If you’re an association and/or a credentialing body, you’ve definitely thought of processes that you wish you could automate to help your staff to be more productive and be more responsive to your constituents. Automating your workflow in your database system is a strategy to achieve this. When beginning a new implementation of Association Anywhere association management software or Certelligence credentialing management software, our professional services team finds that customers are always excited to dive in and automate their applications within their new system. Unfortunately, this process doesn’t always happen that quickly. The key to successful automation is planning and, most importantly, shared staff member understanding and collaboration as well as a vision for the future.
I liken it to building a house–you wouldn’t begin without a set of blueprints, which includes the floor plan, where the wires are run, and where the plumbing will be installed. Similarly, planning for your workflow automation lays the groundwork for a successful implementation.
The most significant hurdle for organizations when laying out their current process is where to begin; the task can seem daunting with the level of detail that is required.
For example, think about how your organization handles a paper application. That thought process begins when you envision a piece of paper being printed, mailed, and shuffled around the office. It highlights pain points for staff, areas of inefficiency and overlap that could be addressed with automation software, and places where the process can be simplified. It’s important to consider this process even if your application is already online or you have some level of automation.
Step 1: The Happy Path
Let’s start by laying out the Happy Path. In this scenario, everything goes as planned; there are no sidetracks, and the process is executed with no bumps from start to finish.
Our Happy Path for credentialing likely looks something like this…
Once you have figured out the necessary steps of your process, you’re ready to move onto the exceptions.
Step 2: The Not-So-Happy Path
The next step is to ask yourself the question “What happens if…”:
Depending on your organization, these questions draw out a detailed list of requirements for your process.
Step 3: Ask Yourself Why
Throughout this process, it’s vital to ask the question, “Why do we do it this way?” I frequently encounter organizations that say, “the system MUST do this.” When I ask why it’s because that’s how they have always done it, but it’s a legacy holdover that doesn’t add value to the process. Those are business processes where you can identify areas for improvement and changes.
However, when the answer is “because the bylaws say so” or “regulation requires it,” you know these will be your high priority requirements and business process checks.
Step 4: Ask Yourself How Many
Often in the Not-So-Happy Path, organizations can end up down a rabbit hole about how to handle exception use cases. Those concerns can seem crucial until you ask the question, “how many?”
How many times does it happen in a year? If your organization processes thousands of applications a month, but the pain point only applies to 20 per year, this is likely something to be handled in a one-off manual process. It’s important to keep your needs in perspective.
Ready to learn more about automation software for associations and credentialing bodies? Check out part two of the blog post that features Step 5: Drill Down into the Detail. There’s also an infographic that details Steps 1- 5. You can download it here.
And if you’re interested in learning more about ACGI’s solutions, head to our Product Overview Page.
Authored by:
Kacey Conn is a Senior Business Analyst at ACGI Software and has more than 15 years of experience working in the Credentialing and Association market. With her extensive background in associations, credentialing bodies, and membership, Kacey’s expertise and passion for business process improvements, designing workflows, and automation has helped more than twenty mid to large-scale organizations optimize their online credentialing, membership and application processes.
