An automated, Web-based workflow solution, developed and implemented by Idion Solutions, has enabled Pathcare, a provider of pathology care and services to the medical fraternity, to drastically save time and reduce costs in its administrative department.
In particular, Pathcare needed to automate its manual, paper-based HR leave application process which, prior to implementation, was taking two data capturers 30% of their time to capture leave application details.
This is according to Ray Meiring, Software Engineering Manager at Idion Solutions in Cape Town.
"They are now spending that time on more analytical functions and as a result adding more value," Meiring points out.
Pathcare HR director, Derek Shardlow explains that the company`s challenge was to accommodate over 1 600 users spread over 50 distributed locations (including Namibia) country-wide.
"Our main goal was to decrease the time and overhead costs associated with manual processing of leave applications and we also needed to reduce manual errors and leave fraud. The organisational lag that came from processing applications manually was also a problem for us, and we needed to overcome similar problems associated with lack of tracking, audit control and security.
"In addition, it was important for us to empower both employees and management by providing a self-service environment."
The Idion solution, developed and implemented over a two-month period, was based on an automated, Web-based leave application workflow system. It includes a reporting structure with departmental hierarchies and its structure can be used as a framework for future workflow processes.
"Return on investment has been realised though the cost and time savings involved in processing an average of 800 paper-based leave forms per month. Telephone and mail costs have also been reduced as the leave process takes place online rather than through courier, telephone and fax functions," explains Meiring.
Shardlow says the speed of processing the leave applications has been increased thanks to automation and streamlining of the process. As a result, organisational lag has been reduced.
"Because the system is online, users can check the status of their leave application at any point," he continues. "This has increased productivity and created employee peace of mind.
"The system has also eliminated errors and leave fraud, and management has far more control over tracking, recording and auditing the leave forms."
Meiring explains that the solution was built on a Microsoft platform using Exchange, SQL and Visual Interdev. GenX, an Idion development tool, was used to rapidly build the system`s database middle layer, which reduced time and the costs for development. In addition, Wolf, another Idion development tool, was used to customise forms and Keyflow messages.
The security requirement, according to Meiring, was addressed by using a customised Keyflow Web workflow tool that uses Pathcare`s database tables for security information. Web technology was utilised to integrate it with Pathcare`s existing databases and to provide a thin client interface to reduce the need to install software on individual PCs.
"We wanted to outsource our HR Web-based self service application, but in doing so, we wanted to partner with a solutions provider that would share our goals and work with us to solve our HR administration challenges. The solution deployed by Idion works exactly the way we wanted it to because the team worked collaboratively with us to achieve our goals," concludes Shardlow.
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