Most individuals and business teams can think of ‘workflow’ as the daily steps and tasks they undertake in order to complete their projects and job.
Workflow integration is the process or supporting framework which aims to help improve the workflow itself, whether through processes, content and technology or a combination of all.
Rather than thinking granular in a workflow, where each step has a specific step before it and a specific step after it, a linear and more lateral approach is advised. It’s what connects the dots and how best to optimise those steps in order to improve job performance.
There are many tools, content and automated workflow software tools that use business rules to decide when one step has been completed successfully and the next step can begin. These improve business efficiencies, but where the FT offers competitive advantage is in its ability to provide quality content, harnessing the power of Application Programme Interface (API) technology and workflow integration.
By way of example, using the FT Headline API, you can integrate real-time relevant custom news feeds into your workflow such as a CRM system, newsletter or watchlists, virtual campus’ and intranets. The possibilities are endless and offers greater efficiency and effectiveness in improving job performance.
Benefits of the FT Headline API include:
- Real-time feeds which pull FT content relating to specific sectors, companies and markets into your internal systems.
- Quicker more convenient access to FT coverage within your existing workflow solutions.
- Greater flexibility and increased control, as data feeds can be updated in real-time on a self-service basis.
How one of our clients significantly improved productivity
A key challenge for one of our clients, a leading global law firm, was the information team’s time-consuming task of aggregating and cross checking 200+ different topics against FT.com content for their lawyers. Identifying and distributing relevant FT.com content was taking several hours each day and the information team were losing significant time that could have been spent more efficiently.
FT worked in collaboration to pioneer an API headline service. This enabled the information team to create saved searches based on their areas of interest and expertise. Through the implementation of this bespoke API, the team is now notified when there is content matching their criteria, and have an easy mechanism to transfer this into email and various other formats.It helped to achieve:
- Rapid delivery of relevant, high quality content to more than 1000 internal stakeholders in over 30 offices.
- Increased productivity of information team by an average of 32% through automating the relevant content search and thus eliminating the need for manually gathering content.
- Improved the quality, quantity and relevance of information delivered by the information team and thus built recognition, rapport and trust between information professionals and their stakeholders.
Other ways in which you might improve productivity or workflow is to maximise its use for strengthening client relationships and ‘commerciality’. For example if your are in professional services, in an advisory role or a business development professional, you could implement a widget within your CRM, which instructs only to pull content related your prospects and clients, their industry and sector to get daily news on how they may be affected. The FT can be a catalyst to conversation, a powerful way to win business and strengthen client relationships.
What it looks like and how your team can achieve this
Using our proven workflow integration solutions, you can join over 45 leading companies across various sectors from Education, Financial Services, Professional Services and Government who have already implemented the FT Headline API. Depending on your business needs, we can consult with your key teams to discuss and establish the most suitable solutions and application. Examples range from search widgets, to watchlists to CRM integration, implemented with minimum hassle and time.
FT Integrated Solutions allow you to better exploit and monetise the value of FT intelligence, by ensuring the right information gets to those who need it, in the right place and at the right time.
For more information about how you can integrate FT journalism into your business applications, please get in touch.
