My career in workflow automation began more than 10 years ago at Integrify, now Nutrient, where I was part of the professional services department. From the start of my career in workflow, I began to see how much the platform is able to help teams improve their everyday processes and productivity. Currently, I work as a sales engineer helping show and explain our product to prospective customers.

During my time working in workflow automation, I’ve seen how important a working mockup site can be to our potential customers. In this article, I’ll explain why and how we do it.

The benefit of live demos

Workflow automation involves creating and automating processes based on specific rules. These processes route tasks, data, or files between people or systems according to predefined business rules. We’ve found that prospective customers resonate with being able to see an application running in a live demo when we first meet with them. So, on my team, we demonstrate its capabilities to our prospects by building some or all of their initial workflow as part of the sales cycle.

The process of creating functional mockup sites

There are a few steps involved in setting up functional mockup sites to showcase Workflow Automation to potential users.

Step 1 — Gathering requirements

During our first discussion with the potential customer, we’re able to gather and understand their specific needs and requirements.

Step 2 — Building the workflow environment

After we’ve gathered the requirements for the mockup site, we begin building a functional product with an executive dashboard and reports to simulate a real-world workflow the customer could use. We find this can be very persuasive to someone who has concerns about how easy it is to build workflows with our tool.

Step 3 — Demonstration and feedback

Finally, during a live demo with the prospective customer, we’ll run through a built-out environment with their requirements to showcase its functionality, answering any questions they might have. Customers have an easier path to adopting our product when then can see their requirements embodied in a mockup. That’s because one major barrier to business process evolution within an organization is opposition to change. But when they see how easy it is to make changes that streamline their workflows, they’re more likely to want to incorporate it in their work.

Conclusion

When future users can see benefits for themselves while using or having a mockup demonstrated to them, it encourages them to adopt new technology, and it makes the desired benefit more likely to be realized. They can also keep or use their mockup site in their own website if they become a customer. This gives them the perfect way to get started with their new software. To learn more about Workflow Automation and how it can work for you, contact Sales.