Technical White Paper - Global 360 Process and Document Management Suite-EMEA4[1][1]

Technical White Paper – The Global 360 Process and Document Management Suite

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PROCESS AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SUITE

TECHNICAL WHITEPAPER This technical white paper introduces the Global 360 Enterprise Business Process Management Suite and its components: Process360, AnalystView,ManagerView, Scan Manager, Records Manager and Corticon Business Rules Management


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TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 GLOBAL 360 PERSONA BASED PROCESS AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SUITE .................................................................... 5 2 PROCESS AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SUITE COMPONENTS ......................................................................................... 7

2.1 Key Components .................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1.1 Process360 - Process Building, Process Execution and Content Management ........................................... 7 2.1.2 Analystview / ManagerView - Process Intelligence, Modelling, Simulation, Analytics and Optimization ... 7 2.1.3 viewPoint – Persona based User Interfaces ................................................................................................. 7

2.2 Optional Components ........................................................................................................................................... 8 2.2.1 CAPTURE - Global 360 Scan Manager – Scanning and Indexing .................................................................. 8 2.2.2 RULES - Corticon BRE – Business Rules Management .................................................................................. 8 2.2.3 RECORDS - Global 360 Record Manager – Records Management ............................................................... 8

2.3 Key Capabilities of the Global 360 Process and Document Management Suite ................................................... 9 2.3.1 Graphical Process Modelling and Business Process Analysis technology .................................................... 9 2.3.2 Process Engine ............................................................................................................................................. 9 2.3.3 Process Analysis ........................................................................................................................................... 9 2.3.4 Rule Engines ............................................................................................................................................... 10 2.3.5 Process Registry/Repository ...................................................................................................................... 10 2.3.6 Simulation and Optimization ..................................................................................................................... 10 2.3.7 Integration ................................................................................................................................................. 10 2.3.8 Document/Content Repository .................................................................................................................. 10

2.4 Process360 Business Overview ............................................................................................................................ 11 2.4.1 Benefits of Process360 Business Process Management Platform ............................................................. 12 2.4.2 Key Components of Process360 BPMS ...................................................................................................... 13

2.5 AnalystView / ManagerView Business Overview ................................................................................................ 14 2.5.1 What is Global360 Process Intelligence? ................................................................................................... 14 2.5.2 Why do you need Process Intelligence? .................................................................................................... 15 2.5.3 Key Components of Process Intelligence ................................................................................................... 17 2.5.4 Global360 Process Intelligence Capabilities ............................................................................................... 18

3 GLOBAL 360 AND MICROSOFT .................................................................................................................................. 20 3.1 The Microsoft Business Process Alliance ............................................................................................................. 20 3.2 Global360 and the Microsoft Business Process Alliance ..................................................................................... 20

3.2.1 Process360 and Microsoft.......................................................................................................................... 21 3.2.2 ManagerView and Microsoft ..................................................................................................................... 22

4 PROCESS360 TECHNICAL OVERVIEW .......................................................................................................................... 23 4.1 Process and Application Design ........................................................................................................................... 24

4.1.1 DesignerView ............................................................................................................................................. 24 4.1.2 DesignerView Task Set ............................................................................................................................... 24 4.1.3 DesignerView Task Set Description ............................................................................................................ 26 4.1.4 Simple Task Configuration ......................................................................................................................... 31 4.1.5 Submaps Support Reusability .................................................................................................................... 32 4.1.6 Process Task Portfolio ................................................................................................................................ 33 4.1.7 Custom Tasks ............................................................................................................................................. 33 4.1.8 Error Handling ............................................................................................................................................ 33 4.1.9 Importing and Exporting Processes ........................................................................................................... 33 4.1.10 Process Versioning ..................................................................................................................................... 33 4.1.11 Model Interchange ..................................................................................................................................... 33 4.1.12 Application Designer .................................................................................................................................. 34 4.1.13 Global360 Application Web Parts .............................................................................................................. 36 4.1.14 Development Toolkits ................................................................................................................................ 38 4.1.15 Support for Industry Standards.................................................................................................................. 40

4.2 Process360 Process Execution ............................................................................................................................. 41 4.2.1 System Interfaces and Integration ............................................................................................................. 41 4.2.2 Work Initiation and Input ........................................................................................................................... 42 4.2.3 Synchronous Workflow .............................................................................................................................. 43


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4.2.4 Process Tracking and Auditing ................................................................................................................... 43 4.2.5 Automated Time-based Activities, Schedules, Alerts and Escalations ....................................................... 44 4.2.6 Administration and Design Tools ............................................................................................................... 44 4.2.7 Authentication and Authorization ............................................................................................................. 46 4.2.8 Security ...................................................................................................................................................... 47 4.2.9 Enterprise Integration ................................................................................................................................ 49 4.2.10 Process360 Adapters for BizTalk Server 2006 R2 ....................................................................................... 49 4.2.11 Goal Management ..................................................................................................................................... 53 4.2.12 Corticon Business Rules Integration .......................................................................................................... 55 4.2.13 User Application Interfaces ........................................................................................................................ 56

4.3 Process360 Content Management ...................................................................................................................... 61 4.3.1 Catalogs, Partitions and Libraries ............................................................................................................... 61 4.3.2 Revision Management ............................................................................................................................... 62 4.3.3 Search and Display ..................................................................................................................................... 62 4.3.4 Document Manipulation ............................................................................................................................ 62 4.3.5 Full-Text Search .......................................................................................................................................... 62 4.3.6 Archive Storage .......................................................................................................................................... 62

4.4 Process360 Capture ............................................................................................................................................. 63 4.4.1 Unstructured Data Capture ........................................................................................................................ 63 4.4.2 Structured Data Capture ............................................................................................................................ 64 4.4.3 Capture Integrations .................................................................................................................................. 64

4.5 Process360 Storage ............................................................................................................................................. 66 4.5.1 Storage Media Options .............................................................................................................................. 66 4.5.2 Content Broker Integrations ...................................................................................................................... 66

4.6 Process360 Architecture and Deployment .......................................................................................................... 68 4.6.1 Process360 Architecture ............................................................................................................................ 68 4.6.2 Disaster Recovery/High Availability ........................................................................................................... 68 4.6.3 Process360 Deployment Architecture ....................................................................................................... 71 4.6.4 Performance and Scalability ...................................................................................................................... 73 4.6.5 Hardware and Software Requirement ....................................................................................................... 74

5 ANALYSTVIEW/MANAGERVIEW TECHNICAL OVERVIEW .................................................................................................. 75 5.1 Managerview ....................................................................................................................................................... 76

5.1.1 Prism Architecture ..................................................................................................................................... 76 5.1.2 ManagerView Statistics .............................................................................................................................. 80 5.1.3 Managerview Administration .................................................................................................................... 84 5.1.4 ManagerView 3

rd Party Application and Workflow Integration ................................................................. 88

5.1.5 Business Scenarios Examples - ManagerView and Process360 ................................................................. 93 5.2 AnalystView 3.0 ................................................................................................................................................... 96

5.2.1 Process Design ........................................................................................................................................... 96 5.2.2 AnalystView Process Simulation ................................................................................................................ 98

5.3 SharePoint 2010 Process Repository .................................................................................................................100 5.3.1 Process repository ....................................................................................................................................101 5.3.2 Process Collaboration ..............................................................................................................................102

5.4 AnalystView and Process360 - Continuous Process Improvement Methodology .............................................103 5.4.1 Continuous Improvement ........................................................................................................................103 5.4.2 Modelling for Execution ...........................................................................................................................104 5.4.3 Round Trip Modelling ..............................................................................................................................104

5.5 ManagerView Deployment Options ..................................................................................................................104 5.5.1 Measure - End to End Process Visibility ...................................................................................................104 5.5.2 Model and Simulate – Optimization via Time and motion Analysis ........................................................105 5.5.3 Measure, Model and Simulate – Optimization using Production Data ...................................................105 5.5.4 Measure, Model, Simulate and Execute – Optimization of Applications and Workflow Engines............106

5.6 AnalystView Hardware and Software Requirements ........................................................................................107 6 GLOBAL 360 PROCESS AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT OPTIONAL PRODUCTS.................................................................. 108


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6.1 Global 360 Scan Manager ..................................................................................................................................108 6.1.1 Scan Manager Hardware and Software Requirements ............................................................................110

6.2 Global 360 Records Manager ............................................................................................................................111 6.2.1 Records Manager Benefits .......................................................................................................................111 6.2.2 Records Manager Key Capabilities ...........................................................................................................111 6.2.3 Records Manager Hardware and Software Requirements ......................................................................112

6.3 Corticon Business Rules Management System ..................................................................................................113 6.3.1 Decision Service Execution and Control ...................................................................................................114 6.3.2 Corticon Business Rules Modelling Studio ...............................................................................................115 6.3.3 Corticon Business Rules Server ................................................................................................................116 6.3.4 Corticon Enterprise Data Connector ........................................................................................................116 6.3.5 Corticon Business Rules Collaborator ......................................................................................................116 6.3.6 Corticon Business Rules Foundation SDK .................................................................................................116 6.3.7 Unique Corticon Advantages ...................................................................................................................117 6.3.8 Corticon Business Rules and Process360 .................................................................................................117 6.3.9 Corticon Business Rules Management in Action ......................................................................................118 6.3.10 Summary of Benefits ................................................................................................................................120 6.3.11 System Requirements ..............................................................................................................................120


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1 GLOBAL 360 PERSONA BASED PROCESS AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SUITE Global 360’s persona based Process and Document Management suite is based on this extensive experience, along with a year of focused research, Global 360 believes that there is a better way to do BPM. Traditional process improvement efforts focus primarily on the productivity of the programmer, delivering tools that optimize the building and execution of a process model. But research has shown that the majority of the ROI associated with a BPMS is tied to how productive and effective the solution makes the process participants. In fact, too often, the actual user of the process is not adequately addressed. User applications are often designed only after the process model is completed, and are created by enterprise developers, unskilled in modern interaction design. What often results is an agile process, but a brittle user experience. Global 360’s Persona-based approach brings BPM back in balance.

It delivers BPM capabilities that are uniquely designed for all of the personas that are critical to the success of any process improvement initiative. These are the Builders – the developers, composers and administrators of the solution, the Process Participants – the individuals who use the solution, and the Managers – those who oversee participants, the solution and the business. Persona-based BPM leverages role-based research to deliver the right functionality to optimize the productivity of each user. Individuals interact with the system based on their unique persona “viewPoint”, leveraging just the capabilities they need to do their job. As a result, individual productivity is dramatically improved and BPM projects experience faster time to business results.

Global 360’s Persona-based BPM is truly differentiated as:

» Other vendors don’t adequately address Process Participants (the day-to-day users of the application)

Other vendors either have no solution to address the process participant experience or rely simply on forms or application development techniques that do not reflect the actual tasks that a specific type of process participant needs to complete their job. Many times these vendors provide demo tools, but building production ready applications still requires a significant Professional Services effort.

Value realization from BPMS projects hasn’t truly been achieved because vendors are focused on the tools to improve programmer productivity (e.g. process composition, admin, etc.) vs. how work gets done. Those who stand to benefit the most – the process participants -- are actually the missing element – their needs haven’t been considered at all or if they are, it’s often way late in the game.

The result may be an agile process but not an empowered workforce. Without focus on the process participant experience, organizations won’t change the balance at all. Global 360’s persona-based applications are out-of-the-box, extensible, and configurable to empower each individual Process Participant.

Research indicates that at least 40% of BPMS solution development effort is on understanding requirements and similarly, 40% of development efforts are on process participant application creation. Global 360’s out-of-the-box, packaged user experience dramatically improves overall time to Process by reducing both of these efforts.

Global 360 delivers faster ROI on the platform itself because of the productivity gain for the Builder. As a result, a Global 360 BPM project can be launched up to 50% faster than with other vendor approaches.

» viewPoint userViews are developed by interaction and visual designers vs. “traditional” enterprise developers

Typically, traditional developers are not usability or user experience specialists. In most cases, these developers are generalists that have other responsibilities which include process modelling/design and custom integration development. As such, they have limited experience with user based research and design. Global 360’s research based approach delivers “ergonomic” apps – optimizing the appearance, interaction model and experience for each persona type.

To illustrate the importance of this point, let’s consider an example of an ergonomically designed office chair. When designing a chair, one must consider the following: seat height, seat width and depth, lumbar support, backrest, armrest, seat material, and swivel. To deliver ergonomic applications, similar factors must be considered including repetitive user movements and the placement of common controls, easy access to less frequently used features, approachability of the visual design, etc. Like office furniture, process participant


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application design requires specific skills of visual and interaction designers. The result is improved productivity as well as user satisfaction.

Global 360 delivers faster ROI on the solution, because the solution is engineered better for productivity. By delivering applications designed by experts and built for process participants, a Global 360 BPM project can increase process participant productivity by 50 – 100% compared to traditional app development approaches.

» viewPoint userViews are pre-built components that are extensible, customizable and configurable.

These are assets that will be further developed and maintained by Global 360. Additional viewParts (i.e. webparts) will be delivered as part of maintenance and as a result, the process participant applications are delivered and supported by Global 360, not the customer. Additionally, Microsoft platform support is provided by Global 360 so we will ensure that all viewpoint application components that leverage Sharepoint are compatible with the latest Microsoft releases.

A Global 360 BPM project has 40% less application maintenance costs than a traditional BPM project.

The Global 360 Persona based BPM solution


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2 PROCESS AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SUITE COMPONENTS Providing comprehensive process life cycle management — Design, Execute, Monitor, Analyze, Adapt, Predict.

With over 20 years of business process experience, Global 360 offers a proven and cutting edge Persona based Process and Document Management Suite. The Global 360 Process and Document Management Suite, a powerful solution comprised of two Global 360 products — Process360 and ManagerView, combines industry-leading analytics capabilities with a powerful business process management platform providing a truly end-to-end solution.

The best way to provide an overview of the G360 Process and Document Management Suite is to look at its component parts and understand how they work together to create real solutions. The diagram below illustrates the product framework and major components:

Figure 1 The Global 360 Process and Document Management Suite

2.1 Key Components

2.1.1 Process360 - Process Building, Process Execution and Content Management Process360 enables organizations to create, execute, and optimize business processes, powering the management of processes through their entire lifecycle; shortening process lifecycles and automatically managing process exceptions so you can quickly adapt to changing market needs or fine tune processes to optimize your competitive advantage.

2.1.2 Analystview / ManagerView - Process Intelligence, Modelling, Simulation, Analytics and Optimization

For organizations looking for intelligent and innovative ways to create, execute, and optimize business processes throughout their entire organization, Global 360's ManagerView provides process intelligence, delivering true end-to-end process performance visibility even when multiple systems and applications are powering the overall business process.

2.1.3 viewPoint – Persona based User Interfaces Global 360 delivers viewpoints for the three persona-types that are critical to the success of any process improvement initiative – the Builder, the Process participant, and the Manager:

» For the Builder, Global 360 delivers viewPoint Studio. Within viewPoint Studio, we provide specific capabilities for the three Builder sub-personas / roles:


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adminView provides the viewPoint for the Systems Administrator. Within adminView, administrators can create system components (such as the data model), manage the process deployment cycle, and update and/or maintain elements of the system.

designerView provides the viewPoint for the developer and/or the analyst who will build and deploy the process model(s).

analystView (previously Insight Studio) provides the viewPoint for the analyst who wishes to model the business process, simulate it, and/or gain insight into the process via analytics.

» For the process Participant Global 360 delivers userViews. userViews are applications that are built to maximize the productivity of each type of process participant. Specifically userViews are the out-of-the-box applications that are now available for the Processor, Researcher, Data Entry, and Supervisor roles. We will continue to develop and deliver more userViews for a growing number of process participant roles.

» For the Manager, Global 360 delivers managerView (previously Insight Prism). Within managerView, Global 360 delivers management reporting, executive dashboards, process monitoring and process analytics.

2.2 Optional Components

2.2.1 CAPTURE - Global 360 Scan Manager – Scanning and Indexing Global 360 Scan Manager is a powerful scanning application that supports bar code recognition, a broad set of scanners, and a number of ease-of-use features. Global 360 Scan Manager is tightly integrated with Process360 to ensure a complete audit trail from scan through archive. Customers can also utilize other industry scanning products including Kofax or Captiva that are fully supported by Process360.

2.2.2 RULES - Corticon BRE – Business Rules Management Process360 can call Corticon to process complex rules within the business process. Corticon's Business Rules Management System consists of a family of products that drive superior results through each stage in your business rules project; from rule modelling as a part of early stage project analysis through high-performance rule execution. Corticon's solutions deliver complete rule lifecycle management and rules data access.

Global 360 also support integration between Microsoft BizTalk Business Rule Engine and Process360.

2.2.3 RECORDS - Global 360 Record Manager – Records Management The Global 360 Records Manager enables the automation of records management and the ability to seamlessly manage record lifecycles throughout business processes. Customers achieve compliance with the record-keeping requirements of regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA, and records become a cohesive and seamless component of the organizational BPM solution. Process360 can also integrate Process 360 with any other industry standard Records Management technology.


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2.3 Key Capabilities of the Global 360 Process and Document Management Suite Global 360 Enterprise Business Process Management Suite enables the direct control and management of operational processes in near-real time by business managers and process owners to better meet today's business cycle time needs and enable more-agile processes. Global 360 Business Process Management Suite includes the following;

Figure 2 Key capabilities of the Global 360 Process and Document Management Suite

2.3.1 Graphical Process Modelling and Business Process Analysis technology AnalystView and Process360 DesignerView create visual representations of the work process. The authoring/modeling environment is designed for use by business analysts and IT professionals. The graphical modelling environment reflects these two perspectives of the same process — one for process modelling and the other for process development.

2.3.2 Process Engine Process360 is used to coordinate the sequencing of the steps and tasks (system steps and manual steps) according to the graphical flows and business rules and goals described in the process model. The Process360 process engine records the status of the execution of the steps.

2.3.3 Process Analysis ManagerView supports analysis of data produced during process execution. ManagerView provides real time analytics and proactive alerting for the end to end business processes.


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2.3.4 Rule Engines Global 360 is integrated with Corticon. This business rules engine executes rules that abstract business policies, flows and decisions from the underlying applications and make process change easier and more accessible to nonprogrammers.

2.3.5 Process Registry/Repository SharePoint and Process360 provide repositories for process models, business rules and process metadata to enable real-time execution and component reuse across multiple processes.

2.3.6 Simulation and Optimization AnalystView enables business managers to compare new process designs with current operational performance. Risk assessments in the form of scenarios are executed, altering resource constraints and business goals that display the financial impact on the organization.

2.3.7 Integration Process360 can be integrated with other enterprise applications, databases and workflow systems via web services or messaging systems such as Microsoft BizTalk.

2.3.8 Document/Content Repository Process360 contains structured and unstructured content that is either created or consumed as part of the work process. It has information and content management capabilities built into the solution.


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2.4 Process360 Business Overview

The Leading Human and Document Centric Business Process Management Suite (BPMS)

DESIGN

Give business analysts the ability to rapidly build business process applications that involve people, data, documents, and rules.

EXECUTE

Deploy and manage mission-critical BPM applications supporting tens of thousands of users and millions of transactions globally.

MONITOR

Obtain real-time visibility into process status and define rules for flexible adaptation to changing business conditions and service level requirements.

Global 360’s flagship business process management platform, Process360, provides the ultimate solution for building agile business solutions. Process360 enables organizations to improve their responsiveness to changing business conditions by providing comprehensive process visibility and control.

Process360 is a platform for organizations that need to accelerate processing, reduce costs, and improve operations for information-intensive business processes. Process360 enables organizations to create, execute, and optimize business processes, powering the management of processes through their entire lifecycle; shortening process lifecycles and automatically managing process exceptions so you can quickly adapt to changing market needs or fine tune processes to optimize your competitive advantage.

Figure 3 Process360 within the Process and Document Management Platform

Process360 is a strong all-around business process management platform with a special focus on human-centric and document-centric processes.

Process360 has exceptional capabilities for supporting enterprise processes, highlights include;

Intuitive process modelling and design environment Powerful workflow automation features Strong content management capabilities Exceptional process monitoring and optimization through its unique process intelligence solution Scalable, supporting high volume and distributed processes.


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2.4.1 Benefits of Process360 Business Process Management Platform

Process360 Improves Process Efficiency - Ties-together activities of the process and execute the process from start to end. - Sends alerts and reminders as the work gets allocated to performers. - Escalate work to supervisors who can perform work re-assignment. - Process Supervisors can pro-actively take corrective actions and manage situations of delays and

exceptions. - Automates work, eliminating need for manual intervention. - Minimizes delays, and waiting time improving process efficiency. - Provides human and document centric business process management with its integrated content

management capability.

Process360 Ensures Optimum Resource Utilizations and Improve Productivity - Organizes, schedules and distributes work based on process parameters such as performer skills,

performer availability, performer workload, work-item priority etc. - Work gets pushed to the performers, rather than fetching or finding. - Identifies and utilizes resources optimally.

Process360 Ensures Process Standardization - Ensures that every instance of the process gets executed exactly as defined. - Never deviates between two instances of the same process.

Process360 Improves Process Control - Process supervisors can easily track and monitor the status of various instances. - Corrective action can be taken wherever necessary. - Maintains audit log of every small change in the status of the activity.

Process360 Enables Process Improvement - Business Analysts and process managers can identify process bottlenecks and high waiting time

activities. - Process managers can monitor runtime process performance. - Compares process performance measures with SLAs and KPIs. - Queries and analyses process data to identify and eliminate business issues. - Used across the phases of the business process life cycle to improve business process performance.


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2.4.2 Key Components of Process360 BPMS Process Execution

Process Engine User Interaction Enterprise Integration Monitoring and Optimization

Process and Application Design

DesignerView Process Application Design Tools Enterprise Integration Configuration

Content Management

Content Management Repository Management

Content Capture

Unstructured Data Structured Data

Content Storage

Storage Content Brokers

Figure 4 Process360 components


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2.5 AnalystView / ManagerView Business Overview

The Leading Process Intelligence Suite that helps Optimize your End-to-End Business Processes

VISIBILITY

Visibility into processes that span multiple organizational functions and supporting system infrastructures end to end.

ALIGNMENT

Alignment of operational processes with strategic business goals and key performance indicators.

EFFICIENCY

Identification of optimal tradeoffs between time (service level) and cost, as well as identification of opportunities to increase utilization of human resources.

AGILITY

Reaction to changing business conditions in real time, and ultimately an ability to predict and proactively address issues such as service level degradation.

Global 360’s BPM solution provides end to end business process intelligence. There are two fundamental components: ManagerView, for process analytics, and AnalystView, for collaborative process modelling and simulation.

Global360 is the only solution in the market that enables true business optimization for organizations wanting to transcend reactive tactics and engage in strategic, analytical and proactive management. With Global360, you can focus on the continuous optimization of the processes that most directly affect your corporate performance goals.

Integration of the Global 360 Case360 and Process360 process engines with ManagerView enables the process engine to send information about how work is processed to ManagerView’s analytics. This information - the event stream - is sent to the ManagerView Analytics Engine for processing and manipulation. Using OLAP technology, process information can be analyzed in increasing levels of detail, organized, sliced, diced and presented in myriad ways.

Figure 5 AnalystView/ManagerView within the Process and Document Management Platform

2.5.1 What is Global360 Process Intelligence? Global360 Process Intelligence is a solution that models, gathers operational and performance-based data and optimizes business processes. Business processes can be planned, controlled, and analyzed in order to meet expectations, maximize the utilization of resources and continuously improve performance.

The overall objectives of Global360’s Process Intelligence solution are to improve:


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Productivity Process Service Quality Business Profitability

This is achieved by making information and data more comprehensible and using process knowledge more effectively.

2.5.2 Why do you need Process Intelligence? The business environment today demands that your organization redouble its efforts to improve the efficiency of processes that have a positive impact on financial performance. Fortunately, the capability to be much more responsive to business events is now available, enabling you to eliminate bottlenecks in the decision-making process.

For example, the ability to continuously measure and monitor a business process is now economically and technically possible through years of technological advancements in application integration and servers, business rules and workflow, business intelligence (BI), and process management software. Specifically, the developing convergence of BI and business process management (BPM) software is enabling business process intelligence (BPI): the application of BI-oriented performance-driven management to business processes. Instead of simply automating business processes — as they've done for years — forward-thinking organizations are beginning to realize that gaining intelligence about such processes will guide business and IT investments that can result in reduced costs and higher ROI.

Consider the example of a computer technology retailer looking to drive more efficiency in its customer order-to-fulfilment processes to align revenue and service level goals. Recent analysis suggests that fulfilment targets are down by 10 percent, customer satisfaction is down by 15 percent, and out-of-stocked items are up 15 percent, which is probably contributing to a 5 percent revenue decline. The retailer has no systematic method of examining these processes to link and monitor activities among order, finance, inventory, warehouse, and distribution functions. To effectively respond to bottlenecks through notifications that can drive action and inform customers about order delays, the retailer has to find a way to drive more efficiency through measuring and monitoring activities.

Figure 6 The need for business process intelligence


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Fusing Performance Management into Processes The ability to apply performance management principles to daily operations — to optimize overall efficiency, continuously improve quality, and assign value to tangible and intangible assets — is now the ultimate goal of most large business organizations. The question is, how can your organization transform its existing, transaction-oriented information architecture into a performance management network? The most important aspect of this network is the ability to continuously manage performance at all three decision levels, not just measure historical performance. Just looking in your rear view mirror and examining the past won't help you optimize your future efforts and align your resources accordingly. The network links the three decision levels — strategic, tactical, and operational — to the information and user requirements that enable synchronization of efforts to reach a common set of goals. At the strategic level, executives outline strategies and goals. At the tactical level, management in the business units sets direction for their organizations, so that at the operational level individuals can take the right actions.

Unfortunately, most technology investments in this area have diverged, resulting in a web of inconsistent, silo systems and resulting metrics that have no relationship to one another for measuring and monitoring performance. However, a positive aspect of the industry direction toward performance management is the emerging consensus that the fractured, transactional infrastructure typical of most organizations has reached its limit and isn't useful for managing performance across business processes. Furthermore, it's now widely understood that the "business process" — defined as a set of interrelated tasks linked to an activity that spans functional boundaries — should be the most significant focus for organizations, because it can provide value at both incremental and evolutionary levels.

It's a given that a business process is a continuous loop that can be systematically linked and automated. The challenge is deciding where, when, and how you should automate those tasks to ensure that your IT investments are aligned to reap the greatest benefit.

Driving Intelligence into Processes Several efforts are required to meet those goals. First, you'll need to prioritize process-level improvements through measuring, monitoring, and linking to functional and organizational goals. This goal is critical; automating tasks in a certain set of activities may not have the positive impact you desire if interdependencies allow gains in one area to be eliminated by other tasks. The next step toward addressing these challenges is to apply a performance management methodology focused on the business process, which will help ensure that performance can be assessed and aligned in the right areas. For example, using the "understand-optimize-align" Decision-Cycle methodology, here's how you would define the necessary functional requirements to achieve performance management goals and BPI:

» Understand

To understand your business processes, create a business process model that can represent a set of business activities each linked to a set of individual tasks. This model is also supported by the definition of business rules and logic, which bind activities with business process. Then you need to bring real-time and non-real-time data together and flow it into the process model. Consequently, you can execute process measurement by applying analytics to the process model and generating meaningful performance metrics. Using our example from the introduction, in this step, the retail company would create a business process model that defines the order-to-fulfilment process that could be used for measuring performance of activities in a single context.

» Optimize

To optimize your business processes, apply automated and manual methods to leveraging information and analytics for performance improvement. Several technologies and approaches are available for applying sophisticated algorithms and models to provide a forecast and plan. You should then have a method to collaborate and share insights and knowledge on process-level metrics, which can then manifest into a set of performance metrics that transform into operational task recommendations for optimizing performance and actions. This step could enable you to collaborate and develop a plan that examines alternative approaches to improve performance.

» Align

To align your business processes, you should be able to drive individual actions based on a set of performance targets that compare to internal and external benchmarks. There's also a requirement to support process monitoring that can automate notification to individuals based on detection of thresholds or events that require action. This alerting can also evolve to support decision workflows where agents can intelligently move


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acceptance and approvals along a process, delivered through dashboards or scorecards that provide personalized and contextual views of process performance. This step could support, through monitoring, the business' ability to notify customers about order bottlenecks so they can take alternative actions — thereby helping the company reach defined performance targets.

This approach materializes into a process model-driven architecture that supports functional requirements and specifies interfaces for business-level functionality across all classes of users. The next challenge, of course, is to integrate that process model with a performance management network.

2.5.3 Key Components of Process Intelligence » Understand – ManagerView captures business-event information as work progresses, helping you analyze why

business objectives are not being met. It also delivers an end-to-end view of business processes and a greater ability to monitor all business activity, independent of the system where the events occur.

Visio 2010 & AnalystView creates a business process model that represents the business process activity events captured via Prism.

» Optimize – AnalystView combines simulation capabilities with historical data to understand the impact business process changes have on business efficiency and productivity before the changes take place.

» Align – ManagerView increases visibility, control, and the ability to react to change through its performance management dashboards, key performance indicators and alerting capabilities.

Figure 7 Global360 provides continuous process improvement


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2.5.4 Global360 Process Intelligence Capabilities Global360 provides a number of the key capabilities for the development of an enterprise process intelligence solution that helps you achieve the Decision-Cycle methodology.

Figure 8 Global 360’s Enterprise Process Intelligence approach

» Extraction and Transformation

Global 360 BPM Suites generated events which are automatically sent to ManagerView

Other applications and workflow systems can leverage any Extract-Load-Transform (ETL) solution including

Microsoft Integration Services and Microsoft BizTalk ETL capability.

Can be used with any other leading tools.

Events can be pushed to ManagerView via SOA or messaging systems.

» Monitoring

ManagerView publishes the events to a Microsoft Analysis 2008 OLAP Process Data Warehouse.

Leading BI tools can be used for Dashboards and Reports.

» Control

BPM’s and Applications can make decision based on KPI’s and SLA interrogated from ManagerView via its

API.

» Analysis

Organizations can analyze trends and poor performing process via real time dashboards and historic process

event data.

» Prediction using Process Models

Organizations can perform “What If” analysis of business processes using process models to ascertain the

future state.

» Optimization using Process Models


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Organizations can eliminate process bottlenecks and optimize their process using process modelling and

simulation.

Global360’s approach bridges the gap between process intelligence and BPM. By leveraging a business intelligence and optimization platform with BPM technologies (such as Process360), Global 360 enables true business optimization for organizations wanting to transcend reactive tactics and engage in strategic, analytical, and proactive management.


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3 GLOBAL 360 AND MICROSOFT

3.1 The Microsoft Business Process Alliance The Microsoft Business Process Alliance is comprised of a select group of ISV partners focusing on creating solutions that further enhance business process management (BPM) enablement on the Microsoft platform. Representing the top BPM solutions in the market, Business Process Alliance members have demonstrated an ability to simplify complex business processes into a manageable process lifecycle and deliver outstanding value to customers.

By building functionality and extending the features of the Microsoft platform, these partner solutions benefit end users by leveraging a customer’s existing investments in Microsoft products to deliver BPM solutions that span functional areas such as workflow, business rules, document-centric processes, business activity monitoring, process modelling, and optimization.

3.2 Global360 and the Microsoft Business Process Alliance Global 360 and Microsoft are working together to drive the mainstream adoption of People-Ready process solutions to enhance and improve the management of processes across the enterprise. Through the strategic relationship, Global 360 will continue to deliver tightly integrated solutions to organizations that need to simulate, optimize and improve resource-intensive business processes across different communities, including customers, employees and partners while leveraging the Microsoft platform.

As a result of the Business Process Alliance, Global 360 provides a number of significant integrations with Microsoft to rapidly deliver mission critical business process applications.

The Global 360-Microsoft Office integration enables customers to quickly design, deploy, collaborate and manage process centric solutions using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server’s rich suite of applications. The Global 360-BizTalk integration takes advantage of BizTalk Server’s comprehensive integration adapter suite and Web services tools to abstract back-end system information out of the business processes.

Global 360, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, is committed to providing industry-leading BPM and process intelligence tools that utilize the latest Microsoft applications to improve visibility and enhance the customer experience. The Microsoft Business Process Alliance will enable the further development of next-generation BPM solutions that leverage Microsoft applications and deliver integrated products to tomorrow’s People-Ready business.

Figure 9 Global 360 enhances the Microsoft BPM strategy

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Figure 10 Global 360 integrated with Microsoft

Global 360 leverages the following Microsoft enterprise applications to deliver its human and document centric business process management and process intelligence suites.

3.2.1 Process360 and Microsoft » Microsoft BizTalk 2006 R2 - Process360 can use BizTalk’s numerous system-to-system capabilities to integration

with enterprise applications and middleware’s.

SAP Enables exchange of Intermediate Document (IDOC), BAPI, and Remote Function Call (RFC) messages between BizTalk Server and an SAP R/3 system.

JD Edwards OneWorld XE and EnterpriseOne

Exchange of Business Function messages between BizTalk Server and a JD Edwards systems.

PeopleSoft Enterprise Enables exchange of Component Interface (CI) messages between BizTalk Server and a PeopleSoft system.

Siebel eBusiness Applications Enables exchange of Business Components and Business Service messages between BizTalk Server and a Siebel eBusiness Application.

TIBCO Enterprise Message Service TIBCO Rendezvous

Host Applications zSeries (CICS and IMS) and midrange iSeries (AS/400)

Host Files IBM mainframe zSeries VSAM datasets and IBM midrange iSeries AS/400 physical files

WebSphere MQ IBM DB2

MSMQ/MSMQT Base EDI Messages

Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 2.0

FILE, FTP, HTTP, SMTP, POP3, SOAP, SQL, ODBC Database

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)

Windows SharePoint Services

» Microsoft Office Integration – Process360 provides users with access to the Process360 content repository from Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

» Microsoft Exchange Server - Process360 provides seamless support for integration of emails from Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. This enables users to include email capabilities as part of a process, receiving email messages, replying, viewing and sending attachments.

» Microsoft InfoPath 2007/2010– Process360 integrate InfoPath electronic forms into your business process.


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» Microsoft Active Directory - Process360 users and groups can be authenticated using Microsoft Active Directory. Users log in to Process360 using the same user name and password they use for the corporate directory.

» Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007/2010 (MOSS) Applications - Process360 enables users to quickly build processing and viewing applications using MOSS Web Parts.

» MOSS 2007/2010 Dashboard Web Parts - Users can use the Process360 Goal Management Dashboard Web Parts to monitor the business process in a web browser.

» MOSS 2007/2010 Collaboration - Integrating Windows SharePoint Services into the Process360 system lets users have online collaboration within structured business processes.

» Microsoft Visual Studio - Business process applications can be created using Microsoft’s leading software development environment.

» Web Services Toolkit for .NET – Process360 provides a set of high-level components that enables developers using Microsoft Visual Studio to create .NET solutions such as ASP.NET applications or Web services by invoking Process360 Web Services. Process360 also supports COM objects and ActiveX controls.

» Microsoft Clustering – Process360 leverages Microsoft clustering to provide failover, scalability and increased availability.

3.2.2 ManagerView and Microsoft » Microsoft SQL Server & Analysis Service 2008 – Managerview’s process analytics solution provides detailed

historical and up-to-date data about your businesses processes, leveraging Microsoft’s powerful OLAP technology.

» Microsoft Excel, SQL Server Reports Service and Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 – Business users can generate process intelligence reports and performance dashboards using Microsoft’s leading data visualization tools.

» Microsoft BizTalk and SQL Server Integration Service – Managerview utilizes Microsoft’s Extract, Load, Transform (ETL) capabilities to capture business process events from 3

rd party applications and workflow

systems.


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4 PROCESS360 TECHNICAL OVERVIEW Process360 is a powerful human and document centric business process management suite. The suite includes the following key capabilities;

Figure 11 The Process360 components in detail

» Process Execution -Process Execution manages the execution and operation of the process itself. This includes Process Agents, which are used to automate process tasks and scheduled events. Goal Management and Business Activity Monitoring through the Dashboard Web Parts are managed by the Process Execution service as well as work tracking and history information. Where external rules integration are required, Corticon or Microsoft BizTalk Business Rules engines can be leveraged. Process360 is a highly scalable and flexible solution which is designed to provide highly available solutions to customers.

» Process and Application Design - Process360’s process and application design capability enables business architects to design, develop and execute BPM centric applications. Process360 can be used in conjunction with our AnalystView BPMN modelling to provide a fully integrated modelling, design and execution suite for development of enterprise business processes solution.

» Content Management - Content Management manages the systems’ underlying meta-data detailing the status and attribute data for all active cases, documents, and folders within the business process environment. Content management includes both storage and capture features.

» Content Capture - Capture of documents and data is a critical and necessary element in business process management. Through Process360’s capture features, images, electronic documents and electronic data are managed as supporting elements of a business process.

» Content Storage - Content storage and archive is an integral part of many Process360 solutions. Through the capabilities of the Storage services domain, organizations can efficiently and securely organize massive amounts of document content in an efficient, secure, and distributed manner.


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4.1 Process and Application Design Process360’s process and application design capability enables business architects to design, develop and execute BPM centric applications. Process360 can be used in conjunction with Visio 2010 process modeling in BPMN to provide a fully integrated modelling, design and execution suite for development of enterprise business processes solution.

4.1.1 DesignerView The DesignerView manages Business Process Maps that are the process definitions that manage how work is routed throughout the enterprise. This includes a design tool for configuration and design of business process maps as well the ability to extend the modelling environment with custom tasks tailored for a company’s specific use.

Figure 12 Process360 DesignerView

Rapid application design, development, and deployment start with Process360’s process design tool, DesignerView, as shown in the screen shot on the previous page. A visual business-process building tool, DesignerView simplifies workflow design and construction by empowering your workflow designers, business analysts and non-programming business people to design executable processes in an intuitive, graphical manner.

DesignerView allows your business analysts and developers to configure the steps in a process via a point-and-click interface—without programming. Map validation ensures that processes flow logically and are complete. After validation, clicking a button on the DesignerView toolbar builds the processes, which creates the routes and task objects. There is no intervening code-generation step between generating the process map and enabling it for use.

4.1.2 DesignerView Task Set DesignerView includes a powerful and comprehensive set of over seventy pre-built task types. These tasks—based on Global 360’s experience with implementing hundreds of workflow applications—are the basic building blocks used to automate business processes. They are organized into four categories based upon the functionality they provide, Process Management, Goal Management, Content Management and System Integration.


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Figure 13 Process360 Task Set


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4.1.3 DesignerView Task Set Description

Icon Task Folder Description

Acknowledge Content Management

Automatically sends an acknowledgement in reply to incoming emails.

Add Attachment Content Management

Attaches files to outgoing email messages.

Add to Message Content Management

Automatically adds text to outgoing messages.

Application Node Process Management

Use to attach a processing application, such as Process Workshop, to that point in the workflow.

Archive Content Management

Archives library documents that have been checked out and revised, and sends non-library documents to an archive worklist for a scheduled archive.

Ascent Capture Import

Content Management

Imports folders, documents, attributes, properties, types, and memos from Ascent Capture, a Kofax product that scans and catalogs documents.

ASCII Import Content Management

Imports ASCII documents, which are text-only documents that contain only ASCII characters. ASCII documents are commonly output from mainframe computers.

Assign Deadline Process Management

Specifies a target for work to be accomplished. For use with the Deadline Management control in Application Designer.

Attribute Event Process Management

For tracking data based on attribute values when specific events occur.

Attribute Reroute Process Management

To reroute to a process based on the value of a specified attribute.

Barcode Recognition

Process Management

Reads barcodes on documents within workpackets and sets values on the barcodes.

Begin Analysis Process Management

Begins ManagerView analysis.

Begin Analysis Timed Sequence

Process Management

Begins an ManagerView analysis time segment for tracking.

BizTalk Call System

Integration Sends data from a Process360 business process to Microsoft BizTalk.

BizTalk In System Integration

Receives XML messages from Microsoft BizTalk and uses the data to initiate a business process.

Case Type Process Management

Associates a case type with the workpacket. Case types let you specify certain required elements of a case, for example a reimbursement request must have a request form and at least one receipt.

CCITT Import Content Management

Imports CCITT Group 3 (1D, 2D) and Group 4 compressed files. These files are usually produced by service bureaus that scan documents for electronic storage.

COLD Import Content Management

Imports large ASCII files (usually files that have been output to laser disks), and splits them into multiple Process360 documents.

Copy Process Management

Sends copies of the workpacket on their own routes.


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Corticon System Integration

Incorporates Corticon business rules into your business process.

Data Extraction Content Management

Searches an email for a matching character string, and then uses the string to set the specified attribute value on the folder and the email folder item.

Data Transformation

System Integration

Applies XML data to a workpacket folder as attributes. Enables data transformation via an XSLT transform file.

Decision Process Management

Selects a workpacket's route based on information about the workpacket itself, such as the workpacket's attributes or properties.

Desktop Import Content Management

Imports electronic desktop file, which are documents that are created in Microsoft Windows applications such as Word or Excel.

Dispose Process Management

Acts as a visual marker of the end of the process for workpackets that you do not check in and archive. In addition, a Dispose task places a DISPOSED entry in a workflow tracking table.

Document Publisher Content Management

Forwards documents to the directory you specify, based on a custom script.

Document Split Content Management

Processes image documents for use with the Document Review application.

Documentum Export

Content Management

Export Process360 documents for importing into Documentum.

End Analysis Process Management

Ends ManagerView analysis.

End Analysis Timed Sequence

Process Management

Ends a ManagerView analysis time segment for tracking.

End Node Process Management

Functions as a visual reminder that there are no further tasks on this route.

End Timed Event Process Management

Marks the completion of a custom timed event. This task works in conjunction with the Start Timed Event task.

FileNet Export Content Management

Export Process360 documents for importing into FileNet.

Form Import Content Management

Imports form documents, which populate the fields of predefined form definitions with imported data.

Go to Route Process Management

Sends the workpacket to the beginning of another route.

Goal Category Goal Management

Lets you assign a category to all work items that pass through this task in the workflow. After a work item is assigned to a category, Goal Management uses event tracking to track the work item and measure its progress against goals set for that category.

Goal Counter Goal Management

Tracks the number of work items that reach this task on the map, and then sets the counter value, or increments or decrements the count, for each work item.

Goal Decision Goal Management

Selects a workpacket's route based on various operators, such as the goal status for the category of the work.

Goal Definition Goal Management

Defines goals for the categories you set up with the Goal Category task.


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Goal Event Goal Management

Defines custom goal events to help measure specific milestones in the workflow.

Goal Measurement Complete

Goal Management

Stops tracking work for the purpose of measuring goals for all work items that pass through this task in the workflow.

IBM MQ Series Export

System Integration

Forwards a workpacket from one Process360 System to another using the process agent you specify.

IBM MQ Series Import

System Integration

Retrieves workpackets from the appropriate IBM MQSeries worklist and forwards them to the workflow.

InfoPath Import Content Management

Imports InfoPath electronic forms.

InfoPath Update Content Management

Updates an InfoPath electronic form already in the workflow.

Initialize Property Table

Process Management

Initializes the property-tracking table to start tracking workpackets, attributes, or BPI properties.

InputAccel Import Content Management

Scans and catalogs documents.

Insert Route Process Management

Inserts a route into the current route. The workpacket is forwarded to the inserted route. At the end of that route, the workpacket returns to the next task after the Insert Route task.

JScript System Integration

Accepts custom code written in the JScript programming language.

LDAP Query System Integration

Queries LDAP for data to include in workpacket attributes.

Lock Process Management

Lets you create either a Match to Folder lock or an Update Original/Return to Folder lock. A Match to Folder lock prevents a folder match. When a Match to Folder task finds a registered folder that has matching attribute values but has passed through a Lock task, it cannot change the registered folder. An Update Original/Return to Folder lock prevents an update or return action.

Log Analysis Event Process Management

For logging events specific to analysis.

Log Event Process Management

Records the start time of events for workpackets.

Match to Folder Process Management

Combines workpackets with identical attribute values into a single folder.

MSMQ Export System Integration

Sends workpackets to an MQ server. This task works with the MSMQ Import task, which retrieves workpackets from the MQ server, to move work from one Process360 System to another.

MSMQ Import System Integration

Retrieves workpackets from an MQ server. This task works with the MSMQ Export task (which sends workpackets to the MQ server) to move work from one Process360 System to another.

Multipage TIFF Import

Content Management

Imports a multipage TIFF file.


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Multiple Set Data Process Management

Places data on folders or documents.

Net In Process Management

Lets documents enter the workflow through Process Workshop.

New Mail Content Management

Use to set up your system to send emails automatically.

Offload Process Management

Sends workpackets to the action worklist for a process agent. The most common use for the Offload task is to move a workpacket away from an application workstation when the application is followed by time-consuming task sequences.

Open Mail Content Management

Checks an email server at regular intervals for incoming messages, creates a work item for each incoming email, then forwards the work item to the next task on the map. Users of workflow applications like Desktop and Process Workshop can view the forwarded email documents.

Print Content Management

Formats and prints the workpacket on the printer you specify.

Remove from Folder Process Management

Removes one or more documents from a folder and routes them separately from the folder.

Reroute Process Management

Sends workpackets to a start node in a different process.

Rescan Worklist Content Management

Sends workpackets to a worklist that can be opened from a desktop application like Document Review. The workpackets contain documents that were scanned incorrectly and must be rescanned. The user of the desktop application updates the workpacket with the rescanned documents.

Resource Allocator Goal Management

Assigns resources to handle work in order to achieve the business goals that are specified in the Goal Definition task.

Return to Folder Process Management

Locates the original folder from which this workpacket was removed and returns this workpacket's contents to that folder.

RightFAX Fax-In Content Management

Reads received fax transmissions from one or more RightFAX mailboxes and converts them into Process360 workpackets.

RightFAX Fax-Out Content Management

Submits a workpacket's fax request to the RightFAX server, and then places the workpacket into a hold worklist.

RightFAX Fax-Setup Content Management

Prepares a workpacket for the RightFAX Fax-Out task by defining destination, cover sheet, and transmission options for a fax.

Sampling Process Management

Sends a sample of the workpackets in a workflow to a different route from the other workpackets. This is useful if you want to review some workpackets for quality assurance.

Scan In Content Management

An entry task for documents scanned with Scan Manager.


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Schedule Process Management

Places a job entry in the workflow schedule table, which causes a process agent to run a script function at a scheduled time. After the Schedule task places the entry in the schedule table, it forwards the workpacket to the next task without making any changes to the workpacket or to the route. The Script functions in the scheduled job may, however, change the workpacket at a later time.

Scheduled Cache Content Management

Transfers documents from optical storage to workflow routes or Process360 disk directories by processing document retrieval requests (also called cache requests) that you format in ASCII text files.

Script System Integration

For backward compatibility. Runs a script function, which you use to perform an operation that you cannot perform with one of the Process360 tasks. Use Visual Basic or Java script tasks instead.

Send Mail Content Management

Sends a reply to an email and stores a copy of the reply in the email document's Sent Replies file. The Send Mail task allows users of workflow applications like Process Workshop to send the replies they write to incoming emails.

Set Data Process Management

Use to set any workpacket property or assign any attribute value to a workpacket or selected documents. You can also use this task to erase a property or attribute value.

Set Exception Process Management

Sets exception handling routes in your workflow to reroute workpackets in case of task errors. See Clear Exception.

Set Status Process Management

Use to select the type of status display for status charts in either custom applications created using Application Designer or a dashboard application.

SharePoint System Integration

Imports web page content for collaboration.

SharePoint In Start Task Imports a document from a SharePoint document library

SQL Query System Integration

Retrieves or updates information from a SQL database and adds it to a work item. Can also update SQL with information from the work item in the business process.

Start Node Process Management

The entry point for a route.

Start Timed Event Process Management

Activates custom event tracking. Insert this task where you want to mark the beginning of a custom timed event. This task is used in conjunction with the End Timed Event task.

Timed Hold Process Management

Places the workpacket in a worklist and places an entry in the workflow schedule table to forward the workpacket after a specified time.

To Do List Process Management

Associates a list of tasks with the workpacket. Each item on the to-do list has to be checked off before the user can forward the workpacket.

Transport System Integration

Sends a copy of a workpacket from one business process to another. The processes can be on two different Process360 Systems linked by messaging software but not sharing any system resources, or the processes can be on a single Process360 System in which each


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process is using a different data root directory.

Unlock Process Management

Removes the lock that was created by a previous Lock task. The Unlock task can remove a Match to Folder lock, an Update Original/Return to Folder lock, or both.

Unschedule Process Management

Removes all of a workpacket's jobs from the workflow schedule table. These jobs include Timed Hold and Schedule task jobs. This is useful if the scheduled job that is associated with a Timed Hold or Schedule task is no longer appropriate for the workpacket, but the conditions that cause the job to run still exist.

Update Original Content Management

Operates on workpackets that were created by a Copy task. An Update Original task locates the original workpacket from which this workpacket was copied and updates it. After updating the original, the task removes the copy from the system.

Update Property Tables

Process Management

Updates the workpacket properties in the property tables. TIP: After you have initialized the property tables, updating occurs automatically. This task is useful if you want to specify a point in the process at which to update the property tables.

VBScript System Integration

Runs a VBscript function, which you use to perform an operation that you cannot perform with one of the Process360 tasks.

Web Service System Integration

Allows Process360 processes to act as clients of web services. This task invokes one or more methods of a web service, uses information from a Process360 workpacket as input to the methods, and then stores the results on the workpacket.

Web Service In System Integration

Creates a web service at the beginning of a route.

Worklist Process Management

Sends workpackets to a worklist, usually an application's input worklist. Workpackets remain in the application's input worklist until an application user opens them. For more information, see Application Node task.

Worklist Counter Goal Management

Counts number of workpackets delivered to the worklist.

Workpacket Monitor

Process Management

Tracks changes to specific attributes when they are changed in the workflow.

4.1.4 Simple Task Configuration Process360 tasks are more than a visual representation of a process action; they are tools that activate the business process map. These tasks are easily configured through task setup dialogs, which configure the specific parameters or logic required for proper operation.

For example, the setup dialog box for the Match to Folder task shown below illustrates that activating a complex task can be quite simple. Process designers need only fill in one or two parameters telling the system which attribute to match on. In the workflow, the Match to Folder task automatically locates the correct folder for every work item it processes—and inserts the content in the folder automatically—all without human intervention.

mk:@MSITStore:G:/Software/Global%20360/G360%20Process360/Process360%209.5.1/951_Process360_Doc_705C093B/Help/Architec.chm::/Application_Node_task.htm


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Figure 14 Configuration of the Match to Folder task

4.1.5 Submaps Support Reusability If a workflow becomes too complex, it can be divided into sub maps for visual simplicity. This modular development process supports team development. DesignerView maps can be developed separately—either serially or all at once. Parallel development of sub maps by different teams within an organization lets each team independently model its own business process.

Different departments can define their own sub processes and tie them together via a top-level map. In this way, Process360 workflow applications are easily scalable from department-level to enterprise-wide systems. The following picture shows the relationship between a map and a sub map.

Figure 15 The relationship between a map and a submap


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4.1.6 Process Task Portfolio A portfolio is a container for pre-configured tasks. If you need similarly configured tasks in different parts of a process or in different processes, you can simplify map building by saving the tasks in a portfolio and using them when you build the new process.

4.1.7 Custom Tasks You can create custom configurable tasks that can be viewed and modified in the DesignerView application.

To create custom tasks, you can use Process360 EBPI toolkit and any development tool that supports Microsoft's Automation Standard. Process360 custom tasks are Automation servers that are fully integrated with the Process360 System. You can use the custom tasks in DesignerView for your workflow maps and task portfolios.

4.1.8 Error Handling The system supports automated error handling through a rollback/compensating process feature. This enables process rollback to a known state, with automatic rerouting of work if an error occurs.

The Set Exception task allows you to specify where a work packet gets rerouted if there is an error returned by any task. In conjunction with the Clear Exception task, exception handling can be nested. Clear Exception lets you remove the current Set Exception from the stack or all the Set Exception tasks can be removed. Multiple Set Exception tasks can be placed one after another in a “stack” so that one error triggers the first Set Exception task to reroute the work item. The last-executed task is the current exception setting.

Figure 16 Using the Set Exception task

4.1.9 Importing and Exporting Processes DesignerView lets you export a process to a file so that you can import it into another system. For example, you might move workflow systems from a development environment to a testing or staging environment, from a test environment to a production environment, or reuse the process in a new process definition.

4.1.10 Process Versioning Process360 provides the ability to maintain the integrity of work that may have been put in process at the time that a new version of a process model was put into production. Control of the process is improved, which reduces risk of process change. “Run-time” process version control allows the administrator/designer to control which process version work is routed onto: process “snapshots” can be created.

4.1.11 Model Interchange Process models can be interchanged between Process360’s DesignerView and AnalystView’s BPMN modeling environments. Where DesignerView’s task palette contains detail required for production process automation, business analysts using AnalystView (Designer, or Design view) typically do not need a high level of detail in their analysis of the process, so the Designer activity palette is significantly simplified.


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4.1.12 Application Designer The Application Designer enables users to quickly build processing and viewing applications for a browser-based environment using a simple point-and click interface. It allows the creation of:

A view-only desktop application A processing desktop application to document mark-ups and changes to workpacket data A view-only or desktop application with dashboard features allowing the processor visibility of performance

relative to their team or goal. Application elements such as document viewer, data list, tool and menu bars are configurable. Graphic

design elements such as logo, colors, and fonts are controlled via an HTML stylesheet.

Figure 17 Application Designer Interface

Basic Controls

Title Bar - Logo, application title, logout and help

Toolbar - List of action buttons/icons/labels/images

Message Panel - Shows static text or message

Content Management Controls

Attribute - Attributes fields and usage types

Viewer - Document view control

Query List - List of “canned” queries with auto open and “select from list”open

Open Panel - General library and worklist access including tracking property searches

Upload - Uploads a desktop document file

Organize - Delete, move or copy documents between folders

Deadline - Shows items with deadlines and provides easy access to open them

Navigator - Allows switching of the current workpacket to another when the application has multiple workpackets open Documentum. Allows users to view Documentum documents in the designed application


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Rich Work Controls

Memo - Regular memo or audit trail notes Case - Case-like view of workpacket with folders in folders and case types/document types To Do List - Assignable name of to-do list, checkboxes for “done” status

Dashboard Functionality Controls

Goal Chart - Shows a goal history chart Counter Chart - Shows a bar chart of counter values Resource Chart - Shows a pie chart of resource levels Status Chart - Shows the status values (number, string, icon, colour percent bar)

Custom Controls

Custom controls allow customers to develop custom logic to be executed at specific times based on defined events. For instance, a custom control set to run when the forward button is activated could allow the application to verify input prior to sending the work to its next step.

Figure 18 User Interface created using the Application Designer


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4.1.13 Global360 Application Web Parts Process360 Application Web Parts allow you to create user portals and custom processing applications within a Microsoft SharePoint design environment or a Microsoft ASP .Net web site. This provides a powerful new web development environment and enables Process360 features and data to be rendered within a portal environment.

Process360 provides many out of the box Web Parts, including:

Global 360 Application Manager Part – for keeping the user session between pages

Attribute Editor Part – for displaying folder or document metadata

Catalog Search Part – for searching/displaying the contents of the Archive

Contents Part – for displaying the Case structure of the process instance

Document View Part – for displaying the document and adding mark-ups and annotations etc

Notes Part – for adding memos to the process instance

Toolbar Part – for adding Close, Save, Hold, Forward etc buttons to the UI

Worklist Search Part – for searching/displaying the contents of worklists

People Status Part – for allowing users to show presence and instant messaging

KPI Matrix / List – for allowing managers to report on SLA indicators defined in ManagerView

Participant Statistics – for allowing managers to reports on participant analytics

Figure 19 Process360 Participant user view.


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Figure 20 A Process360 Supervisor user view


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4.1.14 Development Toolkits Global 360 provides application development toolkits that help developers create application using COM, .Net, Web Services and Java.

Figure 21 Process360 Integration Points

Web Services Toolkits

The web services toolkits are a set of high-level components that help developers create solutions such as applications or Web services to invoke web services, facilitating integration with the Process360 solution. These components significantly ease development, speeding time to deployment and accelerating return on investment.

Web Services Toolkit for .NET

The Web Services Toolkit for .NET is a set of high-level components that enables developers using Microsoft .NET tools to create .NET solutions such as ASP.NET applications or Web services invoking Process360 Web Services. In addition to the standard components mentioned above, the .NET Toolkit includes:

Web Forms controls for creating browser-based applications Windows Forms controls for creating Windows-based rich client applications

Creation of rich client applications allows Windows applications to be deployed without any back-end connectivity. Such connections can be difficult to install and maintain and may not perform well over long distances. Web services eliminate this require. Windows-based rich client applications can communicate with the Web Services Server, which in turn manages all back-end interactions, significantly easing program maintenance.


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Figure 22 Process360 Application created using Web Services .Net Toolkit

Web Services Toolkit for Java

The Web Services Toolkit for Java enables Java developers to use java tools to develop Java applications and Java Beans that include BPM functionality. The Java Classes utilize the Process360 SOAP interfaces and require the Process360 Web Services Server. In addition to the standard toolkit components, the Web Services Toolkit for Java includes:

Tag Libraries, components for Web development encapsulating Process360 action and activities presented as JSP tags.

The Web Services Toolkit for Java enables a vast array of different client platforms to be supported either through native Java applications or J2EE application environments.

The two development toolkits provide tremendous flexibility in how Process360 client applications are deployed. Previously, either Windows-based or browser-based client access was supported, with full user capabilities only available with Windows.

Enterprise Business Process Interface (EBPI)

EBPI consists of stateless COM objects and a set of ActiveX controls—visual components that can be dragged and dropped into a visual development environment. EBPI lets you use the visual programming tools you are familiar with, thereby reducing training costs.

EBPI can also be used to extend the DesignerView task set through the Process360 Custom Task Architecture, which allows custom-built tasks to seamlessly integrate with DesignerView and execute in a run-time environment.

The Custom Task Architecture is also based on the COM standard and allows development tools that can create COM objects to make custom tasks.

Applications and tasks developed with EBPI are plugged directly into DesignerView maps.


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Third-party software can also access Process360 services through EBPI. You can create application interfaces that integrate Process360 functionality with other applications, such as databases and client/server transaction systems. Existing applications can also be workflow-enabled with EBPI.

4.1.15 Support for Industry Standards

Workflow Management Coalition

Global 360 AnalystView supports XPDL 2.0 and BPMN Global 360 Process360 supports XPDL 2.0 Robert M. Shapiro, Senior Vice President, Global 360 is the WfMC XPDL Working Group Chair.


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4.2 Process360 Process Execution Process Execution manages the execution and operation of the process itself. This includes Process Agents, which are used to automate process tasks and scheduled events. Goal Management and Business Activity Monitoring through the Dashboard Web Parts are managed by the Process Execution service as well as work tracking and history information. Where external rules integration are required, Corticon or Microsoft BizTalk Business Rules engines can be leveraged.

With its offloading and scheduling capabilities, Process360’s process execution engine offers virtually limitless scalability. As process volumes grow, Process360 can quickly and easily expand its capacity by simply adding more agent machines. The responsibilities assigned to each agent can be load balanced such that certain agents perform offloaded tasks, others perform scheduled tasks, and still others perform routine tracking and overflow tasks. A variety of load balancing strategies, including Goal Management, can be employed that intelligently “pull” work through a business process with the highest priority work being completed first.

4.2.1 System Interfaces and Integration System interfaces are used to develop custom client applications and integrate with other application servers and enterprise systems. The system also supports integration with Microsoft SharePoint for both collaboration and application deployment.

Enterprise Integration enables the system to be integrated with other enterprise applications using a variety of technologies including Web services, BizTalk, MQ, COM, and SQL. The service supports widely distributed solutions with remotely installed domain services and client applications.

Figure 23 Process360 System Integration Tasks

Multiple technologies are provided for integrating Process360 with your packaged enterprise applications and legacy systems. The technologies, which include Web services, BizTalk, MSMQ, MQ Series, COM, and SQL, allow you to develop an integration strategy with your technology environment according to the specific needs and resources within your organization. The Process360 Integration service is continuously updated with new capabilities as new technologies emerge.

In addition, Process360 facilitates highly distributed implementations for complex, large-scale systems. As your needs expand, Process360 allows you to deploy additional process execution and information management resources in remote offices and transparently exchange cases between locations. In addition, database and storage resources can be maintained in close proximity to their primary user bases eliminating network traffic and improving performance.

Process360 offers the functionality required by customers with complex workflow application needs. Applications can be created that allow:


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Workflow participation and processing: users can open a case, review documents, modify attributes, add a memo, forward a case, etc.

Reporting and tracking information: business managers and system administrators can monitor users and system resources. Developers can also create browser-based applications that allow users to track the status of their work in the workflow.

Document retrieval: users can access documents in libraries and worklists. Web browser-based applications can be created to access this data.

Work initiation: users initiate work in a business process. These applications give users the ability to initiate work, upload documents, modify documents (including image markup) and add attribute data

4.2.2 Work Initiation and Input Process360 offers a plethora of methods for initiating business processes and adding case documents. The different methods are represented as tasks in DesignerView and are incorporated into your business process maps as needed. The tasks include:

Scan In InfoPath Import InputAccel Import Net In Ascent Capture Import Web Service In ASCII Import BizTalk In COLD Import MQSeries Import Desktop Import MSMQ Import RightFax Fax In Email In SharePoint In Microsoft Office Initiation

Integration with Microsoft's InfoPath product enables use of a forms package with dynamic, structured templates. InfoPath can be deployed to facilitate an “interview style” to gather data, leveraging best-of-breed design and leading edge process management. The end-user essentially initiates a process by “filling out a form”. On “submit”, that form can be sent to a process for standardized handling and fulfillment.

Web Service In expands service-oriented deployment by enabling the business analyst to generate a Web service -- without programming -- that initiates a business process. On build, the Web service can be published to UDDI, and either manually deployed to the Web server or automatically deployed to a Web server host as a service. The new web service is exposed for a partner or other application to invoke, enabling work to be created using data from a third-party input source. The Web service can pass in data attributes or documents.

BizTalk In allows a Microsoft BizTalk server to “call” a Process360-managed process, passing data from BizTalk into the process.


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Figure 24 Example of Process360's powerful task functionality highlighting its inbound and outbound capability

With these tasks, the Process360 is able to coexist within a diverse technology environment, and provide you with a choice of alternatives for initiating and updating your cases and documents.

4.2.3 Synchronous Workflow Process360 synchronous processing lets custom web services applications and other system events send process requests and receive results back before forwarding work along the workflow. This could be:

A user filling out a form field or clicking a “Validate” button that triggers the subroute to run and return a value.

An application that calls a subroute that returns a value derived from the work item data, for example.

For example, an organization processing grants might want to check that an applicant has not received more than one grant in the past five years. During the grant application process, a subroute could check the history and determine the eligibility of the applicant before the application is forwarded for approval.

4.2.4 Process Tracking and Auditing Process tracking records the steps required to complete a business task. As a case moves through a business process, Process360 tracks data associated with the case as well as significant events that occur to it, such as when it was created and how long it takes to move through each stage.

Process360 gives managers and users access to historical process tracking information. The Desktop application is designed to allow end-users to initiate ad-hoc queries and display work in process information to view and locate a case.

Process360 captures data about cases and process events (where, when, and by whom cases have been processed) and allows a manager to create graphical and textual reports for analysis. Tracking and auditing capabilities can be customized to provide high-level or detailed views and reports on overall system efficiency and workload, user productivity, and current case status.


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Process360 logs two kinds of tracking data:

» Data concerning particular activities or events, such as when a case was created or moved to another worklist

» Data concerning a case’s specific user-defined properties, such as customer names or social security numbers

To customize process tracking, developers use Process360 Administration to define custom events and properties.

» Custom events monitor specific user activities, such as signature verification or data entry. A business manager can use a custom event to track the efficiency of a process. For example, a manager can monitor how long it takes for personnel to complete a data entry task.

» Properties are characteristics associated with a case tracked by Process360 until the case leaves the system. Property tracking can be easily customized so that end-users can locate and view cases by searching for a specific property. For example, a customer service representative can locate and access the status of a customer’s documents in a process by typing in a name or social security number.

4.2.5 Automated Time-based Activities, Schedules, Alerts and Escalations Automated time-based activities with Process360 can respond to all of the following conditions:

» Process Initiation - Process activities may be initiated automatically. For example a process start point may be published as a web service address to allow other systems to initiate a process.

» Event Initiation - Events within the workflow can be automated. For example a diarised Case may be forwarded to a team leader if its expiry date has been reached without the required activities being performed by users.

» Event Triggers - Activities within the workflow may automatically trigger other actions. For example a supporting document being received via email will join to its parent Case and then automatically proceed to the next step in the process.

» Event Alerts - Alerts can also be triggered based on events occurring outside the Global360 platform, for example an external supplier performing an activity.

» Event Escalations - Escalations can be automatically handled based on business rules. LDAP queries can be used to determine hierarchy models from the corporate active directory.

4.2.6 Administration and Design Tools Process360 provides an enterprise class platform for deploying business process solutions. In this environment, processes tend to be highly distributed, linking people, content, and systems from any location. These types of solutions can be a challenge to administer, as most resources are not centrally located and are remote to the system administrators.

To address the issue, Process360 provides an Administration application that includes all the tools necessary to configure and deploy BPM solutions. The Administration application is browser-based and can be run from wherever a system administrator has secure access to the system.

The Administration application is capable of configuring the following elements of a Process360 solution:

» User logins with groups and profiles

» Sites, databases, and directories

» Templates and usage types

» Scanning batches, barcodes settings, and worklists

» Process Agents and schedules

» Catalogs, partitions, and libraries

» Scheduled archives

» Optical services


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» User Logins - Users must be assigned a unique user name, called a login ID, which allows them to log in to the system. You must associate each user with a profile to define their library, partition, catalog, and worklist access rights and privileges.

» Sites - Sites allow you to minimize network traffic by assigning workstations to local system resources. After you create a site and define databases and shared directories for it, you assign workstations to the site. Each workstation is assigned to a specific site.

» Templates - A template is a collection of fields. Each field defines data types and associated parameters, such as how many characters are allowed in a string. Templates model the data that is displayed in worklists and catalogs, or as document attributes.

» Usage Types - The usage type determines which fields appear to the participants performing work in a business process, and which catalog is assigned to a document. When you create a usage type, you can select a catalog and a template for it.

» Batches - Integrating with Process360 Scan Manager, definition of batches allow you to specify how groups of documents and folders are scanned and routed through a business process.

» Barcodes - Barcodes can assign usage types, attributes, and properties to documents. You can also use bar codes to set the pages per document and documents per folder for each batch.

» Worklists - Worklists are temporary holding areas for cases and their related documents as they move through the system. When a case is forwarded to a task such as the Queue task or the Offload task in a process map, Process360 places the case in the worklist associated with that task. The case waits in the worklist until a user or a Process Agent opens it and forwards it.

» Process Agents - Process Agents usually run on dedicated computers that serve as automated workstations. Process Agents can maintain workflow schedules, manage cache directories, and run Archive and Scheduled Cache tasks, as well as tasks that follow the Offload task on a process map. Every Process360 installation must contain at least one Process Agent with a unique name and agenda.

» Schedules - Schedules allow you to set up automated, recurring events for check-ins, archives, and actions not associated with any particular case and are not part of a map. Process Agents list the scheduled actions and tasks in the workflow schedule table and run them at the times you specify.


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Figure 25 Process360 web based Administration tool

4.2.7 Authentication and Authorization Process360 includes powerful authentication and authorization capabilities to manage users, groups, and profiles:

» Users

Users are the logon identity of end-users of the system.

» Profiles

Profiles allow the administrator to define access for a set of users. Access is defined for a given profile and the profile is assigned to users, allowing those users identical access privileges. At the Profile level, a System Administrator designation is assigned.

» Groups

Groups allow administrators to provide a variety of privileges when individuals may have multiple responsibilities. The Director of Engineering would belong to the Engineering group, the Managers group and the Executive Team group because she has multiple responsibilities.

» Resource Qualifiers

Resource Qualifiers can be leveraged to set additional knowledge of an individual user's ability to process work. This frequently involves knowing more about an individual beyond what team or group they belong to. Skill sets - for example, language capabilities, completed training or attained certification levels - can be useful information to be able to consider when work is being distributed. Resource Qualifiers allows the administrator to define and manage Qualifier information for users and resources processing work.

» LDAP Integration

Users, groups, profiles, and qualifiers can be explicitly set in Process360 through its Administration application. Additionally, support of LDAP can be used for authentication and user identification.

User and group information can be read from the LDAP objects and the Process360 can be configured to check the user or group LDAP objects for the appropriate profile setting.


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Figure 26 Process360 Administration of Users, Groups and Resource Qualifiers

Login Failure Audit

Login failures are written to an audit log. Events tracked include the following:

Successful login Successful logout License count exceeded User or password entered invalid Logins disabled

This feature allows customers to track incidents of login failure and analyze their cause to monitor for security or for license utilization.

4.2.8 Security

Catalogs and Worklists

The Process360 security model is based on a simple yes/no access applied based on user profile. Users assigned to a given profile are given the following permissions for a catalog or worklist:

No Access: The user cannot see whether the document exists. Document metadata cannot be accessed. Search Only: Can see document or workpacket metadata but cannot open the document or workpacket. Read Only: Can see document or workpacket metadata and can open the document or workpacket. At this

level, the user may not check-in or check-out a library document; they may not save or forward a workpacket.

Read/Write: They can see document or workpacket metadata, open the document or workpacket. The user may check-in or check-out a library document. If accessing work in process worklist, this permission allows the user to modify attributes, mark-up documents, and then save or forward the workpacket.

Additionally, filters may be applied to the catalog such that only certain documents or workpackets will be accessible to users of a given profile. Filters allow customers to model document level security. One filter can be defined per profile per catalog or worklist. Filters are defined by specifying qualifying values for the various catalog or worklist.

Process360 Database Column Encryption


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Process360 enables administrators to set up encrypted database columns to allow encryption of column data in a database table. Process360 worklists, library catalogs, SQL datatables, and property tracking tables can support data encryption. Data encryption prevents unauthorized database users from being able to view sensitive data stored in database tables.

Process360 Database Field Encryption

For databases with encryption enabled, you can use Process360 Administration to apply SQL encryption to specific catalog and worklist template fields.

Data stored as encrypted will be viewable only from a Process360 application. When viewing encrypted fields from a third-party SQL query tool, data will appear encrypted in those fields. This enables “private” data to be secured from unauthorized viewing, and facilitates compliance with corporate security and privacy policies.


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4.2.9 Enterprise Integration

Microsoft BizTalk Integration

Process360’s extensive human-to-human workflow features can be leveraged with multiple systems via its numerous system-to-system integration capabilities. These system-to-system features enable connectivity between Process360 workflow and external systems.

As a participant in the Microsoft BPM Alliance, Global 360 is offering Process360 integration with Microsoft BizTalk, a business process management (BPM) server that facilitates automating and optimizing business processes. Microsoft BizTalk includes tools to design, develop, deploy, and manage those processes.

Process360’s integration with Microsoft BizTalk offers the following features:

Connecting disparate systems through a common interface Transforming data through mapping source to destination schema Robust adapter framework, design tools, rules engine, and documentation

As a separate Process360 option, the BizTalk Integration feature comes with BizTalk server software and special BizTalk integration tasks bundled into the standard product.

Figure 27 Process360 BizTalk Tasks

4.2.10 Process360 Adapters for BizTalk Server 2006 R2

Adapter Description Supported Versions

SAP Process360 BizTalk adapter enables exchange of Intermediate Document (IDOC), BAPI, and Remote Function Call (RFC) messages between BizTalk Server and an SAP R/3 system.

SAP R/3 4.x and R/3 6.20 (Enterprise)

PeopleSoft Enterprise

Process360 BizTalk adapter enables exchange of Component Interface (CI) messages between BizTalk Server and a PeopleSoft system.

PeopleTools Versions 8.17.02, 8.43, 8.45, 8.46 and 8.48

JD Edwards OneWorld XE

Process360 BizTalk adapter enables exchange of Business Function messages between BizTalk Server and a JD Edwards OneWorld system.

B7.3.3.3 with SP23 and JDE 8.0 (B7.3.3.4)

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne

Process360 BizTalk adapter enables exchange of Business Function messages between BizTalk Server and a JD Edwards EnterpriseOne system.

8.10 and 8.11 with Tools Release 8.93, 8.94, 8.95 and 8.96

ODBC Adapter for Oracle Database

Process360 BizTalk adapter enables reading and writing information from and to an Oracle Server database. This is also supported directly through Process360 tasks.

Oracle 8i (8.1.6.0), 9i (9.2.0.1), or 10g

Siebel eBusiness Applications

Process360 BizTalk adapter enables exchange of Business Components and Business Service messages between BizTalk Server and a Siebel eBusiness Application.

7.0, 7.5.*, 7.7.*, and 7.8.*


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TIBCO Rendezvous

Process360 BizTalk adapter enables exchange of XML and binary data format messages between BizTalk Server and TIBCO Rendezvous.

7.3

TIBCO Enterprise Message Service

Process360 BizTalk adapter enables exchange of XML and binary data format messages between BizTalk Server and a TIBCO EMS server providing a tightly integrated and reliable application infrastructure.

4.2

Host Applications

Process360 BizTalk adapter enables data exchange between BizTalk Server and IBM mainframe zSeries (CICS and IMS) and midrange iSeries (AS/400) server programs.

IBM CICS TS for VSE/ESA V2R3 IBM CICS TS for z/OS V2.2, V2.3, V3.1 IBM IMS V8.1 with IMS Connect 2.1, 2.2 IBM OS/400 V5R2, OS/400 V5R3, i5/OS V5R4

IBM DB2 Process360 BizTalk adapter enables reading and writing information from and to IBM mainframe DB2 for z/OS, IBM midrange DB2/400, and IBM DB2 Universal Database for open platforms (AIX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows).

IBM DB2 V7 and V8 for z/OS IBM OS/400 V5R2, OS/400 V5R3, i5/OS V5R4 IBM DB2 UDB for Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris V7.2, V8.2, V9

Host Files Process360 BizTalk adapter enables data exchange between BizTalk Server and IBM mainframe zSeries VSAM datasets and IBM midrange iSeries AS/400 physical files.

IBM DFM V1R4, V1R5, V1R6, V1R7 IBM OS/400 V5R2, OS/400 V5R3, i5/OS V5R4

WebSphere MQ (Client Based)

Process360 BizTalk adapter enables exchange of messages between BizTalk Server and IBM WebSphere MQ using the WebSphere MQ Base Client (non-transactional) or WebSphere MQ Transaction Extended Client APIs.

5.3 with Fix Pack 10 or higher and 6.0 with Fix Pack 1.1 or higher

WebSphere MQ Process360 BizTalk adapter enables exchange of messages between BizTalk Server and IBM WebSphere MQ. This is also supported directly through Process360 tasks.

5.3 with Fix Pack 10 or higher and 6.0 with Fix Pack 1 or higher

MSMQ/MSMQT Process360 BizTalk adapter enables sending and receiving messages by using BizTalk Message Queuing (MSMQT), an implementation of the Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) protocol that sends and receives MSMQ messages to and from the Message Box database. This is also supported directly through Process360 tasks.

2.0 and 3.0

Base EDI Process360 BizTalk adapter enables sending and receiving messages by using the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) X-12 and Electronic

Not applicable


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Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce, and Trade (EDIFACT) standards.

FILE Process360 BizTalk adapter enables reading from and writing to files in the Microsoft Windows file system. This is also supported directly through Process360 tasks.

Not applicable

FTP Process360 BizTalk adapter enables exchange of files between BizTalk Server and FTP servers.

Not applicable

HTTP Process360 BizTalk adapter enables sending and receiving information by using HTTP. The BizTalk Server 2004 engine exposes one or more URLs to enable other applications to send data to it, and it can use this adapter to send data to other URLs.

Not applicable

POP3 Process360 BizTalk adapter enables receiving messages from a POP3 mailbox into BizTalk Server by using the POP3 protocol. This is also supported directly through Process360 tasks.

Not applicable

SMTP Process360 BizTalk adapter enables sending messages between BizTalk Server and an SMTP gateway by using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). This is also supported directly through Process360 tasks.

Not applicable

SOAP Process360 BizTalk adapter enables sending and receiving messages by using SOAP over HTTP enabling BizTalk Server to interact in a Web services world. This is also supported directly through Process360 tasks.

Not applicable

SQL Process360 BizTalk adapter enables reading and writing information from and to a Microsoft SQL Server database. This is also supported directly through Process360 tasks.

Not applicable

Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 2.0

Process360 BizTalk adapter enables more secure Web services (WS-Security, WS-Trust, WS-SecureConversation, WS-SecurityPolicy, and WS-Policy) with BizTalk Server 2004 and 2006.

WSE 2.0

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)

Process360 BizTalk adapter includes seven adapters and wizards that enable easy communication to and from BizTalk Server and Web services-based applications via the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). These adapters is available for BizTalk Server 2006 R2 only.

.NET Framework 3.0

Windows SharePoint Services

Process360 BizTalk adapter enables the exchange of XML and binary messages between BizTalk Server and SharePoint document libraries.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Web Services

Process360’s Web Services Suite offers a complete package of functionality that both provides and consumes web services. The suite is built around Process360’s web service, which exposes a complete service-oriented API for interacting with the case processing and content management.

SQL Query

Process360 provide a SQL Query task to retrieve information from an external SQL database and add it to a work item. You can also use this task to insert and update information between the SQL database and the work item.


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LDAP Integration

Integration with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) allows you to authenticate your Process360 Users and Groups using your company's LDAP-compliant Microsoft Active Directory. Users log in to Process360 using the same user name and password they use for the corporate directory.

Integration with ManagerView Process Intelligence

ManagerView is a strategic product that significantly enhances Global 360's process analytics, reporting and monitoring capabilities.

ManagerView includes analysis functionality that provides for the aggregation and organization of process related information. The Analysis Engine utilizes an underlying OLAP engine for access and manipulation of the data.

Integration of Process360 with ManagerView enables the Process360's Process Engine to send information about how work is processed to ManagerView’s analytics. This information - the event stream - is sent to the Analytics Engine for processing and manipulation. Using OLAP technology, process information can be analyzed in increasing levels of detail, organized, sliced, diced and presented in myriad ways.

The Process360 process engine can evaluate ManagerView-defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) through the KPI decision type within the DesignerView Goal Decision Task. The KPI decision type is used to make routing decisions based on KPI goals, status and trends defined in Prism. Decision rules include:

KPI Value: KPI value used in the decision comparison Goal Variance: Difference between the KPI value and its goal value Status: Exceeded, Above Normal, Normal, Below Normal, and Missed Trend: Up, Steady, or Down

These decision rules can be evaluated within the context of several timeframes:

Within the last 15 minutes, 30 minutes, last hour, last 2 hours or last 4 hours Today, Yesterday, This Week, Last Week, This Month, Last Month, This Year.

The KPI decision type enables a close integration between Process360's execution environment and historical and near-term process data. Note also that ManagerView’s own alerts and actions mechanisms allow ManagerView to call a web service based on KPI evaluations from within ManagerView itself. Thus, as ManagerView evaluates KPIs itself, it can call Process360-enabled Web services.


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4.2.11 Goal Management Process360 Goal Management takes business process management beyond workflow, providing intelligence that can be applied to action. Goal Management provides companies with the ability to track and measure their performance based on real-time feedback. The events logged through business activity monitoring give managers real insight and knowledge about their organization and its performance.

Goal management is implemented through a set of Process360 features that allow business strategy to be described in tactical terms and can be implemented and maintained in a workflow process. Features supporting this are

Goal Definition: The ability to specify categories of work and set measurable goals for relevant stages of the business process. These goal categories and milestones are critical components in identifying the key performance indicators for your process.

Resource Management: Beyond simply monitoring for trends and improvement opportunities, Resource Management allows you to proactively change how work is handled, taking into account goals attained, backlog levels and environmental data. The process itself can also initiate resource reallocation.

Predictive Optimization: Predictive Optimization projects goal attainment levels based on historical information. These historical indicators are aggregated to predicatively optimize the operation by changing work priorities, reassigning resources or changing the process.

Integration with ManagerView: Decisions made based on KPIs tracked in ManagerView use the intelligence of analysis to route work in real-time.

Business Activity Monitoring: Goals are used to provide a context for gathering and analyzing data. Data is collected that can help answer these questions:

How productive are we? What is the average time to complete this work? What is our workload or backlog? How many items are at this stage of the process? What’s the handling time for work of a particular category? Did we achieve our goals today? Will we achieve our goals tomorrow?


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Figure 28 Process360 Goal Management definition

Figure 29 Process360 Goal Management real-time configuration


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4.2.12 Corticon Business Rules Integration Corticon integration with Process360 allows you to run Corticon-created rule sets through your Process360 business process system. When you design your business processes using Process360 DesignerView, you can map Process360 business process work packet variables to Corticon rules entity data. When you execute the business process, the Corticon custom task evaluates data values and passes them to the Corticon rules engine in a specified format. Output data is updated in the work packet data.

The Corticon rules engine provides two significant enhancements to the Process360 platform:

You can model complex decisions that require evaluation of many factors.

Complex decisions can involve multiple data points, combinations of which can number in the thousands. For example, determining which user should process a work item may require evaluation of skills, language proficiency, and experience with that particular customer.

You can build rule-based applications (such as credit scoring and policy risk assessment) that can be called within a business process.

Rule-based applications are accessed as worksteps within the process. The application may set some data on the work item or complete a step in the process, but not explicitly create a routing decision.

Both types of rules formats use the same underlying integration infrastructure. They differ only in how the Corticon task is used within the process. One makes a routing decision; the other provides data back to the process.

Figure 30 Process360 and Corticon Integration


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4.2.13 User Application Interfaces

Process360 Worklists (Inbox and Queue)

Worklists are temporary holding areas for cases and their related documents as they move through the system. When a workitem is forwarded to a task such as the Queue task or the Offload task in a process map, Process360 places the workitem in the worklist associated with that task. The workitem waits in the worklist until a user or a Process Agent opens it and forwards it.

User Applications can be created using the Process360 Application Designer, ASP/Microsoft Office SharePoint (via our web parts) or using our .Net and J2EE toolkits.

ASP/Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) Web Parts User Applications

Process360 also enables users to quickly build processing and viewing applications using our ASP/Microsoft SharePoint Servicer (MOSS) Web Parts.

Figure 31 Process360 Worklist view using Microsoft Office SharePoint Service Web Part Interface


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Figure 32 An opened work item in the Microsoft SharePoint (MOSS) interface


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Process360 ASP/Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) Dashboard Web Parts

Users can use the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) Process360 Dashboard Web Parts to monitor the business process in a web browser. SharePoint web parts for performance management include:

Goal Charts Counters Status Resource Allocation

You can create your own custom dashboards using SharePoint technology. Because SharePoint is an open technology, custom dashboards can monitor any system; it is not limited to Process360.

Figure 33 Process360 / ManagerView Dashboard WebParts

Process360 Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) Collaboration

Process360 enables a rich collaboration environment to be created and used within the context of a structured process. This integration allows customers to combine the best elements of on-line, ad-hoc collaboration with structured process management and optimization. The combined solution represents a “best of both worlds” approach and no longer requires customers to choose between deploying an ad-hoc workflow application or a traditional structured process application. Often, the collaboration environment would be invoked to resolve an exception or arrive at a decision that involves consensus among multiple participants.

Leveraging Microsoft's SharePoint technology, a process can spawn a SharePoint collaboration site. Using the SharePoint task, a workspace is dynamically created, pre-populated with data and documents from the work item in process.

A SharePoint task is configured within the process, defining workspace setup (server, standard and custom Web Parts to include and participants and their roles). Adding and modifying properties within the work item can specify additional participants and their roles. The SharePoint workspace is created when the work item executes the task.


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On workspace activation, SharePoint sends an email invitation to the participants that includes a link to the workspace URL. The participants collaborate in an ad-hoc fashion, reviewing and commenting upon documents, participate in discussion threads, revise documents, assign tasks and potentially invite additional people to participate in the collaboration.

On completion of the collaboration, the site is deactivated and, depending on how the task was configured during task setup, backed up. The backup is added to the work item and can be archived at the end of the process. The remaining steps of the process will execute per the process map.

Figure 34 Process360 Microsoft SharePoint Collaboration Task

Figure 35 Process360 In-Process Collaboration using Microsoft SharePoint (MOSS)

Case Processing Interface

Application of intelligence to the handling of work in process is what Process360 defines as Case Management. Process360 includes several features used for presentation of content, presentation of work activities and work management. These features serve to define the work intelligence that facilitates how work is processed.

Case View - Within a processing application, documents can be organized according to common properties. Checklists - Individual activities involved with the work processing can be associated with the individual

work item. These activities are presented to the user as a “checklist” such that the user must “check” the activity within the application in order to signify that the activity is complete. On definition, activities can be


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marked as mandatory such that the work item cannot move to the next step until mandatory steps are complete. When an action is performed and by whom is tracked.

Deadline Management - Deadline management allows due dates to be set for work milestones such that the system can satisfy completion by that date. A set Due Date can be used as part of the open criteria for determining which work should be opened.

Business Calendaring - Business calendaring allows the company to define which days are work days, and the length of a working day. Business calendars can be used to measure process performance relative to set target goals. Goal attainment can be used to determine how work and resources performing work are distributed.

Memo - Memo features allow users to annotate work items with notes for others processing the same work later in the business process. A memo might record a customer call or state why a folder is being rejected for rescan.


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4.3 Process360 Content Management Content Management manages the systems’ underlying meta-data detailing the status and attribute data for all active cases, documents, and folders within the business process environment. Content management includes both storage and capture features.

The system’s data management capabilities offer magnetic, database, optical, and content addressable storage alternatives for the various types of content contained in the system. Multiple database platforms allow for highly flexible and scalable storage configurations. Capture enables introduction of documents and data from a wide variety of sources including scanned images, email, fax and electronic documents.

The most common types of documents that Process360 handles are scanned images, ASCII text, and electronic desktop documents, such as those created in Microsoft Word or Excel. Process360 is also capable of handling other work items, such as faxes, EDI transactions, HTML pages, Computer Output to Laser Disk (COLD) files, forms, and imported voice and video files.

A variety of task types can be used to bring documents into the workflow or create new documents. When documents enter the system, they are assigned routing information that depends on the workflow entry point. When multiple documents or other work items are processed together, they are placed within folders. While in the workflow, these document and folder objects are kept in cases. Workpackets active in the workflow are normally stored on magnetic media on a server. They can also be stored in the database or on optical devices. Workpackets that complete their workflow processing are broken into their component parts (documents and files) and stored for future reference and retrieval in a library. At this point, documents are typically archived to magnetic, database, optical disk or content-addressable storage.

Storage and retrieval is an important part of document management technology. The library is a logical structure that enables easy storage, identification, and retrieval of documents. To retrieve archived documents, an end user submits a search query using attributes from the appropriate catalog’s template and the library returns a list of the matching documents for the user to view.

Documents stored in the library can also be retrieved and included in a workflow process. Normally, documents are inserted in a folder and travel through the workflow with other related documents. When these documents finish the workflow, they are checked back into the library.

4.3.1 Catalogs, Partitions and Libraries Process360 manages all of the meta-data related to document classification. Archival capabilities are provided for documents that have completed processing.

The Process360 content repository is logically composed of one or more libraries and each library is physically composed of one or more partitions. Libraries are used to organize documents for long-term storage and they provide a means of location. The physical databases that house the document attribute data are called partitions.

The third element in a Content Management repository is the catalog. A catalog is a set of data attributes that are maintained in the library for a particular class of documents. For instance, the catalog for an accounts payable solution might include: invoice number, invoice date, vendor id, amount, and due date. All documents archived in the accounts payable catalog are indexed with these attributes.

Complementing the libraries, partitions, and catalogs are storage areas that maintain the document files. Typically, document files consist of scanned images stored in the TIFF standard format, but Process360 can manage virtually any binary or ASCII file type that someone wishes to archive (such as MS Office documents, XML, PDF).


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Figure 36 Library and Partitions

Process360 can also handle email as an integral document type, seamlessly managing and displaying typical email components: message subject and body, sender, cc and bcc listings, as well as attachments. Of the alternatives for archive storage, magnetic volumes and shared directories provide the best performance, database BLOBs provide convenience, and optical volumes offer better disaster recovery and regulatory compliance. Customers may choose to deploy a mix of archive methods, for instance, using magnetic volumes or database BLOBs as the primary method with a backup copy on an optical volume that is maintained offsite.

4.3.2 Revision Management When an archived document requires modification, that document must be checked out. On checkout, an internal switch is set such that other users can view the document, but no one can check the document out again until it is checked back in. On checkin, a new revision of that document is created that includes all the changes made to that document.

4.3.3 Search and Display Documents can have entries in multiple catalogs or multiple entries in a single catalog. This allows customers to reference a single document in multiple ways.

Documents may be searched for via simple query where the user specifies data to match on. For instance, “Display all documents in the Invoices catalog where the Vendor is ‘Acme Widgets’”. Additionally, Process360 allows searching by Lookups and Full Text Search.

4.3.4 Document Manipulation As part of business processing, Process360 includes features for processing of documents and data. Image documents can be modified such that pages are reordered, added or deleted. Annotations such as highlights, comment tags and text can be added to image documents. Simple graphic elements such as circles, ellipses, and rectangles can be included as well. Annotations can be secured such that only certain individuals can view or modify documents. Using these objects, documents can be redacted.

4.3.5 Full-Text Search Full text search for Process360 exposes the full text search capabilities enabled by the relational database platform in use.

4.3.6 Archive Storage The final component of document management with Process360 is archive storage, which permanently stores electronic document files. The database components (catalogs, partitions, and libraries) manage information about the documents while archive storage manages the archived files themselves. Document archival is a two-phase process in which documents are written to the partition’s physical storage and attributes are posted to the database.

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4.4 Process360 Capture Capture of documents and data is a critical and necessary element in business process management. Through Process360’s capture features; images, electronic documents and electronic data are managed as supporting elements of a business process.

4.4.1 Unstructured Data Capture

Microsoft Office Integration

The Process360 Office Add-in supports integration with three Microsoft Office Applications—Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Installing the Process360 Office Add-in on client workstations allows users to access your Process360 repository from the three currently supported Microsoft Office applications.

Figure 37 Process360 Microsoft Office Integration

Email

Process360 supports email integration for creation of solutions requiring complex, process-driven email management processes. Examples of these are customer service, correspondence, and bulk mailing. Process360’s implementation of email integration allows email to be handled in ways unique to email – managing this special document type based on subject, address, message text and attachments.

Process360 provides seamless support for integration of email from email systems supporting POP3 and/or IMAP4 for incoming mail and SMTP for outgoing mail. This enables you to include email capabilities as part of your process, receiving email messages, replying, viewing and sending attachments. Besides the body of a message, email-processing capabilities can include examination and storage of header information and email attachments.

Processing can include data extraction where email is searched for character strings which are used to set attribute values on folders and can be used to build searches including pattern matching.

RightFax

Process360's RightFAX Fax tasks act as a bridge between the Process360 System and an independent RightFAX server running Microsoft Windows NT. Inbound faxes from one or more RightFAX mailboxes can be imported into Process360 as Process360 documents. These act as a source of workpackets for a workflow.

Process360 documents and folders can be transmitted out of the system as faxes to specified recipients.

Although the RightFAX Server provides services to the Process360 System in this context, it does not need to be dedicated for that purpose. A department may also use the RightFAX server for general purpose sending and receiving of faxes.


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Inbound faxes that you do not want to import into the Process360 System can be routed to any mailbox that is not used by instances of the RightFAX Fax-In task.

Outbound faxes can be sent from any Windows application that supports printing using RightFAX's print-to-fax capabilities.

4.4.2 Structured Data Capture

Microsoft InfoPath Integration

InfoPath, a program in the Microsoft Office 2007/2010 System, lets you both design and fill out electronic forms. Process360 lets you integrate those electronic forms into your business process. InfoPath integration is included with the Process360 system.

Figure 38 Process360 Microsoft InfoPath Integration

Web Documents

Web documents are an additional input channel. Web document data can be extracted to populate document or folder attributes. Web documents can be included in a workpacket. Web documents can be stored.

4.4.3 Capture Integrations

Global 360 Scan Manager Integration

G360 Scan Manager facilitates scanning batches of documents and forwarding them into your Process360 workflow. Because scanning is separate from the workflow, G360 Scan Manager incorporates data entry and quality control functionality so that you can modify or rescan pages before forwarding batches to your workflow.

G360 Scan Manager supports multiple scan workstations in both centralized and distributed mail room configurations. You can scan documents in batches that can be separated by batch control sheets, saved into TIFF or


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JPEG files, and grouped into folders for use in your process management applications. Colour scanning is also supported.

eCopy Integration

eCopy integration with Process360 works with eCopy ShareScan Open Platform to enable copier and scanner devices to import electronic copies of documents to Process360 business processes. After you use eCopy ShareScan OP Administration to configure the Process360 connector, eCopy ShareScan Open Platform acts as an intermediary between the Process360 connector and the copier or scanner device. A touch screen on the copier or scanner device accepts user input that specifies how the Process360 connector will route the document through the Process360 business process. The Process360 connector software can run embedded in the device or externally to the device.

Embedded. Users input routing information in the device’s touch screen. External. Users input routing information in the eCopy ScanStation. The ScanStation consists of eCopy

hardware that runs Windows XP. The hardware includes a keyboard and touch-screen that is attached to the device with a bracket.

3rd Party Scanning Subsystems

Process360 also provides productized integration with EMC Captiva InputAccel and Kofax Ascent Capture.


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4.5 Process360 Storage Content management is an integral part of many Process360 solutions. Through the capabilities of the Storage services domain, organizations can efficiently and securely organize massive amounts of document content in an efficient, secure, and distributed manner.

4.5.1 Storage Media Options You can use one or more of the storage media Process360 uses:

Process360 Magnetic Storage Services (MSS)

Magnetic Storage Services is an efficient method for storing and managing documents on a file server share. MSS does not have any platform requirements other than needing space on the file server to store files.

MSS is not an application or service.

MSS is the setup and use of file server space to emulate optical platters in an OSS server. If you would like

to use the file server to store documents in the repository,

MSS can store documents more efficiently than other available alternatives. MSS also allows you to

selectively mirror optical volumes in the OSS server to a file server for faster access.

EMC Centera (Content-Addressable Storage)

Centera is a storage system from EMC, a manufacturer of magnetic hardware-based storage systems.

Centera is a product designed for secure, fixed-content systems to meet the needs of companies and industries with regulatory or litigation requirements for long-term storage.

Businesses such as financial and securities companies may prefer EMC Centera to optical storage, since

there are favorable indications from regulatory bodies such as the SEC regarding the acceptability of using

Centera to store document and image data.

Process360 Optical Storage Services (OSS)

With Optical Storage Services, document pages/content are written to optical platters and managed by the Process360 OSS Server.

The Process360 OSS Server software supports a variety of optical storage devices, subject to the limits of server hardware and the SCSI bus addressing capabilities, including both standalone drives and jukeboxes in 12-inch and 5.25-inch formats.

Database (binary large object, BLOB)

With database storage, document pages/content are stored as BLOBs in the database. Using the Database option for Library document storage does not have any platform requirements other

than needing space on the database server to store the document data and having the support systems in place to manage the larger volume of data and increased load on the database server.

File System

With File System storage, document pages and content are stored on a file server share as individual files just as they are in the workflow.

4.5.2 Content Broker Integrations Process360 provides a built-in library/archive that provides repository features for your documents. Process360 also provides content broker integration so that you can export documents from Process360 and import them into a third-party content broker or repository system. This feature is useful if you wish to use a third-party content broker/repository along with Process360’s workflow, document imaging, and business process management capabilities.

Process360 supports the following content brokers:

Documentum (DCTM) FileNet Image Services (FNIS)


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Documentum Content Broker

Process360 provides an option for integration with the Documentum (DCTM) system. This feature is useful if you wish to use Documentum’s content broker/repository features along with Process360’s workflow, document imaging, and business process management capabilities.

This integration feature allows you to import Process360 documents into Documentum. Once imported into Documentum, you can search and display these documents from a designed application.

As part of the integration feature, an Application Designer control is provided for designing a search and display ability in user applications.

FileNet Image Services Content Broker

Process360 provides an option for integration with the FileNet (FNIS) system. This feature is useful if you wish to use FileNet’s content broker/repository features along with Process360’s workflow, document imaging, and business process management capabilities. This integration feature allows you to import Process360 documents into FileNet.


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4.6 Process360 Architecture and Deployment Process360 is a highly scalable and flexible solution that is designed to provide highly available solutions to customers.

4.6.1 Process360 Architecture A basic Process360 System consists of a database server, a file server, an Internet server, and a process agent.

The database and file servers store system and document data. You can store documents that are in the workflow either in the database (using BLOB storage) or on the file server.

Figure 39 Process360 Architecture Components

4.6.2 Disaster Recovery/High Availability The subject of high availability in regards to enterprise level networked computer applications covers a variety of subjects. Hardware and software reliability, failover, redundancy and disaster recovery planning will all be discussed during project implementation in order to ensure that Global 360 creates a project-specific Business Continuity Plan, tailored to the needs of each customer, that is tested at least once annually, more frequently if the process changes.

Process360 leverages the enhancements included in the release of Cluster Service in the Windows 2000 Advanced Server product and in Windows 2003. The Microsoft Cluster Service provides for the ability to connect multiple Windows servers into a server cluster providing high availability and easy manageability of data and programs running within the cluster.

In addition, with its offloading and scheduling capabilities, Process360 case processing offers virtually limitless scalability. As process volumes grow, case processing can quickly and easily expand its capacity by simply adding more agent machines. The responsibilities assigned to each agent can be load balanced such that certain agents perform offloaded tasks, others perform scheduled tasks, and still others perform routine tracking and overflow


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tasks. A variety of load balancing strategies, including Goal Management, can be employed that intelligently “pull” work through a business process with the highest priority work being completed first.

Run-time Environment

The Process360 execution layer includes a robust workflow engine referred to as Process Agents. Process Agents are used to balance the load and usually run on dedicated computers that serve as automated workstations. Workload balancing is built into Process Agents by design, allowing you to run the same Process Agent on multiple workstations/servers. With the offloading and scheduling capabilities, the process execution engine offers virtually limitless scalability and automatic fail-over. In addition, the execution engine automatically locks and identifies any items in the workflow that have failed processing so that a re-process procedure can be invoked.

Multiple storage managers are supported, including magnetic, RAID, SAN's, NAS, Optical (WORM), tape, and database BLOB's. One or more storage pools may be defined using one or more of these data managers. Storage pools are used to segregate repositories and provide flexibility in determining which documents are stored on which media. Storage pools may be mirrored for backup and disaster recovery. Work may be spread among storage pools for load balancing. Similar documents may be clustered for performance purposes.

Figure 40 Process360 Scalability

Back-Up Plans & Additional Considerations

Global 360 personnel have extensive experience in supporting and maintaining business-critical imaging and workflow applications. The key to meeting business demands while ensuring that costs are contained is in the way the systems running the applications are managed. Effective systems management provides a high level of system availability as well as the less visible, yet highly valuable, benefits of data integrity, performance, and fast recovery in case of system failure.

Creating redundancy for your database and file server can help you reach your objective of being able to recover in the case of a disaster. If, for example, you use your production system only for production, and you perform database backups, health checks, and other tasks on other servers that have copies of the same data, your chances of achieving data redundancy and reaching a high percent of uptime increase significantly.


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Keep in mind, however, that not all downtime is planned. Disk controller failure, power failures, memory leaks in the application are facts of life. These events need to be taken into account when you develop a disaster recovery plan. Such a plan will mitigate the risk of a failure. Mitigating the risk and the chance of an unplanned failure is the ultimate goal of any high availability strategy.

The combination of Microsoft SQL Server and the operating system can deliver a number of technologies designed to improve the high availability solution. These technology options include:

Failover clustering (SQL Server Enterprise Edition only)

Log shipping (SQL Server Enterprise Edition only)

Replication

Backup and recovery


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4.6.3 Process360 Deployment Architecture


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Process360 Distributed with All Optional Components


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4.6.4 Performance and Scalability

Customer Performance Review

Lowe’s Process360 solution processes 1 million transactions (work item forwards) per day.

Verizon’s Process360 Accounts Payable system supports over 40,000 users.

Scalability

Figure 41 Number of Work items processed per day by one to six Process Agents running on the same server (Dual 2.33GHz Quad-Core Xeon processor server)

The chart above shows the results from performance tests undertaken on the Process360 execution engine. The Process Agent performance is almost linear as you add Process Agents to a server up to the number of "Cores" on the server. The eight "Core" servers tested on a dual processor quad-core shows that Process360 ran up to eight process agents to process about 5000 work items / minute.


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4.6.5 Hardware and Software Requirement

Operating Systems

Windows Server 2003/2008 Standard Edition Windows Server 2003/2008 Enterprise Edition Windows Server 2003/2008 Datacenter Edition Windows Server 2003/2008 Web Edition Memory – 1GBs minimum recommended Storage - Depends on system sizing; typically 20-40GB and up

- Fault Tolerant Disk Subsystem (required for production systems) - Hardware-based Drive Array Controller (strongly recommended)

Database Servers

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Oracle 9i (Oracle 9.2.0.4) Oracle 10g (Oracle 10.1.0.2.0) Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.5.1,12.5.3, and 15.0


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5 ANALYSTVIEW/MANAGERVIEW TECHNICAL OVERVIEW Global 360's Suite provides process intelligence, delivering true end-to-end process performance visibility even when multiple systems and applications are powering the overall business process.

There are two fundamental components: ManagerView, for process analytics, and AnalystView, for collaborative process modelling and simulation.

Figure 42 Global360 Process Intelligence Components


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5.1 Managerview Managerview is part of the Process Intelligence offering from Global 360. Managerview uses analytics, monitoring, and reporting in order to support intelligent decision-making. Prism provides detailed historical and up-to-date data about your businesses processes, which allows you to:

Measure the performance of end-to-end business processes

Identify your most productive workers and processes.

Allocate resources effectively in order to meet your business goals.

Get answers to multi-dimensional questions, such as what sales were for a certain region over a particular time period, and which products sold the most.

Get answers quickly, so you can make real-time adjustments if needed.

5.1.1 Prism Architecture Managerview consists of the Managerview Analysis Engine service, Managerview Integration web service, Managerview Administration application, and two Managerview system databases—the Managerview relational database and the Managerview OLAP database. The Managerview OLAP database contains the Managerview Statistics cubes.

Managerview receives information from the business process, transforms it into useful business intelligence, and loads it into the Managerview Statistics cubes. Information from the cubes is reflected in the business intelligence reports.

The diagram below shows how information moves from your business process through Managerview and is made available for business intelligence reports and operational dashboards.

Figure 43 ManagerView Architecture is designed to capture process intelligence events from Process360 and any other application / workflow

Event information from BPM’s, workflow systems or enterprise applications is sent to the Staging table. Events are occurrences in your active business process.


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Managerview Key Components

Managerview Relational database - The instance of Microsoft’s SQL Server Database Engine contains the Managerview relational database, which contains the Staging table, the Event Queue table, the Dimension tables, and the Fact tables. These tables store information that is collected from the business process as the information is processed.

Managerview Staging database - You can place the Staging table on a separate Staging database. This is useful if you want to place the Staging table on the same server as your BPM system or if you want to use an Oracle database for the Staging table.

Managerview OLAP database. The instance of Microsoft’s SQL Server Analysis Services contains the Prism OLAP database, which contains the Managerview Statistics cubes. The Statistics cubes store the business intelligence information that is collected.

Managerview Integration Web Service -The Managerview Integration web service imports this additional information:

- Process definition information (in XPDL format). - Information about participants and data fields from your BPM system. Participants are the users

that are defined for the BPM system. (For example, a customer service representative at your company). Data fields are custom fields that you define, such as “Reason for Merchandise Return.”

Process Analysis Engine -The Process Analysis Engine moves the event information through the AE relational database, from the Staging table to the Event Queue table, and then to the Fact and Dimension tables. Throughout this process, the Analysis Engine verifies that information is correct and ready for publishing to the Statistics cubes.

Managerview Administration - Managerview Administration allows you to: - Manage the Analysis Engine and monitor the AE relational database. - Process the Statistics cubes, which makes your data available for your business intelligence reports. - Expose data fields as dimensions and measures, which allows your reports to display data that is

specific to your business. - Port your systems from development to test to production environments.


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Figure 44 ManagerView web based Administration

Reporting Services

You can use Microsoft Excel, Reporting Services or other reporting software or analysis tools to access and display the information that is in the AE OLAP database. You can do quick queries or create business intelligence reports.

Utilizing an intuitive web-based user interface, these modules proactively monitor process objectives and KPI’s, providing process managers and executives with real-time visibility into all aspects of the business process. Within the context of this process intelligence, process owners can react to developing business situations, make appropriate operational decisions, and accomplish both in a timely manner.

Figure 45 End to End Process Intelligence Operational Dashboard using Microsoft Reporting Services and Dundas Charts and Gauges


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Figure 46 End to End Process Intelligence Operational Dashboard using Microsoft Reporting Services and Dundas Charts and Gauges

Figure 47 End to End Process Intelligence Operational Dashboard using Microsoft SharePoint (MOSS)


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Figure 48 End to End Process Intelligence reporting using Microsoft Excel 2007

5.1.2 ManagerView Statistics Managerview provides pre-defined dimensions and measures that are based on business process attributes. Certain tasks in your business process capture this information for Managerview. Managerview Administration allows you to expose user-defined data fields as dimensions and measures.

Measures

Measures record numerical event information. Commonly used measures are sales, units, and inventory. ManagerView calculates some measures by adding or subtracting two or more measures. Measures are "measure" events.

Dimensions

Dimensions usually record descriptive, textual event information. Commonly used dimensions are customers, products, and time. Dimensions are sometimes referred to as event attributes. Dimensions are "describe" events.

Managerview Statistics Categories

Some concepts that are helpful when thinking about Statistics categories are:

Activities - An activity is an action that a participant performs on work, such as checking credit references for a loan application.

Processes - A process is a business process you set up in your BPM system, or a loosely related set of business activities that you group as an informal business process.

Timed Sequences - A timed sequence is a section of your business process that is isolated for analysis.

The Managerview Statistics categories are:


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Activity in Progress Statistics Activity Statistics Labour Statistics Logged Event Statistics Process Statistics Timed Sequence in Progress Statistics Timed Sequence Statistics Work in Progress Statistics

The Managerview Statistics categories correspond to:

The Fact tables in the Managerview relational database The Managerview Statistics cubes in the Managerview OLAP database. The different types of business intelligence reports.


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Managerview Statistics Category Definition

Statistics Category Description

Activity in Progress In Progress. Contains information about activities that are still in progress. Activities are (Counterpart to the Activity Statistics category.)

Activity

Historic. Contains information such as: A process instance arrived at an activity Work started in an activity Work was suspended in an activity Work was continued in an activity Work was completed in an activity Work was cancelled in an activity

Labour Historic. Contains information about participants' work, such as: Number of activities completed. Number of hours scheduled to work, available to work, spent on processing work, or idle. Participant utilization percentage. Participant productivity.

Logged Events Historic. Contains information about specific events (such as the number of workpackets sent to an error route).

Process Historic. Contains information such as: A process instance was created or terminated.

Timed Sequence in Progress

In Progress. Contains information about timed sequences that are still in progress. (Counterpart to the Timed Sequence category.)

Timed Sequence Historic. Contains information about: The amount of time it took to for a process instance to complete a particular segment of your active business process. The time the process instance started the segment, and the time it completed the segment.

Work in Progress In Progress. Contains information about process instances that are still in progress. (Counterpart to the Process Statistics category.)

Historic statistics categories versus In Progress statistics categories

Some statistics categories contain information about completed work. These are called the "Historic" categories. Others contain information about work that is still in progress. These are the "In Progress" categories. Some In Progress categories are counterparts to certain Historic categories:

Activity in Progress Statistics is the "In Progress" counterpart to Activity Statistics. Work in Progress Statistics is the "In Progress" counterpart to Process Statistics. Timed Sequence in Progress Statistics is the "In Progress" counterpart to Timed Sequence Statistics.

Historic statistics categories In Progress statistics categories

Activity Activity in Progress

Process Work in Progress

Timed Sequence Timed Sequence in Progress

Labor none

Logged Events none

The In Progress cubes provide a way of looking at the time-to-date for work that is still in progress. For example, your reports can display the business or calendar days that an item of work waited so far in an activity.

The In Progress cubes are Relational Online Analytical Processing (ROLAP) cubes. ROLAP does not require the pre-computation and storage of information. Instead, ROLAP tools access the data in a relational database and generate


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SQL queries to calculate information at the appropriate level whenever it is requested. Because the In Progress cubes do not require processing, they are able to provide information in near real-time.

In contrast, the Historic cubes are Multidimensional Online Analytical Processing (MOLAP) cubes, which do require processing. The Historic cubes offer fast query performance due to optimized storage, multidimensional indexing and caching, as well as smaller on-disk size of data compared to ROLAP.


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5.1.3 Managerview Administration Managerview is managed and configured using the Managerview Administration web application. Managerview Administration manages the live analytics system and configuration and definition of data, dimensions and measures, KPIs, actions and calendars.

Management

Controls and Monitoring - You can use the Control and Monitoring capability to monitor and maintain the Analysis Engine. For example, you can view status information and process the Statistics cubes.

Scheduled Processing - You can process the Statistics cubes periodically.

Data Management - You can use the Data Management capability to purge unwanted records

Import/Export - You can use the Import/Export capability to: - Import and export Managerview definition data so that you can port from development to test to

production environments. Prism definitions include actions, calendars, data fields, dimensions, email servers, global identifiers, KPIs, measures, participant attributes, and scheduled actions.

- Import process definitions from a business process modelling application. This is useful if your process designer does not have write permissions to Managerview.

System Audit - You can use the System Audit capability to monitor the amount of processing data that Managerview handles.

Figure 49 Controls and Monitoring of ManagerView


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Definition

Data Fields - You can use the Data Fields capability to define custom fields.

Participant Attributes - You can use the Participant Attributes capability to define attributes, such as employee type or team, for participants. For example, your reports could compare how much work a team in the Western Region completed with work completed by a team in the Eastern Region.

Dimensions - The Dimensions List capability provides a list of the dimensions you have already defined. - Use the Dimension Definition capability to view, define or edit dimension definitions that are

associated with the data fields that you set up for your system. Defining a dimension based on a data field is called "exposing" the field.

- Dimensions provide a way to place the information from your active business process into categories. Each dimension represents one attribute of an event that occurred in your business process. You define the dimensions you want to display in your business intelligence reports.

Measures - Use the Measures capability to view, define, or edit measure definitions that are associated with the numeric data fields (such as integers, floats, and currency) that you set up in your BPM system.

- Defining a measure based on a data field is called "exposing" the field. - Measures are numeric values that are used to measure different aspects of your business, such as

how much work was completed during a particular time period.

Global Identifiers - Setting up a global identifier consists of creating an ID that will be used by all the participating processes, and then selecting a set of attributes, or "key fields" that will comprise the global identifier.

- Each process that participates in a global sequence can specify key field values to send to Prism. - The Id and name describe the global identifier. For example, you can set up a global identifier called

"End-to-End Claims" that provides information about each insurance claim throughout different processes in your system.

Figure 50 ManagerView User Defined Measures


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KPI and Actions

Key Performance Indicators - ManagerView enables the creation of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that can be used in process performance analysis. KPIs are measurements for gauging business success. A KPI can be used on its own or in combination with other KPIs to monitor how well a business is achieving its objectives. KPIs must be measurable, reflect the organization's goals, and be key to its success. KPIs usually reflect long-term considerations for an organization. A KPI is evaluated frequently over time. For example, the sales department may use monthly gross profit as a KPI and the human resources department may use a KPI to measure quarterly employee turnover. A KPI has these components:

- Goal. The desired value of the KPI. - Value. The actual value of the KPI. - Status. The KPI at a specified point in time. - Trend. Indicates if the KPI value is increasing or decreasing over time.

Measures - Use the Measures capability to view, define, or edit measure definitions that are associated with the numeric data fields (such as integers, floats, and currency) that you set up in your BPM system.

Email Server Definitions - You can set up one or more email servers for use with the email actions you define using the Action Definition capability. After you define an email action, you can use the Scheduled Actions page to associate it with a schedule and a KPI value. Scheduled email actions send a notification email whenever the rules set up for the action are met.

Actions- Use the Action capability to set up web service, script, and email actions based on KPI values.

Scheduled Actions- Use the Scheduled Action capability to set up schedules for evaluating the actions you have already defined.

Figure 51 Definition of a KPI


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Calendars

Calendar Definition - You can use the Calendar capability to specify your company's business hours. Calendars are used in calculations for the "Elapsed Business Days" and "Elapsed Business Hours" dimensions as well as the measures that record business time. After you create a calendar, you can assign participants, processes, or systems to it.

Figure 52 Definition of a business calendar


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5.1.4 ManagerView 3rd Party Application and Workflow Integration Integrating your business process with Prism can be achieved via a push or pull event approach.

Pull - Capture events that have been recorded in a history log

If your system already records events in a history log, then you can use an Extract Load Transform utility to read the log and, on a scheduled basis, transmits the events to ManagerView -- either by sending Event XML to the Prism Staging table or calling the Integration web service.

Push - Transmit events from your business process as they are generated

You can modify your application or workflow system to transmit events as they are generated, either by sending Event XML or calling the Integration web service.

ManagerView Integration Web Service

Each Integration web service method corresponds to an event in your business process. For example, the ArriveActivity method captures the information that a process instance arrived at an activity in your process. You can use the Integration web service to capture information about process definitions, participants, business calendars, and data fields as well.

Figure 53 Integration with ManagerView

Global 360 BPM engines are developed to push events into Prism. This approach may be suitable for custom built applications that can be modified to send (push) process events. In most cases it is more appropriate to pull (capture) events from those systems. Most enterprise applications and workflow systems record the processing activities in an event log database.

Global 360 and our partners have developed an adapter for FileNet Visual Workflow and created prototype adapters for FileNet P8 BPM and SAP Business Workflow using the capture event log approach.


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ManagerView Adapter Requirements

A ManagerView Adapter requires four components;

Connection - A connection to the remote systems event log. This can be achieved using OLEDB or an EAI framework such as BizTalk, iWay, Tibco etc.

Extract – An extraction of the events which have been generated since the last extraction Transformation – Transformation of the 3

rd party application or workflow events into ManagerView Process

Intelligence format. Load – Loading these new events into the ManagerView Staging table.

There are many ETL tools available on the market. Global 360 has utilized Microsoft Integration Services and BizTalk in some of its projects but any enterprise ETL tools can be used.

Definition of a ManagerView m ETL integration to an application using Microsoft Integration Services

This example shows how events, which are stored in an application event log, can be accessed, extracted, transformed and loaded into the ManagerView Staging table. These events can be processed and will be available for process intelligence analysis and reporting using our SQL Server 2005/2008 Analysis Services.

Figure 54 Definition of an ManagerView ETL for a Call Centre Application


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Figure 55 Microsoft Integration Service Control Flow map for this ETL process

Figure 56 Microsoft Integration Service Data Flow map for this ETL process


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End-to-End Process Global Identifiers

In many cases business need to measure the performance of end-to-end business processes. For example a process may start when a document entered a post room scanning application or when a customer makes a call to the call centre. The business process may move to another application or be processed via a BPM or workflow system. In this case it is important to measure both systems and aggregate the end-to-end process information.

Figure 57 end-to-End Process with Individual Workitem ID's linked via the Global Identifier

This is possible with ManagerView. Two adapters can be developed to capture events and if the unique id transmitted in the event for the work is the same ManagerView will understand that this is the same process.

If they are different ManagerView provides a global identifier to identify a specific instance of work that spans multiple systems or processes. This global identifier links the sub process id’s to enable ManagerView to measure the end-to-end process performance.


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Using ManagerView for Goal Management

Applications or workflow systems can make routing decisions based on the current status of the process. For example, if a KPI has been defined for an activity or queue and that activity is not meeting the KPI, new work can be rerouted to other personnel to help alleviate the backlog.

Figure 58 3rd Party Application or Workflow configured to interrogate ManagerViiew KPI's to make a routing decision

To do this the application or workflow system can interrogate the ManagerView KPI using the our Integration web service and based on the solution logic reroute to an appropriate time

The GetKpiList method returns a list of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are defined for the statistics category that you specify.

The GetKpi method returns the values of a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) based on the request.


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5.1.5 Business Scenarios Examples - ManagerView and Process360 This topic uses the Process360 BPM system with a loan processing business scenario to illustrate:

Collecting activity information Collecting data field information Collecting process information

In our scenario, customers submit loan applications by mail, email, or fax. Mailed applications are scanned in to the business process. Loan officers review the applications, and then route them to underwriters, who perform a credit check for each application before making a loan decision. Customers are notified whether or not the application was approved, and then the information related to the application is archived. At any stage of the process, problem applications can be routed to supervisors.

Your goal is to notify customers within three days whether or not their applications were approved. Each illustration expands on the previous one to explain how you can design your business process to collect different kinds of information in order to make decisions that will let you achieve your goal.

Collecting process information

In this example, the Import tasks record the number of applications you received. Your business process records the processing time for each application. Your business intelligence report can include Process Statistics information such as:

The number of loan applications you received. The actual loan processing time for each application. Your average loan processing time. The amount of time that loan applications spent waiting in each activity. The average amount of time that loan applications spent waiting in activities. Event attributes (also called dimensions) for the Process Statistics category, such as the participant ID,

timestamp, and queue.

Collecting activity information

In this example, you add a review route and an underwriting route to your business process. Each route contains a Worklist task that records information about how long work waited before being processed. Your business intelligence report can now include Activities Statistics information:

The actual time each application spent being reviewed, and the average review time for all applications. The actual time for each credit check, and the average credit check time for all applications.


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Collecting data field information

In this example, you create the data fields listed below. The map is the same as above, but the Application Node task is set up so that employees can enter values for the data fields.

Data Field Possible Values Related Dimensions and Measures

Loan Amount

Less than $300,000 $300,000 to $900,000

This data field was exposed as a dimension called Loan Size. The dimension type is a range, and the values are: Regular (Loans less than $300,000) Jumbo (Loans greater than $300,000)

Customer Type

Gold Silver Bronze

This data field was exposed as a dimension called Customer Value.

Your business intelligence report can now include data field information:

The number of applications, denials, and approvals for Regular and Jumbo loans. The number of loan applications, denials, and approvals for Gold, Silver, and Bronze customers.

Using Begin and End Analysis Timed Sequence tasks

In this example, you set up Begin and End Analysis Timed Sequence tasks around both the review route and underwriting route. The map is the same as the one in the "Using Log Analysis Event tasks" section, except that it does not contain the error route. Your business intelligence report can now include timed sequence information:

The length of time it took to review applications. The length of time it took the underwriters to perform credit checks.

Using Log Analysis Event tasks

In this example, you add an error route so that problem applications can be sent to supervisors. Your error route begins with a Log Analysis Event task. Your business intelligence report can now include logged event information:

The number of problem applications.


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Using Begin and End Analysis tasks

In this example, you add Set Data tasks after each Import task to specify whether applications were received by mail, email, or fax. You add a Begin Analysis task after the Set Data tasks so that the Prism analysis can include only the events that contain this data.

Then you add a Timed Hold task just before the Archive task. The Timed Hold task will keep applications for 180 days before archiving them. You don’t want to include information about this period in your business intelligence reports, so you add an End Analysis task just before the Timed Hold task.

Your business intelligence report can now limit analysis to the events that occurred between the Begin and End Analysis tasks.

Your report will not include information about the number of problem applications.


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5.2 AnalystView 3.0 Designed for the business analyst, as a plug-in to Visio 2010 Premium, this module provides a simple means of communicating process information to other business users, process implementers, and customers and suppliers. Built-in simulation capabilities enable users to explore “what-if” scenarios and allow for multiple scenarios to be simulated with the results compared using on-screen animation. Simulated scenario data can be seamlessly sent to the Analytics module for reporting and analysis, and production data can be input to the simulation scenario for realistic “what if” analysis of proposed process changes.

5.2.1 Process Design Process Design using Visio 2010 BPMN is a visual modelling and development tool for designing, developing, building, and modifying business processes. You can model and simulate your business process using Global360’s AnalystView plug-in, and optimize those processes. You can also check them into and out of the SharePoint 2010 process repository. If your system includes ManagerView, you can send simulation data for analysis.

Visio 2010 business process maps provide a visual means of communication between developers and business users. Because of its visual modelling and presentation characteristics, both the technical and management members of the process team can easily understand the business process.

Figure 59 AnalystView Simulation in Visio 2010


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Visio 2010 BPMN Activities

Vision supports all shapes defined in the BPMN 1.2 standard. BPMN shapes have associated element attributes, as specified by the standard. Diagram Validation feature lets a user check the visual correctness of a diagram against logical rules specified in the standard

Swimlanes

These are logical areas of separation between areas of action or responsibility in your business. With swimlanes, you can see who or what is performing the activities in your business process, which can also help you see the interaction or dependencies between you and your customers or between departments in your organization.

Import and Export XPDL 2.0

You can export the process definition to an XPDL 2.0 file. You might use the XPDL to shift a process definition from Visio 2010 to Process360 DesignerView or another tool. You can import an XPDL 2.0 file that contains process definitions into Visio 2010 using the Import feature. The XPDL file can contain data for than one process, and during the import procedure you specify the process you want to work with.


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5.2.2 AnalystView Process Simulation Process simulation is integrated into Visio 2010 with the addition of AnalystView. It lets you analyze your business process under both historic and simulated demand (arrivals), with the ability to vary the staff and system resources available. The Simulator is not a general-purpose simulator; one of the things that make this tool unique is that it's tailored to business process simulation.

You can specify how each activity should be simulated, providing your own rules for determining duration or using historical data. You can define arrival rates, resources, and the duration of a simulation run. Simulation statistics let you watch the progress of simulated work objects as they move through flows and review the timeliness and cycle time of completed work.

Proposed changes to policies, staffing levels, and business processes can be easily fed back into trial or live production settings to achieve bottom-line improvements in cost, service levels or quality. Use simulation statistics to see how work would flow through your process with various activities and resources assigned.

You can also configure AnalystView to send simulation information to ManagerView so that you can study different business scenario results using ManagerView reports. For example, you can create a scenario in which you launch three new products and open five new offices, then view the predicted results.

Figure 60 AnalystView Process Simulation built into the Visio 2010 Premium environment


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AnalystView Simulation Key Capabilities

Arrivals -An arrival determines what, where and when work is created. Your system may have tens or hundreds of arrivals and participants and you will probably add, remove and change properties on these items frequently as you experiment to get your simulation scenario right.

Participants - Participants are the virtual people, software components or machinery that is required to execute an activity. The purpose of a simulation is often to study whether participants are over-worked or if there is an excess of resources.

Roles -A role is used to control what a user works on, and can be used to control in what sequence a participant looks for work.

Schedules - Schedules control when people and systems are available.

Activities - An activity is a step within a process. For process modelling, an activity on a map may represent a set of activities at the execution task level.

Condition-based Routing - This type of routing depends on the evaluation of Boolean expressions. For each route, expressions are evaluated in the order specified by the user, and the work is routed on the first path where an expression evaluates to true.

Weight-based Routing - By using weights, you can leave the decision making to the simulator, with some direction.

Business Calendar - Process simulation can use a business calendar to simulate how work would be processed with a specific number of hours per day or considering certain holidays.

Data Fields - Data fields are name and type pairs of information that simulation can use, for example, to determine the kind of work.

Scripting - AnalystView provides a JavaScript expression language to perform complex routing, work assignment, calculated values etc.

Acquiring Production Data - AnalystView production data acquisition helps you to experiment with different workloads, schedules, resource allocations, etc. for a process already in production. Data is extracted from the Production ManagerView data warehouse.

Process Optimization - The AnalystView Optimization feature helps you improve your simulation scenario by making adjustments that decrease wait time, for example. The Optimization wizard assists in streamlining your process based on process analysis and simulation results. The wizard helps you to locate problem areas and indicate where the process needs to be improved.

ManagerView Integration - AnalystView can interact with ManagerView in two ways: - It can produce data for ManagerView, so simulated data can be analyzed in the same way as

production data. - It can acquire data from ManagerView, so production data can be imported into the simulation

scenario.


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5.3 SharePoint 2010 Process Repository SharePoint 2010 Visio Services provides the process repository and collaboration capabilities of Visio 2010/AnalystView modeling and simulation. Integrating Visio 2010 with SharePoint 2010 platform provides a rich process design repository and collaboration environment to facilitate process model design.

Figure 61 Typical Deployment of SharePoint 2010 with two Process Repositories

Process repository and collaboration

Use the process repository capabilities of SharePoint 2010 to manage versions of the process, including check-in and checkout of versions, a library of process documentation, and subscription services for notification of process changes. The collaboration environment facilitates obtaining consensus among multiple business analysts and business managers, allowing them to share information on the current business process, the proposed process, the business objectives and simulation results. You might use this SharePoint integration to:

Notify subscribers of process changes to facilitate having multiple processes owned and modelled by separate individuals, yet simulated with interdependencies.

Collaborate around the process model with and obtain process activity documentation from Business Analysts in order to finalize the proposed process model.

Review simulation statistics for multiple process scenarios to determine which Process yields the most favourable ROI and meets established business objectives with management teams.

Obtain simulation setup input from multiple sources to establish operational simulation models. Maintenance of process versions.


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Figure 62 Process Repository and Collaboration within Microsoft SharePoint (MOSS)

5.3.1 Process repository You can publish versions of the process design documents to the process repository at various points in the design process, such as before posting a version to the collaboration site or after incorporating changes suggested during the collaborative review.

Creating a Repository Site - For each process, an administrator can create a new repository site, which is a SharePoint site collection.

Adding Repository Users - Each repository has two SharePoint groups - Members - Users in this group will be allowed to add processes from Process Designer. - Owners - Users who will grant other users permissions to upload (by adding other users to the

members group).

Viewing Processes - When a process designer uploads a process to the repository, a process folder is created to contain the process and its supporting documents. In the repository, you can view the list of processes in the process folder.

Viewing Process Information - Here you can browse setup data, scenario statistics and the maps. Clicking the process name in a process folder or the link View Process Information displays the Process Information page with the following sections:

- Process Information - project name, comment, created and modified dates - Process Maps - the first map is displayed; select from the drop-down list of other maps to view

other maps in the process - Simulation Results - the graph of simulation results for the last-run simulation - Simulation Setup - the scenario set-up (view/edit access based on permissions)

Viewing Version History - You can view a list of all versions of a process uploaded or checked-in from Process Designer.

Viewing Process Documents - You can add documents to a collaboration to support the maps, scenario settings, and simulation results already in the process.


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Versioning in the Process Repository - Repository versions follow these guidelines, Version numbers of processes are of the form <Major Version>.<Minor Version>. For example, 2.0 or 0.1.

Snapshots - You can tag a set of documents to identify a specific "snapshot" in time based on version numbers. For example, you can save a snapshot of current statistics after you run simulation. A snapshot refers to versions of supporting documents at a particular period in time, while "version" refers to versions of a process itself.

Adding Related Documents - From the repository, you can associate non-process documents with a process. Members of the groups Collaborators and Designers can add documents to the repository that support the process design or provide additional information for the collaborators. For example, someone might add a list of participants, or a list of tasks, or a cost spreadsheet.

5.3.2 Process Collaboration Using Visio 2010 and SharePoint 2010, one or more process designers can create a process (and, optionally, a simulation scenario), and using a SharePoint collaboration site, share the process with a group of specialists. Specialists, other designers, or other managers may have input on the process and configuration, update the lists of participants, etc. Process collaboration sites are part of the Process Repository site collection.

Collaboration Site - The Collaboration site solution lets you share process designs in development with other designers or reviewers using Microsoft SharePoint. For each Process Designer process in the repository you can create a Collaboration site. A collaboration site includes a discussion forum and a task list.

Creating Activities - Process designers can create activities for collaborators to do for the collaboration, for example for managers to add participants to a process. You can check the status of the activity setup tasks that you created.

Versioning - You can use major or minor version numbers to keep track of versions, but the increment of versions is not enforced.

Viewing process maps - Maps generated in Process Designer appear on the collaboration site embedded in a web part. To make changes to the process map, you must edit the map using Process Designer.

Viewing simulation setup data - The setup data appears in a tabular form. Using a task list - Task lists are out-of-the-box SharePoint features. You may choose to add a task list to a

page by editing the page layout. Designers have access to all tasks for a Collaboration site. Collaborators and Viewers can only see their own tasks.


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5.4 AnalystView and Process360 - Continuous Process Improvement Methodology

5.4.1 Continuous Improvement Continuous improvement occurs with the ongoing monitoring of the business process via the process intelligence layer in real time and the behavior of the process is measured to understand if it is both efficient and effective.

Figure 63 Global 360 Continuous Process Improvement Approach

Model – Visio 2010 is used to model business processes. Collaborate – SharePoint 2010 provides a process repository and collaboration site for business process

models. Simulate and Design-Time Optimize – AnalystView Process Simulation enable simulation and optimization

of the business process to verify the appropriate performance and staff can be achieved using activity times extracted from the production system using ManagerView or using time and motion data.

Design – The model is used as the basis of the development of Global 360 execution process. This process is deployed and executed by the business. Process driven applications can be created and configured using the Process360 Microsoft Office SharePoint Webparts or the Case360 case folder user interface.

Execute – Processes are executed by the Global 360 process engines. Business users can interact with the process using the Microsoft SharePoint Webparts or Case360 user interfaces.

Run-Time Optimize – Goal management can be configured to manage work distribution and optimize the utilization of the business processes. ManagerView enables systems to interrogate the KPI’s and make decisions on how to distribute and route work at run time.

Measure – ManagerView measures process performance and compared against business key performance indicators. Alerts can be triggered when a process is failing to meet its required performance.

Continuous Process Improvement – Continuous process improvement can be achieved at any point. Business analysts can review the current and historic performance of the process using ManagerView. They can investigate bottlenecks in the process and use business process reengineering, lean or six sigma


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methodologies to improve the process. These improvements can be modelled and simulated using real production event data via AnalystView and ManagerView.

5.4.2 Modelling for Execution Clearly, the business understands the process hence should be responsible for modelling the process.

Within Visio 2010, a process intelligence platform, the process can be modelled within a graphical drag and

drop modelling environment to represent the graphical view of the process.

Once contextually correct, the process can be simulated with production event data to maximise the

efficiency of the process.

The process model is then imported into the DesignerView by the process architect, who will generate a

working execution process.

Figure 64 Visio 2010 Process Modelling and Process360 DesignerView interchange

5.4.3 Round Trip Modelling Round trip modelling is the ability to take the model not only from the modelling environment into execution but also go back in the opposite direction. If process changes need to occur these should be modelled within the process intelligence layer and simulated to understand the effect it will have on production systems thus modelling the impact process change has on the business before it is put into production.

Processes that have been created within the execution layer can be imported back into the modelling

environment for changes to be made and the process optimised.

Once this process is complete the model is taken back into production.

The integrity of the BPMN model and DesignerView view is maintained in this interaction.

This process deployment methodology promotes continuous process improvement agile business processes.

5.5 ManagerView Deployment Options

5.5.1 Measure - End to End Process Visibility In this example ManagerView is configured to capture process events from applications and workflow systems to provide real-time and historic process intelligence data. Optimization is achieved using the process data to find and eliminate process bottlenecks.


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5.5.2 Model and Simulate – Optimization via Time and motion Analysis In this example Visio 2010/AnalystView is configured to model and simulate the business process. Optimization is achieved using historic performance data from time and motion studies or from business intelligence reports.

5.5.3 Measure, Model and Simulate – Optimization using Production Data In this example ManagerView is configured to capture process events from applications and workflow systems to provide real-time and historic process intelligence data. This process intelligence data is used to optimize the business process using the AnalystView simulation. Process event data is fed directly into the simulation.


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5.5.4 Measure, Model, Simulate and Execute – Optimization of Applications and Workflow Engines

In this example ManagerView is configured to capture process events from applications and workflow systems to provide real-time and historic process intelligence data. This process intelligence data is used to optimize the business process using the AnalystView simulation. Process event data is fed directly into the simulation. Modifications can be made to the workflow map based on changes in the business process model. AnalystView and Process360 provide this round-trip integration.


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5.6 AnalystView Hardware and Software Requirements

AnalystView - Process Designer and Simulator

Windows XP/Windows 7 or Windows Server 2003/2008 Visio 2010 Premium

SharePoint 2010 – Process Repository

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (R2)/2008 (R2) Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 or 3.5 Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

ManagerView

Windows Server 2003/2008 with Service Pack 1 SQL Server 2005/2008 Standard or Enterprise SP 2 SQL Server 2005/2008 Analysis Services Memory recommended 4GB Prism databases require Minimum: 200 GB, recommended more than 200 GB High Performance Storage.


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6 GLOBAL 360 PROCESS AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT OPTIONAL PRODUCTS

6.1 Global 360 Scan Manager Global 360’s Scan Manager is a powerful scanning application that supports bar code recognition, a broad set of scanners, and a number of ease-of-use features. Global 360 Scan Manager is tightly integrated with the G360 BPM system to ensure a complete audit trail from scan through archive.

The Scan Manager architecture was designed to ensure optimal scanner throughput. The Scan Manager workstation separates out the scanning functions from the document and folder creation and classification functions so that the scanner can operate at top speed while a separate process performs the classification and quality control functions.

Figure 65 Global 360 Scan Manager within the Global 360 Process and Document Management Platform

Scan workstation operators can take advantage of a number of features that increase their productivity:

Thumbnail viewing and browsing—scanned images are displayed during scanning and operators can easily find scanned pages by browsing thumbnails.

Quick rescan—operators can click on the thumbnail of a page that needs to be replaced and Scan Manager application rescans and replaces that page with the next scanned page.

Full-page viewing—operators can view the selected or most current scan in a full-page viewer. Layout preferences—operators can reorganize the Scan Manager panels according to their preferences. Hotkeys—operators can quickly begin scanning, restart and resume, and open or forward batches.

Global 360 Scan Manager’s supported conversion formats include: single page TIFF, multi-page TIFF, JPEG. Additionally G360 Enterprise BPM supports both Captiva’s Input Accel and Kofax’ Ascent Capture which support conversion to XML, PDF, JPEG, TIFF, ASCII and many other formats.

Configurable User Interface

The user interface can be modified by the scan operator to reflect his or her operating preferences or the scanning practices of the company. The location of the batch panel and page view panel can be switched between the left and right sides of the screen. The size of the thumbnails is configurable to five different sizes.


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Full-Featured Colour Scanning

Scan Manager provides the same level of support for high-throughput colour scanners as it does for black and white production scanners. Colour documents are saved in TIFF format with JPEG compression and are single-page documents that can be marked up in G360 applications. Batch and barcode features are applied to colour scanning.

Image Quality Control

Scan Manager includes support for scanner-supplied image processing functionality such as de-speckle, de-skew or black-border removal. These features can be applied on a per-page or global basis.

Auto-Indexing

A number of features are included in Scan Manager to facilitate automated indexing of documents. Definition of a batch includes specification of a template that describes fields and data types used to classify the document. As documents are scanned in, initial document processing can be enabled through use of barcode recognition or batch hooks. Barcodes can be used to populate document classification fields. Batch hooks can allow initial field values to be set or for data to be looked-up, calculated or validated. These hooks can fire with a new batch, new folder, new document, or when a barcode is read. Batch hooks are written either VB Script or JavaScript.

Figure 66 Global 360 Scan Manager


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Scanning Support for Remote Offices and Stand-alone Support

A large enterprise typically has more than a single centralized mailroom. Remote locations should not have to send documents to a central office simply to have them scanned. Scan Manager is designed to support your entire enterprise’s document capture needs by providing remote location high-speed scanning capabilities.

Remote scanning provides all the features available at your central office including barcode recognition, batch hooks and colour support. Your remote scan workstation can optionally operate in a standalone capacity, disconnected from the central system for significant periods of time. Transferring batches of scanned images to the central system is easy with Scan Manager’s optimized network performance capabilities.

Indexing and Quality Control for Remote Capture

Scan Manager supports document indexing and data entry capabilities, allowing batch items (folders, documents, pages) to be stamped with user-defined and calculated values – for example, date/time stamps, batch or document numbers. In addition, folder contents can be reordered, and documents and pages deleted.

Optimized Network Performance and Data Transmission Resiliency

Distributed Scan Manager sites must transfer large amounts of data to the central enterprise system for further business processing or archiving. Scan Manager is optimized to ensure efficient use of network and transport resources. Image and document data is compressed and transmission options can be set to take advantage of off-peak periods. Data transfer from the remote Scan Manager is also designed to be resilient. If a transmission terminates prematurely, transmission automatically restarts from the point where it was interrupted.

6.1.1 Scan Manager Hardware and Software Requirements

Operating systems

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Memory requirements

256 MB minimum


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6.2 Global 360 Records Manager Organization's records are in numerous formats: physical, electronic, scanned images, and e-mails-and often are stored in disparate systems. Managing these information silos is time consuming and inefficient because processes are manual and policy enforcement is difficult. More importantly, critical data is difficult to access, slowing down critical workflow processes.

Organizations are facing the need for better, more efficient ways to organize, capture, access, and store business information and content, while meeting the increasingly stringent regulatory compliance requirements. They need to implement effective records retention policies and integrate records management capabilities into their business processes-all while keeping their storage costs under control.

The Global 360 Records Manager enables the automation of records management and the ability to seamlessly manage record lifecycles throughout business processes. Customers achieve compliance with the record-keeping requirements of regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA, and records become a cohesive and seamless component of the organizational BPM solution.

Figure 67 Records Manager within the Global 360 BPMS Platform

6.2.1 Records Manager Benefits Global 360 Records Manager provides the following benefits to organizations:

Improved productivity through automation of records management tasks Simplified records retrieval and information dissemination Ensured compliance with records management regulatory requirements Increased operational speed, velocity and efficiencies Enabled focus on high-value tasks vs. records administration Elimination of user-related errors

6.2.2 Records Manager Key Capabilities Global 360 Records Manager facilitates compliance with organization policies and industry regulations. Records Manager allows document to be declared as records. Records are explicitly managed—they are classified, secured and stored according to business rules and retention schedules, and they are retained according to the record’s value, unaltered and protected from premature deletion.

Industry regulations with records management requirements include:


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US DoD 5015.2 SEC Rule 17.a-4 FDA Rule 11 (21 CFR part 11) OMB Circular 130

HIPAA.

Records management for Process360 has been certified for compliance with US DoD 5015.2. Process360 Records Manager integrates IBM’s DB2 Records Manager software. A Websphere application server is bundled into Process360.

As part of records management, file plans are used to organize and categorize the information holdings of the organization. The Records Manager software allows you to design the business rules for record life-cycle management as well as access control to the record and its content. Once a document is registered as a record, the Records manager software takes over the life-cycle management and access permissions for the document. All documents archivable by Process360 can be declared records. This includes native image documents, electronic desktop documents and email. A single document can have multiple record instances.

You may use any Process360 storage media in conjunction with records management; however regulatory compliance may indicate use of storage media with appropriate WORM characteristics and management procedures.

Administration of Process360 Records Manager is web-based. The Records Manager administration pages allow:

Definition of file plan Application of document- or record- level security Management of accession Set or change of user permissions and function access rights Reporting

6.2.3 Records Manager Hardware and Software Requirements

Operating Systems

AIX Microsoft Windows 2000 Microsoft Windows 2003 WebSphere Application Server

Memory Requirements

AIX 4 GB Windows 2GB


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6.3 Corticon Business Rules Management System Corticon Technologies delivers Business Rules Management solutions that unleash “The Power of Decisions

TM

”, as enterprise assets. Many of the world’s most successful organizations rely on Corticon to discover, model, execute and improve operational decisions (and associated business rules) within their enterprise systems.

Recognized as a leading business rules vendor by industry analysts and thought leaders, Corticon’s patented Business Rules Management System is the only solution with a model-driven design environment that guarantees the consistent, efficient and reliable execution of a company’s business rules and decisions.

Corticon is a privately held company headquartered in Redwood City, California, with European headquarters in The Netherlands, worldwide distribution through local Corticon offices, and is a strategic partner of Global 360. Corticon’s products are in use today at many of the world’s largest banks, insurance companies, media companies, telecommunication providers and government organizations, collectively automating millions of decisions per day.

Figure 68 Corticon BRE within the Global 360 Process and Document Management Platform

The Corticon Business Rules Server for .NET is the comprehensive runtime platform for executing decision services modeled in Corticon’s Business Rules Studio. With Corticon Server for .NET, Corticon offers the only true model-driven Business Rules Management System for Microsoft .NET, and the only BRMS solution that enables the deployment flexibility and investment protection of modeling once, deploying into heterogeneous environments. Corticon Server for .NET exploits Corticon’s Design-Time Inferencing architecture to provide robust, linear-scaling performance, and comprehensive auditing and control.

Model-Driven Rules Execute in .NET Environments

With the availability of Corticon Business Rules Server for .NET, Corticon brings the benefits of unique model-driven business rules authoring, automation, and management –unprecedented agility and business control – to enterprises that prefer the .NET environment. Corticon Server for .NET runs natively in .NET either under Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) or as a .NET in-process component.

Maximum Business Agility; Compatibility Across the Microsoft Stack

Corticon’s BRMS for Microsoft-centric organizations includes complete rule authoring capabilities in its Windows-based Corticon Studio and execution of decision services in its Microsoft .NET-based Corticon Server for .NET. Lifecycle management of rule assets can be performed by Corticon’s Business Rules Collaborator, or with Microsoft’s SharePoint or Visual Source Safe. Corticon also offers code-less data integration through its Enterprise Data


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Connector, which accesses Microsoft SQL Server data consumed and/or manipulated during decision service execution.

Choice in Execution Environments: Multiple Deployment Options

Corticon Server for .NET fits perfectly into production configurations that rely on Microsoft IIS, leveraging the management, scalability, and availability features of IIS to deliver a robust decision service execution platform. In IIS, Corticon decision services Server management APIs are exposed as Web Services, making integration with consuming applications and business processes straightforward and fast. As a .NET in-process component, Corticon Server for .NET is available for use within other .NET applications, providing a comprehensive set of .NET APIs for maximum control to .NET application developers.

Model Once, Deploy Anywhere

With the addition of Corticon Server for .NET, Corticon becomes the first and only vendor to offer a business rules solution where rule models can be executed in multiple heterogeneous environments. This unprecedented deployment flexibility, realized because of Corticon’s unique model-driven architecture, means that customers can choose their preferred execution environment, including a mixed environment, and can migrate without any change to the modeled rule assets (decision services).

Figure 69 Corticon BRE is integrated with the Global 360 Process and Document Management Platform

6.3.1 Decision Service Execution and Control Executing decision services in the core competency of the Corticon Business Rules Server for .NET. Corticon’s unique approach to inference-based business rules execution forms the basis for exceptional performance, scalability, precision, and consistency.

Design-time Inferencing (DeTI) Engine: Corticon’s patented rules engine shifts the inferencing workload from run time to design time, producing more efficient and reliable decisions, and satisfying even the most performance-sensitive enterprise environments. Unlike most rules engines, Corticon Server for .NET processes pre-optimized decision services, eliminating the need to determine at run-time which rules are relevant to the decisions, or which order to execute those rules.

Versioning Control and Effective Dating: Corticon Studio and Server for .NET provide complete control over versions, timing and availability of decision services, enabling binding of a specific version of a decision service to a business process or process instance, or back-dating or future-dating requests to execute versions of decisions relevant to a specific date


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Corticon's product family has been acknowledged for its ease of use and unique capabilities to analyze your business rules and find the problems that will stop your business rules projects from being successful. Corticon's customers have consistently seen a 10X reduction in the cost and time to produce business decision logic, while increasing the reliability and quality of their business rules.

Figure 70 Corticon Business Rules Management Platform

Figure 71 Key components of the Corticon BRMS

6.3.2 Corticon Business Rules Modelling Studio Corticon's Business Rules Modelling Studio is unique in the business rules market. Corticon Studio is the only product that provides a complete, self-contained rules modelling environment. Business decisions can be modelled, verified and tested independent of any IT system. Corticon Studio's model-driven architecture then generates fully executable "decision services" through its optimized compiler.


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Figure 72 Corticon's Business Rules Modelling Studio

6.3.3 Corticon Business Rules Server Corticon's Business Rules Server is built for speed. Using Corticon's Design-Time Inferencing engine (DeTI™) Corticon's Business Rules Server delivers performance beyond what classic RETE based inferencing engines are capable of delivering.

6.3.4 Corticon Enterprise Data Connector With Corticon's unique model-driven approach to data connectivity, connecting business rules to enterprise data is a snap - there is absolutely no SQL coding. And since data is mapped separate from the business rules, changes to data sources do not force a re-model of your business rules. Corticon also features great flexibility in supporting your data access and update policies, easily changing settings for read-only and write authorization. Leveraging enterprise data within rules has never been so easy.

6.3.5 Corticon Business Rules Collaborator While Corticon's Business Rules Modelling Studio provides the most comprehensive business rules modelling/authoring environment, rule projects require coordination and collaboration to succeed. That's where Corticon's Business Rules Collaborator fits in. The Corticon Rules Collaborator delivers a robust team development environment that provides the critical capabilities needed to control business rules development such as rules version and access management, workflow for rule approval processes and rule change impact analysis. Corticon Rules Collaborator provides everything you need to manage rule assets through their lifecycle.

6.3.6 Corticon Business Rules Foundation SDK The Corticon SDK is a flexible and powerful new platform to embed our market leading Business Rules Management capabilities into any enterprise application. The Corticon Foundation SDK consists of a rich library of model-driven BRMS functions, delivered as a set of 'headless services' that can be exposed in any form, within any application. With Corticon Foundation, enterprise software developers can now build powerful decision automation capabilities directly into their products, within the fabric of their own application architecture, providing a seamless user experience.


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6.3.7 Unique Corticon Advantages

Model Driven

Corticon offers the only business rules solution with a comprehensive business rules modelling environment. Any business rules, regardless of complexity, can be captured within Corticon Studio's intuitive interface.

Reliable

Corticon offers the only solution that delivers sophisticated analysis of your business rules within the rules modelling/authoring environment. Corticon assures that the people who understand the business problem and are modelling the business rules get instantaneous feedback showing where their rules are ambiguous, where their rules have unintended loops and even generate missing rules for them, as if by magic. Utilizing Corticon's business rules analysis, you are assured to get reliable decisions that are guaranteed to be complete and unambiguous.

Fast Time-to-Market

The power of Corticon's declarative rules modelling environment nets a 10X reduction in the time and cost to create and modify business rules. Corticon provides a powerful modelling environment that makes it easier to express business rules problems, regardless of the complexity, thereby reducing the cost and time to create or maintain your business rules. By integrating rules analysis and testing into the modelling/authoring process, you no longer need to deal with problems of multiple hand-offs and misinterpretations between rule authors, implementers and testers.

High Performance

Corticon's unique Design-time Inferencing assures that rule analysis has been completed in the design process, not during execution, which is typical for RETE based rules engines today. That means Corticon can deliver rules as optimized compiled executables, not as an interpreted deployment.

6.3.8 Corticon Business Rules and Process360 Corticon Business Rules help capture and execute decisions within business processes. The Corticon Business Rules Management System drives decision automation within Process360. Rules exist within business processes to help drive decisions, but without a rule engine they can result in diagrams that are complex, fragile and prone to error. By externalizing the modeling and execution of rules with Corticon, Process360 can automate decisions in any business process.

Figure 73 Process360’s Corticon BRMS Task


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Figure 74 Process360’s Corticon BRMS Task Configuration

External rules development also ensures a more flexible process. While a business process may change infrequently, the rules that drive the process can change regularly, and rapidly - such as rules relating to product offers, or loan rates. With Corticon, those in control of the business logic have the ability to change rules independently of the process itself - saving time and reducing errors.

Use The Corticon Business Rules Management System with Process360 solution to:

Increase Speed of Development - Model-Driven Development - Parallel Development of Process & Rules - Common Language Between Business & IT

Improve Quality of Process Design - Make All Logic Transparent - Capture Knowledge At Source - Identify Errors Early

Improve Agility - Change Rules Independent of Process

Reuse Logic - Reuse Rules Across Processes (and Outside Processes)

6.3.9 Corticon Business Rules Management in Action

The Problem: Complexity and Volatility of Business Logic

Companies have greatly improved the efficiency of their business processes by automating the flow of information, across distances and between systems. However, current improvements are limited, due to an inability to automate decision-making tasks.

Automation of decision-making tasks has been largely unsuccessful due to the complexity and volatility of the underlying business logic.

The diagram below illustrates the problem, using the sample business process of mutual fund stock trading. The arrows indicate the information flow, and the circles indicate the activities, including both manual and automated. In this case, the Trade Execution or exchange activity is automated, while the other activities are manual. Trade


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Selection requires highly skilled and experienced employees. The decisions are complex and volatile, based upon numerous and varying, poorly documented criteria, most of which exist only in the heads of valued employees. Other activities, such as Trade Settlement, require less training. The decisions in Trade Settlement are based upon well-defined criteria, often documented in a policy manual.

Figure 75 Business Process Today

The Solution: Corticon Business Rules Management Software

Corticon delivers a solution that offers dramatic improvements in business performance and agility. Corticon Business Rules Management enables companies to securely capture and model their business logic as interrelated sets of business rules, using a simple, drag-and-drop environment similar to a spreadsheet. In fact, the decision makers themselves participate directly in the Corticon business rules modeling process, capturing their best practices, policies, and procedures into formalized, executable software assets.

The business rule models are created and managed using the Corticon Business Rules Modeling Studio ("Corticon Studio"). Once defined, the rule models can be integrated into business applications as standards-based Web Services, using the Corticon Business Rules Server ("Corticon Server"). This combination helps to address the complexity and volatility inherent in the business logic of decision-making tasks.

Addressing complexity: In Corticon Studio, decision-making logic is represented as sets of interrelated business rules in a spreadsheet-like environment. Proprietary algorithms automatically identify conflict and incompleteness across the rule set, clarifying the logic interrelationships across the rules, and ensuring that exceptional circumstances are addressed. The models can then be tested against sample business scenarios, all without the assistance of programmers.

Once the models are loaded onto the Corticon Server, they are visible as Web Services, ready to be incorporated into existing business applications.

Addressing volatility: It seems that nearly the moment business rules are defined, they need to be changed. The problem is that a change to a single rule can break a whole application, due to the interdependencies across rules. When using the Corticon Studio, the interdependencies are clear, and business people can make changes safely, without the assistance of programmers. Furthermore, the changed models can be hot deployed into running systems, dramatically improving responsiveness.

The diagram below illustrates the same trading process utilizing Corticon Business Rules Management.

Figure 76 Corticon Business Rules Management


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Activities, such as Trade Settlement, in which all decisions are predefined, can be entirely automated. Other activities, such as Trade Selection, may require some degree of manual involvement. This is dependent on the preferences of the decision-making body. For example, stocks that meet all buy criteria may trigger an immediate, automated buy transaction; whereas stocks that meet only some criteria may trigger a notification and recommendation to a portfolio manager, who then approves or denies the trade. In both cases, Corticon Business Rules Management provides a complete audit trail for all transactions, tracking precisely which rules fired, in which order, for each trade. The decision-makers can then analyze the outcomes and rapidly adapt the decision-making logic to implement any changes in strategy or policy.

6.3.10 Summary of Benefits

Performance - Server for .NET executes decision services optimized at design-time Scalability - Leverages Microsoft IIS to scale linearly with increasing system resources 24x7 Execution - Support for hot- and warm-deployment of rule sets enables changes to be applied without

having to restart the server Audit-ability - Comprehensive rule messages enable complete traceability of every rule that executes and its

relationship to the underlying business policy Transparency - Decision logic is expressed in business-friendly models that is readily comprehended by all in the

organization Control - Server for .NET provides robust versioning and effective dating to maximize user controls and

deployment flexibility

6.3.11 System Requirements Operating System / Server / Runtime

Microsoft XP, IIS 5.1, .NET 2.0 or higher·· Microsoft Server 2003, IIS 6.0, .NET 2.0 or higher Microsoft Server 2000, .NET 1.1 or higher··

Processor: 233 MHz Pentium or higher

Memory: 512 MB minimum

Hard Drive Space: 173 MB minimum


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Global 360 helps organizations to better manage processes today and make improvements for tomorrow. Our market-leading process and document management solutions improve business performance by maximizing the productivity of all participants in a process. Our more than 2,000 customers in 134 countries have reduced paper, automated processes and empowered individuals to truly change how work gets done.

Global 360, Inc. is headquartered in Texas with operations in North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. For more information about Global 360's process and document solutions, please call 1-214-520-1660 or visit the company web site at www.global360.com

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