We are often asked what things need to be set up before I can use the system as an organization. There is no single answer to this. There are many things that determine the steps and thus the lead time of an implementation. Of course, we can give an overall picture of the steps and sequence that you could use as a guide. Of course, no organization is the same and there will undoubtedly be steps you can skip.
The Start
We start by rolling out the environment. This means we install your environment on the right servers and configure the right basic settings. In your environment we also set up a basic set of forms and a directory structure so you can get a quick start. Then it's time to train the people who will populate and manage the system. We advise to do this with at least 2 people for a good assurance. This way, the knowledge will remain within your company in case of a change in personnel. This training is practical, so you learn to navigate through the system in logical steps in 3x 3 hours and know how to use it.
How does it work within your company
No company is the same. So it is important to know how it works and is set up at your company. You can create custom groups. Think for example of grouping by departments. By knowing how you want to divide your company information and make it visible in groups, you can now create them properly. This feature is in users.
If you click the settings cog you can create groups with the plus button. By giving them a name and a code you can save them afterwards.
What positions are there in your company and who replaces whom in their absence?
This is the next step to think about. Once you have that clear, the functions can be filled and it is time to create users in the system. You do not invite them yet but just create them, give them role, function and e-mail and possibly phone number. Creating functions can be done via the plus button next to the function titles. This opens the job title form.
Then after that, it's also important what meta data you want to include. Meta data is data on which you can easily search and certain information will come up. Here you can think of the following examples:
- Owner with a user selector (Choose an owner per procedure, file or form who is responsible for relevant information)
- Tags/Labels by what names is certain info also known within the organization. Then choose to assign labels then also other persons using just another name can also find the info we are looking for in an easy way.
- Classification what data you may or may not share with whom. Think for example: Internal, for certain parties and public info. So you can mark every procedure, document and form with a classification.
Of course you can come up with as much meta data as you want but here you have a nice start. Meta data can be added via the preferences under the user. Then company preferences => Meta properties. Here you can specify a title, choose an icon and then a type. You can choose here:
- Text (General to enter a text to be searched on)
- Number (Enter a number to search with)
- Yes/No (A Yes or No option supporting the title that can be searched for)
- Options (Fixed options you specify in advance as used in the example classification above)
- Tags (Certain labels that you want to give with it for easy searching on it, similar to the tags/label example from above)
- User (Choose a user from the system here so you can, for example, attach them as the owner to a step, file or form, similar to first example above)
- Step (link documents or forms to certain steps by choosing a step here. It concerns meta data so we do not physically link here but only that on the step name also the forms can come up in the search result).
- Form (Similar to step but on form names)
How do I want version control, and set it up within company preferences. Also determine how company information may be put live within your company. The default format for steps is draft, internal and public. But if you want it to be different you can change this in the company preferences
Information Structure
Determine the folder/step structure you will use. You can find these in the template editor. And specify which of these should be listed as signable. Making it signable ensures that when you put the information live in the organization you can send people a notification and they will also be asked for an approval for this. This will help you determine where what information should go and how to organize the information. Add to each folder the groups that are allowed to see it and provide it with the meta data you want to include.
Then you can start filling the folder/step structure with your data.
Fill your structure with data. Per folder/step you can do this with a piece of text you write or upload from Word with the Word importer. Then you can add links in the text with the @-function or add extra links to external sources below the text. And then you can add files. Think of standards that you use and apply as a company but do not write yourself. Then you easily attach them to your folder/step.
You can now share your concepts according to your set steps structure. (By default it is concept, internal, public) Once it is public the information is available to all users.
Forms and workflows
Determine which forms you need or are currently using. This will help you determine which forms to create or modify. There are many forms already present in your environment. If you can use them this way, that's great, and if you want to modify them, that's easy to do with the form editor now. The form editor can be found at the maintainer menu:
While creating forms also think carefully about triggers. For example, that could be that you need to indicate to the reporter also a supervisor and add a status field to your form. This helps tremendously when creating automated workflows. Which make sure that your follow-up and flow of tasks automatically start giving your employees a notification to be helped to get busy with the right things and be informed in a timely manner.
Forms in a logical place
Now that the forms and workflows are ready, it is good to put them in a logical place. Of course, you can easily search for your form but for a user it's even nicer that with the explanations and information you can also directly find the corresponding forms. You can also link these forms to your folders/steps.
A few final points and possibilities
You can easily draw processes in your own environment just like you may have been used to doing in Visio before. However, now you can also link each step of your process. So if you like process drawings and use them frequently in your organization, now is the time to create them in your environment. You can then immediately create links to documentation, forms, files or other processes. Of course you can also link to external links. This way a user can quickly and easily click through the processes to get to the right info without much effort.Read more about how to create these and how they work in Processflows.
Another piece is fleshing out your required dashboards. You can fill your environment with multiple types of dashboards:
- Tile dashboard, where you determine how many tiles fit on it and whether it is also accessible on your mobile and what tiles and sizes you want. In doing so, you then link the info to your tile that you feel the organization needs frequently. For example, a notification form or requesting resources you need to perform your job. Of course, you can also link to external resources easily with links to your intranet or other systems.
- A company dashboard where you can put various info and depending on roles and permissions visible to the various users. Here you can create various tabs and determine which forms you want to show which graphs. You can also create buttons or RSS feeds with information from certain websites directly on your dashboard. Of course much more can be done but now you know that dashboarding is next.
- A personal dashboard (only for full users) on which you have your own info similar to the company dashboard in order to steer well on your own KPIs.
Testing and going live
Now is the time to start testing and introducing users to your new environment.
Should a few more points emerge from this, make minor adjustments and it's time to really go live and start taking advantage of the efficiency from your new environment!
