Workflow Management Software

What is Workflow Management Software?

Workflow automation software helps design, execute, and automate simple to complex business processes based on pre-defined business rules where tasks, files, and data are routed between people and systems to accomplish the task. It helps automate time-consuming, repeatable manual work, which helps improve process efficiency and speeds up regular business tasks.

Organizations automate business processes with workflow software to improve employee productivity, improve task completion accuracy, ensure process auditability, and enable accountability.

Functions of Workflow Management System

Easy to create forms and UI

It’s important to have visual development functionality which allows users to create and customize dynamic forms easily.

Workflow and Business logic

Drag and drop capability to create business workflows for user task mapping and ability to control business logic through the simple configuration of workflow routing rules.

Low-code Development and Change Management

With features like intuitive visual form builders, workflows, dashboards, and report designers, workflows can be managed easily and quickly by business users without relying entirely on the central IT team.

Third-Party Integration

With the capability to easily integrate with third-party systems like HRMS, ERP, and CRM, businesses can get seamless employee and customer experience without siloes.

Security, authentication, and role-based access control

Choosing a trusted vendor becomes more important for certain business processes that contain sensitive and confidential data like purchase orders and medical details.

If you choose cloud or on-premises, security will always be a concern. A smart workflow management tool provides granular controls to ensure that only authorized users, based on their roles, access the information they need.

Accountability

Workflow management systems make it easier for businesses to keep track of their requests. With one system, the user can maintain a record of all the activities, including who did what and when. This makes it easier for businesses to manage compliance and reporting.

Reporting and Analytics

Easy to generate reports on user and system performance. Monitor KPIs affecting business performance and track SLAs crucial for business continuity.

Examples and Use cases of workflow automation software

The applicability of workflow automation software is enormous. You can automate relatively simple processes, such as expenditure approval for an employee to much more complex processes spanning across departments in your organization.

Irrespective of the industry, workflow software can be used to automate processes like these and more-

Finance – Expense approvals, Capex requests, salary changes, accounts payable, grants management
Purchasing – Procurement process, vendor management, invoice approvals
Operations – Complaint management, maintenance requests
IT – IT service requests, security access requests, new project requests, change requests, new account setup
Legal – Contract reviews, client intake
HR – Employee onboarding, employee offboarding, timesheets, benefits changes
Sales – Pricing discounts, proposal approvals, quote approvals
Facilities – Resource scheduling, facility access

The difference in Business Process Management and workflow management software.

The main difference between workflow management and business process management is that workflow management tools are more geared towards organizing people and documents. BPM, on the other hand, is much more focused on a business’s processes and how they can be managed or improved. Once a process is defined and deployed it is the ongoing analysis of it rather than just making sure the right person is on the right task or that a specific document has been sent.

Where business process management focuses on the entire business process, workflow software focuses on single tasks, which makes it ideal for managing documents and people.

Both solutions are designed to help you streamline your business operations and manage workflow automation.

How to select workflow management software?

While you are assessing vendors for the software, make sure you are keeping an eye out for the below features-

• Intuitive process builder that is easy to use to create, edit, and share workflows
• Visual form designer with rich and user-friendly design controls
• Reporting and Monitoring to ensure your project is on time
• Access control feature to ensure data accuracy and security. With role-based rights for access to users, you can assign work steps to particular users and control viewing or editing rights
• The alerts feature ensures that your team does not miss any deadline
• Easy Integration using APIs and prebuilt connectors with other systems that you might be using, such as CRM software or any other business applications, is a must
• Data security is extremely important. The software must have browser security, encryption, role-based access controls, and password-protected files.

Benefits of workflow automation software

Enhanced cost savings

Improved process efficiency

Continuous process improvement

Process flexibility for quick changes

Increased employee productivity

Better collaboration

Increased transparency and accountability

Enhanced customer experience