Process Modeling &

Workflow Management Newsletter

FTS welcomes the new EZ-Workflow 2005 version

Strong in our leadership role to provide a world-class AdHoc Production Workflow solution, we are pleased to announce the market availability of EZ-Workflow 2005a. Still fully compliant to all versions of SSA-Baan, this version innovates by its new integration capabilities to various ERP back-ends (MBS, SAP, etc…) and extended eForms features.

Here’s what the Vice President Chief Information Officer of FTS has to say about EZ-Workflow 2005a:

“DynaFlow’s 2005a version is a reflection of their attention to the needs of business. They have been responsive to our requests for key functional requirements, such as improved ad hoc execution and eForms.  This new version is also compliant with Active Directory, keeping in sync with our technical infrastructure.  Even lower priority suggestions from our employees, related to topics such as ease of use, maintenance and extended reporting, have been included in this new release.

DynaFlow has worked closely with us to enhance their product while maintaining the flexible and Baan compliant workflow features of EZ-Workflow.  This type of constructive relationship is the key reason I can look forward to a much broader deployment of EZ-Workflow within FTS”.

Business automation … a must have in today’s business

Similar to most organizations, your company uses standardized templates to handle various transactions such as new employee hiring, expense reports, IT change request, item master maintenance, ECO/ECN validation, etc… If you use paper templates, you then already know how long the lifecycle takes and how tedious it is to track the status of each transaction. And even if these are in electronic formats (Excel, Word, etc…), their routing through the relevant collaborators is inefficient and inconsistent as it rely on each person knowledge of the process and on which communication/collaboration channels they use.

Largest US cable provider, Comcast Cable also faced these operational constraints. Their Atlantic Division since then implemented a process automation framework for their purchase requisitions approval process. Since then, Purchase Requisitions are automatically routed to the appropriate approvers based on each PR data (amount, department, cost category, etc…). As each approver is notified without delay via desktop alert, browser-based Worklist, pager/SMS/email, the overall transaction cycle time has been greatly reduced. Finally, real-time status and events history enabled readily available and accurate monitoring of each transaction.

The above benefits can also be yours. See below a partial list of areas where you can improve significantly your processes & operations:

HR / Payroll / IT

• Applicant Rating
• New Employee procedure
• Employee Vacation Days request
• Employee Expenses Reimbursement request
• Employee Time Sheet
• Employee Performance Review

Purchasing / Finance

• Purchase Requisitions Approval (any sources and formats)
• Capital Appropriation request
• Fixed Assets Disposal/Transfer

Information Technology (IT)

• IT/General Help Desk
• Application Customization request

Engineering

• Item Master Maintenance
• ECO/ECN Management

Fully compliant to all releases of SSA Baan but also applicable to non-Baan areas/organizations (MBS, SAP, etc…), these Workflow-enabled cases come complete with pre-configured online forms, dynamic workflow routes and rules, implementation support, documentation, etc… to ensure a rapid implementation and quick ROI.

For more information:

• Read detailed information about each cases at http://www.dynaflow-dem.com/Menu/WorkflowScenarios.html
• Read the recent Press Release at http://dynaflow-dem.com/Menu/Press.html

*NEW* Technical Infrastructure Modeling

Often requested by Baan customers in the past, “Technical Infrastructure Modeling” (TIM) is now available for Baan (all releases) and non-Baan organizations. In addition to stand-alone modeling of business processes, control flows and organization diagrams, your organization can now define in a graphical manner the extended IT infrastructure of your company. As desired, you can choose to model different views, such as:

• document your distributed/regionalized network of servers/PC and their main purposes/applications, in order to visualize & track the utilization of each resource
• explode each business applications into their modules, their components, their data objects/fields, in order to facilitate the impact analysis of requested customizations or implementations
• document the As-Is vs. To-Be integrations connectors between the above applications/modules, so to optimize technical supply-chain exchanges.

Not only is TIM intended to support application developers in R&D and customization projects, it also enables all types of impact analysis. To prevent unexpected and undesired consequences of code/database changes in a module, the TIM is able to report which integrations and other applications are potentially affected by the module change. Finally, all TID-components can be published online to enable ease access to this valuable technical knowledge center.

Click on the picture to enlarge

1. To view sample TIM diagrams, visit http://www.ez-process.net/EZPubDemo/ezpub and select the diagrams “DEMTIDxx”.

2. To view the comparative chart of modeling toolsets, visit http://www.ez-process.com/Documents/Modeling_Tool_Chart.htm

EZ-Seminar Agenda

If you wish to learn more about how Process & Workflow Management can improve your execution agility and efficiency, EZ-Seminars are available at no cost. These focus on the practical application of BPM, by presenting case examples of a selection of our customers.

• Wednesday, April 27th, 2005: Web-based Seminar
  11.00AM (Eastern Americas; GMT-5), 5.00PM (Western Europe; GMT+1)
• Wednesday May 11th, 2005; Web-based Seminar
  9.30 AM (Western Europe; GMT+1); 4.30PM (Singapore; GMT+8)
• Wednesday, June 1st, 2005: Web-based Seminar
  11.00AM (Eastern Americas; GMT-5), 5.00PM (Western Europe; GMT+1)
• Wednesday, June22nd, 2005: Web-based Seminar
  11.00AM (Eastern Americas; GMT-5), 5.00PM (Western Europe; GMT+1)

DynaFlow expands with local presence in Asia Pacific

Strong from its solid roadmap since 1997, DynaFlow is proud to announce its recent alliance with Atos Origin, based in Thailand. Atos Origin will market and sell the EZ-Process product suite, a complete solution for Business Process Management (BPM), corporate-wide Knowledge Management and Workflow Automation. Atos Origin customers, located in several AP countries, will be able to adopt a process-oriented approach by deploying best practices processes, resulting in more consistent operations across their multi-sites units and ensuring more efficient orchestration of their resources.

Michael Borisiewicz, Manager of Baan Practice in Thailand states:

“EZ-Process business solution is very much welcome for our region. On one hand, several global organizations are struggling to establish the required knowledge and transactional collaboration to ensure operational consistency and efficiency. On the other hand, several of our Baan customers, now with ERP/CRM/… frameworks, on seeking greater integration using cross-functional & cross-applications execution, provided by EZ-Process. We believe that the long and constructive track record of DynaFlow with Baan (since 1990) and its Baan certified EZ-Process Suite will bring key improvements for these customers”.

Pierre Beaulieu, President of DynaFlow adds:

“Not only we both share the same vision about how existing Baan customers can improve their current ERP operations and infrastructure, both organizations have complementary expertise and offerings. Aiming for the Baan installed base first, this partnership will also be supporting initiatives outside the Baan scope. Finally, this alliance represents an important step in our growth strategy and roadmap, following our business deployment in several European countries since 2000 and in the Americas for the last decade.”

The list of EZ-Process users (already counting names such as Fujitsu, Siemens, Comcast, Solar Turbines, Herman Miller, etc…) is growing with a new name: GKN Sinter Metals. Being roughly 3 1/2 times the size of its next largest competitor, GKN Sinter Metals is the world's leading producer of powder metal (P/M) components, heavily used by automotive and aerospace manufacturers. With its global headquarters in Auburn Hills, MI, in the heart of the auto industry, GKN has grown by acquisitions to be present in 40 locations (7,500 employees) on five continents.

The EZ-Process BPM solution will play a key role to enable that well documented & optimized processes be deployed over the global GKN organization, ensuring more consistent operations and better end-user support. Acting as an integration framework, EZ-Process will also enable that these cross-functional processes act as a bridge to various business applications (Baan and others), resulting in a more efficient “flow of work”. Stay tuned for more ...

http://www.dynaflow-dem.com/Menu/Press.html

Integration Microsoft Business Solutions

DynaFlow has assigned significant development in the past to allow applications to be modeled and invoked from a business process in EZ-Process. The so-called Extended application invocation today is a generic interface allowing various business applications to be invoked out of EZ-Process.

An important next step in the development of EZ-Process has been set recently to develop advanced integrations with Microsoft Business Solutions. On the roadmap to these integrations, both Navision and Axapta are targeted.

The integrations are defined on various levels:

• Ability to link Microsoft Business Solution software to business processes.
• Ability of customer to improve the speed and quality of their implementation by the usage of pre-defined processes supporting Navision or Axapta.
• Ability for end-users to invoke the MBS software right from a business process in their browser.