DOCUMENTWORKFLOWDOCUMENTWORKFLOW

Did you know you use document workflows every day? If you have ever had to obtain

approval for a proposal, expenses or some other important document from another

person, then this is a document workflow. Put simply, if there is more than one person

involved in the process then this step-by-step procedure is known as document

workflow.

You probably know first-hand that workflows can be

frustrating. Think about how you handle the logistics of

getting a document to the right people for approval. Do

you send it by email or request a meeting? And what about

proof of approval? Do you have to save multiple emails

and meeting notes? Consider all the future problems you

could face if you’re unable to demonstrate you attained

approval from the right people.

Electronic document workflow automates the steps in

a process, simplifies work tasks and provides real-time

monitoring to optimise any document-based business

routing.

Systems Technology can help you design and implement a document workflow solution to help your business

become more efficient.

Version 1.1

SMOOTH THE DOCUMENT PATHS THROUGH YOUR BUSINESS AND BOOST YOUR EFFICIENCY

• Automate repetitive tasks

• Bring together related documents

• Automate the approval process

• Stop lost documents

• Improve customer service by quickly locating

documents and the stage they’re at

• Reduce staff paper processing costs

• Improve efficiency in managing and tracking

paper based workflow

• Reduce the time and cost of moving paper

between offices

• Meet compliance requirements for audit or

security

MAKE YOUR

FLOWDOCUMENTS

SCANNINGAND CAPTURE

Definition of Document Workflow

“Document workflow is the journey of documents between people or groups of

people. Business processes typically involve such distribution with different persons

responsible for creating, updating, reviewing and approving documents.”

The problems with paper-based workflowsIn most organisations today, paper-based information is maintained independently from the electronic workflow

and is, therefore, subject to numerous problems. Paper based information:

WHAT ISDOCUMENT WORKFLOW?

• Is hard to locate

• Is easily lost or misplaced

• Is expensive to distribute

• Is hard to protect

• Is difficult to link to other electronic content

• Is inflexible

Paper-based workflows, even for the smallest organisations, are inherently inefficient and prone to failure.

Businesses are increasingly turning toward scanning solutions to bring paper into electronic workflows and solve

these problems. Once in an electronic form, documents can be located and shared easily, backed-up and integrated

with other systems.

How an electronic document workflow helpsAn electronic document workflow can automate the flow of information in your organisation to eliminate the

errors, interruptions and duplications of your manual paper-based workflows. By identifying business steps that

are definable and repeatable the time taken complete each step can be reduced, reducing the overall document

cycle time and reducing errors.

Document workflows allow you quickly to define, create, and manage automated business processes where tasks

and work procedures are repeatable. If a task is repeatable and can be defined then, it can be created and managed

as part of an automatic document workflow.

Accounts PayableIncrease speed and reduce AP costsPerhaps the most prominent application for document

workflow is in Automated Invoice Processing. Using the

full range of features, purchases orders and invoices are

scanned, and their data captured using OCR, extracted,

matched, coded, authorised and stored.

Automatic Invoice Processing offers faster processing

speed at a reduce costs, with enhanced visibility

and control. The improvement in accuracy provides

better data quality, assisting the approval process and

enhancing cash management and accounts payable

insight.

• Automate invoice processing

• Reduce administration costs

• Enhance data quality and accuracy

• Improve cash management

• Benefit from early payment discounts

Sales Order ProcessingTake the pain out of sales paperwork processingSales order processing, particularly in the B2B market, is

still incredibly slow. Salesmen’s handwritten paper orders

need manually checking by sales managers before being

sent to sales administration for ordering and onward

to accounts, which can take days. If you’re in such as

business, think about the number of steps involved and

the problems that can occur with lost documents and

query resolution. With sales order processing workflows,

we can help you to create agile steps to fulfil your orders

within specific timelines.

• Remove bottlenecks

• Quickly resolve order queries

• Track progress

• Fulfil orders more quickly

Contract WorkflowReduce risk and speed up approvalBefore you sign on the dotted line, it pays to make sure

your contracts have been through the right workflow.

Contract Workflow and Approval processes exist to

reduce the cost of reviewing low risk deals and to

streamline the review of high risk deals. Low risk deals

can be automatically approved, whereas high risk

deals can be routed through the legal departments or

commercial departments before executive approval.

• Automatically approve low risk deals

• Route high risks deals for review

• Reduce overall contract administration costs

• Ensure accuracy through revision and approval

• Reduce contact review bottlenecks

GUIDE TO COMMONWORKFLOWS

Customer ServicesImprove your customer service by processing customer correspondence fasterIf there’s one thing that can dramatically improve

customer service, it is speed of response. You most likely

already have customer engagement procedures to help

respond to customer correspondence, applications

or complaints. A Customer Service Workflow helps

to speed up and improve your existing customer

engagement procedures by streamlining and improving

these processes. A good example is being able to set

the priority of the request, helping to ensure that urgent

cases aren’t ‘lost in a pile’ and are responded to first.

• Enhance customer engagement

• Resolve complaints quickly

• Increase accountability

• Prioritise response

• Document the process

Human ResourcesSave time and provide a quicker service for employees and managersUsing HR Document Workflows your departmental

functions can be brought online. Existing recruitment

processes, leave requests, detail change administration

and leaver processing workflows can all be sped up and

optimising by using a document workflow system. Even

simple yet time consuming processes, such as holiday

requests, can be handled more efficiently, freeing up

managers to be more productive and profitable.

• Holiday request forms

• Sickness forms

• Job applications

• CRB checks

• Employee onboarding and offboarding

FinanceReduce your costs and increase financial controlAccounts department’s least productive time is spent

processing expenses and other ad hoc business costs,

which rely on submissions being made on time and

in the correct format. A document workflow makes

the submission, reviewing and authorisation of such

finance tasks more streamlined; taking up less time and

resulting in reimbursements happening more quickly.

• Expenses

• Travel expenses

• Credit card statement processing

• Mobile phone bills

Digital Mail RoomReduce customer response times and decrease poor information managementStop wasting time and resouces by manually distributing

mail. Use a workflow to capture, sort and distribute mail

within your organisation more effectively and provide

complete traceability.

STEP 1WORKFLOW STEPSSTEP 1WORKFLOW STEPS

All workflows consist of a series of logical steps, where each step is a decision, process

or task that needs to happen. Using a flowchart can be a helpful way to visualise the

process and to design and implement the workflow. We can help guide you through

this process.

Individual and group workflowsIf you think about your organisation, there are individuals

who perform certain tasks, and departments or teams

where anyone can perform a task. Workflows can reflect

this by allocating tasks to individuals or groups, where any

member of that group can complete the task.

Workflow AutomationIt is possible for certain steps to be fully automated,

removing the need for an operator’s involvement and

freeing them up for other tasks. Zonal OCR is used with

specific documents to recognise a variable’s value (e.g. an

amount of money) and rules to determine the next step.

A good example is purchase approval: a purchase request

below a set amount of money can be automatically

progressed for order, anything above this amount can be

forwarded for a manger’s approval.

Serial and Parallel TasksIn most workflows the tasks are assigned one-by-one in a

logical order and participants are given an amount of time

to complete their task – these are known as serial tasks.

But sometimes tasks need to be assigned to all participants

at once with one due date for all – these are known as

parallel tasks. Using serial and parallel tasks gives you the

flexibility to get tasks done faster.

OCR

OVER£100?

YES

NO

SERIALPARALLEL

Delegation OptionsWhere suitable, workflows can be designed by the

Workflow Manager to allow participants to delegate their

task to another person. This flexibility allows authorised

employees with spare capacity to perform tasks that would

otherwise become bottlenecked in the process.

Add documents and objectsAs a workflow progresses through its stages, participants

can add documents and digital files to support the desired

outcome. For example, this could be an audio file of a

customer complaint or a photograph of damaged product,

helping to resolve the task in hand far more quickly.

Document MatchingManual processes that require documents to be matched

up can be automated using document workflows. For

example, invoice and purchase orders can be matched

using the PO number and forwarded to the accounts team

for approval.

Quality Control CheckpointsJust like a paper-based workflow, managers of workflows

can review a defined sample of processed documents

for quality control purposes. This is particularly important

for new staff or reviews of experienced staff for quality

assurance.

PURCHASEORDER#1

INVOICE#1 DELIVERY

NOTE#1

7%of information workers’ total time

is spent dealing with problems

and time consuming tasks that

arise with paper documents1.

1 Bridging the Information Worker Productivity Gap, IDC Whitepaper, 2012

STEP 2NOTIFICATIONS AND APPROVALSTEP 2NOTIFICATIONS AND APPROVAL

Your workflow has been designed and there are documents on the move. But what

happens if a person is away, or if there is an unexpected document type, and what about

approval? Workflow Managers maintain their workflows using a suite of automated

tools for notifications, approval, workflow escalation and exception handling.

TASK

Workflow ManagerThis is the person that is alerted if tasks aren’t actioned or

completed on time. They can send automated reminders,

increase the deadlines or allocate the task to a different

user.

NotificationsUsers can receive an email, pop up, or both, notifying them

of the required actions for their step. Notifications can be

sent immediately or at a pre-set number of days, or hours,

before the task is due.

Conditional StepsConditional steps require certain conditions to be met

before allowing the process to continue. For example, an

invoice may require the approval of both the manager

and director before being progressed to the accounts

department.

SignaturesEven though the process a travelling through the

authorisation stage is usually sufficient, sometimes a visual

representation of authorisation is needed. Documents can

be signed using a saved image of a handwritten signature,

a digital stamp (e.g. APPROVED), or the typed name of the

person who gave the authorisation.

APPROVE?REJECT?EXPLANATION:

WorkflowAccountsSalesServiceWarehouse

StatusOKOKOKEXCEPTION

2 DAYS

ApprovalWhen a document requires approval it can be assigned

to either an individual or group using serial or parallel

tasks. The participants can typically approve or reject the

document and provide notes to support their decision. If

authorised, they may reassign the task to an authorised

person or group, or request a change to the workflow.

Exception HandlingWhile most well designed workflows run smoothly, there

are exceptions. The cause of these exceptions could be a

deadline being overrun, a new document type or perhaps

a resource that isn’t available. Exception Handling gives

participants the options to automatically or manually flag

and action documents that would otherwise stall or get

lost in a paper-based workflow.

Workflow EscalationIf each person performs their task then a workflow is

successful, but what if a person is unexpectedly ill or away?

Workflow Escalation rules can handle these situations.

For example, if John doesn’t review a document within

two days then it is escalated to his manager. Tasks not

performed within the allotted time will be notified to the

Workflow Manager.

41%of organisations that are using MPS

are also implementing document

workflow tools to improve business

processes2

2 Managing Print Service Landscape, Quocirca, 2014

STEP 3COMPLIANCE, SECURITY AND AUDITINGSTEP 3COMPLIANCE, SECURITY AND AUDITING

With the prospect of important documents flowing electronically around your

business, how can you reassure others about security concerns? With compliance

and auditing being key considerations for most businesses, it’s comforting to know

that Document Workflow software enhances security. From requiring authentication

at the point of scan, to role based permissions and versioning, there’s a full audit trail

for every document throughout its life.

Digital SignaturesIf compliance dictates it, digital signatures can be made

necessary in order to progress the workflow to the next

stage.

User Date Document Version

Peter 12/01 SALES ORDER 1.2

Ashley 13/01 PRESENTATION 1

Sharon 14/01 EXPENSES 1

Craig 15/01 REPORT 1.4

James 16/01 SALES ORDER 1.2

READCONTRIBUTE

PERMISSIONS

I hereby agree and digitally sign the content of all pages

SIGNPASSWORD *********

Auditing Trails & Version HistoryAll participants’ workflow steps are tracked in the version

history. Each time they create, update, review or approve

a document, or task, their activity is logged. Granular

information including the time and date of the interactions

ensures compliance with data regulations

PermissionsWhen designing a document workflow process the

Workflow Manager decides who receives a document and

what they may do with it. For example, they may be able

to Read the document, but not Edit it. Permissions ensure

the security of your documents as they travel through

your business.

ROLE READ CONTRIBUTE ASSIGNDirectorManagerSupervisorAdministrator

AuthenticationScanning takes a paper document and converts it into a

digital file that can enter the workflow via a multifunctional

photocopier, desktop scanner, touch screen scan stations

or desktop PC. To prevent unauthorised access at the start,

or any stage, users can be required to authenticate with

their network ID.

Role Based SecurityRole based security ensures that an important process

can only be moved to the next stage by an authorised

person. For example, in a contract approval process

only the user that has been marked as the owner can

approve the document. Permission control is easily

configured for individual users, user groups or user roles.

For example, a manager or supervisor.

15%of an organisation’s revenues are

spent on creating, managing

and distributing documents3

3 The Paperless Project, 2013

STEP 4INTEGRATION AND BACKUP

A document workflow is the journey of your document from the start to the finish.

The start typically involves scanning a paper document and converting it into a digital

file, but what happens to that file at the finish? Document workflow solutions integrate

with a host of back-end systems to archive and back-up all documents and workflow

related objects for reference and retrieval.

Document Management SystemThe most common destination for documents at the end

of their workflow is a document management system.

Somewhat similar to traditional filing, captured documents

can be filed for reference at a later date.

Unlike a traditional filing room, these documents can be

quickly retrieved and securely accessed from both inside

and outside the office. For more information see our

Document Management brochure or visit our website.

ERP & BespokeEnterprise Resource Planning software comes in many

hundreds, if not thousands of guises. It provides support

for manufacturing and service delivery, product planning,

sales and marketing, inventory management, and much

more.

Document workflows can be successfully integrated with

the majority of ERP systems, in businesses of all sizes, using

existing APIs or custom development.

Accountancy SystemsInvoice and payment queries are the bane of all accounts

departments. Delivery notes, purchase orders and other

related documents are often needed to resolve these

queries, which takes up a huge amount of time.

Document Workflows can channel transactional

documents directly into customer accounts and records

within accountancy systems, such as Sage Line 50,

QuickBooks and Microsoft Dynamics GP. With the requisite

information at accountancy staff’s fingertips, resolutions

and therefore cash flow can be dramatically improved.

CRM SystemsFor sales led organisations, the central repository for

customer interactions is most likely a CRM system. Sales

Order Processing workflows and Customer Service

Workflows can feed directly into the relevant customer

records in systems such as Salesforce.com and Sage ACT!

Not only are workflow records backed-up but the sales

team have a 360 degree view of all historical customer

communications, helping to assist and increase sales.

50%of companies feel they would be

more productive through enhanced

workflow, search, information

reporting and automated

document creation tools4

4 The SharePoint Puzzle, AIIM Market Research, 2012

IMPLEMENTATIONOUR PROFESSIONAL SERVICESIMPLEMENTATIONOUR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Document workflows can range from just two simple steps, all the way to complex

multistage processes involving dozens of participants and tasks. However easy or

complicated your workflows are, Systems Technology’s professional services team

will work side-by-side with you to provide you with training, help you design your

workflows, and provide support for how long you choose.

Our simple guide toimplementing document workflowsThere is really no reason for businesses to continue using outdated and

inefficient workflow processing methods given today’s availability of

affordable and easy to use workflow software. Yet many businesses continue

to do so, despite knowing better.

One of the questions we often get asked by prospective customers

considering a document workflow is, “Where do we begin?” With so many

existing business processes the task can seem a little daunting. Our answer

is to start with just one.

By following the existing workflow steps through to the end, you’ll have

mapped out a design that’ll be good enough to try. A common way of

visualising this is to draw a flowchart. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but the

act of drawing your processes can be very enlightening and, perhaps, fun.

You might not get it right first time, but you’re on your way to dramatically

improving your business processes.

Quantifying the resultsWhen you make the transition to automating document workflows in your

business, you should be able to measure improvement in your processes.

The obvious starting point is the time it takes completely to process

documents from start to finish. If you perform a simple time study on the

process before and after implementing your electronic document workflow

solution, you can compare the average process time from start to finish.

Pick a familair workflow or

process

Breakdown the process into the

actual physical steps

Spend time with each person

involved along the way

Discover what tasks occur at

each step and the exceptions

for each decision

Follow where the document

goes once it leaves that step

Systems Technology (S.E.) Ltd

Head Office41 Riverside II

Sir Thomas Longley Road

Rochester, Kent ME2 4DP

London Office73 Watling St

London

EC4M 9BJ

ContactFreephone: 0800 279 0300

Tel: 01634 291124

Fax: 01634 291125

Email: sales@systemstechnology.co.uk

Web: www.systemstechnology.co.uk

Twitter: @systemstechltd