In the previous chapters, using a BPM tool, Tommy and Clerius solved their growing pains and deliverables approval workflow problems at their consulting firm, CleTo. Now, a new unforeseen one appears: changes in the legal regulations, force them to process the Complaints, Claims and Suggestions in less than 5 working days. Not only this, but one customer is asking for advice to improve their import and export processes… These administrative workflows need automation!
Managing Claims and Suggestions
Under the new rules, it will be mandatory to provide a public web form, where any customer can submit a claim or suggestion. This form must provide fields to describe the problem or suggestion, the name of the sender, a notification email and attachments (evidence).
And most importantly, once entered the company must respond to it within a maximum of 5 working days.
From CleTo‘s point of view, claims and suggestions must be visible to all those who work on them. In addition, alerts must be raised to avoid non-compliance. For all this, Tommy said:
Clerius, clearly this is a process that must be automated. We need a BPM tool that allows us to model the different flows. We need a centralized repository for all claims and suggestions. And we need to proactively raise alerts.
Import and Export processes
One relevant customer asked Clerius for advice to improve their import/export processes. Currently, they follow up on the tasks using a spreadsheet. When they get one certification or approval, they write it down on the spreadsheet. The same happens when they receive the shipping date, the insurance documentation, etc. Moreover, they also track the arrival of goods in the spreadsheet.
The set of tasks to complete an Import or Export transaction is a typical administrative process. It could be modeled and automated using a BPM tool. The improvement is huge, given everything gets into control and people can collaborate completing several tasks simultaneously. Said that, all the following sections also apply for the automation of any import/export process.
Instrumentation in a BPM tool
Clerius modeled the process diagram, from receiving to answering the claim or suggestion. The BPM tool allowed him to draw a BPMN diagram with all the logic.
A BPM tool allows you to configure notification tasks via email, sent automatically, for example, to notify the resolution of the claim.
Start of the process by the customer
A key requirement is inserting the Claim & Suggestion Form in CleTo’s website so that the clients can initiate it easily. In other words, without authenticating to any site, they can create a new Claim or Suggestion and start the workflow. To do so, they used Flokzu’s Public Forms functionality.
The Public Forms also allow attaching files. The customer could incorporate evidence or additional documentation to the claim or suggestion.
Timers and alerts in the BPM Suite
Each task in the defined process has a maximum execution time (due date), which the BPM tool will control. In addition, this period may (or may not) only count the working days.
But in addition, alerts can be defined, so that if this deadline is exceeded, measures can be taken. For example, send an email to Tommy so that he is aware and takes action.
These are two different and complementary instruments, as described in this post.
Ongoing Claims and Suggestions report.
Finally, Clerius defined a custom report, which shows all ongoing Claims and Suggestions, who is responsible for them, and their due date. This helps them quickly visualize those cases that require urgent attention, generating a much stronger collaboration with their team.
In sum…
A BPM tool allows modeling and formalizing the process of reception and treatment of Claims and Suggestions. It allows customers to use a public form to submit them, as well as managing alerts and due dates to ensure that regulations are met. Centralizing the information allows a complete analysis of the instances in execution, in order of better management and collaboration between the teams that work in this workflow.
In Flokzu we offer a free trial of our Premium service for 14 days. We also offer free advice to help you set up the first process and start automating your processes, without pain.
You can also schedule a work session here to model a real-life process in your organization together.
