Why Councils Are Outgrowing the 3-Tool Juggle

by Oct 23, 2025Process Improvement, Process Maps

The modern council tech stack: a masterpiece of duct tape

If you work in a council or compliance team, this might sound uncomfortably familiar:

  • SOPs live in Word, Scribe, or hidden somewhere on the shared drive.

  • Process maps are tucked away in Promapp, Visio, or Lucidchart.

  • Automations (if they exist at all) run through Power Automate or require a friendly IT favour.

Three tools. Three owners. Three different versions of “how things work.”

It’s not that these tools are bad – far from it. Promapp was revolutionary in the council space and changed the way teams map processes worldwide. Word is universal. Power Automate is powerful (if you can code it).

The problem? None of them talk to each other.

That’s the “three-tool juggle” – and it’s slowing councils down.

1. Promapp helps you draw the map, but it can’t move it forward

Promapp earned its place in local government. It gave process champions the visibility they’d been missing. For the first time, teams could see their processes mapped out – who does what, when, and why.

Promapp’s strength has always been in clarity and documentation – helping organisations define how things should happen.

Flowingly starts where Promapp stops, by taking those documented processes and turning them into live, running workflows.
The goal isn’t to replace Promapp’s strengths – it’s to close the gap between processes being mapped and in motion.

2. When your SOPs, maps, and automations live in different tools, change becomes chaos

Here’s what usually happens:
Your operations team updates a process in Promapp.
The compliance lead updates the SOP in Word.
And the automation (built in Power Automate) keeps running the old version because IT was never told it changed.

The result? Confusion, duplicated effort, and a few staff quietly making their own “workarounds.”

Every time something changes – a regulation, a form, a staff role – you have to update three different systems and hope everyone’s using the latest one.

Flowingly simplifies that. One platform means one version of the truth.
Change a step once and it’s reflected everywhere: in the map, the SOP, and the live workflow.

3. The mapping difference

Promapp gave process teams the structure and visibility they needed to bring process mapping into the mainstream.
It supports BPMN for those who need detailed logic, while many users can see a simpler view designed for clarity and ease of use.

That balance between structure and simplicity made Promapp a trusted tool across local government.

But the bar for simplicity has risen sharply since those early days.
Today’s users expect Miro-level ease – visual, intuitive, and instantly understandable.

That’s the challenge for legacy process tools: the user experience was built for process experts, not everyday teams.
It still works brilliantly for those who’ve trained in it, but for general business users, it can feel more complex than it needs to be.

Flowingly builds on Promapp’s foundation by taking that simplicity to the next level.
Each step becomes a clear, interactive card showing who’s responsible, what happens, and what’s next – no symbols, no training, no jargon.

It’s mapping designed for everyone – from governance leads to frontline staff, so the people running the process can actually understand it, follow it, and improve it.

4. Automation shouldn’t need an IT degree

Once councils finish mapping in Promapp, the next question is always the same:
“Okay… who’s going to automate it?”

Usually, that means handing it over to IT to rebuild in Power Automate.
Weeks later, a workflow appears – if the priority list allows.

Then the cycle starts again: change one step in Promapp, and IT has to re-build the automation manually.

It’s not sustainable.

Flowingly was built to remove that dependency.
If you can drag and drop, you can automate. Approvals, notifications, escalations – all managed visually, with zero code.

So the same team mapping the process can also make it work.

No hand-offs. No waiting. No tickets.

5. Visibility disappears when tools don’t connect

Promapp documents what should happen.
Power Automate executes what you’ve told it to do.

Both do their jobs, but neither shows you what’s actually happening right now.

When Promapp holds the map and Power Automate runs the workflow, visibility gets lost in between.
You can’t see which request is waiting for sign-off, who’s holding it up, or how long each step takes.
Operations teams are left chasing updates through inboxes or spreadsheets.

Flowingly closes that gap.

When your process map and automation live in the same place, you get real-time visibility across every workflow:

  • Which steps are completed

  • Who’s next in line

  • Where bottlenecks are forming

6. SOPs that live where the work happens

In most councils, Standard Operating Procedures sit miles away from where the work is done – often buried in folders or Word docs.

Promapp helps centralise them, but they still live next to the process, not inside it.

Flowingly embeds SOPs directly into each workflow step.
When someone completes a task, the “how-to” appears right there, no extra search, no broken links.

Your team doesn’t just write procedures; they use them.
And when a change’s needed, update it once – instantly everywhere.

Why councils are making the switch

Promapp was a brilliant first step. It helped councils capture knowledge that used to live in people’s heads.

Today, councils need more than static diagrams – they need connected, live workflows.

Flowingly replaces the three-tool juggle with a single platform where SOPs, process maps and automations work together.

It’s everything Promapp does plus the part everyone’s been waiting for: movement.

Less complexity.
More visibility.
And processes that finally work the way they’re drawn.