Q. What type of operations do you use Questetra for?
At SMART VALUE we are proposing a wide range of cloud services for the solution of social issues.
More specifically, we offer a range of cloud services for the public sector, sales of vehicle information systems and equipment, operation of data centers and servers, and sales of mobile terminals.
We have introduced Questetra to visualize purchasing operations. Many of our purchasing operations require approval in advance, and we are using Questetra for the workflow from approval to ordering. In the approval flow, the approval route will be decided automatically depending on the scale of the purchase.
Q. How had you been handling the operations before Questetra?
We had been handling purchasing information on paper documents before.
However, the procurement process can be complex, with some staff placing orders themselves and others being managed by the administration department, and with multiple locations for the delivery of goods. Also, in some cases internal stock checks are required or internal approval is needed in advance. I guess there were only a few employees who understand the flow of the business perfectly at that time.
If you ask me whether the Workflow system of Questetra has accelerated business operations, I would say not that much.
However, the business rules and flow of the business has been clarified, so it is effective for internal control to eliminate rework and unify the different ways people handled things. In addition, I think it was quite a big improvement that I can grasp the number of purchases and how much we paid for them.
Q. Please tell me about the difficulties you have been through.
We have conducted a drastic overhaul of internal rules along with the introduction of Questetra.
I think we designed the business very smoothly because we designed the work procedures from scratch. Even though we were anxious about how to draw a workflow diagram in the beginning, we could get used to it very quickly. It was very helpful for me as the person in charge of the introduction, because I didn’t need any programming skills, so the time from making a flow to testing it was short.
One thing I struggled with was the configuration of the allocation rules for each operation. We have so many sections and roles, so we have to set a lot of Swimlanes. It would be very useful if Questetra had a function that made it easier to set them up all at once.
Q. Are you considering expanding the use of Questetra to other operations?
The system is already being used for handling travel requests and business trip expense settlements. About 270 employees make requests for interim payments and reimbursements online, and their supervisors or the management department handles them online as well. Now, about 30 different operations are handled online.
More recently, we expanded its use to include the operational flow of SSL server certificate updates, besides the request handling. Even though we are still in the trial phase, it provides us with a detailed work record which was not previously available. We would like to encourage other departments to use the system in the future.
