Steve Conway is a full-time CRM consultant at ConvergeHub and a part-time blogger. He has earned herself quite a fame as a specialist and market expert in CRM software. In the last seven years, he has worked with various entrepreneurs to help them move their businesses to the cloud. His expertise lies in offering cloud CRM consultation, CRM customization, and integration solutions to small businesses. For the last one year, he is engaged in building ConvergeHub, a cloud-based CRM solution for fast-growing small and medium-sized businesses.
Choosing the right business workflow management tool can be really hard, as there are a plethora of options on the marketplace, each having a different perspective and angle on managing the workflow.
Now even though this might sound a little overwhelming - especially when you are unaware of how to pick them apart.
If you scout around the marketplace, you might find some of the workflow managing software solutions are extremely overpriced (just like any other Business Process Management software solutions like an easy to use CRM) and so chances are there that you cannot just really afford to pay five or six figures for a software that you have not tested yet.
On the other hand, you might even find certain business workflow management software tools that can be very hard to use, and so it is natural that you will refrain from buying such solutions that your staffs can start using only after three months of intense training and after learning the intricacy of those tools.
Therefore to help you find the right solution, we as one of the award-winning vendors of Salesforce Alternative CRM tools have compiled a guide that can help explain just about everything related to workflow management systems and take advantage of the killer benefits workflow management offers for sustaining business growth.
Unique Benefits Of Using Business Workflow Management Tools
With a business workflow automation system, you can assign and monitor tasks, so that work gets accomplished faster and your projects get delivered on time, without leaving money too long on the table.
In today’s world, the dictum “Customer is King” is the most appreciated phrase retold times and again in business growth training by all marketing and sales Ninjas across the globe.
Hence when the customer is in the limelight- can Customer Relationship Management or business CMR strategies lag behind?
Now CRM is an approach any company undertakes to with both its existing and prospective customers in their marketplace.
It is a business growth software that helps in deep dive into the interactions and other histories of transactions with the customers to deliver the perfect bespoke solutions and world-class customer experiences every time.
Over the course of years, it has been proven beyond doubt that improving processes in workflow management using the right business workflow management tool, can easily deliver valuable insights into the exact steps that go into its making.
Additionally, workflow management tools in businesses can even define processes that can be fulfilled simultaneously rather than in sequential order.
Hence workflow management tools aids in getting elaborate tasks done swifter and detect the inconsequential ones that can be overlooked or postponed for the latter.
With the help of workflow management software, any working project in your business can have an even shorter “go-live” deadlines.
Additionally, if any deadline gets overlooked or skipped, using business workflow management tools, team leads can notify their relevant staff on the gaps.
This is because, with a well-created flow chart of any project, the start time, co-ordination between teams, internal approvals, briefing customers on their status, final approval by the management and the team leads all can be done seamlessly so that the project can sail smoothly ahead and can be shipped to the customer within their deadlines.
Since business workflow management tools rely a lot on automated solutions, therefore man-made errors like duplicate entries and more are almost reduced to a nullity.
Just like with an all in one CRM which yet another business growth customer relationship workflow tool, data would need to be entered only once into the system, post which, the software’s algorithm can be used for replicating the entire operation.
For example, if any data in the system is edited once, it can produce error-free multiple outputs, and so with transcription errors being minimized, you can provide cent percent errorless output to your customers.
In modern times enterprises must also reduce their carbon footprints by using less paper, stationery, and other consumables needed for office works.
Therefore going electronic while communicating with your co-employees or customers can boost your brand’s eco-friendly approach which is something that even today’s eco-conscious customers like nowadays.
Finally, business workflow management tools must have intelligent and advanced search functions, which can help businesses to search for a wide range of criteria as your teams input their required parameters for the exact information that they require to develop their efficiency in the work.
Now doing this saves not only time and money for the organization but also aids in providing a better experience to the customers.
As we have said even earlier business workflow management software systems tend to vary a lot, since some are based purely on processes while others are on CRM, ERP solutions, BPNM 2.0 (Business Process Model and Notation) and some even have their own unique approaches to workflows, which ultimately makes the buying and choosing process for the right system extremely complicated and difficult.
Therefore to make this choosing process easier here are the three most essential functionalities that you must look for which can help differentiate the best business workflow management software solutions from the average ones found in the IT space.
3 Must-Have Features For Picking the Right Workflow Management System
If you have ever opted for adopting a business process management software (the precursors of workflow software systems) you have possibly noticed that it is not at all an easy task.
This is because the installation can not only cost a lot, but it also requires an army of trained professionals to install it and this can take several months.
Your business workflow management tool must be intuitive.
This is because getting your teams used to change is really tough, and making them learn how to use something complicated is even harder.
There are several workflow management software solutions out there in the marketplace, which are simply extremely difficult to learn and use, both for the management and their staff.
Now, if one purchases a workflow management solution where they cannot build processes on their own, or have to employ technical staff to code the company’s business workflow and processes into the software, it can be both costly and a time-consuming task.
Hence to avoid such a scenario, you need to find a workflow management platform that is cloud-based and reasonably priced, since you would not want to throw away your money on some clunky software that your staff may or might not use in the long run.
On the other hand, once your teams cannot use the software right from the start and require special training on how to use the software (mostly offered by the same solution provider selling the software) it can bring a sudden crash to your workflow and revenue.
Therefore use the right business workflow management tool that fits your company’s processes (and not the other way around) and have a no-code workflow design software, which implies just about anyone in your company can create and edit workflow processes with actually zero knowledge of the software in advance.
To get the most out of your workflow management tool, you need to be able to use it alongside all the other favorite software solutions that your teams presently use in the office.
For example, QuickBooks Online accounting, DocuSign, Slack, Trello, MailChimp, Skype, and more.
Now it must be remembered that not all third-party software solutions that you use have the right type of integration capabilities out there in the marketplace.
Hence select workflow management software tools that have REST API, In-Built, or IaaS- Friendly integrations like Zapier, which can allow your tool to get connected with thousands of different applications for in and out transferring of data seamlessly.
Conclusion
Now that you know what the advantages are of using a business workflow management tool, along with all the essential functionalities that you must look for while buying the system, to optimize your workflow, take the intelligent step today and start working the smart way.
Remember before committing to any piece of software, always be certain that it is the one you will stick to and so give your workflow software a try even before buying it, and make your own decision which one is perfect for your business.
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