Workflows Software exist on various levels of any business, within processes large and small alike. Anywhere something gets done, there’s a workflow to thank: be it on a conveyor belt or online, at work or at home, workflows are what they sound like: they’re where work flows.
When a workflow does occur digitally, there’s a method to make sense of it. After all, unlike a physical workflow like within a factory, the machines in use within a digital workflow are not able to be accounted for in the same way — nor can they be managed in the same means. That’s where workflow software comes in.
What Is Workflow Software?
The way that you relate to and manage a digital workflow differs greatly from a purely physical workflow, like a traditional manufacturing plant. While you inspect physical machines to ensure process integrity, a digital workflow doesn’t have this ability in every case. However, there is a way to interact with digital workflows in a way that mirrors this ability, as well as other functions, all with the benefits of digital tools.
Workflow software is a type of digital tool used to interact with and manage digital workflows, including features like telemetry of individual microservices and of the whole process. Along with this, workflow management software programs allow for API integrations between microservices and with a central rules engine — all to make for smoother, more secure processes in general. In many cases, workflow software can even aid users in automating their workflow, on top of tracking its activity. More and more, workflow software is seen as a necessity for those who manage businesses with digital workflows of varying sizes and levels of complexity.
Functions Of Workflow Software
There’s a lot that can be accomplished by using any workflow software. When you are looking at a business process head-on without such a tool, it can often seem daunting — and if it doesn’t, that might even mean that you’re not seeing the big picture. The whole of your business operations requires attention to detail, especially when it comes to handling, fixing, and monitoring the various microservices that make up the process. That’s why workflow software is designed to aid you in those functions, and why it has functions of its own that help such programs earn their keep.
Visibility And Management
Here’s the main event: you have a tool to manage your workflow, from the building of your process to ensuring that every single container in place is performing properly. As the manager or owner of a business, you’re able to take ownership of the workflow, as workflow software shows you the mapped process as a whole, as well as allowing you to measure activity by various KPIs that the software tracks from each individual subprocess.
You’re also able to find the connections and microservices that are proving problematic, whether because of flagged technical issues or outside factors and in either case, the visibility of this is higher thanks to a holistic dashboard view that any such program offers of the process in question.
Diagnosis And Remediation
Now that you have visibility of the processes that are your company’s lifeblood, you can step in when there are indications that trouble has arisen. How to step in, though, often takes time in digital workflows that don’t have workflow software. Why? Because each container, each activity, exists within a different application — and without knowing where a process issue is coming from, diagnosis can take a lot longer than it should, and your business can experience downtime during all that.
However, with each application and each activity integrating with a central workflow software, you can expect better, stronger indications of where in your process a problem arises, and even what type of problem it may be, rather than having to do a full investigation of the workflow as a whole. Remediation is the same way. Workflow software can offer improvement suggestions, whether they are large or small problems that need fixing; in any such case, it’s better to have the patient tell the doctor what’s wrong — and that’s what you can expect when solving problems with a workflow software in your toolbox.
Execution And Orchestration
The way that a workflow software executes is definable by the types of microservices you put into it. When microservices are human-led activities, then the execution is all about moving finished workloads from silo to silo and monitoring the KPIs that it would be in charge of. However, when your microservices are automated, consisting of machine-led activities, then it’s far easier to build executive loops based on the logic provided.
Workflow software can even provide a central rules engine for such use, giving each microservice the logic it needs to perform its functions on each workload as directed — rather than having to input that extra information for each new workload that comes in. The multitude of tasks that can be performed also can be arranged to work in tandem by a software like this, with event timing and interdependent task management not possible otherwise, unless you plan to do it all by hand. Such orchestration of the activities within any given process is made possible thanks to workflow software.
Conclusion
The use of such software proves to benefit so many businesses, large and small. By saving them time, saving them labor cost, and even saving them the headaches of diagnosis and task orchestration, it’s no wonder that workflow software is becoming a staple in the business world.
