Optimizing Workflow Automation for Cross-Functional Teams

[blogzymedia]

Hello, Workato community!

My self kathleen. I've been using Systematic Workato to automate various processes within my organization, and it's been a game-changer. However, I'm now looking to optimize workflow automation for cross-functional teams, and I'd love to hear your insights and experiences.

1. How have you successfully integrated Workato into cross-functional teams in your organization?
2. What are some best practices for ensuring seamless collaboration between different departments using Workato?
3. Have you faced any challenges in this regard, and if so, how did you overcome them?
4. Are there specific use cases or recipes that have proven particularly effective for cross-functional automation?
5. What tools or integrations have you found most useful in combination with Workato for this purpose?

I'm eager to learn from your experiences and gather some valuable tips on how to enhance collaboration and efficiency through Workato in a multi-departmental context. Thanks in advance for your input!

[philip-rigazzi · Accepted solution]

Hi Kathleen!

I'll let others give you their experience and examples, but as an Enterprise Architect at Workato, I discuss this topic often.

Many users of Workato have successfully used the platform across multiple teams and functions.

Some things to consider are:

Organization/Collaboration

• Organize your teams/projects within Workato to optimize separation of concerns, but also to make data/functionality available to other teams where it makes sense.
• Work to make sure your functional teams are building with the same standards, best practices, and processes to ensure quality.
• It is useful for teams to catalog what they have created to encourage re-use, help others with similar projects, and inform future solutions.
• Encourage practices and processes that foster a culture of automation across teams. Forums or periodic events like Hackathons are proven to help build a community that helps each other.

Implementation

• Use best practices like naming conventions and proper folder organization so it is easier to understand where to find assets and what they are.
• Solutions built for a single functional area can still make components of the solution available to other solutions within an organization.
• Look for functionality that might be commonly used outside of one solution and make it appropriately available. If in the same project/group, create a common folder to house common functionality. For use by other groups, expose the functionality as an API or in another way that protects the data but provides what can be used for other solutions.
• When building solutions that cross functional areas, be sure to include builders from each area for design discussions and collaboration.

Concerning challenges:

• Care needs to be taken with common functionality to ensure that changes don’t affect the solutions consuming them.
• It is sometimes unclear whether some data or functionality should be made available outside of a solution while it is being built. That is why cataloging is a good practice to follow. If it wasn’t made directly available when it was built, you can still re-use it as a template and possibly make it commonly available later.
• It is important to ensure that teams are on the same page and have what they need to succeed and build properly on the platform. Consider creating a Resource Center with useful information for builders to stay on track with current processes, patterns, and architecture.

Workato’s GEARS framework covers organizing teams and the practice around scaling your use of Workato. You can learn more from our Automation Institute about GEARS here.

Of course, you can also always speak with your Customer Success team and they will be happy to help with these topics and the GEARS framework.

Hope this is useful.

I'm interested in hearing from others about this question too. Anyone have some examples and tips around multiple groups and cross-functional teams using Workato?