Even before Coronavirus spread across the globe, colleges struggled with financial constraints and declining enrollment. Now, they’re scrambling to implement tools and reconfigure processes for remote learning.  

Some universities have already issued statements that the upcoming fall 2020 semester will continue virtually, which could even last through spring 2021. Students are also seeking tuition refunds after switching to online classes, sparking class action lawsuits across the country. 

Because of this, it’s more critical than ever that colleges and universities future-proof their academic and operational model. Nothing but uncertainty lies ahead, and those who are not prepared are likely to fall. But while America’s colleges and universities are sure to lose students in the short term, the pandemic’s obstacle is only temporary compared to the permanent structural forces affecting higher education. 

Digital learning and declining enrollment for fall 2020

Education experts predict that college enrollment will be lower next semester and many colleges and universities are unsure if they will hold classes in-person in the fall.

According to The American Council on Education, a higher education lobby group, on-campus college enrollment will fall by 15% in the upcoming fall semester. This would cost institutions nearly $23 billion in foregone revenue, which would force many campuses to close their doors. Likewise, schools that are able to remain physically open through the pandemic are expected to see a surge in enrollment once it’s safe for students to return to the classroom.

Many universities have already announced their on-campus operational plan to encourage student commitment and provide some assurance of what form their education will take. Some, like Boston University (BU), plan to reopen its residential campus for the fall semester, but other universities like California State University–Fullerton plan to start the fall term online. 

Some universities are also attempting to lead prospective students to enroll in the fall, rather than defer for a year until the pandemic is under greater control. For example, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is offering free tuition to all incoming freshmen who enroll in its campus-based programs next year and will reduce published tuition for all of the following years by 61%. 

According to Lynn Pasquerella, President of the Association of the American Colleges and Universities, colleges are not sure what to expect. “There’s some certainty with respect to a decrease in the number of international students that’s already been in rapid decline with a 14% decrease over the past few years. And they’re worried that this current global pandemic that has spurred an economic recession is going to further catalyze a depression, making it difficult for parents to send their children to college. On the flip side, I think we will see enrollments in online programs rise quite a bit, driven by adult learners — many of whom have been recently laid off — looking to wait out the recession and use their time productively by skilling up.”

Virtual processes can combat shrinking college budgets

The shift to digital learning and online classrooms has forced colleges to refund on-campus expenses like housing, meal plans, gym memberships and more––resulting in huge financial deficits and struggling colleges. On top of this, schools are also expecting a decline in enrollment this fall. 

Yet college leaders have more to worry about––even if campuses reopen this fall, there are worries that many students won't return for fall 2020 due to the recent economic downturn that’s left many unable to afford tuition. Even more, universities are forecasting steep enrollment drop-offs among international students who feel hesitant to study abroad so closely after a global pandemic. And for colleges that rely on international students, officials are bracing for international enrollment to drop by 25%, causing a loss of $70 million next year.

Plunging student enrollment will present different challenges for higher education organizations. Fewer students means less tuition, and much of funding at the state and federal levels relies on the number of students who show up and occupy seats. Even if students are enrolled digitally, they won’t be occupying dorms or purchasing meal plans, causing colleges to lose major sources of revenue. 

It’s not just students who will be missing from campus––renting out property and real estate throughout the summer for things like conferences and freshman orientations, tickets for sports games and summer camps are also a big source of revenue and employment for institutions. We’re even at risk of losing college football and fall sports, leaving organizations faced with the decision to play in front of empty stands, which would eliminate ticket revenue and incur broadcast licensing fees.

  During a recession, enrollment usually goes up as more and more look for safety during a time of high unemployment or look to re-sharpen their skills. Now, university officials are nervous that families whose personal finances have been hurt since they filled out financial-aid forms may decide college has become an unaffordable investment for the time being. 

Following the mid-March college shut-down of campus, schools have announced hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Universities project that a $14 billion federal aid package will not be enough to keep struggling schools afloat, and experts say this recession is just the beginning of hardship if schools cannot identify ways to persuade and convince students to return in the fall, despite colleges preparing to transition into entirely digital learning by the end of the semester. 

Establish future-proof workflows and processes with BP Logix

Colleges and universities are turning more and more to digital workflow solutions that connect their students and employees. Now that students aren’t in dorms, faculty aren’t on campus and the entire world is working from home, there’s still a critical need for structure and process implementation. 

While scale of technology may always be an issue, the approach to problem-solving can be addressed by schools of any size. Workflow can be the defining factor for schools being agile because it is foundational for how problems are solved, irrespective of the technology that’s used.

To implement smooth transitions and enable changes in structure, exchanging data from information systems and financial applications must be solidified and secure. This allows colleges to create clear views into student information and provides the ability to relocate employees so you can become extremely agile as the “new normal” begins to take shape. 

In a normal environment, the reliance on paper forms and manual intervention for decision-making milestones might be tolerated. But with massive pressure to conserve money and be highly efficient during this time of great change, college management, admissions and IT teams have to pull together all these things into an integrated, rapidly moving set of workflows in record time. New workflows and processes require a variety of forms, documents, requests, and decisions to be made.

Many BP Logix higher education customers are already using Process Director to handle these types of issues. Schools like California State University Stanislaus and the University of North Carolina NRI cite their ability to be flexible and quickly develop new processes as major advantages of using Process Director’s workflow automation capabilities as core to their foundation.

Successfully adapt to remote learning and survive a dip in enrollment for the coming semester(s) by transforming your processes and workflows. Process Director delivers capabilities like workflow automation that enables higher education teams to use pre-configured templates to quickly enable remote learning and reduce enrollment decline. 

There were more than 20 million students enrolled in colleges in the United States in 2018, and that number is forecast to increase in the coming decade. More than 2/3 of all college students receive some kind of financial help in the form of grants and scholarships. Just as admissions are critical to an institutions success, ensuring that these same students have access to funding sources is critical to the future of higher education.

Colleges and universities operate to serve their students, and the financial aid they provide reflects this commitment. Unfortunately, however, most of the processes and workflows that support grants and scholarships exist in a combination of paper-based formats and disparate digital repositories, which can make it difficult to identify and utilize the necessary data. Lacking a system for moving this data from intake to funding, colleges are at risk of preventing deserving students from being able to attend and benefit. Fortunately, process automation enables higher education institutions to facilitate the requests of students to help them fund their education.

Is Automation the Future of Education Process Management?

Automation is the foundation of simplifying grant and scholarship management. Just as workflow has enabled human resources in higher education, it is also being used by colleges and universities to facilitate the flow of that data of students, financial institutions, and universities so it can be evaluated and disbursed. Access to this data is only one aspect of the process. Utilizing it and processing it with the right permissions, and with speed, give all parties the best shot at ensuring grants and scholarships are awarded efficiently.

But the process-driven coordination of financing, collection, and student lifecycle management demands an effective workflow framework, one that incorporates activity among government bodies, non-profits (who are often the benefactors who distribute scholarship money), students, parents/guardians, and financial aid departments within the schools. Ensuring your grants and scholarship management solution has the capability to navigate this intricate web of decision-makers and groups in an organized fashion is pivotal in expediting the processes around financing students.

Streamlining all Points in the Financial Aid Process

Managing workflows for grant and scholarship awards with a platform like Process Director helps present a clear picture to scholarship and grant administrators of all aspects of the financial aid process.

Financial aid processes typically require the input of multiple sources, and not all of them exist within the same organization. Process Director can apply a case management approach which is optimized to coordinate the activity of all involved in the process. This includes university departments like the Office of Financial Aid, Admissions, Registration and Academic Records. External groups include banks and other funding sources, government agencies who disburse grant money, and private institutions and individuals who fund private scholarships.

The Tools Necessary for Comprehensive Education Process Management

Pulling all of this together demands a broad assortment of tasks that includes data that includes paper records, approvals, data sharing among applications and databases, and forms management. With so much at stake, it is essential that deadlines are met and that milestones are attained. Procedure Director generates arrangement among, and between, process phases and different information sources. The result is a system that's inclusive of participants, allowing efficiency, compliance, and consistency. The course of action is all about efficiency and speed. Process Director applies abilities for lightweight application creation, workflow automation, forms management, and integration through a process that uses these steps:

Data collection: students submit applications for grants and scholarships from a variety of sources. This data will likely include artifacts such as an essay, high school transcripts, letters of recommendation, and family tax history among others. All of these items are relevant to the deciders of how grant money is distributed.

Case management framework: Every application is tied to a unique student, and can be considered as an individual case. As a case is created, it will likely be stored in a database, LDAP repository, or cloud storage bucket. But the case is very much active as member schools evaluate the application. Process Director uses a case management approach which enables each student’s file to be moved through the processes and milestones required by financial aid committees and departments.

Distribution of funds: Process Director is built with workflow automation as a critical component, which gives those involved with financial aid evaluation the ability to create rules and processes that will distribute applications internally to important decision-makers, and externally as application data is shared among banks and government groups.

Review/Evaluation: decision-makers will not miss data or milestones when the process is managed with automated workflow. This ensures that all available data can be shared and reviewed, but ultimately, it means that all students have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their needs.

As competition among schools becomes fiercer, there is an increasingly need to provide access to all worthy applicants. Process Director provides digitally transformative education workflow solutions that include facilitating scholarships and grants management, so deserving students can benefit from a higher education experience.

The original intent of workflow processes was to create a standardized and accepted way of identifying and solving for issues of efficiency. Eventually, workflow processes were introduced as a component of effective BPM, and today, innovative organizations apply both in a way where they support one another. These organizations realize that a workflow process will help you create repeatable outcomes, and workflow process is the workhorse that maintains consistency among the disparate elements that make up processes. To put it another way, workflow tools give organizations visibility into processes in order to monitor results, reduce inefficiencies and incorporate automation. But let’s look more closely at how workflow and process support outcomes through their own unique attributes.

Workflow Process Evolution: from Coordination to Prediction

Workflow Process serves to align the process management discipline to tasks and to support and work with patterns of business behavior. The technology that drives workflow is all based on coordinating interactions, milestones, and assets. When workflow automation software was first available as a codified technology solution, it was embedded into applications to supercharge their connectivity and operational capability. For the most part, those who benefited were typically just those with access to the specific applications. Over time, workflow became a foundational element to the overall process-driven mindset that smart companies employ. It now operates almost as a middleware technology, and its shared capabilities enable interactions among disparate groups of stakeholders. This includes both internal and third-party users.

But today’s innovative workflow solutions do far more than just coordinate the flow of activity. Platforms like Process Director apply machine learning and time recognition to help users take advantage of predictive insights and understand behavioral patterns. The component of time offers workflow users control they can’t get solely through application analytics and dashboards. With the inclusion of machine learning, Process Director’s workflow automation now allows identifies patterns that can require human intervention if a task isn’t expected to complete on time. In this way, the coordination of activity that a workflow process provides actually considers patterns of behaviors among different work streams to create a more focused model for delivering to specified outcomes.

Clearly, workflow design has evolved to the point that, as opposed to a typical flowchart it can almost drive activity from inception to completion. Rather than just relying on, “what happens next”, workflow is now equipped to identify and ask, “what must be completed before this step can begin, and how long will it take?” It’s in this way that workflow demonstrates its support for BPM, process efficiency improvement and governance. It delivers what’s required to provide oversight over multiple streams of activity, all working towards a common goal.

Business Workflow Process Instills Outcome-Based Discipline

For all of this effort to truly be effective, it must operate within a workflow process management framework, and this is where we find the distinction between workflow and BPM. A comprehensive workflow process approach emphasizes a holistic approach to coordinating everything that contributes to the outcome of business goals. This includes documents, cases, people, tasks, and sub-tasks are completed and executed for quality and/or compliance. Workflow assumes the work involved to connect and communicate among these things but that activity must adhere to the context of BPM.

Effective BPM solutions are foundational, and as a software application, they have to be able to integrate through APIs and other connectors so the right information and assets are available to decision-makers. Today’s knowledge workers — and in this economy, just about everyone is a knowledge worker to at least some degree — require a combination of subjective and analytical criteria in order to make decisions and move activities towards successful outcomes of business goals. BPM is the structure that enables repeatability for those processes and workflows that require consistency, but they also enable flexibility for processes that have to adapt to changing business needs.

Workflow Process and BPM are Foundational 

No business can operate without a foundation of sound, yet flexible, workflow processes. Part of that flexibility comes from being able to do more things with processes that might have been previously intended for more narrow purposes. Take, for example, an experience from the world of retail. Imagine a marketing process intended to deliver email notifications to customers about upcoming sales. While that may appear to be relatively simple, underneath that activity are a series of connected processes that include pulling data from a user database, engaging writers, involving the graphics department, and scheduling the mailing on a calendar. The end result is more contact with customers— contact that is the result of connecting processes and workflows that ultimately involve partnering with stakeholders.

Today’s business users need flexibility and accessibility to influence and participate in business solutions. Working in concert, workflow and BPM can deliver that access where and how they work and live, and engage all different types of users who are relevant to outcomes. For people and companies driving results, the ability to adapt and modify, review and approve in real-time, improves decision-making and keeps things moving forward.

Organizations depend on their business processes for the smooth, orderly flow of all their activities. But as companies evolve, the workflows they have relied on may not necessarily have evolved accordingly, and this can limit an organization’s ability to grow and adapt. The shelf life of most workflows is fairly limited, especially in a business climate that never stops changing. This is where workflow analysis comes in.

Workflow analysis can provide major benefits because it identifies where workflows are either outdated, need to be re-worked, or where a process requires an entirely new approach. The process takes apart the workflow in order to identify where there are issues of inefficiency and where changes within the process demand corresponding changes in the workflow. Going through this exercise of workflow analysis identifies bottlenecks, users who are no longer stakeholders, redundant tasks, and uncovers where improvements can be applied.

Ultimately, a well-performed workflow analysis will provide an organization with three key outcomes:

• Elimination of manual and redundant tasks.
• Application of automation where it is currently not being used.
• Gaps in the workflow that prevent it from being optimal.

Once identified, an organization will be able to use its human and technology resources more efficiently, which reduces costs and speeds the delivery of time-dependent processes. Even small improvements save costs and time, so workflow analysis should be a regularly scheduled activity that businesses create a discipline around. To initiate an effective analysis, an organization should take into account these considerations:

Create the Workflow Analysis Structure

It’s best to have a team of reviewers that is made up of representatives from different groups. This will provide perspectives from those with a stake in certain workflows, as well as independent thinking from others. This team should have a cadence of regular meetings, a communication tool like Slack, and a set of requirements by which they will conduct their analysis. The workflow analysis should consider the impact of a workflow in a variety of ways, including these:

• Is it efficient by impacting the speed and/or efficiency of how tasks are accomplished?
• Are stakeholders able to automate repetitive tasks by using it?
• Is it directly improving business goals?
• Does it improve my organization’s ability to be compliant?

Creating an Inventory of Workflows

Collecting all the workflows you want to review may be harder than you might think. Organizations with good process discipline will have a repository of their workflows, but in many organizations, these are created in an ad hoc fashion and are not necessarily accounted for in any type of orderly way. The discovery process will require input from stakeholders across the company and will initiate the review process, so be prepared to have either an individual or team who leads this effort and can be the key decision maker.

Initial Workflow Review

After having an inventory of workflows, it’s best to start reviewing to determine what you should keep and what is no longer relevant. For some, this may take a deeper analysis of the current and future viability of certain workflows, but for others, you’ll know what can be eliminated when you see it. Those that don’t make the cut should be officially taken out of practice. Stakeholders should be made aware of next steps on these workflows - that usually means alerting about removal for some, while for others, it may mean that a replacement will soon follow.

Workflow Analysis and Data Discovery

Workflows generate all kinds of data, most of which should provide insight into usage and efficacy. A workflow that might appear to be really effective may have not been used in many quarters; this data might help you decide to eliminate it. Or perhaps the data will demonstrate that there is a task within a certain workflow that takes an unusually long period of time to complete — that might be an indicator of where the workflow needs a reformatting.

Consider reviewing for this type of data:

• How many workflows have been initiated over the previous two quarters?
• Of those workflows, how many have been completed, and how many are still in process?
• Average of the time taken to complete tasks.
• Length of time to do reviews.
• How many are currently using forms?

Involve Stakeholders in the Workflow Analysis

Armed with data, you can begin to get a better sense of what you’re dealing with, and it can act as an important filter. But the data may not tell the whole story, which is why you need to now get out of your office and talk to people to determine how workflows are being used. Identify stakeholders from different teams and groups and consider evaluating based on these types of questions:

• Start with getting a general sense of the workflow; ask them to walk you, step-by-step, through the processes they go through.
• Find out where they are frustrated by the process.
• Get a sense for whether or not they are getting things done faster and/or with greater efficiency.
• Ask for their input on how a workflow could be improved with the right workflow tools (it’s usually those closest to the problem that have the best solutions). Encourage them to be specific on this point; is there certain data they need, is there a problem of automation, do they get the notifications they need, etc.
• Consider using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) methodology by asking, “On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being ‘most likely”), how likely are you to recommend this workflow to a colleague?” The answers may give you insight into both the necessity and efficacy of a given workflow.

Regroup and Assess

Now that you’ve collected data and put boots on the ground, the review team needs to go through workflows again and determine their state, which should fall into one of these categories:

• Eliminate the workflow
• Re-design the workflow
• Replace the workflow with a new workflow

Beyond the Workflow Analysis

At this point, you should have the beginnings of a blueprint to start moving forward with the next phase of your workflow design and implementation. With a focused team and the right tool, you will now be equipped to make better decisions about what you want to achieve and how your workflows can help you attain those goals.

Most workflow projects take the approach of addressing an outcome and then working backwards to build an efficient, linear flow of processes and actions. Designing steps to think through workflow design requirements is essential, but it must be done with a methodology that accounts for all manner of variables, and includes the element of time. Every workflow is intended to deliver faster and/or better returns on work, but process agility and the application of predictive capabilities, translates into additional competitive advantages. The true goal of workflow design is getting to a state of continuous innovation, repeatability, and efficiency, and this is best accomplished by using smart, disciplined thinking.

An effective workflow is liberating for users. They can automate decision making and rely on the application to deliver content and assets to the correct stakeholders, which frees them to focus more on analyzing outcomes and coming up with creative solutions. With the component of time built into workflows design, business users get additional control by having a way to predict events that can be automatically built in to processes, all with the flexibility of being able to intervene as necessary. To take advantage of a timeline-influenced workflow, an organization should structure their workflow design with a framework that takes these elements into account:

Workflow Design - Define Your Requirements

This may sound elementary, but to get the right outcomes, you need to be specific about the results you seek. For example, declaring that you want a workflow for “manufacturing optimization” encompasses a wildly broad set of activities. But breaking that down so you understand the various, separate tasks that help you ultimately achieve manufacturing optimization will enable you to be specific about the upcoming workflows design process.

Tasks, Events, Dependencies – Know Your Process

You’ll need a whiteboard, a really big whiteboard. The best way to get started is to actually diagram the logical sequence for a workflow, and then iterate as you factor in decision points, approvals, assets, sub-workflows, and all other factors that will guide a process from beginning to end. This part of your planning is tactical, and is truly foundational, and the way your workflow design is structured will be among the most important factors on whether or not your workflow management software is successful in achieving intended goals. During this part of the planning, you should be looking out for these things:

• Be thorough and include all information and detail so you know precisely what is required to achieve success at each step.
• Know, document, and account for dependencies at every step of the workflow.
• Highlight gaps where more information is needed to ensure effective process flow, and then fill those gaps.
• Simply where you can, reduce steps, if possible, and be rigorous about eliminating the potential for wasted effort.

Account for Continuous Processes

Also, don’t forget to consider the continuous nature of some processes; for these, a true ending point may not necessarily exist. When that is the case, ensure that workflow stakeholders are prepared to continuously adapt their workflows tools as they integrate more inputs and data into the process.

Assign Roles In Your Workflow Design

Know your stakeholders, whether they be inside or external to the company. Identify which tasks and activities they will be part of, and their level of involvement. This might also be applied in terms of groups or teams, rather than just individuals. For example, some decisions may require the approval of any member of a specified team, while others may need approval from anyone who has a “Vice President” title. And in other instances, decisions might be handled by anyone in a specific team or region. Know how roles are going to be used within your workflows so you can design them for best efficiency.

Apply Timeline Dependencies

A typical flowchart lays out “what happens next”, but when you apply timeline approach to your workflow design, it forces you to think, “what must be completed before this step can begin, and how long will it take?” These questions help you to imprint process efficiency improvement and governance with a timeline-focused workflow design, and provide additional control by allowing integrating predictive elements, and allowing for human intervention if a task isn’t expected to complete on time. Typical workflow processes may include an approval step, but usually fail to communicate when the task or full process will complete.

Know What You Need to Integrate - Inputs and Outputs

Today’s workflows can be so powerful because of the amount and type of data available within a typical organization’s IT infrastructure, and through integration of data from partner and customer sources. To get the power of all this data, you need to identify which inputs will inform your workflow, and how that data will be incorporated into it. Typical integrations come from applications like these:

• Database Application Integration
• Document Imaging Software / Scanners
• File System Monitor Application Integration
• Email Servers
• Web Services / REST
• Social BPM Application and Workflow Application Integration
• SharePoint or other file-related applications

After identifying these, you will need to build requirements for the tactical implementation of your integrations. This might come in the form of pre-packed integrations or with vendor-provided APIs. Your team may need to build custom integrations, so you’ll need to account for the resources and time required to do all this work.

Review Your Workflow Design

This isn’t just a “check my work” step; it’s really intended to give all stakeholders an opportunity to provide input and change anything that isn’t supposed to be part of the workflow. Additionally, it allows you to take a step back and evaluate whether or not the structure of your workflow is still capable of meeting your intended goals.

Automate Your Workflows

By automating workflows, organizations will be able to dramatically reduce cost and improve efficiency. Automation allows them to handle every manner of workflows and sub-workflows so there is repeatability and consistency, all while freeing time to focus on more strategic issues of the business. Workflow automation enables teams to do the following:

• Build processes and create forms to meet changing business goals.
• Access data that can help with decision-making and meeting workflow milestones.
• Efficient approval handling.
• Insight and visibility into all aspects of processes.

Business goals involve increasingly complex levels activity and collaboration in order to achieve them. Workflows, however, don’t need to be overly complex, and this is why they provide huge benefits. Developing and codifying workflows removes barriers to speed and alleviates the stop-start cadence that trips up too many organizations.

While there is not a single way to develop and manage workflows, adhering to a smart framework of workflow design can help organizations improve their operational capabilities and achieve better outcomes.

A business is, among other things, an assortment of activities that are intended to produce profit-generating products and services. To arrive at the successful goal of delivering those products and services, a company has to rely on a myriad of actions, events, resources, and decisions. As economic demands require companies to move faster, and as technology creates a more efficient way to adapt, organizations need a way to coordinate and manage the different, but related, recurring tasks that form the foundation of a business. The vehicle for these management efforts often come in the form of a workflow engine.

Workflow Engines vs Intelligent Process Modeling Engines

At its core, a workflow engine is the technology used to apply logic and rules to move operations toward completion. At BP Logix, the thinking is that while that is all fine and well, generic workflow is far different from applications driven by an intelligent process modeling engine— one that uses automation, can adapt to changing business needs, and is able to apply the concept of time to help users predict a path for better outcomes.

Those are precisely the reasons for developing Process Director. With organizations operating in a continuous, non-linear world, Process Director employs a process modeling engine that goes beyond workflow to unify different business elements into models that can be executed to derive more efficient processes.

Legacy Workflow Systems: The Enemy of Productivity

The enemy of productivity isn’t just lack of action, it’s waste. It comes in the form of wasted time, wasted effort, and unnecessary resources that don’t apply to the intended solution. Legacy workflow systems hand information and documents from one actor to the next, all with the presumption that each decision point was arrived at with all the necessary data needed to make an actual decision. As workplaces and systems have gotten more complex with multiple digital input channels and a working style that prizes collaboration, old style workflows cannot rely on the standard style of handoff. As a modern solution for transformative enterprises, Process Director uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to incorporate predictive analytics and create not only seamless processes, but ones fueled by informed, data-fueled decisions.

A Workflow Engine Heading Where?

Popular author and researcher Brene Brown uses a concept called, “what does ‘done’ look like” to emphasize that there are many ways to arrive at the completion of a task, but it requires all parties to be on the same page about what they’re trying to accomplish. Process Director uses Process Timeline™ to enable the aggregation of different viewpoints and methods, and arrive at an agreed-upon goal. We get a sense for this through the element of time, a major component missing from the standard workflow engine, that is heavily leveraged by Process Director customers in a variety of vertical markets.

Traditional BPM focuses on quality and business process governance, but adding a modeling engine with business process automation capabilities (along with the predictive element of time) gives the user the ability to see how later process stages will be affected by the previous ones. This adds huge value to the managed process by allowing the earliest possible notification of potential delays to allow intervention before timeline problems arise.

Beyond Review and Approval

In most workflow engines, there is a review and approval step in place, but it doesn’t answer questions about the specifics of completion. These questions are of huge importance to management, because while it may be great to know you are on track to hit a specific goal, it is still important to know what is currently happening. It is similar to comparing the act of looking at a transaction in a register to discover errors, rather than simply looking at a monthly profit and loss statement. This is where Process Timeline within Process Director can establish a continuous assessment of, and application of actions for, the direction of where the process will move in its effort to guide processes forward.

With a process modeling engine that uses predictive capabilities, simple models can be created to help businesses go from discovery to full automation faster, yet more intelligently. Process Timeline gives each activity with its duration estimate to create faster processes. Activities can run at the same time, without complicated coding to configure parallel behavior. The status of the entire process, as well as sub-processes can be determined at a glance, which allows for proactive response and the earliest notification of potential delays to allow for quick intervention. When confronted with similar ‘tasks of parallelism’, standard workflow engines tend to stumble.

A Predictive Workflow Engine?

The predictive nature of Process Timeline is such that it identifies potential problems in the course of the process, and can trigger actions to the changing circumstances. This results in obstacles being overcome before deadlines are missed or production halts. Process Timeline records predicted execution versus actual time, every time the process runs and adjusts the time estimates for even better management. Process Director stores every aspect of the process for audits, internally or externally, for improved compliance.

Today’s workflow engine takes a very different form: with a foundation that combines IT process automation with BPM software solutions, Process Director provides a codified way to deliver timely, effective processes for organizations of all types.

We all know that as technology has become more accessible, it’s also created more data and more connections that users must manage. According to ZDNet, the average medium-to-large enterprise uses between 300 - 400 different software applications. The irony of this proliferation is that it creates a gap between the data we should use versus the data that’s most accessible to us. In the past we used the term ‘workflow tools’ to describe the bundle of amenities used by organizations to tackle these issues, but is ‘workflow tools’ still an appropriate fit?

Intelligent Process Automation vs Workflow Tools

‘Intelligent process automation solution’ has replaced ‘workflow tools’ in many spheres, but a process-driven approach still embeds a mindset within organizations around how to develop and deliver better data, be more agile, and ensure that approvals and requirements are addressed according to expectations. What has changed is the scope available in the modern BPM solution, now workflow tools are just a component of a larger whole.

When business (and thus processes) were simpler, workflow simply looked like a series of lines and shapes that veer off into multiple directions. And this worked, for the most part. Workflow tools streamlined a goal-oriented task, and was a critical tool that made life easier. But the modern organization is hardly linear, and workflow tools have hit the ceiling of enabling communication between disparate people, data, and decisions. For the modern solution to be successful, it must allow processes to be easily centralized and distributed.

Process Director: The Way Forward For Workflow Tools

Serving these widespread needs was the reason we created Process Director in the first place, with its unique Process Timeline process modeling engine– a replacement for the standard workflow tools of the past. At the time we first developed it, we couldn’t have known how rapidly and completely digital transformation would change the nature of business and technology. Yet, part of our mission was to give organizations a foundational structure that they could use to adapt and grow their business.

But Process Director is so much more than a workflow tool, it was also created with the mindset that those closest to problems are likely the ones best equipped to solve for them. Rather than building a complex application development solution that demands highly skilled coding capabilities, Process Director allows for non-programmers to build robust, comprehensive process-driven applications. Additionally, it helps organizations reduce complexity and enhance results through these advantages, which could be considered tools for your process tool box:

Workflow: A Part of a Greater Whole

1. More collaboration: Whether through more access points (mobile, Internet of Things), communication channels (social media), or platform (on-premise, cloud, hybrid), a solid workflow management software solution gives everyone involved with your processes—both inside and outside of your firewall—the appropriate level of access along with the BPM tools to make a difference.
2. Insight through analytics: Process is a facilitator, but it delivers additional value when it provides insights about your operations. Process Director uses analytics to deliver regular insights into what is occurring within your processes, the people involved, and a sense for how effectively your organization meet its deadlines.
3. Moving from paper to digital: Even in the digital age, so much data is collected and transacted through paper-based documents. It’s hard to process and requires dedicated manual effort to store and retrieve. Process Director enables the digitization of documents as images so they can be included as assets within workflows. This delivers relevant data directly to decision-makers and ensures relevance throughout the process.
4. Maximize skill sets: Process Director can automatically assign tasks to people based on their strengths and skill sets. By giving people the most appropriate tasks, you can improve productivity and keep employees more engaged.
5. Avoid redundant behavior: Process Director views workflow tools as an organized, automated way to eliminate unnecessary steps. It does this by initially identifying the critical points of activity, enabling teams to define specific actions, participants, and results that should occur.
6. More inclusive: Process Director applies rapid application development capabilities that enable and encourage non-developers to build, adapt and manage process. Non-technical employees can apply their knowledge directly to workflow solutions that will both reduce the IT burden, and deliver solutions in context.
7. Enable rapid validation through digital approvals: Process Director enables non-developers to rapidly create eForms , which enables fast approvals (including executives on the go) and the reduction in time lost as a result of waiting for paper-based signatures. This is where workflow becomes a critical factor in supporting speed and real-time action.
8. Automation: Automated workflows allow you to set up processes, then let them run. The majority of work that occurs within processes can be automated, freeing up time and allowing you and your team to focus on more strategic activities.
9. Adapt the concept of time to processes: Business activities are deadline-driven. Process Director provides triggers that keep processes moving according to a timeline, enabling participants to see precisely when and where input is required.
10. Tracking provides historical data: Every activity in digital workflow is tracked. Whether you need information for compliance purposes or to review how your organization operates, the ability to quickly see the ‘who, what, where and how’ of your processes provides important insights.

Is Your Digital Transformation Toolkit Ready?

To produce anything meaningful in today's market requires discipline, repeatable actions, and a foundation that will help conduct ideas from inception to desired outcome. The pace of today's business demands that traditionally time-consuming tasks like collaboration, reviews, and approvals all be done with incredible rapidity and yet still be brand compliant and impactful. Workflow tools have traditionally been proven to be the most effective way of achieving that, but the tool box has expanded to include so much more. The very foundation on which agility and transformation needs to take place rests on the shoulders of intelligent process automation.

To remain competitive for enrollment and to provide a great experience for students, colleges and universities must hire and retain top talent. This applies to every level of the school, from professors and instructors, to campus administrators, and to all support staff.  Process Director BPM for HR and workforce management is helping higher education institutions create order for HR teams so they can execute their important role in hiring and creating an excellent working environment for faculty and staff. Delivering effectively on these tasks is critical to HR teams contributing to their school's vision and goals.

Now, more than ever, it is critical for higher education HR strategies to align with the applications and workflows that drive other university departments. Process Director provides this critical path through innovative workforce automation, process management, forms management, and other capabilities that encourage consistency, compliance, and efficiency.

Higher Education HR For Complex Workflow Needs

Streamlined HR management provides critical insights to a school’s human capital strategy, enabling them to maximize the strengths of their people. But human resources must do it in a way that is cost-efficient and covers a wide range of different types of employees — full time, part time, contractor, tenure track, special needs, underrepresented, and a host of other categories of workers. To do this effectively requires the ability to collect, process, and transact data from many sources and make it usable throughout the employee lifecycle, and deliver it to other workstreams happening within the school IT and HR environments.

Colleges and universities are using Process Director to handle their complex HR issues and tasks so these departments can play a valuable role as schools compete for talent and strive to remain economically viable. With limited budget, it’s important for these teams to be able to innovate on their own. Process Director delivers capabilities like workflow automation and lightweight application development functionality that enable higher education HR teams to do the following:

• Build processes and create forms to meet changing institutional goals. These range from things like improving the onboarding process to using BPM to demonstrate compliance adherence.
• Access data that can help with decision-making and meeting workflow milestones.
• Efficient approval handling.
• Insight and visibility into all aspects of processes.

How Process Director Supports College and University HR Processes

Because HR deals with so many different aspects of an employee’s experience, it demands a solution that is responsive and adaptable. An improved way to request vacation time means less stress for a busy worker, and a better way to plan for when that worker will be absent. Onboarding new employees with greater efficiency means they can start work and be productive faster.

Process Director can be used to apply a case management approach for employees, which allows schools to integrate data and documents from various applications into a shareable profile of each employee. This provides clarity for all workflows that touch each employee so that important decisions that impact their working environment can be achieved faster and with greater context. Process Director also has native integration with popular HR systems like PeopleSoft. Users can build workflows with Process Director with the benefit of data from the full complement of PeopleSoft modules that impact employees.

Consider also that schools operate on a cadence that maps to the academic calendar, and HR needs to help ensure that workers are available and can be productive for things like the beginning of each semester and during the summer planning months. Process Director users can build workflows that take into account these timeframes. Process Timeline, the business process modeling element provided by BP Logix, captures time as a formal process dimension so teams can benefit from better planning. With AI-driven technology, this time-driven workflow engine can take direct action by escalating or rerouting actions to account for predicted delays. This is a critical factor in helping HR teams plan and be prepared for those busy times of the school year when hiring may take a back seat to more operational tasks.

Innovative Higher Education Institutions Using Process Director Workforce Automation

Many forward-thinking colleges and universities are using Process Director to transform how their HR teams operate. Davis Applied Technology College (DATC), near Salt Lake City, is using Process Director across all their administrative departments. Within HR, they have used it to build processes to manage conflict of interest disclosures, fitness center applications, leave requests, personnel action notices, W4 forms, and other critical employee-centric actions.

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) has built processes around hundreds of different types of forms used by their HR department. Part of that was driven by a university-wide goal of automation and reducing paper document management. The ability to scan documents and store them with contextual information was a key reason for UTEP adopting Process Director for HR and across their entire IT department.

To meet goals of hiring, onboarding, and creating an exceptional experience for workers in a competitive economy, Process Director is being used by leading colleges and universities for its workflow automation, case management, and the efficiencies delivered through BPM. Higher education organizations demand an effective way to onboard, manage, and serve employees through a complex process of milestones; Process Director provides the foundation to support that.

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Why Utilize Workflow Management Software?

Every efficient organization wants to do more with fewer resources. Technology can be an enabler of these goals, but only if the tools used are accompanied with an effective foundation of processes that support business goals. And as organizations seek to go faster in today's hyper competitive and increasingly connected world, they are relying on processes to enable change, create sustainable growth, and help them adapt to changing business and technology conditions. Enter workflow management software.

When organizations apply process to their operations, they not only can improve how work gets done, but it also provides continuous insight into where improvement can be made. Ultimately, efficient workflow management software leads to cost reduction, worker productivity optimization, better engagement with customers, and even higher profit margins. Without process and workflow management discipline, human, physical, and intellectual assets cannot be effectively deployed to meet business goals. And if goals aren’t met, there’s no chance for an organization to grow and establish a repeatable, sustainable model for continued growth.

Much of this is because both as methodology and practice, business process management (BPM) and workflow management have been designed to bridge the efforts of IT and business units. Both are proven, effective methodologies for disparate teams to collaborate in order to achieve better business outcomes through the use of technology.

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Process Director: A Different Kind of Workflow Management Software

Process Director's workflow management software is equipped with powerful features that provides organizations with the ability to manage, automate and report on their critical business processes. Workflow software is foundational component of “lean BPM”, and is integral in achieving not only automated, but also fully optimized, processes.

Managed through a browser, Process Director requires no programming expertise, thus enabling business or IT users to easily create and modify workflows according to their business needs and processes. Workflow software definitions enable organizations to capture and manage their business processes according to their own policies and procedures.

In summary, Process Director is a workflow management software that enables businesses to model their review and approval procedures, automate the process, monitor the results, and satisfy their business process management needs.

The Power of Low-Code Electronic Forms

Your digital applications deserve a great user interface. Developing a flexible and responsive UI on your own used to demand lots of time, lots of programmers, and lots of money.

Not anymore.

Process Director empowers you to create beautiful reports, dynamic smart forms and electronic forms, and rich graphical dashboards—no code required. IT organizations are slashing their development backlog by utilizing Process Director’s fast, cost-effective workflow management software for building powerful user interface elements. Business units benefit from the ability to develop mock-ups or even fully-functional dynamic e-forms using their own “citizen developers”, thereby fusing the business’s intimate knowledge of the customer and the desired customer experience with IT’s strength in building essential rules, logic, and governance features, all backed by modern workflow tools.

Process Timeline™

Process Timeline is a workflow engine with workflow automation technology that provides an easy way to compose, manage, and modify your business process. Key data, such as process duration and critical path, are available at a glance using a Gantt-style chart automatically produced and updated as your process is running. At the same time, Process Timeline is unmatched by any other iBPMS software solutions or any other workflow management software available.

Extensible Workflow Management Software

Process Director offers these workflow management software capabilities to enable you to extend your applications with custom features:

• A broad range of web services and REST APIs that can control virtually every Process Director action or access data, reports, or metadata
• A comprehensive C#/ASP.NET software developer kit to create scripts, extensions, or custom tasks (available via the Process Director SDK)

Process Director workflow management software also enables you to insert custom logic at virtually any point in the life of a workflow. And you can do so without worry: we have a great track record of backward compatibility for SDK specifications, and that’s a tradition we plan on continuing.

Document Workflow Management Software

Process Director offers a document workflow management system that empowers you to rapidly create filtered searches and tabular reports with a few keystrokes. Whether you want to review task lists, browse document folders, or search for a specific item, Process Director Knowledge Views within its workflow management software are easy to configure and even easier to use. And Knowledge Views aren’t only for display: you can export the results, automatically trigger processes, or even use the data to drive decision making in running forms, processes, or rules. If you’re looking for brilliant graphical reports, turn to Process Director’s Advanced Reporting component to produce colorful, real-time charts and graphs, suitable for interaction, email, or printing.

Web Based & Mobile Friendly Digital Transformation

The applications you create with Process Director are web apps: all you and your users need is a browser to view reports, submit requests, manage processes, etc. Any browser: all recent-release browsers on all major platforms (including iOS and Android) are supported. Your knowledge workers aren’t tied to their desks, and your applications shouldn’t be, either. Navigate Process Director’s responsive UI, create mobile-friendly interfaces for your own applications, and take advantage of native mobile BPM capabilities such as geolocation and photos—no app store download required. Just boarded a flight without WiFi? No problem: you can even take action via email. The tools that Process Director workflow management software offers enables you to do your work wherever you are, whenever you’re ready.

Application Integration and Workflow Management Software

Process Director-driven workflow applications don’t live in a vacuum. Most businesses today rely on a plethora of applications, information, and services, both within and beyond your datacenter. As an intelligent BPM platform, Process Director BPM and workflow automation software ties these disparate workflow and BPM applications together, making it easy for you to access, combine, and update information, whatever the source.

Our roots are in the software industry however we are involved in our communities, work in philanthropic and non-profit organizations, and write books. We are grateful to be a part of a BPM company that thrives on challenge and rewards creativity and innovation.

As evidenced by multiple awards for business, BPM software, business process automation software and process excellence, we are a BPM company that is also recognized as a key partner to customers across industries and geographies.

We hope that knowing more about us and our business process management software – and what we do for our customers – will be the reason to check us out further. And we invite you to start that conversation.

More About Us

BPM Awards - View our BPM awards. We are proud to be recognized for our successful customer implementations and technological achievements.

Press Releases - Our central area for all our press releases and the latest information regarding us and our products.

Media Coverage - Learn more about the latest industry news, media coverage and announcements from us.

BPM Success Stories - Learn more about our customer and their success stories.

BPM Examples - View use cases for specific industry verticals.

Tell Us Your Story

BP Logix is a BPM company that helps companies change the way they operate through business process management (BPM). We know process, and we have discovered that it is not merely the movement of a decision, document or action along a workflow. Rather, process is an always-changing and flexible way of thinking about, and applying, a better way of doing things. What things? The things that are important to you.

Successful BPM implementation with our BPM software comes from us knowing your story and recognizing how we can help you meet your goals. That knowledge allows us to partner with you so we can collaborate to change the fundamentals of your business.

You know what you want to achieve. Tell us your story so we can help you get there.

Schedule a Free Demonstration

Schedule a free demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

Simplify the Organization, Location and Distribution of Documents, Content and Electronic Forms

Process Director’s document workflow management system has integrated functions that simplify the organization, location and distribution of documents, content and electronic forms. Data is automatically assigned metadata, allowing approved information and content to be made available to internal or external users.

Process Director Document Workflow Management System Features

Process Director includes two key document workflow management features that help simplify the organization and distributions of electronic forms and electronic documents:

• Knowledge Views

Knowledge Views form the foundation of our document workflow management system comprised with intelligent navigation, searching, retrieval, data mining, charting and ultimately delivery of information and knowledge. A Knowledge View allows both authenticated and anonymous users to navigate and retrieve related content or display it graphically. A Knowledge View provides a simplified, focused view so that end users are presented with only the information they need making the managing of documents efficient. Users can easily “zoom in” using a dynamic table of contents built by the Knowledge View to retrieve documents, Smart Forms or process related information.

• Hierarchal Taxonomy

A hierarchical taxonomy offers business users the ability to structure content in the way that makes the most sense for their organization. Process Director's document management system supports a flexible and easy metadata structure that enables you to categorize and label documents, Smart Forms, and digital content, making information more secure and easier to locate.

Process Director Document Workflow Management Use Cases

Whittier Health Network

Whittier Health Network, founded in 1982, provides quality, comprehensive medical care to its residents in a compassionate “family” care setting.

Employing 2,500 people across 12 locations became a challenge every fall when the benefit enrollment process was initiated. As it had to be completed for all employees within a three week timeframe, the sheer volume of documents that had to be processed made the process onerous. Seeking an enterprise document management system that would take the pain out of the benefit enrollment process and achieve efficiencies was the IT department’s primary objective. Any document management solution Whittier acquired had to include workflows, electronic forms, an automated review and approval process and be competitively priced.

National Eye Institute

One of the requirements National Eye Institute faced dealt with improving its document management system in regards to its retention processes and procedures. One of the most visible sets of documents within NEI involved its ethics reporting process. Since reporting requirements also change from year to year, every Institute employee has to complete forms, validate ownership of funds, and be prepared to address financial and also moral ethics requirements. No sooner had the current year’s ethics reporting been completed than the process of vetting employees for the new year began again.

NEI needed a system that built on a methodology that was easy to configure, would enable information to be extracted and analyzed and addressed its IT security requirements as well. Process Director provided the document workflow management system solution National Eye Institute needed. From its early work in document management, National Eye Institute turned to Process Director to handle document disposition, storage and retention.

Schedule a Free Software Demonstration

Let us show you how Process Director can address your BPM compliance and business process governance needs, as well as enterprise document management and retention requirements. Schedule a free BPM software demo today!