What The Heck Is Workflow & Why Is It Important To My Business?

Digital transformation proponents keep talking about “workflow,” but they are marketing it to everyone. I know. Your business is special. No one does it like you do. That’s what makes you different, and what makes your customers stay with you. Successful businesses identify a need, hire good people, and solve real problems that often don’t follow rules, and may not have been solved before. So why do people keep talking about “workflow” as some kind of canned system, when the flow of work in your office is really specific to how your company does things?
Let’s talk about what workflow really is.

Workflow is rules.

That’s it. That’s all. Nothing more, nothing less. It doesn’t have to be automated. It doesn’t have to be fancy. It can be as simple as:

“Mail addressed to Eren goes to (wait for it…) Eren.”

So whenever someone talks about “workflow,” they are talking about the rules that run your business. If you can define these for more than 50 per cent of the tasks in your office, you are pretty far along. Workflow systems use computer programs to automate segments of these rules.

A classic example of this is when you need to buy something for your office. You might need to get approval from a manager. The manager that needs to approve it might depend on the type of item. For example, if you need a computer, the approving manager might need to be part of the IT department. But, if you need a chair, it might be the facilities manager or the office manager. By telling the system what the rules are, the system can make sure that any requests for purchases go to the correct manager.

Once you understand the rules, you can focus your people (and their ability to make decisions) on the exceptions. The result is better customer service, better control of the processes in your office, and a sharper focus on growing your business, as opposed to expanding the administration of your business.