workflow pwc

MISSION CONTROL

Launching your Success

Integrating your Self Service Application Workflow with Microsoft Exchange and other Fun Stuff you could do to make it cool.

Muzaffer Lakdawala

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Our Agenda

What is workflow

Why you need to know workflow

Workflow building blocks

Components.

Features.

Capabilities.

Case study: Using workflow to solve business problems.

Business problems.

Solutions.

Workflow migration.

Lessons learned

Q&A

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What Is Workflow?

Oracle® Workflow is a complete workflow management system that supports business process definition and automation. Its technology enables automation and continuous improvement to business processes, routing information of any type according to user-defined business rules.

Oracle Workflow is part of the Oracle e-business suite, a set of applications, which is designed to transform your business to an iBusiness.

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What Is Workflow?

A framework and toolkit for building your processes:

Define process flow logic.

Route information.

Define & validate business rules.

F l e x i b l e F l e x i b l e

D y n a m i c D y n a m i c

P o w e r f u l P o w e r f u l

C u s t o m i z a b l C u s t o m i z a b l e e

I n t e g r a t e d I n t e g r a t e d

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Why You Need to Know Workflow

With Oracle’s E-business suite, Workflow becomes the foundation for most Oracle application processes.

The success of future Oracle implementations will depend on thoughtful configuration and creative use of workflow features.

To implement business processes in Oracle which meet your requirements and are efficient and maintainable.

Workflow is powerful and flexible providing opportunities to build optimal processes. BUTBUT these characteristics also introduce complexity that can work against you if not utilized properly.

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Workflow Building Blocks

Workflow is NOT one distinct application.

Delivery of robust workflow solutions requires integrating the features, functionality and capabilities of many individual components.

System: Mailer

Oracle Workflow

Components

Compatible Application

s (ex: Microsoft

Exchange)

Web Application Directory

Oracle Workflow Builder

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Workflow Components

Functions Process

Attributes Messages

NotificationsLookup Types

WorkflowDefinitionLoader

Workflow Background Engine

WorkflowBuilder

Monitoring &Administration

ElectronicNotifications

PL/SQL Extendibility

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Workflow Components

Functions Process

Attributes Messages



Workflow Workflow Background Background EngineEngine

WorkflowWorkflowBuilderBuilder

Monitoring &Monitoring &AdministrationAdministration

ElectronicElectronicNotificationsNotifications

PL/SQL PL/SQL ExtendibilityExtendibility

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Workflow Components

Functions Process

Attributes Messages


WorkflowWorkflowDefinitionDefinitionLoaderLoader


WorkflowBuilder




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Workflow Components

Functions Process

Attributes Messages









Workflow Components

Functions Process

Attributes Messages









Workflow Components

Functions Process

Attributes Messages

Notifications Lookup Types








Workflow Components

Functions Process

Attributes Messages









Workflow Components

Functions Process

Attributes Messages




WorkflowBuilder





What Is Workflow?


Additional Components

The hidden power of Oracle Workflow is its flexibility to be integrated with additional components to provide extended functionality.

We will talk about three key components that were used in our recent solution.

Web Application Dictionary

System: Mailer

Microsoft Exchange


Web Application Directory Services

Oracle Workflow offers flexibility in defining workflow users and roles.

If you are using the version of Oracle Workflow embedded in Oracle Applications, Oracle Workflow directory service views are automatically based on a unified Oracle Applications environment.

The unified environment maps over Oracle Human Resources tables, Oracle Application Object Library tables, various Oracle Applications tables, and the WF_LOCAL tables.

Unified Environment

Web ApplicationDictionary

AOL

WF_LOCAL Vendors

HR Customers


Web Application Directory Services

The WF_LOCAL tables/views have three key components:

WF_LOCAL_USER

You can use this table to define users which are not included in unified Oracle Application Environment.

WF_LOCAL_ROLES

You can use this table to define roles which are not included in unified Oracle Application Environment.

WF_LOCAL_USER_ROLES

The Wf_Local_User_Roles table is an intersection of the users and roles.

These tables define users and roles that are not defined in unified Oracle Application Environment.


System: Mailer

Oracle provides e-mail templates within System: Mailer workflow, to customize e-mail verbiage.

Determines what emails are sent out and in what format.

SystemMailer

Template

CanceledMail

SummaryMail

Open FYIMail

InvalidMail

OpenMail

WarningMail

ClosedMail

There are 7 templates that Oracle uses for sending out notifications.

Open - When expecting a response.

Open FYI - When no response is expected.

Summary - Used when user is expecting summary notification.

Cancel - Informs previous notifications are canceled.

Invalid - Informs users of invalid response.

Closed - Informs users of closed notification.


Microsoft Exchange

Oracle Workflow can be integrated with Microsoft Exchange to expand functionality for your workflow solution.

Public Folders

Public folders allow you to collect organize and share information with others on your team or across your organization. Public folders can be used to store any type of files or Outlook items. Public folders have E-mail addresses used to post messages.

Why use Public Folders?

Public folders can be used as a distribution list or to define your operations staff groups.

Public folders can receive Workflow Notifications.

Members in these group can be managed outside Oracle Workflow world.

Multiple operational staff can access the same folder and move work to their individual work folders.

Provides mechanism to distribute work evenly and efficiently.


Example

Suggested Folder Structure

S ta ff1

S ta ff2

C losed Item s

O p era tion sop era tion s@ u s .p w cg lob a l.com

S ys tem A d m insysad m in @ u s .p w cg lob a l.com

M an ag erm an ag er@ u s .p wcg lob a l.com

H elp D eskh e lp d esk@ u s .p wcg lob a l.com

iE xp en se F o ld ers


Case Study: Oracle Workflow

The following section illustrates how careful workflow design, thoughtful configuration and the creative use of workflow capabilities can help deliver an efficient, controlled, and low cost business process.

*The solutions mentioned were developed as part of a recent implementation of Oracle iExpenses for over 10,000 employees at a Global 200 client.


Case Study: Problems

Five specific business problems addressed using Workflow:

How can operational staff efficiently monitor and control the automated process?

How to maintain dynamic business rules without constantly changing code?

How to customize workflow to meet operational needs without creating maintenance issues?

How to organize work among operational staff, to enable quick response and efficient execution?

How to reduce potentials for errors during migration of workflow?


Operational Support Problem #1

Transition from a paper based process to eBusiness solution will introduce a number of access and control issues for support staff.



Support staff can lose visibility of events in the electronic processes.

Automated work processes are efficient, but can leave support staff feeling “out of touch” with their operation.

Staff not immediately aware when a problem occurs.

Monitoring and administration of Oracle Workflow process using delivered functionality is not efficient.

Difficult to monitor the overall process

Navigation through workflow diagram environment can be intimidating for non-technical support personnel.

Tracking transactions through workflow is a one by one proposition requiring entry of the expense report number for each single transaction to view its progress

Learning curve for support staff - Oracle environment is not always intuitive.


Solution: Utilize e-mail capabilities

Fully utilized the e-mail capabilities of workflow to send notification messages.

ErrorCondition

Send immediate notifications when any error condition

occurs

DescriptiveNotification

Develop clear concise

Notification messages

Notification to Operational

Role

Send notifications to specific operational staff responsible to

take action

Electronic Notification

Manage ByException

Staff confident that notifications

identify conditions to be

managed

Functional Staff can monitor system via e-mails



How can modifications be made to dynamic business rules without changing and migrating workflow processes and custom code?

Workflow allows validation of business rules, but rules can change often.

Business rules in workflow validation programs need to be added and modified.

Constant change and migration of the workflow file and custom codes would be costly and introduce chance for error.


Operational Support Issues

Examples of business requirements that call for the ability to change business rules and parameters.

Complex per diem rules with varying rates and factors.

Some Divisions want to require entry of Project numbers, others don’t use projects.

IRS rule changes, thresholds, receipts not required for certain expense types (lodging, auto mileage, per diems).

Rules that change based on new labor agreements, changes to corporate policy.

Business rules that apply only for a particular department (viz.: International division had increased receipt requirements for VAT).

Business rules by expense type and $ amount.


Solution: Table driven Custom Business RulesCreate a custom table to define dynamic business rules.

Provide a custom form to allow maintenance of the parameters and attributes of the rules.

Most business rule changes can be handled by operations staff adding and changing table values.

One custom table is used to hold rules for taxation, required field specification, expense thresholds, per diem values etc.

Custom business rule validation programs don’t need to change every time a business rule is modified.

Add one custom procedure to the workflow to handle all rules, instead of customizing delivered packages.

Your workflow process performs validations based on the values defined in the table


Custom Business Rules

The framework of the workflow validation programs were built flexibly to validate different types of business rules using table driven parameters.

Typical fields in the table structure might be:

Rule_Name: Justification, Receipts, Per Diem.

Rule_For: Expense Types.

Cost_Centre: Cost Centre for which rule applies.

Yes_No_Null: Rule applies if Amex was used or not used.

Effective_Start_Date: Start date for the rule.

Effective_End_Date: End date for the rule.

Value1: Stores Business agreed numeric value. (Ex:Mileage Rate)

Value2: Stores IRS allowed numeric value. (Max Per Diem allowance.)

Value3: Stores any other numeric value.

Description: Plain English meaning for the rule.


Developing Custom Business Process

CustomBusinessProcess

Front End Form

End DateBusiness

Rules

PL/SQLfor Business

RulesValidation

DefineRules as Functions

Introduce Functions in

Process

Migrate Rules

Build logic to apply rule

Date parameters provides ability for historical tracking and application of

date sensitive rules

Build rule validation within a function that can be brought into workflow

Introduce function into proper place within the workflow process

Migration strategy

Maintain values in the table

A structured well designed approach is required to effectively implement custom business rules



Would like notifications sent to the people in specific roles.

How can this be achieved without changing the workflow files for every change in operational staff and their assignments.

Support personnel and email addresses change regularly.

Constant change and migration of the workflow file and procedures would be costly and introduce chance of error.


Solutions to Operational Support IssuesUtilize features of Workflow as well as it’s ability to integrate with Microsoft Exchange:

Use Workflow ability to create Roles. Defined operation roles and assigned roles to employees (using

Wf_Local_User_Roles tables) Workflow notification e-mails directed to the appropriate

operational roles not individual users.

Use of Microsoft Exchange features (folders) and Roles to structure workflow so that it is independent of users.

Workflow does not need to be changed for operational staff turnover.

Send Email notifications to appropriate operational staff role for all key events in the process.

Staff can monitor process by tracking e-mails sent to their operational folder.


Solution: Integrate with MS Exchange

Define Public Folders in Microsoft Exchange.

Set default to ‘Contributor’ for the folder.

Add list of people who can process the notifications.

Assign necessary permissions to people allowing them to manage notifications.

Re-define these folders as local users and roles in Oracle Workflow Web Application Dictionary Tables.

Load users and roles from database into Oracle Workflow.

Use these local users and roles as ‘Performers’ in Workflow Notifications for all generated E-mail messages.



How can notification of errors and exception be efficiently distributed and work tracked among support staff?

Want an organized approach to monitoring the system.

Notify appropriate roles of the errors and exception.

Need to make sure all issues are being worked.

Want to avoid multiple people unknowingly working the same issue.


Solution 4

Using Microsoft Exchange Folders we can have all the system generated e-mails send to central folders.

Microsoft displays to individuals numbers of emails that have not been processed yet.

Microsoft Exchange is not the complete solution for tracking issues. It has limited capabilities for recording status and resolutions.

S ta ff1

S ta ff2

C losed Item s

O p era tion sop era tion s@ u s .p w cg lob a l.com

S ys tem A d m insysad m in @ u s .p w cg lob a l.com

M an ag erm an ag er@ u s .p w cg lob a l.com

H elp D eskh e lp d esk@ u s .p w cg lob a l.com

iE xp en se F o ld ers



Migration of Workflow components from development to production instances can be tricky and introduce potential for error

Need to follow a structured approach for migrating workflow which minimizes risk of error

Changes to the workflow should be minimized


Migration Methodology

Migration from Development to Production :

Local user and roles tables. Change the script to point to the right public folders

([email protected] to [email protected])

Oracle Workflow Chain Link is not an available option. Check-in Oracle Workflow into external version control

programs for future modifications and upgrades. Using Oracle Workflow Builder open the workflow file from TEST

and save it back in PRODUCTION. It requires APPS password. Using concurrent program to upload file. UNIX level access is

required.

Microsoft Exchange Public Folders. Allow the Production Folders to accept E-mails.


Migration Methodology

Refresh from Production to Development :

Local user and roles tables.Using the update script change the local user and roles table to point to the right public folders ([email protected] to [email protected]).

Workflow It is migrated from Production to Test instance during the refresh, as Oracle Workflow is stored in tables.


Case Study Review: Workflow Solution

Following actions were thoughtfully applied to address business issues and avoid workflow pitfalls.

Fully utilized Notifications and email capabilities.

Careful approach to customizing the workflow process.

Intelligent Use of Roles.

Integration with Microsoft Exchange and email.

Minimized the need for on-going changes to workflow.

Implemented a structured methodology for migration.


Case Study Review: Result

Operational staff remains fully in control of the process

Benefits of automated process achieved without losing touch.

Operations staff obtain required business process information without being a workflow experts.

Workflow changes are not necessary for most changes to business rules and staff turnover.

Lower operational cost and overhead from improved streamlined business process.

Work items are organized and divided efficiently to the proper operation roles.

Changes to workflow occur in a structured manner.


Lesson Learned

Give very focused attention to the design of workflow - it is the glue that will hold the pieces of your process together.

Be careful assuming you can get full benefits from your process just dropping in the vanilla workflow process.

Remember that it’s the little things that will kill you.

Recurring costs and issues with a process can be reduced without a great deal of cost through expertise for Workflow.

It’s tempting to go into Workflow Builder and start moving things around, but you need to understand how things work first - a lot of hidden consequences.

Be creative, but within the confines of the workflow

Prototype your workflow design then Test, Test, Test and Test again.


Lesson Learned

E-Mail

Strong Mail Server Network is required. A simple Expense Report can generate up to 5 e-mails.

Reply-To functionality is great but has to be implemented with caution:

No E-mail signatures allowed. Responses split into more than one line must be in quotes. Can’t be removed without modifications to standard workflow

packages.

Keep messages simple! - People don’t read email carefully

Custom Business Rules

Keep all customizations confined to one PL/SQL Package

Complex rules require complex coding and complex testing procedures - there should be good business reason.

Not all rules can be table driven.


Lesson Learned

Migration

Frequent changes and migration of workflow file is costly and introduces chance of error- Minimize them!

In process transactions will use OLD workflow process but NEW code.

Always remember MURPHY lives on. Any change or migration can introduce error.


Purging Workflow

Procedure Parameters Description

WF_PURGE.ITEMS Itemtype Itemkey Enddate

Removes all run-time data associated with completed items.

WF_PURGE.ACTIVITIES Itemtype Enddate

Removes obsolete activities versions. These are versions of activities that are no longer used by any item.

WF_PURGE.NOTIFICATIONS Itemtype Enddate

Removes old notifications. These are notifications that are no longer used by any item.

WF_PURGE.TOTAL Itemtype Itemkey Enddate

Purges both item and activity data.

WF_PURGE.TOTALPERM Itemtype Itemkey Enddate

Deletes all eligible obsolete run-time data that has a persistence type of Permanent.

WF_PURGE.ADHOCDIRECTORY Enddate Purges all ad hoc users and roles that are not associated with a notification.


Q&A

Questions

?

[email protected]

workflow pwc

Documents

workflow background

itemtype itemkey

system admin

case study

workflow validation

itemtype enddate

case study

operational