A few years ago, companies were jazzed about the potential of workflow technology. They were going to automate all their business processes. But until last year, not much happened. Most kept their use of workflow to on-site payroll and human resources functions. But today, with Web-based workflow applications, workflow is being implemented not only for company management functions, but also criminal investigations, product development and loan approval.
Prices are significantly lower and installation and maintenance of the software is a breeze.
All this because workflow developers embraced the Internet. Back in the day When workflow first started out, it was a kludgy system that required a lot of attention and money. Servers had to be monitored around the clock to ensure running more than one or two applications was not taxing the system. In addition to the software investment, the cost of having a long-distance connection sustained for the length of the workflow transactions for remote sites was exorbinant, he said. Also, because of the number of hops data was traveling over long-distance lines, the reliability of the connection was reduced.