Workflow management software can help to set your company apart from your competitors. With the right kind of workflow management tool you can execute projects quicker and more efficiently while maintaining costs and streamlining your reporting procedures. Your workflow software can keep your team focused while increasing communications within the company.

Your workflow process software can help keep performance to a maximum and wasted time to a minimum. Use a workflow tool to help direct your projects through a web-based platform that is hosted by the workflow software providers or through desktop applications that can be used company-wide. Your entire business process workflow management system can be turned over to an outside management firm or directed internally through your own operations. Find a number of ways to integrate workflow process software into your organization.

1. Make sure you’re using the best workflow mapping software

2. Try online workflow software demos

3. Hire a workflow program company to get you on track

Action Steps for Getting Started with Workflow Software
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Avoid waste with good workflow time management software

Payroll is typically the biggest piece of a business budget so you should make sure that you're putting your resources into workflow mapping software that work. Through your sales figures, project timelines and your own newfound time, you should have a good handle on what is the most appropriate workflow software for your company. If you can't see big results, you should consider upgrading or replacing your software programs.

I recommend: Axosoft offers a variety of proprietary workflow management systems or they can customize a program for your specific needs. Try a free demonstration of the workflow management tool offered by Adeptia.

Go online for a web-based workflow program

For many of the newer online programs you don't even have to download any special software to your systems if you choose to engage a web-based workflow management tool. These operations typically allow you a trial period, which you should take advantage of as well. With many of the web workflow management tool programs, you can even let the providers host your site so little is required of your IT team to implement the system.

I recommend: Manage all your operations from any browser with open source online workflow software from ProcessMaker. Through the expertise and online community formed at LifeHack, you can better navigate the crowded filed of online workflow software to narrow your choices and learn how others fared with various products and services.

Bring in a workflow process software consultant

If you want to ensure that you're making the most of workflow management software programs, consider bringing in a consultant to help you choose the right platforms for your use. Specialists can set you up and train you and your staff, leaving you time to enjoy your new operations without as high of a learning curve.

I recommend: Infotivity provides a weighty list of consulting firms that have been vetted each for their specific line of specialty so that you can get right onto the upgrades to your operations. The Wooster Group can come in and help you develop the right IT programs to make your business more profitable.

Tips & Tactics Sizing Up Workflow Automation Needs

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Prepare yourself to get some resistance form employees who've been working a certain way for many years. Slowly ease them into using the workflow software rather than demanding that everyone get on board immediately. After they see how easy it is to operate, they will be happy to learn new ways of doing business.

It's a bit of a TV commercial cliche, but people really did (and some still do) have a wooden box on one end of the desk marked IN and another on the opposite side marked OUT.

Computers drastically changed the nature of business information, but digitizing the tasks, while a productivity booster, leads directly to the next problem: Other than e-mail or manually moving files through a network, how does the work move from person to person, office to office, across the company?

Workflow software is the answer, and although it comes in many flavors, it all does the same basic thing — move the work. Covered in this guide:

1. Fully automated workflow technology
2. Workflow automation for small businesses
3. Web-based workflow management software
4. Selecting a workflow management tool for small business use

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

High-end workflow automation and workflow management software

Workflow automation takes an existing chain of work, like preparing a sales report or filing expenses, and making it automatic, usually with workflow software that sits on a server and guides information from point to point without human intervention.

I recommend: Workflow management software is made by dozens of companies, each with its own spin on particular industries or on workflow automation itself. Major vendors in the workflow softtware space include Xerox, IBM, Lombardi, Oracle, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and SAP.

Finding workflow software for your small business

Thanks to broadband Internet and increasing sophistication of small business technology adoption, a new generation of workflow management software purports to take any task in your company and automate it.

I recommend: You'll still need a programmer to get it going, but natural language command and visual programming screens promise to put cutting-edge workflow automation within reach. Take a look at products from TransparentLogic, Adeptia, PNMSoft, Skelta, and WebMethods, There's business process reference materials, too, at Business.com.

Like everything, workflow management software is moving to the Web

No server? No problem! Software companies have quickly launched subscription-based Web versions of their workflow management tool in hopes of drawing in small businesses unlikely to invest in the hardware needed to run big-company workflow software products.

I recommend: Models vary from document management to full-on business processes like accounting and finance. Consider products from vendors including Web and Flo, WorkflowGen, Quask, Colosa, and Integrify. Find more information on workflow technology at Business.com.

Workflow management tool for general use

If your needs are not highly specific, a workflow managment tool might be the answer. Assign tasks, track projects and communicate progress using simple, Web-based screens.

I recommend: It takes some discipline, since your team will have to mark items as done and update their projects, but workflow management tools are often cheaper and can be effective. ProWorkFlow, Vyre and Microsoft Sharepoint. Read up on workflow technology with business process publications available through Business.com.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Workflow software is often mentioned along with business process management. They are similar, but business process management is fundamentally about changing how business works in the name of efficiency.
• •  Keeping track of who's doing what with a spreadsheet? It's probably time to move on to workflow software. Talk to colleagues in your field about choices. There are hundreds of companies writing workflow automation programs for needs as specific as dental offices, car dealerships and small retailers.
• •  The big guns in this business are all bent out of shape about small business needs. Before you write off Big Blue or Microsoft, take a look to see if their small and medium-sized business offering is a good fit.

Workflow management software can help you manage your employees from your own desktop without the need for long meetings and high-priced consultant fees. Maximize your human resource dollars with a workflow management tool that has become easier to use and less expensive to own. You should take advantage of the expertise developed by workflow process software developers.

Workflow management systems can operate online so that you keep on top of your company activities while you’re away. Workflow software can provide information in a concise and relevant form so that your human resource department can make quick decisions when necessary and managers can stay on top of project development. Find a number of ways to best utilize workflow management systems.

1. Buy a workflow tool to manage your team

2. Try online workflow software programs

3. Incorporate advertising software solutions into your corporate culture

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Integrate workflow management software into your systems

The user-friendly options available in workflow mapping software make using a workflow management tool easy and accessible for any business now. Small to medium and large-size companies can eliminate the long meetings with HR departments and managers in favor of desktop software that can operate your entire workflow processes.

I recommend: Try a free trial of the online workflow software from InnoSource. Datastay offers a suite of workflow management software that you can easily integrate in to your business processes to whatever level you desire.

Go online for a web-based workflow program

For many of the newer online programs you don't even have to download any special software to your systems if you choose to engage a web-based workflow management tool. These operations typically allow you a trial period, which you should take advantage of as well. With many of the web workflow management tool programs, you can even let the providers host your site so little is required of your IT team to implement the system.

I recommend: iMarkup Solutions offers you a suite of options to increase your company’s visibility and efficiency with its Internet workflow management tools. Workflow Gen has a completely integrated workflow system that is based on the Internet and can integrate all of your business applications.

Get your team using workflow management software

Once you've opened up the possibilities of running your business with the assistance of workflow management systems, you need to get your team on-board with the programs. Instead of calling on consultants to handle projects, your managers should be able to use their own desktops to display reports and manage marketing projects.

I recommend: Barrios Technology can create custom in-house or Internet-based training programs for your employees to learn how to operate your latest IT programs and workflow management systems. Knowledge Base offers complete training courses for all of their business process workflow management systems designed to your specifications.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Before choosing workflow software, let your key employees try the free demos to see if they agree on the choice of programs. It will be easier to get buy-in from your staff if everyone participates in the final decision.

Workflow management software has facilitated huge leaps in productivity by eliminating most of the paperwork that used to be required to get the work done. It supports collaborative efforts that can span multiple time zones and continents, and allows large, complex organizations to manage huge amounts of data and translate it into actionable information. As you explore your options, it would behoove you to learn some of terminology used to describe these products.

Action Steps
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Business process management, or BPM

Business process management is the type of management that focuses on making sure the organization able to fulfill the expectations of its customers. It is continuously focused on improving processes in an organization. Workflow management software is used by decision makers and stakeholders to define, track and report on activities associated with business process management.

I recommend: Toolbox.com has a definition, articles, blogs, and articles that cover the basics of BPM.

Key performance indicators, or KPI

KPI are financial and non-financial measures used to help an organization determine whether or not it is making progress on its goals and objectives. Indicators are clearly defined and then incorporated into the workflow management software used to monitor progress.

I recommend: Information Builders is a software developer that can help businesses manage KPI.

Business activity monitoring, or BAM

BAM is the act of monitoring KPIs and is another function frequently included in workflow management software. Business activity monitoring is also subset, or subordinate activity, within business process management. It provides real-time information on the results or status of various transactions, operations or processes.

I recommend: EbizQ has a beginner's guide to BAM

Service-level management

Service-level management is a type of business activity monitoring. It tracks and measures the quality of service as it relates to the KPI.

I recommend: TechTarget has a nice definition of service-level management.

Project management

Project management is the practice of planning resource management so that project goals and objectives are completed successfully. Projects have specific state and completion dates that must be tracked and measured, and workflow management software is designed to facilitate this process.

I recommend: The Project Management Institute has a wealth of research and information on the subject.

Task management

Task management is a part of project management that involves defining the specific activities needed to complete a project. Task management includes such things as tracking the status or completion of the task, the time it will take and the resources that will be required, including human and financial. Workflow management software makes task management easier and more efficient.

I recommend: VIP Quality Software has an article on task management.