Workflow Sample: November 2012

'Create a "Buy Now" button of PayPal, please !'

Today, 'Online Sell' is possible even by an individual easily. You can sell any products and services like 'Images' and 'Visiting Services' on your Web site, setting Buy buttons that you create. It only costs commission of '3.4%' + '$0.30 USD'.

Specifically, a seller logs in to "PayPal", goes to "Website Payments Standard" in "Products & Services" menu and selects the button type, then the seller can start making buttons.

Single items
Multiple items
Automated payments

But...
But, however,
It is not a desirable situation in which everyone in the organization can create the "Buy Now" button. Need unification for naming convention of the button (which stored in PayPal), as well as for the setting.

[PayPal button creation flow]

Oh My Goodness, there is no more stock of printer paper!

The person who used up the last one should tell it to the General Affairs, but people tend to forget to do that.
Or, even though Affairs had been reported, it was not led to ordering.

Well, "Order Management of Office Consumables" is annoying. Nowadays, they would have been received on the day, if they only had reached in 'the ordering'.

The Workflow presented here, it is excellent on the point that anyone can report it to General Affairs in front of the MFP. (Of course, the email address is pasted on the MFP.)
That is, all he or she has to do is to send an email from mobile while waiting for the last paper being printed out. No need to walk to Affairs desk, no need to even type letters of "We've got no more printer paper".

[Used up Stock Report & Ordering flow]

'Can you do "proxy approval" in this Workflow system?'
Although it is a casual word, it seems like that is used in a broad sense surprisingly.
In the Japanese government" for example, assuming the various cases, internal mandate system is in place such as "agency system", "proxy officers system" or "deputy bureaucrat system".

A. The person in the next positions can perform the proxy processing on a case-by-case basis, only during short-term absence, such as going out for visit.
B. Entrust a person for particular processing of specific tasks, only during short-term absence, such as going out for visit.
C. Entrust a person for the full rights of all tasks, only during the absence of long-term, such as hospitalization or travel.
D. Always delegating authority for processing some specific tasks.

General companies might develop a rule of delegation of decision-making authority assuming a situation in which the sales manager is too busy to login the Workflow system and cannot give approval readily.

The following decision making flow is an example of an approval flow by "Proxy approval" in A pattern above.
It is a mechanism decision-making authority will be delegated to multiple proxy as well (such as the deputy general manager and deputy general manager), when the task of official approver (sales manager) [2. approval] has been left to stand for 3 hours.

[Approval flow with after 3 hours authorization delegation]

For the Japanese Salesperson, business card is a "mass consumable". Several hundreds of them would be gone while presenting at an exhibition. They have to care how much remaining they have on a regular basis, and must order 'additional' as appropriate.

The business card order request is a very simple workflow. In fact, even without application flow (system), "request by email" would be enough to make business ahead.

However, if you put the business card order application into the workflow in practice, it will be interesting to be visualized in various ways.