Summary description...

GBMS’ Workflow Automation (WFA) features enable companies to take a paper process, a decentralized electronic process, or a combination of both, and transform it into an integrated centralized web-based process that can completely automate daily business operations. Incorporating advanced exporting and reporting tools, the WFA module gives companies insight into their entire business pipeline, while reducing content errors, improving service quality and administrative effectiveness, as well as providing automatic exception reporting.

How it works...

For any document in the system, the WFA module lets users define ‘states’ and ‘transitions’ to express the organization’s policies and procedures. For example, a user can create different user-defined states (e.g., “On Hold”, “Credit Pending”, “Cancelled”) for a sales order, and then set up the transitions between those states and permissions. A transition is an assigned SQL stored procedure that performs a custom action. These transitions can optionally trigger GBMS business rule functions, such as approving an order.

A WFA action can be as simple or complex as necessary. A simple WFA action could notify specified users of a state change. A more complex action could evaluate data items to comply with a business rule and automatically invoke a GBMS process. For example, if a sales order does not exceed a specified amount, then the order is automatically approved. Each action in a WFA process has complete access to system-wide data, providing unlimited flexibility to perform any task.

Easy setup…

The WFA module’s table-driven design and user-friendly interface allow both technical and non-technical users to set up and utilize the workflow features. Non-technical users without advanced SQL experience can easily follow the workflow structure as well as identify and/or make certain changes. For example, using the very simplest workflow scenario, a user can set up the system to advance a document from one state to another (with no data manipulation or automated transactions) without having to use SQL.

In addition to the customized displays available via the main graphical user interface, GBMS offers an export feature that quickly creates a workflow layout in both Microsoft® Excel and Visio formats. Users can create these documents at any time during the workflow creation process in order to obtain an alternate visual representation of the workflow structure, which they can also print or distribute for outside input.

Benefits…

GBMS’ Project Management module works hand-in-hand with the WFA process to create a complete paperless document tracking system, simplifying project workflow. A User Defined Documents (UDD) XML-based solution allows users to replace all paper-based documents with electronic forms stored in SQL. Users can then tie these forms to selected documents.

The opportunities and benefits associated with the WFA module are virtually unlimited. The power-packed WFA engine is complimented by a browser-based user interface, enabling users to include direct references to a specific session and record hyperlinks that are communicated to users via email.