What Is Workflow Orchestration?

Workflow orchestration is the practice of managing your automated systems and data holistically in a single process. It does not look into a single task in the chain but rather on the interactions between them.

Implementing work orchestration means that you look into the way tasks are connected in a specific process, to ensure:

• seamless communication,

• correct data flow, and

• proper action triggers.

Workflow orchestration does not deal with automating tasks – you have done it already. Here, you coordinate the way your automation (and human input, if relevant) interacts in a single workflow and ensure that the process is optimized.

Workflow automation is often used interchangeably with workflow orchestration, but these are two separate things. In the former, you focus on specific tasks in the workflow and automate them to make them more efficient. Thus, you need to implement workflow automation first to start working on your workflow orchestration.

To optimize your workflow, you need to look into several different areas. These include:

• event triggers,

• actions (tasks),

• control flow,

• task completion order,

• task scheduling,

• resource allocation,

• error handling,

• process monitoring and data collection.

Each of these components may hinder or accelerate your workflow, so it is crucial to look into them both one by one and as a whole.

There are several reasons why you can benefit from implementing workflow orchestration in your business. Take a look at them below.

1. Efficiency

Firstly, workflow orchestration enables you to increase efficiency in your business. Through it, you will eliminate bottlenecks that hinder fast process completion, leading to an improvement in productivity and, hence, lower operating costs.

2. Error Elimination

If you put your time and effort into workflow orchestration, you will catch errors occurring in the process and eliminate them. This is especially important in workflows that require a lot of human input since people are more likely to make errors.

3. Improved Employee Retention

Employees, no matter the workplace, hate repetitive tasks and correcting errors. With workflow automation, you take this burden off them, resulting in their happiness. This translates directly to higher employee retention rates – with workflow automation, it will be easier to keep your greatest talents onboard.

There are four main steps that you need to take in order to optimize your workflow. What are they?

• Defining workflows: First, you need to define each workflow in your organization.

• Breaking down the workflows: With your workflows defined, break them down into steps based on the component list we provided above.

• Investment in tools: When you have your workflow outline ready, you need to select the tools to handle workflow orchestration from the technical side. Usually, it is best to choose custom options tailored to the specifics of your business.

• Workflow optimization: Finally, with all the above ready, you can start optimizing your workflows.

Workflow automation is just the first step. If you want to truly optimize your business, you need to follow it up with workflow orchestration. Only this will enable you to streamline your business processes and achieve a higher level of efficiency to grow your business.

Ready for workflow orchestration? Pick proven solutions – a platform that has been appreciated in the business world. Learn more about ANOW and discover how we can help you with workflow automation!

You might also read: What Is SOAP?