| | December 20168CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONWorkflow AutomationAn Enterprise Approach to Automating Business ProcessesThere are many different approaches and platforms for automating business processes in the market today. And with so many different software options and different approaches available, it's important to ask a couple of key questions before beginning to develop a workflow automation infrastructure:-Should workflow automation software be part of specific line of business (LOB) solutions, or should it be considered an enterprise layer and leveraged as a shared service by both enterprise software and LOB software?-What role does content management, case management, and document imaging play with respect to workflow automation?I would advocate that workflow automation software should be an enterprise level platform that is tightly integrated with enterprise content management and document imaging capabilities. Having automated many business processes for numerous organizations, there are common requirements that lead us to believe a robust enterprise workflow, case management and enterprise content management (ECM) platform approach is the right approach. Most business processes automation initiatives bring together 3 separate elements: Structured Data: Information that sits in enterprise applications, databases and LOB applications. This data must be referenced and updated as part of any business process logic and incorporated into any workflow automation solution. Unstructured Data: Information that exists in document form whether its paper, PDF documents, Word documents, e-mails, forms, etc. Unstructured information contains contextual content that is an integral part of most business process. Business Rules and Logic: Every process has inherent rules, data and document requirements, and decision logic. Whether the process decisions are fully automated using existing system data and logic, or must be reviewed by people participating in the process, the structured and unstructured information must be served up in the context of the business process steps to support the decision process.A robust workflow, case management and ECM platform provides the ability to seamlessly integrate the workflow decision logic with supporting data and documents required to execute the steps of the business process.We see this commonly in accounts payable, where business logic creates rules to hold the workflow until the system has all necessary documents in place--a purchase order, an Marlon Miller, Director-Workflow Automation, Xerox Corporation [NYSE: XRX]By
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