Implementing eWorkflow in your company
A company can create eWorkflows tailored to its needs using its own experts or with the help of PANTHEON consultants.
To successfully implement eWorkflow, it is recommended that you follow the steps below:
Every company should have its workflows (business processes) properly defined. This does not refer to all company processes, but to the key processes, which comprise about 20% of all company's processes.
The company and its persons responsible need to describe all key business and work processes to be digitized. This should also include defining process types, process stakeholders, and flow (movements) between the processes. Process stakeholders need to have a good understanding of their roles and information in order to carry out their work effectively and in coordination with others.
The process flow from must be clearly defined from the starting to the end point, with a straight-forward purpose. For each process described by the company, a description and flowchart should be defined accordingly. A poorly designed process can pose a major obstacle to success.
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HINT
The key to implementing a customized eWorkflow in a company is the support of the management and the participation of employees who are familiar with the company's business processes. They need to be actively involved in the project and identify with it.
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Process description means that the persons responsible define the flow (movements) in the process and all stakeholders in short summaries.
The starting and end points of the process, its purpose and central objective as well as the key people and tasks they perform need to be clearly defined.
In addition,the flow of goods/services and information needs to be specified. For example, when a specific task or service is performed, when a specific document is checked or attached, when a specific decision is made (approval, rejection, etc.), and so on.
Below you can see an example of a process description prepared by a company for the process of receiving incoming invoices specific to their company.
The company can support the description of the work process by drawing a flow diagram, either manually by hand or using flow diagram tools. By drawing a flow diagram, the company clearly identifies the stakeholders and the flow within the process.
The better the process is defined, the better and faster the process is ultimately digitized and ultimately converted into an eWorkflow.
The image below shows an example of a flow chart of a company's process for processing incoming/received invoices.
Optimizing and combining workflows means that contact points between individual workflows are identified, thereby combining several steps or even combining several workflows into one.
For example, you can use a predefined eWorkflow downloaded using the Web Service in combination with custom eWorkflows (as shown in the following section).
Integrating the eWorkflow means that the company's person responsible or a PANTHEON expert converts the processes of the customer's company into eWorkflows using the Workflow Design form. This way, the processes are digitized, designed according to the customer's needs and integrated into PANTHEON.
In the examples below, PANTHEON consultant used a combination of predefined eWorkflows (already integrated) and eWorkflows that were customized (from the description of the process, see section 2):
1. Scanning and importing documents
A predefined eWorkflow Scan and import documents was used to meet the customer's requirements:
- START – Invoice received.
- The supplier sends an invoice (as a PDF or in paper form).
- The company's administration department imports and scans the invoices received.
1. The person responsible does the following:
- scans each invoice separately;
- selects the corresponding classifications,
- selects the corresponding subject.
The left image above displays the request from the customer's process and the right image displays the predefined eWorkflow.
2. Checking and confirming the invoice
After the document (invoice received) has been imported, depending on the selected classification a custom eWorkflow (see the image below) is started to check and confirm the invoice.
The eWorkflow is defined according to the customer's requirements:
2.1 The invoice received is entered by the administration department into the register of received mail – Documentation.
a. The following metadata is defined:
b. The superior (approver) from the list is specified:
- Always the person who placed the order.
- Selected manually by the administration department.
The left image displays the request from the customer's process and the right image displays the customized eWorkflow for defining metadata and selecting the approver.
2.2 Confirmation
- The document is redirected to the first approver.
- If necessary, the first approver redirects it to another approver.
- After the confirmation, the documents is redirected to the director for final confirmation.
2.3 Once the confirmation is complete, the invoice goes to the director for final confirmation (who receives a task to check the document).
The left image displays the request from the customer's process and the right image displays an extract from the customized eWorkflow for the document confirmation process (from the first approver to the director).
3. Rejecting the document
If a document is rejected by the person responsible during the confirmation process, a separate (custom) eWorkflow for rejecting the document is started.
The left image displays the request from the customer's process and the right image displays the customized eWorkflow for rejecting the document.
4. Creating the invoice
In the last step, provided that the document (in the confirmation process) is finally confirmed, the eWorkflow is started to create a new record in PANTHEON.
The left image displays the request from the customer's process and the right image displays the eWorkflow flow chart Create PANTHEON document from scanned document.