Email as Groupware

In the past, organizations created workflow systems using paper documents and internal procedures. Each document contained sign-off lines to indicate how the document was supposed to be circulated and to highlight the approvals. Electronic workflow systems are being developed that provide similar features for electronic documents. Of course, you could just e-mail the document to everyone for approval, but standard e-mail messages do not provide the desired sequencing or the ability to track the current location of requests.

Workflow systems work with e-mail but add the desired sequencing that you provide by filling out a sequenced list of addresses. Each person receives the message with attached documents. When finished with the document, the message is forwarded to the next person on the list. Ideally, the workflow system would provide feedback indicators to everyone on the list, so that you could check on the progress of individual items or get a list of items that are likely to show up on your desk in the next couple of days. Microsoft has embedded workflow features into Office and SharePoint, but more sophisticated controls are available through specialized applications