Work flow solution

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A1an

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Hi there

I am new to work flow and need to implement a solution at work.
It needs to have a way to load 500 odd names, then track the work done per name until all steps per name have been achieved.
I need to get a view of where each name is in the process at any point in time for reporting purposes.
A Saas solution would be ideal, but if any of you have done something similar, what solution would best fit my requirement?

Thanks:confused:
 
I am playing with Cordys at the moment, I will check Openproj out too, thanks.
 
Are you looking for a BPM solution or just a way of tracking tasks?

BPM is my bread and butter so let me know if thats what your interested in...
 
Hi Beachless
I am of the feeling I need a BPM solution and not just a task tracking system.
Reason being, I need to automatically track and trigger work depending on the stage of that "products" lifecycle. There are mutiple parties involved, so once one party have done their bit the "batton" gets passed onto the next to do their bit. Once all tasks are completed I flag the product as complete, delivered and invoiced.
Very much like a digital production line.
Any sugestions or recomendations will be most appreciated.

Cheers
Alan
 
That certainly sounds like BPM.

Without knowing the process and the budget its hard to give you accurate advice.
What is your job title and skillset?

There are some nice products out there at a few million and then some up and comming Open source ones and then you get free engines(Like MS Workflow Foundation) in which case you need to do the front ends and admin clients custom.

One of the newest open source BPM kids on the block is www.activiti.org which is being developed by www.alfresco.com(a great open source CMS DM etc Solution) with a real Enterprise track record so Activiti should be a very real solution.

I would sugest looking at the BPMN2.0 standard and Activiti to get an idea of what BPM is all about.

The area is so broad though and its really an intesive process to find the best solution, I really need allot of facts in order to give acurate advice.
 
Thanks for the feedback.
I am downloading activiti and will check it out.

I am a Project Manager in a relatively small company, so cost is obviously an issue. Once I have identified a solution I need to convince the corporation that this is worth spending money on, so again cost will be a factor.

I know the basics of BPMN, and have been playing around on Cordys for the last few days, but am having a few problems there which are a little concerning.

Cheers
Alan
 
I haven’t used Cordys before but most BPM products have shortcomings the biggest problems in rolling out a BPM solution is usually trying to make a product do something it is not meant to do or not very good at because business wants it that way.

So I'd recommend taking your time in finding the right product for you, also design the solution around the product you’ve chosen so you can leverage its strong points and avoid its weak ones.
Also remember that Processes should always be changing and enhanced so starting with part of an overall process and continually building on it is often better than trying to deliver the whole thing in one shot.

A good BPM solution is really easy to sell because it puts allot of knowledge in managements hands with things like auditing, escalations, the fact that the process has the logic and not the staff decreases training time for new employees and we often bring turnaround times down by hundreds of percentages (using automation and business to business communication) so I wouldn’t worry about convincing the corporation.
Find the right product and you won’t look back, just be aware that things can easily go very wrong as well.
 
great, thanks, this advice makes a lot of sense.
I am looking at a lot of different systems currently with specific focus on Saas based offerings, but basically open to whatever is the best fit.
Cordy's, runmyprocess, Questetra, Activiti.... and still searching for more.
I would love to see what Microsoft has to offer since we are gold partners, but to run a trial without doing a local install isn't likely.
 
Beachless said:
I haven’t used Cordys before but most BPM products have shortcomings the biggest problems in rolling out a BPM solution is usually trying to make a product do something it is not meant to do or not very good at because business wants it that way.

So I'd recommend taking your time in finding the right product for you, also design the solution around the product you’ve chosen so you can leverage its strong points and avoid its weak ones.
Also remember that Processes should always be changing and enhanced so starting with part of an overall process and continually building on it is often better than trying to deliver the whole thing in one shot.

A good BPM solution is really easy to sell because it puts allot of knowledge in managements hands with things like auditing, escalations, the fact that the process has the logic and not the staff decreases training time for new employees and we often bring turnaround times down by hundreds of percentages (using automation and business to business communication) so I wouldn’t worry about convincing the corporation.
Find the right product and you won’t look back, just be aware that things can easily go very wrong as well.
Click to expand...

+1000 That can not be stressed enough - I'm speaking from first hand experience.
 
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