As usual, I was up against a tight deadline to give final approval on a statement of work that needed to go out for signature today. True story – I had just boarded a plane so I grabbed my new 4G-enable iPad, clicked a link I had bookmarked earlier that opened the SOW, quickly scrolled through the document reviewing deliverables, timeline and fee schedule, and toggled a pick list option to Approved. The Approved action, triggered a workflow that sent the SOW for electronic signature. When my flight landed 90 minutes later, the customer had esigned the SOW, which enabled our project team to begin an implementation the next day.
Much has been written in the past 2 years about the need for expansive mobile BPM/workflow capabilities. If we think about mobile as a means of effectively extending the enterprise to remote workers, providing them with anytime-access to critical documents and giving them the power to make real-time decisions -- well, I'm reminded by the use case above that that time is now!
In my example, an executive (me) on the go, took an action that resulted in a series of automated downstream alerts and activities. Not only did the contract get signed but the services team received an alert giving them the go-ahead to kickoff the project; the opportunities status in a CRM, such as Salesforce.com, was updated to "won" status which triggered customer on boarding activity; and, the customer automatically received an emailed PDF version of the contract which lessened administrative follow up. That's a whole lot of BPM, and it all started from changing a pick list value to Approved!
So, to get started, pick a process with manageable scope.
- Enable a mobile user to take a simple action (e.g. change a pick list value)
- Choose a process for which an action has significant downstream impact. (e.g. alerts fired that triggered several activities in sales, customer support, services and legal)
- Champion the success. As with any process change, shout about your successes. Educate. Coach. Praise.
The promise of mobile workflow is being delivered today. How will your organization increase agility and move mobile forward?
#workflow #cloud #Agility #BusinessProcessManagement #mobile #BPM #ECM