Visible
Request Status
Named
Approvers
Less
Follow-up Noise
The Challenge
Purchase, vendor, and exception approvals lived in long email threads. Nobody knew where a request sat. Approvers were copied late. Finance and ops spent hours chasing “any update?” instead of deciding.
The Approach
- Process map — Documented request types, thresholds, and who must sign for each.
- Digital flow — Built a structured intake with stages, timestamps, and escalation rules.
- Ownership — Each stage had a named role; substitutes documented for leave.
- Visibility — A simple tracker so requesters and leadership saw status without pinging.
- SOP cutover — Email-only approvals retired after training and a short parallel period.
Results
Cycle time dropped because waiting became visible. Audit trails improved for finance. Teams spent less energy on follow-ups and more on actual decisions.
Takeaway
Digitizing approvals isn’t about fancy software — it’s about making the queue undeniable and the owner unmistakable.