MS Case-Study: Keyfile workflow solution at Bristol Hotels & Resorts

Bristol Hotels and Resorts is the largest owner of full-service hotels in North America and the largest Holiday Inn franchisee in the world -- with properties from Massachusetts to California and everywhere in between.

With that many properties spread out over those kinds of distances, moving paper around isn't an efficient way to conduct critical business processes. That is why Bristol Hotels and Resorts is deploying a sophisticated new workflow solution based on Microsoft BackOffice® technologies and Keyfile's Keyflow for Microsoft Exchange Server. This powerful solution will empower all 103 Bristol properties, as well as the company's home office in Dallas, to automate critical business processes that until now have been paper-based, saving time and money.

Joshua Norrid, Bristol's Director of Applications Development, discovered Keyflow early in 1997 after a survey of the company's needs revealed that most departments would benefit from automating paper-based processes.

Bristol Hotels and Resorts recently had switched to the Microsoft Windows NT® Server network operating system as well as Microsoft Exchange. A workflow application designed from the ground up to run on the Microsoft BackOffice platform was the next step, and Keyfile's Keyflow emerged as the best choice for the company's needs.

"Keyflow is a tremendous tool that has advantages over other workflow solutions," says Norrid. "There is great synergy between Keyflow and the other products we will be using such as Cardiff TELEform, RightFAX, and Net Dynamics."

Keyflow for Microsoft Exchange Server combines Keyfile's award-winning workflow software technology with the robust information management and communications infrastructure provided by Microsoft Exchange Server. This combination provides the elements most critical for automating business processes:

The ability for any user to graphically map a business process and create a workflow that automates that business process.

The ability for authorized users throughout an organization to quickly view the status of a workflow process.

The ability to interconnect departmental workflow processes across an entire enterprise locally, nationally, or internationally.

Keyflow will enable managers at Bristol Hotels and Resorts to participate in defining the workflow for a process. Involving management in the development stage results in workflows that more accurately move the business process from stage to stage as tasks are completed.

Among the key business processes that Bristol Hotels and Resorts plans to automate through Keyflow are travel authorization, incident reporting, purchase order processing, and construction change order routing.

With Keyflow, Bristol's home office will be able to launch workflows containing all the information and documents needed to proceed with and complete any of these important processes. For example, in an accident report about a hotel guest who falls on the stairs, the hotel manager will forward the initial report to the home office, where management will then launch the workflow that addresses and resolves the reported incident.

All supporting documents, in electronic form, will be attached to the flow and readily accessible to individuals as the flow proceeds into each person's area of responsibility. As the workflow progresses, individuals will be able to easily track its stages, identify bottlenecks, and make adjustments or modifications as necessary.

Keyflow increases a business's productivity by improving process cycle times. With Keyflow, Bristol Hotels and Resorts will be empowered to:

Streamline processes throughout the organization by spotting bottlenecks and identifying redundant or wasted steps.

Enable its professional workers to control and modify their business processes, continually creating more innovative and efficient ways of getting the work done.

Closely track the status and progress of active workflows throughout the organization. With proper authorization, users will be free to change a running workflow to quickly respond to changes in corporate policies and procedures, or new government regulations.

Create customized reports showing the number of tasks completed and the average completion times, enabling managers to measure individual and/or group productivity.

The end result is sure to be increased efficiency, leaving Bristol employees from coast to coast more time for what really matters: serving customers.