At the easy-and-inexpensive end of the workflow spectrum are the products that help you move paper through your organization electronically, rather than through the interoffice "snail mail." Many electronic mail systems have built-in or add-on features with which you can create standard routing paths. You can use them for authorizations, approvals, document re-views and edits, and more. Some e-mail systems let you develop scripts with simple if-then rules. An example: If the attached invoice is approved, send it to Accounts Payable. If the invoice is disapproved, send it back to the originator.
These enriched mail systems often rely on on-screen forms. The number of forms in the federal government is a long-running joke, of course, and the prospect of replicating them on PC screens is not welcome in every office. But forms have the advantage of standardizing processes, and that's one of the foundations of workflow technology. As organizations get flatter and supervisors fewer, the need for standard processes becomes more urgent.
Once your office or agency is looking at computerizing its routing slips and is reviewing who should see which memos and forms, you're undertaking a workflow project, even though it might be a very simple one. In some workflow applications, the aim is to automate an existing information flow. Such projects focus on reducing paper-replacing memos with e-mail, paper forms with on-screen ones, and printed document drafts with word processor or spreadsheet files.
Getting rid of paper is not the true aim, of course; it's shorthand for working faster. Automation can speed up most processes that have information at their core. It's not just that a document literally moves faster over your office computer network than it can if left in your out-box. Automation can make it easier to identify, locate and compare information.
If your agency is undertaking a workflow project to reduce paper, you may end up with what's known as a document management system. It's not too difficult to get the people in your office or agency to rely on computers for exchanging memos, reports, letters, budgets and the other raw materials of government. But you can't expect outsiders to communicate only electronically. So you'll need a scanner for turning the incoming paper into on-line documents, and a printer to create paper documents for use outside your network.
You'll also need a cataloging and tracking system to locate documents in the electronic system and manage their flow. That last item will give you managerial power with none of the effort needed for manually logging papers in and out.
Document management systems are useful for correspondence control, production of standard reports, approval and forwarding of routine invoices, and similar applications where the process is fairly straightforward and inflexible.
Companies such as Keyfile Corp. of Nashua, N.H., FileNet Corp. of Costa Mesa, Calif., Eastman Software Inc. (formerly Wang Software) of Billerica, Mass., PC Docs Inc. of Burlington, Mass., and ViewStar Corp. of Alameda, Calif., specialize in document management and workflow software. Many sell to the federal government through systems integrators who supply printers and other hardware and install the complete system on an agency's local area network, often integrating it with existing office software and databases.
Choosing not to rely on a packaged system, some agencies have built document systems to their own liking. In a year-long project at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, for one, agency Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) professionals worked closely with contract PC and database programmers to build a custom workflow application. They started with screens that displayed the information the FOIA staff needed, then linked those screens to the document images and other records called on in FOIA processing.
Although the project has taken longer than installing packaged software alone, agency officials are pleased with the results so far. "We took a very simplistic approach to this, and it works," says Greg Powell of the FOIA staff. Other agencies are interested in adopting the INS system, he adds.
Sometimes, however, agencies find themselves automating processes that, upon closer inspection, are revealed as outmoded or inefficient.
If the agency can update its old process readily, the document management system can be introduced with little delay. If not, the agency may find itself undertaking a more ambitious kind of workflow project-one with a strong resemblance to business process reengineering. In these kinds of projects, agencies re-examine how their work is done and who gets what information. They aim to simplify, streamline and rationalize workflows, bringing them into conformance with today's policy and managerial environment.
One example of this kind of workflow project can be found in the Army. Pressed to cut support functions and divert more resources to war-fighting, a task force looked at how small purchases were made. It found that use of the federal IMPAC credit card is a good alternative to purchase orders. At the same time, the credit card buying process is a classic exercise in bureaucracy. Multiple, redundant approvals are needed for each small purchase, and card holders can spend hours allocating each line of the monthly bill to the appropriate Army account-by writing out a 65-digit account number. Each bill is then input by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), at a cost that can exceed $100.
The Defense Department comptroller's office has worked with the Army group, DFAS and the credit card issuer, First Bank, to receive bills in electronic formats, pay more of them electronically, reduce the number of approvals needed for purchases of less than $2,500, and develop Windows software that card holders can use to allocate and get approval for their purchases. There were many different kinds of systemic improvements. For example, the Army was creating stock records for each IMPAC purchase, on the theory that the newly acquired goods should be considered inventory. But the goods weren't warehoused, so no stock records were needed.
When all is said and done, the Army is expecting to save more than $100 in overhead costs per small purchase, which will add up to millions if the system is adopted by all Army units, according to Kathleen S. Miller of the Army's financial staff. She said simply automating the existing processes would not have achieved the same results.
For projects like the Army's, analysts and other participants can use software that models the existing process in all its complexity and allows them to test alternatives. These products can carry a workflow label, a business process re-engineering label, or other labels. It's worth inquiring exactly what the product and its modules do, because many of these words don't carry precise meanings.
The most advanced products will help you design a system, then implement the design with links to existing mail, databases and other products. For example, FedSuite from Universal Systems Inc. (USI), a systems integrator in Chantilly, Va., brings together document and records management with workflow mapping and routing tools. It runs on an organization's existing network database and has links to common forms, work processing, spreadsheet and database files. USI also sells hardware and consulting services for workflow projects.
One new kind of entrant into this field is companies offering workflow capabilities as add-ons to enterprise software applications. Oracle Corp., a database maker that offers financial and human resources packages, and PeopleSoft Inc., which also sells financial and HR applications to large organizations, both offer workflow software to help customers re-design processes and implement client-server systems.
Workflow products are available on the manufacturers' General Services Administration schedules and other multi-agency contracts, but selecting the right modules and installing them on your network is a job for professionals. Document management systems begin below $50,000, but systems for rebuilding fundamental agency processes can cost many times that.
As with most methodologies for organizational change, users have experienced mixed results with workflow products and techniques. There are a lot of snake-oil sales folk touting workflow as an answer to all that's wrong with your agency. But it may be time to take a look at long-established processes and see whether you can improve the flow of work that lands on a diminishing number of desks.
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