Workflow Sample

My husband caught "Chickenpox"!
My child caught "Flu"!

Anyone wants to reduce risks of "Infectious diseases to be prevalent in the workplace" to zero. Everyone wants the company to take the "appropriate measures against infectious diseases".

Speaking "Infectious disease", it differs widely. There are severe illnesses that have defined as "Category 1 infections" in "Infectious diseases law", such as Ebola hemorrhagic fever", extremely strong infectivity. Also there are infectious diseases such as "Chickenpox" an "Seasonal flu" which have been defined as "Category 5", and the countermeasures is left to each organization. (The national authority would take countermeasure against Category 1.)

The following Workflow is a modified version of "Attendance Report flow" which I had presented in "Episode 465: Attendance Management in Cloud-based Workflow!"

It is nothing special. I Just added an input form of "Questionnaire for signs of infectious disease (optional)" beneath "Time and attendance report form" which everyone inputs daily.

I myself might have been infected with Seasonal flu, Rubella, Chickenpox, etc. (0/1/2/3)
My family member might have been infected with Seasonal flu, Rubella, Chickenpox, etc. (0/1/2/3)

0: Almost no possibility of infection
1: Feel like the symptoms began to appear
2: I think the symptoms began to appear strongly
3: Test positive of infection

[Attendance Report flow]

An approval request written by a department director...

The act that to ask authorized people for decision-making is not necessary because the director him/herself is an authority. Particularly, if the decision-making is for matters within the budget of the department. However, even so, a rule that "Must create Approval request document" is adopted in many companies. That is, they are standing on a perspective that "Intentions which have been formed in the organization will be preserved in documents as records". Also, they are assuming efficiency in corresponding to audit.

Yet, it indeed is cumbersome that "to make request, and then approve it by oneself" on a Workflow system.

The following Workflow is a modified version of "Episode 462: Planning - Approval (Starter Template)", which has been compiled in Basic Business operations 2016 edition. Users who have "Managers role" are able to submit their approval requests via a flow which does not pass through "2. Approval".

[Approval Request]

Want an "anonymous voting" to evaluate the supervisor!

Indeed, if we could have opportunities of "supervisor evaluation" by the staff easily online, it would be convenient in its way. To conduct evaluation not only "Annually", but "on Each quarter" or "Monthly", it will allow good occasions for a supervisor to look back on the day-to-day operations him or herself. (Is this something like a "Cabinet approval rating"?)

However, a Workflow system is a tool to record "What, when or who of the input", in the first place. It is naturally considered poor compatibility with "anonymousness".

In this Workflow, "Supervisor evaluation (Anonymous voting)" has been defined.

Specifically, it is a mechanism that Task of [1. Enter Evaluation on Supervisor] will be allocated to My Tasks of all members when it will come to the scheduled date and time. Members will cast a vote to ballot, for example, [1] Confidence, [2] No confidence, [3] Neither of them.

The excellence in this Workflow is that the entered "Evaluation data" will be automatically appended to "External file", and the data itself will be deleted. That is, even a User who has the [Data viewing authorization] is not able to see "who casted a vote, and how?". In addition as the attentive, in this example it is well-equipped with a function to shuffle the contents of the "external file" upon each appending. In other words, the vote content is surely protected unless the communication log was wiretapped and analyze it.
("Whether voted or not?" and "Voted when?" are excluded from protection.)

Even though, it is not possible to conceal "Who voted how", in cases like "Total number of votes cast was one!" or "All the votes were casted to No confidence". (scary...)

[Supervisor Evaluation Ballot]

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]

SLA, Service Level Agreement...

It is a system that Cloud service providers and telecommunications service providers to declare their own "Service Quality" and to make refund, etc. when the actual service falls below the standard. In this "Cloud-first" era, you might have seen or heard it even if you are not in the IT industry.

The following Workflow is a Business Process for a service provider to make "refund,etc."

Although this may be unfamiliar to general people, the SLA system actually is mostly starts the flow of refunding, etc. when receiving "Claims from Users". Well, it sounds like "System to refund after receiving the complaint", but it is so in reality...

However, any softwares contains bugs. Also in the specifications that are believed secure in the world, there is always weakness. And yet, use styles of the user side are infinite variety. Some people would be stuck, some people wouldn't. It might be an unavoidable method, because to "carry out the refund, etc." under such circumstances.

[SLA Claim]

'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]

'I can't handle approval on travel request from all these guys all alone...'

Whatever an organization chart could be, "a leader" is essential to its respective departments. Especially, the role of "leader" is important in determining "the Policy of department" and "the Goal of the department".
However, speaking about the day-to-day approval job, it is not necessary to be performed all by "one leader".

For example, if an operation such as "approval on business trip" in the "section" of about 10 to 20 personnels , you should let the "deputy manager" and "assistant manager" to do proxy approval actively. There is also meaning of clarifying the responsibilities and rank within the department. (There may be a definition in the business rules of the company, such as "Substitute on duties when there was an accident on the section chief".)

Incidentally, such a system can be seen often also in the "Operations of government" which blank period of procedures is not allowed. (e.g.:"State-Owned Articles Management Act, Institutions of surrogate officer"(Only in Japanese) The rules of surrogate (Only in Japanese))

[Travel Request]