BPM / Workflow

Increasingly, law firms are looking to Business Process Management (BPM) and workflow tools to increase their operating efficiency, accelerate growth and improve the quality of service provided to clients and internal users.

BPM leverages technology to create, track and measure streamlined, repeatable processes. It provides a structured approach for firms to restructure and simplify the way work is done while offering greater visibility and predictability. Successful business process management requires three key components:

• Business Process Analysis -- Assessment of an existing practice and the design and definition of a new process
• People and Forms Management -- Use of workflow technology to create forms used to capture information and to manage to-do lists, notification, and activity tracking
• Systems and Data Integration -- Movement of relevant information among systems in order to carry out processes defined and managed by workflow technology

The Problem

Workflow tools typically focus more on the "people" and "process" side of the equation. While this includes essential components such as forms management, collaboration and activity tracking, such tools do not make it easy to manage the actual data that's the subject of worker activity. Instead, organizations must still rely on manual user intervention, resulting in unexpected delays, errors and inefficiency.

• Example: A firm uses workflow software for expense reimbursement and personnel intake processes. It does an excellent job of coordinating the steps that people must take to carry out these processes. However, it does not address the actual creation and communication of information among people and the applications they use to carry out assigned tasks.

Workflow software can collect key information and bring together the right people to execute their part of a defined process, but streamlining the actual work often remains a manual activity.

• Example: A workflow system lacking integration instructs a user to manually re-key information across several applications and update the workflow dashboard when finished. The next participant in the process then receives similar instructions.

The IntApp Solution -- Integration Builder

Integration Builder enables organizations to extend the benefits of BPM by streamlining data management activities associated with a variety of business processes. It allows firms to simplify the ways in which people interact with information. Instead of receiving notifications that there's work to be done, staff receive updates that the job has been done for them. That's why leading legal workflow providers such as Metastorm have selected IntApp as a key partner.