Gaining control of documentation flow means having control of business processes and results in a faster time to market.
"Companies could have great CRM systems, know all their customers, yet take 15 days to turn their documentation around," says Marc Scheepbouwer, marketing director at Global Technology Business Intelligence, (GBI) a company specialising in the provision of services and solutions to the local and international business community.
In general, he says, business processes are not well documented and can be slow. Manual processes are too dependent on paper and are labour intensive. There is a high risk that tasks can `fall through the cracks` and there is no easy way of tracking the processes and measuring either the process time or the cost statistics.
However, Scheepbouwer points out, people now expect things to be done faster since the speed of digital communications has reduced the tolerance for slow turnaround times. The demand for faster service means that a company`s reaction time to customer or supplier generated situations has been drastically reduced.
He says it`s been estimated that 80% of business decisions are supported by a paper form that requires one or more signatures.
"If a solution is not provided quickly, the communications revolution has allowed customers to effortlessly go elsewhere," he says. However, using Business Intelligence (BI) technology, such as workflow cannot only control, but also speed up business processes.
Moreover workflow brings about cost reduction through efficiency, improved product and customer service, the gaining of a competitive edge, and aids to time sensitive operations.
"When one looks at the whole enterprise, there is scope for improving the processes by using workflow."
An often-neglected aspect of BI`s technology capacity is the possibility of true analytical collaboration on a global scale. Through browser technology, one can have access to standard report packs, and in a live sense, add reports to that report pack, making them immediately available to anyone else in the world.
A company can share strategy, business insights, and intelligence amongst its geographically disparate offices in real time without having to physically transfer bundles of documents.
"The focus is on solving the problem of integrating legacy and corporate applications with the people who need access to the data within those applications, and the processes that run the business. The lack of interaction between people and systems seems to be a common problem.
"There are two ends to the continuum of the processes that one could automate," says Scheepbouwer. "There are the structured and formulaic processes at one end, and the very collaborative and ad-hoc processes at the other."
Workflow enables companies to automate this collaborative process to ensure that all of the steps are completed properly.
One area, he says, that generally causes problems in workflow is interfacing into other applications. The trend now is to use XML (Extensible Markup Language) as the transport medium.
"Speedy business cycles depend upon a company`s ability to integrate its back end office environment with its front end. This means integrating customer feedback with the relevant back end systems to produce the quickest possible turnaround time.
"Company reaction time depends on its internal business processes - and this is where the technological aspect is vital. Having been in the business for more than ten years, we at GBI identified this as an issue early on and have technologies that specifically address integration problems, such as JetForm," he says.
JetForm uses XML and a browser to read input from virtually any format, always separating content from presentation. This enables the data to be moved around between business disciplines without encountering integration problems, which is the technological key to efficient turnaround times.
"This has massive value in terms of customer satisfaction levels. A company can take data from anywhere and initiate a process without making expensive and complicated workflow adjustments."
Scheepbouwer warns that technology by itself will not `cut the ice`, and the correct human resources also have to be present if any enterprise wishes to stay ahead of the pack. "The correct technology combined with well-trained personnel is the key to fully exploiting the advantages of business intelligence in the digital age," he adds.
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