People are most productive when they are doing the things they are good at - thinking, communication, creating. They are least productive - and error prone - when they are involved in boring, repetitive processes.

The opposite is true of systems. Businesses are therefore most efficient when they have the balance of the three key resources of people, processes and systems properly integrated and focussed on their strengths:

• People developing and implementing processes and new ways of working
• Processes which optimise quality, consistency, timeliness and governance/audit
• Systems which facilitate the way people work by automating the core processes

With the introduction of Workflow COINS brings the benefits of this integration to its users. By creating workflows within their COINS system, customers can automate routine but essential processes such as invoice approvals, expense forms processing, purchase orders and site requisitions, freeing costly people resources to focus on improving and managing the business.

The new workflow module uses the Activity Workbench in COINS. It can also however use Microsoft Outlook as its messenger service and task manager. The Finance Director could then for example approve an invoice via an e-mail link which would automatically change the status in COINS from “on hold” to “approved” without any further manual intervention.

The workflow works in conjunction with the COINS Document Management System, enabling scanned documents and documents containing unstructured data to be managed by the workflow task management. A further level of integration and automation can be achieved through linking with COINS-etc, the electronic trading hub for the construction industry. Thus the whole procurement process from placing the purchase or site requisition to approval and payment of the invoice can be electronically transacted.

Of course these kinds of benefits don’t come without effort, and in the case of workflow the main effort required is in defining and documenting the processes, authorisations and groups that the workflow will automate. Consultants from the COINS Business Intelligence Team can support this and the implementation of the workbench as well as training the customer’s technical staff in the use of the toolkit. Once the workflow module is installed, the toolkit can be used by the customer’s own technical staff to reconfigure it for changes in the process, groups or authorisations - even on a temporary basis to cover holidays etc.

Most customers who have so far implemented the workflow have started with a relatively simple process - but one which happens many, many times every day - such as invoice approvals to realise and demonstrate quick but real benefits and to let their technical staff familarise themselves with the toolkit.