ntil only a couple of months ago, new customers of Colonial Gas Co. in Lowell, Mass ., would have to wait a week or more before getting their gas switched on. Now it takes only a day. Consumers seeking a loan from Texas Commerce Bank in Houston used to wait at least two weeks before their applications were processed. Today, nine out of 10 customers have their loan applications completed in just three hours. Rush applications get handled in as little as 30 minutes.

New York residents wanting Nynex to install a telephone line typically face a one- to four-day wait. With a new system nearly in place, the carrier hopes to cut that wait to minutes.

These companies didn't wave a magic wand or find a "silver bullet." Instead, they discovered a way to harness the power of workflow.

Hot Technology
In fact, workflow systems are suddenly one of the hottest technologies going. Worldwide sales of workflow software last year hit $750 million, according to Delphi Consulting Group in Boston, which helps companies implement workflow technology. This year, Delphi predicts, spen ding on workflow will reach $1 billion. The number of users is growing, too. Seats using workflow in North America and Europe totaled 514,000 in 1994, according to BIS Strategic Decisions Inc. in Norwell, Mass., and could reach 5.8 million by 1998.

Some 70 vendors supply workflow software, and they're frequent acquisition targets. In recent months, BancTec acquired Recognition International, Wang Laboratories gobbled up Sigma, and FileNet bought Watermark. Still, because new vendors constantly spring up, Delphi doesn't foresee a shakeout in the workflow market before 1997.

Hot, Hot, Hot
Why is workflow so hot? Because it helps large organizations improve the way they operate. Workflow forces companies to carefully describe their business procedures--cutting the fat along the way. "Workflow is an enabling technology for constantly redefining your business," says Kurt Robson, senior director of applications development at Oracle Corp. in Redwood Shores, Calif., which in July announced a set o f workflow-enabled business applications.

Just what is workflow? It's difficult to define or describe. Tom Koulopoulos, president of Delphi and author of The Workflow Imperative (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1995), says it's a "toolset for the proactive analysis, compression, and automation of information-based tasks and activities."

Sound complicated? Don't worry, many people are perplexed by precisely what workflow is and what it can--and can't--do for them. Much of the confusion stems from its origins. The workflow industry grew out of imaging, explains Maurizio Gianola, VP for strategic development at Recognition International, a workflow vendor in Sunnyvale, Calif., that was acquired in June by BancTec. As a result, many workflow software companies also sell imaging hardware. Adds Tom Lavey, Oracle's VP of applications software, "Without the idea of automating paper-intensive operations, you couldn't sell any scanners and imaging software."

Yet workflow is more than electronic queuing and automat ing the steps in a process, says Anita Ward, senior VP and reengineering manager at Texas Commerce Bank. "For us," she adds, "it means changing the process--how people do their jobs--from start to finish."

Despite all the excitement--or perhaps because of it--workflow remains one of the least understood concepts in corporate computing. "We've literally built a whole business around the confusion and interest generated by workflow," says Delphi's Koulopoulos, "Many users have no idea what the technology is."

Another reason for the confusion: Workflow still lacks standards--it's too new. Most workflow software packages are open, meaning they work with native applications, document formats, and commonly used databases. But without accepted standards, users have no way to determine which technology will work best with their other systems. That's likely to change, however. The Workflow Management Coalition, an industry group made up of leading workflow software suppliers, is hammering out a set of standar ds.

Not Cheap
Workflow can be expensive. Packaged software typically costs $3,500 a desktop, though prices range from as little as $300 to as much as $12,000. So, a workflow setup for 5,000 employees could easily cost $15 million. That's roughly the same amount a large company would pay for an enterprisewide software system, including installation costs.

Cost is one reason why many workflow installations have only a limited number of users. Another is that defining the business rules for a large, complex organization is a daunting task. Finally, many workflow products can support only one server at a time, severely limiting the number of people who can use the system simultaneously.

Also, implementing workflow requires a great deal of up-front thinking. Before processes can be automated, they first must be evaluated and streamlined. "You can't just buy a shrink-wrapped software package that will automate the process of opening new accounts," says Texas Commerce's Ward.

Sound like business reengineering? It is. Workflow is an excellent enabler for reengineering, primarily because the software is so flexible and easy to tweak, adapt, and overhaul. Also, workflow is great for pointing out problems in a process. "It can be a diagnostic tool that helps you assess how good your business process is," says Scott McCready, a principal at International Data Corp./Avante, a Framingham, Mass., imaging and workflow venture.

At Texas Commerce Bank, for example, Ward's workflow project is part of a larger, $42 million reengineering effort expected to be completed in two years. The bank, using software from Viewstar, an Alameda, Calif., software developer, has speeded the loan-approval process with electronic queuing of applications. If one loan officer is busy, the software routes the application to another for approval. In the past, the application would have waited. The system runs on some 500 Compaq 486 PCs with Cornerstone monitors running the Windows version of Viewstar, a popular workflow package.

Workflow can also monitor operations. Once a process is under the watchful control of a workflow system, a company can measure how long the process takes, how much time the average employee needs to perform a task, and the number of rejects and approvals. Unfortunately, some of these benefits are overlooked by many users. They generally look first for gains in productivity and reduced processing times. "It's difficult for users to understand the benefits of workflow until they're using it," IDC's McCready adds.

Most workflow software falls into one of three categories, McCready explains:

• Production workflow: It automates complex business processes that people do every day, often in volume. Some of the leading providers in this category are FileNet, IBM, and Viewstar.

• Ad hoc workflow: It automates less-structured business processes, such as developing a product design or creating a marketing strategy. Among the software companies in this niche are Action Inc. and Keyfile Inc.

• Administrative workflow: It automates routine business tasks. This kind of workflow often can be handled by the built-in workflow capabilities of enterprise software packages, such as PeopleSoft HR 5.0, which includes workflow tools to speed salary approvals, purchase order sign-offs, and employee expense forms. Providers noted for this type of workflow include Jetform and Staffware.

These distinctions are important, McCready says. Before technology buyers select a vendor, they need to know which kind of workflow best meets their needs. "The vendor and the customer should have a similar vision of the world," he says.

Unfortunately, some vendors muddy the waters by pitching their software as the only type of workflow. "Some vendors base their definition of workflow on what they have to sell," says Doni Steward, marketing manager for workflow products in Foster City, Calif., for SAP America. But other experts point out that there is a fair amount of overlap i n the types of workflow a particular vendor's package can handle.

Working By The Rules
Workflow is also a good tool for helping employees apply corporate or business rules. Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, for example, reengineered its corporate lockbox operation, the nation's largest, using workflow software from IA Corp. in Emeryville, Calif. The lockbox service, provided by many banks to large corporations, receives payments from customers, deposits the funds, and provides payment information to the corporations that use the service. Mellon's 3,000 lockbox customers pay the bank to process their payments--such as telephone bills--that come into seven processing centers nationwide.

When the system goes online this month at the bank's Boston processing center, it should speed the processing of some 23 million transactions a month. Once the images of checks and payment coupons are scanned, they can be processed simultaneously by employees in different groups. The employees will use AT&T Global I nformation Solutions Globalist 630 PCs connected to GIS Model 3455 and 3451 servers. Mellon expects a 20% boost in productivity as well as greatly improved processing time, says Lew Towchik, Mellon Bank's VP and manager of engineering for remittance processing. "Workflow management tools will give us a window into where the work is, so we can allocate resource to those places," he adds.

In a similar application, NationsBank in Dallas used IA's software toolkit to build an ad hoc workflow system as the engine for a total overhaul of its trust-servicing operation. The system, based on IBM PowerPC machines tied to an IBM RS/6000 server at each processing location, helps the bank's trust administrators provide better customer service and cut down on errors, says Warren Butler, a bank VP and senior project manager of trust systems.

Software vendors are climbing over one another to offer workflow as part of their packaged applications. Client-server software leader SAP, which in April hired its first marke ting manager for workflow products, will introduce Business Workflow as part of R/3 Release 3.0, due in October. SAP built the workflow software from scratch rather than license it from another supplier.

SAP's new workflow component, part of R/3's middleware layer, will include several key features. One, called dynamic assignment capability, automatically assigns a task to a particular work group or individual. Business Workflow will perform parallel processing, permitting several employees to work on the same document or item simultaneously. While users will be able to customize the workflow portion for their specific processes, the package will include a set of predefined workflow templates for faster project startup.

Database vendor Oracle developed its own workflow software. The company calls its new SmartClient 10 applications software suite "workflow-enabled." Oracle already offered a workflow feature called Oracle Alert, which messages employees when a certain threshold of business or transac tion activity, such as a sales minimum per contract, has been met or exceeded. For instance, Oracle VP Lavey has set his Alert feature to notify him via electronic mail when a sales representative takes an order for $50,000 or more of manufacturing software. "We think that's a more helpful form of workflow than merely using a computer to move files around electronically," he says.

Built-In Instructions
Oracle's SmartClient, unlike other workflow applications, has the workflow activities and instructions built into its database server. The database contains the repository for defining the business processes. When a particular task has been completed, a message is automatically sent to inform the workflow system that the step is done. At the same time, another E-mail message is sent to the worker involved in the next step of the process, alerting them to act on the document or task.

SmartClient includes other workflow features, such as an order-to-shipment monitoring process and built-in rou ting approval for product design and engineering changes. The application even includes a feature that will integrate a company with its suppliers through the Internet, bypassing the need for electronic data interchange. Why would anyone want to do that? "E-mail is a more universal interface," applications director Robson says.

Other software companies have found it more expedient to license workflow software. Novell unveiled a plan in June to license Ensemble workflow from FileNet in Costa Mesa, Calif., for inclusion in Novell's GroupWise messaging system and PerfectOffice desktop applications suite. The idea is to provide PerfectOffice users with a basic, low-end workflow system to let them set up and manage their processes from the desktop.

With Ensemble, PerfectOffice users will be able to automate expense reporting, sales-lead tracking, and other applications. Workflow can be initiated directly from the GroupWise universal in-box or invoked from within a desktop application such as WordPerfect. Ensemble, to be available for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 by early 1996, is expected to cost about $195 per user.

Similarly, Microsoft said in April it would incorporate Wang's desktop imaging and workflow technology as standard features in future releases of Windows 95 and NT. Microsoft and Wang will co-develop workflow applications programming interfaces (APIs) to be included in Wang's Open Workflow server and Microsoft's Exchange Server, an NT-based integrated messaging and groupware server that will compete with Lotus Notes. The first step in that direction is MAPI (Messaging API) Workflow Framework, which is designed to integrate workflow and electronic messaging. Microsoft plans to introduce the strategy in late September.

IBM, with its acquisition of Lotus Development and the Notes groupware product, remains a wild card in the workflow game. Speculation is rampant concerning how the powerful groupware system might work in concert with IBM's still-fledgling, two-year-old workflow product, Flowmar k. Delphi's Koulopoulos gives Flowmark high marks as an "outstanding production workflow system that matches up well" against FileNet's Workflow and Recognition's FloWare.

However, IBM hasn't made it clear how Notes and Flowmark will be integrated. Big Blue offers an interface between Flowmark and Notes, and an IBM spokeswoman says "that connection will be strengthened and refined over time."

Despite all the excitement over workflow, some companies have had trouble with it. SAP's Steward recalls one such instance, involving a bank that installed workflow. Instead of gaining productivity benefits and cycle time reductions, the bank ended up with negative results on most measures. "They found they'd added 10 people, the project took three times as long as expected, and it cost three times what they'd planned to spend," she says.

Some companies that were pioneers in workflow now find themselves saddled with proprietary systems that can be difficult to upgrade. That's the case at British Columbia Ga s. In 1991, the Vancouver utility was the first to install a work-management system, Work 1, developed by Andersen Consulting using the system integrator's Foundation for Cooperative Processing computer-aided software engineering tool. The system, which assigns and monitors work orders from start to finish and runs on more than 350 IBM PS/2 workstations connected to 20 LANs running IBM PS/2 model 95s as servers, "is pretty good," says Byron Christofferson, business technology planning manager.

But where British Columbia Gas blazed the trail, others have followed--and with less pain. Colonial Gas, for example, went live with Andersen's Work 1 this past June. The software, which cost the utility less than $200,000, automates much of its activity, including initiation of jobs, credit checks on customers, and scheduling and assigning work. About 110 employees use Dell Pentium and 486 PCs as well as Toshiba Satellite Pro 486 notebook computers to get into the work management system. The core software runs on a Hewlett-Packard 900 series Model G30 server. The PCs are connected via a LAN running Novell NetWare 3.12. "The system compresses the time it takes to do a variety of tasks, including approval and tracking of the work," says Angela Harkins, the utility's work-management project leader. The results: Harkins figures the workflow system has cut the company's paperwork volume in half.

The proprietary issue doesn't bother Colonial Gas, either. The Lowell, Mass., utility is standardizing all its systems across the company on Andersen's proprietary software.

Still to come is a workflow system that is used throughout a large corporation by thousands of employees. Today, few workflow applications are in full production with more than 100 users. Says consultant Koulopoulos: "Most companies using workflow are still walking or riding bicycles and have yet to put large numbers of users on the bus."

One of the first could be Nynex. The company expects to have 5,000 customer service representatives using a workflow-enabled service order process by this fall. Jim Kenney, director of process reengineering at Nynex, says the system will improve service to the telephone company's 16 million customers. "With our current setup, the process is fragmented with different groups and systems involved," he says. "The more groups and handoffs, the more chance you have for error."

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