Momentum Employee Benefits (MEB) has invested in a 200-user Staffware 2000 workflow system, to assist the division which manages employee benefits by providing an integrated management capability.
MEB`s IT Manager, Coenie van der Merwe, says the solution will coordinate existing and new services which use Web, contact centre and back office capabilities. This will enable any member to initiate, query, update or switch funds within their own individualised package within the scheme. It also allows the members to check the status of their contributions and to understand how those contributions are being used. MEB is working towards a user interface via the Web that will allow members access to various other related systems in order to give them a complete overview of their Momentum portfolio.
These services include an in-house developed administration system that runs on an IBM AS400 server, an Onyx CRM package and Apropos, a channel management system. Staffware`s workflow is part of the "glue" to facilitate the process and ensure a seamless flow of information between the front office systems and the back office processes.
Van der Merwe says the company`s workflow team initially identified a shortlist of packages based on their business and technical criteria. "We had decided that the technical criteria would be the most important factor due to our particular architectural framework - Sun Solaris Unix and Corba middleware. Staffware`s product best fitted our technical criteria whilst still providing all the required business functionality we expected," he explains.
"A phased implementation will be undertaken by June, the first step of which is a project plan, and is being compiled at the moment," he adds.
Staffware South Africa`s MD, Mark Ehmke, says that the functionality identified as critical by MEB within Staffware 2000 Version 8.1 includes Sub-Procedures, Case Administration, User Defined Audit Trail functions, Staffware Enterprise Adapters and a Developer Toolkit, to mention a few.
"The sub-procedure feature, for example, includes the ability to invoke other procedures from within a procedure," he explains. This allows MEB to create standardised re-usable organisational procedures such as a generic claims process. This sub-procedure could then be used for all claims coming through the organisation irrespective of its context. This sub-procedure can be called from one or more procedures and can receive case data from its parent procedure, returning data to it on completion of its execution. "Breaking a procedure down into a number of these logical blocks can radically simplify a process that is to be implemented within Staffware".
"As a further example, the Case Administrator introduces new functionality to extend the management and administration of Staffware systems. Advanced filtering for case list items and audit trail entries can be used to provide tailored views to make management and administration more productive."
"The solution also includes a new function to enable application developers and systems integrators to include their own audit trail entries in the Staffware Audit Trail allowing a more comprehensive record of what has transpired. In addition to this, the application programming interface will allow these external systems to communicate with the workflow engine and to extract information, allowing these records to be used intelligently in complementary technologies such as MEB`s call centre," he concludes.
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