Workflow Sample: Information management

Showing posts with label Information management. Show all posts

In the previous article, "Set Expiration to Post-Event Questionnaire", I have set "expiration to after 7 days" utilizing a Service Task. By setting a deadline for the questionnaire, it is possible to prevent the business process from staying stuck, even if it is not yet answered.

[Event_Acceptance-Questionnaire (Expiration)]

For the setting of "after 7 days, "data setting formula is used.
By writing "# now.addDays (7)", you can set "after 7 days" to "Expirtion (Date)" from the time (#now) when the token arrived in the "Expiration set" Step.

<"Expiration set" setting screen>

Other than that, in addition to the data setting formula expressing the date and time, there are;

2 hours 30 minutes later: #now.addHours(2).addMinutes(30),
the end of the month: #now.getLastTimeInMonth(),
5th of the following month: #today.getFirstTimeInMonth().addDays(4), and so on.

("Data setting formula" can also be used in other data items. For details, refer to "M227: Set to combine business data and arithmetic operations automatically")

In the previous article, we added a mechanism for conducting a post-event questionnaire, to a Workflow for accepting participation in events such as "small group seminars". Impressions and feedback about an event from participants obtained by answering a questionnaire, they are hints to change the next event to a better one.

However, with the Workflow in the previous article, you had to "wait until the questionnaire was answered". If all the participants answered the questionnaire immediately, your work would proceed smoothly. But unfortunately, it wouldn't go that way easier. Sometimes you wouldn't answer a questionnaire. (Neither do I...)

Thus, I am going to improve the Workflow by setting the expiration. If there is no answer even it comes to the expiration, the Issue is to be automatically terminated.

[Event_Acceptance-Questionnaire (Expiration)]

In the previous article, I introduced a Workflow for event participation reception of such as "Seminar by a small group".
It is desirable to be rid of correspondence in emails by a person in charge and to make the mechanism of reception into Workflow, also in the aspect of A: Data Management, and B: Flow Improvement.

After the event has been successfully held, you would like to hear from the participants for their impressions and feedback on the event. By listening to the participant's voices and reflecting them on the next event, "Event holding work" itself can also be improved. In case the event is a seminar, it will also lead to reviewing of the contents of the seminar.

Although there is a method that to prepare a Workflow for collecting "Post-event Questionnaire" and to transmit the answering URL (Form Start) to the event participants collectively, I will introduce a method that to standby for entries to the questionnaire (Form Standby) in the post-step of "Event acceptance flow", this time.

[Event Acceptance flow-Questionnaire]

"What kind of work do you recommend for trying out a Workflow?"

That is a question that frequently asked, and my answer to any kind of organization is always "Work Request flow". "To ask someone to do a (small) job", I suppose it is usually made by email, telephone, verbally, but I tell you that a simple request ought to be made in using Workflow.

"Workflow" literally means "flow of work", "flow (sequence) of requests for work". In other words, it is the basic (essence) of workflow that "someone requests work from someone" which is the simplest act of doing work in an organization.

In the cloud-based workflow "Questetra BPM Suite", the following "Work Request flow" is preinstalled and you can try it immediately if you apply for a Free Edition.

[Work Request flow]

Operation: Relation between Checkout Work and Housekeeping work

We made it possible to confirm the information in real time that customers (guests) have "checked out".

Even a full-time employee is now capable of undertaking "Task of housekeeping" as long as he or she has nothing to do, since all the staffs have become able to check "rooms that checked out" at any time on their smartphone / tablet. (See Episode 568: Business Improvement in Hotel Operation (Part 1)

As we are able to do housekeeping soon after checked out sequentially while considering other customers, "time trial of housekeeping" which used to be seen between 10 and 15 o'clock is gone. Also, accidentally disturbing long staying or late check-out guests never happens again.

A Workflow from "Checkout step" to "Housekeeping step"... "Visualization of progress" is really important.

Challenge: Information Sharing from Night Shift Staff

However, on the other hand, efforts of "entering information which the guest has checked out, into Workflow " are now required for the front desk clerk.

Certainly, the meaning of "possible to start housekeeping in order" is understandable. Also, thanks to the self-checkout machine, there is nothing else to do for the clerk than to "receive the room key", at check-out. That means, inputting itself won't be big efforts. However...it is so simple work, I would like to take advantage of "Workflow", a bit more...

For example, is there any how for front desk clerks to receive some sort of information?

So, consulting with the BPM consultant, we decided to have the night shift worker enter the "complaint record". In other words, put information from the night shift staff, such as "There was a ineptitude in the service on the hotel side" or "I got a complaint for noise from another room", onto the Workflow. By that, the task of "receiving the room key" for the front desk clerk might be able to cope with more sincerely...

[Housekeeping flow-Complaints Record]

Operation: Hotel works, Various of Them

The trend of "Productivity revolution" is going to immerse also Hotel industry...

Eventually, "division of labor" should be considered as at its limit anymore. It is no longer an era where a worker would be good with doing one job, such as "housekeeping", "welcoming / seeing off", "dinner support / breakfast support" "blog writing" "sales aggregation", etc. Workers have to obtain "multi skills" for some extent.

In Convenience store industry, which is the same 24 hours operation, it is true that even a part-timer does jobs like "cashier", "inventory", housekeeping", etc.

Challenge: Fixation of Housekeeping Time

Consulting to BPM expert, we decided that all the full time employees to acquire "skill in guest room housekeeping".

Certainly, housekeeping work has been totally left to part-timers. And I've been thinking that their work environment was somewhat problematic, such as "work time is limited only after 10 o'clock which is check-out time and until check-in which starts 15 o'clock", and "There is few chance to advances to full-time employees even if got skill up". Beside, there may be nothing to do for full-time employees during these hours.

If it were possible to do housekeeping work in the order from "checked out room", it could be covered only by full-time employees...

[Housekeeping flow]

Operation: User's affiliation Information

"Management Department", "Sales Department", "Development Department"...

A Task of "corresponding to request for estimate" that is triggered by inquiry via website, for example. Although it is offered automatically to "someone in the Sales Department", as a matter of course, "users not belonging to the Sales Department" can not undertake permanently.

Again, in the operation of the workflow system, it is extremely important that information of members belonging to "Organization" are maintained in the latest state. If such basic information were not properly maintained, the Process owner's day-to-day business process improvement would be in vain.

Of course, it is also possible to define a Business Process such as "inputting that Supervisor: Jefferson" each time making request. But, it is inefficient. (Even it would likely end up to help violation of rules or fraud to become frequent...)

*Samples of Organizational Tree

Challenge: Group not in Organization tree

Concerning "affiliation information" of members, reservation for addition and deletion has been automatized using API. (Reference: Episode 565: General IT Control Achieved by Automatizing）.

However, how should I handle clusters of Users, such as "people qualified for Information security" or "Employee in training" or even "tennis circle"? I hesitate to call these as Organizations. First of all, hierarchy, I do not know where to put it in the tree structure of the organization... Certainly, a "tennis circle" is not in charge of official company work, so there is no obligation to maintain it. But you might want to take advantage of User groups such as "qualifier of information security" or "employees in training " for designing "allocation rule"...

[Account Issuance-ML Registration-Reservation]

Operation: User Management

When "job transfer of employee" occurs, the affairs of the IT department will increase.

In a case Mr. Ichiro is changed from "Sales department" to "Customer service department", for example... Speaking of Google Group, you have to delete the member "ichiro@example.com" as a member from "sales@example.com" and add members to "cs@example.com".

Note that in such a case, in consideration on "handover", it supposed to be an operation that addition to joining organization as a member will be conducted on April the 1st and deletion from withdrawing organization will be on April 30th.

Challenge: Automatize Change of Affiliation Information

As for the Google Group setting, it has been automatized by a business template in "Episode 544: Easy Management of Mailing List by Cooperating with Google Group (2)"! Since timer processing is also automatized in "API cooperation", mistakes and omission can hardly occur.

However, there is a lot more to do for "change of group setting". (Directory services are not almighty.)

Uhh? I want to automatize changes of organizational assignment also on the Workflow platform... But how do I do?

[Account Issuance-ML Registration-General IT Control]

Operation: Order processing by FAX

To receive orders by FAX, and handle it.

In this cloud era, "things natural for human to do" a decade ago are also objects of labor saving / unmanned.

Actually, since we started using cloud fax service (Internet FAX) "eFax", "paper" ceased to exist. Since the received file is also automatically linked to the cloud-based Workflow "Questetra BPM Suite", human processing such as "Confirmation of order contents" is also recorded properly on-line. (Simple email collaboration)

I won't look for a sheet of "paper" anymore. Business improvement has already been done greatly. But at the same time, I am feeling like I can make even more improvement.

Challenge: List viewing of FAX files

For example, as these "cloud computing" and "digitalization" progressed, I have unexpected trouble in responding to business audits. Of course, I can ask them to log in Workflow system and use its monitoring function and data reference function to see the data, but it takes time to get used to the operation since there are too many "unnecessary functions for them" in the Workflow system. (A lot of explanation is troublesome)

And from their lips, "a word that goes backwards against the time" pops out ..., "Please print the order form on paper and bind it." . . (Oh, my god!)

Can I make "a lot of order FAX files" into a form that makes it easy to see / to search for, somehow?

[Order FAX Handling]

Operation: Vulnerability Response Process

They say, "There is no software without a weak point."

In other words, computers and communication devices with countless software built in are "full of dangerous weak points". There are also business systems that manage sales and salaries...

"Vulnerability Response" by IT department is, in simple words, "repair work of software".

Specifically, the IT department collects vulnerability information from "IT information site" or "Google Alert email" on a daily basis. If information relates with the software used by the company's computer, they conduct "patch application" or "version upgrade", etc. Although there are many software perform "automatic patch" and "automatic update" by themselves recently, there are still not a few "incidents that must be handled manually".

Incidentally, once or twice a year, a security test ("vulnerability assessment") by a specialized contractor should be carried out to check whether the repair work is done properly.

Challenge: Response depends on individual

However, a tremendous number of "attack methods" are found everyday.

"Methods of attack" on old software are also reported almost every day. Even though "weak points" should have been overcome by daily repair, it seems that attackers are also improving their ideas and power, day by day. It seems to continue forever. "Vulnerabilities" announced by CVE, for example, are count to more than 10,000 annually.
(CVE：Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures)

It is no longer the amount that IT department can check through. The reality is, that experienced employees are responding using their "individual information network" and "smell?"

Hmm, wouldn't be there any way to deal it more systematically?

To put it more, I would like to record and share precisely about who decided what kind of judgment on urgent vulnerability. For example, I would like to look back on when and how the correspondence was made against sensational vulnerabilities such as "ShellShock" or "Heartbleed". (OpenSSL, GNU bash)

[Vulnerability Response Process]

Maintenance on Google Group registrants

In the last article and the one before the last, I introduced you Business Process Definitions which automatized addition or deletion of members of "Google Group" to be carried out.

If Google Group is being used as "In-house information sharing tool" in your company, these functions such as automatic addition and automatic deletion could be very useful as "mechanism to guarantee timely update".

Height of reliability requirement

However, even if you introduced such a mechanism, "maintaining correct members" is not easy.

In some cases, for example, you could have added a member to a "wrong group" (system administration screen) in corresponding to a rush-request. Or, there may be cases where a user him/herself commits "unsubscribe processing" (User setting screen). Those cases are state of "Information will reach people who should not reach" or "Information does not reach the person to reach".

"What? Was there such a notification?"

An employee worked without receiving information via mailing list for months feeling something was strange. That kind of Tragedy (which is a very terrible thing) will always occur someday.

[ML Member Confirmation]

Productivity declining due to mistakes

For those who make approvals, processing of "Sending back" is annoying.

Instead of reading the contents of an application and giving approval on it without saying anything (It will take 3 minutes), he or she must write a "reason for sending back" which costs 10 more minutes. (You don't dare to reject without a word, do you?) And if that was for "Point out simple mistake or typo", and if that occurred five, ten times a day, it may make you depressed.

And of course, the time to get home will be delayed by 1 hour and 2 hours.

Mistake occurrence rate lowered by system improvement

Mistake in "Date", "Amount", or "Customer name".

The applicants don't dare to make mistake on purpose. Basically, we would like to consider how to lower occurrence rate by "improving the Business Process Definition".

Improve "notes" and "input check" on input screen
Add "reviewing step" by colleagues to Workflow

[Base flow of Request type process-Script]

Logs of each Issue

When considering the optimization of the Business Process, in two categories of "master type data" and "transaction type data", analyze the latter.

More specifically, I will analyze "transaction type data" as an occurrence record such as "details of estimate No. 123" and "details of invoice No. 123", instead of "master type data" such as "merchandise master" or "customer master".

Logs useful for analysis

"FooBar Issue Details" flowing in the Workflow system is data that is accumulated every time an Issue is started, and it is all "transaction type data".

However, not all transaction information is stored in the "Data Items" defined within the Business Process. For example, "information held by the system side" (log of each case) such as "time reached at the 2nd Step" and "the number of times it has revolved around the loop structure" are not stored in an exportable form.

In the following workflow, it is configured "the number of times sent back" (number of times it has circled around the loop structure), that is "information held on the system side", to be automatically imported into "Data Item" which is on the Business Process side.

[Base flow of Request type process]

Season for reviewing Processes

April...

In Japan, it is a month when a new fiscal year starts.

Not only the accounting of the nation, accounting of local governments, new grades at school, etc. start, but also the ceremony for new entrants are conducted simultaneously in April. (About 20% of Japanese companies start their fiscal year in April)

It can be said that in Japan, April is 'the month when motivation for improving business processes increases' or 'perfect month for improving business process'.

Also in Questetra, Inc., which operates this blog, the amount of updating on Business Processes (number of version upgrades of Workflow Apps) will increase in April.

Dare to extend the time required

The business process introducing this time is a slightly strange improvement example that is "extending the time required at all Steps".

As a usual business improvement, it is normal to consider about improvement on "flows" or "data input screens" upon "dissatisfaction" and "challenges" that you are feeling during your daily work.

Automation of Steps
Addition of double-checking Step
Addition of guidance sentences
Implementation of handy button

And, in many cases, we will seek "a direction for a measure to shorten the total duration of work as much as possible".

However, in April, which is a break of the fiscal year, you might become wanting to deal with "inefficiencies you felt throughout the total counting work". In this business process (Workflow-App), it has been revised to stay in the middle of the way. (Addition of Human Process: "x. Retaining Rework")
Business process before improvement: Episode 511: Automatically Generate Transfer Slip File (Excel-CSV)

[Invoice Issuance-Retention]

Measurement of error rate

The invoice issuance process is one of the tasks in which mistakes are not allowed.

"Accounts receivable / sales" is recorded based on accurate billing data, and "savings accounts / accounts receivable" should be recorded upon collection afterword.

However, "redoing" occurs on the actual work site. For example, even in the same human process in Questetra, "Redo" occurred with a 2.8% chance as a result of last year.

Correction on "customer address and name"
Correction on "quantity and amount"
Correction on "issue date and due date"

Of course, the causes are various, including "unavoidable redoing".

Information was changed between order acceptance and billing (change of person in charge of customer)
The sales representative made a mistake in transcribing the contents of the order form
In the first place 'order data' was wrong

However, in any case, if the invoice (billing data) is "redoing the entire process again" when the customer receives it, in addition to the effort of redoing the bill approval processing, the data of the accounting system must also be manually corrected.

I must say such a "Redoing process from scratch" is "big loss".

Reworking and Sending back

In this business process improvement, the retaining Step of "x. Retain Sending back" of the Accounting manager is added, and progress toward the downstream process (data cooperation with the accounting system) is restrained.

That is, it will retain in the state that can be sent back to the most upstream, for a while (e.g. until the end of the month). (Reduce the risk of occurrence of "big loss" rather than increasing overall speed.)

Certainly, data such as 'sales' would like to be incorporated into the accounting system as soon as possible. I agree that it is a wonderful direction as a business management to further "accelerate monthly settlement of accounts" aiming for "daily settlement of accounts."

However, as in this example, "Business process that can absorb some extent of data modification by slowly flowing business Issues" can be another direction of business process improvement.

[Invoice Issuance-Retention:"1. Bill info entry" screen]

[Data Items list]

[Free Download]

Business Template: Invoice Issuance-Retention

Episode 488: Collaboration with Cloud Accounting (Part 3) (2016-06-20)
Episode 502: "Master Reference" is for Eliminating the Fluctuation! (2016-09-26)
Episode 479: Cautions for Letting "Prorating" to Script Step (2016-04-18)

<<Related Articles>>

[Japanese Entry (和文記事)]

In the last three articles of

I mentioned the difference and respective implementation method of

A) Automatically advance to the "next Step" in the Business Process
B) Make "certain Step" within a Business Processes to be processed unattended

regarding automation within a "Business Process".

In this (final) article, I am going to organize about the automation between Business Processes.

Connection between Business Processes

Positions of Business Processes

Until now, we discussed focusing on "individual Business Processes" such as "Estimate Approval process" and "Order Receipt process". However, in order to promote automation (improvement of productivity) in the company-wide, we must consider about "connectivity between Business Processes".

On such a stage, it is a shortcut for improvement discussion that enumerating the internal "Business Processes" as much as possible in advance.

That is, the overall viewing would reveal the position and dependency of each Business Process, and the way it should be of the "inputs" and "outputs" of each Business Process would become clear. Along with, it would also clarify the operation method and direction of improvement that the responsible person (Process Owner) of the Business Process should aim for.

Enumerating Business Processes

So, what kind of "Business Processes" are there inside the company?

It goes without saying that it varies greatly depending on the business contents and organization size. At the same time, you should suppose that there is no one who can grasp all the business details in the company. In other words, regardless of who is in charge of "enumerating Business Processes", on-site hearings in certain extent will be required.

And when enumerating the survey results, it is important to enumerate by categories so as to make it easy to see the whole.

As a methodology in practice, it is necessary to map in-house Business Processes utilizing the cost categorization upon calculating the profit and loss of the compan such as "manufacturing cost", "selling expenses" and "general administrative expenses", in addition to the Process classification method of the research institution.

[APQC Process Classification Framework]

Develop Vision and Strategy
Develop and Manage Products and Services
Market and Sell Products and Services
Deliver Products and Services
Manage Customer Service
Develop and Manage Human Capital
Manage Information Technology
Manage Financial Resources
Acquire, Construct, and Manage Assets
Manage Enterprise Risk, Compliance, and Resiliency
Manage External Relationships
Develop and Manage Business Capabilities

[Quote Creation and Approval-Order Report launcher]

[Order Report-Launched by Quote flow]

In the article before the last, "Episode 518: What is Automation of Business Process (Part 1)", I mentioned about two aspects regarding automation of Business Process, such as;

[A] Automation of handing over of Issue information between Processes
[B] Automation of processing in certain Step

Also, in the last article, "Episode 519: What is Automation of Business Process (Part 2)", I mentioned about the scope and implementation method of "[A] Automation of handing over".

In this article, I would like to organize the range to which "[B] Automation of processing" can be applied and the implementation method.

What kind of "processing" can be automated

Complete automation (Auto-Step)

Likewise the idea of "[A] Automation of handing over" is that leaving the delivery of Issue information from a certain Step to the next one to a computer, it leaves the "work inside certain Step" to the computer in "[B] Automation of processing".

Even in "Quote Creation and Approval" which is a Business Process with a high degree of human dependence, for example, it is possible to leave processing in Steps to the computer, such as

creating Quote PDF file,
sending email with file attachment,
posting summary of the Quote to Enterprise social network.

* Incidentally, it may be easy to understand with an expression that (instead of using the term of 'automation') "part of Step of Business Process to be unmanned", as long as it is not necessary to contrast with "[A] Automation of handing over."

Partial automation

On the other hand, there are some Steps that not to be automated completely.

For example, in the Step of "Creating a Quotation" in "Quote Creation and Approval" Business Process, supporting function such as

Calculate total amount
Calculate consumption tax amount

would contribute to labor saving of work. However, in this case, the Step of "Creating the Quote" is not unmanned, as some human input (human interface) is necessary. Therefore, it can be said that such Steps should be classified as "human Step".

[Quote Creation and Approval]

"Contract flow" and "Decision making Flow" are popular in 2016 as well

This is the last post of this year. We were able to deliver Business Templates every week in 2016 as well. This is also thanks to the "support message" and "Like" from the readers.

Yes. We will try harder next year (2017) as well.

Well, this blog has disclosed over 500 articles (and nearly 800 templates) over the past seven years so far, what kind of articles were read well in this year of 2016? I immediately examined the access log of this year.

<Top 5 Articles>

2010-11-12: Making an Extensive Agreement History List with an Agreement Workflow
2015-07-06: National Identification Number in Workflow (4)
2011-10-03: Fault! Report It Through Workflow!
2013-03-25: How to Design a Workflow Chart of decision making by the Boss and Their Boss: part 2
2011-05-02: Processing Ringi Approvals Simultaneously

Again, online approval (paperless) on "Contracts" and "Decision-making request" seems to be a popular agenda. (Note: This is the result of the Japanese version)

How do I write it at the present time? "Contract approval flow"

However, this article was written already six years ago.

As being in a position of a person who draws Business Processes every day, I cannot stop thinking that "I would recommend a different Process now". (Though it cannot be helped to be "often read", because it comes at the top when searching for "contract workflow" in Google search in Japanese, currently...)

So, in the last article of this year, I would like to rework the "Contract approval Process" in a simple way.

[Contract approval Process (2010-11-12)]

"It's so troublesome to enter billing data..."

Logs such as bank deposits and withdrawals and card payments have become "automatic journalizing", and "accounting input work" became quite easier compared to before.

However, in terms of "sales" in particular, it is too late to wait for the timing of "deposit". After all, it is desirable to record it as "sales as accounts receivable" at the time of "invoice" issuance... Rather, it's a must.

2016 - 11 - 22: Accounts receivable 120,000 / Sales 120,000 = Website creation (for company A)
2016 - 12 - 31: Saving deposit 120,000 / Accounts receivable 120,000 = Website creation (for company A)

Incidentally, on the contrary, there are cases where cannot include in "sales" at the time of issuing "Invoice" (even at the time of "deposit").

2016 - 12 - 31: Saving deposit 120,000 / Advance received 120,000 = Maintenance 2017 - 01 - 2017 - 12 (for Company A)
2017-01-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-01 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
2017-02-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-02 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
2017-03-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-03 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
2017-04-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-04 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
2017-05-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-05 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
2017-06-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-06 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
2017-07-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-07 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
2017-08-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-08 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
2017-09-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-09 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
2017-10-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-10 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
2017-11-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-11 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
2017-12-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-12 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)

The creation method and creation timing of so-called "transfer slips" (transfer records) varies depending not only on the type of industry but also on company policy. Even so, the work itself should certainly be "automated".

In the following Workflow, at the moment when the "Invoice" is approved by the supervisor,

Receipt PDF will be emailed to he customer,
Multiple line "transfer records" are automatically calculated
The import file is automatically generated.

Accounting staff can finish "input work" by only uploading the automatically generated Excel-CSV file to the accounting system.

[Invoice Issuance flow]

"Enter the official company name!"

You should manage suppliers or customers in "Master file". However, even if you keep saying "Register the official company name!" there will be differences such as

Upper case or lower case letter
Double byte or single byte character
Space in between or not

Since October 2015, Japanese government (National Tax Agency) has allocated "Corporate Number" to each and every enterprise in Japan. There, "official company names" (trade names), etc. are strictly managed. And Web-API that can be used free of charge has also been operating. That is almost an "infrastructure", so you have no choice not to use it.

The following Workflow is a scheme of automatic appending of "Customer code" and "Customer name" to SpreadSheet, by entering new customer information. Although it takes a little labor, "official company names" are secured by entering "Corporate number". It has a very significant meaning that it will relieve you from "name-based aggregation" and "data cleaning".

Yes, it will keep "big data" from being ended up in being "big noise-data".

[Customer Master Appending]

"Please share the presentation materials in PPT format with me, instead of PDF."

In-house sharing of files... Companies of nowadays would use "Cloud storage". (Besides, there used to be "File servers"...)

However, in cases where file sharing "with an associated company or an agency" or "in collaborative project", there will be troubles since the other party is not "In-house". Suppose if you share by "email attachment", there will be problems like, not being shared until demanded, or annoyed with unnecessary files, or hesitate to share for not being requested. (In the first place, there are anxieties in terms of security in email protocol.)

For those cases, you ought utilizing accounts of Google, which one billion people use.

Create a folder for the project in "Google Drive", and add "Google Accounts" of all the members of the project team in Share setting of the folder.
(And make a wish that every member has got an account...)

The following is a mechanism to upload files that have been approved through team Workflow, to "Google Drive" automatically.

If some members of the team were users of "G Suite" (Google Apps) and "external sharing' was permitted, you would simply use Questetra standard [Service Task (Google Drive)] (M229). Whereas, in this case here, it is assumed to be operated with common accounts of gmail.com / googlemail.com.

[File Approval flow]

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