18 February 2020
Let's get VIZZICAL! Watch now
Wouldn’t it be great if achieving business goals was as quick and easy as setting them? Yet achieving more complex business goals often involves various stakeholders and business processes. Streamlined processes help to smooth out organisational flow and can help a business save time. And when essential processes are streamlined, like getting approval for invoices, the benefits often include greater efficiency and productivity.
A workflow is a visual representation of a sequence of steps that results in a particular outcome. It also includes details on the resources needed to accomplish the final result and how all the elements work together.
Since performing a task in business can be a quick, simple process, or may involve numerous moving parts and stakeholders, there are various types of workflows. Businesses often use workflows as a quality control measure. For instance, pharmaceutical companies utilise them to ensure the quality of their raw materials. In HR, workflows can help streamline the hiring process or manage the employee leave cycle. Workflows are also crucial for organising and keeping track of how product issues are resolved, like an IT ticketing system.
To maintain the quality of crucial processes, many managers employ a particular kind of workflow – an approval process workflow.
An approval process workflow helps decision-makers review and adjust the quality of fundamental processes. They can check whether every step of a process is optimised.
Processes that require approval often involve various departments, functions and tasks like invoicing or document- and design approvals. And maintaining a standard of quality for these components is a non-negotiable for business stability and growth.
Creating an approval process workflow means defining the necessary steps for getting something approved. And, though it can be set up as a manual process, it’s far more beneficial for businesses to automate workflows.
Vizlib Collaboration Approval Workflow
With a manual system, there can often be confusion about who needs to do what and by when. And this can be a big time-waster for the business. Manual approval process workflows, for instance, are often more unreliable as employee accountability can vary. The resulting uncertainty or lack of clarity can slow down the approval cycle and the business’ output.
Automating repetitive processes in a business can save time and resources. And this practice also transfers well to approval process workflows, for example. Companies that use software to automate these workflows improve process standardisation, efficiency and transparency, and align more closely to compliance and regulatory requirements.
An automated process workflow can add value to your organisation by:
And for an approval process workflow, the benefits filter down to the users too.
Any workflow contains a few core components, including:
An example of a typical workflow
If we look at an approval process workflow, in particular, it also follows a cycle. And the standard components will likely include:
Vizlib Workflows feature
Different projects have different stakeholders and require varying degrees of input to reach completion. With the addition of process workflows, productivity increases and the business’ goals become more accessible. A few common use case examples include:
Vizlib Workflows feature
It’s important for decision-makers to keep track of the progress of business processes. With the new Workflows feature in Vizlib Collaboration, a value-added product for Qlik Sense, you now have greater control.
Vizlib Collaboration Workflows feature
You can define business process paths, such as tracking tasks or processes from start to completion or tracking an approval process from submitted to approved. The new feature also enables users to create a new Workflow for every Collaboration Stream and define the steps in the Workflow by adding or removing States for greater process efficiency.
Workflows help to streamline key business processes and improve the agility of your business. Download the latest version of Vizlib Collaboration and tap into improved productivity with Workflows today!
Vizlib’s feature-rich data visualisation products will help you get started on your data storytelling journey.
Got a technical question? Our Help Centre has heaps of helpful guides, articles, FAQs and more. Access Help Centre