WorkflowGen version 6.5
Focus on mobility with SMS notifications via Twilio
The introduction and evolution of new communications technologies comes with the imperative to adopt these quickly and reactively. Organizations have to immediately adapt to these new technologies, and indeed, to the new realities of 21st-century “doing” using the best possible solutions that master these complexities with a maximum of simplicity and fluidity. WorkflowGen provides those solutions.
The need to adapt to contemporary and future business realities has been a main driver of WorkflowGen’s development over the years. Organizations need solutions that not only fulfill their current requirements but anticipate future ones. A turnkey solution such as WorkflowGen must provide not only the features business users need now but also the features they will likely need next year, next month, or even as soon as next week, whether they know it or not. On top of this, the solution has to promise continued and consistent evolutivity going forward in a credible way. These features have to be already in place, ready to use, and designed to evolve to reflect changing business needs.
Mobility and mobile communications are among the most significant digital disruptors in today’s business environment. We carry our mobile devices with us everywhere we go, and as the devices themselves are refined, improved, and further integrated into digital society, the applications they run must follow similar courses.
The WorkflowGen Mobile app was introduced several years ago to provide end-users with all of the features of their workflow portals on their iOS or Android devices. But WorkflowGen Mobile goes beyond simply replicating portal features on a smartphone or tablet, since it allows the user to take advantage of other mobile device capabilities. A great example of this is that of a technician in the field who has received a work order for repairs. Once at the site, they can take a photo of the work to be done and include it as an attachment to a request to give other process actors an exact look at it, complementing written descriptions in the form, and allowing request specifications to be revised as needed.
WorkflowGen’s administration features are optimized for mobile use as well, because process designers also need the ability to work while on the go. For example, version 6.1 introduced a new HTML5-based workflow designer built on the latest HTML5 and SVG standards to not only provide a more fluid design experience across different environments, but also in consideration of some mobile devices’ lack of support for Flash, which was the workflow designer mode used in previous versions of WorkflowGen. Process designers are thus free to work wherever they are, on any device.
New features are continually being implemented to improve the user experience and to always anticipate future needs. The Assignment View mode introduced in version 6.4 gives process designers the ability to display action assignment methods with one click or tap, saving them the trouble of having to open dialog boxes for individual actions. This is particularly useful on a mobile device where screen real estate is at a premium.
The most recent WorkflowGen innovation to adapt to current and future business needs while reflecting the realities of contemporary communications is the SENDMESSAGE workflow application introduced in version 6.5. SENDMESSAGE gives users the ability to send SMS notifications from within a process via the Twilio platform. Checking a text message on a mobile device is even faster than opening an app or an email, so the most important and urgent request-related communications reach the user in a more immediate way, both temporally and physically, since our mobile devices are always literally at our side.
But once again, unpredictability is an inevitable part of digital disruption, so no one can say for sure what new realities of doing business — and indeed, which new ways of communication — lie in store, let alone when. The key, then, is to not only master complexity through creative technology, but also to master unpredictability itself, and WorkflowGen will be there. Watch this space.
Check out the WorkflowGen 6.5 Release Notes for all the details, technical requirements, and installation packs.
