Aras Custom Business Process Management

BEDIFFERENT ACE 2012 I NTERNATI O NAL

Copyright © 2012 Aras. All Rights Reserved. aras.com

ACE 2012
INTERNATIONAL

Custom Business Process
Management

Rob McAveney
Director of Product Management
Aras www.aras.com
Copyright © 2012 Aras. All Rights Reserved. aras.com

Background
 Business Process Management (BPM) is intended to be a
systematic approach to improving process workflows
 Processes may include activities
that humans perform as well
as system activities
 Processes may cross department,
location, company and application
boundaries
 The “big picture” view has BPM
tying together people, systems and
content to execute repeatable processes in the
most efficient way possible

Copyright © 2012 Aras. All Rights Reserved. Slide 3 aras.com

Workflow and Lifecycle
 Workflow
 “Process” management
 Routes items around for action
 Models things people (or systems) do
 May have parallel paths, multiple assignments, looping and sub-flows
 Lifecycles define mutually exclusive statuses
 “State” management
 An item may be in only one state at a time
 Transitions between states often trigger business rules
 Multiple workflows (automated or manual) may trigger a state transition
 Conventional BPM solutions sometimes blur the line
 Most BPM systems do not recognize an item’s / File’s “State”
 Most PLM systems confuse workflow and lifecycle as the same thing

Two Views of Workflow
 Workflow drives Life Cycle
 One overarching Workflow runs for the duration of
multiple Lifecycle states

 Often used for relatively short Lifecycles, like for ECRs
 Lifecycle drives Workflow
 A Workflow models the actions required to get from one
Lifecycle state to the next

 Used between states of long Lifecycles, like Active → Obsolete

BPM with Aras
 Separates state-based rules from process flow

 Model both simple & complex processes using a graphical UI in
web browser
 Execute repeatable processes based on templates

 Participate in processes using a consistent browser-based UI

 Enforces security

 Leverage PLM content (Items & Files) during process execution

 Monitor running processes graphically or with reports

 Analyze process execution data using known APIs

 Integrate other systems via federation

BPM with Aras
 Real world example, running in production at Xerox


Process Templates

 Workflow Maps serve as business process templates, and are
used to model repeatable processes

 Workflow Maps are instantiated (copied) to become
Workflow Processes, which actually execute


Control Flow Options
 Start & End Activities
 Begin and end workflows, multiples allowed
 Interactive Voting
 Voting options defined graphically using Paths
 Default Paths
 Handle unresolved voting, automated paths
 Override Paths
 “Short circuit” a process when a problem is found
 Wait For All Inputs
 Pause the flow until all open branches finish


Assignments & Voting
 Assign activities to individuals, groups or roles
 Multiple assignments per activity
 Make group decisions
 Assign to all group members, but let one do the work
 Voting Weights
 Flexible options to decide which path to follow
 Majority Rules
 Pluralities
 Executive Veto / Override
 Collect all votes or move on once a decision is made


Data Collection
 Task Lists
 Break down the activity
into defined steps
 Require sign-off that
certain tasks are
complete
 Variables
 Collect information
during activity sign-off
 Store in workflow
history audit trail or
copy to other items


InBasket & Notification
 Email notifies users of assigned
activities
 Find all assigned activities in
one place
 Perform the work directly in PLM


Status & History
 Graphical view of the active activities

 Chronological view of activities, votes and comments

Audit Trail


Reminders & Escalation

 Define a timeline for completion of an activity

 Dates are adjusted when the activity is activated

 One or more reminders can be sent before the due date

 Activity gets escalated to management / designated person
if a task takes too long to complete


Dynamic Workflow Execution
 Change a workflow while it’s running

 Dynamic activity assignments, either interactively or using custom business
rules

 Dynamic role resolution: assignments to the Owner of the item

 Robust interaction between business process Workflows and item/object
Lifecycles

 Multi-level workflows (Parent/Child, Sub-workflows, etc)

 Rich event model to enable business logic and integrations with other
systems

 Connect Aras workflows to other BPM workflows in other systems

 PLM - Teamcenter, Windchill, ENOVIA MatrixOne, Agile and others

 BPM - SAP Netweaver, Oracle, IBM Lombardi, WebSphere, Microsoft SharePoint and more

Why Aras for BPM?

 No user license expenses

 Combines BPM Workflow & Lifecycle in a single platform

 Advanced functionality out-of-the-box

 Highly robust workflow modeling and execution capabilities

 Web services integration & secure federation

 Browser-based screens with email notification & alerts

 Customizations upgrade easily

 It just works!


Aras Custom Business Process Management

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