SAP Sourcing/CLM Webcast Series Approval …a248.g.akamai.net/n/248/420835/6867bf91061b751a50fca25d5ab65f04bc...SAP Sourcing/CLM Webcast Series Approval Workflow SAP Sourcing/CLM Center

SAP Sourcing/CLM Webcast Series

Approval Workflow

SAP Sourcing/CLM Center of Excellence

OCT 2012

© 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 2

SAP Sourcing / CLM 2012 Webcast Series

Goal

• Spread the knowledge about SAP Sourcing

• Build and leverage the SAP Sourcing community

Audience

• SAP Consulting and Field Services

• Partner Consulting

• SAP Sourcing Customers

Upcoming Webcasts

• TBD


SAP Sourcing/CLM Upcoming Trainings

Which trainings are being offered?

• TSO100: Functional Training

• TSO150: Technical Training

• TSO180: Integration Training

Where are these classes ?

• SAP Americas in Newtown Square, PA (USA)

• SAP Germany in Walldorf (Germany)

When are these classes ?

• Newtown Square in September/October

• Walldorf in October

• Houston in November/December

How to sign up ?

• www.training.sap.com

• Search for TSO100/150/180

• Contact: [email protected] (US) [email protected] (GER)


Agenda

Agenda

Introduction to Workflow

Demo

Configuring Workflows

Implementation tips

Workflow Scenarios

© 2012 SAP AG. All rights reserved

Introduction to Workflow


Overview

What is Approval Workflow?

A capability of Sourcing / CLM to have certain business documents routed for approvals

(or rejections)

What is provided with the Sourcing / CLM Approval Workflow?

Management and tracking of the tasks involved with the process

Ability to set either individual users or a group of users as the required approver(s)

Group approval is either all members of the group or any member of the group

Approvers are added as collaborators using the Approver collaborator role

Where are the capabilities available?

Projects

Contract Documents

Suppliers

User Defined Objects 1-5



Customer Approval Workflow Examples

Route a contract document for approval through levels of the procurement

management hierarchy using the value of the contract to determine if an approval

is required

Route a project for approval based on the category and the value

Route supplier registrations for approval to a centralized supplier management

group

Route a contract document for approval based on the contract manager knowing

to whom the document must go



What is provided by Sourcing / CLM

A workflow “engine” that manages and tracks the approval process steps

The engine is responsible for

Locking document

Sending emails

Unlocking documents

Managing the approval process

The engine does not provide the rules by which approvers are selected

It is the responsibility of the customer / implementation team to

Define the rules by which approvers are selected

Model those rules in the system (commonly done with extensions)

Build / develop any logic that is required to utilize the rules (likely using Beanshell

scripting)



Approval Workflow demo


Approval Workflow demo

Configuring Workflow


Phase Configurations

Phase configurations are a required component when enabling workflow

Phase configurations are used to model the business process for a business

document

Multiple phase configurations can be configured and each “document type” can

have its own phase configuration

Each phase is a value from the phase value list type (Project Phase, Contract

Document Phase, Supplier Phase, User Defined Phase 1-5)

Accessed from Setup > Document Setup > [Projects, Contract Documents,

Suppliers, UDO]



Workflow and Phase Configurations

A workflow is associated with a single phase in a Configurable Phase Definition

A workflow may include multiple process steps

Each step will have one or more approvers

If a step does not require an approver, it will be “skipped” and the next step will

be processed

Typically, the final step will transition the phase of the business document to the

next phase (approval) or previous phase (rejection)

Under

Review

Project

Approval

Strategy

Planning RFx

WF Step 1

WF Step 2

WF Step 3

Awarding

Reject Approve



Workflow Definition

Workflow definitions are used to define a specific approval workflow process (Setup >

System Setup > Workflow > Workflow Definitions)

Each Workflow definition includes a name, a description, and a collection of “process

templates”

The process template must always be an “approval workflow”

Process Owner Role: Collaborator role of background process user executing workflow

Active Approver Role: Collaborator role used for the active approver(s)

Inactive Approver Role: Collaborator role used after a user has completed

approval/rejection (typically “Collaborator” or “Reviewer”)

XPDL Source: .xpdl file

Define a process template

as shown: always define as

“approval workflow”; select

the roles as shown (choose

reviewer for Inactive

Approver Role if read

access is desired)



Configuring Workflow – Object Dependency

Prescript

Postscript

XPDL

Workflow

Definition

Value List

Type Conf. Phase

Definition

Document

Type Extension

Definition

User

Groups



Implementation Steps

Defines rules by which approvers will be established

Design extensions that are required to support the rules

Create User Groups (if necessary) that are used for approver logic

Develop XPDL, including pre and post scripts for workflow steps

Update appropriate Value List Type with phases

Create Workflow Definition in Sourcing

Create Configurable Phase Definition in Sourcing and associated Workflow

Definition with appropriate phase

Create Document Type that utilizes Configurable Phase Definition

Test

Approval conditions

Rejection conditions



Implementation Tips

Workflows can be cancelled by an Administrator from a report on the

Workflow Definition - This is also useful if Workflows “lock-up” during

development (e.g., script error)

Phases that include a Workflow should typically be made required phases

Can not add a Workflow to the first phase (it can never be re-submitted

if it is cancelled)

It is always best to represent as much of the logic/rules as data



Approval Workflow Limitations

Parallel threads of approval are not possible. Within a single process step, a

group may be used for parallel approvals, but separate threads of process steps

may not be executed in parallel.

Users may not “forward” their approval responsibility to another user

There is no capability to “delegate” approvals (e.g., while on vacation or out sick).

Note: Workflow Delegation available from Wave 8

With the exception of Suppliers, the business document is locked while it is in

Workflow. As a result, no changes to the document are allowed.

There is no view that shows all of the approvers that will be required.

There is no way to combine multiple contract documents into a single approval

workflow



Examples Scenarios (1)

Problem: Approver is based on the Product Category

Solution:

Add an user account (or user group) extension to the Product Category object (“Category

Approver”)

The extension value is read at run time in the workflow script by using the Product

Category object reference on the object being approved and loading the Product

Category object

The value is used in the “addApprover” call

Problem: Approver is document owner’s manager

Solution:

Add an user account extension to the User Account object (“Manager”)

The extension value is read at run time in the workflow script by using the User Account

(Owner) object reference on the object being approved and loading the User Account

object

The value is used in the “addApprover” call



Example Scenarios (2)

Problem: Approver(s) are based on the “Type” of object

Solution:

Add user account (or user group) extensions to the document type related to the object

type being approved

The extension values are read at run time in the workflow script by using the document

type object reference on the object being approved and loading the document type object

The values are used in the “addApprover” call

Problem: Approver is assigned at run time by the user getting the document

approved

Solution:

Add user account (or user group) extensions to the object type being approved

At run time, the user would populate the values of these fields

The values are used in the “addApprover” call


Thank You!


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2012