Author: Melissa Gregório

Low-Code development platform: what is it and what are its advantages?
Over the years, the companies needs have changed and managers have developed a vision that every type of business task can be automated. This has generated a great demand in the systems development business.

However, it was realized that many of these simple tasks, which could be automated, would end up generating a high cost for the company, because, despite being applications with few steps and fields, there must be documentation and an architecture like any other, which is the biggest cost. This is how Low-Code was created.

In this article we will discuss the importance of Low-Code and how the concept affects professionals in the field.

What is Low-Code?

Low-Code is a concept that gives users with no programming experience or knowledge the freedom to create their own applications, without the need for professionals in the field to give the “finishing touches”.

Thus, the user has an interface with all the options present in the tool, being able to create screens, graphs, and business rules. In the most famous platforms, all the development is done by dragging and dropping the items from an options tab to the screen that will be filled with what is being architected.

Who is the Low-Code application developer?

The developer of a Low-Code application doesn’t necessarily have to be someone specialized in technologies or programming. In fact, this is one of the tool’s strongest positive points: enabling anyone to develop an application.

With this, the IT team is not overburdened and can be called only when the application is finished so that the code and performance can be evaluated. Still about the Low-Code application developer, we emphasize that the tool was made to serve common users and professional developers, but always remembering that there is a learning curve in the technology area that requires time and effort.

The differential for the IT developer when using the tool is the ability to customize the software. The platform itself allows customizations such as including third-party services, data sources, and additional layers and security for the software, which are points that require more experience and knowledge to apply.

Should I forget about internal development companies or teams?

After many evaluations and analyses of the potential of Low-Code platforms, it is remarkable that for small and simple applications they meet the needs very well, and avoid financial expenses that the company would have with traditional development.

However, for very complex applications, it loses some of its positive points, especially due the difficulty of integrating this tool in companies, if there is other software already involved in the management. Additionally, it may also not be possible to make the software match the company “personality” , as many people usually like to do.

In closing

Evolution is constant. Many professionals in the area feel threatened by the Low-Code concept, which always aims to reduce effort, time, and cost for the client. This, of course, also affects the developer, but the developer must adapt to the market, as it happens with any area. Within the Fusion Platform, we also have this concept, and the user can customize items such as:
- Creating Forms (selecting the fields in the activities);
- BPM modeling;
- Interface Rule, Formulas and Filters in the new Wizard;
- Email Modeler.
This way, the users themselves can develop all the business management processes, creating the necessary fields, flow and rules for what is to happen, all in a dynamic way.

Try it for 15 days free right now! Or, if you prefer, request a demonstration from our consultants. Count on us to answer all your doubts and help your company!
07/06/2021
How BPM powers your management systems (ERPs)
For decades ERPs have dominated corporate environments and specialized modules such as financial, accounting, production, manufacturing, HR, among others, which are characterized by a multitude of screens, reports, and parameters, always with a transactional view.

Read more: The differences between ERP and BPM

The user experience with most ERPs on the market is quite tiresome, and to generate any kind of information, whether tactical or strategic, users usually have to make a great deal of effort and the IT areas depend directly on their respective suppliers.

With the increasing use of technology, especially smartphones and tablets, users have started to demand faster, simpler solutions that offer increasingly refined experiences. As a consequence, questions began to arise:
- Why don’t the company systems meet the needs of my area?
- Why are the systems so complicated, limited, and different from my reality?
- Why does my ERP support only a part of my practical work process?
- Why is it so difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to add new features?
- How do you train users on all the screens so they can fill them out correctly?
- How do you ask them only for what really matters for the business?
- Having an ERP by itself does not make the company truly integrated, so why is there such a dependence on the package supplier?
- Why is it so difficult to generate relevant information from the data available in my ERP?
Understanding the reasons for conflicts with ERPs

The questions above represent exactly the reality of most companies in the market today, and below we point out some reasons why:
- Traditional management systems have rigid business rules that are difficult to parameterize;
- ERPs have complex screens, and most of them bring and request information that is not necessary for the business;
- Individual users fill screens and fail to see the whole workflow;
- Transactional processes are usually spread out in a segmented view by function and not over the work unit;
- Information has to be pulled up, with the need to access a screen or report;
- The people and the company must adapt to the system, not the other way around;
- A lot of difficulty in knowing the next person in charge and what the next steps are;
- Lack of management of pendencies and unfinished tasks;
- It comprises only a part of the business process, not allowing the management of the entire value chain.
The answer to most of these practical difficulties lies in the adoption of the BPM discipline and systems, which have been gaining recognition, since they speed up tasks, reduce costs, encompass the process as a whole, allow effective management over the value chain, aid decision making, and are focused on facilitating and orchestrating the company processes, its documents, and on generating tactical and strategic information.

Main characteristics of a BPM

BPM performs tasks with friendly and configured actions, always focusing on the data of the activity being executed and showing what the users need to know, without exaggeration or unnecessary information, with the possibility of searching for previously existing information in legacy systems and effectively delivering only the necessary input that the users needs to do their job. In addition, processes become faster due the simplified interaction and tasks communicated by email, dashboards, and/or smartphone.

In addition, through the technology currently available in the market, it must allow users to have mobility in their daily lives through the use of smartphones to perform tasks, collaborate on corporate assets, fill out forms, make approvals, publish and consult documents, among several other facilities that can be applied in the business context in order to give fluidity, agility and productivity to daily work. This way, those involved have several means of following all the stages and are aware of the deadlines and times spent.

Other features include:
- It designs the flow and integrates with business forms;
- Automation of business processes that are generated from document triggers;
- Business rules are configurable;
- Dynamic forms are used to customize information at each step of the process;
- Elimination of data redundancy;
- Single focal point, integrating data from different systems in a transparent way to the end user, without the need for multiple logins and passwords;
- It communicates the tasks to the people, who have deadlines for carrying them out.
The BPM discipline and systems have come to fill an important gap left by ERP, with an integration, management and process-oriented vision, aiming to allow end-to-end control of all data flow, documents and company information in an integrated manner. Therefore, they must be considered in any digital transformation strategy, paperless initiatives, or simply with the goal of leveling up in terms of the effective control of any business, keeping in mind their most essential component: processes are everywhere.

Therefore, to enhance your management system, consider Neomind’s Fusion Platform solution, a tool that integrates Document Management (ECM), BPM (Workflow), Capture, Portal and Analytics, allowing interaction with employees, clients, suppliers and anyone else in a simplified and integrated way.

Try it for 15 days free right now! Or, if you prefer, request a demonstration from our consultants. Count on us to answer all your doubts and help your company!
15/04/2021
Process Mapping: where to start?
A process is a series of actions that, when taken, achieve a certain result. For example, let’s imagine an employee hiring process. In order to conclude it, it will be necessary to have the description of the position, announce the vacancy, screen resumes, contact candidates by phone, schedule interviews, apply tests, select the ideal candidate, negotiate salary and, finally, get to the contract.

As you can see, a process transforms inputs into outputs. On the one hand, you have a goal, and on the other hand, the steps to achieve it. The example above was about a Human Resources process, but, logically, Process Management applies to all areas of a company.

When we talk about Process Management, we are also dealing with continuous improvement. In other words, remember the example about the employee hiring process? When putting it into practice, imagine that we have noticed some inconsistencies. In this case we should study it to improve it, don’t you agree? It is exactly to talk about process improvement that we invite you today to know more about Process Mapping.

What is Process Mapping?

Process Mapping identifies all the steps, parties involved, objectives, decisions and flow of an existing process. More specifically, Process Mapping:
- Presents the various activities contained in a process;
- Clearly shows how each activity transforms inputs into outputs;
- Describes the flow of work;
- Indicates the decisions that must be made along the flow;
- Demonstrates the interrelationships and interdependencies between the stages of the process.
Business Process Mapping is a great way to make all the necessary steps of a workflow understandable. Through it, all those involved (from managers to employees) get an overview of how the processes are executed, how they can be improved and how many steps are necessary to lead them to the end.

Why map processes?

Peter Drucker said that “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. One of the main benefits of Process Mapping is that it allows the company to measure its projects. Using Drucker’s logic: by measuring a process, you will be able to manage it in a much more efficient way and, therefore, improve it.

Still related to the advantages of Process Mapping, imagine you want to make a change in your company product, because you believe it will attract more customers. It just so happens that making a change only for the sake of doing it can end up costing you a lot.

The same happens with your business processes: making changes without really understanding how a process works can result in costs for your business. Process Mapping allows you to understand how and why the process works, making any action much more precise to improve it.

This way, we understand that Process Mapping enables an organization to:
- Measure how efficiently the process is working;
- Gather information to understand where the inefficiencies, bottlenecks and/or waste of the process lie;
- Develop/improve processes to reduce or eliminate inefficiencies, bottlenecks and/or waste.
How to map processes?

Ok, we have understood what Process Mapping is and its importance. Now let’s get to the heart of the matter: where to start?

First of all, it is essential to include everyone involved, because everyone needs to clearly understand what the objectives of the process are, in addition to agreeing on the deadlines and flow activities.

The flowchart can be created manually, but it is recommended to use a Business Process Management (BPM) tool. With this tool, it is much easier to keep track of the time needed to complete a process, find bottlenecks, impose execution patterns with fields or approvals, automate the work, among other functions.

We have listed below the general steps to map your business processes:

Step 1: Understand the process

In order to improve a process, it is necessary to understand the reason for its existence. Ask the following questions:
- What is the importance of this process?
- What is the functionality of this process?
- What goals does it achieve?
- What is the execution time?
- Who benefits from the process?
Step 2: Identify the problem

Where are the bottlenecks or points of inefficiency in the process? In which activities?

Step 3: Set the boundaries

From this stage on, we start working with the process itself:
- Where or when does the process begin?
- Where or when does the process end?
Step 4: Determine and sequence the steps
- Here you can brainstorm all the necessary activities and sequence them.
Step 5: Draw basic flowchart symbols

Each element in a process map is represented by a specific flowchart symbol. Together they represent the Process Mapping symbols:
- Oval symbols show the beginning or end of a process.
- Rectangles indicate an operation or activity that needs to be performed.
- Arrows represent the flow direction.
- Diamonds indicate a point at which a decision should be made. Arrows coming out of a diamond are usually labeled “yes” or “no”. Only one arrow comes out of an activity box.
- Parallelograms show inputs or outputs.
Step 6: Finalize the process flowchart

Questions to be asked in this step:
- Is the process being executed as it should be?
- Are all of them in line with the process map flow?
- Is there anything redundant?
- Is any step missing?
Step 7: Constant monitoring

Process Mapping is about continuous improvement. Therefore, it is essential to keep in mind that processes must be constantly monitored. Whenever the need for improvement is identified, act promptly.

Remember: ensuring the efficiency and productivity of your company is only possible from the moment everyone understands that improvement should be cyclical and continuous.

Conclusion

When business processes are poorly structured, there is no doubt that all the efficiency and effectiveness of a company are compromised. The damages caused by a badly executed process are many, including lack of organization, drop in productivity, demotivated employees, repetition of tasks, among others. And you already know the result of this: waste of time and money.

Try it for 15 days free right now! Or, if you prefer, request a demonstration from our consultants. Count on us to answer all your doubts and help your company!
22/12/2020
Checklist: is it time to invest in ECM?

Picture this: you have encountered bottlenecks in the processing or storage of information. To make matters worse, your company has a large number of printed documents that are turning into a big snowball. How to bring order to chaos? What solution to use?

When you purchase an ECM solution, printing, shipping and storage costs are eliminated through digital capture, which provides instant access to content and processes from anywhere. This makes the big snowball of information give way to an agile and productive process for your organization.

So far you have understood what a company can gain by investing in ECM. But what about those who still haven’t realized the benefits of this solution? What other problems do they face?

According to João Penha Lopes (CEO of CleverTime Consulting), we can raise some points that answer this question. If your organization is part of the group that doesn’t know if it is time to invest in ECM, we can lend you a hand.

We have listed below some problems faced by many companies. Check those that are part of your business day to day:

( ) Paper storage costs considered excessive.
How much has your company been spending on document storage and management?

( ) Difficulty finding documents.
How much time do your employees waste when they need to find a document? How much time is wasted recreating documents that were not found?

( ) Unawareness of the existence of documents related to a particular subject.
How are subjects and documents related to them controlled?

( ) Degradation or loss of documents.
Have any documents been lost in your company?

( ) Lack of information on which step of the process the document is in.
Within a process, how is the control of the steps in which the document is carried out? What is the level of difficulty to get this information?

( ) Slow document approval processes.
How long does it take for a document to be approved, or even to get to the approvers?

( ) Slow response to customers.
How do your customers feel about your company response time?

( ) Need to “go to the office” to process pending documents.
How easy is it for your employees to access documents and processes?

( ) Finding restricted documents are being accessed by people who do not have permission.
How easy is it to obtain access to restricted documents? How does your company restrict documents today? Are there access controls, versions, revisions and approvals of these documents?

( ) Finding failure to comply with legal requirements.
What is your company level of control over compliance with legal requirements?

( ) Large number of employees assigned to deal with document processing.
What is the percentage of your company employees assigned to document processing? How many of these could be assigned to other functions if the management of these documents were performed by an ECM solution?

Is it time to invest in ECM?

Did you relate to this and check any of the items above? If so, it is ideal that your company invest in an ECM solution in order to streamline and facilitate the management of documents and processes, organizing the information spread and making simple processes more productive.

Try it for 15 days free right now! Or, if you prefer, request a demonstration from our consultants. Count on us to answer all your doubts and help your company!

09/12/2020
How much does it cost to lose data?
What’s the risk involved by having a confidential information in wrong hands? The answer of this questions you already know, just imagine your competitor knowing in advance about your new product, per example.

When we talk about information management, we need to know how important is to a company optimize and automize document management with an ECM software.

According to PwC, control and security are more important to companies (91%), than efficiency (77%)

Not only being GDPR complied, but also data is the most value active of any company, data and documents should be well manage.

The importance of BPM in GDPR Compliance

Almost every company have a side data management, it can also be out of the EU, but by the Right to be forgotten GDPR – erasing information from the data – anyone can ask to remove their personal information from any database. The company needs to respond within a month, otherwise it can be sued. It means the company needs to delete paper archive, the IT system and side data.

Since GDPR is a process, using the BPM is the same logic.

But why is it so important?

Any company should be concern with data security and data safety, but what is the difference between both? Data security is concerned with protecting your data against unauthorized use and Data safety concerns protecting data against loss by ensuring safe storage.

We know for sure that no company wants to live the chaos of having their confidential information exposed, right?

The ECM by Fusion Platform has a specific process, already available, focused on Risk Management and Data security. It’s possible to monitor and registry any risk situation to the data, such as define actions, probabilities and impacts. It allows a monitory frequency to risks, actions and results.

How can ECM contribute to data safety?

As we saw above, data is vital, and big companies already suffered with breach and leakage data, like Facebook had in the past.

When investing on an ECM solution, your company knows for sure:
- Only authorized user (even in a team, a small group or just an individual user) is able to access documents
- You can manage anytime the access to any document, by any user.
- The users are always getting updates version, also the control over all previously versions.
The right product, in the right place, at the right time takes data security and data safety to a next level.

Business process management (BPM) identify gaps and how they affect the businesses. Through elaboration, implementation and monitoring of business processes, making sure they run efficiently, improving it time to time, to protect the organization and create workflows. Even though the focus of GDPR has been data protection, without an efficient system, the organization may not achieve compliance, getting exposed to violations and fines. To conclude, the document management (specially the security and accessibility) is essential to any organization.

Still don’t know the best option in Business Process Management (BPM)? Meet the Fusion Platform.

Also read: The first steps to a Paperless ERA.
06/10/2020
The first steps to a Paperless ERA
Can you picture the image of a physical archive full of documents, those countless papers on the table, missing documents, non-conformities, incomplete information… desperate times, huh? These are only a few challenges in organizations that haven’t switched to enterprise content management and still, industries, trades and services are business segment on top the of the list and studies show the main reason is that the partners are not ready.
So why your company should go Paperless?

Moving into the Paperless era means simplify the information management and protect it in the best way possible, including:
- Gain of productive: easily find information and/or documents you are looking for, adding online tags to your files. Remember, in a paperless era: information and documents are at your fingertips!
- Improvement of efficiency: by being easily to locate, update and share any information, the company gain in efficiency, the software even reminds you of deadlines, giving you time and control over processes;
- Safety and Security: An encrypted data guaranteeing information integrity, plus digital security and privacy by setting up permissions to view, edit, create download and save any document;
- Environment: being eco-friendly is essential for any company in a globalized world, and, with no doubts, reducing the paper consume is a big step;
- Costs-savings: it involves more than the amount of money spent on paper, toner replacement, maintenance or lease of print machines, it’s also a time safer!
Ok, but how to start a paperless routine?

We know it sounds as an impossible mission, but you can start it right now! Take a look at the tips bellow:

Start by scanning documents: It is the first step, and it sure can demand a big effort, based on the size of your physical file, but it is an essential procedure.
1. Develop a strategy to eliminate documents: Keep the scanned documents by a period of 30 to 90 days, it will avoid any problems that might occur during the scanning process;
2. Talk to your team: it is necessary to explain the reasons and gains of going paperless, keeping them engaged is the key to the success of the strategy;
3. A specialized management system: To keep your documents safe and an automatized lifecycle a management system is required; to have all documents stored on a server facilitates the accessibility to authorized people, ensuring agility and reliability. Besides that, the right software has applications to digital signature, legally validating the documents.
How Neomind became Paperless

In 2016, Neomind implemented electronic document management in administrative processes, finance and human resources. The main goal, besides the cost reduction, was to increase security of documents, keeping them correctly store to preserve any information through time.

Before the automation of the process, a routine procedure could require, on average, between print and copies, 30 pages, knowing that it was necessary at least 2 copies of the complete report. In other words, it’s not possible to achieve efficiency and cost reduction with bureaucracy.

With Fusion Platform by Neomind, all processes were automated ensuring electronic communication, starting and ending the entire procedure digitally.

Through a simple strategy and process management, the company had gains such as – paperless, agility, control over process, transparency and lack of bureaucracy. Besides:
- Gain of efficiency by having information available to all people involved;
- Safety and facility to find reports and documents already filed, once they are all digital.
- Secure financial transactions linked to the bank
- Gain of physical spaces previously taken by papers and file cabinets
Nowadays we can say all the administrative processes, finance and human resources are completely PAPERLESS, it couldn’t be different, once we are providers of a solution that one of the countless benefits includes automating processes and reducing paper consume.

To conclude

Going paperless demands an initial effort, but once established, the workflow adapts and the results are quite visible. It is not a trend, but an organizational culture, a strategy to bring safety, financial gains and environmental respect.

Any question? Contact us and discover the best solution in a Paperless Era to your company.

Read more: How BPM potentialize your ERP
25/08/2020
How BPM potentialize your ERP
For decades the ERPs are present in corporative environments in the financial, accounting, production line, manufacturing, human resources, and more. They are characterized by their infinity interfaces, reports and parameters, always with a transactional vision.
The experience of using an ERP can be tiring, and to get any type of information, strategic or tactic, usually the users need a lot of effort and the IT departments are dependents of the software providers.

With the globalization being a reality day-by-day, especially with the use of smartphones and tables, the users started to require faster and simple solutions that provide accurate experiences. As a consequence, some questions appeared:
- Why the ERPs do not supply the needs of my department?
- Why ERPs are so complicated, limited and inverse of my reality?
- Why does the ERPs fill just a part of my work process?
- Why is it so hard, expensive and time consuming to include new functionalities?
- How to train the user in all interfaces so them can fill it correctly? How to get exactly what really matters to my business?
- Why is it so hard to generate relevant information from the data available?
Know the reasons of the conflicts on ERPs

The questions above represents the reality of most business nowadays, and here you see some of the reasons:
- The traditional ERPs involve complex business rules and are hard to parametrize;
- ERPs in general has complexes interface and, mostly, aren’t necessary to the business;
- The users fill the information but are not having a macro view;
- Information has to be pulled, with the need to access a different system or report;
- Employees and the company need to adjust to the ERP, and not the inverse;
- Hard to know the complete work-flow;
- Lack of management of the outstanding work;
- Englobes just part of the business process, not allowing the management of the entire value chain.
The answer for a big part of those difficulties are the implementation of a BPM system. BPMs are conquering space due the agility, cost saving, process englobed and effective management of the value chain, simplifying decisions and focusing on facility all business’s processes, providing tactic and strategic information.

Main characteristics of a BPM

The BPM execute tasks with user-friendly interface, always focusing on data logging being executed and providing what the user needs to know, not exaggerating or bringing unnecessary information, with the possibility to find previous material already existent and delivering effectively the necessary to do the job. Besides, the processes become faster through the easy interaction and the tasks are informed on e-mail, dashboard and/or smartphones.

In addition, it has to enable through technology preexistent, mobility on daily basis using smartphone to execute tasks, fill out forms, realize approvals, publish and consult documents among other facilities that can be apply to the business’s context, giving agility and productivity to the day-to-day work. This way, the users are able to view the workflow, check deadlines and time taken.

More characteristics include
- Create and draw flows and integrate with business’s forms;
- Automation of business processes derived from documents;
- Adaptable business rules;
- Dynamic forms used to obtain, in personalized way, information on each step of the process;
- Eliminate data redundancy;
- Data integration from different systems, with transparency to the final user, without several login and logout;
- Users get the tasks and are informed of deadlines.
BPM systems came to fulfil the gaps left by ERP, with an overview of the process, integrating and managing full control of all workflows, data, documents and general business’s information. Consequently, it should be considered in any strategy of Digital Transformation, paperless initiative or, simply, the goal to achieve a new level of control in any business, having in mind the most important component: Processes are everywhere!

The Fusion Platform by Neomind optimize and enhance your management system, a solution to documents (ECM), BPM (workflow), Capture, Portal and Analytics, integrating the organization, employees, clients and vendors, in a simple and smart way.

Check out how BPM works:

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28/07/2020

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