In today’s fast-paced business environment, organizations seek new ways to optimize efficiency, reduce operational costs, and enhance productivity.
One of the main challenges they face is managing and automating complex business processes effectively. This is where Oracle Workflow stands out as a comprehensive solution for streamlining critical workflow paths and driving operational efficiencies.
Read on to learn more about Oracle Workflow and where our senior-level Oracle consultants can fit into your organization.
What is Oracle Workflow?
Oracle Workflow is a comprehensive workflow management system that users can install to support business process-based integration. It facilitates automation, modeling, and the continual improvement of core business processes, effectively transferring data between systems and aligning processes with user-defined business rules.
E-business opportunities have increased the need for integrations between enterprise applications, business systems, trade partners, and business-to-business transactions. Oracle Workflow supports classic applications-based and e-business integration workflows, automating and streamlining internal and external-facing business operations.
By offering a fully integrated workflow solution for both internal and cross-application business process coordination and execution, Oracle Workflow enables organizations to facilitate efficiency and improve business outcomes.
Being the Business Process Management Tool for E-Business
Efficient Oracle Workflow installation allows e-businesses to accurately and efficiently manage business flows across systems, applications, and people groups. Oracle Workflow supports e-business integration and traditional applications-based workflows to streamline and automate business processes within and beyond any organization.
The Oracle Workflow platform provides unique workflow creation and management solutions to improve coordination for internal procedures and connect business processes across applications and other enterprise systems.
Reduce Time to Market and Adapt to Change
E-businesses have a unique demand to manage business processes that span trading partners in different countries and regions, support complex business regulations, automate and streamline the flow of transactions, and respond quickly to market innovations.
The Workflow platform delivers an extensible process-driven framework that offers the functionality to support critical workforce demands and optimize process-driven workflows. Oracle Workflow enables internal employees and external stakeholders to improve system adaptability and proactively respond to change by automatically routing and processing business data and adhering to changing organizational rules.
Model Business Processes
Oracle Workflow leverages a graphical business process modeling tool called Workflow Builder to allow organizations to model and maintain business processes and reduce human error across their most critical business workflows.
Workflow Builder defines complex processes enabling users to loop workflows, branch into parallel flows and connections, break down into sub-flows, add task results, time out, and more.
Unite Applications, Systems, and People
Oracle Workflow enables people to analyze, receive, and reply to notifications with any standard wireless device, e-mail system, or web browser. Workflow provides the tools needed to extract business data and make better decisions, whether dealing with XML documents, business document approvals, or self-service transactions.
With Oracle Workflow capabilities, organizations can unite customers, prospects, and suppliers via the Internet, improving convenience and ease of use across all critical business teams.
Proven Scalability, Reliability, and Performance
Oracle Workflow provides a scalable production workflow solution designed to manage and maintain large data quantities across E-business landscapes and seamlessly integrates with Oracle Database in the Workflow Engine and Business Event System.
Oracle Workflow connects operations across the entire Oracle landscape, including:
- Oracle Java Message Service (OJMS) to ensure efficient message delivery between systems
- Oracle Real Application Clusters to deliver transparent application scalability
- Transactional integrity capabilities in Oracle Database to maintain consistency between applications and business processes
Oracle Workflow also offers the same industry-leading performance and scalability that have made Oracle Database the go-to database for E-businesses.
Continual Improved Business Processes
Oracle Workflow allows organizations to assess and analyze the overall time and costs required to execute core business processes through multi-dimensional data analysis.
Organizations can identify potential bottlenecks and improve business process efficiency by initiating a continuous feedback loop driven by business intelligence capabilities.
Key Features of Oracle Workflow
Workflow Engine
- Manage the execution of critical business processes
- Generate plans for deferred and immediate execution tasks
- Create and analyze thorough process audit trails
- Accommodate complex business rules
- Build fully integrated human decision points into process execution
- Automatically manage process exceptions
- Store multiple, continuous versions of a single process
- Implement new process versions without disrupting ongoing tasks
- Enable middle-tier Java code execution
- Access programming extensibility with OJMS and PL/SQL tools
- Accept Java Message Services (JMS) messages to start or continue processes.
- Begin a business excursion through process-generated JMS messages
Business Event Systems
- Relay business events to internal and external systems
- Leverage Java APIs for enhanced enterprise connection
- Encourage the integration of message-based systems
- Allow for non-intrusive application customization
- Keep track of systems, events, communication agents, and active subscriptions
- Execute subscriptions asynchronously or synchronously whenever business events occur
- Transmit events via Oracle Advanced Queuing across Oracle Net, HTTP, or HTTPS
- Execute unique code in response to business events
- Send events to workflow processes for complex processing and routing
- Enable the management of Event Manager data in both distributed and centralized environments
- Replicate data from Event Manager to other connected systems
Process Monitor
- Provide a single site for system administrators and end users
- Enable users to skip, review, or re-do any task
- Administer and review workflow events in an intuitive graphical interface View current decision-maker responsibilities
- Access a complete summary of decision-makers
Notification System
- Managereceiver responses in the Workflow Engine
- Access automatic reaction and forwarding of notifications
- Notify positions and individuals with automated messages
- Modify group members without changing operational processes
- Access Internet-enabled features
- Usual web browser capabilities for viewing and replying
- Drill down to any Oracle E-Business Suite screen or URL
- Accessible via Oracle E-Business Suite
- Leverage E-mail features
- Summary and detailed messages
- Typical mail protocols: outbound SMTP, inbound IMAP
- Email clients with IMAP
- HTML or plain text message body
System Management
- Track and observe system status
- Asses system metrics and information bandwidth
- Utilize Oracle Workflow Manager to complete system management tasks
- Use the configuration wizard to track notification mailer statuses and configure notification mailers to specific business needs
- Monitor the status of Oracle Workflow system processes, such as agent listening, purging, background engine management, and queue propagation
Transaction Processing Foundation for Oracle E-Business Suite
- Human Resources Management (HRMS)
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Directory Service
- Works with Oracle Application Server Single Sign-On
- Encourages synchronization with Oracle Internet Directory (OID) and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) systems
- Aligns with other external user directories via OID
- Extracts the document directory tree from a zip file within the Workflow directory
Project Manufacturing Workflows Overview
Oracle Project Manufacturing leverages Oracle Workflow features to deliver guided walk-throughs of all the steps in defining indirect projects and project manufacturing contracts and creating notifications for scheduling exceptions.
Oracle Workflow enables organizations to automate and continuously improve business processes and route critical information to processes through user-defined business rules. With an intuitive graphical user interface, users can also change workflow procedures to better meet their company’s needs and enable better employee engagement.
Oracle Project Manufacturing contains the following workflows:
- Users can define a project manufacturing contract by following the steps outlined in the Project Manufacturing Project Definition (Contract) workflow. The PJM Contract Type Project Definition process is the first step in this workflow.
- Users can walk through the setup procedures needed to define a project manufacturing indirect or capital project in the Project Manufacturing Project Definition (Indirect/Capital) workflow. The PJM Indirect Type Project Definition process is seeded with one process.
- Users can choose which notifications are issued for schedule exceptions in the Project Manufacturing Project Schedule Exception Notification procedure. The Project Manufacturing Integration Exception Process is the only process to seed this workflow.
Oracle Workflow Builder
Users can download and install Oracle Workflow Builder, a graphical application for generating, examining, and editing workflow definitions. It includes a Navigator window that can specify the steps and elements comprising each business process. Then, users can consolidate the tasks in a process window to create a comprehensive process diagram.
Every new activity created in Oracle Workflow Builder has a version number assigned to it. The system also modifies the version number each time an already-completed task is altered.
The updated version is saved to the database without removing previous iterations of the activity. Activities in Oracle Workflow also have effectivity dates, meaning that only one version of the activity is “in effect” at any time.
Oracle Workflow employs the version of the activity in force when the process started and is currently in operation. Because a process is an activity, its definition never changes until the process instance is finished, and versions cannot be updated in the middle of the procedure.
Oracle Workflow Builder also supports the idea of loading and saving process definitions concerning a specific date. For instance, a user could load a definition that was useful earlier into Oracle Workflow Builder. The user can also save a definition to the database to be utilized for a future date.
The Navigator Tree Formation
A navigator tree structure is displayed in the Navigation Pane for each data store accessed or loaded into Oracle Workflow Builder. The main branch, or data store, is a database connection or flat file containing the workflow process definition.
The secondary branch, or item type heading, is a minimum feature of every data store and is issued to group a specific set of processes and their related objects. The following tertiary branches are located beneath each item type branch:
- Processes: This lists the procedure activities or workflow process definitions for the most recent item type.
- Attributes: This branch lists the characteristics of the active item type and describes the core features of each item type. For example, the requisition amount, or the requisition ID, can be an item type attribute if the item type is a purchase order requisition.
- Notifications: Notification activity communicates to a role or user, simply providing information or invoking a specific response from users. Notifications list the tasks associated with the item type.
- Functions: This brand names the function actions connected to the item type in question and enables users to link activity attributes to a specific function task. A function activity is a stored procedure in PL/SQL automatically carried out by the Workflow Engine.
- Events: The event branch records the event tasks related to the item type. An event deed shows a business event that the process raises, receives, or sends.
- Lookup Types: This branch names the lookup types connected to the active item type and syncs lookup codes with existing lookup types. A lookup type is a list of elements that can be used as the potential result type for a message, notification, function, or process.
- Messages: The message branch shows the messages a person or role can receive from a notification activity linked to the current item type. There are also specific message properties that can be attached to each message.
How We Can Help
Whether you need help implementing an Oracle suite for the first time, navigating complex workflows across your entire technical landscape, or just an extra hand getting started with Oracle applications, Surety Systems can help.
Our senior-level Oracle consultants have the functional expertise and technical skills needed to help you navigate an implementation or integration project and optimize your technological investment in the long run.
Contact Us
Are you interested in learning more about Oracle Workflow and how our senior-level Oracle consultants can help your organization get and stay on the right path with Oracle?
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