Third Party Workflow Tool

Cotta

Good Morning,

Could anyone explain what this is and how if differentiates from a First party work tool?

My understanding was that it was simply a piece of software to measure a businesses processes e.g. from product development through to sales.

Thanks

InsideInsurance

"Third party" -v- "First party" when it comes to software typically just relates to the relationship with the makers/ suppliers of the core software thats being provided/ used.

So if you used Microsoft for your CRM, Accounts, etc and installed a Microsoft Workflow tool or used the one already built into the software (like sharepoint's workflow for authorising new versions of documents) then this would be a first party solution. If on the other hand you were using the same software already but installed an IBM Pega workflow then this would be a Third Party tool


As to what workflow is, then you are quoting some of the outputs from it, ie the average processing times etc. What workflow is more about is actually moving and prioritising the tasks and having escalation points.

So for example at our current clients an underwriter agrees terms with a client, a price etc and inputs the basic details into a system along with the Word version of the terms. This triggers the workflow to send an action item to the admin department to input all the details into the booking system which is prioritised based on inception date of the policy. Once its inputted in the workflow returns the item to the underwriter with a new task to check the details are correct. Once they confirm it is it branches and one task goes to Admin to send out the documents and a second one goes to Accounts to request the payment. 11 months later a new task is triggered to tell the underwriter the policy is due for renewal and the loop starts again. If the Accounts team don't action a case within 7 days then it gets escalated to the Accounts team manager. If they dont action it within a further 7 days it goes to the Accounts team director and to the underwriting manager.

The tools can be very powerful but designing the flow, the rules, the groups and authority levels across a whole organisation can be difficult initially and even harder to maintain. For example, if you had the ability to set a priority case then how do you stop someone setting every case to the highest priority?

Out the back of this you then get reporting, how quickly were items picked up from the queue, how quickly were they processed, what is the critical path through the process, who is setting all their items to high priority etc etc

Cotta

Thanks for that Inside Insurance. On a personal level are there any basic workflow tools that I could use to play around with, e.g. something that would flag to me when my car insurance was due and what I need to complete etc? Obviously this is very basic but I would like to see it function in practice.

WTFH

Cotta, from your question yesterday and this one, can we assume you have a job interview where they want someone who knows about knowledge bases and third party workflow tools?

What else is on the requirements list?

InsideInsurance

Cotta wrote: »

Thanks for that Inside Insurance. On a personal level are there any basic workflow tools that I could use to play around with, e.g. something that would flag to me when my car insurance was due and what I need to complete etc? Obviously this is very basic but I would like to see it function in practice.

I imagine but you are more in the space of a task manager than workflow. Strictly it doesnt require multiple users to be workflow but almost exclusively it will

If you look at some free CRM or CMS systems they will have built in basic workflows you can use and customise for publishing content or other such things.

paddyrg

Typical scenarios where workflow tools help are things like expense reporting and reimbursement in a large company - it's about enforcing business rules and procedures and making sure claims for over £x get two signatures, line managers approve claims etc. It's about modeling existing business rules and automating a bunch of the grunt.

If you want to have a play or know more. http://www.processmaker.com. there is also a turnkeylinux appliance ready-rolled if you have a virtual machine to host it. As these systems are for working across departments or teams they'll be generally server-based.

If you just want a reminder about your insurance put it in a calendar, eg Google calendar.

scheming_gypsy

Cotta wrote: »

Thanks for that Inside Insurance. On a personal level are there any basic workflow tools that I could use to play around with, e.g. something that would flag to me when my car insurance was due and what I need to complete etc? Obviously this is very basic but I would like to see it function in practice.

A calendar / Microsoft Outlook

Cotta

Thanks all, I'll give Process Maker a try to see it in action.