November 2001
Eliminating the Paper Chase with On-line Forms & Workflow Automation
Situation...
A distributor of hardware products experienced phenomenal growth in the demand for its products, necessitating major staff increases company-wide. This growth led to an increased number of Human Resource and Capital Expenditure requests.
Problem...
Manual processing of requests — requiring multi-level approvals in the various business processes — became impractical, time consuming, costly, and difficult to track.
Solution...
We designed and developed the on-line forms and automated workflow processes for common Human Resource and Capital Expenditure requests, allowing company employees and managers to electronically complete, route, and approve requests:
- Each type of request has its own end-user-maintainable automated workflow definition, consisting of multiple steps, routings allowed among the steps, the position and person assigned to each step, and the time allowed to complete each step.
- Users enter requests into a customized form. A "Done" button associated with each step in the process validates information and triggers the request to move to the next step in the process and notify the next person via e-mail. Designated individuals can cancel or approve requests, or send requests back to users for rework.
- Users can view requests by date, stage of completion, department, or type of request.
- Security is controlled by the application, allowing only the user designated for a particular step to update the information.
Examples of on-line Vacation and Personal Day and Capital Expenditure request forms. These forms can be tailored for any business.
This on-line view of Capital Expenditure requests gives high-level visibility and status of all requests. Managers no longer need to spend time locating critical requests and walking them through the process.
Results & Benefits...
- Company employees and managers complete, route, and approve forms on-line via e-mail. This automated process reduces data entry time, enforces completion of required information, eliminates manual paperflow, and ensures consistency of processing.
- Cycle time reduction of 30% for Capital Expenditure requests allows purchases to be made sooner.
- Up-to-date status on each request eliminates questions such as "Whose desk is it on?" or "Has my request been approved?"
- Paperless environment speeds work and enhances security.
- Data validation rules ensure that busy managers and executives have all the information required to make a decision.
Conclusion...
The client used these on-line request forms to improve and standardize its processes and to reduce cycle time. In addition, information which was not available before is now easily accessible on-line. The success of these applications has given the client confidence to setup additional, more complex processes on-line.
For More Information...
To discuss how technology usage and business process improvements could be applied to the issues facing your business, call us at 336.297.4200 to schedule a no-obligation consultation, or click here to contact us online.
Todd L. Herman
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Todd Herman Associates Case Study