7 Best Workflow Management Software in 2021

What is Workflow Management

A business process is comprised of a series of tasks. Take for example, hiring a new employee. Before a candidate gets hired, there are several steps involved right from resume screening to scheduling the interview, assessment questions, etc. All the steps taken towards candidate hiring would form an essential part of recruitment workflow management.

The one goal on which workflow management is based is business process improvement. Workflows are to be monitored in a manner that they only lead towards higher productivity and revenue. Efficient workflow management leads towards:

• Reduced errors
• Eliminating repetitive tasks
• Removing bottlenecks
• Less process risks
• Reduced wastage of resources
• Enhanced communication

The workflow is a mechanism used for completing projects and tasks on time. Finalizing vendors for the supply of certain products is another good example. Here the several steps taken to finalize the supplier would represent the workflow. And automating these steps for higher efficiency would involve effective workflow management.

Workflow Management Examples: What Are the Best Workflow Management Strategies

Here are the three top workflow management strategies for achieving the best results:

• Well-defined workflows- Neatly defined and documented workflows go a long way in making everyone in the team aware about all the existing workflows.
• Prioritizing workflows- Workflows need to be goal-oriented, lean and agile. For instance, prioritizing marketing workflows over sales workflows.
• Regular optimization- Workflows need to be regularly optimized and monitored to keep pace with business goals.

A centralized database for controlling the business operations and tracking workflows is possible with workflow automation software. You can go through the list here to understand how the workflow automation tool can further help strategize your workflow.

• As there may be multiple tasks at hand, prioritizing them is hassle-free because of the application's inbuilt SLA indicators
• Linking data with a website or picking any data from another website, workflow software is an intuitive solution for all these data syncing requirements
• In case you want to transfer documents from workflow automation software to another tool, this is hassle-free as the software can be integrated well with other applications on your device

Types of Workflow Management

Automated optimization of business processes is what workflow management is all about. Workflows today are of two types:

• Sequential- In this kind of workflow, the current step is based on the completion of previous steps. For instance, payment for an invoice would only happen once the quotation is ready and payment has been approved. A rule-based workflow that depends on conditional logic is another good example for sequential workflows.
• Parallel- Parallel workflow is when several tasks get concurrently performed. For example, for hiring a new employee, an HR can ask the finance team to arrange for software and equipment. Legal team can be asked too to arrange for signatures, contracts and such paperwork.

What is a Workflow Management System

A workflow management system helps improve the functioning of different business processes. It helps automate different business functions by creating a sequence of events. Workflow automation software further assists in identifying loopholes in processes and areas of improvement.

Deploying a workflow management software would mean automation of both sequential and parallel workflows. The best workflow systems help with:

• Improving operational efficiency
• Increasing employee's output
• Driving competitive advantage
• Audit tracking
• Effective compliance
• Process and product quality improvements

What are the Essential Components of a Workflow Management System

Workflow software helps with the workflow management in the following three steps:

• Input: Materials or inputs required for completing a task. For instance, inputs in an onboarding process would be documentation of all new equipment, contract, new appointee's contact information and other office items.
• Transformation: It involves the rules for managing the inputs, such as, candidate assessment rules, interview guidelines, etc.
• Output: Going by the above example, output here would be the successful recruitment of a candidate or rejection.

10 Must-Have Features of Workflow Management System

Optimize business operating procedures and business workflows using workflow management software. Some of the major workflow management software features are:

• Role-level access

Role-based access controls allow team leads and managers to involve only specific members of a team into their designated tasks. Paid and free workflow software, therefore, helps make these assigned team members aware of their responsibilities and KPIs (key performance indicators).

• Workflow patterns

Using a workflow management tool, you can set up workflow patterns for all types of tasks- interdependent, complex and simple. Workflow patterns make handling of parallel processes easy and simplified.

• Defining time constraints

Workflow automation software lets you not only assign task roles but also reassign them as and when the need arises. Here you can also set deadlines and constraints for task completion.

• Internal knowledge base

Workflow management software helps teams create a centralized database for resources. In such a database, tasks can be systematized visually using tools like Kanban boards. This becomes an internal knowledge base offering better collaboration, productivity and output.

• Mobility & cloud hosting

Features of cloud based workflow management system and workflow management apps can be accessed even while you are on the go. There is no need for complicated software installations because of the platform's cloud-enabled support.

• Code-free workflow designer

A code-free workflow designer within workflow tools is important for representing tasks in simple linear loops. This is unlike straight lines or complex diagrams. You can deploy workflow software for visualizing tasks in a code-free environment.

• WYSIWYG designer

‘What You See Is What You Get form designer’ feature is used for different purposes like displaying live data from any website or linking forms to another database. Popular document workflow automation tools even let you add maps, calculations, texts and numbers to a form with ease.

• KPI reports

KPI reports help assess how well your workflows are being streamlined by a workflow tool. KPI based reports let you examine all underlying issues and bottlenecks to a successful WMS implementation.

• SLA indicators

Status or SLA indicators are used for identifying tasks that need immediate attention as compared to the ones that can wait. These indicators use color codes for differentiating priority tasks from others.

• Parallel branches

Parallel branches are required for sequential tasks. Using workflow automation software, you can add branches before creating conditional tasks.

Benefits of Workflow Management Software

Automating business workflows for better compliance is easy and quick with workflow tools. Here is a list of other such benefits of business workflow automation systems.

• User-friendly representations

Workflow software solutions offer workflow visualizations for easy task management. Using the drag and drop methodology, the software captures the complete activity cycle and represents it in Kanban boards to make it easier to understand. The same can be distributed amongst members of the team through such workflow systems.

• Agile process management

Paid and free workflow software help with agile process management so that running and changing tasks even while you are on the go is hassle free. Renaming tasks, assigning works and deleting steps are easy when done using workflow systems.

• Approval workflows

All kinds of workflows- simple, conditional or complex multi-stage types can be simplified through workflow tools available with the approval systems.

• Automated task assignment

Automated task assignment lets you automatically assign tasks to the concerned stakeholders. You can also use this module for automatically assigning tasks to multi users, departments, and those with form data.

• Forms & tables

Workflow management software lets you add easily custom tables into forms. Besides, this feature can also be used for supporting different field types for arranging the flow of information.

• Comprehensive user portal

Popular workflow management solutions support single sign-on for seamless authentication. You can also use this portal for launching new requests as well as monitoring status reports in real-time.

• Calendar management

Scheduling meetings or hosting reminders, both can be accomplished using workflow management systems. The better the calendar management, the better would be business efficiency.

Comparison of the Best Workflow Management Systems

• Nifty

Automated progress reporting or collaborating with the team members, all is easy with the Nifty document workflow automation tool. The software is considered the best for its multiple tools that help with the managing the entire project lifecycle.

• Freshservice

Freshservice is a powerful service and workflow management tool for automating the internal processes of a business. You can also use the software for approving workflows and automating agent requests. Through Freshservice, you can define the trigger rules.

• Hive

Automating routine tasks and customizing the workflows can be done efficiently with Hive workflow automation software. You can also use this application for integrating with other tools within your system for easy task management.

• Automate.io

Automating multiple processes like payments, marketing sales and related business processes is easy with Automate.io. The software also offers connectors for SaaS/cloud applications as well as data mapping capabilities.

• Integrify

Create custom workflows to streamline all your business processes with the Integrify workflow system. Decrease errors associated with doing manual entries, track requests, and identify the key performance trends with this workflow software