Making the processes in your company as efficient as possible is one of the most important challenges of modern business. Nowadays, in many industries, most or even all the processes are digitized, and implementing the right software to improve and facilitate them seems like a natural step forward.
Thanks to a workflow management system, you will let your employees communicate with each other more efficiently and make many tasks easier. Learn more about implementing workflow management software!
Key Takeaways
- Workflow management software helps to align and organize various processes in your organization, such as task prioritization.
- In order to prepare for its implementation, you should be aware of the needs of your business and prioritize the tasks properly.
- After the implementation of workflow management software, continue monitoring its effectiveness and adding the necessary changes to achieve better results.
- Such a system can be used both in projects involving just one team and in cross-functional projects.
- By choosing HighGear, you will gain all the most important benefits and get the necessary help with implementing workflow management software.
What Is Workflow Management Software?
Workflow management software is a system aimed at improving the organization of complex processes aimed at achieving a certain goal or a set of outcomes. As it allows for more automation, it brings a lot of benefits to a company, such as boosting productivity, reducing error, and more.
As workflow often includes repetitive tasks, handing them over to an automated system is very common, and it typically proves to be the most efficient solution for a business and allows the employees to focus on more significant work that requires human attention.
How to Implement Workflow Management Software?
Once you have selected your workflow management software and purchased it, you must begin implementation.
1. Verify Which Processes and Steps You Want to Include in the Workflow System
To start, you need to know what processes you want your workflow management software to cover.
Usually, this is best achieved with a brainstorming session with your entire team. Make sure to keep track of all the necessary processes and their functions that come up. With these details documented, you can create a clear roadmap showing you and your team how the workflow management system should function before you start implementing it in practice.
2. Compare Your Process Map with Similar Use Cases
To make sure the process map you created is relevant to your industry, check if it complies with its overall standards. Search for similar workflow management software case studies in your niche to maximize the probability that a particular scheme will work in your business as well.
Referencing outside workflow models will help you identify any flaws or deficiencies in your plan and adjust it to the commonly accepted standards that seem to be the most efficient.
3. Consider Task Dependencies
Most tasks in a workflow need to be completed in a particular order, as one results from the other. For this reason, while mapping your workflow management system, you need to consider the relationships between them. Such dependencies will strongly impact the scheduling and resource allocation.
For instance, if a certain team member may start task B only after task A is completed, task A needs to be scheduled prior to task B. Also, the employee responsible for task B needs to be informed straight away that task A is completed, and they may start their work.
4. Take Time and Budget into Account
When you already know which workflow features are most vital to your needs and how to map them, you can estimate what timeline and funds will be needed for its implementation.
This way, you will minimize the possible difficulties associated with disrupting your company’s integrity. It may be a good idea to implement a workflow management system in a less busy season when the natural challenges of adjusting to a new tool will have minor consequences.
5. Set KPIs/OKRs to Track Performance
One of the best practices associated with workflow management software is also tracking its performance. For this reason, before your team starts using it, it is recommended to set the OKRs or KPIs, depending on which approach your company follows.
Prepare performance tracking measures with intuitiveness in mind so that you can clearly see whether the system improves your team’s performance and helps you to achieve the desired results.
6. Audit and Adjust
As you accept new projects, introduce new tools, hire new employees, etc., your workflows may undergo significant changes. In reaction, you need to constantly audit the effectiveness of your workflow management system and modify the steps, plans, or other aspects of the software to adjust it to the current needs.
In order to have a good reference point, it is recommended to keep your documentation relevant. To support healthy continual reform, you should plan a quarterly workflow system audit and regularly discuss with your team any possible modifications, updates, or optimizations that could potentially improve their productivity.
Additional Tips for Implementing Workflow Management Software
To further maximize the benefits of workflow management software, here is a list of implementation best practices for two different scenarios.
Team Coordination Workflow Management Software Implementation
It can be hard for a manager to know what their team is working on if everyone is using different tools. For this reason, it is important to introduce one centralized system to align every process and improve the efficiency of the whole team.
In order to achieve this, you can follow these tips:
- Set a centralized team project in your workflow management system. Integrate it with the tools used for reporting in your company. An efficient two-way integration will help you improve the flow and let everyone stay up to date.
- Analyze your team’s tasks through the workflow management software every day. You will get the updates automatically and in real-time. As a result, you will be able to give feedback on a particular task, follow up with any questions, and react immediately if something goes wrong in a project.
- Provide updates, schedule tasks, spearhead initiatives, etc., all from one central location.
- Implement integration of your team project with the necessary processes concerning your board or management so that they can be up-to-date, especially with the tasks where their input is necessary.
A Cross-Functional Project Workflow Management System Implementation
When a few teams (or even all of them) need to cooperate on the same project, efficient communication and smooth workflow are crucial. All the employees need to understand what their collaborators are responsible for, what is the overall progress, or if there are any issues or delays along the way.
Here are five tips for improving your workflow with dedicated software in the case of a cross-functional project:
- Organize a meeting with all project stakeholders to form a plan for working on it and delegate tasks properly.
- Make sure every employee can see their tasks in the workflow management system and can integrate the tools necessary for completing them so that the projects are synced together.
- Ask everyone participating in a project to track their progress with the tasks, and emphasize the importance of communication and collaboration through your workflow management software.
- Make all discussions happen within the system so that everyone can see them and be informed about any problems, changes, or controversies.
- Enable real-time updates in your workflow management software so that any issues can be identified and addressed as quickly as possible. In this way, you will reduce wasted effort and keep the project on deadline.
Implement High-Quality Workflow Management Software with HighGear
To benefit from workflow management software to the fullest, you should choose the best available system, adjusted to your needs and allowing for high customization. It should meet all the requirements of your industry and your particular organization so that it can efficiently improve productivity.
By selecting HighGear, you will get maximum benefits at a reasonable price. Our no-code solutions have been valued and leveraged by business teams, business analysts, IT professionals, and other specialists.
As we offer great customer service, we are ready to help you with implementing your workflow management software and customizing it for your business.
Contact us today and start improving the workflow in your organization now!
FAQ
1. What are the most important functionalities of HighGear workflow management software?
Thanks to the HighGear platform, you can get functionalities that will help you to:
- Create forms
- Automate workflows
- Assign tasks
- Review reports
- Improve communication
- Use many other helpful features
2. What should successful workflow management look like?
In order to be successful, your workflow management should:
- Consider your team’s needs
- Enhance productivity
- Be simple to understand and follow
- Facilitate communication
- Leave the repetitive tasks to automation
By investing in the HighGear workflow management system, you can achieve all of the above and more!
3. What are the main benefits of implementing workflow management software?
Here are some of the most important benefits you can gain when you implement a workflow management system in your organization:
- Error reduction
- Better communication between employees and teams
- Improved productivity
- Less time wasted on repetitive tasks
- Increased transparency