex data definitions, flowcharts, and other relics of a slower-moving era.
  • Predictive BPM with AI and BPM combined
  • BPM and IoT data integration
  • Process Timeline™, the simplest to create and most efficient to execute process engine in the marketplace.
  • Cloud, on-premises, or hybrid development.

Request a Free Demo

Process Director sets the pace for your BPM and digital transformation. Request a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our business process management software have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM digital transformation
3 min read

BPM, Machine Learning And AI With Process Director v5

By BP Logix on Apr 13, 2018 10:40:44 AM

BPM, Machine Learning, and AI: Process Director v5 | BP Logix

You might have been hearing whispers lately about how Process Director business process management software is enabling artificial intelligence. What was it that tipped you off? Was it the massive text on the front page of our website blaring “Process Director v5 – AI-Enabled Software for the Digital Enterprise”? Or maybe it was the new web content entitled “BPM and AI (Artificial Intelligence) Combined ”. Yes, we should have known you would sleuth out that Process Director v5 will feature some pretty significant new features, not the least of which is a robust and practical AI (more accurately, machine learning) component.

For you evergreen students out there – while the term artificial intelligence has been bandied about within the BPM industry, nine times out of ten that discussion is not about a tiny man-made intellect that has just formed consciousness and will eventually destroy man-kind for its hubris. In actuality we are speaking of machine learning, the practical application side of artificial intelligence.

Process Director v5

The key takeaway here is practical. As popular as the terms AI or machine learning are, they don’t do you an ounce of good unless they directly translate into increased accuracy, depth, and speed in your cases, predictions, and processes. Machine learning should help you solve your problems and Process Director v5 will do just that, whether you are a lone citizen developer or have an army of data scientists at your beck and call. Our position as an award-winning, highly-scalable and rapidly deployable low-code BPM platform will only be enhanced by these powerful new additions.

Process Director v5 Infographic

Now you are ready to hear more. Now you want ALL the deets. To which I say, call or email our sales team (who are very nice, real people and not a matrix of BP Logix-build algorithmic logic sets). They will get the ball rolling on giving you the latest information as it comes in, including Process Director v5 teasers, upcoming demos, and of course the date of our formal launch (which is coming up fast).

We are buzzing here at BP Logix with what Process Director v5 will mean for our customers: practical, powerful machine-learning driven results for your digital transformation goals. Follow the links below to discover more.

Schedule a Free Demo

Process Director sets the pace for your digital transformation. Schedule a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our business process management and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM
3 min read

IT and BPM: Free-Up IT Resources With A Low-Code BPM Platform

By BP Logix on Apr 4, 2018 2:52:43 PM

IT-and-BPM

The average organization’s IT department is an overburdened pressure cooker of backlogged items and looming deadlines. They are a sorry lot – pulling out tufts of hair in frustration and waking in the middle of the night screaming, “Have you tried turning it on and off again?!”

Moving to a low-code business process management (BPM) platform allows you the freedom to build customized business solutions that align with your departmental vision without adding more strain to your IT department.

Today’s business pace is quicksilver, with customers demanding instant results. To keep up, companies must transfer that imminence onto everything from customer case management to process applications to HR onboarding. Every aspect of business process management feels the quickening effects of digital transformation, but none more so than the beleaguered IT department.

Process Director is an agile BPM platform that can support businesses with quick application solutions to streamline business processes, reduce costs, and increase process efficiency. This in turn frees IT from the responsibility of full development, allowing them to take a more robust support role and focus on other aspects of their responsibilities.

Similarly, if your company suffers from resource limitations on the development end, our low-code/no-code business process management platform will allow you to create robust, extensible applications that deploy quickly without relying on heavy coding and the additional IT support that a coded solution implies.

Enable IT to fully support you by engaging with BP Logix’s Process Director, and experience what a powerful, customizable BPM platform can do for you and your organization.

Process Director Low-Code Business Process Management Platform Equips You With:

Integration: Fully integrated, out of the box, into the Process Director environment. No additional options to purchase; no additional components to learn.

Reporting: Sophisticated case-aware applications and reports.

Documents: Configurable case folders for fast access to all case-related processes, documents, and data.

Import: Automatic (batch) or drag-and-drop import of documents and data into appropriate case folders.

Time: Multimodal run-time patterns combining sequential flow style with event-driven, time-driven, and decision-driven execution.

No coding: Low code / no code BPM solution designed from the ground up for the “citizen developer”: users do not need to be programmers to build rich, responsive digital case management applications.

Migration: Built-in application integration and migration tools, enabling users to add case management software behavior to existing Process Director BPM applications and workflow applications, quickly and easily.

Process Timeline: The easiest and fastest way to configure and deploy the predictive, alert processes that lie at the heart of your digital business.

Request a Free Demo


Process Director sets the pace for your digital transformation. Request a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our business process management software and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.
Topics: BPM software
2 min read

Process Director Industry Spotlight - Healthcare, Pharma and Life Sciences

By BP Logix on Mar 28, 2018 11:15:27 AM

healthcare-bpm

With a shaking hand, you reach out to click on the first of a seemingly endless series of websites.  Thus begins your monumental task of searching for BPM solutions that will excel in the highly regulated and compliance-focused world of healthcare. A few of the security issues on your mind as you search for a healthcare BPM solution: patient confidentiality, ongoing regulatory requirements and risk tolerance. You gird your loins, preparing to embark on a journey of hundreds of false starts, dashed hopes and misrepresented platforms.

After months of searching, you finally discover a solution that will assuage your many Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) concerns. Mid-way through that sigh of relief, a flood of other concerns suddenly sweep into your mind. Will this platform support internal policies? Will it provide document workflow management that is intuitive and flexible? How scalable and deployable is the workflow management system? That sigh of relief dies half way out of your mouth, the burden of finding the perfect healthcare business process management solution still very present.

We get it. The solution challenges you face are non-negotiable, and you require a BPM platform that will step up to the plate on this series of necessary requirements. BP Logix’s Process Director is a BPM solution that will not only step up to the plate, but will knock it out of the park, allowing you to finally breathe easy.

Process Director BPM Platform

Process Director v5 from BP Logix is a unique, AI-enabled, low-code BPM / no-code BPM development platform for custom digital applications. Process Director’s patented technology drives enterprise digital transformation, offering features and benefits such as these:

  • Powerful and intelligent business process management (BPM) engine
  • Intuitive, no-programming-required graphical configuration of your entire application, from user interface to process behavior, data transformation, reporting, and more
  • Easy BPM and IoT data integration from data streams produced by the Internet of Things
  • Sophisticated suite of BPM and AI machine learning tools you can leverage in your own applications
  • Unified platform for all work styles, including case management as well as applications driven by time, events, rules, human decisions, or other factors
  • Numerous out-of-the-box application, data, and protocol connectors
  • Robust and comprehensive security and compliance, at every level

Through BP Logix healthcare workflow management and BPM healthcare solutions, healthcare organizations have been able to automate processes and deliver value. See how we’ve helped major healthcare organizations achieve greater business optimization and adopt business process best practices.

Request a Free Demo

Process Director sets the pace for your digital transformation. Request a free demonstration of Process Director, and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our business process management software and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM
2 min read

What is iBPM (Intelligent Business Process Management)?

By BP Logix on Mar 23, 2018 10:04:55 AM

what-is-ibpm

Digital transformers, and the digital transformation movement, has evolved the roles and definitions of BPM products, and whether BPM is even an appropriate title to hang over its increasingly complex and wide-spread applications. The term iBPM, or intelligent business process management, is an attempt to encapsulate this trend.

What is iBPM?

Gartner has included iBPM as a unique ranking category since 2012. As they put it, “The intelligent business process management suite (iBPMS) market is the natural evolution of the earlier BPMS market, adding more capabilities for greater intelligence within business processes. Capabilities such as validation (process simulation, including "what if") and verification (logical compliance), optimization, and the ability to gain insight into process performance have been included in many BPMS offerings for several years. Intelligent business process management suites have added enhanced support for human collaboration such as integration with social media, mobile-enabled process tasks, streaming analytics and real-time decision management.”

It is interesting to note, however, that Gartner has demurred from including iBPM in its online IT glossary. Perhaps the term is here to stay, or perhaps it is merely a placeholder until a more long-lasting title sticks to the expansion of BPM’s new, overarching roles. It is a challenge to define something whose capacity is constantly growing, and whose end form has yet to be determined.

BP Logix has fully embraced the concept—if not necessarily the title—of iBPM, a vision that has resulted in Process Director being included within the Gartner Magic Quadrant in the intelligent business process management category for the past three years. Come discover what BPM, or an iBPMS, can be with Process Director.

Process Director BPM and digital transformation solutions offers:


• Graphical and menu-driven builders for every part of your application: forms, rules, workflows, data connections, etc.
• A seamless combination of structured, unstructured, and case-management process patterns.
• Flexible interaction styles, including web-based workflow, email, and offline.
• Freedom from complex data definitions, flowcharts, and other relics of a slower-moving era.
AI and business process management combined (predictive-BPM)
BPM and IoT connectors
• Process Timeline™, the simplest to create and most efficient to execute process engine in the marketplace.
Cloud BPM, on-premise BPM, or hybrid deployment.

Request a Free Demo

Process Director sets the pace for your digital transformation. Request a free demonstration of Process Director, and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our business process management software and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM
2 min read

BPMN Software Alternative: Advanced BPMN Modeling

By BP Logix on Mar 7, 2018 3:08:21 PM

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Digital transformation has spurred a renaissance of adaptive case management technologies and event driven applications, along with a myriad of other advances. Predictive behaviors are now handing the baton to proactive behaviors. Human decision-making and the concept of time now play an enormous role in creating agile, adaptive applications. BPM’s role continues to expand in both responsibility and complexity. Within this burgeoning movement, the linear processes that a traditional BPMN modeling tool and/or BPMN software provides, have struggled to maintain relevancy.

Finding a BPM platform framework that not only accommodates an application structure that’s evolved beyond BPMN software but, in fact, positively encourages agile change at enterprise scale (while at the same time remaining accessible to citizen developers), is the unique challenge of today’s innovators.

Process Director, and its business process modeling and orchestration engine Process Timeline™, remains the ideal BPMN modeling alternative for innovators wanting a BPM platform that combines an intuitive interface, enterprise level scalability and AI powered, time-aware analysis. It is the successor to business process model and notation.

BP Logix’s Process Timeline™ Reimagines BPMN Modeling

 


Process Timeline is a business process modeling aleternative that uses a newer business process modeling approach that is more advanced than any BPMN software . It is the executable model, not just a “view”, that provides:

 

  • Continuous critical path analysis
  • Predictive triggers
  • Earliest possible notice of potential future delay
  • High efficiency
  • Intrinsic parallel behavior

Process Timeline is “Constraint-driven”. What does this mean? It means every Process Timeline activity wants to run RIGHT NOW...but it won’t, until:

  • Predecessors are complete
  • Eligibility conditions are met
  • Necessity conditions are met

And when you say “constraints”… what are they?

  • Process state
  • Time (due/elapsed/predicted/etc.)
  • Events
  • Human actions

A few business process modeling software advocates have attempted to bring some of the benefits of Process Timeline to that standard in the past—but without success. Process Timeline’s unique constraint-driven architecture, offering benefits like AI-powered customized predictive and response behaviors, continuous critical path analysis, and implicit parallelism are simply beyond the reach of BPMN software and related standards.

Discover an intuitive, executable BPMN modeling alternative – Process Timeline.

Request a Free Demo

Request a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM software
3 min read

Free BPM Software Demo of Process Director

By BP Logix on Mar 5, 2018 2:21:07 PM

free-bpm-software

How BP Logix Works With Business and IT Users

There is a perception that some CIOs and IT Directors use Q1 to determine what they will buy in order to implement it by Q4. We know the reality, however, is that smart business people are always looking for BPM solutions to improve their businesses. Whether its Q1 or Q3, or any time before or after, they continue to seek to understand how to be more productive and efficient.

Change and flexibility are the basis for growth-minded organizations. And while change is inevitable, it cannot be totally disruptive. There are big changes (losing major customers, replacing key executives, market swings), and there are small changes (implementing a new accounting system, re-organizing functional teams). Some may be anticipated and, therefore, manageable, while ‘big change’ can impact the way you do business going forward. In either case, companies need to be prepared to deal with some level of disruption— yet keep the cadence of their business moving in the direction of their goals. Our free BPM software demonstration of Process Director keeps all of that in mind providing a customized experience based on your needs.

Put Thoughts of Business Change at Ease With a Free BPM Software Demo of Process Director


The ability to adapt to ‘business change’ is the backdrop for why we developed Process Director. BP Logix  customers certainly needed help managing their business processes, but they also needed to do so in an environment that adapted well to change— and, as a result, actually helped the company improve. You know what change means within your organization, but we would like to you to experience Process Director first-hand, to see how it aligns with your business needs. So how do we give you that experience?

When you sign up for a free BPM software demo of Process Director, we provide a customized experience. We view our demo as an opportunity to show what our product can do in the context of your organization. Our customers often tell us that our free BPM software demos are different than other vendors. They believe that we take time at the front end to understand your needs and environment — and to then show how Process Director might enable your business to be more efficient (and more adaptable to changing requirements).

An important element of Process Director that we like to show is its business process automation software technology with built-in predictive capabilities. We understand that business priorities can change rapidly and sometimes before you are completely prepared to deal with them. Process Director was designed to enable users to make ad hoc changes to meet changing demands. And, of course, these changes can be done by end-users, not programmers.

Our free BPM software demo provides insights as to how Process Director works —and gives you a feel for the ease with which you can make changes to address your organization’s specific needs. We can point to awards and validations from customers, yet understand that their story or situation may not be yours. What takes place in your group, division, and even across the entire company is unique.  And we appreciate that —which is why we customize our demo to make it reflect that uniqueness as much as we can. We often hear prospects ask, “Is it really that easy?” We would love for you to be the judge of that yourself.

Our free BPM software demo of Process Director is best way to experience it and truly understand the nature of what it can provide   — and to then map your challenges and needs to Process Director’s workflow management software functionality and capabilities. A list of what our product can do would take reams of paper.  Our free BPM software demo will allow you to see it live and will give you a realistic notion of where, and how, Process Director could fit in your department — or company. And, of course, it helps us to have a more substantive conversation about where you want to take your business.

Reviewing new products and evaluating vendors can be stressful and time-consuming. We’re not interested in the hard-sell; rather, we hope to begin a dialogue — a constructive conversation to learn about your business and your needs. We suspect you will see the BPM benefits in Process Director after you see it in action.

The right tool is always one that addresses your needs, but is capable of growing as you expand, change and innovate.

Schedule a Free Demo of Process Director

That is what your business does, and what we strive to deliver. Contact us to schedule your free BPM software demo of Process Director today!

Topics: Uncategorized workflow automation BP Logix BPM business process management
2 min read

BPMN: Business Process Model & Notation vs Process Timeline

By BP Logix on Feb 28, 2018 9:35:33 AM

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What Is BPMN Notation?: A Brief History

A small cadre of business and technical experts convened as the sun was setting on the second millennium. They were driven to assemble by a shared, laudable impulse: to impose structure on the chaotic world of business process. Unfortunately, commendable though their efforts may have been, the group was limited by both the primitive technologies of the era, and the innovation-crushing culture of design-by-committee.

Their work culminated with the publication of “Business Process Model and Notation”, an electronic tome replete with intricate runes and near-mystical incantations. And thus BPMN notation was born.
Like the tax code, it has become a discipline unto itself. And, like so many ancient runic languages, BPMN’s symbols and hieroglyphs are not easily deciphered. Into this gap between symbology and usefulness rushed devoted acolytes, immersing themselves in understanding its secrets, hoping to become indispensable to any and every BPM project.

Has The Use of Business Process Model and Notation Already Passed?

Sadly for its devoted legions, business process model and notation (BPMN) is drifting into history. Today’s digital applications defy flowchart modeling. The Internet of Things is spawning a new generation of event-driven applications, and adaptive case management advances via human decision rather than pre-set process flow. Finally, technological advances have transformed predictive analytics into proactive behaviors.

Business process model and notation is the square peg to digital application’s round hole – the two are just not a fit.

It’s Our Time: Process Timeline™

 


BP Logix developed Process Timeline as a completely new way to think about building digital business solutions. No more flowchart spaghetti diagrams. No more trying to shoehorn critical time- and event-driven applications into a model that was never meant to support them. And no hyper-specialized business process modeling skills required.

 

Instead, Process Timeline frees you to express your journey in the most natural way possible: by listing the steps along the way. Any part of your process can respond to any event, deadline, action, or condition. Anything that can happen in parallel simply... happens: no more head-scratching design sessions spent trying to figure out which things can happen at the same time, and which cannot. And Process Timeline makes collaboration between IT and the business transparent and easy.

We think we did a pretty good job, and our customers and others seem to as well. Why not find out for yourself? Request a free demonstration today!

Topics: BPM software
2 min read

Digital Transformation and Company Culture

By BP Logix on Feb 21, 2018 10:14:23 AM

Digital-Transformation-and-Company-Culture

Digital transformation initiatives act as a litmus test for company culture. How adaptable are its personnel? How receptive is its leadership? How willing are all involved to extend themselves in pursuit of the larger gains available through company-wide digital transformation?

Change Begins With People

The burden of lean and agile BPM implementation rests on the shoulders of the digital transformers. They must have the imagination to conceive of how adaptive case management could improve their company, or perhaps how creating a more comprehensive client portal would drive optimized change. Maybe it begins with integrating AI, or expanding the company’s mobile workflow solutions. Most likely, it will result from a combination of tactics, all deployed with ingenuity and skill.

Change Requires Education

Company executives must be educated as to the necessity of digital transformation, and this can be a slow and painful process, but the support of the company’s leadership is an essential ingredient for the success of any organizational change. Contrary to the title “leader”, some leaders tend to be reactive rather than proactive, especially if there is an initial investment involved. It is an investment, but with the correct solution this plunge can be tempered by a solid platform’s combination of utility and adaptability, saving the organization time and money.

Change Requires The Right BPM Platform

Building on an intuitive BPM platform that minimizes the learning curve, while facilitating rapid application development is essential. This BPM platform must also support continuing digital transformation by enabling its implementers to structure and restructure its applications for continually improved performance.

Process Director’s unique workflow software enables easy, point-and-click process modeling, automated routing, business activity monitoring (BAM), and sophisticated content management. The workflow automation software is configured through a 100% web-based interface enabling you to graphically model and build processes, requiring neither development nor advanced IT resources.
Using Process Director, business users can easily create workflows and electronic forms, as well as utilizing its intuitive business rules engine to deploy without assistance from IT. Automated workflows enable organizations to take control of their business processes. Process Director workflow automation software ensures that critical information and vital documents are routed, reviewed, and revised in accordance with corporate and regulatory policy.

Of course, Process Director enterprise workflow automation solutions integrates with existing user directories such as Active Directory or LDAP, enabling your organization’s entire staff to participate fully with automated workflow process software. Process Director’s enterprise workflow automation technology automatically notifies users of assigned workflow tasks via email and is presented with a concise and easy-to-understand web page relevant to the task or activity requested. They do not require specific knowledge about the overall process because requests are automatically routed to the appropriate users as tasks are completed

Request a Free Demo

Request a free demonstration of Process Director, and discover for yourself how this unique BPM software platform empowers you with workflow solutions allowing you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: digital transformation
3 min read

Adaptive Case Management Solutions

By BP Logix on Feb 14, 2018 11:34:11 AM

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What is content without context? At best, the content is merely an excess of useless information that sits redundant and obnoxious. At worst, it impedes users from completing their objective, and sends them on virtual wild goose chases.

Can we have context without content? Well, information fuels context, so unless your objective is to exist in a nebulous ether, devoid of meaning, then you will need information to achieve your goals.

What is Adaptive Case Management?

How to display and orient this data is the challenge of adaptive case management. Case management software could be defined as ‘adaptive’ if it relies not only on processes, but also a variety of Forms, roles and workspaces to create applications. Rather than act as a linear phenomenon, the application shares data across components without a set beginning or end, defying a history of constructive linear workflow structures. It is fluid, allowing for context-based structural changes, last moment decisions, and individualized attentions depending on each circumstance. And, of course, this cocktail of processes, forms and deadlines must still be managed, monitored and measured.

In other words, adaptive case management creates a harbor for easily accessible, highly navigable data that can be filtered for omission or inclusion depending on the situation. The applications built  supply users with what they need when they need it, all without forcing them to search outside the context of the case to find answers.

Process Director BPM and Adaptive Case Management Solutions


The award-winning Process Director, with its Process Timeline™ capabilities, has long been considered a pioneer of adaptive case management.

“Market expectations have evolved in the direction where Process Director has already been. This is certainly visible with Process Timeline, which beyond the time-based dimension supports the multimodal run-time patterns required for Case Management, combining sequential flow style with both event driven and time-driven execution, as well as checklists and ad hoc activities.” – BPM.com First Impressions

Process Director provides an award-winning BPM software that combines an easily modifiable and intuitive interface with a highly scalable, low-code/no-code, rapid application development platform environment. Process Director BPM and adaptive case management solutions include:

Integration: Fully integrated, out of the box, into the Process Director environment. No additional options to purchase; no additional components to learn.
Reporting: Sophisticated, case-aware applications and reports.
Documents: Configurable case folders for fast access to all case-related processes, documents, and data.
Import: Automatic (batch) or drag-and-drop import of documents and data into appropriate case folders.
Time: Multimodal run-time patterns combining sequential flow style with event-driven, time-driven, and decision-driven execution.
No coding: Designed from the ground up for the “citizen developer”; users do not need to be programmers to build rich, responsive digital, adaptive case management applications.
Migration: Built-in application integration and migration tools, enabling users to add case management software behavior to existing Process Director BPM applications and workflow applications, quickly and easily.
Process Timeline: The easiest and fastest way to configure and deploy the predictive, alert processes that lie at the heart of your digital business.

Request a Free Demo

Request a free demonstration of Process Director, and discover for yourself how this unique BPM software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: case management
3 min read

Is Digital Business Right For Your Business?

By BP Logix on Feb 7, 2018 10:55:29 AM

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What is a Digital Business

Digital business, as an entity, merges digitally transformative technologies, including the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and the practice of iBPM, with the physical world. It breaks down of the barriers between digital and material to foster an interplay between the two. This merging results in an optimal user experience from both the customer viewpoint and from an infrastructure/back-end perspective.

Digital business, as a practice, is the ability to create business processes utilizing the resources now available, including people. This resource-based method facilitates constant interaction not only between technologies, but between users and technologies. Technologies can be anything from an IoT device, to a workflow or machine learning (ML) algorithm. Users can be anyone from an individual customer, to a back-end administrator or any other employee. The practice of digitally structuring an organization is to enable implementers to build a structure that not only has these elements working independently, but also directs a focused interweaving of these components to the benefit of all. We like to call these implementers “digital transformers”.

Is Digital Business Transformation Right For You?

Short answer: Yes.

But I am an enterprise level CIO of an already hugely profitable company, are you saying that I need to change my business practices?

Yes.

But we are a small hospital in a rural area, not a part of some huge network – do we need to pay attention to it?

Yes.

But I am a cobbler who lives in a yurt atop a distant mountain. I trade my shoes in exchange for yak milk and millet bread. Surely it cannot benefit me?

Okay…you and I will talk later.

But for almost all companies, digital business is at the heart of effective digital transformation, and a necessary evolution that you must make to remain competitive in today’s market, as well as to take advantage of the huge opportunities available.

Process Director BPM Platform

Digital business, as an entity, merges digitally transformative technologies, including the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and the practice of iBPM, with the physical world. It breaks down of the barriers between digital and material to foster an interplay between the two. This merging results in an optimal user experience from both the customer viewpoint and from an infrastructure/back-end perspective.

Digital business, as a practice, is the ability to create business processes utilizing the resources now available, including people. This resource-based method facilitates constant interaction not only between technologies, but between users and technologies. Technologies can be anything from an IoT device, to a workflow or machine learning (ML) algorithm. Users can be anyone from an individual customer, to a back-end administrator or any other employee. The practice of digitally structuring an organization is to enable implementers to build a structure that not only has these elements working independently, but also directs a focused interweaving of these components to the benefit of all. We like to call these implementers “digital transformers”.

BP Logix’s Process Director is the ideal BPM platform for the digital transformer. It combines an easily modifiable and intuitive interface with a highly scalable, low-code/no-code, rapid application development environment. Process Director’s BPM application and workflow integration allows integrate internal and external datasets easily ensures that you have access to countless data sources, enabling you to create your ideal digital structure. After that, all you have to do is sit back and wait for the yak milk and millet bread to roll in.

Request a Free Demo

Request a free demonstration of Process Director, and discover for yourself how this unique BPM software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM business process management
3 min read

IoT, Digital Transformation and The Customer Journey

By BP Logix on Feb 2, 2018 10:22:59 AM

IoT-Digital-Transformation

Back in the days of yore, when the good people of Widget Corporation closed a sale on one of their widgets, that was the end of the sales experience. They would stand at the door as it closed, waving with one tanned hand at the retreating form of their customer and smiling their megawatt salesperson grins, as person and widget retreated into anonymity. And then came the digital world and with that  the Internet of Things (IoT) and digital transformation.

In today’s Widget Corp. there is no such end point. Since the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), a door bell is no longer just a door bell – it is a surveillance device with personalized tones and lights. A watch no longer only tells time – it monitors everything from your heart rate and sleep cycle to your steps throughout the day. At this point, even your typical refrigerator has the inside scoop. Inside these widgets are vast arrays of sensors and monitors that generate and gather data for the benefit of both the customer and organization that sold the widget. This allows a feed of information that is continuous, responsive, and, in many cases, transformational.

AI, IoT and Digital Transformation

Just as one cannot speak of digital transformation without acknowledging the role of artificial intelligence, so it goes with the IoT and digital transformation. After all, how else are these massive amounts of algorithmic data that AI analyzes being retrieved? Today’s devices not only report back with data, but are increasingly interconnected as well. This living data opens the doors to rich and creative possibilities in regard to AI – and never has a customer journey been more immediate, responsive or nuanced.

This leads to high demand customers, conditioned by the two prongs of IoT and AI, and their uniter: digital transformation. Today’s satisfying customer journey is a cocktail of positive touch points, individual attentions, predictive analytics, historical data mining, and this is only from their water meter!

If you are still acting like the Widget Corporation of the past, then your customers will suffer for it. It is inevitable that you will lose them to a competitor who has implemented platforms that treat them with the immediacy and individualized attention to which they’ve become accustomed. The first step toward achieving this goal in your organization is to drag your business from the dark ages with a BPM platform that can act in a similar function – by providing a workflow solution that has the integration capabilities to support this new world of the IoT and digital transformation.

IoT and Digital Transformation Solutions

Enter Process Director BPM platform - to ensure that your business operations are optimized, Process Director is an IoT and digital transformation solution that provides built-in BPM application and workflow application integration with many third-party and in-house applications and databases. The application integration connectors can be called based on different events in the system, including when a step starts in a workflow, when a business rule is evaluated, or based on an event or a Smart Form.

Process Director intelligent BPM offers cloud based single-tenant and multi-tenant deployments, which provides flexibility for both small and robust business requirements. Because BP Logix Process Director gives key insights into each behavior of the process, it can take direct action.

For example, if a future task is in danger of running late, the system can notify the process owner. This way, the case manager or other responsible party can address the issue at the soonest possible opportunity. Process Director BPM software is flexible, allowing ad hoc and improvisational tasks to be added to a process or dynamically linked via rules or established predecessors.

Process Director from BP Logix offers BPM and digital transformation solutions will empower your organization to do more and get better results, all the while experiencing a more consistent and personalized user experience. Contact us today to schedule a demonstration to get a customized in depth look at how Process Director can help solve your IoT and digital transformation needs.

 

Topics: BPM software business process management digital transformation
2 min read

BPM Products: BPM Software And Its Expanding Role

By BP Logix on Jan 25, 2018 1:25:29 PM

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The business process management software (BPM software) world is in the midst of an identity expansion. Just as brooding and acne-ridden teenagers stare into their future wondering what, out of a plethora of possibilities, they will ultimately become, so now does today’s BPM products.

The BPM industry has left the relatively slow changes of its childhood and now prepares to face the full-blown transitions of adolescence, though, hopefully, without as much door-slamming and bad poetry as an actual teen.

For years the parameters defining “business process management” have blurred as BPM’s complexities and capacities have matured. Today’s BPM products are used as everything from development platforms to analytical engines to on-demand report generators – and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Like a lanky teen who has outgrown his favorite Creed hoodie, BPM software is outgrowing its now constrictive niche (and arguably even the title itself) to serve this ever-expanding functionality.

These are good problems. The fact that it is imperative for the BPM product category to grow or even be remade in the service of an expanded digital mission bodes well for its overall outlook. Enterprises have discovered the merits of a digitally agile BPM solution to aid in their pursuit of engaging employees, managing suppliers, and providing a delightful customer journey. BPM products will always be an integral part of digital transformation…even if we change the name “BPM” to something else.

Whatever its name, there will always be a need for high productivity, low code / no code BPM products that can be used to accelerate a business’ digital transformation program and deploy robust, custom, end-to-end solutions.

Process Director BPM Software


But one BPM product does come to mind – Process Director. The time for your company to discover its true potential on your digital journal is nigh, with BP Logix’s unique and award-winning BPM platform.

Only Process Director BPM software offers:

• Graphical and menu-driven builders for every part of your application: forms, rules, workflows, data connections, etc.
• A seamless combination of structured, unstructured, and case-management process patterns.
• Flexible interaction styles, including web-based, email, and offline.
• Freedom from complex data definitions, flowcharts, and other relics of a slower-moving era.
• Process Timeline™, the simplest to create and most efficient to execute process engine in the marketplace.
• Cloud, on-premises, or hybrid deployment.

Request a Demo

Ready to see how Process Director can help solve your business challenges? Schedule a demonstration today to get a customized in depth look at how Process Director can meet your enterprise application needs.

Topics: BPM
2 min read

Packaged Applications vs Custom Applications vs BPM Software

By BP Logix on Jan 19, 2018 10:07:58 AM

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Enterprise IT leaders once faced a conundrum when approaching business challenges with enterprise applications. Three major factors—flexibility, fitness, and funding—figured into their decisions, but seemed impossible to reconcile. Should decision makers opt for custom applications —putting fitness squarely under control (but at a substantial, painful, and never-ending cost)—or go for packaged applications with their more predictable expense structure (and even more predictable lack of flexibility)?

Packaged Applications

Packaged applications can seem like the ideal solution to enterprise IT leaders because it simplifies the importing and installations process. At first glance it appears as if these applications are somewhat customizable, as users have the option of installing supporting application objects or opting out to do it at a later time. Packaged applications also have a more predictable expense structure, theoretically reducing the total cost of ownership.

Though packaged applications delivered on fitness and funding, enterprise IT leaders soon learn that they lack flexibility when they find out their so called ideal solution still needs substantial customization. Standardized packaged applications face severe limitations when pitted against company-specific business challenges. In the end, work-arounds and add-ons inflate the total cost of ownership to something much less ideal that what it appeared at face value.

Custom Applications

Alternatively, enterprise IT leaders could decide on custom applications when approaching their business challenge. This would solve the flexibility piece but fall short on fitness and funding.

As for fitness, custom applications mean that IT resources would be tied up with the time-consuming work of hand-coding and updating applications as new business challenges arise – thus missing out on any competitive advantage and sacrificing any potential digital agility.

Custom applications also miss the mark on funding. Costs seem to be never ending when applications need to be continually updated or created to solve ever changing business challenges.

BPM Software – The Complete Solution

At BP Logix we say: you may have your cake, enterprise CIO, and eat it, too, by sidelining clunky packaged apps and expensive hand-coded, custom applications in favor of a BPM-driven, low-code/no-code, rapid application development software like Process Director.

As your business grows, your need for digital agility grows along with it. The dynamics of the marketplace demand that the greater your mass, the faster you must respond. No easy task, to be sure; but made harder yet by the physics of programming, dictating that the larger and more complex the code base, the greater the time and cost of altering it. The practice of building software Parthenons may create a monument, but they end with a mausoleum. The pace of today’s business practices requires elastic, changeable BPM solutions that can continue changing with shifting market demands.

In deploying a BPM platform solution like Process Director, senior business leaders marry the best of both worlds and sidestep the various hardware and software “black boxes” deployed by IT. Instead, Process Director’s low-code/no-code BPM software offers the transparency of a solution that is fully customizable and extensible, and yet does not require programmers. The result is an adaptable set of robust digital applications that are easily understood and managed by the business and IT alike.

Schedule A Demo

Ready to see how Process Director can help solve your business challenges? Schedule a demonstration today to get a customized in depth look at how Process Director can meet your enterprise application needs.

Topics: BPM software
2 min read

Sharepoint Software: The Workforce Awakens

By BP Logix on Jan 3, 2018 8:13:16 AM

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Not long ago, in a galaxy right nearby, the good folk of the business world put their faith in SharePoint software; a force they dreamed would flow to every user, across every server, internal network, and VPN, binding their universe together. Shining like the moon above, the force promised to unify the worlds of business throughout the Redmond Empire, bringing prosperity and frictionless workflow to all who embraced it.

Until the day came when, one by one, disappointed CIOs finally discovered the truth: the software didn't meet expectations.

It’s not shocking that so many fell into the software's trap. After all, there were a few things the software did reasonably well. Sure, you need about a zillion servers and a team of highly trained masters to keep the thing fed (it’s said that documents fed to SharePoint are digested over a period of 1,000 years; how would they know something like that?). But, hey: it was a reasonably good place to put your stuff, if you wanted other people to be able to find it.

What SharePoint software promised, but could not deliver, was a system of engagement that made it easy to take all that stuff and actually use it within business applications. Building workflow with the software turns out to be an exercise in specialized coding, with very limited integration capabilities. The document repository was fine, but represented, at best, an evolutionary improvement over traditional shared file systems. Having a document repository doesn’t exactly prevent you from creating enterprise applications through your organization’s digital transformation efforts—but it doesn’t do much to help you out, either.

And so, businesses rebelled (in full compliance with regulatory guidelines, of course). Forward-looking enterprises deployed BPM software, like Process Director, to act as high-productivity, low-code/no-code BPM platform for integrating their digital business applications with the documents and other information locked away in SharePoint software. Thanks to Process Director’s rapid application development capabilities, CIOs were able to accelerate their digital transformation programs, deploying robust, custom, end-to-end solutions that could, where appropriate, take advantage of SharePoint software—without having to rely on it.

And throughout the galaxy, music swelled, fireworks sparkled, and IT and business alike exchanged hugs (in a workplace-appropriate manner, of course). More threats would surely come, but all knew that they now possessed the power to achieve digital business victory.

 

3 min read

Agile BPM (Agile Business Process Management) vs Custom Coding

By BP Logix on Dec 27, 2017 1:36:15 PM

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Business operations are constantly changing due to market conditions. With constant change, there is the need for businesses to continually improve the processes and workflows that power the organization in order to stay ahead of the competition. As a result, companies these days are relying on software to not only improve process efficiency but also to streamline business processes so they might capitalize on this competitive advantage. Having the speed and fluidity to absorb the necessary business operations changes that inevitably occur in a volatile economic climate will do nothing but impact the bottom line positively. When it comes to organizations adapting to change, is there a difference when they rely on custom coding their upcoming software solutions and systems versus using an agile BPM (agile business process management) software solution?

Custom Coding Solutions

In the pursuit of the ideal solution to fit their business requirements, many companies come to the erroneous conclusion that updating their current software with custom coding is the only answer. Only on the other side of their decision do they realize that every change, every clarification, and every idea sends them right back to square one of their system development life cycle (SDLC).

Enterprise IT has evolved into an expensive monument to the rigid over-specificity of its business parameters, and the mountains of custom code that remain aren’t flexible and can be incredibly resistant to change.

Agile BPM (Agile Business Process Management) Solutions

Agile BPM (agile business process management) solutions deliver results and value today, even when market conditions change. It puts business process management in the hands of business users by allowing them to have immediate access to BPM tools. This enables them to drive process automation, be approachable from different perspectives and launch short-term timelines that delivers fast ROI. These agile BPM solutions provide new ways of viewing reports and the status of workflows along with improving process-related visibility. It works for not only linear processes but also for all other business processes that don’t necessarily fit into the flowchart model.

Process Director BPM Software


Organizations should never be comfortable relying on custom coding to provide the flexibility and reusability offered by a low-code BPM/no-code BPM solution like Process Director. Process Director is an agile BPM solution that provides a common model and a rapid application development software that liberates your organization from expensive, single-use programming solutions and inflexible, single-purpose packaged applications. When you develop and deploy digital business solutions using Process Director, changes and enhancements are a snap—and you won’t need those rare and expensive programmers to make them.

No matter which way you cut it, custom coding with code rewrites will always be slow, costly, and hyper-specific—and in the era of digital transformation, cumbersome architecture will keep your organization from moving forward. Are you ready to see how an agile business process management software like Process Director can help your organization become more flexible to changing market conditions and business operations? Contact us or schedule a demonstration today to learn more.

Image Source: https://federalnewsradio.com

Topics: BPM BPM software business process management
2 min read

Digital Transformation Starts With Digital Transformers

By BP Logix on Dec 6, 2017 8:15:00 AM

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Digital transformation is the trending celebrity in the business process management (BPM) world, flanked by an entourage of terms: the sexy ‘Digital Supply Chain Management’, the enigmatic ‘Context Aware Mobile Experiences’ and of course who could forget that frequent attention hog, ‘Internet of Things’. They strut across our BPM landscape revered, nay, worshipped by beatific throngs.

Digital Transformers Are Agents of Change

Enamored as we are by the zeitgeist of digital transformation, it is easy to forget the poor schlub toiling away behind the curtain: the digital transformers. She is the CIO who finds herself installed in a company that still delivers documents via pneumatic tubes. He is the CEO of a burgeoning start-up, trying to build a competitive architecture for the future. Digital transformers are the men and women pushing against the grain of archaic technologies toward this better way. You might be this long-suffering individual, this oft overlooked crusader, staring into the faces of a befuddled board while trying to explain the need to eliminate wet signatures.

Rarely does digital transformation break down the walls of a company, Kool-Aid man style. It more often happens in inching (infuriatingly slow) steps, first one application, then another, then one more. The danger of this is at the end of the transition your organization is left with a poorly-fitted patchwork of solutions. Sure, your company has been digitally transformed—but the result is more Steve Buscemi than the hoped-for Christian Bale.

The Right BPM Platform For Digital Transformation

Whether you’re beginning from blessed scratch or dragging your company kicking and screaming into the digital age, the right BPM platform will be an indispensable guide on your digital journey, from the first e-signatures to always-on, customer-focused, end-to-end digital nirvana. In either situation potential is key. Your BPM platform must have the potential to grow, adapting to many roles and performing among an ensemble. It directs your digital production as a low-code/no-code, rapid application development environment—perfectly cast for the critical role it will play as your business expands.

For that your BPM solution needs to scale easily, and tessellate with legacy applications and systems of record, giving you the ability to deploy custom applications to solve your unique problems. For giggles and grins, let’s throw in a graphical interface that is intuitive and easy to use for non-programmers, such as your business or technical analysts. If digital transformers can achieve this and the business world will be your stage.

Contact us to learn how our award winning BPM platform, Process Director, can help you on your digital journey.

Topics: BP Logix BPM digital transformation
4 min read

Case Management Software: The What, Why and How

By BP Logix on Nov 29, 2017 3:16:34 PM

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What is Case Management Software?

Case management software pulls together processes, data and rules and actively assesses, coordinates, and plans every aspect of a given case ultimately working toward time-based goals. For our purposes, a "case" is a group of processes, transactions, or responses that define a complex activity, and which can be tracked over a period of time. A case usually involves actions by many different people, both inside and outside of the organization. Every action, message, response, and document generated during this complex activity becomes part of the case.. To further illustrate what a case could look like, consider these examples:

  • A case manager is in charge of complaints at a cable company
  • A case manager works for companies providing assisted living services to determine and meet the needs of a client with special needs
  • A case manager oversees orders at a factory

Because most cases are complex, meaning there may be a number of processes launched sequentially or in parallel, it usually requires the work of several people.  These processes sometimes can't be predetermined and could cause delays in the overall case or business event. For example, one person may need to determine a time line for everyone involved and inform those same people of new developments while another person makes sure all documents are signed and shipments are sent and received. Even if there is only one person with the title of "case manager" assigned to a specific case, they almost always have others who work with them to achieve results.

Why Case Management Software is Important to Businesses?

Like practically everything else in the 21st century, modern management has been made easier thanks to the right computer software. Case management software puts the necessary information where you need it and when you need it so that you don’t have to concern yourself with the process as much as you do the critical steps required for the case.

Case management software is often used for time tracking, deadline setting, document management, billing, estimates, and keeping a database of relevant information including contact information among other things. This software can take the place of other software, like CRMs and enterprise document workflow solutions, giving you one program that covers all the bases.

Adaptive case management software allows businesses to be more organized by increasing accountability and communication among teams and between departments. This ultimately allows business processes to run more smoothly and efficiently.

How Process Director BPM Software Works as a Solution


Process Director BPM software by BP Logix is an extremely easy-to-use solution. And we aren’t just saying that.

Our BPM software does not require that you have any programming experience. Its interface is very intuitive, allowing you to quickly and effortlessly tailor the entire process to a specific project. It really does pay for itself in little time.

Process Director's Process Timeline is an advanced BPMN modeling and business process automation software that provides time-based analysis with the most updated charts and data. This in turn helps users:

  • Where they are in the case or business event
  • The amount of time it will take the overall case or business event to be completed
  • Any steps or remedial processes that need to be started at any given time

Since much of the heavy lifting is covered by the software, more time is freed up for you to get more done in a smarter and quicker way. Put simply, Process Director simply makes a case manager’s job easier.

Process Director has received critical acclaim from analysts in a variety of industries, but we feel this statement from a BPM.com report sums it up nicely.

“It is entirely fair to say that in many ways and areas of capability, market expectations have evolved in the direction where Process Director has already been. This is certainly visible with Process Timeline, which beyond the time-based dimension supports the multimodal run-time patterns required for Case Management, combining sequential flow style with both event-driven and time-driven execution, as well as checklists and ad hoc activities.”

Don't get hung up on the BPM vs case management software differences. You can have both with Process Director BPM software. If you are a case manager interested in BPM and workflow tools, consider Process Director. Contact us for your own free BPM software demo.

Image Source: http://hubpages.com/

Topics: BPM BPM software business process management case management
3 min read

Workflow Definition

By BP Logix on Nov 16, 2017 2:51:30 PM

What-is-Workflow

 

What is Workflow? Workflow Definition Explained

What is workflow, you ask? It's a series of repeatable processes that are necessary in order to achieve a goal, typically a business goal. The first step of a workflow is triggered by an outside event, but every step after that has another step before and after it within the process. This process -- which can be manually done or automated with software -- moves tasks from one individual to another in order to improve productivity, and, ultimately, create a cost savings.

[embed]https://youtu.be/tuDKYgV6Qnk[/embed]

What is Workflow To BP Logix?

What is workflow to us? We here at BP Logix think of it a little more simply; we think of it as the practice of refining business processes. Processes are useful business process improvement tools to help organizations improve communication, process efficiency, and profitability. They create a smoother synchronization of data between systems and better coordinate tasks between different departments.

They increase workplace productivity by closely monitoring every step of a process in order to make the process more agile, more efficient, and more transparent. Properly designed workflows decreases errors and time spent on a specific project by automating the flow of employee tasks.

Because the need for processes to be visual, organizations that use BPM software are able to make smarter and quicker decisions. In most cases, software provides tools to measure and perfect your systems, too.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX8I_2RpQeY[/embed]

Types of Tools For Business Process Improvement

As mentioned, business process improvement can be governed by manual tools or software. There are many types of software, some with similar names like Gantt charts, process diagrams and flow charts. The BP Logix solution is a BPM software called Process Director and it uses a visual design similar to a Gantt chart but offers a robust set of BPM tools to help organization streamline business processes.

The Benefits of Using Process Director BPM Software

In talking to clients, we hear many stories of how Process Director BPM software has helped achieve business process improvement, but here are some of the most common advantages to using Process Director:

Increase Productivity Everyday

It can help organizations improve productivity issues that they may run into. This BPM technology allows for business process improvement as business tasks and processes are better organized with Process Director's document management system. Also easily electronic forms (eForms) can be easily executed through common applications like Microsoft  Word and Outlook.

Reduce Time Spent on Routine Workplace Processes

Process Director is a digital transformation solution that reduces the amount of time spent on tasks by automating and digitizing a variety of things like approval processes, for example. It can eliminate redundancies and provide clarity.

Modify Processes with Ease and Before it’s Too Late

Process Director comes equipped with a business process automation technology called Process Timeline. This timeline software offers predictive technology to predict when a future activity is likely to be delayed, offering the earliest possible opportunity for manual or automatic intervention. This allows for easy process modifications and makes it possible for organizations to be more flexible.

Change Your Company Culture (for the better)

Done right, business processes can shift behaviors to get the job done. If you know your company culture, you can create culture alignment through efficient processes.

Reach All Goals, Small and Large

When you know where to find the finish line, it’s easier to reach it. Show everyone in your organization the how and why processes are in place to achieve small and large business goals. For example, someone may think that a form is unnecessary and forgo the signature. Once they see where that form sits in the process, they no longer skip that step.

One Last Note...

While outcomes differ, workflow matters globally because of the headaches it prevents. Process Director from BP Logix will empower your organization for all the reasons we list above and so much more. Ready to see for yourself?  Contact us today and schedule a free demo of Process Director from a BP Logix software expert.

Topics: workflow BPM
3 min read

Electronic Forms Management Software

By BP Logix on Nov 5, 2017 9:39:00 AM

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What Are eForms?

To optimize the processing of many kinds of information, most organizations have implemented some number of electronic forms (eForms) since they easily integrate with back-end repositories, are flexible, and eliminate errors that result from paper forms. Additionally, electronic forms can be easily adapt to initial business requirements, then updated as the requirements change. We all recognize that the information that goes into a form is dynamic. As a result, at some point it will need to be updated. eForms and electronic forms management software allow you to manage the entire lifecycle of the form , as well as the data that is contained within it.

The Struggle With Paper Forms

One might be surprised at how many organizations (even progressive, innovative ones) handle forms. Indeed, despite many advances in technology, there is still a job market for data processing “inputters” and filing experts. We have worked with companies who continue to store vast amounts of paper forms, all of which contain data that’s important to the company operations. Imagine what it takes to get those paper forms reviewed, signed, delivered and filed. Then, consider what happens when someone needs the information from those forms when they are stored in a file cabinet in some remote location. It makes me think of the final scene in Indiana Jones where the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were chiseled, are sent to a cavernous warehouse, likely to be lost forever. That makes me, as a BPMS software evangelist, shudder with horror.

Businesses create, distribute, manage and secure ever-increasing amounts of information, all of which is crucial to daily business operations. The vast majority of that information is dynamic; it is constantly manipulated, validated and reviewed as part of regular processes. Decisions are made based on this information, and it is essential that the right users have access to the data that is most relevant to them.

Why Is Electronic Forms Management Important For Your Organization

Why do we emphasize forms so much? As one component of business process management (BPM), electronic forms and electronic forms management software are a basic necessity. First , they provide the most elegant and precise way of capturing data. Second, they provide a format for communicating data to other users.  Third, automating forms provides dramatic time savings. Routing paper forms from person to person within an organization, sometimes across time zones and geographies, can take days – or weeks. Using electronic forms , data can be reviewed, commented on and approved in a fraction of the time.

Process Director Electronic Forms Management Software

Process Director's eForms are web-based forms that can be easily developed , as they are based on a Microsoft Word plug-in that is familiar to most users, whether technical or otherwise. Those forms can then be published, and made available to users who access them from their browsers. Our thinking is that easy creation of eForms and efficient electronic forms management software means that document workflow, routing and oversight of those forms actually enhances the processes they are a part of. With Process Director, process owners can create and manage eForms of almost any type without requiring coding. That’s truly the case, as our happy customers can attest.

We know that the people who benefit most from the data in forms are the business managers who need to make decisions based on that information. With that in mind, we have given Process Director's electronic forms management software a flexible, yet powerful, graphical user interface that allows managers to control the behavior of forms and designate the routing flow they should take. This can be done all according to defined business procedures and rules.

Review and approval of forms also becomes very efficient. One of our customers recently told us that she had three people review and approve one form within one process in five (yes, 5!) minutes. That same form and process took weeks prior to automating it. How much more effective, then, is that process? It goes without saying.

And, by the way, since there is an underlying workflow, email alerts are sent automatically to notify users when there are forms waiting for them review, approve and/or address.

Request A Demonstration

BPM software provides an actionable format for collecting, delivering and managing information. Electronic forms and electronic forms management software enhance decision-making ,ensuring that leaders and managers within the organization are more and better informed. Isn't this what you want for your company?

Learn more:
Topics: workflow automation BP Logix BPM business process management
3 min read

Web-Based Workflow Software

By BP Logix on Nov 1, 2017 11:32:41 AM

 

Process Director web-based workflow software and workflow tools require no programming expertise, making it fast to implement with little user “learning curve”. It easily integrates with enterprise software already in place and offers rapid app development to create endless integration options.

Process Director is the only workflow software that offers two workflow models: traditional and Process Timeline™, a workflow engine that offers predictive analysis of processes by incorporating the element of time, which is missing in most BPM’s of the past.

Process Director is award winning. KMWorld named them in their 2017 Top 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management, and as a Trend-setting Product in 2016. Gartner also named Process Direct to the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Intelligent Business Process Management Suites (iBPMS) for several years in a row.

Process Director is a 100% web-based workflow software which allows it to be accessed on any internet compatible device, including in the field for a true mobile workforce. It requires no client software, ActiveX controls, or programmers.

Process Director is comprehensive. Neither “human-centric” nor “machine-centric”, Process Director web-based workflow software uses the best of human engagement, automation, and overall knowledge management to meet a variety of business processes across multiple industries.

7 Benefits of Process Director Web-Based Workflow Software

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Workflow software is and has been being implemented for years supporting businesses in increasing productivity and profitability. Searching for the right one for your needs can be a bit overwhelming, however. Here are some reasons to consider Process Director, a web-based workflow software, for your enterprise.

1. Automate processes- Automating workflow makes creates process efficiency by reducing errors and minimizing tasks that “fall through the cracks”.

2. Receive Notifications- Automated alerts can be sent through email and/or Microsoft Outlook. Never miss another deadline.

3. Simplify Approvals- The approval process can be shortened through automatic triggers and processes and are available from any computer or internet connected device, including tablets and smartphones.

4. Better Management- Receive notifications when workflows are predicted to be late, see real-time data, achieve continuous improvement initiatives, and more with easy to search data available to the right people at the right time.

5. Improve Agility- Make changes to better serve your market with sub process and rapid application development. Grow with demands while maintaining profitability and efficiency.

6. Better Compliance- Track documents, including multiple versions to create an audit trail. Use e-forms, permissions, and electronic signature technology for more complete information, increased security, and better business process governance and compliance.

7. Secure Data Storage- Organizations have the choice to store information on the cloud or on premise making it easier for administration, better security and automated backups.

Request A Demo

Process Director is an award winning business process management solution featuring knowledge management tools to help your business excel. Learn more about BP Logix’s Process Director for your business and request a demonstration. One of our BPM experts will learn about your goals and requirements and tailor a demonstration to meet your specific needs.

Topics: workflow BP Logix BPM
2 min read

Knowledge Management Definition Explained

By BP Logix on Oct 25, 2017 3:04:03 PM

Knowledge-Management

What is Knowledge Management?

What is knowledge management (KM), you ask? It’s the term for the management of knowledge assets within an organization including document management, content management, business process management and more. It can include initiatives, strategies, analysis, accessibility and knowledge creation.

The Knowledge Management Definition Involves:

• Understanding how knowledge is kept and where
• A learning culture (continuous improvement)
• Understanding what needs to be known
• How to acquire information
• How knowledge is shared
• How knowledge is created
• Knowledge accessibility and permissions
• How information lines up with organizational mission, vision, and strategic goals
• Both tools and people

What is Knowledge Management to BP Logix?

BP Logix’s Process Director BPM software was recently named to KMWorld’s 2017 Top 100 Companies That Matter In Knowledge Management , for the 8th consecutive year. With its unique Knowledge Views, Process Director allows you to conveniently find and list information, such as electronic forms, process timelines , attachments, documents, or workflows.

These knowledge views provide a look into the database to show you information in a way similar to predefined searches. They empower users to navigate and retrieve information based on specific criteria in order to locate information fast. Knowledge Views can be set up with permissions to ensure the right information is available to the right people at the right time, creating intelligent and reliable navigation, searching, reporting, retrieval, and data population. Search results can then be displayed within the browser as a chart, graph, or data, downloaded into Excel or CSV files, or can trigger a results based process.

Process Director BPM Software Is Your KM Solution

Organize and distribute documents, content, and smart forms (e-forms) through automatically assigned metadata which allows information to be made available quickly and easily. With hierarchical taxonomy, unstructured content brings related information together in a logical way that allows you to tag data and find it easier than ever before.

Process Director is an award winning BPM software featuring workflow management software tools to help your business excel. Learn more about BP Logix’s Process Director for your business and request a demonstration. One of our BPM experts will learn about your goals and requirements and tailor a demonstration to meet your specific needs.

 

Topics: BPM software
4 min read

Infopath Replacement Alternative

By BP Logix on Oct 22, 2017 8:08:57 PM

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Earlier this year Microsoft announced a plan to discontinue InfoPath as part of its business software portfolio, sending organizations all over the globe scrambling to look for a InfoPath replacement for their forms management system. To ensure both the proper creation and distribution of electronic forms, many companies began talking with us about Process Director – its smart forms capability and more.

During those conversations we heard these companies describe that InfoPath, while successful at serving their very basic forms needs, lacked the business process automation and workflow solutions that they needed. What they wanted with their InfoPath replacement solution was not just a better way to manage forms, but also a more efficient way to conduct their business.

Process Director's Ties To Microsoft

We have long been supporters of Microsoft. All of our products are, in fact, built on Microsoft technology. While Process Director BPM platform and InfoPath share some common functionality, prior to the announcement we did not engage in a lot of conversations with companies seeking to implement forms via InfoPath. We recognized that InfoPath was efficient at managing forms, especially when forms moved in a linear fashion across the organization (requestor initiates a form, form is routed to approver, approver routes to next actor, and so on). And we understood that it was adept at storing and managing documents and versions of documents. As a component of Microsoft's suite of tools, we also understood that InfoPath was introduced to many enterprises as a complementary product and gradually became entrenched into various organizational processes.

InfoPath carried both the benefits, but also the burdens, of a legacy product. With Microsoft's announcement, enterprises are recognizing that it does not make sense to keep forms isolated to document workflow. With the proliferation of apps and the ubiquity of their use (in the cloud, on mobile, through Internet of Things devices), organizations need their forms to be flexible – and to be an integral element of both their process and workflow solution.

Process Director As An InfoPath Replacement

[caption id="attachment_9303" align="alignright" width="300"]InfoPath Replacement | BP Logix

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As companies look for Infopath alternatives, we are eager to hear their stories. Our default button does not necessarily go directly to Process Director BPM software as an Infopath replacement. There will continue to be organizations that want a rudimentary forms tool – and little more. While they can get that with Process Director business process management software, they may want to continue with their InfoPath implementation. For those who have an eye towards and Infopath replacement, however, we think it is important to consider those things that InfoPath is capable of, yet where Process Director excels:

Effective workflow management: Forms hold value in two ways: 1) The data they contain, and 2) The ability to act on that data. InfoPath pulls data from SQL databases in a very specific way and, once pulled, requires manual effort to route forms accordingly. For years we have heard that no one wants or has time to "babysit" authorizations or data requests being communicated in forms. With Process Director as an InfoPath replacement, we can apply workflows enabling forms to get to their intended recipients, with alerts being sent when action is not taken within the proper timeframes. Simply having forms is irrelevant–it is the actions derived from acting on the forms that drives the business. Knowing when something has arrived, understanding who needs to act on it, then routing the form to the appropriate ‘next’ person is precisely what an integrated workflow/forms solution provides.

Intelligent application of forms: We use the term "smart forms" to describe the operations involved in designing, deploying, routing, managing and analyzing forms and the data they communicate. There is the front-end, which includes advanced HTML and form creation abilities, and the back-end, which provides integration with apps, legacy apps and databases. If choosing Process Director low code / no code BPM platform as your InfoPath replacement users are served with a sophisticated way to create rich, interactive forms that does not require programming.

Business flexibility: Business priorities change rapidly – and the workflow tools we rely on must keep up. A delay in implementing new processes due to updating cumbersome tools is not acceptable. When that task falls to IT, as it usually does, and when there is already a backlog of requests, processes cease to be used, or are used inefficiently while waiting to be updated. If you're searching for an InfoPath replacement it may shock you to know that Process Director was built, from inception, to facilitate updating and modifying processes by non-programmers. That means that almost anyone in the organization can identify where eForms are needed, create and manage that form – then adapt it. Basically, anybody who can use Word can learn to build effective forms with Process Director.

Ultimately, forms are about delivery – delivery of value from technology to enhance users behavior. When this happens, you can focus on your business- and maximizing its value.

Try it out:

Learn more:

2 min read

Process Excellence With Process Director BPM Software

By BP Logix on Oct 11, 2017 8:55:56 AM

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Business process management has been a focus of enterprises who desire an improved bottom line as a result of better processes. The strategies include both software and non-software based solutions in order to create overall process excellence.

“Process excellence is about process effectiveness and efficiency. It requires processes to be designed and improved for consistent delivery with minimum variation and minimum waste.” Source: BusinessExcellence.org

Businesses must have processes in place, even if they are inefficient. Even in a child’s lemonade stand, for example, customers are attracted, an order is taken, and service is provided. The ability to get repeat customers comes from a process that is consistent and predictable.

By improving output (customer experience) coupled with internal efficiencies, enterprises have learned the key to profitability, longevity, and growth. This is why it is so important and why businesses want to achieve it. Business process management (BPM) is software based and includes using smart forms, workflow automation, and streamlining business processes to increase business process improvement.

Process Excellence Use Case Study: Pethealth Insurance

Pethealth Insurance, Inc. recently announced they were chosen as finalists for the 2017 Process Excellence Network (PEX) Award in the category of “Best Business Transformation Project”. By implementing BP Logix’s Process Director BPM software, they were able to reduce claim processing time and improve customer engagement. With over 10,000 claims per month and multiple insurance products, claim processing was complex, to say the least.

With Process Director BPM software implemented, Pethealth Insurance, Inc. was able to reduce claims processing time by 70% and claims-related call volume by 55%. They cut more than half of their overall data entry including redundant entries, reduced duplication of claim submissions, and eliminated duplicate invoices.

They now have a streamlined system that offers a better audit trail for compliance management, real-time claim status, cost tracking, and KPI reporting. Business process improvement was a key initiative for Pethealth, and they now have a BPM and workflow software solution in place to support it.

“Pethealth is an excellent example of a customer committed to not only transforming its processes, but also enhancing the customer experience. We are gratified that Process Director is the engine behind this transformation.” Jay O’Brien, CEO of BP Logix

Process Director is an award winning BPM software designed with process excellence and efficiency in mind. Learn more about BP Logix’s Process Director for your business and request a demonstration. One of our BPM experts will learn about your goals and requirements and tailor a demonstration to meet your specific needs.

Topics: BPM software
2 min read

Claims Processing Automation Solutions

By BP Logix on Oct 4, 2017 9:40:27 AM

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Automation is the buzzword of modern-day business process management. If you are in the business of claims processing, this may be more true than ever before. Today’s customers expect responsiveness, and with limited staffing and/or limited budgets, businesses must find a way to provide a good customer service, while also using technology to create profitability, agility, and growth. BP Logix’s Process Director BPM software does just that, as Pethealth and Multiplan learned.

Pethealth Claims Processing Automation

Pethealth, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is a leader in pet microchip identification, pet insurance, pet products, and animal management software. Offering several insurance products, each with their own criteria, and processing over 20,000 claims per month, they needed a claims processing automation solution to support the level of customer service they desired.

Stuart Janzen, Senior Solutions Architect at Pethealth identified the need for a claims processing automation solution that would be customer friendly with easy-to-use forms. He also needed a searchable database and compliance compatible system that would provide information necessary for an audit.

“Tracking data and being efficient are very important to Pethealth. We wanted to provide a better customer experience while reducing both processing time as well as the delays that sometimes arise in processing. For problem solving and creating efficiencies, there is nothing that compares to BPM,” Stuart Janzen, Pethealth.

As a result of their BPM software implementation to support their claims process through Process Director from BP Logix, they are currently finalists for the PEX Network Award (2017).

MultiPlan’s Claims Automation Needs

Founded in 1980, MultiPlan is the nation’s leading comprehensive provider of healthcare cost management solutions, serving an estimated 57 million consumers. Multiplan provides a single gateway for managing the financial risks associated with healthcare claims to primary, complementary and out-of-network providers.

Focused on quality and efficiency, MultiPlan became aware of their need to retire an outdated database and replace it with a more agile, cloud BPM and claims automation software.

Due to the success of BP Logix Process Director, MultiPlan rolled out the BPM solution in expanded areas and departments, saving time and money in purchasing, approval processes, HR, AP, and more. They continue to find ways to move more processes into an automated and cloud based system, opening up information to more users for better communication, collaboration, and decision-making.

Is BPM software and/or workflow software right for your enterprise? Learn more about BP Logix’s Process Director for your claims processing automation needs and to request a demonstration today. One of our BPM experts will learn about your goals and requirements and tailor a demonstration to meet your specific needs.

Topics: workflow BP Logix BPM software
3 min read

The Best BPM Software Is Here

By BP Logix on Sep 27, 2017 7:14:45 AM

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You have decided it is time to look for business process management software. Consider Process Director from BP Logix. Award winning Process Director was designed with more than just efficiency in mind. The features and benefits truly show our passion for creating a complete solution that is agile enough to grow as your enterprise grows, while also meeting the unique needs of the individual business, making it one of the best BPM software suites in market.

Features and Benefits of Process Director

Process Director can be used across various industries or can be specific to your unique organization. Ease of use and customization helps makes Process Director one of the best BPM software suites.

100% Web-based, which means:

  • NO Programming for integration
  • Smart forms to be used in mobile applications
  • eForms and eSignatures to reduce postal & printing expenses
  • Work and/or access needed information from any internet connected device

Implement better workflow for increased:

  • Reporting capabilities
  • Efficiency due to streamlining of processes
  • Consistency and reduced redundancy in tasks
  • Ability to search and track information
  • Approval process completion
  • Compliance and governance with user permissions

Intelligence is Key To Being One of The Best BPM Software Suites

Technology evolves quickly, and as business process management software becomes more popular with forward thinking industries, BPM technology itself must evolve to stay ahead of the desired competitive edge of such companies. Those looking for leaner processes, increased process efficiency in their business models, and improved relationships with employees, vendors, and even customers, are looking forward to intelligent BPM solutions.

Gartner, a leader in technology research has defined intelligent BPM, or iBPMS as “platforms which help business transformation leaders, business users and solution architects establish a fluid capability to handle big change.”

Because Process Director can be implemented in complex business workflows and includes the patented business process automation solution, Process Timeline, which creates intelligent predictive analysis, it is considered an iBPMS. In fact, BP Logix’s Process Director has been named in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for iBPMS for several years in a row making it one of the best BPM software suites in the marketplace. This business process management software can be implemented in:

Mobile BPM settings allowing off-site workforce capabilities including field technicians, such as implemented by the City of West Ellis.

Cloud based BPM allowing for remote staff and easier workflows with delivery of, and access to, important files, cases, and/ or data.

Process Director also has social BPM integration on social media outlets including customer engagement, predictive analytics, automated workflows and more.

Key Elements of BPM

There are 5 key reasons why Process Director is one of the best BPM software suites available and why some of the leading organizations choose to implement Process Director for their BPM It’s for a good reason: it gets results.

  1. To Improve Process Efficiency

Results: 75% decrease in duplicate data entry; 60% less manual task routing; 15% reduction in approval cycle time

  1. To Increase Productivity

Results: 50% less “shuffling” of tasks; 75% improvement in handling “exceptions”; 50% faster decision making.

  1. To Better Adapt & Change (to customer demand, changes, and policies/governance)

Results: 50% improvement in audit trails; 75% increase in compliance adherence; 75% improvement in organizing and capturing process change requirements.

  1. To Automate Tasks

Results: 45% faster process implementation; 60% faster data compilation; 45% faster process changes.

  1. For Better Access to Information

Results: 60% increase in documentation; 60% increase in applying best practices; 60% process guidance improvement.

Ready to see how one of the best BPM software suites can support your business? Contact us today to schedule a free demo of Process Director with one our business process management software specialists.

Image Credit (Autocab.com)

Topics: BP Logix BPM
3 min read

Business Rules Engine Overview

By BP Logix on Sep 20, 2017 9:40:32 AM

Business-Engine-Rules

What is a Business Rules Engine (BRE)?

Business rules are defined as rule sets or reusable objects embedded into a workflow (or form) to control what is next triggered depending on the conditions present. A business rules engine then manages those business processes separating business logic information in a way that allows for improved performance and increased agility.

Often it is used to evaluate data that was entered into a form field to return a list or value and then make a dynamic decision based on the result. Business rules engine software allows users to manage and create business rules that capture workflow to improve business performance.

Maximized enterprise performance is the name of the game in today’s highly-competitive market. High levels of efficiency, lean models, effective workflows, responsive customer interactions, and good governance all lead to a healthy bottom line.

Process Director’s Dynamic Business Rules Engine

 


Process Director is an award winning BPM software that incorporates a business rules engine which empowers users to rapidly implement and automate complex business processes. Process Director’s business rule configuration includes advanced machine learning and AI algorithms to aide in decision making.

 

Process Director is a leading BPM software and the rules engine is a core element in the software, offering the following benefits:

Automation in Business Processes

Create and streamline business processes for improved process efficiency and reduced costs. Save time and money by eliminating or reducing down time and data entry redundancies. Create a single point of data for more robust and easier to find information from any internet connected device.

Easy Integration and Compatibility

In the past, companies with multiple software, hardware, and practices meant often data was lost with new software integration. Or, it meant heavy coding and IT resources were needed to integrate legacy data with new technology. Not anymore! Enterprise application integration is made easy with Process Director no/low code BPM software.

Better Decision Making

Improved tracking, reporting, and monitoring of documents allows you to search quickly to find important information. Export and report on results with real time information or see if a task or set of tasks aren’t expected to be on-time and intervene for better management and decision making.

Improved Governance, Risk, and Compliance

Specific user permissions, audit trails, electronic signature technology, automated approval workflows, and multiple document version management allow for significantly improved regulatory compliance issues. Easily find information without complicated and unsecure offline filing.

Electronic Forms Management

Create more consistent data entry through eForms including documents used for or with employees, vendors and customers. Capture e-signatures, sort data, create lists, analyze information and more all without coding skills.

Ability to Scale and Grow

Agility can be the difference between being a market leader or failing. The ability to scale and make process changes quickly allows for a healthy bottom line regardless of changes in market conditions. Real time alerts and dynamic automation allow for business ebb and flow.

Experience a demonstration of Process Director for yourself. Contact us today to learn how BPM software can support your business goals.

Topics: BPM BPM software
3 min read

BPM vs Case Management: What's The Difference?

By BP Logix on Sep 13, 2017 10:01:10 AM

BPM-vs-Case-Management

BPM vs Case Management. There may be some confusion between BPM and case management and it’s important to understand the differences, especially when searching for solutions for better case management, improved business process management, or both. Let’s clear it up.

What is BPM?

What is BPM? BPM, or  business process management, is the term used to describe the overall management of workflow processes in an enterprise- whether business, agency, or non-profit. Overall, it focuses on individual workflow processes and how well they are working. Each workflow process is independent of other workflow processes, but can be clustered in relationship into a timeline. For example, in HR, a process may be employee on-boarding. There is a specific set of documents to complete for each employee in order for the process to be completed. While some documents may have sub-steps, once all the items have been completed and approved, the file, and process, is complete.

Business process management looks at processes such as this in order to create more efficiency, such as in automating where appropriate, systematizing for consistency, and filing appropriately for quick retrieval- which are all possible with BPM software.

In traditional BPM, the processes, while they may have sub-processes, aren’t connected to each other. So, in this HR example, each employee will run through the process at any given time. The timeline is tied to the employee, so each time there is a new employee, the process runs, sometimes parallel with another employee going through the same process. The BPM model then assumes a processes will be mostly consistent.

What is Case Management?

What is case management? It is a group of processes, and therefore are more complex. Cases typically involve actions by multiple people and/or departments and case management works to organize, compile and track cases. While BPM puts emphasis on single processes, Case Management puts emphasis on the complete and complex unit of processes that make up a case.

An example of a case could then be an investigation. While there may be steps, the direction of those steps could be widely varied. And, it’s not just the outcomes that make it a case, but that the process itself is not consistent, as it would be in BPM. In case management, multiple people need to be able to complete their required tasks, but within the context of understanding of the case.

Again, if we use HR as an example, it could be a case of an employee injury. The employee may need to go to the doctor and be treated and released, or they may need to take a leave. Worker’s comp may be filed and they may have several doctor visits before returning to work, or they may be terminated. HR, Payroll, Operations, Medical Doctors, and Insurance may all have tasks to complete. This then, is a case.

BPM vs Case Management

Many businesses and non-profits have the need for both BPM and adaptive case management, and often the lines between the need for either is rather blurred. The reason we cover it is because some may believe they need one specific product or service only to discover their needs are more robust, more complicated, than the system or software they purchased. They become frustrated and may give up because they are trying to squeeze their cases and processes into a solution that doesn’t fit. So instead of thinking it as BPM vs case management, think of it as BPM and case management operating together to improve process efficiency.

Process Director BPM software from BP Logix was built with case management solutions in mind and is a core feature within the software. Are you ready to see for yourself if Process Director is the right fit for your BPM and case management software needs? Why choose BPM vs case management when you can have both. To learn more, contact us and speak to one of our software experts and schedule your free demonstration today.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8EV4ZR1sOg[/embed]

Topics: BPM case management
2 min read

Automate Workflow With Process Director BPM Software

By BP Logix on Sep 6, 2017 11:59:15 AM

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Process Director BPM software from BP Logix was designed to automate workflow for enterprises across any business sector . An advanced BPM tool, Process Director BPM software allows a variety of organizations and departments within those organizations, to experience more process efficiency, more agility, and more streamlined workflow processes.

Workflow management and process improvement is more than a trend, it is what forward-thinking enterprises are using to make a positive impact on their bottom line, but that’s not the only benefit. While some may argue that the only reason to use BPM software is to automate workflow, but other business benefits include:

Reducing Errors- Use forms to create consistent data collection. Typed forms are easier to read and can require mandated fields to be completed.

Eliminating Double Entry/ Redundant Data- Fill out data once and allow it to be accessed by all those who need the in information. Easy to search and locate information from anywhere via cloud connectivity.

Improve Efficiency- Workflow automation can be put in place to create automatic routing of information such as HR paperwork, field technician data, approval processes and more. Process Director's unique workflow engine triggers allow for process automation to act as an extra hand to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

Reduce Costs- Automate workflow so staff can spend time on things that matter rather than filing, data entry and downtime. Reduce costs associated with postage, paper invoices, and forms by storing information digitally, including electronic signature technology.

Improve Decision Making- Real time information and automated alerts mean decision making can happen based on current and accurate data.

Improve Compliance- Create permissions and user sign-ins to create audit trails and security. Back-up multiple versions of documents and capture information in electronic forms, including signatures.

Better Document Management- No more need for paper filing cabinets that can be damaged in a disaster, subject to employee dishonesty, or in the wrong location. Easily search and access all needed documents onsite or remotely.

How Does Process Director Automate Workflow?

Process Director BPM software is a workflow automation software leader because it features what today’s business needs, including:

Document Workflow Management: Process Director's document workflow management system means users can search for documents, automate routing, and manage content, including eForms and eSignature capabilities for both mobile and office based employees.

Rapid App Development: No programming is required to build and implement fast applications. Easily create solutions to integrate enterprise software products with Process Director, engage with clients, streamline business processes, and more. Rapid application development means you don’t need to spend IT resources creating the solutions you need.

Business Process Improvement: Predictive, social, and analytical components allow management to watch for key performance indicators and make adjustments quickly. Define rules to control the routing of assignments and even user permissions.

Create automated systems that work for your company rather than trying to shove your unique business processes into pre-packaged solutions! Automate workflow with Process Director BPM software by requesting a free demonstration with our of our BPM experts today.

Image Credit: Fortunebuilders.com

Topics: workflow BPM
2 min read

BPM Implementation Success Key To The Bottom Line

By BP Logix on Aug 25, 2017 3:37:46 PM

bpm-implementation

We have long been advocates of BPM implementation as part of an overall approach to creating smarter and more efficient business operations. Our customers agree— and tend to frame that more succinctly: they seek methods and tools to help them improve profitability and business agility.

It also goes without saying that if BPM implementation cannot provide demonstrable benefits to the bottom line, it has no place within a forward-looking enterprise. Not everyone in every organization, however, obsesses about cost savings though. IT, for example, may just want to get things done faster — or with fewer obstacles. Purchasing might want to ensure faster sign-offs and approvals on requisitions and invoices. And HR certainly wants the employee onboarding process to work as smoothly and effortlessly as possible.

With BPM implementation, benefit of using workflow software is that the workflow tools create a more efficient path, companies not only get their tasks done sooner — but also contribute to a more financially responsible environment. Their efforts, aided by workflow tools and BPM technology, save money and foster a more productive working situation. Once established, the expectation is that repeatable processes open the door for continuous improvement —and a new mindset begins to take over throughout the company.

The point at which BPM implementation makes a demonstrable impact from BPM software and workflow software is observable happens very quickly— and is sometimes almost immediate. With many of customers, implementing our BPM software solution, Process Director means using eforms software, workflow and business process management software for the first time. Beyond the initial learning curve, customers typically find that there is huge value to be derived from changing even the simplest task. When data entry is an automated (rather than manual) function, we have seen as much as a 75% reduction in the duplication of data. When routing is automated, we have seen a 60% (or faster) turn-around in responses.  With the proper BPM implementation, changes like that translate into significant changes to the bottom line. This is the kind of thing that serves almost all stakeholders: lines of business managers see more productivity, IT sees less manual work, HR experiences uniform dissemination of information and faster onboarding and finance and purchasing recognize validations of purchases.

One of the reasons that workflow software and business process management (BPM) software can be mapped to cost savings is because of the transparency they provide. We have customers who, prior to using Process Director BPM software, could not place the location of a document during its approval routing, and did not know when to expect a business action to be completed. By employing our BPM technology and adhering to our defined business rules engine, actions can now be automated and status becomes very visible. That visibility means that goals and deadlines can be applied and met. That, in turn, leads to scheduling and planning according to whatever schedules (quarterly, yearly, by-project, by team) the company wants to use.

With the added level of visibility comes the ability to review and analyze outcomes. Knowing where things tend to stall, and where there is room for process improvement enables the business to continuously improve and optimize its actions. Similar to a post-mortem, this allows a team to identify areas that can benefit from being modified or changed — and can bring together the players that will help them achieve their goals. This can be done concurrently with an eye towards efficiency and profitability, knowing that "profit" comes in many forms.

BPM implementation does not deliver results as independent “things.” With a defined strategy for implementation, an understanding on KPIs, and recognition of how to use resources effectively, Workflow and BPM implementation deliver significant value — value that will profoundly impact an organization’s bottom line.

Topics: workflow automation BP Logix BPM business process management
2 min read

Electronic Signature Technology of Process Director

By BP Logix on Aug 23, 2017 10:49:50 AM

 

Cloud BPM solutions allow workers to access data, forms, documents, and more from anywhere and any device. This remote workforce capability is helping to streamline business processes, increase profitability, improve customer service, and reduce the costs associated with printing and delivering documents. Many companies are recognizing the value of mobile BPM solutions as well as the benefit of capturing secure e-signatures with electronic signature technology to further reduce expenses and expedite document processing.

Process Director and Electronic Signature Technology

Companies who see the benefit of reducing paperwork with electronic versions are reaping multiple benefits including:

  • Reduction in costs associated with printing, such as ink, paper, and copier maintenance.
  • Reduction in shipping/delivery expenses. Fewer documents means a decrease in postage costs and no delivery fees. The customer has their invoice, quote, or purchase order in their e-mail with their e-signature included.
  • Fewer errors and redundancies as well as less filing and mail/document processing.
  • Faster document processing, including approval processes to close orders and get paid faster.
  • Sales cycles can be shortened through business process automation and electronic signature capture.
  • Approval-based workflows are simplified with no guessing or accidentally allowing something to slip through the cracks. Process Director allows you to set up alerts when signatures don’t happen in the expected timeline.
  • Enhanced security and back up. Process Director allows data to be securely housed online, protecting it from fire, flood, or theft. Back-ups of documentation and the e-signature are maintained for records and audits.

Find Success with Process Director

Paperwork can be lost, misfiled, damaged, or even simply thrown away. However, e-signature software allows businesses to quickly and easily capture legally binding signatures, streamline approvals, create accountability, and build an audit trail while also keeping digital records.

Not only are digital records easy to search, making them easy to find, they eliminate the need for filing and physical storage space. Web based back-ups mean important documents are stored securely without fear of onsite weather, fire, or theft concerns.

Furthermore, this electronic signature technology can be used with vendors, suppliers, customers, and even employees. Consider the accountability created with purchase orders, product delivery, contracts, and policy manuals when e-signatures become part of the business process. Signatures state the information is verified and approved, thus reducing miscommunication and creating a contract of understanding. Electronic signature technology truly give management another tool for enforcing expectations and standards.

A Case Study in eSign with Process Director

Memphis Light, Gas and Water recently began using Process Director with e-signature and has reported some incredible results such as a significant decrease in approval times due to improved routing and document review processes supported by mobile applications, improved accessibility to documentation, making audits simpler and quicker, and more consistency in form completion with automation in place among other things.

Whether you need the security of digital signatures, the accountability of electronic signatures, or remote based e-signature capture, Process Director BPM software offers the electronic signature technology you need to reach your goals. Contact us today for a demonstration.

Topics: BPM software
2 min read

Business Process Governance and BPM Software

By BP Logix on Aug 16, 2017 9:33:20 AM

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What is Business Process Governance?

What is business process governance, you ask? It has the goal of optimizing business processes and workflows related to governance, compliance, and risk management, whether internal, external, or both. Priorities are set, tools are implemented, and leaders are put in place to create more effective processes. Governance creates a system of continual improvement by setting in place a team or teams who oversee what is and what is not working within an enterprise. These teams can include frontline staff, management, IT, and others to create a robust feedback loop.

Why is it Important?

Ever-changing regulations in today’s highly-competitive business climate means Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) must be treated in a proactive way, as audits and fines take up valuable resources.

Some companies have separated governance, risk and compliance solutions from business process management, which is ill advised. Business process management software, or BPM software, is designed to streamline the critical processes in every type of business to create more consistency, better user experiences, accountability, increased profits, and efficiency. GRC solutions should work alongside all other business processes so the organization can align its strategies and policies to external regulations. Doing so creates healthy, long-lasting business governance, and, when done alongside BPM, will yield financial gains as well.

 

Often, regulatory compliance and business governance fails due to a lack of buy-in from those responsible for the managed tasks. As a management tool, and an incredibly profitable one when used properly, it helps businesses:

  • Better manage roles and responsibilities
  • Create accountability
  • Aid in decision making
  • Collect data and generate meaningful reports/analysis of that data
  • Account for management metrics

So, while management may be pushing back on Goverance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), when informed of the benefits, they may take a different viewpoint.

What is Business Process Governance to BP Logix?

What is business process governance to BP Logix? We look at it as an opportunity to provide a holistic approach to organizations with governance, risk and compliance automation solutions so organizations are in control to today’s unpredictable business environment with changing regulatory requirements. BP Logix’s  BPM software, Process Director,  is a complete GRC software solution that offers:

Audit Trails. Form field audits track changes in form data and searchable fields make finding information easy. User permissions and mandated fields create accountability and consistency, creating more complete and robust data. External audit logs manage multiple versions of documents, events, and actions.

Security. Digital signatures, field signatures, strong password enforcement, and multi-factor authentication create secure data submissions to meet compliance regulations. Encryption and more strict default permissions can also be put in place for enhanced security.

Customizable: Easily integrate with other programs to avoid double entry redundancies and errors. Configure settings to meet your organizational goals, key performance indicators, and internal workflows while maintaining the agility needed for changing regulatory conditions.

Learn more about BP Logix’s Process Director for your business process governance needs by contacting us today to request a free demonstration. One of our BPM experts will learn about your goals and requirements and tailor a demonstration to meet your specific needs.

Image Credit - trustarc.com

Topics: BPM software
2 min read

BPM vs Custom Development

By BP Logix on Aug 12, 2017 4:13:00 PM

bpm-development

Programmers: I love 'em. In fact, I was one, many years ago, when the Internet was a friendly place where everybody knew your hostname. In those days, if you needed a computer to do something, you hired a programmer for software development. Off-the-shelf BPM software development was limited to the most very basic commodity tools, such as word processing. Not only was locally developed business process management software the default choice, companies viewed their home-grown custom applications as a competitive advantage. I recall one very large firm in the early 90s that even wrote its own programming language because, well, I guess none of the dozens of existing languages quite fit the bill.

But, as my (remaining) gray hair can attest, things change. Companies today regard expense reduction as a key driver, and most CIOs recognize that custom applications should be the exception rather than the rule. Programmers still have an important contribution to make, but for BPM vendors, creating solutions that can be leveraged by more than just one company.

Business process management is an important part of this fundamental trend, because there can still be a mismatch between the features of off-the-shelf applications and the very specific needs of a given business. BPM solutions act as the glue that fills these gaps, taking data from one or more systems, pushing that data through a process, and updating other systems as appropriate.

Thus, the real leverage of BPM software is found in its ability to combine proprietary processes and data with off-the-shelf applications. However, that leverage is weakened considerably if the business process management solution itself requires custom development, and all the overhead that goes along with it. That is no doubt why virtually every RFP or requirements list I see specifies that little or no programming should be needed to implement any proposed business process management solution.

Happily, there's one industry that still needs programmers, and is likely to continue to need them for quite some time to come. Of course, I'm referring to the business process management software industry, and that's one reason I'm so glad to be a part of it.

Topics: BP Logix BPM business process management
2 min read

BPM Healthcare Examples and Case Studies - Part 2

By BP Logix on Aug 10, 2017 8:13:42 AM

BPM-Healthcare

In a previous healthcare BPM post, we talked about how BP Logix works with large healthcare organizations like MultiPlan and the National Eye Institute to implement BPM healthcare solutions for improved process efficiency across departments including finance, IT, regulatory, and purchasing among others.

Today, again, we’re looking at additional BPM healthcare examples and case studies to further illustrate how pivotal Process Director can be in improving processes, saving time, and reducing headaches.

The National Institute of Mental Health Creates a Telecommuting Workforce with BPM

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is the largest scientific organization in the world dedicated to research focused on the understanding, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders and the promotion of mental health. The mission of NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure.

THE PROBLEM: As the organization grew, tracking and managing the sheer volume of forms, approvals, and documents associated with their administrative business processes became an administrative challenge that needed to be addressed. They wanted a BPM healthcare solution that could interface with their other systems, offer multiple scenario workflows, and be searchable. They also wanted to be able to create a designated telecommuting workforce.

THE SOLUTION:  Within 60 days, the IT team had created and implemented their initial healthcare BPM workflows and database connectors that integrated with their back-end systems. They quickly created teleworker authorization and remote access forms, travel requests, waiver process/security exception requests, budgetary funds request, and IT purchase requests.

Learn more about National Institute of Mental Health here.

Whittier Health Network Streamlined Benefit Enrollment with BPM Healthcare

Whittier Health Network provides quality, comprehensive medical care to its residents in a compassionate family care setting. The network is comprised of acute rehabilitation hospitals, sub-acute rehabilitation and long-term care facilities, management services, an institutional pharmacy, a home health care agency, and an adult psychiatric hospital.

THE PROBLEM: Their annual benefit enrollment process was grueling,  with 2,500 employees who needed to be processed in a three-week time frame. The volume of documents to process was overwhelming and they wanted an easier way that automated more of the process. The goal was to find a product that did not require a lot of expenses for training.

THE SOLUTION: They began with a smaller process of online applications and when that was successful, they went onto to use Process Director to implement the full employee benefits enrollment process. Rather than scanning forms of information and gathering signatures and approvals, the full process was automated with healthcare BPM improvements. Less challenging, less painful, friendlier, and more effective, Process Director took a complicated enrollment process and simplified it.

Is a BPM healthcare solution right for your organization? It can be a solution for medium- and large-sized healthcare institutions processing volumes of paperwork on a daily basis. Contact us today for a free demo and to speak to one of our BPM experts.

 

Topics: BP Logix BPM BPM software
3 min read

Healthcare BPM Examples and Case Studies

By BP Logix on Aug 9, 2017 7:29:37 AM

healthcare-bpm
When asked the value of healthcare BPM (business process management), it always comes back to three things: alleviating regulatory headaches, standardization of data, and simplification of processes. Improved process efficiency, reduced redundancies, better levels of customer care, and resulting revenue increases are the typical goals for any BPM, and healthcare BPM receive all those and more. Here are a few examples of how healthcare BPM has been used to the benefit of the healthcare providers.

MultiPlan’s Use of Healthcare BPM Smoothed out Procurement

MultiPlan is the nation’s leading comprehensive provider of healthcare cost management solutions. Contracting with an estimated 57 million consumers through 900,000 healthcare providers, the company provides a single gateway for managing health care claims financial risk. Processing over 40 million medical claims annually, MultiPlan is the only company offering access to national independent PPOs, its network, and negotiation and medical reimbursement services through a single electronic submission.

THE PROBLEM: MultiPlan became aware of their need to replace their Lotus Notes database with a more effective procurement method for the handling of capital and major expenditure requests. Initially, they began looking for an eProcurement solution, but found those to be more than what they needed. They wanted an off-the-shelf solution to integrate with their financial management programs, ERP, and other applications as well as be able to offer an electronic approval process and improve the capital and expenditures business process.

THE SOLUTION: Setting up a healthcare BPM solution using the BP Logix Process Director with its unique timeline software, Process Timeline. The finance department was excited to see the solution working effectively so they executed the process for all expenses, rather than just large capital. Additionally, IT discovered the ease of customization, and began to create processes that allowed documentation attachments such as vendor quotes, PO’s, ROI analysis, and more. Due to the success, IT further added Accounts Payable (AP) to the process, which allowed users to search past records and match invoices within the system.

Learn more about MultiPlan here.

Whittier Health Network Streamlined Benefit Enrollment

Whittier Health Network provides quality, comprehensive medical care to its residents in a compassionate family care setting. The network is comprised of acute rehabilitation hospitals, sub-acute rehabilitation and long-term care facilities, management services, an institutional pharmacy, a home health care agency, and an adult psychiatric hospital.

THE PROBLEM: Their annual benefit enrollment process was grueling,  with 2,500 employees who needed to be processed in a three-week time frame. The volume of documents to process was overwhelming and they wanted an easier way that automated more of the process. The goal was to find a product that did not require a lot of expenses for training.

THE SOLUTION: They began with a smaller process of online applications and when that was successful, they went onto to use Process Director to implement the full employee benefits enrollment process. Rather than scanning forms of information and gathering signatures and approvals, the full process was automated with healthcare BPM improvements. Less challenging, less painful, friendlier, and more effective, Process Director took a complicated healthcare workflow enrollment process and simplified it.

Learn more about Whittier Health Network here.

More on Process Director Healthcare Workflow & BPM Solutions


These are just two BPM examples on how BP Logix BPM software for healthcare organizations could work. The BPM benefits are vast so be on the lookout for additional case studies here on the BP Logix BPM blog soon.

Ready to learn more about the value Process Director BPM software can support your BPM goals? Contact us today for a free demonstration from a BP Logix expert.

Topics: workflow BP Logix BPM
2 min read

Construction Workflow Software

By BP Logix on Aug 2, 2017 6:46:36 AM

Construction-Workflow-Software

Make Construction Project Management Easier

Construction project management includes the oversight of budgets, timelines, workers, consumer communication, and more. With all the moving facets construction project management entails, tasks can easily be forgotten causing missed deadlines and/or costly budget changes. Construction workflow software assists to create intelligent automation to reduce the chances of project steps “falling through the cracks”, as well as create accountability.

How Can Process Director Construction Workflow Software Help Me?


There are several benefits for implementing a BPM solution like our award-winning BPM solution, Process Director, that can help with construction project management which can lead to increased productivity, less down time, and increased profitability.

Approval Process Management

Approvals can be time consuming but are important for budget, timeline, and customer satisfaction. Automating the approval process can simplify it by automatically sending the needed paperwork to the correct party and notifying them if they don’t meet a deadline or are approaching one. You will no longer need to check emails over and over searching for approvals, forwarding documents and awaiting responses. Workflow management software can automate the approval process and save time within the overall construction project management timeline.

Simple Field Forms

Electronic forms are easy to create and allow users to enter specific information while they are in the field, whether or not they are online. This information can quickly be communicated to the office, or appropriate parties, so the next action can be taken.

Quickly conduct inspections, receive easy to read data, and even attach images or documents for a robust file of information.

Accountability

Our construction workflow software allows users to grant specific permissions to different users to create accountability and security. Only the needed information is provided to the client, subcontractor, supplier, or other personnel making it clear where a project is in its workflow and who is responsible for which tasks.

Reporting

A single point of data is created through the cloud based construction workflow software which allows reports to be generated, printed, saved, or emailed from any computer. All information is in real-time and can track the information you need for better management. Process Director can also alert management when tasks are expected to miss a deadline to allow for correction and reduce downtime.

Document Workflow Management System

A document workflow management system allows for the scanning of documents and images so all documents and information are in one area. Changes can be tracked to create audit trails, and data can easily integrate into other systems, such as payroll, job costing or other financial management tools.

Request a Demonstration

Avoid redundancy, decrease costs, and increase profit within your construction project management timeline by allowing automation and integration to work in your favor with our construction workflow software solution, Process Director. Contact us to speak to a BPM expert and schedule your free demonstration today.

Topics: workflow BP Logix BPM software
2 min read

Inspection Process Improvement With Process Director

By BP Logix on Jul 26, 2017 6:52:56 AM

Inspection-Process

Inspectors want a way to more easily track and enter their work in the field. The inspection process, including audits and field visits, can be optimized and better managed with mobile BPM solutions. Recently, The City of West Allis was able to improve their mobile inspection process with Process Director from BP Logix.

West Allis, located in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin is an industrial and suburban city with a population of nearly 63,000 residents. The city is responsible for overall government including public safety, housing assistance, water distribution and disposal, public works, and recreation. One of the problems they were looking to solve was that of new business permit inspection process.

Businesses who wanted to operate in West Allis were completing redundant applications because the multiple departments who needed the information weren’t able to share the data, and when they did, they often discovered missing information. This made renewals difficult and left huge holes in the process that delayed businesses from opening, or allowing them to open without all the permits and licenses they needed in place.

The city wanted to redo its entire licensing and business occupancy permit inspection process to be more efficient by allowing new business owners to apply for permits with less paperwork, and the information to be complete and seamlessly flow to all needed parties.

After reviewing several BPM software options, they chose Process Director because it addressed not only their specific needs, but because of its overall capabilities which expanded into 86 other business process solutions.

The Process Director Mobile Inspection software allows management to:

  • Gain greater visibility and transparency of their field workers
  • Have custom configurable forms and workflows unique to your business
  • Automate workflow triggers when inspection data is submitted
  • Streamline the way CAPA (Corrective and Preventative Actions) are handled
  • Create permissions on data so it is available to all and only the appropriate users
  • Know real time geo-locations of all inspections and their status
  • Search and view all past inspections, audits, and field visits
  • Create form templates with mandated fields to create consistent data
  • Use eForms to capture, track, document, and integrate information whether on a mobile device or desktop via cloud technology
  • Have seamless integration with current applications such as ERP, HRIS, and more

Process Director Mobile Inspection Process Improve software allows field inspectors to:

  • Easily track and enter data via their mobile device, without returning to the office
  • Enter data once, rather than in multiple locations or on multiple forms
  • Connect messages, video, and/or pictures to the forms easily
  • Streamline data sharing with the appropriate office personnel
  • Have a simple daily schedule of locations with complete geo-tracking information
  • Have the ability to complete forms whether or not there is an internet connection
  • Get driving instructions via Google Maps to minimize down time/drive time
  • Obtain approval signatures directly on their mobile device
  • Tag, time-stamp, and location-stamp attachments

Process Director can help you connect with employees in the field quickly, with no developer or code required. Learn more about the award-winning BPM software and see if it’s right for you with a free demo today.

Topics: BP Logix BPM software
2 min read

SharePoint Workflow Solutions Left You Disappointed?

By BP Logix on Jul 19, 2017 1:11:04 PM

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As your business evolves and expands, so do your technology needs. A one-person shop likely needs little more than a phone and computer; however, an enterprise may need high-speed cable, networks, and even a help desk. A laptop and landline simply won’t do. However, we find clients who have complex workflows with multiple steps who are using SharePoint workflow solutions to handle their requirements.  What ends up happening is, they tend to find out (months or more later) that this tool is not designed to handle their specific needs.

Why? Because it is a hard job to identify and evaluate the right IT solution for a project. Even just considering custom workflow solutions can lead down can rabbit trail and become convoluted when considering the additional needs from other departments, personnel or even customers. SharePoint vendor information can be confusing, and when performing a side-by-side comparison, it looks too similar to create real understanding. What usually ends up happening is that the process becomes tedious and overwhelming. Decision fatigue sets in and can create a delay in decision making, or worse, it forces a quick decision to be made, which creates a short term, ineffective, and incomplete fix to the problem.

Benefits and Limits of SharePoint Workflow Solutions

SharePoint offers workflow software capabilities, but it can seem very linear and limited. It offers modeling and process functionality to address basic internal portal and intranet operations, and the Microsoft Office platform is widely recognized. Expansion of its capabilities seems like a logical step, however it isn’t able to handle intelligent decision-making processes, document management, and automated business rules, especially when they require human intervention, such as approval processes. A true BPM software solution must be able to adapt to the constantly growing needs of the enterprise.

Furthermore, while SharePoint workflow solutions are good for content and data management, it doesn’t do a good job at managing governance and compliance requirements. Additionally, it requires dedicated developers to create the needed customization for businesses. In the end, it becomes expensive and slow to implement, hard to customize and expand, and not fully effective.

While the company is searching for streamlined processes, increased agility, and cost savings from a BPM solution, they’ve created nearly the opposite result with a tool designed for much simpler applications.

An Alternative To SharePoint Workflow Solutions

BP Logix Process Director is a SharePoint alternative. An award-winning BPM solution, Process Director uses rapid application development and no-code implementations to seamlessly link legacy programs with management tools that streamline data, manage documents, automate processes, and create audit trails for compliance, governance, and accountability. Customers currently using SharePoint workflow software can leverage their existing SharePoint investments by implementing eForms, lists, tasks, and data connectivity to create the real decision-making and cost saving capabilities BPM was designed for.

Whether searching for a robust, flexible, and easy-to-implement BPM solution, or wanting to better leverage current programs, including SharePoint workflow solutions, BP Logix has solutions to support your business process management goals. Contact us today for more information or schedule a free demo of Process Director with one of our BPM workflow experts.

Topics: workflow BP Logix BPM software
3 min read

Dynamic Case Management Software and BPM Software in One

By BP Logix on Jul 12, 2017 10:26:22 AM

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What if you could access all your needed client information on your computer, any computer, rather than a filing cabinet? What if it could be more secure, more robust, and easily accessible anytime, anywhere, and by only those who need it? This is the role of dynamic case management software and these solutions can be found in Process Director business process management software.

Process Director: BPM and Dynamic Case Management Software in One


Process Director BPM platform is a shared, cloud-based database of your client information. This means those who need the information can access it quickly and easily, and those who shouldn’t see it, won’t. Case management, or document management, begins with understanding who needs access and who doesn’t, and setting up permissions for that access. No longer tied to a file cabinet or single computer, Process Director’s cloud-based technology means you can manage cases remotely, retrieve information quickly, and even capture more accurate and robust information using e-forms.

Reporting, searching, and automation make Process Director business process management and dynamic case management software an attractive solution to companies that are searching for:

Process efficiency
• Better management decisions to better meet compliance requirements
• To reduce costs

Process Director BPM and case management solutions allows users to easily share documents, calendars, lists, form data, and more with the most up-to-date information. Users can also set up alerts to notify employees of deadlines or other actions needed (including approvals).

With rapid application development software, electronic forms can be created, accessed and completed with a mobile device which also allows for seamless BPM application integration into already existing software programs and applications.

Capturing Time


As time progresses, cases change, and usually there is more than one person involved in the evolution. Process Timeline is a patented business process automation software is exclusive to Process Director business process management software and it lays out time in a Gantt chart model which adds the element of time to the management process. This allows for management of a case across several departments, such as Administrative, HR, Legal, and IT.Time is an element frequently missing from traditional workflow scenarios, meaning when one part of the equation is delayed (an approval sitting on the desk of the person on vacation, for example), the workflow comes to a halt. With intelligent software, alerts can be triggered when a deadline is likely to be missed so human intervention can step in to resolve it and keep things moving along.

Is Process Director The Right Dynamic Case Management Software Solution For You?

We welcome the opportunity to demonstrate the following features to see how powerful Process Director's business process management and dynamic case management software can be:

• Sophisticated case-aware reporting and applications
• Enterprise document workflow management system with easy-to-configure case folders for quick access to all case-related data and documents
• Designed for low code/no code BPM which means users can simply create workflows and forms without a developer
• Time-based business processes allow for event and time driven execution and decision-making and adapt to changes for ad hoc needs
• Simple application integration allows for importing or sharing of data from existing sources, with no additional options to purchase and no additional components to learn.
• Includes a unique set of BPM tools and workflow tools

Process Director business process management software redefines dynamic case management software with its ability to combine actionable communication with predictive analysis.

Want to learn more? Contact us today for a free BPM software demonstration of Process Director from a BP Logix business process management expert and learn how to speed your workflow, communication, and decision-making processes with BPM software.

Topics: case management
3 min read

Healthcare Systems Approval Process Improvement

By BP Logix on Jul 5, 2017 9:28:35 AM

healthcare bpm doctor

Healthcare systems are no different than other systems that demand process efficiency, but they also have the additional challenges of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC). Consequently, healthcare has a higher demand for robust document management than most in order to tackle the challenges around GRC and high volume paperwork.

In this information age, healthcare systems must find easier ways to manage everything from sales and marketing collateral to e-form submissions and ever-changing client, or patient, data. Process efficiency can easily be lost among the cluster of approvals, files, and folders.

Process Director BPM software from BP Logix includes a set of unique workflow capabilities that are designed to support healthcare systems approval process, document management, overall workflow, and compliance needs. Below are three brief examples:

Case Study: MultiPlan’s Healthcare Systems Approval Process

MultiPlan, a leading provider of healthcare cost management solutions serving nearly 900,000 healthcare providers, needed a solution to manage their electronic approval process. Additionally, they wanted a solution that would easily integrate with their current financial and resource management applications and offered cloud technology.

Process Director from BP Logix was implemented to create a solution that not only met those requirements, it also automated their capital expenditure approvals electronically and incorporated workflow, business logic, and reporting into their overall business processes. Today, all the required information on major expenses are accessed through a central portal to streamline asset retention and disposition and purchase orders are automated.

The approval process is more efficient than before with emails that are automatically sent to approvers and alerts auto-set when action is required. Although not part of the original plan, because Process Director worked so well, MultiPlan decided to use it to develop and manage their contract management process as well.

Case Study: Approval Process Improvement at National Institute of Mental Health

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is dedicated to research focused on the understanding, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders and the promotion of mental health. Managing and tracking the volume of forms as the organization continued to expand became an administrative challenge they needed to solve. They had a particular need in the area of IT procurements, which were required to meet GRC standards as well as be reviewed and approved.

BP Logix Process Director was used to streamline the review and approval process, as well as to support their need to watch and maintain their budget. Within two months, initial workflows and database integration with their back-end systems were in place. Teleworker authorization and IT procurements were the most needed and first implemented workflows that resulted in 50% savings on account and support calls, a 50% decrease in time spent reviewing requests, and a 95% reduction in equipment and software procurement. Due to this success, NIMH currently has developed over 60 workflow and smart forms using Process Director.

Case Study: Johnson & Johnson Approves Digital Submissions

Johnson and Johnson (J&J) needed to collaboratively manage their sales and marketing documents, specifically the review and approval of digital submissions, including multi-media files. They were looking for a cloud-based, mobile-friendly healthcare systems solution that could keep all relevant data in a single location. BP Logix Process Director was the implemented solution that resulted in cost savings and a faster review and approval process. This further led to them to win the Business Process Management Excellence Award.

"Knowing that this initiative is based on our technology, and that we are enabling J&J to achieve this objective, is both satisfying and rewarding," Jay O'Brien, BP Logix CEO

BP Logix Process Director healthcare systems approval process software has supported healthcare organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and life sciences organizations to bring organizational efficiency, cost reduction, standardization, compliance, and simplicity to their workflow processes.

Ready to see for yourself? Contact us today!

Topics: workflow BPM
3 min read

Workflow Timeline Software Solutions For Businesses

By BP Logix on Jun 28, 2017 8:54:50 AM

Workflow-Timeline-Software-Process-Timeline

Conventional BPM software has focused on higher process efficiency through better business process management and filling the need for appropriate controls. These are critical, and yet they fail when the component of time is added. Therefore, BP Logix created Process Timeline, a proprietary workflow timeline software with business process automation technology, to bring this important factor into the BPM and workflow model.

The component of time offers businesses additional control by allowing integrating predictive elements, allowing for human intervention if a task isn’t expected to complete on time. This ‘early notification’ is only available when time is a factor. Typical workflow processes may include an approval step, but fail to communicate when the task or full process will complete. The Process Timeline software is a timeline-based workflow engine that changes that.

Traditional Workflow Flowcharts and Linear Process Failures

Of course, it is important to know that tasks are getting completed and goals will be met as a result, but it is also important to know what is currently happening in real time. For example, in an approval process we know that Dick, Jane and Joe need to approve of a project, in consecutive order, but we don’t have a way to track the lag time or completion time to see when that approved item can go into the next process. By creating automation steps into the process, we can see real time and predictive outcomes.

Advanced Solutions Using a Workflow Timeline Software


A typical flowchart lays out “what happens next”, but Process Timeline software is a workflow software that asks, “what must be completed before this step can begin, and how long will it take?” These questions take the two goals of BPM, process efficiency improvement and governance, to a new level by incorporating the element of a time-focused BPM technology. This simple yet crucial piece yields ever greater results for enterprise businesses looking for the benefits of BPM but need more out of a traditional workflow.

Benefits of Business Process Management (BPM) With Process Timeline Software

1. Our award-winning BPM software stores every aspect of your processes for internal or external audits for improved compliance and robust data storage needs.
2. Automate without having to use code for multiple processes. Simple models create fast workflow timeline processes where each activity has a duration estimate to create predictive results.
3. The workflow timeline displays entire process as well as sub-processes that can be seen easily in real-time for proactive responses and early intervention on potential delays at glance.
4. Process Director’s predictive nature triggers actions in response to changing circumstances to overcome obstacles before production halts or missed deadlines for improved management.
5. Traditional as well as intelligent BPM processes work side by side to create more of an agile BPM solution while meeting a variety of business process management needs, all without the need for extensive IT resources, coding, or training.

Process Timeline is a workflow timeline solution with business process automation technology designed to capture the benefits of traditional BPM benefits with the added intelligence of time progression. This workflow timeline software solution maximizes both repetitive processes and unique, unpredictable processes with human decision making into one. Want to learn more?

Contact us today for a free demo from a BP Logix business process management expert and learn how to speed your workflow, communication and decision-making processes with a BPM and workflow software solution.

Topics: BPM BPM software
3 min read

Business Process Management Suite (BPM Suite)

By BP Logix on Jun 21, 2017 11:42:57 AM

BPM-Suite-BPMS

What Is A BPM Suite (BPMS)?

A BPM suite (BPMS) is a set of business process management tools that are implemented in order to improve business processes. Benefits include increased productivity, more streamlined procedures, less downtime waste, better customer and/or employee experience. This leads to more complete and consistent data in which to make more accurate decisions.

BPM software has evolved from simple process automation into a more robust management and engagement tool. Process Director business process management suite from BP Logix has balanced this complex functionality with easy to integrate solutions to get the most benefit, without the elaborate, expensive, and frustrating need for IT resources and coding.

Digital Transformation With A Business Process Management Suite


Digital transformation. It is more than just a trending term. It is the goal of today’s forward-thinking enterprises and is increasing impact on the marketplace.

What is it? Overall, digital transformation allows your business to stay ahead of the curve by putting technology in place to allow for continued growth and expansion. The most powerful technology, in our opinion, is that of a BPM suite.

As business process management suites have morphed to handle increasingly complicated tasks and processes, the need for simplicity has become more crucial than ever before. BPM technology advances, such as low code rapid application development, has bridged this gap, allowing for both complexity and simplicity in one dynamic software. The cloud based platform means it stays as agile as your business, with updates to create continuous improvement.

Overall, Process Director business process management suite (BPM Suite) can make your job easier.

Business Tools Designed For The User. In the past, everything was code driven. A solution was implemented and users where trained on how to use it, that is, until something newer and better came along, when then the process had to start over again. With Process Director BPM suite, we turn this old thinking on its head and start with the user first. The tools are easy-to-use and focused on results and needs of the user in a way they already understand.

Structure Based On Projects. Outdated traditional BPM platforms depend on linear, first-second-third type processes, designed for manufacturing type systems. Today’s businesses need more than that and Process Director business process management suite does this by structuring BPM to focus on projects in small segments that allow for easier automation and faster ROI.

Proving A Valuable View Of Business Processes. Real-time data and analytics, as provided in an iBPMS such as Process Director, means better management. The users define not only the processes but also key performance requirements, resulting in relevant, accurate and concise decision making.

Customizable reports, alerts, e-forms, permissions and automated responses keep and build accountability, accuracy and information storage with more efficiency and effectiveness.

Process Director BPM suite is a robust yet easy-to-use solution that combines the automation of both repetitive processes and unique, unpredictable processes and human decision making into one. Want to learn more about Process Director business process management suite? Contact us today for a free demo from a BP Logix business process management expert and learn how to speed your workflow, communication and decision making processes with our award winning platform.

Image Credit: http://blog.snapinspect.com

Topics: BP Logix BPM BPM software
2 min read

Business Process Management Software (BPM Software)

By BP Logix on Jun 14, 2017 12:09:51 PM

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Process Director Business Process Management Software

Process Director business process management software is designed to support the multiple processes that make a business run. It works to improve workflow processes by automating, reducing redundancies and outdated practices, streamlining document based procedures and more. Agile BPM software like Process Director can meet specific needs unlike enterprise software of old, making it the new solution for a variety of applications to increase businesses’ bottom lines.

Intelligent Business Process Management Software (iBPMS)


In the past, BPM technology was little more than process automation. Process Director is an intelligent BPM software that is revolutionizing processes and making it easier to adapt to both large and small scale uses, making it more assessable than ever before. Less expensive and more flexible than in the past, business process management software is innovating the way business is being done through:

Business Process Automation: The process of automating redundant tasks removes redundancies and increases efficiency for better output.

Social BPM: Social media can make or break credibility with today’s consumer. Social BPM watches consumer behaviors and takes specific actions to provide more dynamic online engagements.

Mobile BPM: BPM software is ever expanding through the use of apps. Rapid app development means solutions for field workers to reduce lag time and increase consistency.

Electronic Forms: Create consistent data entry and rules around who can access what information, for a more robust and useful knowledge base. For example: Memphis Light, Gas & Water.

Analytics: By creating benchmarks to track and adjust, managers can be more predictive and responsive to data driven information and make better decisions.

Simple Integration: Web-based software means it is easy to access from anywhere and reduces the risk of on-site back-up failure. Integration between enterprise software is easy to integrate and reduces the need to learn new software.

Alerts and Rules: Automating linear and complex processes with rules and alerts keeps things moving forward without “babysitting”. Approval processes become easier to manage and paperwork isn’t lost or buried in a desk in-box.

Rapid Application Development: Easy to use forms, dashboards, reports and more can all be created quickly through rapid app development, without coding.

Compliance and Security: Document workflow management allows you to stay compliant and organized by storing, securing, managing and searching content across multiple arenas of business. User permissions allow tracking, security and collaboration.

Process Director Award Winning BPM Software

BP Logix is proud to offer Process Director BPM software. Award winning, customer focused and agile, Process Director BPM is ready to take your business to the next level. Process Director is also in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Intelligent Business Process Management Software (iBPMS).

Ready to learn more? Contact us today or schedule a free demonstration to learn more about how our iBPMS can support your objectives.

Topics: BP Logix BPM BPM software business process management
2 min read

Process Improvement: What Is It & How We Can Help

By BP Logix on Jun 7, 2017 1:46:10 PM

What-Is-Process-Improvement

What is Process Improvement?

Process improvement refers to the examination of current business processes to determine if they are meeting the goals of the company. This includes analyzing systems to determine areas of down-time, inefficiencies and market gaps in order to increase process efficiency. Improving user experience and profitability are the main reasons why improvement tasks and management styles are so popular.

Beginning as far back as lean manufacturing practices of Toyota, business process management (BPM) is a proactive and continuous way to improve everything from vendors and supplies to social media communication, data entry and approval processes. It allows for increased standards of consistency and performance.

What Does It Support Within A Business?

Process systems, such as business process management software (BPM software) support:

  • Increased profits
  • Improved quality
  • Enhanced customer satisfaction
  • Increased productivity
  • More consistent data entry
  • Faster approvals
  • Field Service Management Software Solutions / Mobile Form Systemization
  • Reduced costs
  • Better compliance
  • Improved business agility
  • And more

How BP Logix Can Help With Your Process Improvement Needs?


We look at process improvement a little differently; it’s an opportunity to engage with our customers and learn about their business and provide them with customized business process management software solutions to help them achieve process efficiency through business process automation. Our BPM solutions are top notch and we aren’t just saying that. Gartner, a world leader in IT research and advising, chose BP Logix’s Process Director for their Magic Quadrant review.

“A Gartner Magic Quadrant is a culmination of research in a specific market, giving you a wide-angle view of the relative positions of the market's competitors. By applying a graphical treatment and a uniform set of evaluation criteria, a Magic Quadrant helps you quickly ascertain how well technology providers are executing their stated visions and how well they are performing against Gartner's market view.” (Source: Gartner Magic Quadrant)

Gartner’s research process is geared toward discovering and exploring market trends in the world of IT and examining their impact on business. BP Logix was chosen in part because of the revolutionary Process Director which led them to winning the Business Intelligence Group BIG Innovation Award in 2016 and has been named to the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Intelligent Business Process Management Suites (iBPMS) for several years in a row.

Process Director has been reviewed by a third party, awarded by industry professionals, and supports your company’s need and desire for process improvement and efficiency. Its unique workflow tools and features offer several advantages over current standard BPMs in the market. Ready to see for yourself? Contact us with your questions or schedule a free demo of Process Director from a BP Logix BPM expert today.

Topics: BPM
3 min read

Streamline Business Processes With Process Director Workflow Tools

By BP Logix on May 31, 2017 12:47:23 PM

Streamline-Business-Processes-With-Workflow-ToolsWorkflow tools have been specifically designed to streamline business processes. And while there are several options available, all BPM software solutions are not the same. Similar features may exist, so it is important to know exactly what you want and need from your workflow tools, both to solve current business challenges, as well as what you feel you may need in the future.

We have found when businesses consider the future, it changes their decision in which BPM solution they choose. Many are choosing agile business workflow tools rather than proprietary in-house solutions due to their ability to innovate and grow with the business and the speed of change in BPM technology.

Process Director from BP Logix has the ability to streamline business processes. An intelligent BPM platform, it offers more than simple forms, document management, and project approval workflows. It provides organizations the ability to automate, manage, report and track critical business processes. It’s an award winning BPM software due to several unique features, including:

No Programming Expertise Required

Low code rapid application development features means no coders or programmers are needed. Easily create and change processes in line with your needs, policies, procedures, and regulations. Being able to develop your own digital applications, including reports, eForms, graphs and more, will save you valuable resources, including your IT department from being overloaded.

Process Timeline ™

Gantt-style charts are automatically produced and updated through this proprietary business process automation software. Compose, manage and modify your processes while focusing on the key performance indicators you require, such as process duration, critical path, downtime predictions, and more to help streamline business processes.

Application Integration

Most businesses are running multiple complicated workflow processes concurrently and sequentially and rely on several platforms to accomplish the wide variety of tasks to be completed throughout the day. Because Process Director is an intelligent BPM platform, it’s BPM application easily integrates with other enterprise and third party software allowing you to access, combine and update information without redundant data entry.

Extendable

Your business is always growing, which means you need workflow tools that expand as well. Being able to extend your applications with custom features allows you to continue to improve and grow with the speed of customer demand and technology. Process Director allows you to insert custom logic in your workflows to streamline business processes along with the ability to track, change, and report, for simple, effective management and predictive analysis.

Cloud-Based BPM

Any browser and major platforms (including iOS and Android) are supported with Process Director, making everything you create cloud based and mobile friendly. View reports, submit forms, manage field workers including geolocation and photos, and more. A true mobile BPM, Process Director can be used and accessed with or without WiFi.

Document Workflow Management

A document workflow management system that allows you to quickly and easily filter searches, run reports, and manage multiple documents, including approval processes. Search for a specific item, browse folders, review task lists, set up notifications, email, and even manage document interaction permissions. Access forms with required data fields to create consistent data entry and reduce errors and incomplete information.

Streamline Businesses Processes Today

Have questions about how you can streamline business processes with Process Director? Ready to see it in action? Contact us to speak with a BPM expert and schedule a free demonstration of Process Director today.

Image Credit: CEO.com

Topics: BPM business process management
3 min read

BPM Use Cases & Workflow Automation Examples

By BP Logix on May 24, 2017 12:19:54 PM

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At BP Logix we understand the amount of time and research it takes before you choose the right BPM solution for your organization. BPM use cases and workflow automation examples help play a role in the decision-making process by offering a glimpse at the software that BPM vendors provide. These BPM use cases and workflow automation examples are one way to help you determine if their software meets your organization’s specific requirements.

Process Director BPM software has helped  introduce enterprise workflow automation technology to several companies which has led them to digital transformation as manual workflow processes have been upgraded to automated ones. Below are a few BPM use cases and workflow automation examples and case studies of how Process Director has been employed.

Multi Chem HR Enterprise Workflow Automation

Today with the execution of Process Director, the company Multi-Chem is able to better enforce Human Resources workflow policies and has uniform business processes which are more effective and efficient. A more structured environment for form submission was implemented with better monitoring and auditing to create additional accountability. An approval process system is now used to push required documents to the appropriate people automatically, while forms are used to mandate required field to capture all needed information.

Learn more about this BPM example

Festival Foods Business Process Management Use Case

Instead of building a resource intensive in-house program, Festival Foods looked at Process Director in part because of its low code BPM integration and ease of use. This was a plus as this functionality didn't require tying up the IT department thus keeping them from other important tasks.

After the implementation of award winning BPM Software, Process Director, Festival Foods eliminated errors caused by manual input in the inventory process. This improvement allowed them to scale their business to expand the number of guests they could serve in additional locations.

Choosing Process Director allowed them to make better use of company data and more efficient use of internal applications, as well as more effectively manage based on real-time business monitoring and predictive analytics. Simplified, automated processes created the ability to expand and grow while reducing errors.

Learn more about this BPM example

National Eye Institute Managing Regulatory Compliance

National Eye Institute leveraged Process Director to demonstrate its BPM compliance to regulatory and legislative mandates. Improving their document management and retention process and procedures was a way to demonstrate their fiscal responsibility and decision-making to their supporters as well as their ethics in reporting.

Constant industry changes meant they needed a solution with enough flexibility to adjust annually to new laws while not overwhelming staff, their budget or the IT department. Process Director now handles document management including disposition, storage, and retention while also maintaining the security required within the medical industry.

Learn more about other BPM use cases and workflow automation examples here.

More Information

Topics: workflow automation BPM BPM software business process management
3 min read

BPM Tools Overview: Process Director Business Process Management Tools

By BP Logix on May 17, 2017 1:15:34 PM

running-timeline

Likely, if you are considering a BPM solution, it is because you have heard about the benefits of business process management tools that BPM software provides. Those companies who have already implemented Process Director BPM tools are seeing a 75% reduction in data entry, improved process efficiency, and faster decision making.

What is Business Process Management (BPM)?

Business process management (BPM) is the act of managing a single or multiple workflow processes. BPM software helps with business process management because it's equipped with a series of business process management tools that improves process efficiency which leads to more profit.

Business process management tools can organize simple, complex, and even one-off or ad-hoc processes. Intelligent and flexible in their use, BPM tools can work in a variety of situations such as mobile, applications, forms, automation and more.

What are BPM tools?

If BPM is the act of managing business processes, BPM tools are a variety of strategies to accomplish the end goal. Each BPM tool can accomplish a specific result through automation, optimization/reducing waste, and/or performing analytics. The tools connect the dots between the resources needed and the person who needs them, while also creating metrics in order to continually improve and refine the processes.

The tools can be used together to create a customized solution that is agile enough to grow with the business, integrate new processes and work with existing enterprise systems, faster and easier than ever before.

Business Process Management Tools of Process Director BPM Software

Process Director from BP Logix is an award-winning BPM software designed for creating and managing workflow-driven business processes. Its low code BPM platform offers greater insight into your business, faster time-to-market, and improved flexibility to meet the productivity and customer service demands required in today’s economy.

The BPM tools of Process Director offer versatility to create the custom process management you need with less time and expense than former software development and coding allowed. These business process management tools include:

Extensible Software: Process Director is BPM software solution that extends your workflow application with custom features and easy integration with other programs already in place. Innovate and grow faster than ever before.

Application Integration: Provides built-in workflow and BPM application integration with many third-party and in-house applications and databases. No learning curve for new programs. Keep what works for you now and integrate, systemize and automate with ease.

Process Timeline™: This patented workflow engine allows you to construct, manage, optimize, analyze and manage, and modify business processes with ease.

Web-based and Mobile Friendly: Field service personnel, vendors and even customers aren’t tied to a desk, and your business shouldn’t be either. Process Director provides field service management software solutions for employees on-premise and out in the field..

eForms Software: Create electronic forms without coding to create consistent input and reduce data entry. Track changes easily, retrieve the most up-to-date content, and establish user permissions.

Document Workflow Management: Process Director's document workflow management system approval-based workflows, form tracking, compliance, task lists, and browse document folders to search for specific items .

Schedule a Demo

Contact us today for a free demo from a BP Logix BPM software expert and learn how to accelerate and improve service, oversight and customer satisfaction.

Topics: BPM BPM software business process management
3 min read

BPM Technology Overview: Business Process Management Evolves

By BP Logix on May 10, 2017 7:11:24 PM

BPM-Technology

Business Process Management Software Evolves Into Intelligent BPM

The evolution of BPM technology, like most technology, has happened quickly. Within the industry, we have seen great strides and early adopters have come along on that journey to see truly revolutionary advances. As more enterprises look to streamline business processes and build leaner, more efficient business models, so must BPM technology become more effective. Intelligent BPM software (iBPMS) is then the evolution, a choice to keep improving by leveraging analytics and intelligence capabilities.

What qualities make Process Director an Award Winning iBPMS Solution?

Process Director low code/no code BPM technology is ever evolving. Below are some qualities that make Process Director an award winning iBPMS solution:

Artificial Intelligence


Process Director offers new AI capabilities. Virtually any kind of information-document length, repair history, even weather data – can be used to predict process behavior. Process Director business process management software provides easy-to-use BPM tools that enable you to access these BPM AI capabilities, whether you are a data scientist, process owner, or business analyst- with no programming required.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Process Director’s AI capabilities are seamlessly integrated into Process Timeline (BP Logix’s patented business process automation solution) enhancing and reinforcing it’s already industry leading predictive features. Process Director goes even further, making the same machine learning tools it uses internally available for you to exploit in your custom digital applications. Connect this foundation of Big Data streams using Process Director’s BPM IoT integration, and the possibilities are endless.

Mobile BPM

Mobile BPM technology is allowing technicians who work remotely in the field to access specialized applications for more complete data, faster processing and reduced redundancies. Developed quickly with minimal coding and integrated with the office via the cloud, these low code applications support everything from logistics to approval workflows, installations and inspection processes.

Social BPM

Great and consistent customer experiences are one big way intelligent BPM is changing the face of business. Automation in response to particular client actions and predictive responses to customers are creating better engagement, interaction, and sales.

Cloud based BPM

Through Process Director's cloud based BPM technology, you can create processes that utilize the best of online products such as Dropbox, Google Docs, SharePoint, Salesforce and more. Easy integration means you are never stuck with an outdated, archaic system. Cloud-based BPMs are agile, transformative, innovative and always improving, just like your business.

Workflow Automation

Workflow automation allows redundant tasks to be handled consistently so human capital can focus on higher business functions. Again, consistency is a goal of iBPMS solutions and automation means less gaps in both simple and complex workflows, including data entry, compliance and approval based business processes.

Process Timeline™

 


Process Timeline is a unique feature of BP Logix Process Director that allows for customized and predictive analysis for better workflow management. Before the evolution of iBPMS, workflow management wasn’t much more than sequential task lists lacking the ability to adjust when “real life” happened.

 

Case Management Solutions

Case management solutions require the ability to have “exceptions to the rule”. Being able to have workflows that are event and/or time driven, plus any ad hoc activities, and sequential workflows all moving toward the same outcome, are critical. Without iBPM, these types of business processes can experience significant loss through redundancies and down time.

To learn more about Process Director business process management software and how its BPM technology has evolved visit our BPM capabilities page.

Process Director is your intelligent BPM solution. Ready to see for yourself? Contact us for a free Process Director demonstration from a BP Logix business process management expert.

Topics: BPM business process management
3 min read

Digital Transformation Definition

By BP Logix on May 3, 2017 6:45:09 PM

Digital-Business-Transformation-Platform
What is Digital Transformation?

Simply put, digital transformation is the leveraging of technology to improve efficiency and provide more value in your business. Reaching this goal can be much more complicated than the definition given here may suggest, however, it can radically change business processes, activities, customer relationships and even value propositions.

Technology To Help With Digital Transformation

Considered disruptive in nature, digital business transformation has executives in nearly all industries on alert to changes in the industry. They watch in order to get a glimpse into the future to see how they can integrate new technologies to grow revenues, reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction, improve differentiation, and increase their speed-to-market. In essence, forward thinking executives are looking at ways to use technology to refine, and accelerate their businesses.

“The best companies…combine digital activity with strong leadership to turn technology into transformation. This is what we call Digital Maturity. Companies vary in their digital maturity, and those that are more mature outperform those that are not.” MIT Sloan Management Review

Therefore, the goal of a digital transformation platform is to create a more agile business to keep up with the constant flux of technology advancements, environmental changes, and customer demands. The additional benefits are more streamlined business processes, reduced waste, and increased productivity and efficiency.

What Is Digital Transformation To BP Logix?

Well, all aspects of business process management (BPM) – its functions, tasks, processes, and assets are interconnected. A BPM platform pulls all these items together and in that process eliminates redundancies and inefficiencies, increasing profitability and improving the user’s experience. BPM software, such as Process Director, additionally serves management with business process automation solutions offering predictive analytics to allow for immediate intervention and correction, further reducing down time, costs and ineffectiveness. Consider for a moment the main drivers for using a BPM platform and digital transformation:

Technology Advancements: Changes in technology means things are moving faster – production, delivery, demands . A big problem in the past has been in the interconnectivity of legacy programs and new technology. Constant updates to new programs leads to employee frustration, and a loss in productivity due to training and implementation. However, low code BPM with rapid application development allows seamless integration between programs to reduce “learning curve” challenges that come with new product deployments.

Basically, digital business transformation platforms, or BPM, allow for a level of customization never seen before without the high costs, significant time investments and specialized coders.

Environmental Changes: Changes in supply chain, regulations and compliance law, competition, and even the economy can have an impact on businesses and are mostly unforeseen. Agility, through the use of Process Director digital transformation platform, helps accelerate the transformation of workflow processes to allow the business to make adjustments as needed and set themselves apart as market leaders.

Digital business transformation allows changes to be integrated quickly through low code, rapid app development technologies.

Customer Demand: Along with technology advancements comes the changes in demand and expectations of customers. Businesses who are digitally mature have the ability to provide a better customer experience, resulting in increased revenue. Imagine if a customer is able to engage with your company, find exactly what they are looking for, and make a purchase within minutes instead of hours or days. How could this increase your revenue growth?

Process Director makes this possible through predictive analytics, custom forms and mobile apps.

Process Director Is Your Digital Business Transformation Solution

Digital business transformation is upsetting the old way business has been done. Innovation, disruption, agility, and a constantly improving environment is the way business will thrive in years and decades to come. Executives are tasked with change management as a way to unlock revenue streams, reduce waste, and gain competitive advantages by creating outstanding customer experiences.

Process Director BPM software provides business process automation solutions that allows your company to develop more agility and innovation, streamline systems, and create people-oriented processes quickly, easily and at less cost than in the past. The ability to move faster in response to demands, forecast challenges, and adhere to compliance and regulations leads to better decision making, healthier management, and an improved customer/supplier/staff experience.

Process Director from BP Logix is a versatile digital business transformation platform designed to support forward thinking businesses looking to improve efficiency, manage workflows and compliance, and create a valuable experience for all those engaged with them. For a demonstration of Process Director and to see how automating processes with BPM software can help you with your digital transformation strategy, contact us today.

Topics: workflow BPM BPM software business process management digital transformation
3 min read

Field Service Management Software Solutions

By BP Logix on Apr 26, 2017 3:13:16 PM

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We live in an Information Technologies era that has seen mobile innovation and software-as-a-service (SaaS) progress in leaps and bounds - and with that, field service management software has seen a corresponding expansion in popularity and deployment. According to marketsandmarkets.com, the field service software market is expected to grow from $1.78 billion in 2016 to $3.61 billion by 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 15.1%.

What Is Field Service Management Software?

Generally speaking, this software is designed to coordinate a mobile workforce and the field operations they perform. This can include a wide variety of functions including consulting, scheduling, dispatch, vehicle tracking, job completion status, time tracking and related functionality. Field service software systems typically have hooks into back-end systems that support field operations such as accounting, inventory and billing as well.

Who Uses Field Service Management Software?

This software is rapidly becoming an operational and economic necessity for industries that provide mobile and on-premise services. This is by no means a complete list, but to cite a few examples:

  • Manufacturing and Construction Services – Planning, scheduling and overseeing multiple jobs for mobile workforces including scheduled and incidental maintenance, regulatory compliance and construction workflow management.
  • Utilities – Scheduling, dispatch and tracking of field technicians installing and repairing telecommunications equipment and infrastructure, deployment of engineering personnel to confirm and repair gas leaks.
  • Local Government – Managing and monitoring field assets, intelligent scheduling and reporting.
  • Healthcare – Tracking and support for mobile medical personnel such as nurses who provide in-home care for the elderly and disabled.

How Is Field Service Management Software Deployed?

It can be deployed as an on-premise installation or as a cloud-based system. The concept of cloud based field service management software deployment is growing in popularity as it allows companies to reduce or eliminate upfront and system maintenance costs by utilizing a subscription model. Instead of incurring the cost of an expensive site license and IT infrastructure, subscribers can opt for a monthly fee to utilize cloud-hosted software.
This model allows smaller companies to compete with larger, deeper-pocketed enterprises and also makes possible greater mobility because it can be accessed by any internet-connected device.

The Benefits of Process Director BPM Platform As A Field Service Software Solution


If your company performs field-based service processes including consultations, installs, repair or maintenance of any variety, this software carries a number of advantages.

According to an Oracle® white paper entitled “The New Rules of Field Service Management”, enterprises that use field service management software have seen an increase in jobs completed per day of up to 47%.

Additionally, companies using Process Director BPM platform for their field service management software solutions have seen benefits in some, if not all, of these areas:

  • Enhanced Workforce Management and Visibility – Mobile tracking capabilities help keep fleet managers, dispatchers and customer service personnel on top of vehicle location and job status.
  • Lower Fuel Costs – Through route optimization and dynamic, real-time scheduling, drive distances and fuel consumption can be dramatically reduced.
  • Faster Job Completion and Success – Access to BPM tools, back-end systems, manuals and troubleshooting documentation that gives your workers the tools they need to do great work.
  • Improved Contractor Management – Process Director gives you real-time control of order scheduling, time tracking and field asset inventory, permitting you to close the gap between your brand and your clientele and ensuring that they receive timely, relevant service.
  • Better Accounting and Data Reporting – Reduction in errors inherent in paper-based reporting methods. It lets your employees and contractors record job details, track time and close service requests while they’re in the field, increasing accuracy and timeliness while eliminating redundant data entry.

Process Director BPM platform is a field service management software designed to support your mobile workforce communication and function more effectively with non-mobile staff.

Request A Free Demonstration

Process Director sets the pace for your BPM and digital transformation. Request a free demonstration of Process Director and discover for yourself how this unique BPM platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our business process management software have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Topics: BPM software
3 min read

BPM and Case Management Solutions: How They Work Together

By BP Logix on Apr 19, 2017 2:26:06 PM

BPM-Case-Management-Solutions

BPM and Case Management solutions share a common bond; they are both approaches to managing work. In fact, here at BP Logix we see this bond becoming more relevant and are creating ways to intertwine both BPM and Case Management into Process Director.

But before we talk about how they work together, let’s first begin with a definition of both terms:

BPMInstitute.org defines Business Process Management as:

“The definition, improvement and management of a firm's end-to-end enterprise business processes in order to achieve three outcomes crucial to a performance-based, customer-driven firm: 1) clarity on strategic direction, 2) alignment of the firm's resources, and 3) increased discipline in daily operations.”

Whatis.com defines Case Management as:

“CM — sometimes called “advanced case management” (ACM) or “dynamic case management” (DCM) is a both a human- and a technology-based approach that is driven by incoming events. These events change the context of the information, requiring responses from caseworkers or other knowledge workers knowledge workers. DCM’s ultimate goal is helping such workers make faster, better and more accurate decisions.”

How BPM and Case Management Solutions Work Independently

When looking at the BPM approach on its own, process is the most important organizing construct around business activities and speaks to improvement in corporate performance as a by-product of managing and optimizing a company’s business processes. This practice is especially useful when processes can be repeated, and therefore accurately monitored and then improved. Practitioners of, and tools to support BPM refer to this analysis and modification as “optimizing a process”.

Process optimization works best when a specific process is tightly defined and repeatable in many individual instances over varied work cases.

On the other hand, case management solutions -- when in a vacuum -- are most effective when processes are encountered as a one-off; that is, they are not repeatable. It is most useful when employed in situations where the process(es) cannot be predicted in advance of the actual work.

For instance, a detective investigating a murder might have little idea where the clues will lead and will hardly be served by repeating the steps used in investigating unrelated crimes even if on the surface they seem similar. Adaptive case management solutions rely on the ability to communicate goals, vision, and intent as a rudder throughout the workflow lifecycle.

The critical difference between BPM and case management solutions lie in the predictability and the repeatability of how work is completed. BPM assumes a level of repeatability that leads to the pursuit and refinement of the process until it is considered a best practice. CM doesn’t assume that there is an order and structure to work; tasks can be approached and completed in different ways and in a different order depending on how events and other variables dictate, lending flexibility through acceptance of the changeable nature of the work.

How BPM and Case Management Solutions Work Together With Process Director

While there are critical differences between them that must be recognized when seeking to apply these approaches and when considering tools to support each methodology, there is also no reason you cannot look at them both together. By doing so, you may even maximize your results.

Yes, BPM assists in the upfront design and optimization of a predictable process and CM assists in enhancing communication and the collection of information for decision making. But together you can pull together process data and rules to respond expeditiously to business events which mean you are working toward time based goals.

Process Director is a BPM and Case Management solution that includes Process Timeline, a time-based dimension that supports the multimodal run-time patterns required for Case Management, combining sequential flow style with both event-driven and time-driven execution, as well as checklists of ad hoc activities. This design creates a robust system that maximizes both repetitive processes and unique, unpredictable processes with human decision making into one.

Want to learn more? Contact us today for a free demo from a BP Logix business process management expert and learn how to speed your workflow, communication and decision making processes with case management solutions combined with BPM software.

Topics: BPM case management