Many key business processes in organizations are still carried our using a mix of manual and automated steps. Performance reviews are filled out in word documents and then e-mailed to supervisors to complete and then to managers for approval. When a new employee is hired, a whole series of events in HR and IT should be triggered (e.g., health care options must be selected, a PC and network access requisitioned).
Automating these processes can both save time and money. Employees will spend less effort tracking down forms they need to complete and managers and administrators will be able to quickly process forms and more easily determine the status of a specific process.
SharePoint provides tools that make it easier to automate common business processes. Specifically, InfoPath can be used to develop forms that allow for easy data entry and validation. SharePoint also provides several options for generating workflows that allow these forms to move through a review and approval process. Simple workflows can be built using out-of-the-box SharePoint and InfoPath capabilities and more complex workflows can be built using either SharePoint Designer or using Visual Studio.
Here are some examples of processes we can help organizations automate:
· Employee on-boarding
· Performance reviews
· Recruiting and interview scheduling
· Travel and expense reimbursement
· Policy and procedure change and approval
· Marketing campaign review
There are two key benefits from business process automation:
· —both individuals and organizations will work more efficiently by reducing errors in data entry, sending forms to the right person for review and approval, and insuring that the prescribed business process is followed in all instances.
· —when a process is automated, we can then collect key process metrics and present them in a simple process dashboard. This will allow managers to identify instances of the processes that are stalled and find and repair process bottlenecks.