Need a Simple Workflow Software for Project Automation?

The office is a crazy disaster of slightly organized chaos. Around the conference table, your team is gathered for yet another client brainstorming session. Papers are strewn in front of the team; project outlines are held together with paper clips. Somewhere in the massive heap of paper is an editorial calendar, infographic mock-ups and emails from the client focused on directives.

You’re in the front of the conference room, ready to lead the team in a dynamic discussion about PR campaigns for a big client. A new client. A client who has a fantastic budget. You know that somewhere in the stack in front of you there is a detailed outline that has precisely tracked all the article ideas, blog topics and other content ideas. This client is a big deal. A huge deal. But where is that paper with the editorial calendar?

Oh, wait. That’s right. You forgot to print it out, which means that in the rush to get everyone around the table, no one has those grand plans before them.

Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone could just open their laptop and pull up all those files? The convenience of having everything not just in one place but on multiple screens and accessible to everyone in that meeting would save so much time. Wouldn’t it?

Workflow automation is the process in which companies—and agencies or marketing teams like yours—can schedule and share assignments and content. Everyone is on the same page because everyone has access to the information they need for meetings, assignments, and any company or client-related task.

What is Workflow Automation?

Enterprise workflow automation would have changed that meeting failure into a massive success! But how?

Workflow automation simplifies task assignments and information sharing, but the primary objective is to keep everyone on target for a client objective. Tasks are created in workflow automation software and are assigned to a specific team member (or team members).

A meeting isn’t a task, though. Is it?

A meeting—and that big meeting, in particular—was a project for the agency. In fact, it was probably the most important project of the day. With workflow automation, a manager can simply create a meeting project that’s open to everyone. And this is where the workflow software capabilities could have saved that meeting.

Before the meeting, everyone on the team would have received a task for a brainstorming meeting, and all the files could have been attached within that project. At the meeting, each team member would have opened up their computers, logged into the system and had access to every document needed during that brainstorming session.  After the meeting, tasks would be created for each team member so that none of the client requests get lost or forgotten.

Need a Simple Workflow Software for Project Automation?

Using Workflow Automation for Daily Tasks

Workflow automation could have saved that meeting failure, but it also saves teams from daily deadline failures, too. Using workflow automation to assign and track daily tasks ensures that teams stay focused, hit deadlines and keep the client happy.

How does daily automated workflow work? Remember how a manager could create a task related to that meeting? Individual tasks are created by managers and assigned to team members. Each task then leads to another task to keep the workflow, well, flowing!

So writers will be tasked to write an article. Then when they complete their task, the assignment moves on to the next person on the list—typically an editor. Workflow automation ensures that task completion continues seamlessly until the end.

Sound basic? There’s actually more to the system than just the task flow.

Workflow software like Gryffin allows team members to share information beyond just files within their tasks. So that editorial calendar template with all those assignments for the new client? Workflow automation systems would allow that file to be dropped or attached to individual tasks for the team. But managers can share video files, emails and graphic design mockups within a task, too!

Customizing Workflow

With Gryffin, workflow automation can be easily customized for your team to help you meet the project demands of individual clients. The workflow builder tool allows you to design and customize workflow based on each client’s needs, or the different types of campaigns you are running.

Design a workflow system for each team to accommodate for different tasks involved in a campaign; assign due dates and task ownership, link tasks to create cohesive workflow or create workflow based on the sales funnel.  Drag and drop features allow for easy task creations and assignments. 

The system features an easy design to meet the challenges and ever-evolving logistics of a project or project team. Change due dates, assign tasks to new team members or delete a project that’s been canceled. Updating the nuances of your workflow is simple!

What if a Deadline is Missed Along the Way?

While workflow automation keeps the assignment trail moving, it doesn’t guarantee that someone won’t miss a deadline. However, the system will draw attention to a missed due date!

So how does a manager know that someone on the team dropped the ball? When a deadline passes without the task being marked as completed, the task shows up as red on a project calendar. Managers can pull up the monthly calendar and quickly note that red means that something is amiss.

Gryffin will highlight assignments in yellow on the due date, and this color code serves as a visual warning for the team.

When deadlines are missed and noted in red, this gives managers a heads-up to schedule a conference or send a message to the team member about the deadline. This could be the time when tasks are reassigned to ensure that deadlines don’t continue to lag behind.

While workflow automation is an easy way to keep work organized and moving forward, not all companies understand its value and benefit. After all, can’t you just email team members reminders? Or use simple calendars to write in due dates?

Avoid All Those Calendars, Emails & Spreadsheets

While your agency could utilize calendars to track due dates, spreadsheets to organize task assignments and updates and emails to update any details related to all these tasks, do you really want to deal with multiple platforms to find all this data?

Workflow automation software ensures that each task moves on to the next stage without error. Due dates are noted on a master calendar and workflow details can be easily modified when the plans change. Your team members are all on the same page…and everything stays on one screen for easy reference. Ready to take control of your workflow? Try Gryffin today!