Are Forms Slowing you Down?

Web-based Workflow Software Saves Time

Universities are bogged down by forms, according to an article published in The Australian. Academics resent the time wasted on administration. For every PhD graduate, an academic has filled in 14 forms, supplied 270 pieces of separate information an average of 2.7 times. A conservative estimate places the time an academic spends on filling out these forms at 580 minutes. That’s almost 10 hours per graduate – equating to funding 11 full-time PhD students or paying a professor for two years in just one faculty.

In 2001, Gartner released Rightsizing Output Fleets – The Hidden Gold Mine. This research paper identified total print costs (copying, printing and faxing) to be as much as 1-3% of an organization’s revenue. However, the real strategic value lies in analysing the indirect costs such as the cost of document searches, IT support, lost paperwork and the cost of time spent filling in countless forms.

An online workflow can integrate all the necessary departments into one efficient software solution, streamlining processes and providing immediate feedback on procedures. The integration of paper into the digital workflow, if done properly, will produce a complete information solution combining both paper-based and digital-based documents.

These workflow solutions will ultimately increase operational efficiency, employee productivity and encourage compliance. Most of all, a web-based workflow solution would reduce the almost 10 hours of form-filling per PhD graduate, capturing the data only once and transferring it to the appropriate sources.

An online workflow management tool includes the following benefits:

• Fewer “lost” documents
• Faster, online access to information
• Consistent and accurate audit trails
• Increased operational efficiency
• Ability to identify bottlenecks
• Streamlining and automating of administrative processes
• Reduced delays by intelligent routing of forms to the right person at the right time

Ref: Clarke, P. & Graves, N., 2010, The Australian, January 20, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion-analysis/in-most-forms-a-waste-of-time/story-e6frgcko-1225821367468  on 25 January 2010.

Philip Clarke is from the University of Sydney and Nicholas Graves is from the Queensland University of Technology.

New Year Processes

Improve Efficiency in 2010

Oscar Wilde wrote: A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.

The origin of New Year’s resolutions dates back as far as the early Babylonians. They believed that a person’s actions on the first day of the New Year affected what they would do throughout the year.

Of the 45 percent of the population that make New Year’s resolutions, a whopping 75 percent of these are never fulfilled. If your New Year’s resolution is to improve your processes and become more efficient – don’t become one of the statistics! Get some help and just do it!

Web and Flo provide BPM solutions for businesses of all sizes. Our workflow management software, Kontinuum, can be easily customised to reflect your own branding.

Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

May 2010 be a year of efficient processes

Best wishes from the team at Web and Flo

McDonald’s and Workflow: Every second counts

McDonald's workflow: Every second counts

McDonald’s and Workflow

Every second counts. Each delay, bottleneck and unnecessary step reduces output and highlights the need for efficient workflow processes. McDonald’s has embraced the importance of managing processes, by ensuring that every second is accounted for in the making of each product.

Service time is critical to McDonald’s success, as McDonald’s tries to increase customer satisfaction within the competitive fastfood industry. The plan to get food to customers quicker, and keep increasing the market share that McDonald’s won in the recession, means that each second really does matter.

As part of McDonald’s ever-increasing process development, the company is testing a self-serve kiosk in Europe, which may prove popular with diners seeking to customize meals and limit their time in queues. The downside may be the time needed to read the screens of choices.  McDonald’s Director of operations and POS technology, Laurie Gilbert, said that the system is easy to learn and may cut as much as 10 seconds off the current workflow.  Approximately 5,000 restaurants out of the company’s 32,000 locations are trialling the new software.

McDonald’s currently aims to serve most customers within 90 seconds of taking their order. In order to speed up times at drive-through windows, staff at the McDonald’s Innovation Centre spent years incorporating an automated soda fountain that fills cups as soon as an order is placed into the workflow. When this same crew discovered that hot drinks needed more milk, they added refrigerated storage below the McCafe coffee makers to speed up efficiency. These two improved services have led to the processing of as many as five extra cars per hour in the drive-through queue.

The Innovation Centre has also redesigned an assembly area with three sides for staff to pack food into bags, while a new preparation table that holds 50 percent more burgers and chicken breasts is shaping up to be more energy efficient. The new preparation table also lifts the bread steamer to hip level so that workers avoid bending over for every order.
Staff at the Innovation centre gather orders, productivity and performance data to ensure that tests mirror the real world as closely as possible, plus they track the food to see where bottlenecks are most likely to occur. Once these bottlenecks have been identified, issues are fixed and efficient and proven workflow procedures are put in place.

McDonald’s realises the key to creating customer satisfaction within their market niche: Fast service and fast food. Without detailed workflow processes, McDonald’s is unlikely to be able to maintain their position within the fastfood industry.

Media Release: Web and Flo Provide Snowy Hydro with Online Workflow Compliance Solution

MELBOURNE, Australia: Leading peak energy provider Snowy Hydro will automate its environmental compliance process by partnering with online workflow software provider, Web and Flo.

Snowy Hydro provides peak energy and renewable electricity to the National Electricity Market. The company’s operations occur in a diverse range of physical and regulatory environments, ranging from the alpine areas of New South Wales to the metropolitan areas of Melbourne.

To ensure that Snowy Hydro were fully compliant with necessary environmental legislation, the company needed a software solution that could provide its operations people with a streamlined, self-guided application that efficiently identified individual obligations.

Snowy Hydro’s Environment Manager, Mr Michael Griffiths, said that after reviewing a number of software solutions from a range of providers, Web and Flo’s Kontinuum software clearly outstripped its competitors.

“We selected Web and Flo as our workflow solution provider as they offered a user friendly software solution with the appropriate workflow functionality and logic, good value for money, and demonstrated overall the technical expertise and business understanding,” Mr Griffiths said.

“Kontinuum is highly flexible, allowing the workflow to be easily modified according to any new legislation.”

“I see Snowy Hydro and Web and Flo’s partnership, and Kontinuum, becoming an increasingly important part of our management software.”

Web and Flo’s Commercial Director, Ms Anna Fogarty, said that Kontinuum is ideal for organisations like Snowy Hydro that need smart dynamic logic to manage user responses and direct to them to the appropriate next steps.

Kontinuum customises each process and has streamlined Snowy Hydro’s environmental compliance,” Ms Fogarty said.

“We are delighted to be working with Snowy Hydro and we look forward to a productive and long term relationship with them.”

Contact: Anna Fogarty, Commercial Director, Web and Flo. Tel: +61 3 8456 8997; Mobile: +61 405 131 557 (anytime); www.webandflo.com

Web and Flo provides innovative workflow software and business process management (BPM) consultancy to businesses in industries such as Banking and Financial Services, Manufacturing, Education and Government. Web and Flo’s Workflow Management software, Kontinuum, is internationally recognised and is designed with the human end-user in mind. It is easy to use and can be accessed anywhere in the world in real time, as it is a purely web-based software solution.

Improve Your Leave Request Processes

People often underestimate the time it takes to process leave requests within an organisation. The festive season brings about all sorts of leave requests, with some holidays planned months in advance. Other requests may come through at short notice. Web-based workflow software can reduce most of the headaches involved with the processing and approval of leave requests.

Leave requests are not always visible. People are often unable to see who has requested leave, when it’s for, and whether there are overlaps that could cause bottlenecks.

Ensure that your software does the following:

1. Manages the workflow of leave requests (leave applications and approvals)
2. Displays leave schedules in real time, using an easy-to-understand dashboard
3. Manages employees leave balances by integrating with your HR system
4. Updates your payroll automatically, according to leave schedules
5. Monitors replacements for staff on leave
6. Ensures traceability, tracking the process of requests and approval
7. Delegates tasks automatically to the appropriate person when someone is on leave.

Every employee/manager saves time with an automated leave request, as well as being provided with instant feedback via email and seeing a real time view of their teams availability via their individual dashboard.

Automated leave tracking systems lead to a reduction in the number of unprocessed requests, so any requests not made deliberately, forgotten or neglected requests, lost requests or incorrectly entered requests are dramatically reduced.

Kontinuum is easy and simple to use. This simplicity is one of the main reasons why our clients have chosen Kontinuum to manage their leave requests. Contact us now if you want to improve your holiday and leave management processes.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing seems to be “it” these days. However, how many of us really understand cloud computing? Web and Flo conducted a survey in August 2009, and found that 40% of Australians surveyed were unsure of what the term “Cloud Computing” really meant. You can read about it in our press release “Cloud Computing Causes Confusion”. You can also watch Salesforce’s video at the end of this post, which clearly explains the concept of cloud computing.

Our main experience with cloud computing is based on what works within the BPM industry. Cloud computing plays a large role in efficiently managing processes in real time. Businesses already using online workflow software “in the cloud” have found that their processes are streamlined, accountability improves and communications are enhanced.

Gartner vice president David Cearley warns that many businesses may be disappointed by not entering the cloud. “We believe that 20% of businesses will be using cloud computing as part of IT processes by 2012,” Cearley said.  “You hear a lot about cloud computing today, and we do think we’re going to see rapid growth over the next few years. By 2012, about 20% of user organisations will rely on the cloud model for significant parts of their IT environment.”

It’s worth knowing a little about cloud computing, especially now that Microsoft and Google are competing with each other. Find out how cloud computing can help your organisation, otherwise you, as the consumer, may lose out.  Some benefits of cloud computing are:

• Easy access: Applications and data are easily accessed through a browser, in real-time from anywhere.
• Scalable: Resources can be adapted according to demand.
• Reduced IT demand: The vendor maintains the infrastructure, freeing IT staff to add more strategic value.
• Easy: User-friendly interfaces when purchasing access or configuring applications make operations easy.
• Cost: Fees based on usage or a subscription model, which means that costs are operating, and not capital, expenses.

Cloud computing and online workflow software may not be for every organisation. However, it has significantly improved the bottom line of many businesses that use Kontinuum, our online workflow software.

Watch the Salesforce video on cloud computing:

Media Release: Web and Flo Provide Workflow Solutions to Arrow Energy

MELBOURNE, Australia: Leading Australian energy company Arrow Energy will automate its business processes by partnering with online workflow software provider, Web and Flo.

Arrow, an emerging global leader in coal seam gas development, is currently on target to achieve 400 per cent growth within five years. The company expects to efficiently manage its projected growth by automating all business processes.

Arrow’s Internal Control and Risk Analyst, Mr Kevin Fraikin, said that Web and Flo’s workflow software aligned well with the company’s implementation of Lean Production.

“The automation of Arrow’s processes through the use of Kontinuum will allow us to streamline, standardise and control our business processes across the organisation during the rapid expansion of our business,” Mr Fraikin said.

“We selected Web and Flo as our workflow solution provider as they offered a user friendly software solution with the appropriate workflow functionality and logic, good value for money, and demonstrated overall the technical expertise and business understanding.”

Web and Flo’s Commercial Director, Ms Anna Fogarty, said that Kontinuum enabled every key employee to see the necessary organisational processes occurring in real time.

“Arrow Energy is now able to see where bottlenecks and problem areas are likely to occur in real time, which allows issues to be solved before they turn into problems,” Ms Fogarty said.

“We are delighted to be working with Arrow and we look forward to a productive and long term relationship with them.”

ENDS

Contact: Anna Fogarty, Commercial Director, Web and Flo. Tel: +61 3 8456 8997 Mobile: +61 405 131 557 (anytime)  www.webandflo.com

Web and Flo provides innovative workflow software and business process management (BPM) consultancy to businesses in industries such as Banking and Financial Services, Manufacturing, Education and Government. Web and Flo’s Workflow Management software, Kontinuum, is internationally recognised and is designed with the human end-user in mind. It is easy to use and can be accessed anywhere in the world in real time, as it is a purely web-based software solution.

Process Survey

We’d like to find out more about your generic processes.

We are offering a 2-hour process workshop with Web and Flo in Melbourne for one lucky participant, in exchange for helping us better understand your processes.

Our survey has just 16 simple Yes or No answers and will take you less than four minutes to complete.

Click here to take our Generic Process Survey and leave a comment below with your details and we will put you in the draw.

Thank you and good luck!

How does workflow software save time and money?

Online Workflow Software

Every business has procedures and methods of implementation for day-to-day operations. Actions like leave requests, invoicing, customer complaints, time sheets and status reports, all form part of the daily processes necessary for any successful business.

Without streamlined and efficient procedures in place, businesses often face chaos and frustration when confronted with problems such as missing paper work, missed deadlines, incorrect information and lost time spent searching for the lost documentation.

Online workflow software is the solution to the above problems. So, what exactly is workflow software? And how can it help you?

Efficient online workflow connects the tasks, employees, procedures and tools that are needed for successful operations. Good online workflow processes also ensure that employees are knowledgeable in basic areas, such as which email templates, spreadsheets, shared documents and paper forms to use – and when to use them.

Web-based workflow software is simply a task list that is accessible by all relevant employees in real time. This task list keeps track of all the items that need to be addressed by everyone in the company. Once certain tasks are completed by the assigned company employees, the workflow software will automatically send off other to-do tasks to the appropriate company employees. If deadlines have not been met, the workflow software will send out a reminder.

 Workflow software also has the ability to distribute the required documents or data necessary for successful performance.

Online workflow software tracks progress visually, providing all involved stakeholders an immediate overview of where the task is. Problems are highlighted well in advance, as employees and managers can see at a glance, in real time, where the bottle necks occur.

Web and Flo’s flagship online workflow software – Kontinuum – offers a precise, web-based business process management tool that saves you time and streamlines your processes. Once you have used an efficient online workflow software application – you’ll never look back.

Contact us for a no obligation chat on how Kontinuum can help your business processes.

Tel: 1300 859 894 (in Australia) or info@webandflo.com