xFLOWer Enterprise Edition offers all the functions and unmatched process management and automation capabilities required for high security and high availability in large scale multi – user environments.
Basically all business operations are based on policies, job descriptions and consuetude, however only a few companies apply appropriate business process management tools - workflow software that is able to manage all business processes and automate as many tasks as possible.
Do you know what your colleagues are doing? What unfished tasks are present at given coworkers or departments? Can you always check case histories to know what happened exactly? xFLOWer workflow is a business process management system that provides all the mentioned business insight while supporting and managing all business processes - and automate as many tasks as possible. Especially useful in business environments that imply multiple premise locations, large number of clients and complex business processes.
xFLOWer workflow system provides a process management solution, not only capable of managing human workflows but beyond: it provides business process automation with integrations - therefore automating processes that overarch different IT systems and involves the usage of numerous databases. Such workflows might start, move forward and can be closed without any human interaction and of course, all necessary documents are attached to the relevant process. It goes without saying that certain human interactions - checks, control points, decisions - can be incorporated into automated processes too as needed.
xFLOWer is able to connect to any IT system, with ready made interfaces for a number of enterprise IT systems. As a workflow system, it is able to work together with the latest SOA architectures and also with single databases or offline environments. xFLOWer is sold mainly as a cloud service, however there are a number of cases where on premise implementation is needed on the client's infrastructure.
xFLOWer Enterprise Edition is currently used by almost all industries and also in a number of government bodies for process and document management. More than 10 000 users are running around 800 process types and works in the system on a daily basis. Therefor around 100 million processes are run in the system a year and approximately 200 million documents are managed at the same time. xFLOWer Enterprise Edition is being used by the largest multinational enterprises for more than 15 years in the sectors of industrial, commerce and services too. Our customers form the FMCG, telecommunication, finance and other sectors also rely on xFLOWer's performance to manage their day to day operations. Moreover, a number of government bodies are using the system to support their operations. Most of our customers manage a number of - in some cases, hundreds of - different processes in the system, however, some clients tend to use the system for a specific purpose, managing 1-2 processes in xFLOWer.
The system fits into the enterprise's IT environment. It also provides a middleware solution so that multiple databases can be accessed and business processes requiring data from multiple sources can be managed in the system without changing the existing infrastructure. As the system is usually sold as a cloud based solution, there's no need to invest into hardware or personnel to operate the system. Our customers have the opportunity to choose the cloud provider of their preference, by default we are using Amazon AWS cloud to run our applications.
In case you do not wish to harness the advantages of cloud services for any reason, we offer on premise solutions too. In that case the system will run on your company IT infrastructure. In this case, xFLOWer workflow engine and the document management engine have no special server needs. Both components and other elements of the system can operate in Windows, Linux or enterprise Unix environments.
In order to serve special needs too, we offer the possibility of a hybrid system, in which case the workflow engine and the application server is running in the cloud while the document server is placed locally to your IT environment. Users however will not notice any difference in any of the above cases; everything in the GUI will be exactly the same. xFLOWer is able to connect to existing authentication and authorization tools, hence providing the possibility of Single Sign On logins - no need to have extra user names and passwords for different systems.
Automating tasks within business processes gives the opportunity to free human resources in the organization, hence gaining more time for important projects and high added value tasks. Even fully automated processes can be created (eg. outstanding debt management), but let's see a few examples of actual automated processes at our clients:
Imagine having thousands of running processes, waiting for events such as:
These tasks, deadlines and checks can be managed automatically by the workflow engine. The workflow engine - based on the preset rules - will move forward, change, start or close business processes, send alerts or assign tasks to humans. The processes can be grouped, linked or assigned to managers too.
In most cases, a document management system means a user interface similar to a file manager in which scanned documents and Word/PDF files are stored in a tree structure. xFLOWer's DMS engine offers much more. On one hand, it interprets every file uploaded as a document (scan, email, fax, SMS, Word/PDF, Excel, voice recordings, etc.)so that all files involved in a process can be managed as documents. On the other hand, all documents are attached to business processes, therefore all information is available exactly where and when needed. Besides the main business process (from ticketing through CRM to project management or other processes) all document related tasks can be modeled in and managed by the system: filing, storing, archiving, deleting, indexing or others as needed. Also, document related metadata is created during the processes: all information entered into the system can be searched later, shall these information be in a document or only entered into forms. Also, a more advanced document search method can be applied by using tagging. Any tag can be attached to any document, therefore a more sophisticated "flagging" of documents is possible - making documents searchable by applying complex search queries.
For example, a single document can contain the following tags: Plastic Ltd., contract, deadline: 2020 January, Confidential, Archive: A shelf, VIP customer, finance, investment, partner, orders value: above 1M EUR. After attaching these tags to the document, it becomes searchable by any of these tags, or even any tags combined.
All documents can be generated from templates, so any SMS, PDF/Word, E-mail files can be created without any human work or interaction. (In our experience, it takes around 4 minutes to generate an average document manually - so if only 10 documents are generated a day, it takes around 13 hours of worktime a month. This is the amount of time that can be saved by using automated document generation!) Of course, the generated documents can be sent automatically too, saving even more time for operators.
Workflows may not only create but also modify documents. For example, after a certain point in the process, the document cannot be viewed, or it is converted from RTF to PDF or add a watermark to it, and others.
xFLOWer DMS system provides a complete solution for document reception. The system includes a receipting/filing function for both scanned and digital documents. For example, e-mails can automatically be added to the xFLOWer document archives, while attaching it to a customer and/or sending an autoreply message, also automatically.
Imagine the workflow and DMS engines jointly creating e-mail messages which are containing active links. Hence, based on the preset process, the system can send an automatic e-mail message to a manager, containing an attached document for approval and two links in the e-mail body: I approve or I reject. When the manager clicks on either of the links, the workflow changes according to the choice and therefore, the process goes to a different direction. Of course, such e-mails can be sent to clients and partners too, and can contain basically and decision you imagine. Therefore approval type workflows can be automated in a platform independent, easy to access environment, without the need to even sign in to the system.
At large enterprises it is not unusual that coordinators are delegating tasks for colleagues at their departments. However, in most cases this work can be automated, where the workflow system delegates all tasks considering the workload, skills and availabilities of coworkers. Hence it is not possible to delegate more tasks to colleagues who are overloaded anyway or to delegate a task to coworkers without the skill needed to perform the task at hand. The system also supports semi - automatic worktime and workforce management processes too.
Imagine having thousands of open cases in the company, and all related tasks have to be distributed! In a conventional delegation system it would be nearly impossible to perform this delegation task. Yet xFLOWer is able to resolve a delegation task of such magnitude. It can delegate tasks one by one (PULL) to colleagues or based on preset delegation criteria, itt assigns all tasks to preset users (PUSH). Task delegation can be performed in various ways:
Task priorities can be adjusted based on complex priority criteria. The workflow engine constantly estimates task priorities in running processes, therefore the actual priority of any process is always up to date. Weight factors can derive from different qualities. For example, deadlines can be weighing factors or process type - among many others - can be a weight factor too. Of course, these qualities can be combines and priority is given based on the sum of aggregate weight factors.
All operations of the workflow system can be parameterized through the xFLOWer Active Edit graphic process editor. All process creation and modification tasks can be managed through the graphic interface, with the appropriate eligibilities. Hence, there's no need for programming or involving the IT department to create, modify or terminate processes. Imagine drawing a process flowchart in a "classic" process drawing tool, and without any further IT "magic" it runs in the workflow system immediately, available to all colleagues. After that point, all colleagues involved will receive their tasks based on the modified or newly created process. Sounds incredible? Maybe it does, but xFLOWer works exactly this way. If you want to change - for example - your invoice process, it takes around 20 minutes to draw the process in xFLOWer, and adding forms and templates to it. Then just save, and no more editing work with this process! Your colleagues only have to mind their own tasks, and not the usual process modification hassles.
IT and process owner tasks are completely separated in case of process editing. Everyone can work on their own tasks: process owners can create and modify processes, while IT professionals can create integrations, so that processes can run over any number of different IT systems. Templates and test support tools are also available for process editing.
Business processes can be automated, by applying various integration tools:
By implementing xFLOWer Enterprise Edition, your company will receive a closed system that will contain and manage all business information. Such information - data - can be entered into the system as parts of business processes, hence avoiding lost or misplaced documents, data and any other information loss.
The history module shows in a few clicks what exactly happened to a given client: e-mails received, phone calls made, documents approved, documents received, decisions made during the client's processes and so on.
Relations among business processes are also shown, so it becomes visible what decisions were made by who, what other documents and cases are related to a given process.
Also the TimeLine feature shows the real time history of a given case, available constantly for users. All process steps, responsible persons, events and other process data is shown in the TimeLine.
Thanks to xFLOWer's advanced integration capabilities, it is possible to establish connections to virtually any other IT system. Hence, the workflow is able to gather data from various - even multiple - systems is order to complete a given business process. xFLOWer can access, read, write, synchronize, update and migrate data from or to other systems as needed. Also, M2M automations can be created with this method: for example, xFLOWer can check in the financial system periodically which customers have debts and start a debt collection process for these customers - of course after segmentation and checking whether other conditions apply to the given customer. After checking the debts, the system can start a debt collection process automatically, or even prepare a "customer debt package" containing the data of customers with existing debts, and send it to an external debt collector partner. And xFLOWer performs all of this without any human interaction whatsoever!
xFLOWer is able to provide a complete, unified enterprise frontend for all systems used at the company. For example, different data sets can be accessed through xFLOWer: ERP data sets, customer data sets, partner data, technical registries, etc. Therefore, there's no need to login to all systems to have all required data at hand while providing the possibility to set up alerts for certain data changes as needed.
xFLOWer offers a number of different standard API interfaces in order to connect to different IT systems. By using these tools, data stored in xFLOWer may become available for other IT systems, and also, such systems can start, create, modify processes and use the documents created or stored in xFLOWer. It is possible to implement the latest SOA based technologies while unique webservice integrations and "traditional" database-database connections (dblink, odbc, jdbc...) are also available - furthermore, even occasional offline integrations can be implemented.
Some xFLOWer elements and tools (eg. customer data management, process start, customer history) can be transferred to different systems' GUIs. We offer many different tools for these tasks too: portlets, iFrame. These tools are able to establish reverse data flows, so that other systems' GUI elements can be shown on the xFLOWer GUI.
Statistical abilities of the system enable business leaders to gain actual, real time information about any running process, operational efficiency or the operation of given departments separately. Reports can be rather comprehensive for the top management, or more detailed - for department leaders or other middle management colleagues. Therefore the top management can always have a clear picture about the main operational issues in the whole organization, while operative improvement can be done on the level of departments, thanks to the detailed statistics available for the middle management. Timing can be applied for reports, hence given reports will always be updated at the same time (or in the same period of time), hence regularly analyzed data is always available and up-to date.
Most enterprises are connected to a number of partners, suppliers, coworkers, customers and many others via online connections. These partners can be participants in various business processes and there are occasions, when such participants and/or processes communicate directly with clients. (suh as: web forms, SMS/e-mail feedback, feedback from couriers, etc.) It is necessary to build connection points to the above described participants and processes. However, only those parts of the process shall be accessible for such participants they are involved in. Such connection therefore must be secure and controlled. xFLOWer provides such solution.
Furthermore, the system is able to handle partner and agent sales processes, and also project and maintenance operations. The online interface provides the opportunity for those who are working on the field to enter and upload data into the system on the spot. All the while the workflow engine is directing all participants and all tasks within the process, therefore all data, tasks, and other elements are managed in a closed system, hence enabling data flow among participants, approvers and business leaders alike without interruption.
At the same time the systems provides an e-learning module in order to ensure easy learning for newcomers, new partners. Also the e-learning module can be used to keep all coworkers' knowledge fresh or to manage learning new products, services, promotions among others. Tests and questionnaires are providing the possibility to measure employee progress in the system.
xFLOWer workflows are also available through mobile devices. Today many complex business processes are requiring data upload, decisions or other tasks to be performed regardless office availability. Since xFLOWer provides mobile accessibility, the most important decision points and other on-the-spot activities become available for colleagues anytime, anywhere. For example, approving a contract or an invoice can be done through a mobile phone or even whole processes can be managed in mobile environments. A great example for that are maintenance projects: colleagues working on the field are able to document their activities, upload invoices, certificates of completion, photos or whatever needed. Based on the data entered the process can be altered by the system as data may trigger automated decisions. Also, the mobile environment provides the possibility to access data stored in xFLOWer such as documents, photos, spreadsheets and others.
