"workflow.txt" The following is an overview of Oracle Workflow features. This information has been extracted from the Release 11 Product Overview for Oracle Workflow. To see the Workflow processes available in Oracle Applications Release 11, click here Oracle Workflow is a complete workflow management system that facilitates business process reengineering. Oracle Workflow automatically processes and routes information of any type, according to business rules you can easily change, to any person inside or outside your enterprise. You can easily include customers and suppliers in your workflow using the Internet and the Worldwide Web. All Information With so much information available, and in so many different forms, how do you get the right information to the right people at the right time? Oracle Workflow lets you provide each person involved in a workflow-enabled business process with all the information they need to make the appropriate response. Oracle’s attachments let you capture information from all media— including spreadsheets, images, audio, and video—and associate it with workflow information in Oracle Applications. Oracle Workflow can route this supporting information to each decision maker in your workflow. All Rules The ability to quickly adapt your business processes to a rapidly-changing environment is vital to your success. Oracle Workflow lets you model and maintain your business processes using a graphical workflow builder. Unlike workflow systems that simply route documents from one user to another with some approval steps, Oracle Workflow lets you model and automate sophisticated business processes. You can define processes that loop, branch into parallel flows and then rendezvous, decompose into subflows, and more. With Oracle Workflow, you can use the full power of PL/SQL, the language of the Oracle7 server, to automatically process information according to even the most sophisticated business rules. All People Your business processes include not only Oracle Applications users, but others inside your enterprise and even customers, suppliers, and business partners outside your enterprise. Oracle Workflow extends the reach of business process automation throughout the enterprise and beyond to include any E-mail or Web user. Oracle Workflow lets people receive, analyze, and respond to notifications of items awaiting their attention via Oracle Applications or any standard E-mail system or Web browser. Continuous Business Process Reengineering Workflow-enabled Oracle Applications let you streamline your business processes by allowing you to define the sequence of activities required to complete a process, combining predefined steps delivered as part of Oracle Applications with your own custom activities. Workflow Builder Oracle Workflow’s graphical Workflow Builder lets you create, view, or modify a business process with simple drag and drop operations. Using the builder, you can create and modify reusable workflow objects, including activities, rules, messages, and users. At any time you can add, remove, or change workflow activities, or set up new prerequisite relationships among activities. You can easily work with a summary-level model of your workflow, expanding activities within the workflow as needed to increasing levels of detail. You can operate the graphical Workflow Builder from a desktop PC or even from a disconnected laptop. Oracle Workflow comes complete with a library of predefined Oracle Applications activities and workflow templates that you can tailor to your unique requirements or include in any of your own workflows. Rule-Based Workflow Engine A workflow engine embedded in the Oracle7 server monitors workflow states and coordinates the routing of activities for a process. Changes in workflow state, such as the completion of workflow activities, are signaled to the engine via a PL/SQL API. Based on flexibly-defined workflow rules, the engine determines which activities are eligible to process, and then processes them. Oracle’s workflow engine supports sophisticated workflow rules, including looping, branching, parallel flows, and subflows. Complete Extensibility Oracle Workflow lets you define and reference your own activities in your workflows. Without modifying any Oracle Applications code, you can have your own activity run whenever Oracle Workflow detects that your activity’s prerequisites are satisfied. This powerful capability lets you add any number of additional business processing and notification activities to any workflow. Electronic Notifications Oracle Workflow lets you notify users in your workflows to handle activities that cannot be automated, such as approvals for requisitions or sales orders. A notification contains all supporting information a user needs to make a decision, and lets them choose from a selection of appropriate responses. Oracle Workflow interprets each notification response and then continues to process workflow activities until either another user response is required or the workflow is complete. Oracle Workflow users can review, analyze, and respond to their notifications in three ways. Regular users of Oracle Applications can use a common notifications window within Oracle Applications. For those people who do not regularly use Oracle Applications, or who do not have easy access, Oracle Workflow can also send notifications via any standard E-mail system or Web browser. Personal Inbox Regular users of Oracle Applications can review, analyze, and respond to outstanding notifications in this common Notifications window. Users can review supporting information, specify an appropriate response, or forward the notification to another user. The supporting information and appropriate responses are context-sensitive, determined by the nature of the notification. E-mail Integration If you do not regularly use Oracle Applications, or do not have easy access to it, you can review notifications using any electronic mail (E-mail) application. An E-mail notification can include an HTML attachment that opens up a standard Web browser from which the user can then review supporting information and respond to the notification. Internet-Enabled Workflow You can include any user with access to the Internet and a Web browser in a workflow. Web users can access a pre-configured Web page to see their outstanding notifications, then navigate to an additional dynamically-generated page to review supporting information or to respond to the notification. Graphical Monitoring and Performance Analysis Oracle Workflow provides graphical monitoring and performance analysis tools that can help you understand the performance of your workflows. You can identify bottlenecks and track improvements in moving items such as purchase orders, sales orders, and invoices through your transaction systems. With Oracle Workflow, you have all the information you need to support continuous business process improvement. Easy to Workflow-Enable Applications Oracle Workflow’s flexible architecture makes it easy for you to workflow-enable any Oracle-based application. Using simple PL/SQL calls, an application can notify Oracle Workflow that predefined activities have completed. Oracle Workflow can also call any application’s PL/SQL functions as activities in a workflow process. Document and Image Management Oracle Workflow’s flexible architecture allows integration with third-party document and image management systems.