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.

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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.

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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.

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

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.

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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?

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

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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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.

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.

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!

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

• Read BPM success stories from our customers
• More on Process Director enterprise workflow automation solutions
• Ready to learn more about the value Process Director BPM software can support your goals? Contact us today for a free BPM software demonstration from a BP Logix expert.

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.

The best mobile inspection software is easy to use, simple to integrate with systems already in place and accomplishes the bottom line goal of improving process efficiency. Choosing inspection software that can meet these objectives is best done by seeing the product working in real life scenarios.

Process Director is a BPM platform that saves you time and money and speeds up the inspection process. Let’s take a look at each objective, how Process Director accomplishes that goal and the real life examples of how.

Easy-to-Use

• Using Process Director, inspectors are able to complete forms in the field consistently including adding pictures, videos and messages all from their mobile device.
• The forms used in the inspection process are automatically sent to the relevant office personnel for handling, including customizable alerts, autoresponders or other workflow triggers.
• Dashboards are searchable based on desired criteria including location, inspector and more.
• The mobile inspection software also creates an audit trail for better management.

Simple to Integrate

• Mobile inspection software applications integrate with existing software to reduce the need to learn new programs. Automations work seamlessly with current workflows and create streamlined information for searching.
• Customizable templates capture form information from a mobile device, creating consistent tracking and documentation and back up to a centralized database with unique and custom user permissions.

Increase Process Efficiency

• Daily schedules can be given to inspectors to maximize routes, including driving directions by integrating with Google Maps. Real time geo-tracking records all inspections for better management.
• Mobile inspection software offers custom forms to create consistent data entry and can be completed on or offline, including collecting signatures in the field.
• Real time transmission of information streamlines and speeds up the inspection process by not requiring trips to the office to complete repetitious work.

Real World Application of Process Director

The City of West Allis, Wisconsin, was receiving building permits faster than the staff could process them. This was a big problem, because they wanted the business and didn’t have a good way to manage it all. Paperwork was falling through the cracks as multiple departments struggled with staying on top of the inspection process and approvals.

Using Process Director intelligent BPM software, they were able to not just save time and money with the building permit process, but also other monotonous processes.

“Our goal, when business owners apply for new business permits, is for all the information to flow between departments and eliminate as much paper work as possible — making it easier and more efficient for both the business and the city.” - Jim Jandovitz, Director of Information Technology for City of West Allis

After Process Director’s workflow tools were implemented for the inspection process, they discovered they could use the same system for other areas they wanted to streamline. Among the additional uses were code violation processes, billing, creating vendor work orders, and HR including recruiting, onboarding, orientation, ID cards and more. In the future they are looking to implement a mobile solution for dog licensing that connects with the police database.

To learn more about BP Logix’s Process Director as a mobile inspection software and how it can help you, request a demonstration. We will contact you and learn about your goals and requirements so we can tailor the demonstration to meet your specific needs.

The process of creating a document, sending it out for review and approval, for as many times as it takes before publishing it, can be a nightmare. The more eyes on the document, critical the material, and personalities involved, the higher the probability of delays and stalls in your project(s). Many solutions have been created to address this problem, but we think the best approach is through document review process automation.

The Problem

Documents, for the sake of this article, can be anything from internal policies to sales flyers. They can be printed documents, electronic documents or even web pages. The workflow for these documents include a series of steps that happen in sequential order, or concurrently, and they include 5 stages, namely: create, review, approve, update and publish. For example:

Concurrent Review Process: John writes a policy and sends it to Jane in HR, Chris in Operations, and Paul, the GM. The three reviewers make independent edits and send it back to John. He makes the changes and resubmits the document to the three reviewers. They all approve, sending it back to John who then publishes the document.

Sequential Review Process: John writes a policy and sends it to Jane. Jane requests edits, returns it to John. John sends it to Jane who approves it and sends it to Chris. Chris approves it and sends it back to John. From there, John publishes the document.

The sequential document review process can also include external users (clients, vendors, suppliers, etc.) into the workflow. Some examples of processes that includes external users are proposals, contract review and acceptance, and content review and approval.

The problem is when the  review process gets stalled, it becomes inefficient, due to multiple copies of the document being circulated, a lack of collaboration, a lack of timeliness and/or accountability, confusion as to the reviewer’s comments, etc.

The Solution

When it comes to automating a document review process, the most effective approach is to use a cloud based solution that offers a variety of workflow automation capabilities and user notifications.

We suggest Process Director workflow management software. Process Director streamlines the review process by providing:

• The reviewer’s comments to be immediately available to all parties to reduce redundancies
• Searchable tracking of changes, including reviewer name, date of change, etc.
• The ability to apply annotations such as virtual sticky notes, highlighting and free-form drawing tools
• Automatic conversion of source documents into viewable formats
• The ability to set permissions for different users to protect specific documents
• Suggested changes overlaying the documents and stored separately for author to accept or reject the edits without compiling multiple documents or versions
• Notifications and alerts to create accountability and/or trigger the next action to be completed
• The ability to toggle all reviewer comments or only one at a time
• The creation of forms to pre-define how content is submitted
• Scalable workflows that define the task, participants and rules that govern how the process advances
• Archives of the original document, as well as tracked changes for future reference

Overall, Process Director takes the best of both offline and online document review process strategies to allow participants to collaborate more effectively in real time. To learn more, contact one of our process management specialists for a free demonstration of Process Director.

If you saved five minutes on each project, how much money would you save over the course of a year?

For one company who recently implemented workflow software, it amounted to tens of thousands of dollars. They were able to shorten the building permit process, saving them almost 3,000 man hours annually. These man hours are equal to almost two full-time workers, meaning they could take on even more projects, benefit from the cost savings of reduced payroll, or even use the payroll expense for more support or sales staff.

The business we are referring to here is a suburban US city, and the service in this particular case was processing building permits and business applications.

Why A Workflow Software For The Building Permit Process?

The City of West Allis needed to accelerate their application and permit process as the workload was growing faster than they could keep up with process information needed to be streamlined between departments and paperwork couldn’t fall between the cracks. They knew technology could support them, and they needed a solution that would create enough efficiency it would have little impact on their budget. In other words, they needed a workflow solution that would fit their budget, create a fast return on investment, and be implemented quickly.

By using Process Director workflow software by BP Logix for their building inspection processes, the city was able to increase communication, BPM compliance and efficiencies across departments, save time and money during the building permit process, make data-driven decisions in real time and discover and address bottlenecks.

Why Process Director Workflow Software?

The City of West Allis chose Process Director workflow software based on the adaptability of the BPM to support them not just in the building permit process, but others as well. Today, they are able to manage building permit inspections, pipeline inspections, property inspections, building inspections, as well as address city complaints and violations.

With Process Director, the inspectors use their mobile devices to more easily find the inspection location, inspect the property, fill out a form, and attach pictures if needed. This information is then accessible to office staff to process, management to address and more.

Because it easily communicates with existing software and programs and allows for rapid application development, Process Director makes integration simple. There is also no need to learn new programs, which keeps employees from facing long, tiresome learning curves.

Today, the city reports they are experiencing better communication within the departments, with the clients they serve and are saving several thousands of dollars each month from the improved efficiencies.

Is Process Director right for you? Contact us today for a free demo from a BP Logix business process management expert to learn how to speed up the building permit process with BPM software.

Order Processing, Quality Assurance, Change Control, and Compliance are Improved with BPM Software

Our work with our manufacturing customers is not ‘just’ about implementing technology for manufacturing process automation. For Process Director BPM software to be most effective to our manufacturing customers we needed to understand their business, how they work with their own customers, and what makes them unique. The manufacturing sector provides a particularly outstanding business environment for process-minded individuals – and teams.

The complexity of building and delivering goods and services in the global economy is probably felt most profoundly by manufacturing companies. With software or services, input and communication renders location essentially unimportant, but those in the business of building hard goods need to ensure they have materials to do their work, and the ability to deliver finished products irrespective of geography. Because of the increasingly detailed nature of accomplishing ‘work’, there is a greater need for these kinds of businesses to have manufacturing process automation solutions that adopt and adhere to their business processes.

Why Manufacturing Process Automation Is Important

Order processing, quality assurance, engineering change control, government and industry compliance represent areas for manufacturing process automation. When those processes are automated they enable near real-time decision-making and auditability. With the IT ecosystem needing to be more dynamic, rigid and form- fit processes must be replaced to ensure that the company can adapt (and respond!) to changing market conditions.

Process Director BPM Software

While repeatability is desirable in any manufacturing process, so too is the ability to be flexible. We understand that companies need to adapt processes real-time. It would be costly and ineffective to halt all manufacturing while a process change request slowly travels through the IT queue. That is one of the reasons that manufacturing process automation with Process Director BPM software requires no programming skills to make changes to running processes.

Manufacturing is also a highly-regulated industry. Audits from the government and agencies are performed to ensure compliance with financial laws and industry guidelines. We built Process Director to implement the rules and procedures that demonstrate and ensure business process governance.

Being beholden to governance, risk and compliance usually means a higher likelihood of audits. For compliant organizations, the need to back-track, research, identify and review previous actions, decisions and requests is part of the audit scenario. BPM software facilitates that by allowing access to information that can be displayed, reviewed and approved for all decisions and actions.

When a manufacturing organization implement manufacturing process automation solutions with BPM software they operate according to well-defined actions and operations, gaining an advantage in terms of both repeatability and accountability. The organizations that rely on processes to handle the ‘heavy lifting’ are then able to focus on quality which, in turn, creates loyalty and competitive advantage.

Schedule A Demo

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.

What is Workflow Management?

Workflow is defined as a process or set of processes that take a work task from start to finish. The workflow management, then, is the organizing of all the business processes along with the management of all interactions and tasks to complete that workflow. Workflow management software, however, helps automate these processes. It can comprise several complicated business processes- everything from workflow approvals and procurement to manufacturing lines, to vendor management and customer service.

6 Workflow Management Software Features To Consider

Overall, a workflow management software, such as Process Director, helps to streamline business processes by creating predefined business rules for execution. Trigger events cause specific actions, such as an email alert, automatically rather than relying on human memory or redundancy in tasks.

A business process that can be automated, even if just in part, can reduce error, allow for better tracking, create consistency and reduce costs. It works with an end goal in mind, and enterprise workflow automation builds in accountability to meet that goal. Overall, Process Director is a BPM platform that supports the following 6 critical workflow management software features:

Business Process Automation

Enterprise Application Integration

Track and Monitor Documents

Process Director's document workflow management system that allows you to search quickly and find important information, export results, trigger an action or set of processes, or even produce charts based on real-time data.

Compliance Regulations

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. With Process Director workflow management software organizations can flourish even in the face of ever-changing regulatory compliance conditions.

Electronic Forms Management

With electronic forms management, you can create consistent data entry to use throughout the organization in for your employees, vendors or customers. Maintain these forms for tracking, reporting or more. With Process Director's rapid application development software they require no coding skills to create whether simple or complex.

Business Scalability and Agility

Managing business processes allows you to see the impact of scaling as well as allow you to adjust in real-time. Agile BPM, especially in meeting the needs and wants of customers, is the difference between a thriving business and a dying one. Know if a project is expected to not meet a deadline, or if a customer interacts with your brand on social media because an alert will be sent allowing for immediate intervention.

Request A Free Demonstration

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 business challenges.

Is the Approval Process Slowing Your Organization Down?

Business workflow processes that require the approval of another employee or employees before it can be completed is considered an approval workflow.

An example could be an ad manager signing approval on a piece of advertising copy, or a management approval on an employee expense or even a timecard punch or purchase order. Approval workflow software can help automate the approval process to improve process efficiency, streamline the approvals or even issue automatic approvals under specific criteria.

How Does Process Director Work?

It creates a consistent pattern of trackable tasks, which is important for legal, regulatory and/or compliance reasons. It eliminates the need for human memory, by creating timelines and processes that automatically trigger alerts for needed tasks, and creates accountability to procedures, improving efficiency.

Other advantages of Process Director approval workflow software include:
• Workflow automation with consistent adherence to workflow processes
• Simplifies the manual approval process by automating repetitious, laborious or otherwise cumbersome activities into efficient ones
• Stores electronic forms for easy retrieval and eliminates lost paperwork, ideal for audits and BPM compliance purposes
• Alerts to prevent missed deadlines and even alerts to notify of potential down time

An Example Of Process Director In Action

Leo Burnett, an enterprise marketing agency, needed a formalized, cloud-based solution to create a better sales and customer process, namely to manage client approvals on estimates. They were looking for a scalable solution that allowed clients to review and approve estimates provided by the agency, as well as a process that allowed for updates along the way. This interchanges and back and forth process needed to be streamlined to eliminate potential clients falling through the cracks.

The agency implemented the approval workflow software, Process Director. Now, specific users create estimates, and the predefined criteria allow each estimate to go through the specific and appropriate approval routes required by each project type. Approvers receive email notifications that allow them to open, review and approve estimates without leaving the system, streamlining it to the next triggered task.

The review and approval process is now uniform and consistent. Process Director routes and manages the approval process while the appropriate parties review and approve all the estimates. Ready to discover Process Director’s capabilities for yourself? The BP Logix approval workflow software is designed to meet the demands of your business needs. Process Director can simplify even the most complex systems to make them more effective and efficient. Contact us to learn more or schedule a free demonstration today.

There are a lot of workflow tools out there. Call us biased but we think Process Director is the ultimate workflow tool for businesses. Why? Because it’s all encompassing. If you have a used workflow tool and thought, “Gee, I wish it could do this,” or “Why does it do that?!?!” You can trust that so have we.

Process Director workflow management software was born out of a need for something that worked exactly the way we needed it to in the workplace. Over the years, we’ve continued to innovate and create workflow solutions for workflow challenges, both yours and ours. The result is an all-encompassing workflow tool we are proud of.

What Process Director Can Do for You

Put simply, Process Director is a workflow management software with workflow tools that powers workflow and connects all of your organization’s systems and processes. Because it is uniquely intuitive, web-based, and robust, it can automate your processes, predict potential delays, eliminate programming, and integrate easily into existing applications.

Companies in advertising, education, financial services, government, health care, manufacturing, and more rely on Process Director workflow management software to:

● Drive growth
● Increase efficiency
● Boost visibility
● Reduce expenses
● Mitigate compliance risk
● Minimize redundancies

Process Director’s workflow automation software allows you to work smarter and faster by automating all of your organization’s critical processes and allowing you to continuously evaluate and improve them over time.

How is Process Director Different Than Other Workflow Management Software?

Unlike other BPM softwre, Process Director isn’t just for the IT department. It was built for not-as-tech-savvy employees, managers, and business owners in mind. You get automated smartforms, workflow management, document management, application integration, reports, and more, all without the hassle of:

● Coding
● Complex flowcharts
● Surprises or excuses

Unlike any other workflow tool, Process Director workflow management software tools are intuitive and dynamic, so you can count on:

● Total accountability. Every action taken by process participants is recorded.
● Greater efficiency. Process Director workflow management software directs you to the activities within your process that are consuming the most time. This allows you to focus your process improvement efforts where they will have the most impact.
● A bird’s-eye view of all of your processes. Review information about any activity, past or present, and see how different actors have performed within a given task.
● Real time analytics. Reset analytics at any time to understand what’s happening right now.

What you get is faster time-to-value, greater flexibility, and deeper insight into your business than any other BPM software.

Process Timeline

We developed an advanced BPMN modeling and business process automation software technology behind Process Timeline to work exactly how we wanted a workflow tool to work, but we didn’t stop there.

We have continued to add features to Process Timeline that enhance the user experience and allow you to manage your workflow more efficiently or more enjoyable all the time. Here are some of our favorite workflow tools integrated (and sometimes optional) into Process Timeline:

● Email notifications. Receive custom notifications that keep everyone up to date and on task in real time.
● Due date management. Process Director will alert you when a task is nearly due, overdue, and even when it’s predicted to be late. No other workflow tool can offer you this innovative, patented technology.
● Sub-workflows and business process segments. Manage more complex workflows by easily creating sub-workflows.
● Workflow management task lists. Create customizable task lists for groups and individuals.

Try it for Yourself – Request a free workflow software demo now.

Understanding Your BPM and Workflow Needs

It is important to assess the needs of your organization to determine whether or not business process management software (BPM software) is applicable to what you are doing. The process of analyzing your workflow efficiency needs will provide a deeper recognition of what your company needs to be more successful. Having a solid grasp of that will enable you to give more thoughtful consideration to both the BPM tools and solutions that work for you — and will help you avoid the trap that a BPM solution in and of itself can make you faster, better organized and more profitable. (Since we all are occasionally all too eager to map our needs to what others tell us they can provide)

Coming to the issue of value, which is a very personal one, to really ‘get value’ for what you buy, you have to be discerning. Product marketing teams know that there is a ‘sweet spot’ within which most customer problems exist. Around that sweet spot the key marketing messages for a product are designed.

The BP Logix marketing group partners closely with our sales and product teams to understand what our customers need. That is the foundation of the way we do business. To that end, we have helped all manner of companies and organizations derive great value from business process management — not just as a tool but, also, as a way of doing business. Some of that comes from market analysis, research and observing BPM trends — the rest of it comes from understanding and putting ourselves in our customers’ shoes. We understand the value of BPM and go to great lengths to help our customers implement BPM software solutions in a way that is applicable to their needs.

Improve Workflow Efficiency With BPM Software

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Our infographic, The Value of BPM, illustrates some of the key BPM elements that an organization needs to consider— and the degree to which some of our customers have benefited from using them. Everyone likes to see big numbers, and as you will see in the infographic, we certainly like to highlight where companies have seen an increase in workflow efficiency and reduction in cost or the elimination of redundancy. You will also recognize that the BPM examples we use in The Value of BPM point to specific BPM use cases. These are clearly specific to these individual companies, yet they demonstrate a sense for what BPM delivers towards workflow efficiency.

Working with a process-focused direction will undoubtedly deliver specific and measurable results when there is a well-articulated mapping of business needs with the BPM implementation process.

The BP Logix team is interested in why a prospect considers exploring BPM software in the first place— so we dive into that prospect’s business (with him, her or them) to understand how it is currently conducted. We look at the five key BPM elements:

• Workflow Efficiency: Does the organization experience a duplication of efforts, manual interactions, and/or delays in approvals?
• Productivity: Is an inordinate amount of time spent on singular tasks— and does lack of insight into the business limit their ability to provide direction?
• Process Change: As business needs and requirements change, does the organization adapt and, if so, how well does it adapt?
• Automation: Is the organization spending a lot of time on repetitive tasks, or trying to fit its needs into solutions that are not flexible?
• Knowledge: Does the organization recognize and act with regard to best practices and guidelines?

We could certainly tell you that your company will be faster, smarter, better and richer as a result of implementing Process Director BPM software — and leave it at that.

Please make no mistake. We think those are worthy and attainable goals. Where we see results and progress towards workflow efficiency, however, is when the goals focus on fixing workflow processes, not just on profitability. The value of BPM comes from the changes that occur on the way to becoming a better run company! That is the value we seek to provide.

Request a Demonstration

Process Director is your intelligent BPM software solution. Request a demonstration and discover for yourself how this unique enterprise business process management software empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM solutions have helped our customers conquer their workflow efficiency challenges.

BPM vs Workflow. There can be some confusion about the differences between BPM and workflow, partly because they are used interchangeably by some professionals. The confusion is understandable. Early business process management (BPM) solutions focused on the coordination of processes--they were focused on workflow. Today, workflow is a component of a good BPM, but they are not the same.

What Is Workflow?

Simply put, workflow helps organizations to see an overview of a process to monitor results, reduce inefficiencies and incorporate automation. At its best, it serves to align the processes with the business goals and systematize how documents and tasks are completed and executed for quality and/or compliance.

Workflow software is a tool for automating the process. It can provide support for steps in the business process and can trigger alerts for the appropriate users to take action. It is a single process within a more complex system.

As an analogy, it would be the steps for making the crème in a Twinkie, but not the entire creation, assembly or packaging of such.

What Is BPM?

BPM is a larger system of processes that incorporates multiple workflows, automation tools and human capital to optimize them all. It is a system that gets all the cogs working together in harmony to create an ideal end result.

All companies use business processes to produce the end result, and BPM software streamlines those processes to create a more agile and efficient business.

“BPM has been defined as a method of efficiently aligning an organization with the wants and needs of its customers, both internally and externally.” --Jay O’Brien, CTO BP Logix, Inc.

[embed]https://youtu.be/HduhwGtEMKI[/embed]

How Does BPM Software Work?

BPM software looks at the current state of the business and its processes and works with the management team’s goals to identify future objectives. In the most ideal situations, this team would create an ever evolving feedback loop and a continuously improving process that grows with the business. Automating workflow to make it faster, more efficient, and more consistent creates a measurable result on the company’s bottom line, while at the same time improving the organization’s compliance capabilities.

The structure of BPM incorporates policies, procedures, methods, metrics, human tasks, software tasks and IT to manage and optimize all levels of business functions.

Overall, BPM monitors, evaluates and even activates processes for better management. This allows businesses to serve more customers, have a better workforce and profit margin, just to name a few of the benefits.

BPM vs Workflow Bottom Line

The need for streamlining and automatization tools come from the increasingly competitive nature of business. Eliminating wasteful practices and procedures to achieve optimal performance allows businesses to control quality and costs and can be the difference between success or failure. So instead of thinking it as BPM vs workflow, think of it as BPM and workflow operating together to improve efficiencies. However, BPM takes it a step further by allowing multiple workflow scenarios, across multiple channels, to run in peak way. Simply put, BPM improves at the organizational level.

To learn more about BP Logix BPM tools and how they can help you, request a demonstration. Before the demo, we will contact you to learn about your goals and requirements so we can tailor the demonstration to meet your specific needs.

Process Timeline Workflow Engine

BP Logix is the only company to offer a BPM software solution (Process Director) with Process Timeline technology-- a workflow engine that incorporates the dimension of time all the way from model to execution. Traditionally, BPM software has been driven by two key factors:

1. Better outcomes from higher efficiency processes.
2. The need for appropriate controls.

However, many BPM solutions have neglected the element of time. Time allows businesses to obtain additional control over processes by allowing for prediction elements, or business process intelligence, to determine timeliness.

Imagine if your BPM software included an automated solution that could alert you when the timeline for a specific task wasn’t met, or if future tasks are at a risk of not being met? How could that change efficiency for your organization?

The Critical Element of Time and the iBPM

The element of time management is crucial to planning and oversight. Intelligent Business Process Management (iBPMS) allows for human intervention when a workflow process gets off track, or can trigger a different event in the process. Traditional BPM focuses on quality and business process governance, but adding a workflow 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.

In workflow processes, there is a review and approval step in place, but it doesn’t answer the questions:

“When will this task complete?”

“When will this entire process complete?”

These questions are of great importance in 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 transactions in a register to discover errors, rather than simply looking at a monthly profit and loss statement.

Flowchart Model Failures

Time efficiency is achieved often through business process automation, with cost savings as the most obvious goal.

Example of Process Timeline Workflow Engine with Predicted Timelines

Outside of automation, these savings come about by removing process redundancies  and streamlining business processes, usually through the support of BPM software. More efficient use of time, less paper consumption, and business process automation can certainly tighten processes and reduce expenses, creating a higher ROI. Reduced risks and lowered costs of non-compliance issues also effect the bottom line.

A flowchart will say, “What happens next,” while Process Timeline's workflow engine will more importantly ask, “What must be completed before this step begin and how long will it take?”

The two benefits of BPM software, process efficiency and process governance, are now improved on by incorporating the critical element of a time-focused process technique, found only in BP Logix Process Director. Process Director BPM platform includes Process Timeline workflow engine, which results in even greater benefits.

Benefits of a BPM Software With A Business Process Automation Solution

1. Simple models allow businesses to go from discovery to full automation faster. Each activity is listed with its duration estimate, to create fast workflow processes. Activities can run at the same time, without complicated coding to configure parallel behavior.
2. The status of the entire process, as well as sub-processes can be determined at a glance, allowing for proactive response and the earliest notification of potential delays to allow for quick intervention.
3. Predictive nature “sees” future problems and can trigger actions to the changing circumstance so obstacles can be 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.
4. Process Director stores every aspect of the process for audits, internally or externally, for improved compliance.

BP Logix developed Process Director BPM software and the workflow engine, Process Timeline, in order to address the critical element of time in business process management. Process Timeline equips businesses to build robust process models without the need to develop code, making it a preferred BPM software solution. And because flowchart workflow automation is appropriate for some processes, Process Director has integrated both models, allowing traditional and intelligent processes to work together to create complex and manageable processes for optimal effectiveness, quality, and compliance needs. Contact us to learn more and schedule a free demonstration of Process Director today.

There are a lot of perceptions about how productivity and business goals are handled by organizations. Most view attempts to gain efficiency as the domain of IT but it turns out it is not solely the result of implementing technology. Efficiency is also attributable to how all groups in the company collaborate to achieve  growth.

While this kind of thinking makes a neat delineation between the business and technology sides of an organization, it is short-sighted in failing to recognize that technology does not operate in a vacuum. Rather, it is the CIO and the IT department that are driving business growth through technology solutions and, most importantly, business process management.

IT is no longer the invisible place where requests are sent and solutions magically delivered. Rather, IT is firmly ensconced in what goes on within the business— and IT leaders are integrated into business planning so they can deliver better, more purposeful solutions.

Some enterprise applications 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 leader who can identify the 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 IT managers to make the 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 business process-based foundation, on top of which tasks and activities move fluidly towards business goals.

Progressive IT managers recognize that irrespective of how work is inputted, transacted and delivered, processes and workflow are always key to their work. Understanding how workflow software and BPM software impact business goals demands that these IT managers first understand the various parts of the business and their goals. With that knowledge, they can lead the effort to make changes rather than just respond to what C-level execs demand of them. A deep understanding of the organization, how all the pieces work together and their goals enables IT to create BPM solutions that will actually be used. This is an important distinction because without new tools and strategies, no advantage can be gained.

BP Logix customers are building solutions that address a variety of business issues —and Process Director is at the heart of how they address them. The product is a tool for business users as it is inherently capable of mapping specific business requirements to actual outcomes without having to invoke the skills of a developer or architect. It is also embraced by IT as it lightens the load of IT, enabling them to address other applications and requirements, while still satisfying the needs of the business.

Process Director is also able to operate beyond company walls so events and actions that benefit customers, partners or other third-parties can become part of processes and workflow. The feedback we receive repeatedly is that Process Director provides the flexibility and comprehensiveness that a single application simply cannot touch.

When IT departments deploy Process Director, they emphasize both business and technology goals equally. The act of establishing business processes instills a sense of what is possible because it breaks down any walls that might exist between the tech and business sides of the enterprise. Interestingly, BPM then becomes a rallying point for business growth. IT leaders can evangelize the notion that the company is prepared for anything because the business foundation is built on a tool that is optimized for business growth. That becomes a powerful weapon for the organization.

Business processes (BPM) takes the best of your enterprise applications and makes them both measurable and sustainable.

Many years ago Peter Drucker, the great management thinker, predicted the rise of what he called the "knowledge worker". As evidenced over time, Drucker was truly a thought leader. Today, we can acknowledge that we have arrived at “the place” Drucker envisioned: a place where almost all jobs require some element of knowledge work. Yet it is not true that everyone with a computer on his or her desk or a smartphone in his or her pocket qualifies as a knowledge worker.

The rise of the knowledge worker has also led to an impetus for business process management (BPM). BPM enables people to access more data. That, in turn, can facilitate new insights for knowledge workers who might not ‘normally’ have access to that same data.

Most enterprise applications run better and more efficiently when used by those who have what we call a ‘process mindset’. Of course, there are a variety of ways to use BPM to gain that process mindset and the insights that are derived from greater access to more kinds of data.

Case management software is a prime example. When case management software is paired with BPM software, business users can build, modify and manage sophisticated digital applications in a human-directed way. Case magnifies the effects of BPM because it is an agile way of integrating data from disparate sources and managing how it is used. As a result of detailed analytics, case management provides information that can be used to derive additional insights.

The true impact of BPM case management is best understood in the context of workflow. The market has a lot of BPM-only tools that rely on the "if, then" concept. They have been developed to manage sequential, time-driven events and operations. Yet many processes are more complex in what they deliver, who they touch and how they handle obstacles and changing conditions.

This is an important differentiator for case management because it is framed around processes that are not necessarily beholden to a timeline or a sequence— but are more often about the logic and actions taken within the process. A well-constructed adaptive case management solution can take into account things like business data (through the integration of information from different sources), business logic, deadlines, and insights derived from the data.

It is important to think about case management not as a "thing" like a project or a folder. Rather, it is the accumulation of all the elements that comprise the activity, all formed around the varying aspects of an issue, or case. The beauty of case management is that the goal is known, the premise understood, yet there is flexibility to pull in the necessary information so as to make better decisions based on deeper insights into the issues one is trying to solve.

Consider, for example, how a decision is made using a simple "T-Chart". We have all, at one time or another, sat down to weigh pros and cons of a T-Chart. To do that, we have to frame the outcome and provide details based on what we know. If it is buying a car, well, we know what we care about most that will sway us in making a decision. If gas mileage, air conditioning and color are critical, we would put them on the list. Maybe we do not care about cruise control and seat warmers, so we can exclude them. If cruise control contributed to gas mileage, and if better gas mileage could give you a better rebate, would that be a factor in your decision? All features have to be assessed and factored in at times independently, and at other times, collectively. A T-Chart (and most human brains), is incapable of calculating so many interconnected variables. Case management, however, is designed to do just that, and by doing so, provides users with an advantage in terms of perspective and understanding.

Peter Drucker also said, “The basic economic resource - the means of production - is no longer capital, nor natural resources, nor labor. It is and will be knowledge.” If you apply that to today’s enterprise, you will recognize the difference between data and, as Drucker says, “Knowledge.” Knowledge brings understanding, and understanding leads to a better decisions.

Case management is a methodology that can help organizations better address and use the information it collects. In so doing, BPM case management solutions enables companies to optimize their most prized asset.