Episode 566: Reserving Revision of Membership Information due to Personnel Change

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]

Episode 565: General IT Control Achieved by Automatizing

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]

Episode 563: Year-end adjustment in the National Tax Agency PDF

Operation: Year-end adjustment

A seasonal tradition, Year-end adjustment.

In December the year-end, the Accounting department settles the "income tax" which has been collected in approximation from January to November. For that, information such as "number of dependents" and "payment of premiums" of all employees is required.

Until last year, I have been using "Workflow that employees Start application."

• Automate Complicated Calculation for "Insurance Premium Deduction" at Year-end Adjustment! (2015-11-30)
• Submit Year-end Adjustment Document through Cloud-based Workflow (2016-11-14)

As a matter of course, this flow doesn't let all the employees make their application one after the other, while staffs of the Accounting Dept. are waiting silently. In mid-November, they have to conduct internal announcement two or three times to tell "please apply by the end of the month!" Since about one out of ten employees would not keep the promise of due date of "until the end of the month", so when it enters into December, the staffs have to start urging to those people to apply immediately. Otherwise, they will not able to finish the settlement work within December. (The accountants will take the trouble as well.)

However, even though how huge that input form is, you can finish your inputting work in a moment if you try to, since you can complete it using "Start a new Process using these data" on the application you made last year, by only adding "+1" to the year information. (Moreover, it has automatic calculation function.)

Well, I want to spend the new year's eve without any worry. (The actual deadline by the government is January, which I reserve for correction of mistakes.)

* Incidentally, the template PDF has been devised to reduce the change work in every year. (QuestetraAdd-ons)

• Application for (Change in) Exemption for Dependents of Employment Income Earner for 20XX (77 forms)
• Application for Deduction for Insurance Premiums for Employment Income Earner and Application for Special Exemption for Spouse of Employment Income Earner for 20XX (154 forms)

Challenge: Urging to person who not submitted yet

However, it is yet difficult to comprehend "who has not submitted" in the case where "Employee-initiated flow" is used.

The schedule is tight. For the staffs of the Accounting department, what is important is "a list of those who have not submitted". Unlike other applications, "list of submitters" (a list of good employees?) is worthless.

Let's consider a Workflow which forcibly pours "Year-end adjustment document submission" to [My Tasks] of all employees! In that manner, you should be able to easily catch "employees who have not completed their application".

* Apparently in the near future, the year-end adjustment at companies will be abolished (NIKKEI 2017-10-16："Policy to digitize Year-end adjustment procedures -The taxation Commission" (in Japanese )), so it is good for drill of "Process reform"!

[Year-end-adjustment]

Episode 526: "Certificate Issuance Date" of Auto-generated PDF in Japanese Calendar! (Improvement ed.)

Japanese calendar text

There are many cases in Japan that use "Japanese calendar" instead of "Western (Gregorian) calendar".

This year is "2017" as well as "Heisei 29".

In other words, there are many cases where Date type data such as "2017-03-13" should be displayed as "March 13, Heisei 29" in prints and email texts. In the article (*) about one year ago, I introduced you the Japanese calendar conversion using the [Script Task], the automatic step. (Automatic conversion of Issue data flowing in the Cloud-based Workflow "Questetra BPM Suite")

Episode 467: Certificate Issue Date on Auto-generated PDF in Japanese Era Name (2016-01-25)

Script step and Service step

However, as of version 11.1 or later (2016-09-05) of the Cloud-based Workflow "Questetra BPM Suite", it is possible to add arbitrary [Service step] by "Service definition file" (add-on XML).

That is, if you use [Service step] which performs Japanese calendar conversion, you do not need to use [Script step] (which requires programming knowledge).

[Certificate Issuance-Japanese Calendar]

Episode 509: Submit Year-end Adjustment Document through Cloud-based Workflow

'What a cumbersome it is to fill in year-end adjustment paper!'

In Japan, workers in every enterprise are instructed submission of "two sheets of document" at the end of year. Looking at that annual paper, a salary earner would think to oneself 'Ah, this year is going to end soon...' And once starts filling in the paper, he or she would be irritated for its cumbersomeness. (And then later, administrative staff would deeply sigh for too many omissions of entry...)

=[EDEIE] Acceptance and confirmation of Application for (Change in) Exemption for Dependents of Employment Income Earner
'Is it OK to write "Same as above" in the column of Address of Family member?'
'Do I write "Same as submitted number" into the column for Personal number?'
'I am not sure about the date of birth of all of my family...'

= [DIPEIE] Acceptance and confirmation of Application for Deduction for Insurance Premiums for Employment Income Earner and Application for Special Exemption for Spouse of Employment Income Earner
'Life insurance with Term insurance rider... wordy...'
'Medical payments and personal injury protection ...wordier...'
'Management Organization for Postal Savings and Postal Life Insurance... too wordy!

It sure is an once-a-year "seasonal event", but it won't be a fun. Suppose 50 million workers nationwide would be irritated for 30 minutes, how much of GDP would be lost? (Need to break away from "handwriting" at least...)

* Incidentally, when it comes to wasting of "100 million sheets of paper" and "storage for it", it will be ended up with "Approval for provision by electronic or magnetic means". In short, it requires submission of "Application for approval on the provision of descriptions concerning withholding by electronic or magnetic means" (Japanese description only), which I would like to mention about at other chances...

The following two Workflows are schemes that an applicant makes application, and administrative accepts and confirms. Everything will be completed online.

And for the next year, applicants will be able to "Start a new Process with these data". Everyone who makes application through this Workflow will be required only to rewrite "HEISEI 28" (Japanese calender year) to "HEISEI 29" at [EDEIE], and "HEISEI 27" to "HEISEI 28" at [DIPEIE]. (Unless change in family member or in insurance policy.)

[Dependent Exemption Application / Insurance Premium Deduction]

Episode 490: Placing a Button for Automatic Password Generation

"Too many input fields!"

Dissatisfactions for a Workflow system, many of them are "labor for data input". However, it tends to increase the number of data which is "inevitable to input", for continuing Business Process improvement. Then...

It might seem surprising, but the most efficient burden reduction measures is "to enable to Click-input for some common data". Although nothing is better than to experience actually, the work efficiency becomes very good if one click entry was possible even for five or ten letters. And you will feel so good, if you can input one after another to a lot of input forms that have placed in a row.

The following sample is an altered version of "Button input", which I introduced to you previously, by adding "a button for automatic generation and input of a password". By arranging such a button, you will be able to correspond to a work such as, for example, "issuing a system account" with concentrating.

Reference) Episode 481: Devising of "Button Input" to Input Form

[Test flow for Input Form 2]

Episode 476: Regulation Revision Flow is also "Regulation Browsing System"

I want to see the "Work regulations" of the company!

• 5 years of service, how many "Paid leave" do I have?
• By the way, what are the words describing "Prohibition of moonlighting"?
• What does the work rule say about new "Teleworking"?

There are a variety of motives and timings at which workers want to read "work regulations" again. However, in reality, it might not be in the state that immediately referable at the time when an employee wanted to see(You shouldn't openly say so, or "Labor Standards Inspection Office" will find you.)

• The printed material at hand is not likely the latest version.
• Did I have one of those materials?
• I don't know where the latest version is...

The following Workflow is a Business Processes which are related to "creation" and "dissemination" of the company regulations.

All of the company regulations are revised in accordance with this Workflow. Automatically (and inevitably), all of the regulation files are recorded. (You can also see which regulations have been revised and which regulations have been abolished.)

After all, employees can see "the latest version of the company regulations" in the online at any time. Such devising as, for example, embedding a link in the Operating screen of "Time and attendance reporting process" would also be good.

[Company Regulations Creation]

[Company Regulations Dissemination]

The Process itself, related to company regulation, is very simple. The Department in charge (would be mostly Affairs Department) create a draft of the company regulations, the officer in charge check it, the Board of Directors approve it, and then an announcement to the entire company to be made.

However, what is excellent in this sample is that intentionally separated into two Business Processes. That is, the actual operation is on assumption of;

• Regarding the "Dissemination flow", [Data viewing authorization] is given to all employees, but
• Regarding the "Creation flow", [Data viewing authorization] is given to only officers, etc.

In the Deliberation Step on "Creation flow", for example, officers can write freely based on the principle of exclusive. In addition, the risks of misunderstandings and false recognition of data viewers will be lowered by the setting as not be viewed "the phantom in-house regulations" which is the revision itself had aborted at the process of the deliberations.

[Company Regulations Creation:"1. Draft Registration" screen]

[Company Regulations Creation: Data Items list]

[Company Regulations Dissemination: Data Items list]

[Free Download]

• Business Template:
• Company Regulations Creation
• Company Regulations Dissemination

<Similar Models>

• Revision Control of Internal Documents on Workflow (2014-01-14)
• Draw a Court Process in BPMN (flow of Civil Litigation) (2015-08-17)
• Business Manual within Workflow! (2013-10-07)

<<Related Articles>>

• M116 DATA SEARCH: Checking Permission of Data Viewing of Your Own
• M117 DATA SEARCH: Refine Search over All Job Data/ Saving Refining Condition
• M118 BULLETIN BOARD: Message Board on each Issue
• M223 AUTO EVENT: Sleeping in the Middle
• M224 AUTO EVENT: Auto Sending of Email with Business data Inserted

[Japanese Entry (和文記事)]

Episode 469: Address Change Notice (w/Auto-updating of Employee Master Data)

Want to set up "Employee Master data"!

However, the work of the Human Resources Department is not mean that it is sufficient to manage only the "incumbents". Information of "seconded the people" and "retired people" must also be managed. Yet, they also want to precisely maintain the "List of incumbent" (employee master) to be used in such business system.

And the management of Employee Master data in "Excel file" has been pushed to its limit already.

• Basic information (Employee Master): Id number, Email address, Commonly known name, Date of hire
• Detailed information (Statutory management items): Family registration Name, Date of birth, Gender, Highest educational attainment, Employment history, Emergency contacts, Retirement date, etc.

The following is a Business flow for handling "Newly application or Notification for changes in Name, Address, Phone number, etc."

It is necessary to get immediate report not only at the time of joining, also when the name has changed, or the address has changed, or the telephone number has been changed. Its excellent point is the function that allows automatic update on the "Employee Master data" of the Workflow platform as necessary. And the "Employee master data" which is to be updated automatically, will be utilized in making a scheme of, for example, "How to send a notification e-mail to employees who do not have a login account to the Workflow foundation".

[Employee Information Acceptance]

Episode 467: Certificate Issue Date on Auto-generated PDF in Japanese Era Name

'Date in Japanese calendar!'

"Representation of years" is complicated in Japan. That is, We do not say "year 2016" at the governmental procedure or at schools. This year is absolutely "Heisei 27". The date is represented in "Japanese calendar" in documents which have a little bit of importance, such as "Residence certificate", "Family registration", or "Graduation diploma"...

However, in reality,,, only a few Japanese can immediately answer that "this year is Heisei 28!"

Even so, this "mechanism of resetting to the first year (year 1), once in several decades" is continued already 1400 years or more. It is too much significant for the government of the time to abolish... (And, on the day the current emperor died, another new "era name" will be published.)


The following is a flow of "Employment certification" issuance.

It has devised that at an upstream Step, the employee's 'name' and "birth date' are entered, and the a certificate PDF is automatically generated at [Auto-step] in the middle of the flow. Notably, date data such as "date of birth" and "certificate issue date" is automatically converted to the Japanese calendar. It could be diverted also to issuance flow for, for example, "Graduation certificate" or "PTA News", etc.

[Certificate Issuance]

Automate Complicated Calculation for "Insurance Premium Deduction" at Year-end Adjustment!

Japanese people are fond of "life insurance".

Despite the population of approximately 100 million people, 40-50 trillion JPY money is paid for insurance every year. That calculates the total of 400,000 JPY per person a year.

There may be various reasons for being fond of insurance, such as

• The risk of family will be serious when the wage-earner dies, because of mostly wives are full-time housewives. (There are fewer working-couples in Japan.)
• Insurance companies also make social contributions, such as being major shareholders of companies and constructing buildings.
• First of all, national characteristic is strongly savings-oriented.

Whereas, it is also in consideration of the existence of Tax incentives which is

• Income tax and personal residence tax will be reduced. (Up to 240,000 JPY per year)

That is, in Japan, under the thoughts of "More people should buy insurances", there is a system that "You've got a benefit of cashback for buying insurances of up to 240,000 JPY worth. 32,000 JPY at the maximum* will come back to you!". (* In the case of income tax rate 20% and personal residence tax 10%)

• Income tax refund of "up to 120,000 JPY deduction × tax rate"
• Residence tax reduction of "maximum 84,000 JPY deduction × tax rate"

In fact, there are many cases that buying insurances in accordance with the "maximum amount of deduction".


However, you must make application at each year-end to receive this benefit. That is the one which is indicated as "Insurance premium deduction" among two of year-end-adjustment document to submit.

• A) Application for Deduction for Insurance Premiums for Employment Income Earner and Application for Special Exemption for Spouse of Employment Income Earner for 2015
• B) Application for (Change in) Exemption for Dependents of Employment Income Earner for 2016

The following Workflow is a mechanism for auto-generation of this "Application form PDF". You work hard on it once, and it will relieve you from working since the next year by data copy (Start in reusing data).

[Year-end-adjustment-Insurance premium Deduction]

Should A Year-end Adjustment Form Include Individual Number?

There is a "seasonal tradition" in firms in Japan, so-called "Year-end Adjustment", an application for Tax deduction. Employees of a firm are required to fill "family Dependant circumstance" and "situation of personal insurance", etc. into application form, to get a refund of the difference between "amount of withholding" and "income tax to pay". 50 million wage earners in all over Japan would fill in the form document, then stamp a seal, and submit to their firm.

Incidentally, there is a rule that companies collect Income and Local tax on behalf of the government in Japan, which is referred to Tax Withholding Obligation in Income Tax Act.

Eventually, these paper documents won't be delivered to a Taxation office or the National Tax Agency. For the companies, it doesn't matter the rule of "submission in paper", as far as "correct information" could be obtained. However, they must comply with the obligation of storing data for 7 years. As a matter of course, many of the companies have the feeling of "wasting of resources, such as paper, printer, labor of transcription and postage, etc..."

Well, one of these form documents will change its format this year.

As you know at a glance, Individual Number has been added. You may recognize that this document will be upgraded to "Specific Personal Information" from "Personal Information"... (I guess I will need a secure locker...)

[Year-end-tax-adjustment:Dependent Exemption application]

Tributary in Each Subsidiary Merges to Form Mainstream

"Collect Individual Numbers by each subsidiary!"

Human resources system is different for each subsidiary. Even the scale of the number of employees is different. Yes... Some companies are hiring hundreds of Part-timers, while others are not at all. Some companies have regional branch offices across the country, whereas others have nothing.

"Shared Services" which is a mechanism of sharing the indirect departments in a Group of companies is not uncommon. In many cases, procedures of Social security and taxation are also delegated to the Shared Services Center. However, there is no choice other than the "collecting of Individual Numbers" to be done in each company, if the industry and business category were largely different from each subsidiary. For so-called the "Methods for identification", you should ask them to devise at each company.

About "Collecting of Individual Numbers ", I exemplified the five processes in this blog.

1. Application-approval in a small organization
2. Check Digit function added
3. Identifications on site
4. Identifications only in the head office
5. Identification by complex application

In the following Workflow, Individual Numbers that have been collected through it will be eventually automatically aggregated in the Shared Services Center. It is assumed that "HTTP transmission", an automatic Event, is to be placed at the most downstream of the Collecting Process in each company.

[Acceptance of Updated Information Process]

National Identification Number in Workflow (5)

"Your Individual Number is required in your contract. Please complete the form.
(Or please send us.) XYZZY, Inc."

Countless "phishing sites" are existing on the Internet. For example, appearance of the victims who are ripped off their "Credit card number" or "PIN code" is unending. Sooner or later, phishing sites that try to gather "Individual Numbers" will come out.

"Suppose if a phishing site that spoofing my company have emerged..."

For those companies utilizing many external freelance must rely on "online application". However, the situation will be a serious trouble if a spoofing phishing site emerged. Basically, there are no measures to prevent the ripping off other than to ask for confirmation of "data transmission destination" and "addressee".

• URL for the destination of verification file is "https://example.com"!
• Address for mailing copies of identification documents is "Anyplace street, nakagyo-ward, Kyoto city"!

In the example which I have presented in the latest article,

•  "National Identification Number in Workflow (4)"

It was available to apply for freelance in remote location, lawyers or accountants. Moreover, it was excellent workflow that is capable of reducing the number of "person responsible for collecting the Individual Number" to very limited. As a result, it was possible to reduce the "risk of information leakage by human" to almost zero.


However, in that sample, it was required to attach "Individual Numbers" and "Image files of certificates".

• A). Image of "Driver's License"
• B). Image of "Notification card"

A: Can be substituted with "Individual Number card (front side)" or Government-issued photo identification such as "Passport", etc.
B: Can be substituted with "Individual Number card (back side)" or certificate on which Individual Number is indicated such as "New Residential certificate", etc.

That is, in terms of the fishing site side, it can be said that it is a "structure of easy to Rip-off." Risk assessment by qualified personnel of information security may vary, but at least it cannot be said that "the risk is zero". In the first place, I wonder if there is a way without exchanging sensitive information online?


The following Workflow is an Individual Number Application flow from a remote location that is characterized in;

• Not submitting neither "A; Image of Driver's License" nor "B; Image of Notification card" (!)
• Not submitting even "12-digit individual Number" (?!)

"Division of the information" is the keyword. Explaining this business process roughly, it consists of the following two Steps.

1. Transmission of first 8-digits
2. Verbal report of last 4-digit

Caution: Regarding to "it is clear that it is the same person", there is a risk of occurrence of "difference of opinion" between the government institutions, etc.! For more information, please confirm the enforcement regulations Act Article 3 (5) and the enforcement regulations Act Article 9 (4). (Or go to the Government office to confirm, preparing for red tape runaround.)

[Individual Number Application flow-5]

National Identification Number in Workflow (4)

"It's just an application that let employees to make their own?"

That is right. But that is not all... Individual Numbers which an enterprise should collect are surprisingly numerous. That is, Individual Number of "Employees / Part-timers" and "their dependent family member" is not the all.

Especially, "outsourcee (Self-employment)" is troublesome.

Every Japanese companies are helping the "tax collection operations of the country." That is, income tax is withheld by the company upon payment of remuneration. Then the company pays the entrusted income tax to the government. (Moreover, the amount of withholding is aggregated and delivered as Certificate of Income and Withholding Tax to each person.)

• Copywriting fee, composer's fee, designing fee, copyright royalty, lecture fee
• Remuneration for lawyers, judicial scriveners, accountants, tax accountants, patent attorneys

You see. When you ask for the lecture or designing for individuals of external, you need to collect the Individual Numbers of these people. If you are taking advantage of "Crowdsourcing", as a fashion, you will need a special care.

Through the "Individual Number Application Processes" in previous articles;

• National Identification Number in Workflow (1)
• National Identification Number in Workflow (2)
• National Identification Number in Workflow (3)

We were focusing on applications from employees and part-timers. And in the latest article, we considered on a Workflow for conducting the "Measures of Identification" in apportioned among the managers.

• X. Dispersion: Apportion the collation within the organization. (All store managers or all section chiefs confirm)
• Y. Intensive: Ask them to attach documents sufficient to collate in online.

In this Business Process here, everything is done centrally online. (Intensive)

This is very convenient for;

• companies that taking full advantage of external freelance such as designers or programmers
• companies that making requests on a daily basis for the external personal such as lectures or writings

All the processing, including the "Measures of Identification", can be done online. Moreover, you can limit the personnel who touch (specific) personal information to the Accounting Department in the headquarter.

Incidentally, in this case, everyone makes their application in an "Application Form" (a secure web form), whoever a head office worker or a remote worker, a part-time or the president, a rookie or a veteran, a lawyer or an accountant...

[Individual Number Application flow-4]

National Identification Number in Workflow (3)

The Act of National Identity Number demands;

• a. accuracy: 'Don't you ever mistype.'
• b. legitimacy: 'Make sure if it is the right person'

from enterprises. The "Individual Number Application Processes" which I introduced before;

• National Identification Number in Workflow (1)
• National Identification Number in Workflow (2)

were obtaining processes which comply with the concept of the Act. Also, these were very simple.

The personnel (Accounting department) who checks the numbers just walks to the desks of employees to check the number following an instruction which is described on the Application Form screen; 'Please collate with the "notification card at a later date'. The personnel can answer to questions about Identification Number or other operations of the management, on that occasion. This would be sufficient for Small businesses. (Rather, convenient.)

However, there are a variety of problems, if it was for 'Application Process of Large-scale business'.

Imagine a company that employs more than 100 teleworkers, or an enterprise that hires 100 part-timers every month. It would be no longer possible to check to find out "a. Mistyped number" and "b. Impersonating number" only by the staffs of Accounting. The know-how in the Accounting department would also be dispersed. And I have to say it is helpless against people who are getting job pretending to be someone deliberately, or who are trying to disperse their income. (Regarding to "Mistyped number", You might be able to avoid the majority of it using the "Check Digit". - Previous Article)

Generally speaking, an organization that manpower of its management department is not enough, has to take strategies such as

• X. Apportion the collation within the organization. (All store managers or all section chiefs confirm)
• Y. Ask them to attach documents sufficient to collate in online.

The Workflow example below is in the idea of "X. Apportion".

[Individual Number Application flow-3]

National Identification Number in Workflow (2)

"Mistyping" in registration of the Individual number... That could be... (Scary..)

From my experience, applications from employees contains 5 to 10% of "typo". (And always they were from veterans, instead of part-timers!) Despite you specially had your employees registering their Individual number to use for public procedures such as Income-tax or Social insurance, you will have to do it all over again, if the 'registered number' is wrong. (What a tragedy!)

In assumption of Individual Number Act, it is duties of company side which are 1) to obtain accurate 12-digit number, and 2) to confirm its identification. However, you cannot say "Don't screw it up!" to an employee who has many children, because he or she have to type 12-digit numbers as much as family members.

In the following Workflow, it performs "Check Digit Verification" upon entering Individual number.

That is, it will alert an input error if the 12-digit number is "impossible for an Individual number" upon entry. This scheme alone will reduce erroneous input significantly. By the way, this Workflow is an expansion of previous entry, so the basic flow and data item definitions are the same.

[Individual Number Application flow-2]

National Identification Number in Workflow (1)

The government of Japan is going to adopt the National Identification Number system.

It is unavoidable for the efficiency of the entire social system.

Business Processes in either of Administrative or private company will be drastically changed.

In anyway, a "Notification card" will be delivered by Registered post in October this year (2015), to a new born baby or an elderly who has listed on the Resident card'. Thus, I would like to consider about a Workflow that will be needed immediately for companies, in this blog article. (I'm not going to mention about the entire picture of the system that will be expanded to "Social security, Taxation, and Disaster response" plus alpha...)

The following Workflow is a very simple flow for 'Application of Individual number'.

Almost all the companies have obligations of "payment of income tax" (withholding) and "join in insurance and pension" for the employees. That means there are no choice but 'collect Individual numbers'. It is a must to collect accurately from all employees, even from board directors. It may better to get application of the number earlier, both for the company itself and employees. (Before they miss the 'Notification card...)

[Individual Number Application flow]

Business Processes which should be Considered before Building a BPO System

What is BPO? (Business Process Outsourcing)

It is, basically, 'to outsource' the so-called indirect business. Or, in some business conversation, it often refers to "a contracting service in response to the commission". Anyway, the company entrusts the duties such as general affairs, human resources, accounting and welfare and telephone correspondence to the trustee. These outsourced duties are essential, even though they do not produce any profit directly.

BPO in Japan, there are three major businesses which are "Customer service" "Order Management", and "ICT systems management".

The following workflow is "antivirus operations" which is the most costly in the "ICT systems management". Most notably point is that it admits use of personal belongings as an information terminal device, in order to ensure the convenience of employees. These are cases of companies in the so-called "BYOD" (Bring Your Own Device) framework, that are judged to be conducive to business improvement (quality / delivery / cost) in the core business even in light of the information leakage risk.

(However, "anytime email confirmation" has been realized in many companies nowadays. In that sense, I probably should not note it as "special mention".)

In this outsourcing operation, it has been devised to reduce the overall cost by the cooperation of commissioning side and the trustee side. To be specific, each user him/herself to actively report "security status" of the devices which have been registered in advance. For example, users can attach a screen capture of virus scan history, or describe the inconvenience and worries on the utilization. On the Trustee side, as well as checking the overview report of all employees, they would perform investigation and correspondence individually, if necessary. Really, it's sophisticated.

[Device Security Report flow]

User Account Issuance Flow to Support the Internal Control

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)]

Standardization of the Hiring Process, Points to be Aware

A Business Process of "Hiring part-timer", challenges for it.

<Challenge 1: Don't know Now.>

• Who is now responding the application by Mr.***?
• What is the next step for the application by Mr.***?
• How many steps are there till the employed (not employed) notification?
• Is there any omission or mistakes in communicating with the applicant?

<Challenge 2: Don't know the past.>

• When has Mr. *** been employed? And how he was evaluated?
• What was the reason for disqualification to whom was not employed?
• How many people made application last year? And how many people employed?
• How long did it take to notify the result?

'Daily operations' such as "Acceptance of CV", "Interview schedule adjustment on the phone", "Pass or fail notification verbally" for example,,, it takes quite an effort to keep the record of any of them. Consequently, business know-how will not be shared, and the flow of business will become individualistic. And the "business flow should be" for the organization will never be discussed.

It sure is,

  'Hiring procedure, it always differs depending on the manager at the time!'

Such a conclusion also might not be wrong. However, (it can be said for other operations as well) you will not achieve 'Division of labor' without 'Standardization'. "Hiring flow" affects the evolution of the company significantly such as, expansion of the business scale, the development of new business, or expand into other markets. The way of proceeding HR operations, should be improved in the direction of "visualization" and "Standardization" even little by little.

[Part Timer Hiring flow]