Last Updated on December 7, 2024 by Owen McGab Enaohwo
If the dictionary or Wikipedia definition of Workflow confused you, read this article.
Is there a lack of productivity in your organization? Does it affect your annual revenue? And do you and your team feel like you’re trapped in a cycle of stress and inefficiency?
Every year, according to International Data Corporation (IDC), companies lose nearly 20 to 30% in revenue thanks to inefficiencies brought about by using tedious manual systems that complicate tasks and hamper day-to-day operations in the workplace.
And yet, most companies continue to cope with their outdated solutions even though it slows down productivity. The repercussions? A stressed and burdened workforce.
When you combine complex manual tasks with the company department’s outdated efforts to improve workflow, employees struggle to maintain a competitive advantage.
Such siloed (or disconnected) systems hamper efficiency, eating up any efforts for interdepartmental cohesiveness.
A case in point is Sony, whose siloed systems hindered the mega-company from capitalizing on technology shifts that could have seen them (at the time) successfully dominate the market.
No one wants to feel like their work-life is trapped in a silo. But if your workflow is dysfunctional, that’s exactly how your employees feel every day.
Here’s everything you need to know about workflows.
Chapter 1: What is a Workflow?
Chapter 3: What is Workflow Management?
Chapter 4: 10 Benefits of Workflow Management
Chapter 5: Signs of a Faulty Workflow
Chapter 6: How to Create and Document Workflows
Chapter 7: Automated vs. Manual Workflow
Chapter 8: The Difference Between Processes and Workflows
Chapter 9: Workflow vs. Checklist
Chapter 10: SweetProcess vs Process Street, Kissflow, and Tallyfy
Chapter 11: How SweetProcess Can Help Your Company Manage Workflow
Chapter 1: What is a Workflow?
How people (or teams) get work done in a workspace is what is referred to as workflows.
Workflows illustrate clear steps required to complete a task using sequential diagrams or checklists. Think of workflows as (literally) work flowing from one step to the next, with the help of another process, software, or human being.
Anyone can execute a workflow alone (by writing, editing, and publishing a blog post) or you can involve more than one individual, especially when invoicing a client.
Examples of Workflows
Here are common workflow examples.
New IT Projects
An IT department could use workflow software to create processes that track assignments, approvals, reviews, and submissions of all IT project requests.
New Employee Onboarding
Employee onboarding is critical for any organization. So creating a streamlined workflow will ensure that the process is seamless every time.
Approve Vacation Requests
Each time an employee requests a vacation, workflow software keeps track of the approvals and ensures the process runs smoothly.
Sales Order
When you automate your sales order workflow, you can eliminate manual paperwork from the approval process completely. An automated sales order reduces omissions, errors, and misunderstandings.
Examples of Companies
Examples of companies well-known for streamlining their workflow include:
SpaceX
SpaceX was founded in 2002 and specializes in designing, manufacturing, and launching advanced rockets and spacecraft.
SpaceX, a company that revolutionized space technology, had a vision of launching a rocket in space every fortnight. By optimizing their workflows, SpaceX achieved the vision.
In 2015, they launched five rockets. In 2017 they had launched 18 rockets into space. And in 2020, SpaceX conducted at least 21 launches.
The company took its workflows to the next level by:
- Increasing rocket launch pads in alignment with demand.
- Continuously optimizing engine testing, production, and supply line workflows.
Amazon
Amazon is the world’s biggest online store where you can get just about everything and anything. To organize its inventory, the company relies on its elaborate systems but most importantly, an efficient workflow system that constantly self-corrects itself.
Amazon has completely redefined warehouse efficiency by using workflows to help “embrace [the] chaos,” an approach that describes the complete randomness as to how Amazon’s warehouses work in organizing its humongous inventory.
Toyota
Toyota is the world’s largest automobile manufacturer (producing almost 10 million vehicles every year).
The company has, over the years, explored workflows to create a robust Toyota production system, which focuses on continuous improvement of processes and is geared toward eliminating wastes (such as overproduction).
Through efficient workflow automation systems:
- Toyota can stop business processes immediately when a problem occurs or is identified, preventing defects from being produced.
- Toyota produces only what is needed by its processes.
Here’s a video best describing the Toyota production system:
Chapter 2: Types of Workflows
Workflows happen everywhere in your workplace. Some workflows are unstructured, while others are streamlined and well-structured. And they often exist whenever data is moved from one existing task to another.
Three types of workflows exist that you can use in your organization, including:
Process Workflow
A process workflow happens when tasks are boring, manual, and repetitive. Such tasks are easy to predict (especially the path they’ll take) before even the workflow begins.
Process workflows in most organizations are designed to handle a set number of items that go through them. For example, if your organization has a purchase requisition approval workflow, you’ll discover that it only handles set items in a single workflow.
Project Workflow
Project workflows take a similar path with business processes, but they’re more flexible. If you have a business project, such as launching a new website, all the tasks needed to complete this item are easy to predict.
That said, project workflows are only meant to handle one item at a go. You may create another website but most likely you won’t follow the same path as before.
Case Workflow
Compared to other workflows, case workflow takes an unpredictable path required to complete items at the start. But as soon as more data is collected, the path starts to reveal itself. An example of case workflow is insurance claims and support tickets.
The above items are difficult to process and it’s often unclear how that’ll happen. But with more thorough investigations, the path starts to become clearer.
Case workflows, compared to process workflows, can handle a set number of items. But human effort is required to distinguish the right path to follow.
Key Components of a Workflow
Each component in a workflow is designed to show how each step flows to the next. And each of these steps includes one of three key components:
- Input: To complete the input step, you require information, equipment, capital, and labor (or workforce).
- Transformation: This step includes changes that create output in a workflow, such as change in purpose or ownership, physical characteristics, and location.
- Output: These sum up the results of the transformation step.
Theories to Improve Workflow
Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran, engineers and management consultants, came up with theories in the 1980s of how to improve business process workflow. The theories are still in use today.
Here are five workflow improvement theories:
Six Sigma
Six Sigma—using a mathematical equation based on statistical theory—seeks to eliminate errors in final products. That said, for every one million manufactured products, Six Sigma aims to remove at least 3.4 defects.
This theory improves quality at every level of a workflow by observing, analyzing, and experimenting with a process.
Two popular Six Sigma theories include:
- DMAIC (or define, measure, analyze, improve, and control)
- DMADV (or define, measure, analyze, design, and verify)
TQM (Total Quality Management)
The TQM theory increases a product’s quality as well as enhances cooperation between departments and employees, collaborations, and the work environment in a company.
BPR (Business Process Reengineering)
The BPR theory uses algorithms to evaluate business processes. It also restructures an entire business process depending on changing conditions.
Lean Systems
As the name suggests, lean systems theory focuses on reducing excess waste and overhead, creating a “lean” organization that stays competitive whenever markets change and instability occurs.
Theory of Constraints (TOC)
The theory of constraints identifies a constraint (or a weak link) in an organization and seeks to eliminate it.
Workflow Diagrams
There are varied ways to display a workflow. Among the most popular workflow diagrams include (but are not limited to:
ANSI Flowchart
ANSI (or American National Standard Institute) flowchart adopts a common language describing the different workflow steps. It should be noted that the ANSI flowchart was the first standard for all workflows.
UML Activity
UML (or Unified Modeling Language) activity diagram illustrates (using graphs) the flow of control and the order of steps in a business process.
Swimlane
Swimlane workflow diagrams highlight interactions of different departments in an organization, and provide a high-level view of possible inefficiencies.
SIPOC
The SIPOC (supplier, input, process, output, and customer) workflow diagram shows the individual that creates and receives data in an organization. It also illustrates the high-level process involved.
Chapter 3: What is Workflow Management?
Workflow management is the process of detailing and organizing workflows in an organization.
The process mostly includes automating processes, mapping out workflows in an ideal state, and finding redundant tasks.
Organizations that have efficient workflows can cut down on operational costs and significantly increase productivity by identifying areas for improvement.
So, how does an organization map out its workflows and automate boring and predictable tasks? With the help of a workflow management system, of course.
This system makes processes more efficient and frees up employees to work on more valuable tasks. Many workflow management systems exist today, so ensure to commit to one that meets all your needs.
Here are some of the features a workflow system should have:
Basic Workflow Patterns
Basic workflow patterns are key to the proper management of processes in an organization, and they include but are not limited to:
Sequential tasks
Working on tasks in a specified order is a crucial feature for any workflow system. Without the support for sequential tasks, a workflow system is a mere checklist.
One team member can work on the first task instead of the HR department working on all three tasks (as pictured above). And once completed, the workflow system will automatically create the second task.
Parallel tasks
If you’re planning a conference, for instance, you’ll find out that it’s more efficient to carry out tasks in parallel order.
Different people from multiple departments can execute the above tasks, but an automated workflow system can manage these tasks better and correctly.
Optional tasks
Some tasks are optional and shouldn’t necessarily be automated. Ever tried automating all approval workflows in your organization? The CFO can’t approve all requests coming from managers or heads of departments.
Loops
Automating looping tasks come in handy when working on contract drafts, marketing copy, reviewing illustrations, or even proofreading documents.
Approval Workflows
Any workflow software should have built-in approvals, which support conditional approvals and a simple one-step to an intricate multi-stage.
Automatic Assignment of Tasks
The goal of good workflow software is to manage work processes efficiently. It should effectively create and assign tasks.
Some of the flexible tasks a good workflow software supports include:
- Dynamic assignment of tasks based on date or rules.
- Automatic assignment to multiple users.
- Automatic assignment of tasks to a department or group.
- Automatic assignment of tasks to a single user.
Due Dates and SLAs
While workflow software can automate repetitive processes, it can’t directly attach a due date to tasks. So, every time you initiate a new process (such as submitting a vacation request), the due dates for all the tasks will be different.
That said, good workflow management can circumvent this problem and support relative dynamic due dates. A case in point is when a task has a “one week after request is submitted” due date or “three days after a previous task is done” due date.
A good workflow tool will calculate the actual date and set due dates for each task when you initiate a new process.
Forms and Tables
A workflow software should feature forms and tables to help you work with data. Data is a crucial part of any process. That’s why forms and tables are necessary, especially when creating a “value chain” or a flow of information between teams in a process.
The forms and tables should support the following fields:
- Files upload (to upload files and documents)
- Date and time
- Multiple selections for checking multiple options
- Single selection for selecting one option from many
- Money and currency
- Numeric numbers
- Long text
- Text
Built-in Team Communications
If you still need to email your teams about issues surrounding tasks and processes, then workflow software won’t help your organization.
A good workflow management tool should have a built-in communication feature that supports tasks’ communications.
Your employees should be able to efficiently communicate in the workflow software, including attaching images and documents, mentioning their teammates, asking relevant questions, commenting on processes and tasks, and more.
Security and Access Control
Every process in an organization involves multiple departments. A case in point is the employee onboarding process. The legal, accounting, IT, and HR departments will all be involved in the process (including the department the new employee will join).
A good workflow tool should have a security and access control feature, which controls permissions and configures access to crucial areas in a process.
Reports
It’s vital that a workflow tool grants you access to data stored within its system, including performance data, forms data, and data on active and completed processes. It is through this data that you can create key performance indicators (KPIs) reports.
Customizable
Good workflow software should be customizable enough to improve your day-to-day work experience. For example, it should support custom holidays, local currency, and language. It should also use your company logo, and even support personal tasks.
Mobile-friendly
We’re in the mobile age where 50% of work is done on the go. So, a good workflow management software should be mobile-friendly (or have a native application that supports either Android or iOS operating systems).
Now let’s create a workflow in the SweetProcess platform to demonstrate its capabilities.
First, sign up for SweetProcess and create a new process.
Then enter the title of your process.
Add the process to a team or multiple teams.
Click the “Continue” button.
Finally, click on the title of the process to add steps to your procedure.
Chapter 4: 10 Benefits of Workflow Management
So, you have a solid plan in place for your project but when someone initiates a task, your teammates end up so confused that chaos explodes in every corner.
The only fix for the situation is to streamline your tasks in a workflow, which eliminates chaotic “scenes” and achieves goals faster. When you create, automate, and manage workflows effectively, each step of your processes becomes so much clearer.
Here are some of the key benefits of workflow management.
Reduces Errors From Occurring
Your business can operate its day-to-day tasks without any errors, but it’s the occasional error that will get you into trouble. The good news is that you can mitigate these errors by identifying and rectifying them earlier.
With a good workflow management tool, you can prevent or reduce the chances of an error from happening in the first place. And if the error does occur, the system will identify its exact location, helping you prevent it from happening again in the future.
Connects Work Culture, Software, and People
Your employees have communication tools to help them collaborate. But is their work connected to the workflow management system? Connecting workflow systems with your work culture harnesses productivity.
In IT infrastructure, integrating multiple entities with workflow management is critical because the system collects data from different tools and runs workflows between them.
Some tasks require employees to use more than one application. That’s where a workflow system comes in handy. It helps facilitate the whole process, connecting people, software, and work culture.
Keeps You in the Loop
Automated workflows help teams in an organization save time updating information or sending emails in multiple management tools. It simply increases their productivity.
So, instead of waiting for approvals to reach them, they simply track the progress in a workflow management system and stay updated.
If there’s any crucial data missing in the approval, employees send it back to someone in the previous step of the workflow to initiate rectifications. Employees can even communicate with someone in the previous step within the workflow tool. Everything happens faster and smoother. No hitches.
Boring, Repetitive Manual Tasks are Eliminated
About $5 trillion a year is lost globally from doing repetitive tasks. And most office workers spend nearly two-and-a-half months a year on redundant manual tasks.
By using a workflow system, you can automate all manual tasks and let the machine do the heavy lifting. Just program the system to delegate tasks automatically.
A case in point is when you’re creating a budget and need quick approvals. This is a boring manual task. But when you map out budget approvals in your workflow system, the process becomes smooth, easy, and you save precious time.
Everything is Done Under One Roof
Human beings can get overwhelmed handling multiple tasks over time. But a workflow system is designed to juggle multiple tasks with little or no effort.
It can approve travel reimbursements, raise marketing content requests, run internal surveys, manage IT requests, onboard multiple employees, and more all under one roof and without delays or confusion.
Never mind that everything is neatly organized according to the different processes in a single workflow system. So, no handling of multiple emails, chat tools, or project boards. The system will juggle all these tasks with ease.
Enhances Transparency and Trust
When you use a workflow system, there’s no need to micromanage every task. Each team member’s tasks are crystal clear with goals well defined. Employees already know what they need to do, and managers are comfortable delegating the tasks.
Workflow automation enhances transparency and trust. Everything is done in the open with more control over access to crucial data. Administrators in an organization can either hold back sensitive information or display it to specific people or teams.
Keeps Work Organized and Trackable
So many emails and messages are sent, especially now that most companies are working remotely. Having a workflow system can keep your remote work well organized and trackable, helping employees to become even more goal-driven and more collaborative with each other.
Workflow management can be integrated into a company’s work culture too. It has the potential to do so, especially when everyone is sold on the idea of streamlining and structuring business processes, which helps attain goals much faster.
Provides Better Customer Experience
So far, nearly 38% of companies worldwide are looking for ways to improve customer experience and remain competitive—and for a good reason. Unsatisfied customers don’t always return for repeat business.
When you automate your workflow system, you reduce errors and increase the delivery time of products and services, providing a better customer experience. Also, automation helps streamline processes, ensuring tasks are easy to execute.
Reduces Labor Costs
Automating tasks in an organization reduces labor costs, according to 33% of global business leaders. That’s because automated systems eliminate repetitive manual tasks, which reduce the labor hours needed to cover the workload.
In addition, about 40% of business leaders believe that by automating processes in an organization, work is done in fewer hours and productivity drastically increases.
Not only that, but by automating systems you’re eliminating the odds of collecting incorrect data through your workflow. This reduces the extra time your employees need to remedy wrong information.
Simplified Communication
Automation improves collaboration as it provides simple visual design tools that let you bring employees (from different teams) into the same work process.
A designed workflow system helps team members understand exactly what they need to do, enabling different departments and team members to communicate clearly and collaborate effectively.
Chapter 5: Signs of a Faulty Workflow
The signs of a faulty workflow aren’t always noticeable, unfortunately. Days, months, and even years can go by before you realize that your workflow is dysfunctional.
Here are workflow red flags that you may fail to notice right away.
Confusion About Tasks Allocation
Employees without a clear job role or responsibility in an organization end up assuming other roles (not meant for them, unfortunately), stirring great confusion among team members and in your entire work process.
Lack of a Documented and Communicated Process
If a specific process is undocumented, then it surely doesn’t exist. Documented and communicated processes act as a tool that helps in the continuous improvement of efficiency efforts in an organization.
Well-communicated processes often outline the desired goals and results and also guide employees and managers about how you want to achieve them.
If you have to circumvent a documented process to complete a task, then you should review and restructure your processes.
Lack of Cooperation
When employees use different methods to complete similar tasks, you end up creating a process within a process, triggering massive inconsistencies when completing tasks and assignments—and then a lack of cooperation quickly sets in.
To resolve this problem, ask for feedback from your employees about their best tips and tricks, and the best practices to adopt. Then determine which methods are going to enhance your workflow process in general. Afterward, revise your entire process.
Inaccurate and Incomplete Output
If a process is complete but the desired output of a workflow process is invisible, then it is deemed faulty. Therefore, it will never improve customer satisfaction or satisfy your employees or the entire organization in general.
Manipulation of Workflow Tasks
Another red flag of a faulty workflow in an organization is when the back end is misused and manipulated or when there are too many unexplainable “workarounds.”
Automated Processes are Done Manually
It’s a big red flag when employees’ complete tasks manually. Invest in automated systems and software that your employees can use to complete their daily tasks.
Also, ensure they’re well-trained on how to use the software. Not only will automation improve efficiency, but it’ll also become beneficial in the entire organization.
Essential Processes Taking Too Long
Another sign of a faulty workflow is still doing manual, repetitive tasks. Identify some of the predictable and repetitive tasks or activities—or those done by more than one individual—then automate them. Repetitive tasks are simply considered a waste if they don’t add any measurable value to your organization.
Duplication of Efforts
When an employee completes multiple tasks with the same results or when several employees work on similar tasks (unknowingly), duplication of efforts occurs. A faulty workflow has duplicated tasks, which cost time and money to complete the process.
The time used to duplicate tasks can yield great results when utilized in other effective areas. Duplication of efforts is a waste of resources, which could negatively impact customer satisfaction and the employees’ morale.
Chapter 6: How to Create and Document Workflows
To ensure you and your teammates are productive and highly efficient, you need to streamline predictable tasks and processes in your organization.
Workflow systems help you improve accountability, improve collaborations, reduce micromanagement, and identify potential holdups in the system.
Also, workflows help organizations to save time and money as they provide more actionable insights for businesses. All the more reason to document your workflows.
Here’s how to create effective workflows.
Follow these six simple steps to create effective workflows for your processes:
- Identify specific tasks to include in your workflow.
- Document steps you need in your workflow, including approvals and reviews.
- Ensure to include the names of people responsible for each task in the workflow.
- Set (reasonable) deadlines for each task everyone is handling.
- While creating your workflow, identify opportunities to optimize by reassigning tasks, eliminating unnecessary steps, pinpointing and addressing bottlenecks.
- Finally, make sure your workflow system is repeatable.
Before creating and documenting your workflows, remember that “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” This adage is true because when you measure the work needed to be done, you can manage how to execute it.
Without effectively measuring your work, you’ll be flying blind with no clue about what’s going on in your business or where bottlenecks in your team’s activities lie.
Chapter 7: Automated vs. Manual Workflow
In a manual workflow, human effort is required to push an item from one task to another. A case in point is where an employee is claiming a refund.
To make sure the finance department receives the claim, the employee will initially fill out a refund claim then email it to the manager for approval. Once approved, the employee will then email it to the finance department.
The finance department will then schedule a payment through software, then afterward email the employee acknowledging the process is complete.
Automated workflow software is different. When a task is complete, the employee is no longer required to push relevant data to the next task as the workflow process is automatic.
The automated workflow system will simply manage the subsequent flow of the task, including any reminders, deadlines, and notifications.
In the same example…
When using an automated workflow system, the employee fills out a refund claim and taps the submit button. By doing so, the employee has automatically notified the manager who then reviews and approves the claim.
When the manager approves the employee’s claim of refund, it’s then automatically forwarded to the finance team for processing.
For the record, if the owed amount is comparatively little, the system will trigger a task to release the payment then send an automated email to the employee.
An automated workflow system makes tracking items so easy. It’ll even pinpoint where the item is in the workflow. But the same can’t be said of the manual workflow, where you must manually send a bunch of emails and messages to find out the item’s status.
Some of the benefits of the workflow automation software include:
- Establishing accountability
- Providing greater visibility of an item
- Reducing processing time
- Simplifying delegation of tasks
- Improving efficiency
- Eliminating redundant tasks
Chapter 8: The Difference Between Processes and Workflows
Workflows and processes are apples and oranges—completely different, and yet these two terms are often used interchangeably throughout the business world.
Workflows refer to a series of tasks, while a process is a general term embodying notifications, reports, forms, and data required to get an item from beginning to end but in a more structured way.
In short, processes need efficient workflows to function well.
Here’s how the workflow process for a purchase order looks:
Initiator ➡ Manager ➡ Approval ➡ Procurement Processing
The above process involves other additional factors, including the budget available, procurement notifications, an individual sequential number assigned to the purchase order, approved vendors to choose from, and more.
To add more clarity to the differences between workflows and processes:
- Processes are a series of tasks that workflows can generally improve over time.
- Processes can exist without a workflow, but a workflow is part of a process.
- A workflow acts as a tool that helps team members achieve their goals. Processes help team members to work together to achieve a given goal.
- Naturally, processes flow through an organization. But workflows are more detailed and usually require proper planning and ample testing.
Chapter 9: Workflow vs. Checklist
Workflows and checklists are not the same either. The latter is a basic version of the former. Checklists cannot be shared across teams in an organization despite working efficiently for projects and business processes.
Also, it’s difficult to track items going back to an earlier stage in a workflow using checklists. Then again, checklists aren’t entirely convenient for processing workflows, especially those that rely on specific data.
For instance, let’s say you want to create marketing campaigns for your business but you want to follow a different workflow. You’ll need to have as many checklists as there are platforms.
However, with a digitized workflow system, you can easily handle all the items in a single workflow platform.
So, make sure to find the best workflow software for you. That way, you won’t be limited on how to handle all your tasks.
Chapter 10: Workflow Management Software
When choosing a workflow tool, it’s always tempting to side with the herd. But what works for another organization might not work for your unique processes.
So, initially, think about your needs and choose a software with a simple learning curve, which is also user-friendly and easy to implement. Make sure it’s cost-effective too.
Process Street is a “jack of all trades,” and it does different things, including being an SOP (standard operating procedures) software, a scheduler, and a checklist tool. But it’s a master at none of them. You can find more advanced features in other tools.
Kissflow is well-rounded and suitable for users with little knowledge of how workflow management software works. While it boasts a simple learning curve, it’s difficult to create advanced behaviors such as “parallel routing” on the platform.
Tallyfy workflow management software gives users “everything” they need to document processes, track workflows, and automate tasks, but fails to provide a flow chart view of a process or allow users to schedule repeatable workflow tasks.
On the other hand, SweetProcess is a feature-rich, powerful, and dedicated workflow management tool. It focuses on documenting tasks, procedures, and processes in one place so users can stay focused on growing their business.
SweetProcess is not just a wonderful workflow tool; it’s designed for people who understand and know what they’re doing to make every part of the process and workflow management efficient, more transparent, and easy.
You can tailor your business processes with SweetProcess from the ground up without having any coding skills. Also, you can create reports on the platform that have visibility into the state of your workflows and even help view individual workflow details.
SweetProcess is a workflow management tool that’ll work better for your organization.
Explore other checklist software that can help you manage your workflows
Chapter 11: How SweetProcess Can Help Your Company Manage Workflow
Everyone in an organization has that one process that is always annoyingly chaotic or inconsistent. If that’s the case for you, drag the (chaotic) process into the SweetProcess platform to automate it.
Then watch as the magic of automation does the trick for you.
If you want to simplify a process and make it more efficient, the SweetProcess workflow management tool will help you optimize the process, allowing all your projects to run smoothly and free from tension going forward.
SweetProcess is designed to automate business processes and create workflows easily, then execute them and generate progress reports.
Here’s how SweetProcess streamlined the workflow of three companies.
A UK-Based Company Improved Its Workflow With SweetProcess
Emma Mills, the owner and founder of MiPA (an award-winning choice for virtual PA support and call-answering services), needed to document her company’s processes. But the software she and her team were using fell below the mark.
Initially, they tried Dropbox, but it quickly became apparent that manually managing more than ten processes was time consuming. They needed software that could automate the process and streamline their workflow.
SweetProcess came in handy for them. And it was a big game changer.
“[…] we have like 300, 400 customers now. SweetProcess has helped us to scale up our service in a bespoke way. It’s enabled us to serve people [how they] particularly want.”
Emma and her team were thrilled at the prospect of using SweetProcess, a workflow software that automated (and improved) their processes and enhanced seamless employee onboarding and training.
Emma said that SweetProcess directs and helps their team to complete about 90% of all their tasks. “It’s a massive part of the backbone of our business for sure,” she adds.
How SweetProcess Enhanced the “Fluidity” of a Law Firm
Laura Johnson, administrator and HR at Brooks Law Group (a personal injury law firm that specializes in assisting accident victims), wanted her business to run in the absence of any employee. She wanted to automate her business processes.
Her need for automation was driven by employees being more dependent on her even though everything was on the server. When Laura was away, employees would either be idle or make mistakes in trying to get things done.
She laments how the law firm suffered because “[her employees] would have access to processes, but they were still leaning more heavily toward me concerning questions and directive in some things.”
And that’s why she decided to sign up for SweetProcess. She wanted a workflow software that could enhance “fluidity throughout the firm.”
SweetProcess improved the law firm’s workflow by standardizing operations and keeping the workflow running smoothly and uninterrupted by unforeseen circumstances. “Everybody is [now] on the same page,” she says.
Consulting Firm Hails SweetProcess for Streamlining Their Workflow
Kevin Trapp, the director of operations at Forensic Analytical Consulting Services (FACS), wanted to rid his employees from depending on him to perform their tasks, a matter that derailed the company’s productivity efforts.
Kevin wanted to automate processes to enable his team members to work independently with little or no supervision, fearing the dependence cycle would continue.
“I was burning up a ton of my time and other people’s time just trying to chase this stuff down [empowering employees to do things on their own] and reiterate the same thing over and over.” Tired, he decided to seek an alternative to improve workflow.
And that’s how he discovered SweetProcess.
“I was excited when I found SweetProcess. It was robust enough to complete what I was trying to accomplish, but it was also simple enough that it didn’t overwhelm any of the users or any of the management team trying to help them understand what the vision was. And the rest is history.”
By adopting SweetProcess, which he says was a collective effort, Kevin was able to change the game at his consulting firm and streamline workflows.
You can also replicate their workflow success in your business by signing up for a 14-day free trial of SweetProcess (no credit card required).
Conclusion
So many tools exist that can digitize your workflows. But you may want to find a tool that can be fully automated to manage your workflows better.
The best workflow tool will create a good visual representation of your workflow and build a strong form that carries all the data required to process it correctly.
Such an automated workflow software will help the workflows in your business run automatically without any human effort or assistance.
Your employees will be able to fill out a form and the workflow tool automatically takes them from one step to another until the task is completed.
Having automated workflow software focusing on the most boring, repetitive tasks is awesome. But even more awesome is finding a solution that can handle workflows from the same software.
Instead of using different tools for all your situations, SweetProcess workflow software will help you organize and manage all your workflows in one place.
Sign up for a SweetProcess 14-day free trial today (no credit card required), and download the 10-step “Perfect Workflow Checklist” that will help you pick your first process and get it ready for automation.
