BPM - Tecnologie dell'informazione e della comunicazione

Form Modeler

2011-07-17T12:23:37+00:00

this page intentionally left blank

BPM Open Source

2011-07-17T12:05:11+00:00

edoras bpm is licensed as commercial open source.

License and Support

edoras BPM is available under a commercial license. edorasware also provides professional support with service level agreements based on its commercial license.

Please contact us for more information

Case Management and Task management

2011-07-15T07:07:33+00:00

Case Management and Task Management

Single workspace and configurable workbaskets

Once a process goes live, the tasks that require user intervention will appear in each users' basket. But when the number of open tasks grows, it is necessary to provide the user with tools to work with them effectively. Within their workspace they may want to create more specialized work baskets, for example “controls to run on fridays”, “urgent cases” etc. These baskets can be either personal or group based.

Furthermore, Visual Task Fulfillment gives an easy to read feedback on the status of tasks.

Continuous Task Execution and Software Task Management

When the next task is assigned to the same user that just closed the previous task, the interface brings the user directly to the next task without re-entering the workflow/workbasket, thus making the processes faster and easier.

Dynamic tasks

It is common for a user to find a process inadequate in some particular cases. It is neither possible nor desirable to streamline every possible anomaly in a process; still it's necessary to serve the client just as he or she was served before a BPM was introduced; edorasbpm supports dynamic workflows by creating tasks on the fly (Ad Hoc Tasks, Dynamic Tasks). Furthermore, any available source can be configured as a task provider.

Task delegation and commenting

The possibility to delegate tasks makes the process models easy to fit into real world situations where employees take vacations, or are otherwise unavailable.

Whenever a user finds a process to be inadequate, besides stepping outside the process they can also comment on the process itself, so management and analysts can gather realtime information. This is another feature that helps achieve continuous improvement.

Task indexing

Task, Case and Process indexing is built into edorasbpm; this allows to have a single workbasket with all the tasks in it, sorted by priority; then build separate query-based workbaskets for different needs (please see the demo screencast for some real-world examples).

The indexing is active also for tasks that are created on the fly outside of a process. This improves the user experience: every task is listed in the same workspace.

Enterprise features

edorasbpm features several portlets for Enterprise Portal integration, spanning from viewing processes, navigating through them to viewing task fulfillment at a glance.

DMS Integration

2011-07-13T10:01:40+00:00

BPM - DMS Integration is user friendly

In the BPM modeler it's easy to create actions that interact with the Document Management System (DMS) to create, load and save documents. edorasbpm's great interactivity allows unprecedented ease of use:

Drag and drop documents on an upload area to automatically upload them

Click on a document to seamlessly open its associated application on the user's computer. When the document is closed, it will be automatically re-uploaded.
Create documents dynamically with edoras document templating (see below)

edorasbpm helps reduce the user interaction to a minimum.

Templating engine

Edorasbpm document creation is powered by edoras templating engine, which allows easy creation and compilation of documents. You only need to provide a template and name-value token pairs to replace; the templating engine does the rest (supporting all Microsoft Office™ formats).

Document Management Systems integration

As with every other edorasbpm feature also the DMS connectors can be extended. Out of the box you can connect to Alfresco, Microsoft Sharepoint or a local filesystem.

Alfresco workflows or Sharepoint workflows can be replaced with BPM workflows while you continue to use the DMS for storage.

Glossary

The glossary functionality allows to use consistent naming throughout your documents.

BPM Architecture: integration advantages

2011-07-11T06:32:51+00:00

BPM Architecture - DRAFT

(see Interactive areamap of edoras bpm - another solution needed. )

Embedding (evolutionary versus revolutionary solution)

Embedding edorasbpm into your application is very easy. Please read our case studies to see how it was possible to integrate our bpm solution right into a customer's complex application in under 2 hours.

But what does embeddable entail? It implies the suite can

connect to an existing user base
benefit from transactions in the user code
make workflows simpler (no compensation paths!)
Integration is easier as well. You don't need to pass security context in each call since edorasbpm lives in the same application as your business objects.

Powerful framework and architecture

edorasbpm is built on top of Spring. This makes it easy to extend: you can even change the Activiti workflow engine, use an external user base i.e. LDAP or Active Directory, connect to another DMS (natively supported DMSs include Alfresco and Microsoft SharePoint)

Process Execution Engine - lightweight, BPMN 2.0 compliant runtime engine - configurable persistence and transaction management

Process Data Indexing and Discovery - process and task data indexing for fast lookup and retrieval - task search and process data lookup without database access

Flexibility

Abstracting the actual process engine from the other BPM modules is a key feature of the approach of edoras BPM. While the Activiti process engine represents an integral, strategic part of the product, the task management of edoras BPM can also be used in scenarios where a full-fledged process engine is not necessary, but where tasks are created, assigned and executed on a more ad-hoc basis.

Openness

Based on a multi-purpose, generic process Event Bus, a large amount of BPM modules are integrated and connected, forming a complete BPM system. The process event bus also plays an important role for integrating external components such as security systems or audit logs.

Extensibility

One of edoras BPM core modules - enterprise task management - is extensible and customizable in a number of ways, such as with custom task assignment strategies or workload management components based on organizational structures and current task assignments.

Configuration

Both the internal BPM modules and the product as a whole are configured and integrated using Spring, which allows straightforward and tight integration of edoras BPM into existing technology stacks and architectures.

What is Workflow?

2011-07-08T05:08:36+00:00

What is a Workflow?

A workflow is a sequence of connected steps, usually shown as a diagram.

It is particularly useful in describing a business process where different actors play pre-defined actions in order to achieve the process's outcome. This is why it's oftentimes chosen both by business analysts and business engineers to describe the core processes of a company.

Each step represents a single action within the workflow process. It shows its intended actors, input, and one or several possible outcomes. In this workflow diagram each action is represented by a box. Each step has an intended goal and can be achieved automatically or with human intervention.

A workflow engine is the software which runs our processes in the application. edorasbpm comes with Activiti workflow engine bundled, but also supports other BPMN-2 compliant workflow engines.

BPMN 2

2011-07-08T05:04:37+00:00

BPMN 2

BPMN 2 is the standard notation for describing business process models.

edoras bpm Modeler is compliant with BPMN2, this allows you to import and export models in BPMN v.2 format.

How does the BPMN 2 format work? How can we maintain application-specific additions to a workflow when using it across different tools?

Well, this is just a part of the standard. Standard-compliant BPMN v.2 tools will preserve other tools' settings even if the products don't implement them.

BPM process modeling

2011-07-08T05:03:19+00:00

BPM Process Modeling

BPM Modeling allows Managers and Business Analysts to define and manage the company's processes in a visual environment. It aligns different BPM disciplines and roles in a single tool.

Roles and collaboration

Several roles are involved in creating a process: managers, business analysts, developers, users. edorasbpm brings next-generation collaboration features right into the modeller:

easy collaboration between team members
user comments are shown directly into the modeler
critical paths and bottlenecks are visually shown
versioning allows to graphically see differences across revisions.

Usability

Several features make the modeler easy to learn and fast to use:

Drag and drop actions boxes automatically reconnects them
reshape and resize the models easily
inline form modeler with preview to easily create forms
the Process Fragments Toolkit allows to define subprocesses and reuse them in many workflows.

Model life-cycle

Creating a bpm process workflow is the single task that lets you achieve several goals:

Create high level business process models
Implement the detailed behaviour of each step:
- design input forms
- connect java beans or webservices
- implement decisions
Document the process
Directly deploy from design time repository to the runtime repository
Manage your models and their revisions in a single repository
Monitor the process (find bottlenecks etc) and optimize
Compare revisions visually
monitor KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

Process models repository and deployment scheduling

The process model repository is where all versions of a repository are stored. Different revisions can be compared off the repository and you can view differences graphically.

You can control all phases a process model has to go through, both during creation and revision. edorasbpm will support the revision and approval processes for each process model, and allow to schedule the revision update. It will also take care of migrating open processes to the new process version.

Business Process Management: edoras bpm open source

2011-07-08T04:37:03+00:00

Business Process Management

Business Process Management makes it possible to achieve faster time to market, efficiency in processes, continuous improvement. These are only some of the reasons which bring more and more companies to implement bpm solutions.

Open source bpm enterprise ready

Edorasbpm is an open source bpm solution which can be embedded in your existing application. It is the linking piece which allows you to make the most of your existing IT infrastructure.

BPM management features: BPMN 2 roundtrip

A BPM solution brings the programming / process definition in the hands of management: this is one of the main goals of BPMN2 , looking at process definition as a management activity, filling the gap between management and IT

When adopting BPM in your organization the focus is on process integration and automation. But the great advantage comes from continuous process improvement: the life of a process model follows these steps: design workflow, implement connections to beans/services, run, collect usage data, find bottlenecks, run reports and implement improvements. These are referred to as a BPMN 2 roundtrip.

BPM process modeler

Most of these steps take place in the bpm modeler. Its full-featured interface hides all the complexities from the users and show only commands that are relevant for their role. Model versioning, hot deploy, monitoring are all available from this single interface.

Case Management and Task Management

Once processes are defined, the end users will access them easily from their workbasket. The workbasket is the key to obtaining an efficient user interface: its query-based interface enables the user to customize the views to fit them to their actual needs.

DMS integration

Many processes involve the management of documents. edorasbpm DMS integration is designed to support all major document management systems with user-friendly functions: drag and drop, inline editing, automatic document creation based on document templates and much more.

BPM solution: The advantages

edorasbpm has several unique features which won some of our best clients over well established, traditional bpm suites.

Lightweight and fast: edorasbpm was built with speed in mind
Built to scale: its architecture based on J2EE delivers robust enterprise features
Easily extensible: every feature can be extended / changed easily thank to its modular design
Entirely web-based
The first bpm open-source enterprise-grade solution
Easy to integrate

(render these links with graphics)

Find more advantages in the features' pages

White papers

Case studies

What is BPM?

2011-07-01T02:22:53+00:00

What is BPM?

An overview of Business Process Management solutions

Business Process Management (BPM) consists in optimizing your business while keeping focus on customer satisfaction and market trends. Companies adopting BPM are more efficient in adapting to changing requirements and have a higher effectiveness in creating value.

BPM solutions make it possibile for all stakeholders to take part in the process lifecycle. Managers, Business Analysts, Developers and Users are involved in planning, creating, using and improving the processes. edorasbpm brings together all these actors, supporting their efforts in the least obstrusive way, supporting your work easily.

Business Process Management solutions

BPM Software solutions vary across the market and fall in two main categories:

BPM integrated suites, which bring together several tools to offer a complete system which you complement integrating your business logic through external webservices. Most “big names” fall into this category, some suites are so complete they offer everything out of the box. But when it comes to integrating your existing software, you will have to provide webservices or SOAP interfaces to them. Most solutions in this category have a long history and are made of several components, resulting in “fat” suites
BPM programmable suites, which allow you to code right into the BPM to integrate with your existing codebase, at the expense of lower usability.

Both approaches have their appeal: while the former offers a lot of out-of-the-box functionality and easy interfaces, at the expense of ease of integration and speed, the latter allows you to code and integrate into your application, with extra development costs and lower usability.

edorasbpm brings the best of these two approaches together: while it is possible to model an entire process without coding, it can integrate right-into your J2EE application, making integration and extension a snap! Business Analysts can work side-by-side with developers, keeping the business logic at a non-technical level.

An added benefit is that edorasbpm embeds into your application, thus reducing the overall complexity of your process definitions: since it accesses directly the user base, transactions, isolation, security of your application, the processes do not need to contain compensation paths (up to 30% simpler processes) and no extra concerns arise (security tokens do not need to leave the application). Find out more in our architecture page.