A DAY IN THE LIFE. A POTENTIAL GAME-CHANGER

Much of the work that is put into major projects is focused on the what we might call a 'horizontal' view of processes. Order-to-Cash and Purchase-to-Pay. The focus on moving good or service from the planning stage all the way through production and delivery until its sale is analyzed in the accounting reports.

What is NOT discussed often enough is what more be called a 'vertical' view of activities. What is a User supposed to be doing in the systems over the course of their day, in any one week, and over the span of a period. I like to use the term 'A Day in the Life' to describe this. The idea is that, without letting the end-to-end process suffer, the project also factors in the concept of what Users do all the time. And it focuses effort into making the process built around those things as much as it is around more progressive steps between Users.

A few examples we'll use to illustrate:

  1. A Buyer might know HOW to convert a Purchase Requisition into a Purchase Order, but do they know WHEN to convert it?

  2. A Credit Analyst may know HOW to add a Credit Note to a Customer record, but do they know WHAT to do with that Note a month later?

  3. Your Warehouse Manager may know WHERE to put Expiration Dates on receipts, but do they monitor IF something is actually expired?

  4. Engineers may have released a new Part rev, but does anyone else know?

What really do I mean by focusing on a 'Day in the Life'? I think of it simply as 'do the Users know what they are going to do all the time in the system?'. When a User logs into IFS:

  • What are the first screens that they would check?

  • What are the screens they operate in all day?

  • What tasks should they perform more periodically (weekly, monthly)?

  • What data are they monitoring for actions (and exceptions) to occur?

So how do we keep a project focused on these vertical activities. As with most processes we would try to define, we ask questions. We ask them as we perform the horizontal transactions:

  • How do you identify what records will need to be acted upon?

  • How do you periodically follow-up on those records (if needed)?

  • How do you find exceptions of any type in the records?

Then we continue to ask questions:

  • What do you, as a User…and as am Employee, do every day that is NOT covered by the processes in our horizontal flow? What are the one-offs?

  • Is there anything you do outside of your ERP now that could be done IN IFS going forward?

    • This can often yield interesting results…and you may never know if you don't ask

  • What periodic (this could be weekly, monthly, even annually) functions do you perform that are not included?

Using the answers, we expand our solution. We expand it by including those functions in the process tracking and testing, by documenting and building training content to cover them, and by using the tools in IFS to support them.

Some examples of tools that can be used in IFS that are often not part of 'core' end-to-end process flows include:

  • Screen configuration

    • Use Conditional Formatting to highlight exceptions or key items

    • Organize and Hide columns to bring important fields forward

  • Custom/standard notifications

    • Highly flexible ways of generating messages or emails

  • Lobbies

    • Dashboard view of information

  • Navigator layout management

    • Use Favorites to make it easy to access key screens

  • Saved Searches

    • Using the same search (especially using flexible dates) gives consistent results to queries

  • Tasks/Projects

    • Built-in IFS tools to manage complex, lengthy projects or processes

  • Approval Routings

    • Pre-defined, but flexibly designed, to have various Users review information before it's used (as an example)

  • Custom fields If the data isn't in IFS…ADD IT!

Using our earlier examples, we might see:

  1. Buyer

    1. Use Conditional Formatting to highlight Requisition Lines that have a Latest Order Date coming up soon

  2. Credit Analyst

    1. Have a Saved Search highlighting the Credit Notes with a follow-up Date in the next few days

  3. Warehouse Manager

    1. Build a Lobby Element showing Parts Expired

  4. Engineer

    1. Have an Approval Routing attached to a Part that notifies Accounting (for example) that a Part Rev needs to be reviewed

As you can see, adding a different viewpoint to processes can allow Users more daily needs to be considered beyond the 'move a step at a time' concept.