qFlow: SED vs Online document management
1. nonSEDs
The idea of the qFlow project came spontaneously, there was no long analysis of the market for needs and demand, marketing research, etc. It simply arose that most systems are CRM, ERP, trackers, etc. they are simply assistants to collect data from users, in which their own, special business processes of processing and movement of data + their tools are protected. Of course, most of all, the idea of the service was reminiscent of the so-called electronic document management systems and from the very beginning, the acronym SED was associated with the words INTRODUCTION, SOFT, OFFICE, etc.
Well, as they say, the attempt is not torture. I typed in the search engine EDS, alternating possible keywords, and found that I was not mistaken. Along with definitions from dictionaries, an advertisement immediately appeared with suggestions to introduce, to come to a seminar, articles devoted to office work in Russia, consulting and industry proposals. As a department head of a company that can be classified as a small business (small working groups), I immediately felt like an alien body in this cohesive team of clerks.
To further exacerbate the situation, I went to one of the seminars held by the 1C franchisee on working with the 1C product. At the entrance, they immediately issued the journal “Paperwork and Document Management at the Enterprise” and I joined the team of women who came for an internship.
I must say that the product is really well done, it provides a huge number of functions and settings, ranging from document registration to storage and mail integration. Of course, if I managed a large business, I would definitely set the task for the IT department to draw up a list of requirements for the workflow system during the year, then hold a tender for half a year, modify it for half a year and implement it, and then simply force all of its employees bend under this system.
After the seminar, I fixed in my mind that I, like small business, do not need SED, but at the same time I need a simple tool that would still help to conduct the workflow.
After discussing all the ideas with colleagues, we decided that the word “document flow” is generally a taboo and we will make a simple system that will provide the ability to create molds like dozens of other systems, but we will differ in that we will be able to create processes for these molds. I know that there are analogues, for example, www.runmyprocess.com , but we decided to make it even easier than the competition). We planned that some of the people whom we will entice with free molds will also want to use processes.
2. Refusal of the "molds"
')
It must be said that the experience was not crowned with particular success. The audience for which the “forms” were designed needs a very simple tool for creating forms, and the majority business consists of several employees who do not yet need to use the “processes” offered by the system; they can also write and paste it on the monitor on a sticker .
The second miscalculation was that most users didn’t even find a tab for setting up the process (judging by asking technical support for setting up notifications), since and were not going to look for her. Users solved their task, placed a mold and did not even look for additional features of the system.
3. Statistics
Despite this, service statistics for the Russian market are generally positive (in my opinion, of course). Depending on the day of the week, there are from 15 to 25 registrations per day, and the number of forms actually placed on the working sites of the users of users ranges from 5 to 10 per day. The number has increased dramatically after the introduction of the form creation wizard from a template that allowed many people not to go any further than the promo site: received the code, inserted it into the site and work with e-mail.
The overwhelming majority of users use the free version of the system, although there are paid customers, but they use the system specifically for internal workflow: there is an entry for THAT, there are hospital and holidays, there is an approval of documents. By the way, almost all paid users came from our other projects.
Looking through the statistics on hosted forms received interesting data. If you sort all the forms by the number of impressions, then in the TOP there will be projects dedicated to the sale of tablets and erotic goods :)
4. New life
However, the problem with the wrong audience was the impetus for repositioning qFlow . Now I would like to designate a new vision of qFlow as an Online document management system (yes, now we are not afraid of this word). The main task was to make the system as clear as possible, but not to go deep into the jungle of workflow and never bring it closer to the SED. However, qFlow is indeed a simple-minded service that allows small workgroups to switch from paper to electronic workflow without additional costs for installation and training (we check it on ourselves, not without problems).
Will it somehow affect the audience time will tell. I will write about it.
The idea of the qFlow project came spontaneously, there was no long analysis of the market for needs and demand, marketing research, etc. It simply arose that most systems are CRM, ERP, trackers, etc. they are simply assistants to collect data from users, in which their own, special business processes of processing and movement of data + their tools are protected. Of course, most of all, the idea of the service was reminiscent of the so-called electronic document management systems and from the very beginning, the acronym SED was associated with the words INTRODUCTION, SOFT, OFFICE, etc.
Well, as they say, the attempt is not torture. I typed in the search engine EDS, alternating possible keywords, and found that I was not mistaken. Along with definitions from dictionaries, an advertisement immediately appeared with suggestions to introduce, to come to a seminar, articles devoted to office work in Russia, consulting and industry proposals. As a department head of a company that can be classified as a small business (small working groups), I immediately felt like an alien body in this cohesive team of clerks.
To further exacerbate the situation, I went to one of the seminars held by the 1C franchisee on working with the 1C product. At the entrance, they immediately issued the journal “Paperwork and Document Management at the Enterprise” and I joined the team of women who came for an internship.
I must say that the product is really well done, it provides a huge number of functions and settings, ranging from document registration to storage and mail integration. Of course, if I managed a large business, I would definitely set the task for the IT department to draw up a list of requirements for the workflow system during the year, then hold a tender for half a year, modify it for half a year and implement it, and then simply force all of its employees bend under this system.
After the seminar, I fixed in my mind that I, like small business, do not need SED, but at the same time I need a simple tool that would still help to conduct the workflow.
After discussing all the ideas with colleagues, we decided that the word “document flow” is generally a taboo and we will make a simple system that will provide the ability to create molds like dozens of other systems, but we will differ in that we will be able to create processes for these molds. I know that there are analogues, for example, www.runmyprocess.com , but we decided to make it even easier than the competition). We planned that some of the people whom we will entice with free molds will also want to use processes.
2. Refusal of the "molds"
')
It must be said that the experience was not crowned with particular success. The audience for which the “forms” were designed needs a very simple tool for creating forms, and the majority business consists of several employees who do not yet need to use the “processes” offered by the system; they can also write and paste it on the monitor on a sticker .
The second miscalculation was that most users didn’t even find a tab for setting up the process (judging by asking technical support for setting up notifications), since and were not going to look for her. Users solved their task, placed a mold and did not even look for additional features of the system.
3. Statistics
Despite this, service statistics for the Russian market are generally positive (in my opinion, of course). Depending on the day of the week, there are from 15 to 25 registrations per day, and the number of forms actually placed on the working sites of the users of users ranges from 5 to 10 per day. The number has increased dramatically after the introduction of the form creation wizard from a template that allowed many people not to go any further than the promo site: received the code, inserted it into the site and work with e-mail.
The overwhelming majority of users use the free version of the system, although there are paid customers, but they use the system specifically for internal workflow: there is an entry for THAT, there are hospital and holidays, there is an approval of documents. By the way, almost all paid users came from our other projects.
Looking through the statistics on hosted forms received interesting data. If you sort all the forms by the number of impressions, then in the TOP there will be projects dedicated to the sale of tablets and erotic goods :)
4. New life
However, the problem with the wrong audience was the impetus for repositioning qFlow . Now I would like to designate a new vision of qFlow as an Online document management system (yes, now we are not afraid of this word). The main task was to make the system as clear as possible, but not to go deep into the jungle of workflow and never bring it closer to the SED. However, qFlow is indeed a simple-minded service that allows small workgroups to switch from paper to electronic workflow without additional costs for installation and training (we check it on ourselves, not without problems).
Will it somehow affect the audience time will tell. I will write about it.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/113933/
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