Workflow Sample

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: 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]

Operation: Reporting and Reimbursement of Expense

We have realized systematization of "Expense report flow" in cloud based Workflow! (see Episode 559: Reason for Not Using Cloud Expense Management System)

We have introduced a mechanism to realize "multilateral grouping" (clustering)! (see Episode 560: Reason for Not Using Cloud Expense Management System (2))

We have implemented a mechanism for real time appending to Spreadsheet! (see Episode 561: Reason for Not Using Cloud Expense Management System (3))

Challenge: Unawared Date mistake

However, "challenges to be solved" appears one after another...

"Input mistake" began to be prominent from about the third month after implementation, when people got accustomed to expense reporting. It might be because they make reports by reusing past data, "date errors" are found frequently.

The president would wonder "How could the date be remained mistaken? Despite confirmed by the section chief, the director, and the accounting!"

Certainly, "the date of payment" is a very important data item. It also serves as the data for determining the aggregation month of the monthly trial balance. Nonetheless, a section chief or department manager have plenty of check items to check... Even if "2017-11-20" was mistaken as "2016-11-20", they would "approve" it not noticing the mistake. There are only "6 items". So it's quite conspicuous if the date is wrong. (It sure is a trouble!)

A) Payment date
B) Record month
C) Accounts classification
D) Settlement amount
E) Assignment of claimer
F) Decision ID

[Expense Report flow-Input Check]

Operation: Reporting and Reimbursement of Expense

We have realized systematization of "Expense report flow" in cloud based Workflow! (see Episode 559: Reason for Not Using Cloud Expense Management System)

Moreover, we have introduced a mechanism to realize "multilateral grouping" (clustering)! (see Episode 560: Reason for Not Using Cloud Expense Management System (2))

Staffs in the Accounting team says they are turning their eyes on expense reports on which the rule "deemed to be approved by manager after 48 hours remaining automatically" has been applied.

Challenge: Sharing data with audit corporation

However, for the amount of information, it is not "the more, the better."

In the workflow, various kinds of data are included not only basic information such as "reimbursement amount" and "posting month" but also "person / time who made report", "document certifying payment", "project name" or "client company name". Certainly it is an important job to extract "information" from various data if it is a person inside a company.

Whereas, to an accounting auditor for example, "process of approval" and "time required" are unnecessary data. Or, for top executives such as a president and a board officer, there is no time to check "who spent a lot of expenses". For these people, it is more important to have the necessary data listed briefly, than "multilateral aggregate filtering".

Hmm, then should I "handcraft" the Spreadsheet for reporting?

[Expense Report flow-Spreadsheet]

Operation: Reporting and Reimbursement of Expense

We have realized systematization of "Expense Report flow" in cloud based workflow! （See Episode 559）

Primarily, various other "Business flow definitions" are set in the Workflow platform. Therefore, it is not necessary to re-log in to the "system for expense settlement" even for expense reporting.

Moreover, the stagnation situation in Steps such as "Section manager approval" and "Department manager approval" is visualized on the Business flow diagram. The employee who makes report for, the boss who approves on it, and the directors, everybody makes confirmation about "what kind of report is on which Step" occasionally! And there increase cases where advice and comments about others' output are given! As you see, knowing "where the bottleneck for stagnation is" Is really important!

Challenge: Real Time Aggregation

However, it is somewhat doubtful about "whether the settlement list and the total settlement amount are accurately recognized?"

In other words, there are also mixed a large number of applications that ended up as "cancellation of expense reporting". Just simply aggregating all reports will not be the "accurate total expense".

Well, should I better using "expenses settlement cloud" which is specialized for expense settlement work?

[Expense Report flow-Status Control]