Although the claim that something you pay for will “give you a competitive advantage” may sound clichéd, it is worth highlighting several workflow capabilities that deliver genuine market advantages. These success factors are closely linked to overall organizational efficiency and effective control of day-to-day operations. Secondly, various automation solutions can help us gain an edge over competitors, whether through lower costs or improved quality. Beyond this, the improvements in customer experience discussed earlier can also help a company stand out in a crowded market. The question is: how?
Pricing Advantage
How can we sell our products at more competitive prices while maintaining the same—or even higher—profit margins as our competitors? The following example from our experience clearly illustrates how workflow, and the more organized operations that come with its implementation, can help increase profits. During a company's process analysis, sales data revealed that orders—including large orders worth hundreds of millions of forints—were sometimes fulfilled incorrectly, with long lead times, and even defective products were being delivered. As a result, customer satisfaction remained, to put it mildly, low, while sales and fulfillment costs stayed particularly high. These problems eroded a significant share of profits, making any price reduction out of the question. The process analysis revealed that poor communication between departments and inadequate execution of cross-functional processes were the underlying causes. Predictably, departments blamed one another for the problems, while insufficient attention was paid to addressing the underlying causes. Summarized in a few sentences, this may sound straightforward. In reality, redesigning and implementing these processes required solving highly complex business problems while also overcoming some internal resistance during implementation. With the additional costs far exceeding acceptable levels, process optimization was ultimately able to move forward. The key factor was management's approach: rather than looking for someone to blame and holding employees responsible, they focused on identifying and eliminating the root causes. The workflow system proved highly valuable in this effort, as even the initial process analysis highlighted certain problems and inefficient practices. Following implementation, not only did the sequence of activities become fully transparent, but all data also became immediately available, providing almost instant feedback on the effectiveness of the measures introduced. Building on this, the processes involved were subsequently fine-tuned. The workflow system's inherent structure—specifically, that employees can only perform activities in the prescribed way along the defined process—also ensured consistent execution. Lower internal costs increased profits, which later made price reductions possible. However, this also required another workflow capability.
Automation
In the example above—as in most cases—process design included identifying activities suitable for automation and implementing the necessary automation. In this case, this primarily involved generating and managing documentation, as well as handling incoming documents within the process. Previously, orders and contracts had been completed manually, a highly time-consuming task when handling large order volumes. Fortunately, these were template-based documents, so the workflow system could generate them automatically. In addition, manually prepared orders had to be passed to the next person involved in fulfillment, which created several problems: order forms had to be sent individually, either by email or on paper, and recipients had to process them manually. These documents also had to be checked for accuracy and compliance. By contrast, the workflow system forwards these documents immediately and automatically, notifies recipients that they have a new task, and automatically validates the data against predefined parameters—for example, checking whether the price of a product in an order matches the price list. This solution both dramatically reduced errors and accelerated fulfillment. Customers received their products sooner, and order fulfillment became more accurate. The products delivered were exactly those ordered, in the correct quantities and at the prices customers had already seen in the price list. All of this significantly improved customer satisfaction while making more efficient use of internal resources, particularly working time.
Summary
Beyond the individual solutions, a key lesson from this example is that management's positive, supportive, and open-minded approach was essential for the company to move forward and resolve the internal problems undermining its competitiveness. In addition, implementing the workflow system delivered the following benefits in terms of competitive advantage: ● More efficient work and lower labor costs ● Cost reductions through automation and built-in algorithmic checks, resulting in fewer fulfillment errors ● Real-time feedback and full transparency, making it immediately clear exactly where problems arise and what they involve. This supports better, faster decisions and quicker problem resolution. ● Effective resource allocation: if a process slows down at any point, more resources can be allocated to that stage.
