A Generic Model for the Design of Workflow Systems to Improve Workplace Productivity: A Conceptual Design

Systems Management Institute Press · Jan 15, 1993

Performance, productivity, quality, and design are the forces driving the business agenda for the 21st Century. While hypergrowth is their child, Information Technology (IT) is their tool. Strategic business issues are the rationale for embarking on any IT program. In the drive to attain ever higher levels of productivity, experience has taught the business executive that the office environment is the focal point of corporate and business productivity. Performance is the reward for a carefully designed office environment that is operationalized through the implementation of optimized workflow systems. If we wish to change the "essence of the corporation," we must change the design of the office environment.

The well entrenched practice of implementing "vertical" information systems and computer software packages in the office is quickly becoming an artifact of the past. The pressures of competition are forcing the executive to view IT as a strategic resource that impacts all efforts to redesign the office through downsizing or the migration to client-server architectures. Such pressures call for the design and implementation of new approaches and methods of office design based on the optimum use of IT in the office environment. The generic model presented in this paper offers such an approach. Using this approach, the designers of workflow systems can at last provide tools that help offices design themselves.