IT system(s) to automate the processing of procedure manuals.?

Question

Hi,

This question is regarding the process for creating & publishing Procedure Manuals in our company. The current process being used is described below:

1. The procedure is prepared.

2. Procedure is sent for review by the Department for a period of two weeks.

3. Procedures Unit receives Department’s comments approved by the Department Manager.

4. Route the procedure for approval in the Procedures Unit for upload in the internet. The approval cycle in the unit is: Group Leader, Administrator, Manager.

5. Upload in the intranet/ internet.

I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF THERE IS (ARE) ANY EXISTING IT SYSTEM(S) e.g. software package etc. AVAILABLE TO AUTOMATE THE ABOVE PROCESS.

Your early reply will be highly appreciated.

Thank You.

Best Regards.

Answer 1

No, because your process includes review, approval and editing steps which are manual portions of your process. In addition, automated processes would not necessarily account for variations in timing which can happen when creating documentation.

Generally, automated proceses in IT are things like scheduled jobs (batch, backup) or notifying support staff by setting server parameters to alert or page when a set threshold is met.

In addition, you would need to show that the procedures are approved by management to pass certain audits like SOX or SAS70. Automated software may not be able to capture or store those approvals.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

A business process is a recipe for achieving a commercial result. Each business process has inputs, method and outputs. The inputs are a pre-requisite that must be in place before the method can be put into practice. When the method is applied to the inputs, then certain outputs will be created. A business process is a collection of related structural activities that produce something of value to the organization, its stake holders or its customers. It is, for example, the process through which an organization realizes its services to its customers. A business process can be part of a larger, encompassing process and can include other business processes that have to be included in its method. In that context a business process can be viewed at various levels of granularity. The linkage of business process with value generation leads some practitioners to view business processes as the workflows which realize an organization's use cases. A business process can be thought of as a cookbook for running a business; "Answer the phone", "place an order", "produce an invoice" might all be examples of a Business Process. A business process is usually the result of a business process design or business process reengineering activity.