Business Solutions: Correspondence

Date: 24/11/04 Any area that deals with large volumes of correspondence or other business process can benefit from some kind of workflow system to manage and direct the handling of the correspondence. This is particularly true of Government Departments and Agencies that deal with Freedom of Information requests and Ministerial correspondence (Ministerials). Consequently many of these organisations are beginning to investigate how process analysis and workflow might streamline their operations. This paper will discuss firstly nature and concepts of Business Process Analysis and Workflow design, before applying the methodology to the examples of Freedom of Information Requests and Ministerial Correspondence. Business Process Analysis Davenport and Short define a business process as A set of logically related tasks, performed to achieve a defined business outcome1 To completely represent a process many different characteristics may need to be captured along with the associated business logic. These characteristics might include, resources, timing and decisions. For example a process might be described as We only allocate people to respond to Customer complaints in the last week of the month, and only if more than 10 complaints have been received any complaint that has waited more than 2 months must be approved by a Section head. To develop effective workflow it is important to understand the nature of the business process as it currently exists. Often a workflow design project leads to 2 separate, but linked projects designing the workflow and re-engineering the process. Thus it is necessary to decide before the project commences whether or not the project team will engage in any process re-engineering or simply seek to accurately describe the current state of play. If the decision is taken to re-engineer the process it is vital to have an adequate change management program in place as well. Whether one is engaging in re-engineering a process or simply designing a workflow for it the first stage is the same the team have to accurately describe the situation as it currently exists. Workflow Workflow is the structure applied to the movement of information in order to improve the results of business processes. It can be seen as the link between technology and people. It attempts to streamline the management of work by eliminating unnecessary tasks.

Davenport, T.H and Short J.E (1990 Summer) The New Industrial Engineering Information Technology and Business Process Re-Design Sloan Management Review pp 11-27 w w w . t o w e r s o f t . c o m

Workflow has its limitations it cannot fix a flawed or inferior process, and the system depends on the users having the ability to access the documents they need to support the workflow activities. There are basically three models of workflow, the ad hoc, the transaction based, and the knowledge based. Each model is useful for conceptualising different business processes. 1) Ad Hoc workflow normally uses email for transmitting workflow documents, and is normally used by dynamic workgroups that execute individual processes for each document. It is best suited to environments that follow the same processes for each document. The current business process of drafting a ministerial brief may be best described by an ad hoc workflow the researcher gathers information which may be passed on to a writer for draft preparation or the researcher may prepare the draft the draft is then passed to some-one else for approval before finally being given to the Minister. This would be a description of the current as is process. 2) Transaction based workflow normally require a high level of customisation. The processes are usually lengthy and complex and can involve various different departments. It is normally used in high volume transactions or production based environments with very little change. It is best suited to complex environments with financial exposure and audit requirements such as loans processing, insurance underwriting and claims processing. 3) Knowledge based workflow is based on 3 process models. a) The Mail Centric model normally uses existing modes of messaging and delivery services such as email. It normally consists of form-based utilities that provide screen definition of forms for a variety of uses such as rating and approvals. It may use intelligent agents that perform tasks when the user responsible unavailable. For example IT Support email questions theres an auto-response generated that tells the viewer their email has been received by the support. b) The Process Centric model is used by high-end workflow applications. It will usually rely on databases to store workflow data and definitions. It may require extensive programming facilities for scripting workflow applications. To develop the model the team will require an extensive knowledge and understanding of business requirements, policies, procedures, legislation and business processes from front to back office and the boundaries they cross. c) The Document Centric model focuses on the document as the unifying object in a workflow process. Documents are associated with owners, applications rules, routing and processing. Document centric workflow products typically provide facilities for document management, such as annotation, check-in and check-out. For an agency that is trying to develop a new workflow system to manage Freedom of Information Requests and Ministerials the document centric model is an extremely good fit for the tasks and requirements of the process. The document centric model provides the conceptual tools to consider process re-engineering, and the development

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of a new, more efficient workflow system. The document centric model can be used to describe the to be workflow system. Once the analysis of the current processes is complete, and a model for the new workflow has been selected it is necessary to breakdown the workflow model into its components to be able to describe the desired business process accurately. Workflow consists of five components. 1) Processes which contain a series of tasks and rule that must be defined in the workflow system for each process that takes place (ie FOI Request). 2) Cases: Every time an individual occurrence of the process model is invoked a new case is created (ie FOI Request 1304B). 3) Folders contain a logical group of documents that can included text, images, video and data from many sources (ie Material on SIEV-X investigation) 4) Data is represented by a single or collection of documents, which are in turn enclosed within a folder and in turn controlled by a case (ie Material on SIEV-X investigation requested by FOI Request 1304B). 5) Rules define the specific processing activities involved in routing workflow documents (ie: FOI Requested Material assessed before response drafted) Rules consist of two parts roles and routing, basically who is responsible for performing a task and what happens to the document once the task is completed. Each participant in the workflow has established roles are defined as part of the workflow definition (ie Response Drafter). Participants are described in terms of location, job function, supervision and security level. Workflow participants may be an individual or part of a workgroup or workgroups (ie the Response Drafter function might be held by a single person or a section). Workgroups can consist of individuals , departments, or groups of individuals sharing the same job function. ( ie The Response Drafter function may be shared by a workgroup of Policy advisers from different sections the task is assigned to the person from the Section most appropriate who holds the Response Drafter function) Routing controls how documents move from point to point. Documents may be routed sequentially; task A must be completed before the document is routed to the next point; in parallel; task A and task B may take place at the same time; or conditionally; if the result of task A is X then the documents are routed to B, if the result of Task A is Y then the documents are routed to C. It is also possible to have parallel workflows that may be triggered by the same event, such as a letter raising a politically sensitive question one workflow governs the preparation, approval and drafting of a response the other governs the research and creation of a ministerial briefing or investigation. The Response workflow in this example may include some pend time so that the results of the investigation can be reported in the response but the two workflows are essentially independent. Ministerials and Freedom of Information Requests. Creation of workflows is a highly subjective topic some agencies have a preference for a very few large scale workflows for example Analysis of the typical Ministerial

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and Freedom of information request suggests that in fact both processes could be contained within a single workflow description Correspondence. However some Agencies prefer to construct many smaller more specific workflows in this case one would have a workflow that describes the processing of the correspondence when it arrives, which would then invoke one of potentially three workflows a Freedom of Information Workflow, a Simple Ministerial Workflow and a Complex Ministerial Workflow. While this approach has some benefits in that it can be easier to decide which workflow is most appropriate it does means there will be unnecessary duplication of steps. The ideal solution is to have a large, descriptive Workflow that can be drilled, for more detail on the process. (See attached Diagram: here for example drilling into the Letter Arrives and is Assessed process would reveal sub-processes such as Letter Registered in TRIM) Conclusion: The creation of a workflow to govern any business process is not a task to be undertaken lightly, however the benefits that can be gained cannot be denied. The steps to creating a useable, useful workflow model are simple. 1) Process Definition and Business Process model: Carefully analyse what is currently happening and decide whether a process re-engineering project should form part of the workflow creation project. Be careful not to create process definitions that are too constraining or that unnecessarily duplicate each other. 2) Workflow Definition: Decide what model and definitions the workflow will use, make sure they will adequately describe the situation and processes. 3) Workflow building, implementation and testing: Once the workflow has been analysed and defined build test workflows and let the end users test them thoroughly to ensure they are both useable and useful. If the end users see no benefit to using it, or if it is too complicated or time consuming the implementation will encounter problems. At this stage the team should also consider whether integration with other Line of Business Applications will be required. 4) Roll-out: Make sure end-users are given sufficient training on the new system to be able to get the most out of it. A good workflow will make it easier for everyone involved to track the progress of a task or document through the system, facilitating the smooth, and efficient processing of the business task. Workflow systems offer other advantages over simple action tracking, a good workflow system can offer detailed reporting which will make it easy for management to see productivity and efficiency gains.

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Sample Correspondence Workflow

Letter Arrives and is assessed

FOI REQUEST

Ministerial Question

Simple Letter requires simple response

Acknowledgement Sent Information Search

Research Conducted

Information Found Information Not Found Information Classified Explanation Sent Information Assessed Information Not Classified Information Sent

Response Drafted

Response Approved

Response Sent

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