Episode 504: Auto-saving of Audit Documents to Dropbox!

"What a cumbersome it is to submit documents to the audit firm!"

Even though staff of a business company may think so, it is tough for auditors as well. They are worrying endlessly that if there is any way to ease this 'battle against a mountain of documents'...

• "Necessary documents are missing" or,
• "Unnecessary documents are mixed"

If such situations occur frequently, it will crack their minds...

In the Workflow below, quotations that resulted in a contract will be shared in real time. It's nothing so special, just a scheme that digital file to be uploaded successively to a folder in Dropbox which is managed by the audit firm. This is so-called "Unmanning".

In addition, there won't be mistakes, since no human being to select "necessary documents" to put into copying machine. And searching for files is also easy.

Therefore, it increases matters that they can invest in advance, and occasions of visiting auditees would be reduced.

Isn't it wonderful?


* This example is almost the same as "Episode 499: Why am I Unsure about General Situation of Submitted Quotations?". (Just one auto-step has been added)
* To add this Step to existing Process Model, you obtain [Add-on XML], and import it into a Model as function addition file (Process Model file) in advance.

[Quotation Creation flow-Dropbox]

Episode 499: Why am I Unsure about General Situation of Submitted Quotations?

"How much is the total of Quotations that have been submitted currently?"

Sales budget, which all the Sales managers care about. Even not being a Sales manager, there are many people who care about company's sales progress.

• How many Quotations have been submitted?
• How much is the total of those Quotations?
• How many Orders will be reported among them?

As a matter of course, if you would like to forecast the "Sales", "Quotation tracking" is essential.

"How many of what Issues in which Step?" will be obvious if the progress of series of Quoting operations, such as "Drafting", "Approval" and "Win-loss Report", have been managed (in a Workflow). Even "Order rate" can be calculated easily by aggregating of past Issues that flowed through the Workflow. (Or rather, "Productivity of the Sales Department" should be questioned if they don't know the total price of submitted Quotations...)

The following Workflow is a "Quotation Creation flow" that begins with "1. Drafting Quotation" and ends at "4. Win-loss Report". (Want to connect to "Billing Process" in the future...)

Once a Quotation operation has started, things that must be done at the moment ("to approve on a draft of Quotation", "to submit the Quotation to the customer", etc.) will be clarified for both of Sales manager and salesperson. There will never be "Useless waiting time". And of course, never be omissions or oversights.

And the directors on board would make check for "Quotations that have been submitted and waiting for Win-loss report" (Quotations that staying at the 4th Step) in every quarterly results.

[Quotation Creation flow]

A Blank Email Starts a Business Process

"Blank Emails" are still in active service.
Even today, they use it for various occasions such as "mail membership recruitment", "application of the gift campaign" or "Issuing coupon". In a peculiar case, they use it for "notification of out of paper of the MFP" in some companies

The following is a simple business process of "a Workflow starts with email receiving". You can manage a series of work after receiving an email in status. It may be applied to various businesses with a small enhancement.
In this sample, a flow of the followings is defined; (1), auto replying a thank you email, (2), qualifying the applicant, (3), registering the applicant to the list. As a matter of course, it is also good to describe an HTML to induce to the registration site.

[Email Registration flow]

Workflow for Creating 'PayPal Button'

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

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

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

1. Single items
2. Multiple items
3. Automated payments

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

[PayPal button creation flow]

Significance of Visualizing the mere Business Card Order Application

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

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

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

• 'Consumption speed' of each salesperson to be compared
• 'Most consuming periods' over the entire sales department to be graphed
• 'Qualification holder' in the sales department to be searched

It lends itself well to the subject matter of the practicing of business process designing. Come and please try.

[Business Card Order Application flow]

Email Newsletter Manuscript Creating Flow on Template with Date

Email newsletters are one of the tools to tell 'Valuable information for subscribers'.

The position of the e-mail newsletter, although which differs greatly depending on the issuer, for example, it is "marketing tool that directly related to the sales" for the mail-order company, also is an "Induction tool that greatly influences the access" for media sites. That is, it is not a few that email newsletters play a 'crucial role of the business'.

It is desirable that the process of creating manuscript would be 'processed quickly' and 'hardly mistaken'.

The following business process sample is an Email Newsletter Manuscript Creating Flow that about 20 manuscripts per month will be created. Both of "Regularly issuance three times a week Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday" and "Publishing in arbitrary timing" are assumed. These work procedures or automatic processing are devised to prevent retention and mistakes.

• Automatically started on the day before the regular issuance
• Deadline of each process is set explicitly
• Automatically setting the stylized part such as 'date of issue' or 'Copyright Year'

< Organization Assumption >
One producer, one director, three Writers (Concurrently serving), three Illustrators (Concurrently serving) one Photographer (Concurrently serving)
(* The Director serves concurrently as an Illustrator)

[Email Newsletter Manuscript Creating Flow]

Contract Progress Management in Workflow

Every business has to do with Contracts.
And, "Conclusion of a Contract" it is a very important human process, yet it is cumbersome. It requires division of labor because of specialization. Want to make it efficiently more even a little bit.

By the way, Japanese major companies demand 'Conclusion of NDA (Non-disclosure agreement)' in the beginning of a trade. However, what is written on the template is the mostly the duplication of "Unfair Competition Prevention Law" (1993). Sometimes matters about basic right as written in "Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property" (1883) are added in the contract. Anyway, the company on the side of receiving the contract will be forced to 'barren work' of checking if "something strange have been written" or not.

We would want to design the business processes in mind that the Legal check includes also extremely unproductive matters like "conclusion of NDA".

# Japanese GDP might grow steadily if 'NDA templates' by all major companies had been changed to 'Let's comply with the Unfair Competition Prevention Law' only...

In the following Legal Checking Workflow, Task of [2. Approve Draft of Contract] by the Boss and [3. Approve Draft of Contract] by the Legal are able to be skipped.

[Contract flow]

Translation Workflow should be Cooperated with In-house SNS

Workflow system goes well with Desk workers'.
Translators for example, who spend most of their work stuck on their PC, they are really in good chemistry with Workflow.

The following is a 'Translation flow' mainly for Web contents.
It is a device which putting a document in Japanese in it, and the translation in English and in Spanish would be completed.(!?) After running this flow to some extent, gradually you will see the correlation of the amount of original document and duration of processing.

[Translation workflow]

[In-house SNS]

Queries from Facebook, Queries from Abroad, Let them Flow All Together Neatly

Since around the year 2000, 'Workflows' have been a major stepping forward in the area of;

• Decision making and Approval
• Expense Report
• Travel Expenses Reimbursement

and have been contributing to a significant reduction in office work labors. Some folks call these 'Three major applications of workflow'.

It has been digitized (onlined), records have been remain automatically, and the aggregate has become extremely faster.

Later, office work has been digitized one after another along with improving the environment, such as an internal LAN.

• Working hours, attendance reporting
• Procurement and Asset Management
• Application of Internal Affairs and Communications
• Recruiting

These have come to be into the workflow as well. Especially, cross-department Workflow, and business between remote locations they are very significant to be digitized.

Now, the cloud computing era of today.
Workflow is not limited to internal operations.
That is, operations of responding to an inquiry from the outside became able to be operated in the Workflow system as well. Specifically, "Product inquiry" or "Complaint", "Request for Quote" or "Personal Information Protection Counter", can now be processed electronically in accordance with operating procedures (business processes) as well.

In the following workflow definition, it is possible to be incorporated in the same flow by the connective setting, such as (external trigger) inquiries on the Web site or by e-mail, as well as queries on Facebook and Twitter, etc.. It can be branched to 'Translation' or 'advisory' in the middle of the Workflow.
By the way, it is the uniqueness of "Questetra BPM Suite", the Cloud based Workflow, that providing flexible improvement on 'operations that cooperating with external system'. (Free accounts are ready to go!)

[Corresponding Query flow]

To Drop Typical Japanese CRM into a Business Process

An accommodation booking system. Messages are mechanical though it is not bad at it.
Reminders come in 10 days in advance, and once more the day before. Or a questionnaire email arrives 'the next day after returning home'...

But, what if there was a heartwarming sentence added?
'How was the walk to Kinkakuji on the day you leave? Since light rain was falling, all of us employees had been worried.' Such thoughtfulness would make a tourist happy. This is what we call hospitality.

The following is an example of Reservation Management flow with 'human processing' added.

[Booking flow]

Fully Automated Quote Creation Workflow

When it comes to creating Quote, it is better (1+)quick, (2+)beautiful, (3+)inexpensive.

I don't want those (3-)expensive quote, even if they are (1+)quick and (2+)beautiful.
I don't want those (2-)ugly quote, even if they are (1+)quick and (3+)inexpensive.

At least, I never want (1-)slow quote. "Quick response" is the fundamental of business.

The following workflow is " Quote Issuance Approval flow" to respond quickly to e-mail received in the Request for Quotation.
It takes the full advantage of New Features of Ver. 9 of the Cloud Based Workflow "Questetra BPM Suite"that is released yesterday (2012-08-21).

[Quote Issuance Approval flow]

Semi-automate Payment Confirmation and E-mail Reply after Receiving the Google Form

A Workflow will be started by somebody as an application...
Such 'internally driven' operations, there are many. However, actually there are much more of 'externally driven' operations, which is, 'operations which is triggered by requests from outside of the organization'. Moreover, 'externally driven' operations should be processed accurately along the rule.

Here, we would like to introduce a Workflow, which [1. Accept Entry for Joining Event] at "Form" of Google Drive (ex.Google Documents), [2. Automatic submit Thanks E-mail], [3. Payment Confirmation by human], [4. Automatic submit Thanks E-mail for the Payment]. (operation Corresponding to Acceptance of Applications for Event)

[Applications Acceptance flow]

How Many Quotations Do We Have, Now?

How many 'issuing Quotations' within validity period do we have?

It is fine to manage them with 'SFA', data oriented business system. However, process oriented 'BPM' can manage them steady as well.

Yes indeed, outfitting of business processes in BPM is troublesome for its 'high degree of freedom' and 'general purpose-ness'. But if you had motivations enough to improve the flow of your business, you would better take 'process oriented' way on the Quotation issuance.

[Quotation flow]

Automatic "the Guide Mail" Transmission, One Month Prior to Contract Renewal

"Renewing a Contract" job. It occurs in a variety of industries.

• Real estate lease
• Staffing agency
• Consultancy
• Internet domain
• Adviser (lawyer, tax accountant,, patent attorney etc.)
• Maintenance (software, servers, Elevator, etc.)

Generally, contract renewal procedure is initiated with announcement from the fiduciary side. However somehow, it is difficult to carry out that "announcement" without omission. Therefore, in the following workflow definition,　trick to book an automatic transmission of " an e-mail announcement of contract renewal" have been set.

[Contract flow]

Posting Routine for 'Official Facebook Page'

When it comes to duties such as 'Facebook marketing', for example, I don't want spare any time to make Operating rules separately. The time I finish making the Operating Manual, the spec of Facebook might have been changed. Just give up Business rules or Manuals filled with words, you'd rather regard a Workflow diagram (BPMN) as business rule. You can bring it running right now. (That will also reduce the time for Boards meeting.)

By the way, posting to 'Official Facebook Page' can be done by email. With a setting of automatic email sending in the middle of the Workflow, the article through the "necessary procedures" will be automatically posted without misses. (Can attach Images as well!)

[Facebook Page Posting flow]

Hang-up to Input Form! Rather than a Manual

A 'Workflow system' and the 'Work Manual' are like two sides of the same coin. Both of them are closely related, and never can be separated. In other words, we may say 'Workflow system' is a realization of the 'Work manual'.

Sometimes people who planning to develop a workflow system ask us, 'which should I design first, the Work manual or the Workflow?'. Our answer is 'simultaneously'.

A Status that Work Manual will be prepared only by printing out "Flow Diagram" and "Input Form"
That is ideal.

But, some ingenuity will be needed when engaging workers speak in diverse languages. 'Translation' is the one of typical Workflow.
In the following 'Translation flow', the Work procedure is expressed only by ' Screen composition of the Input form' and 'simple English word'. To create separate Manual will be nonsense anymore.

[Translation Flow (+Website Update)]

Contract Processing, Advising Chat should be Recorded

Oooh! Why can't I attach files onto the Workflow?

Such a Workflow is totally out of date! Workflows have being advanced day by day. Not only basic data such as 'String type', 'Numeric type', 'Date type', 'Time type', it is also available those data type such as,

• 'Select type', which uses external list.
• 'Select type', which choices are configured in the upstream.
• 'Table type', which makes variety of data into a table.
• 'Discussion type' which data is added with timestamps.

Also BPM: Business Process Management which is for improving business flow, variety of data type can be set in 'Data set' that flows on Workflow. At least Questetra BPM Suite can do it...

See; Modeling: Available Data Types (Questetra/tour/reference)

And now we'd like to consider required data sets in "Contract Processing".

[Contract Processing flow]

The Contract Processing, actually is a Workflow which contains unpredictable numbers of files. Agreement, specification documents, Notices, etc... Have no time for encasing those files in a ZIP file every time. In that point of view, 'File type' which can be attached any number of files is desirable.

And to record the process of negotiation and advice between Legal personnel and Sales personnel, we'd definitely want a "Discussion type" that is automatically records the outgoing comments and time stamp.

Incidentally, in this work flow definition, the conversation exchange between Legal personnel [2. Notes for negotiation/approval] and Sales personnel [3. Contract negotiations Report] goes back and forth. And also, the flow splits into [2a. Review and comment of the draft] by Sales Leader. To achieve these, advanced Workflow or sophisticated Business Process Management is required.

[Contract Processing flow [2. Notes for negotiation/approval] screen]

< Similar Models >

• Should A Contract Be Approved On Printed Paper By President? (2011-05-17)
• Legal Advisers Should Be Included in Workflows, Too (2011-04-07)
• Making an Extensive Agreement History List with an Agreement Workflow (2010-11-12)

<< Related Articles >>

• Modeling: Setting Split Condition (tour/reference)
• To Setup Upstream Process to Give 'Selections' to Downstream Task (tour/reference)

• Contract Processing flow

Share Sales Information in a Simple Business Process

To catch up with the flow of business for up to "orders" from the "quote".

-To check which quote is under the judgment of 'Orders / Lost' anytime
-To tell necessary and sufficient information automatically to relating sections without any leakage when got orders.

First of all, 'Sharing current information' is prior among varieties of affairs in Sales section. In the following Workflow definition, the project management of sales team is defined in a very simple Workflow. It exactly is a Simple SFA. I want to note here is, the daily business report can not be continued if it's not simple.

This Workflow begins with [1. Project Opening report] by a sales personnel. Right after the registration of Project Opening, a Task of [1a. Advice/ Strategy] is allocated to the Sales leader clearly.

[Sales-Quote/Orders share flow]

After that, the sales personnel adds progress when the status changes in his project such as submitting quote or visiting, onto Discussion type data at Task [2. Quote Submitting/ Visiting], then [save]. If there is something should be shared, check the 'In negotiation' flag then [Finish]. In that case, a 'Project progress share email' is automatically sent to members of the team.

In addition, when orders or Lost became final and conclusive, the sales personnel click to select [Status] flag, then 'Finish' task of[2. Quote Submitting/ Visiting]. Doing this, a "I got the Order! email" is sent to members of the team automatically.
(Only the supervisor should know data for analysis on Lost. That is, it's better to be set that 'Case lost email' be sent only to the Leader.)

Flurry of Advices about Proposal Workflow on In-House SNS Feature

"Proposal" is important in business for corporation.

In reality, although there is only way for those proposals 'To be created at the discretion of each individual salesperson', but their Sales executive must always worry that "I suspect if they present sloppy proposals..." But possibly, there might be a guy who is making 'a once in a lifetime proposal' at this moment. (It's the communication that counts!)

In anyhow, we would like to visualize 'the progress of creating proposal' for re-usability of it, and want to develop an environment conducive to give and to receive advices from colleagues. Here, we try to implement a business rule of "Get reviewed by at least one person before submit!" with Workflow.

[Proposal and Review flow(Taskfeed) ]

Workflow of Request for Proposal from Professional

It is the idea that counts when it comes to small gifts and souvenir for Sales promotion. Novelty that 'seen somewhere' is not very impressive.

In such a case, you would better ask Professional. Much better than a bunch of 'amateurs' in House...When you think so, External companies begin to join the Workflow.

The Novelty Production Workflow, here we introduce to you, begins with a setting by personnel in Marketing, the request of quantity, theme and etc..(Task [1. Request Setting]) 'The external Pro' (novelties sales company) will create a proposal(in GoogleDocs,etc.), and enter the URL into Task

[Novelty Production flow]