One single system to run your business.
Easy to build.
Extremely flexible.
Run any type of process.
Create any type of report.
A typical day with Thingamy
In the morning you log on to the Thingamy in your browser - at the office, from home or from your iPhone while having a coffee on your way somewhere.
Once in the "Home" page of Thingamy; first thing you'll look for would be new tasks, not a mailed instruction, but a proper link to say a "Research task". And you can see that it was started one hour ago when Peter the project leader finished his task; adding details and ideas for your task to research Sales campaigns for Rosé wine.
You're of course curious what else is up so you click on the link "Active flows" where you choose the link to the "Provence wine campaign" flow. Ah, Richard is also involved in research in parallel with you so you make a note to contact him with some ideas.
For a bit of ad-hoc communication with Richard you'll use the in-system little "Messaging" flow, an email kind-of-way using Thingamy allowing all project communication to be a part of the total project information repository. Actually, you also have a "Phone message" flow as well, again leaving all information related to the project easily available.
You'll also see that Peter would review your results and have the opportunity to flip it back to you if not entirely happy. OK, fair enough and good to know that a critical eye will be there before your work moves on towards the next steps in the flow: Start of the creative design process, which you can see from the flow diagram in front of you.
You click on the task link and up comes a list of more links, when clicked they expand on your screen and a full overview of the Project, the Client, any communication and some tidbits and subjective views as well - and of course the ideas, views and instructions for this task. Basically all the information you need on one screen - and at the bottom - some open fields to fill in: Research notes (and you know these will be time stamped with your name next to it) and Research files where you can upload any interesting documents, videos or images, including your own if need be.
So you start working, adding text and files to the interface, hit save before lunch leaving the task with you but now allowing others to see how far you are as whatever you saved will now be part of the "Full project overview" report.
In other words, quite a normal morning for a knowledge worker using Thingamy instead of email, meetings and firing up four different applications to prepare for some work.
What does Thingamy deliver.
It delivers and distributes the tasks to the players chosen and at the same time all the information you need for a specific task as well as the tool to add your work to the flow. It be text, images, files, choices or simply the message "done!". And it delivers it without a glitch.
It allows any task master to choose assignees or changes to the flow like "send it back for more" or "add two more to this task" at any point it makes sense.
It allows people to see what is happening real time, it allows people to help each other if need be or even apply a bit of pressure if they're twiddling their thumbs waiting for another task to be completed.
It makes reporting moot as the work input itself is the basis for any type of report imaginable in real time.
It makes meetings as the cornerstone for workflows redundant. It makes the flows go on unhampered by Peter being out of town until next Thursday.
It allows for no boundaries - employees, in-house, contractors, clients, anybody can log on to the Thingamy in any browser and get their tasks and the information you want them to see.
It captures everything thus increasing your firm's Intellectual Capital by every thought added, every note written - and most importantly a true reflection of the sequence, the all-important context. See everything in a historical view in a an easy to navigate repository.
It makes document handling systems and collaboration software moot as the work flow is in fact collaborative in the proper sequential way, and any document now resides on the server easily available directly linked to any project, client or whatever.
It makes CRM systems moot as well, as the work flow could just as well include any customer oriented process. And most are as they should be.
And quite important: As every flow and way of working will have to be built, your particular ways and Business Model will be completely bespoke. Then with experience from daily use you can tweak the process or add more, building from a small flow towards a complete firm and all it's processes.
This mechanism allows you to change any process without thinking about re-organising, just make the changes to the flow and start using it. If the new ways are not entirely a success, revert to old or tweak again - all done in minutes.
It delivers a true framework for the work while offering real transparency (if chosen) and any type of report.
Example: Law office.
A client calls and the receiver of the call chooses the client from the existing client list or takes down all the necessary information. Then he choose what principal or associate that should take the case, if not himself.
To keep it simple he chooses himself and immediately starts querying about the needs following the list of questions in front of him, filling in the fields with the answers.
Again he will ask for relevant documentation and gives the client access to an interface where the client can upload whatever needed in a browser after having logged onto Thingamy, or he might use the old method of receiving by fax before uploading them himself.
He then starts reading the information gathered, adding notes underway. Time to revisit the client for further questions and perhaps a real deep dive into "what is really the issue?" and "where does he see himself when job's done?".
That coupled with an in-house rethink over what this job would "cost" in time and resources spent would lead to an offer - declined or not. If declined the flow would skip directly to the "Post mortem" process at the end.
Whatever happens, work done here is most useful for the overall efficiency of work done later.
Luckily the questions he have to ask the client are all on the screen, many years of experience readily available allowing the law firm to scale knowing their associates would ask the same questions as the most experienced principals would.
Now a need for research becomes inevitable and he chooses the right partners, in-house or contractors, who will be notified to log on the Thingamy in their browser and see their "Research tasks" including all pertinent information.
Once the information is in the system our chap will get the task "Research review" with the subsequent questions "Need for more research?" where a Yes would loop the flow back a step for another research round.
If No he will now "do the work" and produce the right kind of contract, will or whatever. Possibly with a little fork off to some peer legal minds for a quick review. Once back the work is done and time to deliver and perhaps go through a "Post mortem" process built into the flow - "What could have been done better?" and so forth, always useful if you'd like to deliver better value at lower cost next time!
Value delivered.
It makes your projects flow naturally, it fills in any potential crack as nothing can be forgotten in any corner.
It will shorten the project times while make the work more pleasurable as the framework balances between too strict and no limits - allowing the participants to focus squarely on task at hand being assured that all they need is truly available in one single interface.
It allows the use of only one interface, no more screens full of diverse applications and files misplaced or emails residing on somebody's hard drive somewhere.
It makes report writing moot as all data captured by the work-flow itself can be used for any report type. And with that every little task undertaken will add to the ever-increasing knowledge of your firm, the ever-so-important Intellectual Capital that makes your firm more valuable by the day.
It makes many software tools redundant, making the daily work much easier and all data kept in one place.
In essence it will make your knowledge worker and projects much more efficient - increasing your bottom line many times, not mere percentage points.
Example: Financial advisor.
The advisor starts the "New client" process and will immediately have a very long list of questions to ask the client covering the ground of all wealth aspects like investments, partnerships, wills, agreements, real estate, insurance, tax and so forth. All answers are filled in the task interface before "Complete" is hit.
Now back at the office the associate has received another task - "Gathering of client documents" - where he will see all the client details he needs like contact numbers and email and such. He checks with the client and asks if he's willing to upload himself or if he should send him a list so he can fax or post copies.
The client is a modern man so he has no problem with uploading PDF copies himself so the associate chooses to send the flow to the client who then logs on to the Thingamy in his browser where he will see his task "Please add documents and notes". There he will see what documents he should upload and goes about it, even adding a few notes about the documents, then hitting complete when finished.
The principal now has a task in his "Home" interface - "Preview of client case" - which he clicks. There he'll have a complete overview over all answers, nicely sorted out per area, as well as links to all and any document.
This is of course the first value adding step and our principal takes his time adding notes to the notes fields, saves, goes for lunch, comes back and studies on.
When finished he is convinced that the client might have issues with his Life insurance policy as well as with some discrepancies in his will. Thus he chooses to send the flow to a couple of his partner firms in the Life Insurance and Legal areas.
These experts will then receive a notification and will log on to the Thingamy in their browser and find their tasks. Each now presented with the pertinent information - questions and answers as well as links to documents pertaining specifically to the issues at hand. No less, no more. And of course some fields reading "Important issues" with the "Suggested solution" next to it.
A couple of days passes and the principal sees what's happening each time somebody hits save or complete. A quick review of work done, perhaps a loop back with some questions, now all back to the principal who adds some notes himself.
Now he can produce a report for the client - "Issues found and suggestions for solutions".
With that in hand the client chooses to do something about the issues and the principal arranges for work to be done by the experts or anybody the client chooses.
And that process follows the lines more or less like above, obviously speeding up the process tremendously as all documents are at hand as are all notes and work done so far.
All the while the principal have access to all former and present client "files" including historical views of notes and discussions and work done for a bit of research - making use of the ever increasing firm's Intellectual Capital gathered by the proper processes.
