Applying for Permission to Access a Data Center, When You're in a Hurry

Yesterday we introduced a workflow for "Applying for Permission to Access a Data Center", which requires approval from a supervisor. Alas, if we are to face reality we must acknowledge the fact that many of our reasons for entering a data center involve an emergency. Meaning, there's no time to wait for the boss's approval.

The below workflow will allow for a more flexible operation. In this workflow, general affairs can check the date and reason and make the decision to send the access request fax themselves, whether or not the boss okayed it yet. In other words, the actual approval can be done afterward. (Note that the supervisor's approval won't have control over downstream tasks.)

Applying for Permission to Access a Data Center

Even in today's "cloud" trend, most medium-size major corporations are expected to keep their own servers in data centers for at least another three years. We can image information center managers accessing an external data center while attempting to ignore the familiar cable spaghetti and muttering, "just thinking about transferring to IaaS or PaaS gives me the shivers..." (We suggest considering SaaS!)

Applying for Work Leave, Whatever Type of Work Leave It May Be

The type of work leave an employee takes is important information for HR, but employees usually don't care too much about whether their day off is a substitute holiday, a paid holiday or what. To an employee they look pretty much the same; they are holidays that have to be registered and approved by the boss. And to further confuse the matter, consecutive holidays could be a combination of both (or more) types.

Having separate forms for each type of holiday (substitute, paid, condolence, not sure what type, etc...) will usually result in a lot of wasted time and energy on mistakes and send-backs. The below workflow offers one form for all types of holidays.

A Workflow for Registering the Next Month's Substitute Holidays

We considered optimizing registration of substitute holidays with "The Bottleneck of Employees Working on Holidays Must Be Making Them Submit Requests Beforehand." But let's think about this a little more.

The below sample is for a company that holds a meeting to decide which employee will work on what holiday. The task for registering substitute holidays is automatically sent to each employee on the 25th of each month, so that he/she can send it in for the following month.

The Bottleneck of Employees Working on Holidays Must Be Making Them Submit Requests Beforehand

Japan's Labor Standards Act requires many companies to have a workflow for registering substitute holidays. This is for when an employee wishes to come into the office on a holiday, because if he/she does just that (i.e., works on a holiday), that day's payment must be increased by 35%. In order to keep payment to the usual rate, companies must have the employee set a substitute holiday in advance.

That said, HR management may be one of the least motivational office workflows for employees. They are often neglected and delayed. This could be improved. At least we could stop using a conventional paper-and-stamp system.

Adding an Acceptance Testing Workflow to a Purchase Request Workflow

Yesterday we provided a sample workflow for requesting purchases in "Handling Purchase Requests for Office Supplies."
Naturally, now we'll want a workflow for managing delivered products and acceptance testing. Let's connect this "Acceptance Testing" workflow with our "Purchase Request" workflow. (Of course, these could be managed in a separate system.)

We'd like to mention the importance of allowing everyone to see all pending purchase requests. This means that when someone notices the office has run out of toner cartridges, he/she can find out if anyone has already made a request for purchase.

Handling Purchase Requests for Office Supplies

Purchase requests are workflows that happen a lot in an organization, and that should be controlled with an eye on total expenses.

The first step is to cut back on small expenses, and for this centralization of procurement and strengthening negotiation skills is something that should be developed. (These are basic principles of Supplier Relationship Management.)
Each department should make purchase requests by inputting the desired quantity in a list of products. The below sample assumes a broad range of purchasable items, from office supplies (paper, toner cartridges), to software licenses and marketing tools (fliers, catalogs).

The "Let Me Know When My Application for Reimbursement Is Approved" Workflow

We talked about applying for reimbursement of expenses in the "Application Forms for Reimbursement of Expenses Should be Unequivocally Understandable" article.

Today let's try to stand in the average employee's shoes. When you make this type of application, you'll probably want to know whether it goes through or not. So let's add an automatic email that is sent the moment the application is approved.

 

Application Forms for Reimbursement of Expenses Should be Unequivocally Understandable

Applying for reimbursement of expenses is one of the four major application workflows. [Reimbursement (travel expenses), HR management (work time), Purchase and procurement, and the Ringi process]

Making application forms easy to understand is vital for smooth processes, and could be even more effective than tweaking the workflow itself. This is especially true when the target audience is large.

Monitoring the Time Required to Prepare Quotes

There are a lot of BPM-related seminars and events about improving business processes and putting workflows to practice, etc. Many of the case studies in these seminars are of the "externally-initiated" category. This is probably because interactions with and responses to customers (stuff like issuing quotes and answering inquiries) are directly connected to profit, so they are of interest to companies.

If you want to get a concrete grasp of the time it takes to execute a certain task or set of tasks, it's often convenient to separate them as individual process models. That way it's easier to monitor that portion. And if there are any tasks that precede that portion, just use a Message Throwing Intermediate Event to link them.

A Workflow that Automatically Starts Invoice Issuance Process

Yesterday we introduced a workflow that lets accounting remind production to start the invoice issuance process, in order to eliminate delays and omissions. ("Cross-Sectional Collaborative Workflow for Invoice Issuance") This workflow is made of human-tasks.

Another step towards eliminating delays and omissions is to automate processes via system integration. In the below workflow let's look at a way to automate "Task 0. Remind Invoice Request."

Cross-Sectional Collaborative Workflow for Invoice Issuance

Being late to issue an invoice is not a good idea. Forgetting to issue an invoice is really out of the question. We all want to continuously pursue that perfect invoice issuance process to eliminate delays and omissions.

The question of which department should start the invoice process really depends on the company. It could be sales, which directly contacts the client, it could be production, which knows when the final delivery is made, or it could be accounting, which controls all orders. The below workflow sample has the production department start the invoice issuance process once the product is delivered.

Make Sure Employees Change Their Temporary Passwords

It's important to be careful and thorough when creating accounts for your company intranet systems. You also want to keep an organized record. This is where workflow systems come in handy.

What kind of data will there need to be processed? If you have three systems (e.g., groupware, ERP system, CRM system) you might have six fields of data: groupware ID (text) and temporary password (text), ERP ID (text) and temporary password (text), CRM ID (text) and temporary password (text). This way you can process multiple applications at once.

Send Weekly Email Reports While the Client Uses Your System

Supercomputers are not for everybody. Usually users who've gone through the proper procedures are given access to them for a limited period of time. And system owners need to monitor each registered user's performance and usage. Each user should have a support staff to provide help and support.

This workflow organizes the support staff's work, which is similar to sales. In other words, the support staff's job is to quickly confirm the application and period of use, and get the system ready for the client. It's similar to a sales rep's quote drafting and order processing.

Procuring Office Supplies in Large Companies

How many times have you noticed the printer ran out of ink, but pretended that you didn't see? Still, somebody has to change the cartridge and let the office manager know.

It is one of general affairs' jobs to efficiently purchase and replenish office supplies. There are so many things to supply: printer cartridges, light bulbs, whiteboard pens, work slips, individual business cards and uniforms, to list a few. It's an often overlooked yet tiresome job.

A Workflow to Help Out With the Dreary Month-End Duties

More companies are changing their expense reimbursement process from a once-a-month to an at-all-times system. This is beneficial for employees because they will be less likely to forget.