After our last live session where we discussed –Digitizing your business with E-Flow, a viewer asked, “what is proof of concept?” So today, we want to help you to understand when we say “proof of concept”, what we mean. In short, the proof of concept is us demonstrating that we can digitize your processes. The proof of concept is the stage right after we do a consultation with our clients. After we understand the client’s processes, we then take a look at the client’s forms and the entire manual process. We then have interviews with different staff members, and we get an understanding and appreciation for the process flow.
Once we get an appreciation for what is currently in place, we then take that manual process and convert it into a digital process. Therefore, the proof of concept is where we show the client that we understand the manual process, and present the digital equivalent to it. During this phase, there is no integration with other applications because it’s the phase where there is room for the most changes. This phase is very dynamic, and it is where we have a lot of conversations with clients to get feedback to ensure that we are on the right path.
THE ADVANTAGES OF E-FLOW FOR THE CLIENT
Whatever can be done on an Excel sheet can be done in E-Flow. The advantage of having this information in E-Flow is that the client:
- Has full control of what’s going on with that process
- Can easily see what stage the process is at
- Sees who’s working on it
- And sees who does what
- Can have a full overview of the entire process
- And see all the tasks that are to be completed and those that are already done
- Plus also review all the process data
This can be very helpful for auditing purposes. When there is money involved, there is always the risk of fraud. If there is an audit or investigation, the client has all the data at hand.
PROOF OF CONCEPT STEPS
In addition to the advantages listed above, there are specific steps that we walk our clients through at the stage of proof of concept which includes how to:
- Assign steps to different users in the organization by entering the names of the authorities within the organization.
- Review forms and process flows
- Capture signatures and other attachments, so everything is in one single environment.
- Demonstrate the ease in which the flows can be executed
- Demonstrate the use of various tools within the solution
The next step in the proof of concept is the review process. This is usually conducted by the manager or the decision-maker in the organization. It is where we define the approval process and what happens if the customer’s application is accepted or rejected. If it is rejected, however, a reason must be selected or an email notification goes out. These reasons/actions can be defined at this stage but still be redefined by the administrator of the E-Flow program at a later stage.
Designing the email notification set up
With E-Flow, there is a very intuitive email setup. You can simply drag and drop the option to send email notifications. The client selects the file format required to be uploaded (PDF, image, or Word/Excel Document) and, the customer receives an automatic email with a request for specific documents or application status.
This is the general process for a proof of concept, and how we demonstrate that we can digitize your processes. I hope it answered a lot of your pressing questions. So, when you hear us next time in a live video or our next webinar, use the term “proof of concept”, you would understand what we’re referring to. In conclusion, the proof of concept is us demonstrating that we can digitize your processes and help you to move away from the manual systems.
To schedule your proof-of-concept session with us, contact us at info@800-tech.com, or call us at 223-8324 or 686-0758.