Workflow management impacts all aspects of a business’ operations, interactions and staff, which is why mastering workflow management is such an essential part of comprehensive business management.
The planning of new projects, interactions with clients and customers can all be better unified, streamlined and communicated if workflow management is operating at maximum efficiency.
An automated system can allow the whole team to work more collaboratively. Whether you are heading up the team or you’re entering as a newbie, automatic workflow management is a great tool to implement or to bring with you into your new position; as it can help teams and whole businesses streamline their communications and operations.
You’re then tasked with finding the right workflow management system for you and your business. Depending on the kind of team you’re part of and which type of industry you’re working in, you may find that one is a much better format for your team’s way of working than another. With the aim of getting you started, we’ve got a quick rundown of a few of the workflow management tools you might like to start your search with.
Asana is an all singing all dancing workflow management tool which assists teams in getting on the same page, sharing their workflow and team goals. Teams work separately within an organisation, but these separate teams often impact greatly on each other. With the actions of one potentially affecting the timing of a customer receiving a product, or the deadline of one project being pushed back may mean that a new client project cannot start yet. Keeping communications open, Asana lays out all of your streams of workflows so that all departments can have their own workflows, but the whole team can see them. A small to midsize team could even utilise the basic free version, which gives plenty of room to explore before deciding if you need to upgrade to a paid version.
Again this is an excellent, and practical, overall management tool for multiple teams working on their own projects, bringing all business and project goals together. By creating your own 'Board’, you can make an individual, team or all-inclusive to-do list and timeline which can be updated as you work through projects, keeping everyone in the loop. You’ll only get a 14-day free trial with this one before you have to pick your plan, however with such a user-friendly interface, you may well find it’s worth it!
Process Street may well suit some industries more than others as it is quite heavily document focused, with ‘Templates’ and ‘Checklists’ for your teams to work through. This is an excellent tool for organising your processes and systems to ensure your team isn’t missing any steps.
One of the main pros for this tool is the value for money, the free version allows multiple users access to a vast range of reports, which is rare for a free version software. You may even be more inclined to upgrade when you need to with such a reasonable company approach.
These guys peg themselves as the ‘versatile online form builder for everyone’, although this does mean that some of the capabilities might be slightly more limited when compared to those of Asana and Monday, for the right purpose, this could be a great addition to your workflow management or even work alongside another tool you use. A smaller or growing company especially may find its vast stock of premade forms, covering HR and customer service to name a few, very useful; ready-made interactions and onboarding processes for a small team which hasn’t grown to meet its demand yet!
With all of these options to choose from, the main thing to bare in mind is that all organisations are different. What has worked for you or your team in the past may not be the best for a new role or company, and to some extent a measure of trial and error is required. But with all of these options to choose from, there will be a version to suit your team’s workflows.
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