How Morgan Construction and EML Payments scaled with process automation

Olivia Bushe00:00

Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining this webinar with a panel of FlowForma customers who are taking control of the way they work, collaborating more efficiently and breaking down silos to accelerate digital transformation. I'm Olivia Bushe, CEO at FlowForma, and I'll be your host. There'll be a few polls along the way, and a short feedback form at the end.

Olivia Bushe01:17

I'm delighted to be joined by two FlowForma customers: Carolynne, director of corporate services at Morgan Construction and Environmental, and Lindsay Evans, project management team coordinator at EML Payments. Perhaps you'd both give a little background on your organizations and roles. Carolynne?

Carolynne McCaughey01:50

Hello from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Morgan Construction is a civil contractor, an earthworks company: we move dirt. We have about 750 employees and growing every day, which is part of why I'm here: digitizing helps us be scalable. We're predominantly in western Canada, with a lot of work in mining, oil and gas and infrastructure. I oversee HR, safety and IT, and IT is not my default, so a caveat from a technical standpoint.

Lindsay Evans02:44

EML Payments is a fintech company focused on making payments more agile and quicker, and moving funds conveniently and securely around the world. I'm based in Ireland, and we have a good number of European offices as well as the US and Australia. In fintech, being agile and looking for the next innovative thing matters, and digitization was the next step for us.

Olivia Bushe03:37

Ten years ago, digital process automation was seen as nice to have rather than a necessity. With COVID and lockdowns, digital transformation has been pulled forward by at least five years, the experts tell us. Carolynne, why do you consider it a necessity for Morgan?

Carolynne McCaughey04:21

About five years ago, I never could have imagined we'd be where we are. We did all our recruiting and onboarding on a literal whiteboard on the wall, and the manager was very clear that only he could erase names. That's fine if you're hiring a handful of people, but by 2020 we had 200 or 300 people on the board, and we still do. We need good people, good processes, and it needs to be scalable and sustainable.

Carolynne McCaughey05:05

I remember arguing that we should at least get it onto an Excel spreadsheet, which was a big stretch. Then we had a massive spreadsheet out to column ZZ, with 14 to 18 different users on one shared sheet at any time. Lots of risk with that. In 2020 I said, please trust me, we need to take another step: stop manually entering every cell and touching candidate names more than once, automate the onboarding layers, and work smarter, not harder.

Olivia Bushe06:17

It's interesting that you already had the process on spreadsheets. Some people think email and spreadsheets mean they've already digitized, but they don't see how much more automation brings.

Carolynne McCaughey06:44

Absolutely. When you have concurrent tasks and different stakeholders all working toward a common goal, getting someone ready to go to work and compliant with safety and regulatory requirements, it's great when it all works in tandem and you have real-time reporting on your status. If you're not on par, you close the gaps. It's quicker, more efficient and tighter.

Olivia Bushe07:19

Forrester research says the top reasons for digitizing and automating are to increase productivity and improve employee and customer experiences. Lindsay, does that match your experience at EML?

Lindsay Evans07:48

Definitely. Productivity for our employees and the overall customer experience are at the forefront. The timing was interesting: EML had acquired a number of businesses across Europe, all coming together with their own established processes, probably all very Excel based. We needed something that would let us work as one team, keep productivity up and deliver to customers consistently, while scaling for the new business these acquisitions would bring.

Lindsay Evans08:44

The main focus was to get a consistent procedure we could use across the board, while recognizing it would never be a static process. It would have to keep changing, with fintech constantly evolving, with the needs of our clients, and as we learned to work together.

Olivia Bushe09:38

So you needed something agile that you could refine over time and that could grow and change with the business.

Lindsay Evans09:44

Exactly, and we've had a number of iterations since we started. We built it around some of our needs, but it needed a more holistic approach to cover every entity's business focus and be fit for purpose for everyone.

Olivia Bushe10:15

As a vendor, it's very hard to convey the cost of doing nothing: the cost of delaying digitization in time and money, because everything doesn't grind to a halt if you don't digitize tomorrow. What would you say to people who aren't treating it as an imperative?

Carolynne McCaughey11:02

You don't know what you don't know, so you just have to start. We've seen the leapfrog: Walkmans, then Discmans, then smartphones. This happens quickly, and if a business doesn't innovate and get ahead of it, it will be behind. The cost is the opportunity cost you may not even realize you missed.

Lindsay Evans11:45

I completely agree. We can all get comfortable with how it's always been done, and we don't realize the potential until we start implementing it. The immediate cost may not be obvious, but you can see the value that comes out of it in productivity.

Olivia Bushe12:17

Lindsay, what were the key indicators that caused EML Payments to pursue a solution like FlowForma?

Lindsay Evans12:36

The first process we put in place was client onboarding. Our business is highly regulated, with so many people working together on projects, and we needed one solution that fit every team: one source of truth, reporting and transparency, without relying on email chains or spreadsheets where things can go missing. That was the main driving force, especially while we were bringing together multiple systems that maybe weren't fit for purpose anyway.

Lindsay Evans13:35

Change comes with a bit of fear and a bit of headache, and rightly so. People know how to use their Excel and rely on it. But it can only take you so far, and if you want to grow, you have to invest in innovation.

Carolynne McCaughey14:11

Very similar at Morgan. How better to build trust with internal stakeholders or customers than through accountability and transparency? The reporting has been huge for us. As you get better at organizing your data and reporting it in a way that tells the right story, the organization wants more, and it's an efficient way to do a deep dive or get a high-level snapshot. We needed more information, faster, 24/7, and we got it through this.

Olivia Bushe15:03

So you have a lot of data in the organization, but you're not really using it for intelligence until you put in a tool like this.

Carolynne McCaughey15:14

Absolutely. Everyone has the same Excel spreadsheet, slightly different, on every desktop, saved their own way, and the servers get overloaded. Why wouldn't we bring it all into one shared database and create the right story for multiple users?

Olivia Bushe15:45

And get that single source of truth.

Olivia Bushe15:51

On to a poll: what are your requirements for a digital process automation tool? Select all that apply.

Olivia Bushe16:37

Here are the results. The leading answer is standardized processes across your enterprise, followed by ease of implementation. That ties in with what you were both saying: there comes a time when you have to standardize your processes to scale. Spreadsheets and email can only take you so far, and you need a single source of truth so you can interpret the data and make accurate decisions.

Lindsay Evans17:22

Not surprised to see those responses.

Olivia Bushe17:29

I want to talk about what we call the FlowForma acorn approach: our best practice for encouraging innovation, increasing adoption and rolling the tool out across the business. People often say, I love the idea, but I don't know where to start. We encourage business people to start with an obvious process: the real pain point, where paper gets lost, delays happen and decisions aren't quick enough, and where you can quickly see tangible benefits. Get it up and running, let the organization see the impact and get the buy-in, then broaden the tool to other processes.

Olivia Bushe18:49

Carolynne, is that the approach you used at Morgan? How did you get started?

Carolynne McCaughey19:02

We did start digitizing some of our safety forms, which was an easy way in. But I have to admit that with FlowForma we started with the most complex process, which was very courageous of us. Largely that was because of Pontem Innovations, a local provider we were already working with on Power BI, who had a lot of trust in FlowForma and said this is a great solution for you. So I ripped the band-aid off and said let's do it with our most complex, because the onboarding whiteboard was a beast and we couldn't continue the way we were.

Carolynne McCaughey19:58

I couldn't wait for the rest of the organization to catch up. I needed to get this moving for my group, and then through HR we could influence change across the rest of the organization.

Olivia Bushe20:11

That sounds like you're an innovation champion in the organization, someone who wants to see progress quickly.

Carolynne McCaughey20:42

I wouldn't give myself five stars on speed, because the organization was under so much pressure. It wasn't up to me to make it work: I needed the manager leading the onboarding team to buy in and be the lead change agent, because it's her team that uses the tool. It took almost a year, and that's not FlowForma. We were hiring hundreds of people during a pandemic in a very challenging labor market, and the data kept changing because we couldn't pause hiring while we built it.

Carolynne McCaughey21:54

But I'm pleased to report that as of February 1, 2022, we went live with the team. And now that manager, who said, are you kidding me, what is this FlowForma thing, is a subject matter expert. She's quite picky and keeps making tweaks while we're live. We also have a number of other departments working on much simpler processes that will use the corporate license, which helps share the cost.

Olivia Bushe22:50

Digitization is change management, and as people we don't like change. So you addressed the resistance by getting the person who objected most to lead the project.

Carolynne McCaughey23:14

That's the best way to do it. Of course you're reluctant to let go of what you have; it's the perfect change cycle, we all grieve and we're scared. By putting my manager in front of it and working closely with FlowForma and Pontem, trust built up. She doesn't need to know the back end, because it's no code and Pontem are our technical experts, but she knows what the outputs are and she started to trust it. Over Christmas her team was inputting all the data. I told her this is a leadership milestone for you.

Olivia Bushe24:15

Lindsay, what approach did you take at EML? Was it also quite a complex process?

Lindsay Evans24:28

In hindsight I probably would have gone with a smaller, simpler process, but it was a needs-driven approach: this is the biggest impact we need right now, and it was the right time to bring in automation and consistency. We expected it to be a lot simpler. The more we learned about what we could automate in FlowForma, the bigger we kept making it. Our initial scope was quite narrow, but the more we realized we could do, the more we wanted to get it right.

Olivia Bushe25:33

We see that a lot. Customers have a simple process in mind, then they're trained and realize the complexity FlowForma can handle, and they add more. We had one construction company in the UK that went live with 120 processes at once, within an eight-week time frame, because they wanted to launch them all together. That can be overwhelming, which is why we say get started, but once people see how easy it is, other ideas spring up.

Lindsay Evans26:33

We're definitely seeing that. Our onboarding process sits with eight or nine different teams, and every time we get off a call, one of the teams messages me asking whether FlowForma could do one of their processes. It's encouraged other teams to think about how to move away from manual spreadsheets. As of two weeks ago we've put another six into the build, with another five to come, and that's across regions too. Getting the first one over the line and people using it is the key.

Olivia Bushe27:37

Carolynne, I think you have four or five processes live now, with one in final testing. It's early for metrics, but you'll have a good instinct for how long a process takes now compared with before FlowForma.

Carolynne McCaughey28:21

It's fairly early, but we already see the speed at which information goes in, how it's organized and especially the output. The real-time reporting is an absolute gem. In the first week, my manager said we'd have to pull the report out and put it into an email. I stopped her: we're not going to do everything the way we used to. Your team doesn't need to take 45 minutes to format an email; your customers see it in real time. That's the whole point, but it's a shift in thinking.

Carolynne McCaughey29:27

A heads-up for anyone thinking of doing this: when the screen spins, people say it feels slow, but we quickly forget how slow it was to do everything manually, with 10, 20 or 50 of us entering the same information. Now we enter it once, in one source of truth. I know we'll soon forget the old way and want to keep making it quicker and more efficient.

Lindsay Evans30:36

Similar to Carolynne, we're still in the very early stages. The reporting has been key: we can see exactly which stage each client onboarding is at, see where our process is falling down, and adjust it quickly, in real time. Tracking from start to finish and spotting bottlenecks has been really valuable. It gives each team more autonomy too, because everyone can see where it's at and there's not as much chasing and nagging between people.

Olivia Bushe31:41

The process looks after the execution. If somebody's overdue, the system does the reminders, so you're not spending a week chasing somebody for information.

Lindsay Evans32:08

Exactly. You're less likely to drop the ball, because if anything is assigned to you, you can see what it is and take it off, rather than looking at an email and saying you'll get back to it later. There's more accountability.

Olivia Bushe32:31

That fits the times we're in. After two years of the pandemic, most companies have remote or hybrid working, and people working from home need structure. Process automation gives them structure for their day and lets them know what their tasks are, which is one piece of feedback we've had from customers.

Lindsay Evans33:39

Definitely, and everybody's been enjoying that. It's a quick, clear check of where they stand, and they're not bogged down in as many emails.

Olivia Bushe34:02

Our most successful projects begin when there's an understanding of the benefits at C-level: it's a strategic initiative, implemented and championed from the top. Do you agree that's important?

Carolynne McCaughey34:41

Absolutely. You have to over-communicate at the top and then drive it up, down and sideways. Give employees a head start on the vision so they understand the bigger picture, and keep talking about it. We just ran an engagement survey, and on communication it's always the same: people want to hear more from corporate about our vision, especially when it comes to change. Then you start to drive little change agents throughout the organization who carry your story forward.

Lindsay Evans36:02

I completely agree. For us it was driven from the C-level: with all the companies coming together, keeping business as usual going and maintaining consistency was always at the forefront. What also helped is the agility. You're not coming in with a rigid process and saying this is how we do it now. It allows a collaborative approach where everyone is a stakeholder, building it together, and it adapts over time. That helped with buy-in.

Olivia Bushe37:16

What would your advice be to people considering a process automation tool, for example someone just starting to investigate tools before taking a business case to senior management?

Lindsay Evans37:49

Potentially, and it's not what we did, start with the smaller wins: a number of smaller processes that are quick to implement and easy to use, where the value is obvious at the start. That helps get buy-in from everyone, shows visibility up to the top, and makes people's day-to-day jobs easier. It also answers the fear that you'll be duplicating effort, copying and pasting from your Excel sheet into a new system: people can clearly see that's not what it's about.

Carolynne McCaughey39:06

I completely agree. When you're on autopilot, you don't always realize how many steps a process has. Going digital takes brain power to eliminate redundant steps that are only there because it's the way we've always done it. Had we started with something less cumbersome, we'd have built good habits around tearing down the workflow, mapping the process and asking why we do what we do. Start training people to take off their blinders.

Olivia Bushe40:11

Or, if that's too overwhelming, do what you both did: get started, then refine and fix it as you go. But it's an important point that some steps may not make sense any more as the company has evolved.

Olivia Bushe40:44

On to our last poll: what process challenges are you currently facing? Again, select more than one.

Olivia Bushe41:23

Here are the results. Carolynne, I saw your reaction to the inability to customize pre-existing system solutions.

Carolynne McCaughey41:36

I was looking at information lost in email or paper chains. That's absolutely our organization. It's not that it's lost, but we overuse email, constantly replying all, and every notification distracts us. So I agree with the participants about eliminating communication that isn't necessary.

Olivia Bushe42:20

Of course, that's the one everyone has chosen, and probably the easiest to address.

Carolynne McCaughey42:38

For our team, every recruiter is paired with a coordinator who helps with onboarding. Once the recruiter marks an offer as accepted, it triggers the coordinator's work. Some notifications go to email, but they can follow their candidate along the process without going back and forth in any other format. It stays with the candidate's file: touch it once and move on.

Olivia Bushe43:16

I like that: touch it once. I'm going to coin that phrase. Lindsay, are you surprised by the results?

Lindsay Evans43:30

No. Things weren't necessarily getting lost in email, but it created so much more work. You have to read through a massive thread to remind yourself where you were, then save the email in SharePoint, and looking back historically or doing any auditing is a nightmare. In FlowForma you see any changes as the process runs, it's all captured in one process, and you have the automatic audit trail.

Olivia Bushe44:33

The end game for anyone implementing a tool like FlowForma is tangible outcomes that drive value. Any final points on the value you need, whether competitive advantage or productivity?

Carolynne McCaughey45:12

I see an outcome in empowering the team. If we remove roadblocks and barriers to how they do their work, it will affect how they perform, their engagement, hopefully their innovation, and what they do with the time we've saved them. It all links to competitive advantage, but from where I sit, the empowerment this creates in my employee base is going to drive a lot of value. It's intangible right now, but I'm excited to see what tomorrow brings.

Lindsay Evans47:07

For us it's the time saving and the structure. We have a weekly meeting where we discuss everything at each stage, and those meetings are far more productive because they're structured and the information is consistent, so we move through the stages a lot quicker. It's not quantifiable yet, but we've started tracking monthly how many things are approved within what time frame. We only have three months of metrics, but we can already see the difference.

Olivia Bushe48:35

Let's move to questions. Carolynne, how long does it take to digitize a process with FlowForma?

Carolynne McCaughey48:52

As I said, I'm not a technical expert, and it took us longer. But for a simpler process it doesn't take long at all once you know what you're trying to do. It's really intuitive. Once you've decided to implement it, it's just about starting, and the next thing you know you're on to the next project.

Lindsay Evans49:36

I'm definitely not an IT person, but I'm the one building all of these processes, so if I can do it, anybody on this call can. It's really intuitive, and there's far more it can do than you realize at the outset. Our first one took longer than it should have, but that was on us, working out exactly what we wanted. In the last couple of weeks we built four or five more: you sit down for an afternoon and it's nearly ready for testing. When you have a good plan for how the process should flow, the build is the easy part.

Olivia Bushe50:46

You've both talked about processes needing changes. Can you make those changes in house with FlowForma?

Lindsay Evans51:04

Generally, yes, and they're usually quite straightforward. Sometimes there's more the tool can do than I know, and our account managers support us where we need it, but once they've shown you, you know what you're doing, because it's logical. Nine times out of ten the changes are really straightforward, and you can even upgrade previous forms to cover them.

Olivia Bushe51:44

Like Excel, you need to invest some time to learn it, but you don't need to be technical, and our customer success team is happy to help.

Olivia Bushe51:56

Another question: who championed FlowForma in your organization? Carolynne, did you have other C-level support?

Carolynne McCaughey52:10

Absolutely. You can sit there in paralysis by analysis, or you can drive it. I walked into our CFO's office next to mine and said, this is what I'm going to do, because my group needs a solution. He said, sounds good, and our vice president said, good job. Now finance and the equipment and maintenance side have driven fleet management, maintenance repairs and expense claims. There was no need to drive consensus: there was a business need, it made sense, and we trusted Pontem, a FlowForma partner.

Lindsay Evans53:38

For us it was the CEO and COO level. They were bringing all of these companies together, and this was a natural part of improving one of those processes. Because it was our onboarding, tied to winning new business, there was a big incentive to keep it on track and consistent, so the period of transition didn't affect our productivity or our customers' experience.

Olivia Bushe54:20

It highlights how important it is to have a strategic initiative and buy-in from senior management to support the rollout of a tool like this.

Olivia Bushe54:38

That's all the questions we have time for; we'll follow up on any we missed. Thank you both, it's great to see the value FlowForma is bringing to your organizations. You can book a call with our process experts, sign up for a personalized demo or a free trial at flowforma.com. Thanks again, Lindsay and Carolynne.

Carolynne McCaughey55:04

Thank you, it's been a pleasure.

Lindsay Evans55:05

Absolute pleasure.