Workflow Software
Vinay Patankar · 03 Jun, 2014 · Business-process-management
Workflow management is a system of managing the process flow of activities and related documents within the business organization particularly from one worker or machine to another or even to an outside business organization. Through the appropriate utilization of the system's workflows, each of these machines or workers will process the standard workflows according to your predetermined procedures. As with technological improvements, much of workflow management takes advantage of special software to make the process more automated and thus much smoother. Managing workflows appropriately is an important component of a business organization for a variety of reasons. The primary advantage of workflow management is much improved efficiency within the business firm. By automating a number of the procedures within a business organization and by establishing a set of procedures that is followed, unnecessary steps are eliminated and as a result of such improvement, every person in the management team is entirely aware of his or her duties/responsibilities. Through this workflow process, it would become more relatively easy to monitor the performance of each machine and worker under the system. When a workflow is broken, it becomes easier to trace it back to the basic workflow procedure and determine where this flaw occurred. Furthermore, workflow management serves to standardize working procedures, ensuring that exactly the same function is being performed by every worker, delivering the proportionate amount of work within the system. Related read in Business Process Management: KPI Software.
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Russian Scam Email
Vinay Patankar · 19 May, 2014 · Uncategorized
Here is an email I got the other day from a Russian scammer claiming he worked for a bank and that he was going to split the assets (US$ 31,600,000) of some deceased client with me, presumably if I sent him all my banking information or payed some kind of transfer fee... Image Credit ## Enter Vladimir: I am Vladimir Timinski, a Rusian citizen and Principal assurance manager for the First Citi Bank. A staff of MASER (M) SDN. HHD, MALAYSIA got in touch with me regarding the estate of Mr. Philip Mutaf and an investment placed under our bank management 3 years ago. I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this mail. I contact you independently of our investigation and no one is informed of this communication. I would like to feed you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to you. In 1997, the subjects matter, Mr. Philip Mutaf came to our bank to engage in business a discussion with our private banking division. He informed us that he had a financial portfolio of 31.6 million United States dollars, which he wished to have us turn over (invest) on his behalf. I was the officer assigned to his case, I made numerous suggestions in line with my duties as the de-facto chief operations officer, and especially given the volume of funds he wished to put into our bank. We met on numerous occasions prior to any investments being placed. I encouraged him to consider various growth funds with prime ratings. The favored route in my advice to customers is to start by accessing data on 6000 traditional stocks and bond managers and 2000 managers of alternative investments. Based on my advice, we spun the money around various opportunities and made attractive margins for our first months of operation, the accrued profit and interest stood at this point at over 51 million United States Dollars. This margin was not the full potential of the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on investments. In mid-1998, he asked that the money be liquidated because he needed to make an urgent investment requiring cash payments in United Kingdom. He directed that I liquidate the funds and had it deposited with Standard Assets Management (in their Vault Trading Firm). I informed him that First Citi Bank would have to make special arrangements to have this done and in order not to circumvent due process, the bank would have to make a 9.5 % deduction from the funds to cater for banking and statutory charges. He complained about the charges but later came around when I explained to him the complexities of the task he was asking of us. Cash movement across boarders has become especially strict since the incidents of Terrorism. I contacted my affiliate in United Kingdom and had the funds available in Standard Assets Management. I undertook all the processes and made sure I followed his precise instructions to the letter and had the funds deposited at Standard Assets Management. Standard Assets Management is a specialist bank that accepts deposits from high net worth individuals and blue chip corporations that handle valuable products or undertake transactions that need immediate access to cash. In Line with instructions, the money was deposited with Standard Assets Management (in their Vault Trading Firm).Mr. Philip Mutaf told me he wanted the moneythere as soon as he got into the United Kingdom, this was the last communication we had, this transpired around 25th February 1999.In September last year, we got a call from Standard Assets Management informing us about the inactivity of that particular portfolio. This was an astounding position as far as I was concerned, given the fact that I managed the International private banking sector. I was the only one who knew about the deposit at Standard Assets Management and I could not understand why Mr. Philip Mutaf had not come forward to claim his deposit. I made futile efforts to locate Mr. Philip Mutaf. Four days later, information started to trickle in, apparently Mr. Philip Mutaf was dead. A person who suited his description was declared dead of AUTO ACCIDENT TRAUMA in Birmingham England. We were soon enough able to identify the body and cause of death was confirmed. The bank immediately launched an investigation into possible surviving next of kin to alert about the situation and also to come-forward to claim his estate. In the field of private banking, opening an account with us means no one will know of its existence, accounts are rarely held under a name, depositors use numbers and codes to make the accounts anonymous. This bank also gives the choice to depositors of having their mail sent to them or held at the bank itself, ensuring that there are no traces of the account and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of kin. Private banking clients apart from not nominating next of kin also usually in most cases leave wills in our care. In this case, Mr.Philip Mutaf died intestate. In line with our internal processes for account holders who have passed away, we instituted our own investigations in good faith to determine who should have right to claim the estate. This investigation has for the past months been unfruitful. We have scanned every continent and used our private investigation affiliate companies to get to the root of the problem. Our private investigation affiliate companies to get to the root of the problem. It is this investigation that resulted in my being furnished with your details as a possible relative of the deceased. My official capacity dictates that I am the only party to supervise the investigation and the only party to receive the results of the investigation. You have unfortunately declared, and I know that you are in no way Affiliated with this individual. What this means, you being the last batch of names we have considered and that our dear late fellow died with no known or identifiable family member. This leaves me as the only person with the full picture of what the prevailing situation is in relation to the deposit and the late beneficiary of the deposit. According to practice, Standard Assets Management will by the end of this quarter broadcast a request for statements of claim to First Citi Bank, failing to receive viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit back to First Citi Bank. This will result in the money entering the First Citi Bank Accounting system and the portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the private banking division. This will not happen if I have my way. What I wish to relate to you will smack off unethical practice but I want you to understand something. It is only an outsider to the banking world who finds the internal politics of the banking world aberration. The world of private banking especially is fraught with hugerewards for those that occupy certain offices and oversee certain portfolios. You should have begun by now to put together the general direction of what I propose. There is US$ 31,600,000 deposited in Standard Assets Management, I alone have the deposit details and they will release the deposit to no one unless I instruct them to do so. I alone know of the existence of this deposit for as far as Standard Assets Management United Kingdom is concerned, the transaction with Mr. Philip Mutaf, concluded when I sent the funds to Standard Assets Management, all outstanding interactions in relation to the file are just customer services and due process. Standard Assets Management has no single idea of the history or nature of the deposit. They are simply awaiting instructions to release the deposit to any party that comes forward. This is the situation. This bank has spent great amounts of money trying to track this man’s family; they have investigated for months and have found no family. The investigation has come to an end. My proposal: I am prepared to place you as the next of kin in a position to instruct Standard Assets Management to release the deposit to you as the closest surviving relation. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the money with you in half. That is,I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and have them released the deposit to you. We share the proceeds 50/50.I would have gone ahead to ask the funds be released to me, but that would have drawn a straight line in my involvement in claiming the deposit. I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you within a few days. I will simply inform the bank of the final closing of the file relating to Mr. Philip Mutaf I will then officially communicate with Standard Assets Management and instruct them to release the deposit to you. With these, all is done. I am aware of the consequences of this proposal. I ask that if you find no interest in this project that you should discard this mail. I ask that you do not be vindictive and destructive. If my offer is of no appeal to you, delete this message and forget I ever contacted you. Do not destroy my career because you do not approve of my proposal. You may not know this but people like myself who have made tidy sums out of comparable situations run the whole private banking sector. I am not a criminal and what I do, I do not find against good conscience, this may be hard for you to understand, but the dynamics of my industry dictates that I make this move. Such opportunity only comes once in a lifetime. I cannot let this chance pass me by, for once I find myself in total control of my destiny. I ask that you do not destroy my chance, if you will not work with me let me know and let me move on with my life but do not destroy me. I am a family man and this is an opportunity to provide them with new opportunities. There is a reward for this project and it is a task well worth undertaking. I have evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is from you refusing to work with me and alerting my bank. I am the only one who knows of this situation, good fortune has blessed you with a name that has planted you into the center of relevance in my life. Let’s share the blessing. Please do not hesitate. If you give me positive signals, I will initiate this process towards a conclusion. I wish to inform you that should you contact me via official channels, I will deny knowing you and about this project. I repeat, I do not want you contacting me through my official phone lines nor do I want you contacting me through my official email account. Contact me only through my private email account and the numbers I will provide for you. Do not want any direct link between you and me. My official lines are not secure lines as they are periodically monitored to assess our level of customer care in line with our Total Quality Management Policy. Please observe this instruction religiously. Please again; note I am a family man with 2 children. I send you this mail not without a measure of fear as to what the consequences, but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. This is the one truth I have learned from my private banking clients. Do not betray my confidence. If we can be of one accord, we should plan a meeting soon. Please if you are interested in the above transaction, please copy my email address below and e-mail me via my personal email address: vladtimski@outlook.com Yours respectfully, Vladimir Timinski Related read in Uncategorized: Email Optimization.
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Cool Trick to Manage Too Many Open Tabs
Vinay Patankar · 02 May, 2014 · Technology
Having too many tabs open can eat up all the memory on your computer and make it run like a sick dog. Especially true with Google Chrome. If you are finding your machine is performing poorly from too many tabs syndrome, make sure to check out this video for a cool solution that should fix all your problems. Image Credit For another Technology angle, read Cacoo - Cool Tool for Process Diagrams.
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The Most Important Rule in Business
Vinay Patankar · 23 Apr, 2014 · Business · Business-process-management
Everything you do in your business is a process. From customer service to sales and marketing. Being successful in business is all about optimizing these processes as much as possible. Optimization is such an important area of business, but this critical area is often overlooked by business owners and CEOs amidst cries of “I’m too busy!” or “I don’t have the time right now—I’ll get to it eventually…” See more at: A strong follow-up in Business is Business Process Redesign Templates.
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Business Systematization
Vinay Patankar · 14 Jan, 2014 · Business-systematization
I have always loved systems. They are marvoulsy complex. Our world runs on them, in both the natural and man made world. Weather and evolution are systems just as cities, governments and organizations are. Below is the Wikipedia extract for "System" > A system is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole or a set of elements "Element (mathematics)") (often called 'components' ) and relationships which are different from relationships of the set or its elements to other elements or sets.\[citation needed\] > Fields that study the general properties of systems include systems science, systems theory, systems engineering, cybernetics, dynamical systems, thermodynamics, and complex systems. They investigate the abstract properties of systems' matter and organization, looking for concepts and principles that are independent of domain, substance, type, or temporal scale. > Some systems share common characteristics, including: > - A system has structure, it contains parts (or components) that are directly or indirectly related to each other; > - A system has behavior, it contains processes that transform inputs into outputs (material, energy or data); > - A system has interconnectivity"): the parts and processes are connected by structural and/or behavioral relationships. > - A system's structure and behavior may be decomposed via subsystems and sub-processes to elementary parts and process steps. > The term system may also refer to a set of rules that governs structure and/or behavior. Alternatively, and usually in the context of complex social systems, the term institution is used to describe the set of rules that govern structure and/or behavior. Business Systemization is the art of applying systems to your business. I wrote a post on it a the incontext multimedia blog. Go check it out :) I also made a video on Business Systemization using or product Process Street. If this Business Systematization topic resonated, continue with Saas Business Process Management | BPM | Cloud Software.
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Venturebeat on Facebook Blacklist!?
Vinay Patankar · 07 Jan, 2014 · Business · Technology
I tried opening a Venturebeat article from Facebook the other day and got the below screenshot: Just goes to show even the big brands can fall victims to problems like this. Creating a process to test problems like this on a regular basis is crucial and one of the reasons we created Process Street. Hopefully they can fix this soon! If this Business topic resonated, continue with How Much Money Does the Facebook Ecosystem Produce?.
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4 Reasons Why you Must Document your Business
Vinay Patankar · 10 Dec, 2013 · Business
This was originally a guest post I wrote on The Productivity Blog _Bad process documentation can kill your business dead. Here’s how:_ # 1\. Quality of Work Documenting your processes is proven to improve quality of work. Dr. Atul Gawande in his bestseller, the Checklist Manifesto, presents facts that show using checklists in surgery has significantly increased success rates, resulting in tens of thousands of lives saved. He also shows how a wide range of industries from construction to venture capital have improved quality through documentation. Poor quality work can destroy your reputation sending your customers running. No customers, no business. # 2\. Employee Turnover We all know staff come and go. Keeping on to the good ones is important, but sometimes there is nothing you can do. When a key employee unexpectedly ups and leaves it can have a crippling effect, especially on small businesses. This pain can further be accelerated if you, the business owner, has non-work related issues to deal with. If this unfortunate circumstance is ever to happen to you, make sure you have your documentation in order and you just might get through it. > You may also be interested in this: Process Street: The Simplest way to Document and Track Business Processes # 3\. Rapid Growth Growth is the most exciting phase of business. It’s the reward for all the blood, sweat and tears. But growth is a double edged sword. With big ups come big downs, and if you are not prepared to manage the growth, your business can implode on itself. Hiring and training new staff, processing larger order quantities, supporting more customers and opening new offices are highly complex processes that if done incorrectly can cost you lots of money or even collapse your business. Ensuring you have processes in place to manage these growing pains is of the utmost importance. # 4\. Acquisition If you ever want to sell your business, having proper documentation is of the utmost importance. A prospective buyer wants to know the business they are buying is going to run effectively on its own, without you, the former owner having to be there. Having your standard operating procedures documented can help you close the deal and even get you a sale price. While poor documentation could cause the deal to fall through. If you still need more proof on the importance of process documentation, check out this book by Michael Gerber – The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It. So what are you waiting for? Document or die. For another Business angle, read The Most Important Rule in Business.
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Product Idea: Hairdresser Poncho with a Clear Window for Phone/Magazines
Vinay Patankar · 08 Nov, 2013 · Business · Technology
So I went to the hairdresser today and... you can probably guess the rest from the post title. I wanted to use my phone while getting a haircut and started to think why there was no clear window in the poncho so I could use my phone without getting hair all over it. This kind of product would be perfect for a "Muse" (with appropriate testing first of course). If you don't know what a Muse is, its a concept from the book The 4 Hour Work Week, the book that inspired me to start my first internet business when I left to go travelling. It refers to a small business, usually internet based that requires very little energy to run once set up as you systemize all parts of the business (one of the things my startup Process Street is designed to help with). I like the idea of this product because you could sell it wholesale to companies who supply hairdressers, creating a business with decently high revenue but only a few clients, 80/20 that shit (another concept from the book). I found the above image, its kinda what im talking about except for getting a haircut. For another Business angle, read Start-up idea: Marketplace for mechanics to help buyers purchase used cars.
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Startup Idea: Evernote for Spreadsheets
Vinay Patankar · 04 Nov, 2013 · Business · Technology
Someone needs to make this or Evernote needs to integrate spreadsheets into their platform, because my current spreadsheet experience is pretty poor. I currently have 13 Excel Spreadsheets open, 6 Google Doc Spreadsheets and 2 files open in CSV file editor. Why is there no solution for me to manage this? Here are the reasons I want this: 1) Navigation Using Windows 7, Excel makes me click twice to change sheets, I cant split excel spreadsheets across monitors, and I am switching between excel / chrome / csv editor. Confusing and slow. With an Evernote esq app, I would have everything in one place, and could spawn off spreadsheets into new windows to do with what I needed. 2) Speed Google Docs uses a TON of memory and I have no way to easily look up or add to spreadsheets. 3) Search Using an Evernote style app, I should be able to insta-search any spreadsheet, or any bit of data in any spreadsheet. This would make finding data from and adding data to spreadsheets much faster and easier. Is this something you think you would find useful? If this Business topic resonated, continue with Startup Idea: Work and Workout Space.
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How to Search on iOS 7 iPhone
Vinay Patankar · 17 Sep, 2013 · Technology
To search on iOS 7 you need swipe down from the middle of the screen anywhere in the phone to bring up search. NOTE: This will not work if you are in an app that uses scroll such as Safari or Mail. Here is an example: For another Technology angle, read App Idea - Turn iPhone's into Public Hot-spots.
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The Changing Social Fabric
Vinay Patankar · 18 Aug, 2013 · People
This is a really interesting video on how social networks have changed the social fabric. Social networks are a great way to stay connected and manage multiple relationships, but they are no substitute to talking to people face to face. That is where the real magic happens and why things like conferences are so important. For another People angle, read The Currency of Social Value.
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Looking for a Co-Founder for New Startup - UI/UX
Vinay Patankar · 09 May, 2013 · Technology
UI/UX Co-Founder We are looking for a team member to join as a co-founder for a new startup called Process Street - www.process.st. Process Street is building a collaborative process management system targeted at the SME market. We are a brand new startup, working to build our MVP. We currently have 2 of our desired 3 "Dream Team". We have our Hustler (business/marketing) and our Hacker (coding/sys-admin) we just need our Hipster (UI/UX) co-founder to help make our dream a reality. We are Australian and Canadian and the company is based in Delaware, USA, but we're living and working in Buenos Aires, where we plan to build out the initial product and work on doing market testing and gaining traction. If everything goes well, we plan to move to San Francisco (Silicon Valley) to scale out the business. The Role: You will be part of a 3 man team, working to build a highly needed, super useful product that helps businesses make more money. Easy sell. Because you are coming in at the ground level, you will be entitled to founders equity - which we all know is going to be worth BILLION$ in just a few short months :) Responsibilities: \- User EXPERIENCE. Yes, that's experience, not design, or interface, or graphics, or logos... EXPERIENCE We are building a B2B product, and our first and foremost focus is to make sure our product is and simple, quick and painless to use. Because time is money for businesses, we must make our product as easy to use as possible or it will fail. \- User Interface. Yes, you will still be doing design work and will be responsible for the look and feel of all of the areas of the startup. This includes product interface design, marketing site design, logos, color schemes etc... BUT WAIT. If you are a kick ass user experience person who hates thinking about colors, we still want to talk to you :) \- Front End HTML/CSS. Putting your UI/UX designs into action. You know the deal. \- Countless other startup hats including - Content, Customer Support, Testing, Marketing etc... Requirements: \- UX Freak We are looking for someone who lives and breathes UX. UX is your shit, you know what I mean. Websites, web apps, mobile, tv, you are interested in all interfaces. You are on a mission to optimize design and streamline the way humans interact with technology. You have a focus on functionality, simplicity, customer conversion and retention as your key experience design principals. Not pretty colors (not that we don't like pretty colors). \- Outstanding Over Communicator (English). You gotsa know how to read, write, talk, yell, sing, shout etc... - A flexible life situation \- An understanding of how startups operate (understanding this job description is a good start) \- A burning desire to do something BIG If this sounds like you, lets talk! Cheers For another Technology angle, read Ingredients of a Successful Bootstrapped Startup?.
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