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.

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.

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.

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

• 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.

Business process management and workflow automation began within the manufacturing arena but have spread into other industries due to the many benefits of business process automation they offer. Automating processes, managing documents, and meeting compliance regulations have become the concerns of growing enterprises looking to technology based BPM software.

What problems are businesses looking to resolve with business process management software? What are the benefits of business process automation with BPM software? Here’s what we know:

4 Benefits of Business Process Automation With BPM Software Implementation

• • Benefit 1: Eliminate inefficient manual processes

One of the major benefits of business process automation with BPM software is the automation of paper heavy or manually driven processes in order to streamline the processes. Many workflows follow the same patterns, so automating them can make them more efficient and reduce errors. For example, using responsive dynamic electronic forms creates consistency in reporting. These eforms can be filtered into searchable databases with varying permissions accessible by the user. This means less double entry, less potential errors, and searchable consistent reports.<

• • Benefit 2: Make management decisions based on real-time data

By automating processes with BPM software, management can see what’s happening to workflows in real time. This means they can easily discover bottle necks in the process and even intervene, if needed to keep things running smoothly. Process Timeline, Process Director’s patented business process automation technology, allows for the use predictive data to capture and correct issues faster, avoiding down time.

• • Benefit 3: Accountability when it comes to compliance

Industries faced with compliance demands must have systems in place to keep consistent records, and have them archived and searchable. Compliance automation can allow for built in accountability, user permissions to access specific information, alerts/notifications, reporting capabilities and document history. Process Director’s compliance automation features allow you for enhanced audit support and enhanced authentication help organizations operate fluid dynamic processes ensuring they are in compliance with regulations and auditors.

• • Benefit 4: Become agile and adaptable to customer demands

BPM allows a business to be more agile and adaptable to customer, supplier and even employee demands. Rapid application development, social BPM and cutting edge digital process automation technology that seamlessly works with existing business IT structure is critical for allowing quick changes, increased personalization and the innovation to stay ahead of the curve.

Request a Demo

Process Director from BP Logix is a versatile BPM software solution designed to support forward thinking businesses looking to improve process efficiency, better manage workflows and compliance, and create a better experience for all those engaged with them. To see how the benefits of business process automation can help your organization, contact us or schedule a free demonstration of Process Director today.

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.

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.

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.

Summer has finally arrived and with it come opportunities to catch a wave, dig your toes into the sand, grab a cold one, and decompress. If a nearby beach is calling your name, we'd like to send you off with that long-standing tradition of loading up on workflow-related material for your beach reads. While the beaches are filled with teens frolicking to summer grooves and kids kicking sand into your guacamole, you'll be content and ready to re-charge, as you ‘entertain’ yourself by flipping through some of the finest thinking on how BPM software and workflow software are changing the way the world works….

In all seriousness, it's true that we usually don't take time to ‘learn’ because we're so heads-down in "doing." It becomes easy to stick with what we know, but summertime gives us a reminder that slowing down and looking around usually presents some interesting opportunities.

We think about BPM and workflow all the time, and our website is loaded with best practices, knowledge and BPM resources to help you become smarter about BPM solutions and methods that can impact your business. For the purposes of convenience (and not to overwhelm you), we've chosen a few key pieces to help you better understand how BPM and workflow actually work, how to prepare your organization for using them, and what you can expect to gain. So here is the essential list of BPM and workflow beach reads (and your cue to grab that cold one):

1. The Project: Process Pat and the Journey to Process Improvement
This blog series follows Process Pat as he embarks on a path to improve his company's decision-making and outcomes by using BPM and workflow. Part 1 shows how Pat introduces the project to colleagues, then follows with how he gets executive approval in Part 2. In Part 3, Pat uncovers some important truths about how things get done within his company. This impacts how he proceeds with his project.

2. BPM Means Business. So Does Workflow.
This blog provides an understanding of the differences and similarities between BPM and workflow, and how different types of organizations benefit from them.

3. Business and the Clock: Workflow and Time
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. This blog explains the importance of having the element of time included in your BPM and workflow solution.

4. Business Process Outcomes: What an Enterprise Should Expect for Its BPM Investment
The blog outlines seven key outcomes that an organization should expect after implementing BPM. It provides a roadmap for ensuring success and driving towards important business-process improvement.

At this point, you should be well-versed in the language, trends and key elements of BPM software and workflow software. Feel free to grab another cold one, catch a wave, and start a process. Cowabunga!

Jim Barksdale, the charismatic CEO of Netscape, famously said, “Nothing happens until somebody sells something.” In the business world, truer words have never been spoken. Money is the lubricant that runs everything we do. The purpose of every organization is to grow and improve—and a better bottom line indicates achievement on both counts. Reaching a certain financial outcome is, however, determined by numbers, and numbers only.

What the bottom line fails to calculate, however, is the human element in our business ‘activity.’ Improvements can be made - sometimes big, sweeping improvements - that do not show up on a spreadsheet. In sales parlance, this is often referred to as a "soft benefit", and may not, unfortunately, be considered. When we talk with Process Director users, however, we find that these "soft benefits" are precisely what fuels large organizational changes which, in turn. ultimately lead to better bottom lines.

This is the crux of the Process Director BPM software value proposition. It enables processes that lead BOTH directly and indirectly to improvement!

Those improvements occur in a variety of different ways:

Participant contribution: Let’s be honest: this is not exactly sexy stuff. But business process management (BPM) is a critical piece of how we run our organizations When we have better insights into the way our companies operate, we get a deeper sense of what is, and what isn't, working. Maybe we knew from the beginning that invoices weren't getting approved quickly because submitters did not include copies of paperwork, for example. Yet, when using a BPM and workflow tool we can identify what is occurring throughout the course of a process, contributing our personal knowledge to improve how things get done. (And reminding submitters, in this example, to include the appropriate documentation). Imagine if everyone in an organization had a tool that would allow them to be that involved?

Insight: For the sake of speed and expedience, people want to be supplied with data and metrics on a regular basis. In far too many cases, users just want to validate the status of some activity. But that's not what is essential. The really critical things are the issues and process that can be changed and improved through insight and analysis. A weekly Excel report can indicate specifics, but it does not encourage users to seek solutions. Process Director empowers users to combine their own analytical skills with the insights provided through our BPM and workflow solution. When combined, they give an organization the ability to change and improve in ways that are meaningful to them, to their customers, and indeed, to the bottom line.

Usability leads to engagement: Process Director does not require users to code in order to create or make changes to usable processes. By knowing and understanding what is important the right types of changes can be made easily, changes that can impact company performance. There are two important outcomes that can result from this: 1) The potential for better processes and operations, and 2) A sense of ownership among the employees who are involved. What's more, when employees know they can contribute in this way, a feeling begins to permeate throughout the organization— creating an internal esprit de corps. This becomes an invaluable asset for any organization, and one that begins to build upon itself.

BPM software and workflow software are business tools. Using them effectively results in greater efficiency and effectiveness. Those lead to bottom line business process improvement. We know that customers seek that when looking for a solution initially. We have come to find, however, that the bottom line is not the only benefit from automating and streamlining processes and workflows. They are solutions that breed the mindset of accountability and improvement— and that ultimately leads to better financial results.

Increasing profits is critical, but BPM and workflow can positively impact so many elements of organizational operations

Any organization’s bottom line is an incredible “motivator.” It is used to pay bonuses, bestow awards and give accolades to those whose efforts lead to reducing spending and increasing profits. After all, the purpose of any organization is to grow and improve— and a healthy bottom line indicates achievement on both counts. There are limitations, though, to what a company can try to achieve through its profit-maximizing efforts. As a result companies have to safeguard against idealizing “business improvement” in terms of numbers only.

What the bottom line fails to calculate is the human element in business activity. Improvements can be made — sometimes big, sweeping improvements— and not be represented in a spreadsheet as those efforts may be more difficult to quantify. When we talk with Process Director users, however, we find that these so-called "soft benefits" often help change the mindset of the organization in such a way that long term bottom line improvement becomes embedded into how the company actually operates.

This is the essence of Process Director. It enables processes that lead BOTH directly and indirectly to business process improvement. Some benefits are realized immediately, while others form over time yet their impact is seen, felt and heard for years to come. These longer term improvements are usually seen in a variety of ways:

Participant contribution: We all go to a job every day and would like to make an impact, and play a role in both our own and the company’s success. When we have greater insights into the way our company truly operates, we can gain a deeper sense for what is, and is not, working. Maybe we sensed that invoices weren't getting approved quickly because submitters did not include appropriate paperwork, for example. Yet, by using a BPM software and workflow software solution, we can identify what is going on throughout a process leading to improving the way things get done. Imagine if every person in an organization had a tool that would enable them to be involved in creating better, and faster, processes leading to better, faster results.

Increased visibility: Pilot and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote, "...what is essential is invisible to the eye." He was talking about things far grander than workflow, but his sentiment can also be applied to our business environment. Let's look at it this way: for the sake of expedience, employees rely on a steady flow of data and information. In far too many cases, that data may not lead them to think too much about the process. But that's truly not what is essential. It's useful however the critical things are the issues and processes that, through insight and analysis, can be changed and improved. A weekly Excel report does not encourage employees to seek ways to improve a process. On the other hand, Process Director empowers users to apply their analytical skills to the insight provided by our product. When combined, they give an organization the ability to change and improve in ways that are meaningful to the organization, its customers, and to the bottom line.

Ownership: Employees that have the right tools and permissions can make changes that move a company closer to its goals. Process Director, for example, does not require coding skills to create a usable process —nor to change that process when required. By knowing and understanding the desired outcome, the right types of changes (those that will impact the bottom line) can be made. Two important outcomes result: 1) The potential for better processes and company operations, and 2) A sense of ownership among the employees who are involved. What's more, when employees know their contributions hold the potential to make a real impact, a feeling begins to permeate throughout the organization –and a sense of esprit de corps emerges. This becomes an invaluable asset for any organization, and one that begins to build upon itself.

BPM and workflow are outstanding tools to help businesses perform more effectively. Using them can and ‘should’ result in bottom line improvements. We also know that BPM and workflow can lead to a mindset among 'players' that enables them to be a part of, and accountable for a better way of doing business.

The advertising industry long ago shed the style dramatized in “Mad Men”— and the same can be said about the ad agency workflow process of old. Rather than Scotch-fueled strategy sessions, ad agency conference rooms are now more likely to be occupied (and surrounded by) iPads, tablets, smart phones and the ever-present latte.

What has not changed is the strict focus on the needs of the clients. As a service-based business, ad agencies can only grow when they have built a solid reputation for delivering on strategies that make their clients successful.

The unveiling of new designs and ad concepts is highly visual —and evokes an immediate response. Clients have come to expect and appreciate that. The ad agency workflow for each project includes decisions, actions and tasks that enable a campaign to be highly successful are the invisible, but crucial, pieces that need constant attention for the ad agency.

In order for an ad agency to "get it right" for their clients, the creative process calls for the right people to collaborate. Additionally, there is a cast of others who provide review and approval for copy, budget, staffing etc. Every action has an impact, and when there are problems, they can lead to delays. In a deadline-driven, "get-it-done-yesterday" environment, time and decisions are of the essence and there is a premium placed on reducing bottlenecks. Business process management provides a huge advantage in streamlining the efforts of ad agencies and media companies.

For the advertising industry, one of the most noticeable areas that workflow successfully addresses is marrying a digital structure with a traditionally paper-based environment. Even today, most ad agencies rely on forms and paper to drive internal processes. Reviews, sign-offs, decisions and client expenditures are among the many elements of daily life in advertising. And as client demands grow, it becomes increasingly more challenging to keep up due to inefficient processes.

Moving from a paper-based environment to an ad agency workflow solution like Process Director smart forms means that stakeholders can easily access vast numbers of forms and data— and these documents can then become part of an integrated approval workflow that helps to manage content, ensure collaboration and provide access to information needed for decision-making.

Lag time in decision-making creates delays which stymies the ability to deliver concepts to clients and execute a tight project plan. With ad agency workflow software, an organization can start to rely on an automated set of processes for tasks, routing of content, approvals and decision-making. Rather than requests sitting in in-boxes, alerts, rules and notifications can be created to streamline and automate the process. Workflows enable organizations to be flexible and accountable as they seek to meet the demands of their stakeholders.

Leo Burnett, a BP Logix customer, provides an example of why routing and rules-based workflow is so important. Two members of the team that implemented Process Director, said, “We needed and ad agency workflow solution to route estimates for the work that every client requests from us - and for every brand and sub-brand. All estimates we create on behalf of clients must go through a process. Additionally, we need to update estimates along the way and to set up rules based on brand and dollar amount – and to control the process."

It is easy to see that, without a foundation and an ad agency workflow system for creating and updating processes, internal stop-gaps could easily prevent an agency from meeting deadlines and delivering its best work.

Producing higher quality materials under ever-tightening project deadlines, integrating new technologies and becoming both more agile and collaborative are some of the benefits of workflow. In an industry that relies heavily on relationships, the more important benefit, however, comes in the form of accountability to its clients.

Think about the number of products you use that involve some form of liquid to produce, clean or maintain that product. Consider that almost about everything you eat and wear was washed multiple times before you came into contact with it. Your apple, jeans, the gel in your hair; the floors, walls and ceilings of your home and office - they have all received a variety of ‘liquid treatments’.

Most of us don’t think about this very often —however, when we do, it is difficult to imagine any product we encounter that has not been “delivered” without the involvement of some form of liquid.

One of our customers spends a great deal of time thinking about liquids. The business of Liquid Controls is the development and manufacturing of liquid process control instrumentation and measurement products. Through their products, companies effectively use water, adhesives, chemicals and a variety of liquids. A part of IDEX Corporation, Liquid Controls is dedicated to providing high quality flow meters and accessories for accurate liquid measurement in a variety of industries. Their reach is global, and their products essential.

Learning about their business and the impact of their products has helped shape our opinion about how workflow changes the way the world operates. Without ways to monitor and manage liquid distribution, our lives would be quite different.

Like most companies, Liquid Controls relies on its intranet to provide electronic forms and information for its employees — from policies and procedures to expense reports and sales quotas. Yet its intranet had also become more of a repository of data —and less of a tool for initiating and managing processes. In the eyes of Bruce Lawrence, Group Network Manager, the intranet had the potential to provide so much more value! He sought a BPM software and workflow software solution that could apply business process management (BPM) to make things easier and more efficient within Liquid Controls.

Lawrence wanted a system that would work the way that employees worked. He initially looked for ways to process online forms, then expanded the scope to include workflow solutions. Lawrence consulted with business users to further determine what they needed and found a variety of requests: Accounting wanted to control the process for capital expense (CapEx), a manual, paper-based process at that time. (As a result of misplaced documents, Accounting was missing audit deadlines.) QA wanted all of its quality procedures online. (One of its documents required 12 signatures – and it was discovered, on several occasions, that no one knew who had the form.)

Additionally, as an ISO-certified organization, any time there is a change in any procedure, Liquid Controls had to secure signatures approving that change— as well as track documents associated with that change to ensure that information access and distribution was seamless.

For this workflow initiative to be successful, Lawrence did not have time to waste cycles on extensive back-end development and integration. A fast roll-out was important!

The Liquid Controls team reviewed trial versions of Adobe and Microsoft forms builder. They did not address the company’s workflow needs to their satisfaction. The product that did was BP Logix's Process Director.

Liquid Controls is using Process Director for applications ranging from attendance and engineering change control to shop floor work constructions. Providing the appropriate workflows to ensure that a new hire could build a product to the same tolerance as a more senior employee was one initial challenge that the company successfully addressed.(Building a flow meter, for example, requires 600 work constructions. Changes to the process are now done through one workflow. Instructions are published in real-time which makes them available to shop floor employees immediately.)

According to Lawrence, “For us in IT, the world is one of nonstop projects. There is always a queue of people waiting for us to respond to a request.” One of the benefits of Process Director for Lawrence and his team is greater transparency and insight into requests, as well as opportunities to reduce redundant work, perform better parallel tasking and standardize on requirements.

An industry that is highly regulated also deals with audits. Liquid Controls is audited at least once a year for its ISO accreditation, as well as regular Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) requirements. Once ISO-certified, procedures must be available to anyone who needs to see them. Process Director helps with business process governance making the reporting, monitoring and auditing of processes seamless and gives authorized employees and auditors access to the information they need and the approval workflows 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, allowing them to focus on deploying other applications. And while 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 workflow.

Process Director enables Liquid Controls to drive from the results side backwards and to better leverage its investments. We invite you to consider whether Process Director can do the same for your business.

Learn more:

• Companies in a variety of markets are using Process Director to make their business more efficient. Read our BPM Case Studies from our customer experiences.
• Process Director offers a wide range of features. Learn more about its workflow management software.
• Get first-hand experience - we invite you to join us for a personal free BPM software demo of Process Director.

Process Director Productivity Gains Illustrated with BP Logix Value Estimator

Organizations thrive when they are productive and productivity comes in many forms. We can also measure productivity in a number of ways— for example, how quickly a task is successfully completed. Ultimately, however, business process improvement means producing more things in less time with fewer distractions.

The hope of every CEO is that productivity translates to greater profits and a less complicated way to arrive at that state of achievement. While that is an admirable goal, there is a lot of room for interpretation as to how productivity is calculated. Ask a Sicilian mother about productivity and she will tell you that a sauce needs MORE time to simmer, not less. Ask a widget manufacturer and he will tell you that more widgets in less time is the outcome he desires.

Is there such a thing as being overly productive? Can doing too much too quickly lead to quality issues? We think the answer to that can be a resounding “Yes!”

Many enterprises today are operating with too many people doing too many redundant things. If these companies were to apply business process management to their environments, they would likely find great savings in time and effort, all of which could be redeployed to other business-critical tasks.

Smart enterprises that seek to make improvements in productivity approach the task with specific goals in mind. They tell us that knowing what they want to achieve and having a tangible idea of what success looks like enabled them to construct a business process management (BPM) and workflow strategy to complement their efforts.

First of all, there must be synergy among the different organizational teams that are focused on improving productivity. Agreement on this means a unified vision and collaboration, leading to creating processes that all participants can use. For some organizations this can only happen by starting from scratch— or it could mean re-tooling long-held processes and habits. The hope is that instituting process change leads to eliminating waste, reducing redundancy and ultimately paving the way to better processes. That, in turn, delivers a greater sense of purpose and measurable increases in productivity.

Because productivity improvements are cited by so many customers as a goal, we have a keen focus on it as a business outcome. In our BPM Value Estimator, we provide customer examples that demonstrate these improvements as a result of implementing BPM software and workflow management software. Leo Burnett, the advertising and media agency, sought to gain greater insights into how internal data was processed and decisions made. The result of using Process Director to helps the Agency realize substantial gains in productivity as well as cost savings. Another customer, Multi-Plan, eliminated bottlenecks in with its 300+ contracts that were renewing at different times throughout the year – as well as replacing its Lotus Notes application with Process Director.

These, and customers like Multi-Chem have seen significant changes in their businesses as a result of focusing on how work gets done, determining who is responsible for it, and defining the results they need. For an organization that thoughtfully considers how to best manage its processes,  tangible changes to productivity can be observed—and measured. This may take the form of fewer people required to perform certain tasks, less time needed at decision points, greater transparency and, of course, greater flexibility.

We invite you to spend some time with our Value Estimator infographic. We think it provides insights as to what our customers are trying to accomplish and how Process Director helps them achieve their goals. The ultimate efficiencies and benefits result from process automation, a shift in corporate culture and dedication to change. We hope that the examples the Value Estimator provides will help you to see  some possibilities that your organization might also expect to achieve.

Product Excellence through Customer Satisfaction

We work hard to get prospects (including, hopefully, you!) to think favorably about Process Director —and encourage them to think about new ways they can leverage the product. In an effort to do that, we write material that describes the product, explains the market, and communicates how Process Director can be applied to achieve business goals. The content we produce is remarkably effective, but the greatest marketing and sales assets we have are our customers.

Our Chairman of the Board, Ed Skiko, once explained that we are focused on "...the duality of excellent products and keen customer awareness." Looking through the lens of many years of experience in this business, we know that customers demand excellent products, and excellent products can only be delivered if we know what customers need.

We spend a great deal of time with  BP Logix's customers and, while we are indeed in learning mode to understand how to help solve their business-critical issues, we also genuinely like them as people. Indeed, we have walked away from potential deals when we felt there was not a good fit. Our intention is to create long-term partnerships.  We want to know their stories, and to be reliable and useful for the long-term. It’s also nice to enjoy the relationships we create along the way.

Perhaps the best way to get to know us is through our customers — and to hear about what they are doing. Almost all of them began with needing to address specific problems: processes that needed to be automated, filing cabinets full of forms and documents that could not be accessed in a timely manner, a growing IT backlog, process development that required too many cycles of technical personnel, lack of consistent data in forms, and a host of other issues that kept CIOs and LOB managers awake at night —and prevented them from making meaningful improvements to their business.

The IT department at MultiPlan was looking for a better way to handle capital and major expenditure requests. Their existing solution (built on the old workhorse Lotus Notes) was outdated and incapable of meeting the growing needs of this healthcare cost management provider. The Finance department wanted to work with forms and documents that were based on the ones that had used for many years.  IT wanted to satisfy the needs of Finance, yet provide them with an application that offered other possibilities. (After the initial CapEx process went live, MultiPlan went on to create processes for Asset Management and Disposal, as well as Contract Management.) With the our Cloud BPM edition of Process Director, MultiPlan has met both objectives.  Employees are working with forms that mirror what they have known for years; they can easily identify the requirements for their procurement requests, then track and manage those requests through to the approval stage. With its robust workflow management software capabilities and predictive capabilities, Process Director has dramatically changed how MultiPlan handles some of the most critical parts of its Finance organization.

Vulcan Materials, headquartered in Alabama, is keenly aware of how increasing business efficiency can both help its customers prosper and directly impact its bottom line. The company continually seeks ways to optimize and improve its operations.  A few states to the west, IT management at the County of Fresno  in California needed greater insights into its business processes. Both companies had legacy systems that were still usable— but could not provide the level of analysis, reporting or awareness that was required. In addition, the assistance of technical staff was needed to update and maintain the systems. Both customers are champions of Process Director because changes to their underlying business processes enable them to operate more effectively, which have led to better customer experiences. These, in turn, have created greater alignment between the business owners and IT staff.

These are just some examples that we hope will start you thinking about Process Director. We encourage you to get to know our customers and to listen to their stories. You will learn what is important to them and how they view their "before" and "after" business and technology scenarios. Then, have a look at Process Director for yourself and let us know if we can partner with you to create your business story.

Part 2 of a 2 part blog

Business activity should be done with a purpose in mind. While not every group in a company will have a direct impact on the bottom line, everything that each employee does will ideally contribute to a better financial result for the enterprise.

There are tremendous benefits that result from the correct mix of purpose, methodology, tools and practice. When the right players become focused in a collaborative way— and towards a common goal— the entire organization can move forward effectively. For this to happen, however, the people within the organization need to be equipped with the tools that will help them in their efforts. In this case, the right tools are the ones that best match their skill set and enable them to produce results.

In Part 1 of this blog series, we explained how business goals are formed and how plans are created to implement them. Two particular items were identified as key to BPM software successfully moving an organization towards achieving its goals: 1) A process-oriented mindset, and 2) Tools that empower users to contribute their expertise and impact these goals.

At BP Logix, we know that Process Director can be a critical tool in this regard, because we have seen the impact it has made for so many of our customers. Process Director was, from its inception, built to be used by those who are responsible for effecting change. It is software, for sure — however unlike most enterprise software solutions, Process Director is intended for business users themselves.

We know that tools are most effective when they make the jobs of people on the “front lines” easier, leading to better results. Process Director is a rapid application development platform which requires no programming expertise from its users. Everyone talks about empowering employees— and Process Director makes that possible. The whole point of the product is to provide a business dashboard and navigation tool for those who need a way to codify and implement a structure for running a business. Because programming skills are not required, changes can be made ad hoc, leading to immediate results. Two important things occur as a result of this. The: 1) Solution is created by the person who can most knowledgeably assess the problem, and 2) Time required to make and implement changes is almost immediate. In an environment that equates speed with money, this means a faster time to savings and greater revenue potential.

Also critical to effective BPM solutions is usability. The demands on employees’ time leave little room for a long learning curve. Today's workers are accustomed to social media and highly interactive user interfaces. A BPM product like Process Director offers a graphical environment in which almost any user can function. Because Process Director has cloud BPM and mobile BPM capabilities, it is available when and where users choose to work.

Among the keys to achieving a company’s goals is the ability for employees to have an active role in helping to make those goals ‘happen.’ When they can organize their work tasks around actions that address these goals, employees have a greater (and more visible) stake in how the company performs. It is not surprising then, that empowered employees, equipped with the right tools, can do amazing things to support the company's vision. When this becomes part of daily operations, all pieces of the company can be focused on creating success for their organization.

Part 1 of a 2 part blog

Any organization that wants to be successful spends time carefully crafting its vision. Quite often, however, it defines that vision in terms that may be either unreachable ("to place our widgets in the hands of every executive in the United States), too broad ("to be the best software company on the planet"), or just not reasonable ("to change the way the world ties its shoes"). Smart enterprises not only avoid getting caught into the trap of hazy mission statements, they also apply rigorous and intelligent thought to aligning their purpose with specific goals.

To see those goals come to fruition and deliver demonstrable results, they need to be supported with business processes that enable employees to achieve these goals.

Neither the company’s nor departmental visions need to be lofty. They do not require a lot of ‘fancy language’ to convey what they aspire to do. In fact, it is often the simplest of messages that most easily translates into action.

It is also true that business processes are most effective when they are applicable - and can be used by the people who can benefit most directly from them. Said another way, one of the most advantageous things a company can do is give employees clear, attainable goals, tools to help them achieve those goals, and support that encourages attaining those goals.

Those in the executive wing can easily describe how achieving the company’s goals translates to increasing the value of the business. In reality, however, most employees are too far removed from those operations to understand how these goals are achieved. They have no skin in the game (unless management has included them in the processes that lead to success).

Most company goals focus on the bottom line. That makes good business sense. One good quarter, however, does not necessarily equate to a healthy business. As a result there can be a disconnect among employees who are close enough to the ‘action’ yet also know the difference between a quick win and a sustainable business practice. In fact many of us have worked in places where outside appearances indicate a well-oiled operation. Yet when the cover is lifted, they may reveal a dysfunctional, inefficient operation with a focus only on short-term wins.

This is why a business process mindset, and the corresponding tools, is so critical to achieving goals which translates to business success. With a clear definition of what needs to be done, people closest to creating actionable change can have an impact across the entire organization. Actionable change – this is truly the differentiator!

BPM solutions being sold today would have you believe that it can radically alter how your company operates. Yet a successful implementation of a BPM software solution requires two things: 1) The mindset we’ve been describing and 2) Tools that accurately reflect how users operate. Together they can truly affect the kind of change that translates into achieving goals.

Join us on the next blog for some examples of how that is done!

Capabilities that Can Dramatically Improve How You Work

Business process management (BPM) is used within organizations to address a variety of needs and requirements. And, as with BPM software, reaching some short-term goals often takes precedent over utilizing all the capabilities available.

Our customers tell us that BPM can impact a broad set of their operations and provide insights not previously available. They tell us that BPM is a way to run a business—and that the streamlining their processes (the P in BPM) are what make them successful.

There are three factors within Process Director that help organizations to become more efficient at achieving their business goals:

Processes in the context of timelines
There is no point in initiating a process without having an end point that signifies completion or success. As surprising as it may seem, most process tools have been created to achieve workflow and task-orientation alone— and neglect to consider that tasks are meant to be delivered according to time frames. This is not only limiting to the business, but also prevents users from becoming smarter about where to make changes and adjustments to running processes.

We, however, look at time as fundamental to achieving goals. The business process automation software component of  Process Timeline was developed to embrace the dimension of time — specifically time as it relates to completing a task. Irrespective of just how long something takes, our feeling is that at some point, deadlines, timelines and accomplishments rule the day (more than the process itself.) The work that people are doing needs to be understood in the context of how long it will take —and the timeframes that can be used to set expectations. Just ask anyone who's had to deliver something by the end of the quarter and they'll gladly validate the fact that, as Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Time is money”.

Predictive capabilities
With time being such a critical element to an organization’s processes, the ability to predict activities and deliverables provides a unique and competitive advantage. Intelligent, predictable timeframes result in realistic expectations and are key to better planning.

The best way to predict the outcome of your resources, processes and activities is through intelligence derived from what your processes do. In other words, through the actions that occur within the process workflows themselves. Probably the best intellectual property in your organization is contained within the data and decisions that transact your business processes. We have always believed that analysis of that data helps keep projects moving forward and suggests when adjustments need to be made due to timelines and milestones not being met.

The ability to anticipate and adapt makes your organization more nimble— and requires nothing more than adherence and attention to your own processes.

Coding not required
We developed Process Director for people who are responsible for the outcomes of business processes. We call them the process owners. The knowledge required to understand what an organization needs in order to deliver the solution resides with them — and they are key to their success. Historically many companies believed that any changes to a process required IT involvement (building requirements, coding the changes, testing them, then rolling them out.) With IT drowning in a queue of requests and application backlog, that paradigm no longer works. Process owners can mitigate this outdated system by making the changes to the processes that they determine are necessary.

There's also an issue of resources: why complicate things by involving people who do not have a stake in the success (or outcome) of a process? Process Director is FOR and ABOUT the people who benefit from (and are involved in) the processes. The process itself is not necessarily the goal; outcomes are! Process Director was designed to be a users’ tool. A unique Word-based Smart Form builder and an intuitive graphical user interface make building, deploying and managing processes easier. The result: greater time-to-value from your processes and business operations.

Everyone talks about ease-of-use, and there are many BPM tools that appear easy to work with. Process Director was always intended to be a tool for business users. We want them to take their knowledge and insight to create usable processes that make lives easier and their organizations more profitable. We have created Process Director to enable you, and the people in your organization, to become more insightful, impactful and purposeful.