Success Factors

Intergraph’s publication, Intergraph Asset and Information Management,¹² and James Kobielus’ book, Workflow Strategies,¹³ each outline a number of recommended practices for implementing successful workflow management systems. Among these are the following:

Focus on Business Objectives: Spend some time studying the organization and determine which potential workflow management benefits are most important to overall success. Choose projects which support core objectives.

Focus First on Projects that are Well Understood: For initial implementations, choose projects with clearly understood process activities.

Use Metrics: Take baseline measurements so that expected benefits can be quantified. Once implemented, track these metrics in order to spot favorable or unfavorable trends. Examples of metrics include: length of cycle, labor hours to complete the process, length of worklist queues, number of errors, time used to access data, and revenues generated.

Obtain Support of Upper Management: A quantifiable business justification is most persuasive in obtaining senior management support. It is important that this support be available and visible for the long-haul (planning, implementing, and refining) and not just for project approval.

Obtain Support of Staff: The staff must be involved in the redesign process and understand that the new process will fail without their commitment. Reassure staff that the new process will automate mundane tasks in order to free up their time for more productive work. Although more structure is being added to the process, critical tasks will still be dependent on employee knowledge and effort. Staff should also know that they will receive adequate training and will be given enough time to learn the system before benefits are expected to accrue.

Integrate with Current Systems and New Systems: Many of the advantages of workflow management systems are the result of its integration with existing systems already being used in the business process. The purpose of workflow is to integrate these systems and add integrity to the process. In addition, many of the goals of workflow reengineering can only be obtained as a result of new systems being implemented along with workflow management. These might include document management systems, enhanced transaction applications, or Internet/Intranet access.

Implement in Phases: Start with a small first-phase with just a few users and/or a limited number of activities. In later phases, expand the number of users quickly and expand the system’s functionality (but do not expand both in one phase).

Seek a Scaleable Solution: Although an organization might wish to start small, it is important to be able to grow with whatever technical solution is chosen. Plan for the long term.