Title: DOCFLOW: AN INTEGRATED DOCUMENT WORKFLOW FOR BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT

Issue Number: Vol. 1, No. 1
Year of Publication: 2011
Page Numbers: 219-229
Authors: Boonsit Yimwadsana, Chalalai Chaihirunkarn, Apichaya Jaichoom, Apichaya Thawornchak
Journal Name: International Journal of Digital Information and Wireless Communications (IJDIWC)
- Hong Kong

Abstract:


Document management and workflow management systems have been widely used in large business enterprises to improve productivity. However, they still do not gain large acceptance in small and mediumsized businesses due to their cost and complexity. In addition, document management and workflow management systems are often used separately because they solve different problems. Only some part of document management systems should be tied together with workflow management systems. However, in most business environment, documents actually flow according to workflow definitions. Our work, thus, combines the two concepts together and simplifies the management of both document and workflow to fit business users. Our application, DocFlow, is designed with simplicity in mind while still maintaining necessary workflow and document management standard features with security. Approval mechanism is naturally included in the workflow, and the approval can be performed by a group of actors such that only one of the team members is sufficient to make the group's decision. A case study of news publishing process is shown to demonstrate how DocFlow can be used to create a workflow that fits the news publishing process.