McKinley Irvin makes the case for process automation

Shay O'Connor00:02

Hi everybody, and welcome to this session with FlowForma and McKinley Irvin, a family law firm on the West Coast. I'm Shay O'Connor, Head of Solutions at FlowForma, and I'm happy to introduce Dustin Ray, a business process analyst with McKinley Irvin. The webinar is being recorded, your lines are muted, and please type your questions into the chat box, whether they're for me about the technology or for Dustin about his experience. We'll share the recording afterward.

Shay O'Connor01:27

Hello, Dustin. We asked Dustin to come along because McKinley Irvin, under his stewardship, has been going through a digital transformation, and we felt his experience of going from manual to automated processes would be useful to you. I'll start with a few questions for Dustin, and then we'll take a quick look at the system and the kind of functionality you can expect from FlowForma.

Shay O'Connor02:30

A good place to start is the beginning. Can you tell us a little about McKinley Irvin and your role there?

Dustin Ray02:41

McKinley Irvin is a 120-person organization with six offices up and down the Pacific Northwest, and we're one of the largest family law firms in the United States. Law in the US has traditionally been behind the times when it comes to technology. The industry hasn't really been forced into that world, so it's come kicking and screaming. I've been tasked with taking the talent we have and optimizing it through automation and technology, with the goal of furthering growth and profitability.

Shay O'Connor03:51

What were the challenges you were facing?

Dustin Ray04:07

One of the classic ones is that our people always need something from the next department over. We're all familiar with sending an email and desperately asking for something you need that day. But how do you make sure your request is seen by the person who needs to see it, treated with the right priority, and not lost in a vast inbox? We all know people with a few thousand items in their inbox. And all these side tasks take away from the core goal of serving our clients. So how do we streamline these little functions, stop losing them, reduce errors, and keep the business humming?

Shay O'Connor05:28

Presumably you have specialist software for your industry, and you need something to fill the cracks in how information passes between steps and people?

Dustin Ray06:07

Exactly. Errors are costly in any organization, and in law it's something you want to avoid at all costs. Every chance you have to reduce a mistake pays dividends. The goal is getting down to zero mistakes.

Shay O'Connor06:32

Was there a particular moment that said, 'This is too much, we need to address it'?

Dustin Ray06:56

There were a couple of particular workflows. You could see people going from emailing to wandering over to someone's desk in frustration because they were at their wit's end. That's a good motivator. Information was still flowing, but everyone would agree it was more painful than it should be. So how do you go from there to a smooth-running operation? That provided excellent motivation.

Shay O'Connor07:40

So how was FlowForma implemented to address those challenges?

Dustin Ray07:46

A couple of workflows immediately screamed the need for automation, and those were the first we started with. One is new employee onboarding. Every organization deals with it, and bringing on a new employee is costly. A huge number of people touch that new employee before they ever come in the door: HR handles recruitment and significant data entry, direct supervisors provide input, and IT preps their accounts. All these groups were sending little bits of information back and forth by email, and at any step you run the risk of running the flow into the ground if someone ignores an email. FlowForma lets us structure it: HR works on their items, then the hiring manager jumps in, with clear notifications along the way. That's how you avoid the roadblocks you'd hit in a manual process.

Dustin Ray09:30

The other is managing client funds, which happens many times a day. These are payments we make on the client's behalf, a court fee or an expert witness, for example. Like many accounting processes, they all have to get out the door the day they come in, and mistakes here are costly.

Shay O'Connor10:13

Not something you want to be careless with. It's other people's money.

Dustin Ray10:30

Exactly. We had at least seven emails going out per transaction, and we've reduced that to a single FlowForma item that everyone involved can look at, track and audit if need be. The accounting department is a big fan of that, and it gives us a digital backup, which is critical.

Shay O'Connor10:54

I don't want to put you on the spot, but be honest: did you build these yourself?

Dustin Ray11:05

I did. Both were created by me. We have a lot of support from our technology folks and from FlowForma, which I appreciate, but one of the great things about FlowForma is that you can put it in the hands of one business user like me and start implementing these things on your own. It doesn't take a team of developers.

Shay O'Connor11:53

And how long did it take to get something up and running?

Dustin Ray12:04

Once the system is in place and you've had a little training, rollout for a relatively straightforward process can easily be done in a week, especially if you can dedicate time to it. The quicker you get one out the door, the quicker you can get to the next.

Shay O'Connor12:36

You started with a few core processes. What level of growth do you see in process automation now?

Dustin Ray12:51

We're only looking to see that line point upward. We're at about 15 flows at the moment, and for the next year we're targeting even stronger growth. The big goal is that if it's a standardized process, why not get it into process automation? You can see the dividends pay off pretty quickly.

Shay O'Connor13:19

That's interesting, because a lot of clients start with one problem they want fixed. Once they get comfortable, they realize they don't need the papers and spreadsheets in the office anymore, and they start chipping away at the rest. Did you find that?

Dustin Ray14:03

Yes, and I'm glad you brought up spreadsheets, because they're incredibly common. Every person and team manages their own small host of spreadsheets, functioning as a low-end database. Whenever I hear anyone talking about a personally managed spreadsheet with critical business information, I flag that process for a future FlowForma workflow, because there's usually fertile ground for automation there.

Shay O'Connor14:56

Becoming automated sounds good, but did you see specific benefits to the company?

Dustin Ray15:10

Yes. The problem I mentioned, folks storming the gates of accounting or other departments, has come way down. Far fewer people are frustrated that their request isn't being addressed at the speed they want. That speaks to improved visibility and clear priority, and our ability to manage the requests coming in the door has greatly improved. When you're not struggling to figure out where your requests are, you can focus on accomplishing them, and that's pure efficiency.

Dustin Ray16:01

Being in the legal field, we also have a great deal of requirements for essential information. How many times have we had to email someone back because they didn't provide a critical piece of information? With FlowForma you can make an item required before submission, which cuts down on people simply forgetting something essential. If we all had ten things to fill out, we'd probably forget one or two. So why not lay out a structure that always reminds us of what's essential?

Shay O'Connor17:06

It's an automated tap on the shoulder. You're making sure the structure you want is consistent: here's the way to do it, step by step, and nothing gets omitted.

Shay O'Connor17:33

From an IT point of view, you've invested in Office 365. Did FlowForma help you get more from that investment?

Dustin Ray17:55

Very much. Our existing Office 365 licenses give us access to SharePoint, and FlowForma running on SharePoint meant cost savings, because we didn't need any additional infrastructure, and ease of use, because it was pretty quick to plug and play and get up and running. That was a big win for us.

Shay O'Connor18:38

When you suggested digital transformation to the business, was it good to have a quick win that was visible to everyone?

Dustin Ray19:04

Absolutely, and in our case that was the payment system. The majority of the company is involved in it, so everyone was touching that pain point. I'd recommend finding something similar: broad-based, experienced by a good number of people, with the most potential for a turnaround. That checked all the boxes for us. It took too much time, everyone used it, and everyone felt the drawbacks of the manual system. Turning it into an automated system that everyone could see and feel ended up being a good quick win.

Shay O'Connor19:53

Once version one of your funds management or onboarding process was in, did you make incremental improvements?

Dustin Ray20:11

Once our users start seeing the system and understand even a little of what it can do, I've had no problem getting feedback and requests for changes. That's a bit more work than setting it and forgetting it, but continuous improvement is an essential part of the long-term plan. Plenty of folks here would love to see their item added to a workflow, and you want to see that kind of input.

Shay O'Connor21:05

Last official question: why did you choose FlowForma for process automation?

Dustin Ray21:22

We looked at a few process automation solutions, and some of them didn't feel priced for a midsize business. It felt like large enterprise pricing. FlowForma was cost-effective out of the gate, and because it was based on infrastructure we already had, it didn't need a custom development team or a consulting engagement to make it happen. We could get started on our own, with support from FlowForma. And I feel FlowForma is really well suited to our style of business: in an office workspace, the features we were looking for were there.

Shay O'Connor22:28

And you don't have full-time developers, so business users can now put their processes into an automation tool themselves?

Dustin Ray22:50

Very true. We don't have full-time developers on site, and so far we haven't had to bring in a single developer for any of the items I've mentioned. That gives us the independence and flexibility to work at our own pace, and the cost of each implementation keeps falling, in time and in value.

Shay O'Connor23:29

We also work with organizations that have full-time developers, and the reality is that no-code means they get through far more work, far faster, than if they had to code it. They usually have a list of requirements the length of their arm, and once the first couple of processes are in, the list gets really long.

Dustin Ray24:47

It really changes the tenor of the project when you can put it in the hands of a business user and set them loose to determine the requirements and turn around a product quickly. Then you can send it back for a round of improvements after a couple of weeks of people running through it, and you'll very likely get that feedback if you open yourself up to it.

Shay O'Connor25:32

Did you know there were no-code options in the marketplace when you started searching?

Dustin Ray25:48

That was probably the most pleasant surprise. I knew about low-code options that would need only minimal development work, but finding truly no-code solutions was a big jump for those of us who aren't skilled in a development language. It made it so much more accessible than it otherwise would have been.

Shay O'Connor26:30

Thanks, Dustin. Please hang around, because questions are already coming in.

Shay O'Connor27:09

A short overview of FlowForma before I jump into the product. Not many process tools are truly no-code, and we find that 92% of our customers never touch code. There is the facility to add code for enterprises that have coding capability, and it doesn't interfere with your upgrade path.

Shay O'Connor27:57

FlowForma also maximizes your Microsoft investment. Office 365 and Azure are now well connected, so FlowForma can be offered in Office 365, on-premises and in hybrid mode. You could have a customer-facing environment connected to your internal environment, without anyone getting into your internal systems. And time to value is massive: when you can build without skilled personnel, the savings are immediate. Our customers range from New Zealand to McKinley Irvin in the Pacific Northwest, more than 100 customers, large and small.

Shay O'Connor30:02

Now let me show you the system. This is the landing page of our default trial site. If you want to try FlowForma, it's in the Microsoft Store and installs into your SharePoint environment, and you'll get template processes to try out. The components here include my to-do list, which is personalized and shows how many processes are awaiting my input, and my own processes, so I can see where each one stands, filtered the way I want, as with any SharePoint list.

Shay O'Connor31:29

Dustin talked about new employee onboarding, so let's open our generic onboarding template. At the top is a header for your branding and repeating information like dates, user IDs and reference numbers. Below it, the stepper shows the path of the process. Each step has to go to a resource, an individual or a group, so everything is audited: where it went, how long it was there and who had it. Within each step is a list of questions.

Shay O'Connor32:54

The forms are generated automatically from the steps and data you define, and they're HTML5, so they're device-independent. We also have a mobile app, and you don't need to build a separate app, because your process is rendered for it automatically. Questions appear and disappear depending on your selections, and when you submit, the process moves to the next resource.

Shay O'Connor33:48

Here three steps run in parallel. If I rejected at this stage, the process would go back to the start and ask for a reason. With parallel steps, three people or groups each get their own step, such as signing documents, IT prep with repeating tables for equipment and applications, and security and facilities checks. The aim is that you never see anything you don't need. At the bottom are standard functions like delegate and pass back, which can be renamed. If I delegate a step, that person gets a notification with a link straight into it, and they don't need any SharePoint knowledge.

Shay O'Connor35:50

When I submit without a required date, I get a validation error, which is what we want. And as part of this process there's document generation: templates pick up the information entered and create a contract, which can be stored in SharePoint, emailed or attached to the process.

Shay O'Connor37:02

Now the background. FlowForma is a three-in-one toolkit: forms, workflow and document generation in one place, the Flow Designer. I can see my process with its three main steps and three parallel steps, and I can also build it visually in the visual flow designer. Your process documentation is generated automatically, showing the workflow graphically with all its rules, inputs and outputs, so you build the process and the documentation comes with it.

Shay O'Connor38:04

On the right is the rules area. Workflow control decides who sees what and allows pass-backs. Data integration pulls information from databases, SharePoint lists or your user profile. There are communication rules for emails, and document generation rules, like my welcome letter here, where I choose the template and the folder it goes into.

Shay O'Connor40:10

Let me make a quick change: add a step, a couple of questions and a simple rule. I add a new step manually and move it to the top. Then I add a question. The question types include every SharePoint field type plus many more: calculated fields, file uploads, lookups to SQL Server, CRM or other connected databases, person or group fields, wet signatures for signing on a touchscreen or with a mouse, voting, and get location. Many of the best question types come from client requests.

Shay O'Connor42:32

I make my first question a person field set to the current user and disable it. The second is 'Proceed?', a yes/no question that's required, with a help area that can link to documents or web pages. The third is 'Explain', a four-line text box. Following the lean principle that you never see what you don't need, I hide 'Explain' and add a rule behind 'Proceed'.

Shay O'Connor44:32

In the workflow control area I add a hide/show question rule. Rules have conditions and actions. The condition is 'if Proceed equals no', and I could add more conditions with and/or. The action is to show 'Explain'. This is where you can condense manual documents with many sections into a neat set of questions, just by hiding and showing information based on selections. Now, when I open onboarding again, the new step is there: if I submit without answering I get a validation error, if I say yes everything's fine, and if I say no it asks me to explain. That's how straightforward it is, with no code, even when mapping data in from other sources.

Shay O'Connor47:11

You can also put timings on processes and steps to check against your SLAs. For onboarding, I can see five delayed processes, check who they're assigned to, and as an administrator delegate them. Historical flow analysis covers completed processes too, so I can see where the bottlenecks are, for example that 30% of one step is delayed, and find out why. That's a quick whirlwind view. If you have specific requirements, ask us and we'll get back to you.

Shay O'Connor49:44

Questions have come in. Dustin, earlier you said a process could be rolled out in a week. How do you get the business services teams to accept the change they're being asked to make?

Dustin Ray50:26

I'm fortunate that most of my requirements come directly from the executive team at McKinley Irvin. We have so much demand that I'm being fed projects from the top. It's the standard question of buy-in: make sure key people are excited about this kind of change and are saying, 'Here are our priorities for the quarter, how many can we roll out?' Without that C-level buy-in, I'd recommend reaching out to the people having the problems. Look for the pain points, so you're not forcing a new system on people but offering a solution. If the pain points are there, people are pretty willing to give it a try.

Shay O'Connor51:57

Next: could you elaborate on the security measures in the FlowForma platform? FlowForma is an app that sits on top of your SharePoint environment, so security is handled by SharePoint and the Microsoft Office 365 and Azure security measures, which are comprehensive. After that, it comes down to whether you open your SharePoint to the outside world. The key thing to remember is that FlowForma doesn't retain any data. All your data stays in your own tenancy, so if you're in the US it sits on US servers, and in Europe on European servers.

Shay O'Connor53:45

We get asked about reporting a lot. Someone uses Power BI: can FlowForma link to it? Yes. FlowForma has an OData feed, so all the data, held in the SharePoint SQL Server database, can feed into your business intelligence tool, whether that's Excel or Power BI.

Shay O'Connor54:34

Dustin, this one's for you: how long was the learning curve to fully adopt and start using FlowForma?

Dustin Ray54:47

I'd recommend the onboarding services. I signed up for the onboarding package and was happy I did. It gave us dedicated support hours, a great way to get started, and I didn't need any training beyond some quick phone questions at the start. If you dedicate yourself to getting your first workflow up and running, with some support from FlowForma, I think it's a week-long process.

Shay O'Connor55:33

That's our SureStart program, a reduced-rate onboarding option to get you up and running quickly using best practice.

Shay O'Connor56:03

Can a process be launched from an intranet? Yes. Each process is a URL, so it can sit anywhere: your desktop, your intranet and so on. Is FlowForma available on mobile? Yes. It works in any browser, and the app renders each process automatically for mobile.

Shay O'Connor56:52

One more: can FlowForma pull information from Salesforce? Yes. With large systems like Salesforce or SAP, it usually takes a few days to pinpoint exactly the information you want and finish the connection, but it's been done many times and works well.

Shay O'Connor57:52

We're just about out of time. Thank you all for listening, and thank you, Dustin, especially for the early start.

Dustin Ray58:11

It's been a pleasure. Thank you.

Shay O'Connor58:13

Our website has case studies, including McKinley Irvin's, and customer insights from other industries, if you need some late-night reading. Thanks, everybody, and have a pleasant day.