A better way to model your workflows (and it’s free!)
How many of us use Visio to map our processes? How many of us feel that “it gets the job done for the most part”? What would you say about a product that can help you map your processes and let you run simulations on those processes so you can find bottlenecks before you deploy? I did mention it was free, right?
The product is called Savvion Process Modeler and it is free (only a silly sales/marketing sign-up screen). Process Modeler uses true industry standard process notation to map out your processes across performers, using decision probabilities, and costs for each step.
When you have your process all mapped out, just click “Simulation >> Start” to see it in action. The simulation will generate a report so you can see the overall costs, and time spent on the process. You can then make some minor modifications to see what effect they will have instead of “guesstimating” and possibly making it worse.
Another cool feature is the use of “Data slots”. This allows you to create placeholders for values that can be used in the process to make decisions. For example, you could have a data slot for “Total Dollars” of a purchase requisition that can be used to power the decision points.
There is even an excellent tutorial included with the download that lives up to its name; “Gear Up! Savvion Process Modeler in 20 minutes or less”.
Process modeler is part of a larger suite of Business Process Management tools (which is why it is free) and they seem pretty interesting in their own rights.