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Monday, December 30, 2013

Free Trial of a Workflow, What Do You Run on It? (Daily Report)

* Series; Can be used immediately, part 2.

Considering the introduction of the workflow system... I want to evaluate Workflow products by running data that is even a little significative.

In the second of the series, I would like to pick up "Daily Report" as the theme. The following "Daily Report flow" which I would like to present, is also very convenient. The Flow diagram is simple enough, and you can start using it in any organization from a small team to a large company. And also, it is good that you can start it smaller without affecting the main business.

[Daily Report flow]

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Free Trial of a Workflow, What Do You Run on It? (Suggestion Box)

* Series; Can be used immediately, part 1.

Considering the introduction of the workflow system... I want to evaluate Workflow products by running data that is even a little significative.

However, even how much you look for, there is no business sample that fits completely in the business of your organization. I mean, the "Business Process To Be" will differ greatly because it depends on the company size, the business industry and the department in the company. So you will download a Business Process Definition sample (Workflow Sample) that is too simple, and you activate in the Workflow system, and end up inputting something nonsense like 'test' or 'foo bar'.

I would like to present you "Suggestion Box Workflow" in the following, which is very convenient as a workflow to be run during a trial period of Workflow product. The Flow diagram is simple enough, and you can start using it (if you wish) in any organization of a small team to large company. More than anything, it is good that you can start it smaller without affecting the main business.

[Suggestion Box flow]

Monday, December 16, 2013

Managing Query via Website or Email on Free Cloud

'Want to collaborate in reply emails'
'Want to visualize the progress of creating reply emails'

A flow of Contact Support is complicated. Many companies have their complicated splitting flows such as, "Escalation", "Technical survey", "Committing to Sales section" or "FAQ registration", etc.. Also, it varies according to the company scale. Even in the same business industry, the flow will be totally different in organization with 10, 100, 1000 personnel. That is, Contact Support operation is one of the businesses that you want to explore "the way it should be" for your own. Nowadays, you better make your attempt to optimize the business flow using a 'Business Process Management tool' (BPM tool).

However, even though 'Modifying and Improving' is the specialty of "BPM tools", they are less good at usability of the input screen. For example, the importance of each item cannot be known even if they have been carefully set to fit the business of the company, because it looks flat.

"Questetra BPM Suite" is equipped with a feature that you can customize 'Input Form screen' exhaustively.
Though you will need knowledge of HTML, you can continue to explore 'an Input screen which anyone can handle' or 'an Input screen that allows quick responding'. That will make even rookie employees to play active roles. (Advanced Layout feature)

[Contact Replying flow]

Monday, December 9, 2013

ISBN by Touch Input

'Book purchase' on the company. It happens often.

Like Research institutes, R & D department, Marketing department... Books are indispensable for survey works.
Like Software company, Designing company, Construction company... Latest books are also indispensable for those creative businesses.

It's alright that 'someone buy books when he or she needs them', but information about those books which purchase on the company should be shared within the company. If there is an environment that anyone can see 'who and when bought which books' quickly, you may not have to buy books that you think you need. You may browse a book which you think not worth paying for at the office next door.

The following Workflow is a Book Purchasing Request. Not only for 'Purchase Request', you can use it for 'Report after the fact'. In other words, all the book purchase will be recorded, and that will become a Database of in-house library.


[Books Purchase Request flow]

Monday, December 2, 2013

Processing Business Data in Child Process (Translating)

Considering "a Workflow" to be incorporated into "a Workflow". (What?)

That is, "the jobs on which professional skills should be exerted cross-sectoral". Although it may differ greatly depending on company size or its Business Activities, these are in varieties such as "Typo Checking", "Document Translation", "Trademark Law Violation Check" and "Presentation materials brush up", so on.

The following Workflow definition is, a "Document Translation flow" for a company in which 'Japanese -English document translation' would occur in many different sections. It is excellent because it is designed to be called (be incorporated) from another Workflow. Moreover, it will send translated document data, back to 'the Process of the original' on completion of translating. It is a mechanism of "Subroutine" speaking in terms of the old IT terminology. We might call it "Subprocess call" in BPM basis.

This team, we should call it "Translation Center in-house", is a group of specialized technicians. Defining 'Inputs to them' and 'Outputs from them' will greatly contribute to improvement in business efficiency. (It might suggest for telecommuting system.) By the way, it could often be controversial that 'it should be outsourced to focus on our own business', but there is a big difference in the work quality because they have a deeper knowledge of in-house term and specialized term.

[Document Translation flow]

Monday, November 25, 2013

Google Map for the 'Pathway' in Business Trip Application

"Business Trip Application" is complicated and cumbersome.

You may be required 'Prior Approval', or may need 'Advance Expense (cash prepayment)', or the company may arrange certain type of tickets ... The proceeding is troublesome than anything. If you try to extend the schedule as personal trip, you will totally not understand what you should submit.

On the other hand, your Boss or Accounting personnel who receive the "Business Trip Application" won't be so happy. It will be hard enough only to check expenses and detailed travel plan. The words of "travel plan" are already nonsense because anyone can change their reservation at anytime, anyplace. Also in Expense Settlement processing, there no longer is a necessity for advance cash because most of the purchase can be paid with 'Company credit card'. If you need a settlement, you'll claim it in Travel Expense Report of afterward.

In the Workflow below, it is focused on 'abolishing Advance cash', and on giving Prior Approval on [Overview of Travel].

What is excellent on this workflow is, destinations of the travel plan (place name) that entered can be referred in Google Maps. Because "travel route" and "travel cost" can be understood with one click, "person who gives approval (the Boss)" or "person who does audit" can understand the business trip summary instantly.

[Business Trip Approval flow]

Monday, November 18, 2013

Dynamic Choices and Static Choices, Example in Host City Selection Flow

There are two types of Decision Making; 'pros and cons on one proposal' and 'choose from several proposals'.

"RINGI", a traditional unique Japanese business practices, is a Workflow that is to make a decision over 'one proposal', to approve or not. (Collecting signatures (stamps) from a terrible number of people. So the paper almost looks red.)

In the other hand, the following Workflow is a example of a Selecting Workflow to choose from 'multiple choices'.
In this example, "Host City candidates" will be enumerated in the upstream operation together with study on benefits and problems of each them. And in the "Host City" is determined in the downstream operation. You can put it to practical use such as a serious business of "selection of the seminar venues" or 'choosing destination of company outing', an easy one.

As a matter of course, the options for the final decision will differ each time. That means, even if you want to show the options in the selection interface at the downstream operation, they will not be the same depending on each matter in question. In such a case, I use a technique that to display data which was entered in each line of "String type multiple line" in the upstream process, as "options of the downstream process". For example, if texts in three lines;
Tokyo
Madrid
Istanbul

are entered in the [Host City Candidates] at upstream operation, 'Tokyo/Madrid/Istanbul' will be listed in the Selectbox (or Radio button) of [Host City] in the process of downstream.

[Olympic Games Host City Selection flow]

Monday, November 11, 2013

Auto-Splitting Using Random Number

Among Business Processes, occasions to use random numbers are only few.
If I'm forced to say, they could be cases of changing Reviewers randomly for internal control reason or, cases of 'Choosing winners' in a giveaway campaign or so on.

The following Workflow sample is a Business Process definition to play 'Word chain game' in the company. I have written about it in a blog post on the Questetra Blog, and it is totally practically useless, but a few readers want to see the 'archive', so I decided to present it as a content on this particular website again. (Of course, you can download the archive for free.)

In this example, the contestant of the Word Chain game is chosen by a random number for answering. It generates a random number just before the Splitting Gateway, and the path of the Gateway is chosen according to the random number. (Auto-Splitting)


[Word Chain Game flow]

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Auto Generation of the Answer Draft on Receiving a Contact

Contact from customers should be replied 'quickly' and 'accurately'.

There are many 'Contact Management System', but most of them do not support your original answering flow. The motivation of business flow improvement varies such as Improving quality, speed up, recurrence prevention. But if the system did not reflect your original creative Contact Reply flow, the 'Human Cost' will keep on increasing.
Suppose if there is a business rule that 'reviewing by technical staff is a must for the answer to inquiries about bug', it should be managed by 'Business Process Management system' rather than by 'Contact Management System'. The progress (bottleneck) can be overviewed on the Flow Chart, the instructions by the chief manager will speed up. (Moreover, flow expansion might happen that the receptionist would distribute queries manually according to who is good at.)

In the following Business Process definition, a Workflow from 'email inquiry' or 'inquiry via Web form' to 'reply email sending' is defined. Using this Workflow, you can record 'the Time of checked by senior staff' and 'Advice from other departments', as well as 'Sentences of the primary answer' or 'Sentences of final answer', as Business data in a bunch. It will be referred as knowledge, and it could be the basic data for the further improvement.

[Inquiry flow-Auto-set Reply]

Monday, October 28, 2013

Automatic Conversion of Sales on the Exchange Rate of the Day (Utilizing of Currency API)

"Sales Report" from each branch, want preliminary aggregation of them?

With the Daily Report Workflow (*) which was introduced last time, you can grasp daily sales fluctuations. You can easily aggregate the sales of any period of time using the filtering function. But if some parts of the sales report were in different currencies???
* "Meanings of Taking In the Meteorological Data to 'Daily Reports' (Utilizing Weather API)"


The following Workflow is based on the "Daily Report flow" of the last time, added a function to convert the sales according to the exchange rate of the day. With the exchange rate information retrieved automatically from the internet, it converts the sales that the managers of the oversea brunches entered local in currency to the currency of the head office automatically. Isn't it wonderful, the automatic 'preliminary' aggregation of the sales, even though the actual value differs a little because the timing of exchange might be different?

[Daily Report flow-Currency Exchange]

Monday, October 21, 2013

Meanings of Taking In the Meteorological Data to "Daily Reports" (Utilizing Weather API)

There are many business operations that depend on the 'weather". As an example to be discussed often, it is like 'purchasing beer'. Sometimes it is called 'weather merchandising', but simply it is business to "purchase" in anticipation of the 'sales'. (Check out events and festivals more) The person in charge decides the quantity of beer to order with considering the weather forecast (even more, events in the region, etc...)

Of course there are many other businesses.
The weather will affect various businesses such as "Weekly planning of construction site", "bad weather measures of agriculture", "Preparing for the event system", "Cancellation correspondence Golf Courses"... Moreover, I heard that "corresponding inquiries in mail-order business" which is indoor businesses, also would be affected by the weather.

The following business flow is 'Daily Sales Report' for restaurant business. It is a typical 'Daily Report type Workflow'.
In this flow, the weather and the temperature of the day are reported along with the sales, so that it would be the basic data for analysis 'Sales variation due to weather'. Most notably, is the point that the weather data is entered automatically in advance. There is no need for the reporter to enter "the weather" and "the temperature". This template would be diverted in the Housekeeping industry, construction, temporary staffing services, as well.

[Daily report flow-weather]

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Be a Concierge service! Automatic Recording of the Required Time for Responding.

How long is the average corresponding time to the contact via Website?
Are you dealing with the contacts on weekends for sure?

When the number of processed grows, you will want to analysis it. For example, 'Average corresponding time' to the contacts via "Contact Form" on your Website. When you observe your business quantitatively, business improvement will be accelerated. It will be the basic data for evaluation meeting, and will help to put up the goal easily.

The following Business Process Definition is devised for analyzing. That is, not only to start [Inquiries Workflow] automatically, "the time it took to the final answer" and "the day of the week" of the contact comes in will be automatically set as business records,
  • when there is a submission to the "Contact Form" on your Website, or,
  • when an email comes in to the "Contact email address" which has been published here and there. 
To tell the truth, it is almost the same as the Workflow which we have introduced to you in the past, but it is different at the point that it has been added "Script Task" for data processing.
[Inquiry flow-response time]

Monday, October 7, 2013

Business Manual within Workflow!

You need
(A)'a Manual to accelerate each processing (each step)' (micro-spective) as well as
(B)'a Manual that grows understanding about the entire business' (macro-spective).

Looking at the operating screen of the Workflow, it is possible to handle allocated tasks even for non-experience personnel. "Vacation Request", "Approve the Request", "Confirm Absence", etc. All they have to do is to input along the indicated form screen. (There may be 'a Manual to accelerate each processing'(A).)

* Sample for (A) Embed Manual to Operating Screen of Workflow with Google Drive

However...
They are not few cases that you want solutions to the questions in entire-business-spective or entire-system-spective such as ,
  • Will my salary be reduced?
  • First of all, how the leave system is defined?

The following Workflow-sample contains "The overview of the leave system" (a business manual). That is, apart from the "manual to handle each step"(A), "Manual for the entire business flow"(B) is given to see in the workflow. (New feature of Questetra [Version 9.7!!)

[Leave Request Flow-w/Manual]

Monday, September 30, 2013

Embed Manual to Operating Screen of Workflow with Google Drive

'Stamp duty' is a quite strange tax system. A piece of paper (document) that you have created will be taxed.
It is easy to capture the information of income tax or liquor tax, but it is taxing every document from "contracts of top secret" to "a receipt of the tavern". There is no guarantee that they are taxing properly on the documents of huge amount. And the tax audit to ensure the fairness will cost enormous. The Dutch who invented this tax in the 17th century could never have thought that it would continue to exist until the 21st century.

In Japan, it was introduced in 1873, and it has been going on for 140 years thereafter. And even in the 21st century, in many companies they are pasting things like a postage stamp to the documents and then stamp cancellation mark. It is so cumbersome. 200 JPY for each piece of receipt of more than 30,000 JPY, 200 JPY for each volume of bank book, 4000 JPY for each copy of Basic Contract agreement... And every year, more than 1 trillion JPY of stamps are sold throughout Japan.

# If you have not seen a revenue stamp ever, go to a restaurant or a tavern to spend more than 30,000 JPY, and ask for a receipt. They will give you a receipt stuck a thing like postage stamps (200 JPY stamp) in any store.

However, the types of the documents are complicated. That is, of which '20 Classification of documents' each document falls under? How much stamp they should affix after all? Contracting officers of the company must refer to the website of the National Tax Agency again and again. But it won't be that easy. What is written there is esoteric. (cannot be helped because there is a need to explain documents of all types comprehensively)

[Stamp and shipment flow]

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Visualizing 'Inquiry Handling' in the Cloud-based Workflow

Are you capable to answer sufficient information quickly to inquiries through 'Inquiry Form'?

The inquirer may have a 'large anxiety'.
The inquirer may have a 'large expectation'.

You might be able to ensure a certain quality of supporting in 'Inquiry Form' or 'Inquiry Email' by devising procedures in the team, while 'Telephone Support' highly depends on the ability of the person.

In the following setting sample of Business Process, it will start 'Inquiry Response flow' automatically when;
  • a question is submitted through the 'Contact Us form' in the Web page,
  • an email comes in at the email address for Contact Us that has been published here and there.
That is, automatically starting 'Inquiry Handling' by a team.

If the question was simple, the answer is prepared and the operation is completed soon after the Workflow was started. For a higher difficulty level question, only the primary response will be sent and advice request is routed to the R & D department, etc.. In either of the cases, all the inquiry will become obvious about 'Who is taking care of' and 'What state it is in' or 'How it is discussed', by managing the Inquiry Handling in Workflow system. Needless to say, visualizing the "Progress" leads to 'speeding up' and 'raising the quality'.

[Inquiry Response flow]

Monday, September 16, 2013

Operations that not be Defined its Processing Procedure Clearly, also on Workflow!

It is difficult to design 'an ad hoc Process'. (Or, it is difficult even to understand what this means.)

"Ad hoc" in other words, 'not decided how and by whom it should be treated'. In terms of the Business Processes, for example it is an operation despite you know there exist three processes, in some cases these processes would be handled in order of [Process A] - [Process B] - [Process C], but in other cases [Process A] and [Process B] would be handled simultaneously after [Process C] has been processed. Originally meaning of the [ad hoc] is "non-repetitive" or "non-permanent".

Even though it may be a little confusing,,,
First of all, BPMN as 'notation of Business Process Diagram' has a mission to well-define 'a Business flow of repetitive and predefined'. But in the other hand, BPMS (BPM System) as a 'Business system', should manage all the business progress (whether repetitive or not). After all, it is very hard for BPMS how to handle 'a Business flow unlikely to pre-defined'.

In Questetra, it is devised to handle such ad hoc processes by 'ganging up'. That is, it is a concept that 'putting multiple Tasks together as one, and handling it with everybody'. Specifically, it is trying to solve it by providing a cooperative work by the following three functions. In fact, this is the point which attracts attention from IT research companies and IT society.
  1. [Team Task], which is available for multiple people to discuss. (Tasks on a Team Swimlane)
  2. Discussion type data (Special text type datya item which concerning people can continue to append the time-stamped comment)
  3. Enterprise Social Networking (Posts that tagged the Process ID will be associated with the Process)

[Investment Decisions flow]

Monday, September 9, 2013

10 Tips for Selecting BPM Products

"a BPM Product" = "a Workflow Product" + {Helpful Features}

That isn't wrong. Yeah, that is right. A "BPM Product" is a "Workflow Product" as well. (On the other hand, it is hard to say '"a Workflow product"is "a BPM product"'.)
As the IT Research company Gartner, pointing out in "Component of a Business Process Management Suite", the core of a BPM product is 'Workflow Engine (Process Execution and State Management Engine)'. That is, a BPM Product always includes Workflow function.

  1. Process Execution and State Management Engine
  2. Model-Driven Composition Environment
  3. Document and Content Interaction
  4. User and Group Interaction
  5. Basic Connectivity
  6. BAM and Business Event Support
  7. Simulation and Optimization
  8. Business Rule Engine
  9. System Management and Administration
  10. Process Component Registry / Repository

However in fact, there is a difference in supporting 'type of Workflow diagram' between "BPM Products" and "(conventional) Workflow Products ".


[Publicity Production flow]

Monday, September 2, 2013

Accelerate Daily Report Flow with 'HEAT Map'

'Daily Report', which is always indispensable for Sales section or Procurement section.
It is a framework that to summarize the day's results and impressions, and to be submitted to the manager every day. It is a very effective method to share information for certain type of business. It is convenient for who submits the report as well as who leaves comments because they can handle in the daily cycle.

However, in the other hand this Daily Report will not be read by other than the managers. Though it is the precious live information... Though it is the precious record... it is nothing but wasteful.

The following [Interview Report flow], an example of Reporting flow, the frequency of the report is assumed as 'whenever' instead of 'Daily'. So the title of the report will be "AAA.,Inc 20yy. mm, dd" instead of '20yy. mm. dd personnel name'.

By doing this, it will be easy to refer when you search for 'Name of Customer'. When you search for 'Name of Customer' over the whole Workflow system, not only history information stored in [Interview Report flow], you can browse history information also in [Order flow] or [Estimate flow].
It will allow an Accounting personnel to quickly reference contact record of the past when he or she had suspicion on the invoice from the outside. It will allow management to obtain information of time series such as from the initial contact, to Estimation work, Contract processing and to Billing.


[Interview Report flow]

Monday, August 26, 2013

How to Divide a Long Workflow Definition

When you define a flow of an operation, you will need a little skill to set '[S: Start point] and [E: end point] of the Business process'.

For example in an "Inquiry flow", it should start with 'S: Accepting the Inquiry' and should end at 'E: Sending the Answer'.
Also in a 'Billing flow', it should start with 'Inputting Billing data' and should end at 'E: Payment Confirmation'.
Settings on these Workflow are not so controversial.

However there will be a lot of objections, suppose if I define a long process into a 'single Business Process', such as from 'S: Lead corresponding' through 'Estimate, Orders' and 'Manufacturing' then ends at 'E: Payment Confirmation'. Most of all, the flow diagram is complicated, the work process becomes difficult to read. Moreover, the number of items in the "business data" become also large inevitably, data required for processing becomes difficult to see.

The simplest solution is a method that [(A) Managing in Dividing into Phases].

Figuratively speaking a sequence of operations as the "bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka", it is to manage in dividing into '(1) Tokyo to Nagoya' and '(2) Nagoya to Kyoto' and '(3) Kyoto to Osaka'. That is, each designer defines important parts in each phase. It will be easy to imagine if you think about operations that the project itself is prolonged such as "construction work" or "writing a study thesis". Dividing phases at the point where changing the person (departments in charge) involved, would be the royal road.

Another solution is a method that [(B) Managing in Dividing into Simple cycles].

Speaking in the "bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka", to consider this as repetition of a simple Business Process of "Departure and Stop". The general versatility will become quite high, also the operating procedures will be recorded in detail. At the same time (as in the general theory though), it will become difficult to overview the "whole thing".

[Departure-Stopping flow]

Monday, August 19, 2013

How to Compare Cloud-based Workflow Products

"Okay, I have completed the introduction of Google Apps!"
"Now, I would like to inspect for Workflows which I can log-in with my Google Apps account!"

Recently, business systems for corporation are 'Cloud-computerized' for sure.
That means, they are shifting to 'pay per use'. Information Technology has come on a same history, just like water service, gas, and electricity. What's remarkable is the diversification and dissemination of SaaS product. It has greatly reduced labor of purchasing software or upgrading. The world has become convenient, indeed.

  • Cloud-based Groupware (Email + Calendar + ...)/ Office Suite (Wordprocessor + Spreadsheet + ...): Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365、IBM SmarterCloud (former LotusLive), so on...
  • Cloud-based CRM (Customer Relationship Management): Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Synergy!, ZOHO CRM, so on...
  • Cloud-based ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning): AP, Oracle, NetSuite, so on...

"Okay, testing environment for Workflow is ready!"
"Now, let it flow actual business data (jobs), and see how good it is!"

People tend to testing by flowing 'meaningless test data' on a 'meaningless Workflow'. But it won't make you feel real. It won't provide worthy evaluation. You will lose the chance to test the functions which you would need in actual operation, like 'I think I need a remark written here...'

The following is a business template, 'Suggestion-box flow', which is despite (1) a Workflow that does not exist so much (so, not overlapping), (2) will make you feel real, and (3) might be good to continue to use even in the actual operation by chance. An idea of new business might be suggested.

[Suggestion-box flow]

Monday, August 12, 2013

Registry Flow of New Share through Third-party Allotment

Precisely establish "daily work procedures", and rotate it efficiently and with fun.
"Decision-making", "Drafting", "Complaint handling"... through a Workflow system, you can proceed the work efficiently and without missing.

On the other hand, it is also quite important to establish "unusual operating procedure " precisely.
It is good especially that processings of business will be automatically recorded. You can see when and which document it was (is) processed. The operational efficiency of the successor will be improved dramatically, if reusing past data become available.

In the following Workflow definition, administrative procedures of "issuance of new shares to a third party allocation" (fund procurement) have defined.
It occurs frequently in venture businesses. Even it is not bad that you would leave it to the "judicial scrivener" every time, but you can save several tens of thousand JPY the "judicial scrivener fees" of each time, if you can handle it by yourself, including the administrative registration to the Legal Affairs Bureau. Moreover, when you get used to registration itself, you'll be able to do registration of the "Share Option issuance" and"Reappointment of officer" of each year, by yourself!

[Share issuance Procedure flow]

Monday, August 5, 2013

Retain the "Shipping Record" of the Contract Exactly!

The 'Shipping Record of the Contract document' is not retained as you expected.
'When it was shipped?', 'Who did that?', 'What was enclosed with?'.
Unexpectedly, there is not although they are important somehow. Although communication record of the FAX or mail exist in its own way...

The following is a Workflow for processing shipping of 'Contract document, etc.'. What seems to be excellence of this Workflow, is the step of confirmation by phone call if it is surely delivered or not, in case of especially important contract. It reduces the risk of blocking the communication for 'contract' that is seriously important for B2B. Moreover, the auto-generation of 'Cover Sheet' is also excellent. Using a windowed envelope, you will not have to type the address and the name of the recipient on the envelope. It will not only lowers the shipping labor cost, it also prevents misdelivery. Hmm, it's quite convenient.

[Signature-Shipment flow-Cover Sheet generation]

Monday, July 29, 2013

"Add Log" of Personal Information is Very Important!

I want to collect "customer data" only...

Workflow of Web lead handling, Inquiry handling, Outing report flow (Business card exchange)... 'Prospective Customer Information' is being collected in various operations in a company. Hopefully, it should be managed centrally. (Basic data for CRM activities)

The following is a Workflow only for managing Prospective Customer Information.
It is assumed to be transmitted such as 'Zip code', 'Country', 'Organization', 'Position', 'Name', 'Email Address' as main data, and 'email delivery agreement' (flag), 'prospectivity' (rating).

You can say this is 'Usage like a Database'.
But you should be careful that there is only adding of data one after another, it is not focused on "updating" or "Deleting". That means, you will need some kind of scheme when utilizing the accumulated data, such as narrowing down by the date or by the operator.
As well as it is an idea that will be required for utilizing so-called 'Big Data', there are many cases that you should give the priority to "adding" new information, and suppress the cost for "updating" and "deleting". Speaking specifically, you should not use "business card information of more than three years ago", unless you have to.

[Customer Data Collection]


Monday, July 22, 2013

Contract, leave the 'Word File' for sure!

Talking about Business Record, 'in the paper' is the standard.

A variety of information will be recorded in the paper such as 'Invoices', 'Orders', 'Contracts' or 'Meeting minutes' and so on. The basic idea about this is mostly from medieval or Roman era. The point is wanting to leave a proof.

However, managing the paper is not easy.
First of all, 'information searchability' is quite low. Moreover, almost impossible 'to share information'.
  • 'Do you remember the date I mailed that contract document?'
  • 'Is anybody sure if somebody has sent the order form?'

21st century, information terminal has become extremely popular. We must change the idea of 'leaving proof is just enough!' to 'To record the business data in a form that is easy to utilize'. We need to promote the digitization / electromagnetic recording, even a little bit.

The following is a workflow that attempting to record the "postal shipped from the company" electromagnetically, even a little.
It is focused on to record exactly the original digital data and processed time, instead of to making a copy with the copy machine and closing it to the binder. In case the document requires a signature, you can add 'scanned data'.


[Signature/Mailing flow]

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Automatic Backup to Google Drive!!

There is not a few people whose business is to write "Proposals".

A Sales person in IT industry, a planner in ad agency, a consultant for government, etc., etc.... Those proposal writers would tend to be a 'lone wolf'. That means their writings could be hardly accumulated as 'know-how' and would have less reusability.
Even if a rule to 'backup in the file server' is given, it will not lead to Centralized management just because of a reason: 'CUMBERSOME'. Most of these proposal files profoundly slumber in some folder on someone's personal computer. These files should have been shared with everybody.

The following Workflow is defined an activity of 'reading somebody else's Proposal', as a 'Task'.
In this sample, the writer registers Presentation materials which he/she think to him/herself that 'I did a good job'. Then two of the coworkers who are designated will read it. And at the same time, the file is backed up to the specified folder in Google Apps, the online storage on Cloud. (e.g. "Proposal for New customers", "Proposal for Existing customers", "Template/ Others")


[Proposal Reviewing-Sharing flow]