Published on the 19/02/2018 | Written by Empired
AT A GLANCE
INDUSTRY
- Engineering
BUSINESS OBJECTIVE
- Automate manual workflows
- Improve process efficiency and visibility
- Accelerate administrative tasks
SOLUTION
- Empired Business Process Automation comprising K2 Workflow, Microsoft SharePoint 2016, and SQL Server
BUSINESS BENEFITS
- Dramatic improvement in HR business processes
- Elimination of manual data entry
- ‘Rekeying’ errors eliminated
- Process visibility for improvements
- Demonstration of value allows for additional workflow automation and value creation
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Empired
W: https://www.empired.com/
E: contact@empired.com
T:
Perth – 08 6333 2200
Sydney – 02 8355 8100
Melbourne – 03 8658 5300
Brisbane – 07 3067 5400
Adelaide – 08 7333 4200
Looking to overcome manual inefficiencies, Golding Contractors looked to Empired for a business process automation solution…
When a business with a workforce operating around the clock realised it was being hamstrung by manual, paper-based activities, it looked to technology solutions company Empired for a better way. Thanks to a business process automation solution, Golding Contractors now gets its administration done faster, with reduced errors and at a lower cost than ever before. It also gains the ability to analyse and improve multiple business processes thanks to the availability of metadata which records process performance.
Golding delivers safe, flexible, and cost-effective project solutions in urban, regional, and remote locations for the resources, utilities, property, and transport sectors. The company began in 1942 as a logging business in Gladstone, Queensland. It now offers capabilities in Eastern Australia.
Situation
As a dispersed organisation, Galdstone’s offices and employees have differences in physical access to IT services, possesses different levels of IT proficiency, and have varying degrees of willingness to engage with IT infrastructure and services. Consequently, the company had many business processes reliant on manual, paper-based activities. The data entered on these paper forms was then re-entered into one or more additional systems as required, creating potential for errors, as well as wasting time and resources.
Because of this approach, Golding found it difficult to gain sufficient process transparency, suffered from poor data quality and inefficiencies through double-handling.
Golding needed to gain better control over processes, improve workflow design, and increase efficiency.
Solution
This required a business process automation solution. It worked with Empired to select and implement a combination of technologies to solve its issues. The technologies include K2 Workflow, Microsoft SharePoint 2016, and SQL Server, which together create an overarching business process automation (BPA) solution.
By automating workflows using K2, Golding has gained vastly improved control over business processes and is able to gather and analyse data to help the business make better decisions.
Scott Caton, Golding’s General Manager of Business Systems, said, “When we went to adopt K2 we specifically looked at how we could support it. Empired had already been providing a range of services to Golding Contractors for some time around our intranet, document management, SSRS and infrastructure. Because the team had strong existing K2 capabilities, it was an easy choice to engage Empired for this project.”
Results
Eliminating manual processes dramatically reduces the time it takes for each business process to run, while also increasing transparency into project status and progression.
Just one example of an automated process is the leave request workflow which covers every aspect of applying for and approving all types of employee leave. The user interface is simple and intuitive, overcoming many employees’ inherent reluctance to engage with technology and has reduced user errors.
Golding has now processed over 2,100 leave applications using this workflow. The company estimates saving 10 minutes per application previously lost in print, sign, scan, send tasks.
The future
Handling leave is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the full return on investment Golding is likely to benefit from thanks to the solution. Already, the company is seeing how properly mapped and automated processes can result in performance improvements: it is possible to reduce approval steps in some processes without relinquishing control, which adds even more efficiency.
Applying the same principles which got leave under control, Empired moved on to help Golding improve its onboarding process. The new automated workflow manages a range of different activities associated with onboarding, such as: recording personal, asset, and access details; recording whether an employment offer has been accepted or declined; completing induction checklists and staff induction experience surveys; and completing manager probationary reviews.
When a prospective employee accepts an offer, the workflow uses their future start date to calculate when induction, survey, and probation tasks should commence, and initiates these automatically.
From an engagement where it was only required to build one solution for leave requests, nine months later, Empired had built solutions for project initiation, and workflow and task dashboards, in addition to the leave and onboarding components.
The team had also advised extensively on building a community investment register, conflicts of interest register, and gifts and entertainment register.
Furthermore, Empired has helped Golding upgrade its K2 implementation to the latest version, relocate its production database, and integrate K2 with SSRS.
Caton says working with Empired was easy. “The team was proactive and provided valuable input as opposed to just actioning requests mindlessly. The team was collaborative. It was important to Golding Contractors to build standard workflows with common patterns and a consistent look and feel. Empired worked with the team to make design decisions that would make future development easier due to the work done upfront. We have now developed over 14 discrete workflows building on the initial work with Empired.”
“Empired worked with the team to make design decisions that would make future development easier due to the work done upfront.”
There’s more to come, too: “Now that Golding Contractors has a reasonable level of expertise in SharePoint and K2, we’ll look to do more with our current SharePoint platform in 2018. Empired was involved in previous incarnations and we will certainly consider working with the team again,” Caton concludes.
Source: This article was originally sourced from Empired
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