Excellence in Practice, Volume V

Innovation and Excellence in Workflow and Business Process Management

Each case study received a prestigious Excellence in Workflow Award based on the the following:

INNOVATION encompasses the innovative use of technology for strategic business objectives; the complexity of the underlying business process and IT architecture; the creative and successful deployment of advanced workflow and imaging concepts; and process innovations through business process reengineering and/or continuous improvements.

Hallmarks of a successful IMPLEMENTATION include extensive user and line management involvement in the project while successfully managing change during the implementation process. Factors impacting the level of difficulty in achieving a successful implementation include the system complexity; integration with other advanced technologies; and the scope and scale of the implementation (e.g. size, geography, inter-company processes).

IMPACT is the bottom line, answering the question "what benefits does workflow deliver to the business?"

Examples of potential benefits include: productivity improvements; cost savings; increased revenues; product enhancements; improved customer service; improved quality; strategic impact to the organization’s mission; enabling culture change; and—most importantly—changing the company’s competitive position in the market. The visionary focus is now toward strategic benefits, in contrast to marginal cost savings and productivity enhancements.

Readers of these detailed case studies can find out more about:

Their system application, what the system is used for, who are the users and what the job entails

What were their key motivations

Their system configuration (number, and type of software, servers, scanners, printers, storage devices, etc., including the identities of the vendors and integrators involved)

The number of users currently on the system and number of users planned.

How the company has been impacted by their new system; cost savings, ROI and increased productivity improvements, competitive advantage gained, and how they managed to move the goal posts for their industry.

Their implementation process and methodology, the project team, and the change management and business process reengineering issues they addressed.

How these companies managed both their overall technological and business innovations.