Workflow Management Demystified

by Brian Johnson

Workflow Management and Process AutomationProcess Automation/Workflow Mgmt. theory and technology has these complimentary goals: ·Automate complex, real-life business processes to improve worker productivity ·Ensure that work gets done on time ·Gain greater understanding of the potential bottlenecks in your business processes ·Streamline processes for the greatest efficiencyToday, any form of communication that occurs in an organization is more often than not through email. Even to an extent where people who normally interact by talking to each other resort to email communication. Colleagues sitting next to each other in an office also communicate through email. Email and chatting may take care of communication between individuals, but what about applications and processes that run within the organization. The result is a dramatic increase in the volume of collaborations in an organization. How is this level of collaboration organized and achieved?Collaboration as a methodology was originally touted to encompass areas like project management, human resources and knowledge management within the organization. To ensure that a company stays competitive and operates at optimum production levels, it is imperative that efficient collaboration between all business lines and processes exists and grows. The goal is to make knowledge workers more efficient. In addition to managing a role that is specific to a knowledge area or worker, it is necessary to manage the information that is trapped within a process. Processes and methods that occur and reside inside an individual's head are usually lost forever, not just because they are undocumented but also because they usually are an inherent part of applications that don't talk to each other. Process automation or workflows entails managing moving data in the correct and proper order. Invoking processes within the enterprise and tying them together in a manner that supports easy flow of information and logic is what business application integration (BAI) aspires for. Providing easy to use visual interfaces for binding these processes together and creating intelligent workflow models is where BAI is heading today.Systems need to share information with one another in an orderly and efficient manner(See resources page www.nikosoftware.com). Process automation or workflow management operates at the level in an organization, where automation tools and workflow engines exist and where the methods of information management and exchange are defined. It exists at the BAI level and encapsulates data levels, application, and user interface levels. Business application integration tools that claimed to support integration have so far achieved integration at a level that is best described as elegant and manageable. Attempts to deliver information at all levels and improve collaboration within the organization began with composite applications - specifically web-based composite applications using server-centric BAI technologies. But even they deliver what they promise only to a certain extent and fail to account for business process integration and appropriately timed information delivery. Tools that manage business processes and manage information applications, including workflow and project management already exist as stand-alone entities, but their value cannot be realized at the levels they originally promised. Workflow management is usually not integrated with project management and vice versa. To intelligently source out the information that is trapped within an enterprise and then integrate it with existing applications we need something more than stand-alone tools. Collaboration is achieved when applications integrate with processes, projects and information in real-time across the virtual enterprise. For more information on this or any other business process software go to www.nikosoftware.com

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