Folks naturally think this and that about the 'way it should be', when trying to promote RINGI-system (Decision Making method) into paperless.

Especially in corporations of Japan, they must reconsider from the basics first, either (a) to inherit the style of traditional Japanese which seeking approval also by the directors of other departments, or, (b) to migrate to the system of obtaining an instantaneous decision only from the approval authority.

The following Business Process definition is a flow to obtain a judgement of approval directly from approver who is right above the proposer in the Organization tree, when a 'Proposal (Project)' was submitted to the Firm. That is, it's a flow diagram focused on speed which does not inherit the Japanese traditional style. Even though you can call it as a 'RINGI- system', of course, but we dare to call it a 'Project Approval system'. An excellent point is the mechanism that it automatically calculates the time it took to approve.

In addition, some people would like to give a Split Condition for the case that the proposer and the approver is the same person. However, there are different Roles and Characters in a person, so it is good enough to propose by oneself and to approve as well.

[Project Approval flow]

Between you and me, 'Corresponding System failure' is kind of exciting(!!)

For IT systems, "failure" is always an accompany. People in general probably think this job 'must be exhausting' or 'must be a heavy load', but it isn't really. Once I start working on them, adrenaline is secreted, my brain is awakened, don't know why, but I can explore the cause of the failure intently even though the middle of the night. And when I have done, I feel very refreshing. It's a healthy work unexpectedly. (Although, I lose the aspiration, right after that.)

Then, when overcome these "emergency" together, the knowledges of heretofore will be organized, and the teamwork as an organization will also be fostered. Also, it is not bad from the viewpoint of technical training. (Of course, we cannot withstand if the occurrence was too frequent...)

(Please don't tell anyone...)

The following Business Process definition is a Workflow to manage emergency issues which are called 'Trouble Ticket'. When a Trouble Ticket is opened, it will be notified to people who concerned, and people in charge will be assigned. Directors or people who have [Data Viewing permission] among employees will be monitoring the situation in real time. (And on the Enterprise Social networking, chatting will be frequent, such as '"What frequency" do you mean by "intermittently"?' or 'Who will be the "Part of Users"?'...)

In addition, the final deliverable of this Business Process is "Final Report". Reports will be created by each of both of Technical team and Web Team.

[Failure Corresponding flow]

Speaking of 'Electronic Appliance that transmits emails', it is the 'Smart Thermo Pot' which appeared in 2001. (the method of communication is unusual, though.)

Electric kettle that casually watches over aged parents who are living away, is something of a popular product in Japan. Now, it has equipped 'Outing Button' in the latest model, the kettle will send emails everyday with 'the time that water is poured' and 'the time power is turned on', as well as 'the time of going out and coming back'. (By the way, the name of the kettle is 'iPot', but it is not a product of Apple.)

And in 2014, when you look around, you'll see many instruments that transmits email in reasonable price... (You can say various things are connected to the Internet.) Among them, scanners and web cameras can be said fairly mature "Data Input device". The price is around 30000 jpy. You might call them that business improvement tool which very high return on investment.

The following Business Process definition is an Aggregation flow for questionnaire on paper.

It is a mechanism that the collected paper questionnaire such as Customer Satisfaction Survey of franchise restaurant chain or Contractor questionnaire of life insurance, is captured with scanner at each store, then the texting work will be started at the headquarter. That is, the Workflow of the headquarter is Started triggered by the 'Email sent from the Scanner', the personnel put them into data manually by looking the scanned image (PDF, JPG) on the monitor screen. Above all, it is great for grasping the progress of data working in real time. Yet, aggregating of the performance of workers is easier.

In addition, this sample model is capable of 'Double data entry'. As a matter of course, utilization of telecommuters and BPO service should be considered, if it is a Cloud-based Workflow.

[Questionnaire Aggregation flow]
You don't get 'Internal Control' kinda thing so well.
You will run away, if someone asks you "Try to explain some cases of internal control".

But you don't have to think it's so difficult. It simply is 'Activities to eliminate Fraud'.
  • a. Slogan on the Office wall, ' Fraudulent Accounting, NEVER!'. (Control Environment)
  • b. Analyze whether there might be a guy that pilfer the cash in the office. (Risk Assessment)
  • c. Summarizing the authority of the Director and members into a strict regulation. (Control Activities)
  • d. Keep the mechanism that customer complaints to be surely transmitted to more than one person. (Information & Communication)
  • e. Keep the Daily-Reports to be able to be browsed by management personnel of other departments.(Monitoring)

These activities for example, are one of the 'Activities to eliminate Fraud'.

However, it should be noted today, that we cannot ignore the use of computer and internet for the activities of this kind. That is, all the enterprises must (1) Understand the IT environment surrounding the company, (2-1) Promote the use of IT that supports those activities, and same time (2-2) tightly manage the IT itself. In fact, the internal control of Japan is assessed in six terms , the above five plus "Responding to IT".

The following Workflow definition is an operation of 'Issuance of New User Account' for IT system. It is no exaggeration to say that business to support the foundation of "Internal Control".

You will understand by looking at the business flow diagrams, it is also compatible with "Delete issuance in emergency" or "Delete Account", in addition to "Account issuance". That means, all the User Accounts that being used right now, will be able to be checked that when it was requested or when it was approved by the supervisor, at any time. In addition, the request data which flowed on this can be an important basic information on creating Control Reporting by the Management, such as;
  • 'Was it requested at an appropriate time?'
  • 'Useless account has not been issued?'
  • 'Check system for Account Issuance is working well?'

[System ID Management (Except Password reset)]